Temporary Girlfriend. Jessica Steele

knew then that he knew that she was not insured. She didn’t know how he knew, she just instinctively felt it. The knowledge that he was just playing with her rattled her. ‘You know damn well I’m not!’ she flew. She instantly wanted those words back. Oh, grief, this man missed not a thing. His eyes were on her, taking in, reading. She lowered her gaze to her lap. ‘I thought I was,’ she felt compelled to confess, her tone quieter, not angry. ‘I gave—’ She broke off, took a shaky breath and raised her head to look at him once more. She found his eyes were still steady on her. He was waiting. From where she was sitting Elyss realised that she couldn’t get into any more trouble, having owned up to not being insured. ‘A friend was going to drop my cheque into my insurance company a couple of months ago—only she— forgot.’ Oh, dammit, that sounded so unlikely she was sure he wouldn’t believe her.

      ‘You should have checked!’ Saul Pendleton stated curtly—and that annoyed her. She knew she should have checked! She didn’t need him to remind her.

      ‘You obviously did!’ she snapped—and got a very grim, unsmiling look for her trouble.

      ‘You think I shouldn’t have? After your phone call this morning...’ He let that go to change tack, to abruptly question, ‘This friend—the one who forgot to drop your cheque off—is she the same friend who was driving your car last night?’

      It was unexpected. ‘You know?’ she gasped. ‘You know it wasn’t me?’

      ‘Of course I know!’ he rapped. ‘The woman I spoke with on the phone this morning sounded nothing like the hysterical female I had to deal with last night.’

      ‘She could have calmed down by this morning,’ Elyss argued, even though she realised she might fare better if she were placatory rather than argumentative. Yet she didn’t seem able to act in a way in which she did not feel. This man, she realised, effortlessly rattled her normally even temperament.

      ‘Not to that extent, she couldn’t,’ Saul Pendleton gritted concisely. He was right, of course. Nikki had still been in a state this morning. ‘Though she might well have remembered that neither car was anywhere near a set of traffic lights when she attempted to demolish my car.’

      Elyss gasped in astonishment. Talk about ‘Walk into my parlour’! Not minutes ago she had agreed their vehicles had been in collision at some traffic lights!

      ‘You tricked me!” she exploded angrily.

      ‘Don’t get on your high horse that I tricked you!’ he rapped. ‘No one does me down, Miss Harvey! From the way I was hearing it, you were out to have a damned good try.’

      She hadn’t a leg to stand on. It hurt to back down, but... She drew a shaky breath. ‘It wasn’t like...’ she halted. To tell him how it really was she would have to tell him all about Nikki, and she wasn’t ready to do that. ‘So—er—after my phone call, you checked with the insurance company. Nikki—’ She broke off. She hadn’t been going to mention Nikki’s name! ‘And they told you I wasn’t insured.’

      ‘Not with them you weren’t. Nor did they know you at the address I was given. You do live there?’ he demanded.

      ‘I moved in five months ago—I forgot to give the insurers my change of address.’

      She received a grunt for her oversight. There was no point in her explaining that she’d been so busy at work she hadn’t had time to think much about anything else—much less to remember to tell people she dealt with only once a year that she had moved.

      ‘You forgot a lot of things by the sound of it.’ I wish I could forget you! she thought. The gloves, it seemed, were off. ‘You are Elyss Harvey?’ he questioned toughly. ‘Should I decide to sue, will I be confronted by yet another blonde-haired, blue-eyed Elyss Harvey in court?’

      Court! Oh, heavens, her parents would be most perturbed. Why couldn’t he drive a Metro? ‘My name is Elyss Harvey,’ she confirmed unhappily.

      ‘And your friend?’

      ‘Her name isn’t important,’ Elyss told him quickly.

      ‘Not important!’ He seemed astounded. ‘Driving without due care and attention, giving a false name, to itemise but two misdemeanours. We haven’t come yet to the criminal act of driving while not insured. Add—’

      ‘She’s not well,’ Elyss interrupted quickly, having heard quite enough to be going on with. ‘She’s having boyfriend trouble. She’s...’

      ‘She’s in a whole heap of trouble!’ Saul pronounced curtly. ‘And so, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, are you.’

      Elyss stared at him. This interview wasn’t going anywhere near as well as she had hoped. ‘Will you not give me time to pay what I’ll owe you?’ She repeated the question she had asked earlier. The impossible question.

      ‘You work?’ he asked bluntly.

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘What do you do?’

      ‘I work, mainly in administration, in a wholesalers.’

      ‘Who?’

      She did not like his questions. She did not want to tell him who she worked for. But, she realised, she didn’t have a choice. ‘Howard Butler and Company,’ she reluctantly answered.

      ‘How much do you make?’ Cheeky devil! It was none of his business! Though... She stopped short. Of course it was his business. If he was considering allowing her to settle her debt by instalments—which meant he would have to pay the garage bill out of his own pocket—then she supposed he had every right to assess whether she was likely to default on those payments. She told him how much she earned. She hadn’t expected him to be impressed. He wasn’t.

      ‘I’ve only been there a short while,’ she defended.

      ‘And Mr Butler was so kind in offering me the job, I don’t like to ask for more.’

      His look said, More fool you, but he refrained from making such a comment. He enquired instead, ‘Is that your sole income?’

      She felt embarrassed. Saul Pendleton was quick. He’d have worked out by now that she’d still be in his debt years from now. ‘Yes,’ she mumbled.

      ‘You live in a smart area,’ he stated. ‘Pay rent?’

      Heavens above! Louise hadn’t been joking when she’d said he was a tough operator. Straight, resolute—and you did try to put one over on him at your peril! Elyss gave a shaky sigh. ‘Yes,’ she replied. She should never have come. Though what other way was there open to her? ‘But there are four of us,’ she added. ‘We each contribute a—’

      ‘All women?’ he cut in abruptly. What had that got to do with anything?

      ‘Of course!’ Elyss answered, a shade primly she had to own—but his tone nettled her.

      ‘And how long, even assuming I’m prepared to condone your criminal act,’ he inserted, ‘do you think you’ll be in my debt?’

      He knew the answer to that as well as she. She gave him a defeated look. ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked.

      ‘What do you think I should do?’ he tossed back, but did not wait for her to reply. He concisely stripped the whole issue down to one sentence. ‘You’re criminally uninsured and are ultimately responsible for damage to my vehicle to the tune of at least two thousand pounds. You’re not seriously suggesting, the criminal aspect apart, that I do nothing?’

      She must have been in cloud-cuckoo-land to have ever accepted his invitation to come here tonight, Elyss realised. ‘I suppose not,’ she mumbled unhappily, aware that she had achieved nothing other than to discover that she was, financially, in far deeper trouble than she had estimated. That thought panicked her again. ‘I don’t suppose you could claim off your insurance company, could you?’ she asked in a rush.

      Saul