Burning Obsession. Carole Mortimer

of her body. ‘I bet in denims and a shirt it’s hard to tell what bloody sex you are!’

      Kelly put up a selfconscious hand to her hair. ‘I know I’ve lost weight——’

      ‘Lost weight!’ he scorned. ‘You’re skeletal! Look at you, girl, you’re all eyes.’

      She blinked back the tears. ‘I haven’t felt like eating the last few days.’

      His hand left her chin to rest lightly on the side of her father’s bed, drawing attention to the lean strength of his fingers, the fine mat of hair on the back of his hand and wrist. ‘This has been going on a damned sight longer than the four days your father has been ill. And you never used to be tearful like this either. That’s the third time in a matter of minutes that you’ve started to cry.’

      ‘I’m sorry,’ she sniffed inelegantly.

      ‘Don’t be—it’s a damn sight healthier than the ice you were encased in the last time I saw you.’

      Kelly’s hold on her father’s hand tightened. She was so defenceless without her father’s support, making her realise how much she had come to depend on him since leaving Jordan. She would, in all probability, never have left Jordan if it hadn’t been for her father’s strength, would have stayed with Jordan knowing of his other women. Her father hadn’t liked the fact that she had wanted to leave Jordan, had begged her to reconsider, but in the end had accepted her decision. He had never asked for her reasons, and she had never volunteered them.

      ‘I wasn’t encased in ice, I’d just come to my senses, emerged from the stupid dream I’d had of us living happily ever after. How childish you must have found me, Jordan,’ she added lightly.

      His expression was bleak. ‘I found you—enchanting. You were like a breath of fresh spring air after having been in a smoke-filled room.’

      ‘You mean I was naïve,’ she scorned dryly.

      His grey-eyed gaze ripped into her. ‘I mean you were enchanting,’ he repeated tautly.

      She drew a ragged breath. ‘Well, I’m sure you’ve met plenty of other women you’ve found just as—enchanting. Janet, for instance.’

      ‘Janet is my secretary, nothing more.’

      ‘Maybe you just don’t think of it that way, maybe you just consider sleeping with your secretary as part of her usual duties,’ she said with remembered bitterness. ‘I suppose it’s easier if it’s all treated in a businesslike manner.’

      ‘You suppose what’s easier?’ Jordan bit out.

      ‘You know very well what I mean. How many—secretaries have you had since we parted?’

      He was frowning darkly. ‘What are you implying?’

      ‘How many, Jordan?’

      ‘I’ve had three secretaries——’

      ‘Only three?’ she taunted. ‘You do surprise me.’

      ‘Kelly!’ he warned angrily.

      ‘Were they all blondes?’

      Jordan frowned. ‘Blondes?’

      ‘Well, you’re one of those men who prefer blondes.’

      ‘Then why did I marry you?’ He looked pointedly at her black hair.

      ‘I’ve thought of that myself, and I think you must have just had a temporary lapse. Anyway, that’s all past history,’ she dismissed curtly. ‘Do you want to stay here now or do you want me to?’

      ‘We were in the middle of a conversation,’ he told her grimly. ‘Neither of us is going anywhere until it’s finished.’

      ‘As far as I’m concerned we were finished years ago. Now are you going or staying?’

      ‘I’m staying.’

      Kelly stood up. ‘Then I’m going.’ She bent to kiss her father gently on the cheek.

      Jordan stood up too. ‘Don’t think this conversation is over, it’s far from that, but we’ll continue it at a more—convenient time.’ His last words were in the form of a warning.

      Her head went back challengingly. ‘I’ll look forward to it. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.’

      ‘Kelly …’ he stopped her as she reached the door.

      ‘Yes?’ She turned to look at him, her breath catching in her throat at his blatant masculinity, the sexual magnetism he emitted without any visible effort on his part. He was thirty-nine now, and Kelly didn’t doubt that he would still be lean and attractive in twenty or thirty years’ time.

      ‘Didn’t you forget something?’ he asked softly.

      She looked down at her handbag, the only thing she had brought with her. ‘No, I don’t think so,’ she frowned.

      ‘I happen to think that you did.’ He came slowly towards her, a look of determination in his face.

      Kelly started to back away, not liking that look at all. There was a definite air of threat about him. ‘Wh-what do you want?’

      ‘What do you think?’ he drawled, reaching out and pulling her slowly into his arms.

      ‘No …’ she had time to cry before his mouth claimed hers.

      It was as if she were fainting, everything starting to spin, the only reality Jordan and the firm strength of his body. He crushed her to him, every bone in her body seeming to snap with the fierceness of him. His mouth ravaged hers into submission, kissing her like a man in a desert must grasp at a glass of sparklingly clear water.

      Kelly’s hands clung to his shoulders, her body bent like a reed to the hard demand of his. It was like she remembered it being, the mad excitement that made her quiver, the inability to do anything other than kiss him back, standing on tiptoe to more than meet the response he demanded.

      Suddenly his mouth gentled on hers, tasting her lips as if they were nectar, holding her head immobile by his hands in the silky softness of her hair, finding the sensitive nerve in her nape, groaning his satisfaction as she trembled against him. Jordan knew her body better than she knew it herself, knew everything that gave her pleasure—and he hadn’t forgotten a single thing!

      Kelly’s sensibility returned to her with effort, and she wrenched away from him, breathing heavily as she gazed up at him with wide apprehensive eyes.

      His hair was ruffled, a slight flush to his hard cheeks. ‘You’ll have to get some more meat on you before I do that again,’ he drawled, straightening his tie. ‘It’s like holding a sack of bones in my arms.’

      Her eyes burned with a fierce anger. ‘Then don’t hold me! I would prefer for you never to touch me again.’

      ‘Can’t be done, I’m afraid,’ Jordan told her calmly. ‘You see, I like touching you, kissing you, I always did.’

      ‘Me, and a hundred other women!’

      His mouth twisted. ‘There don’t happen to be a hundred other women here at the moment.’

      ‘Then wait until you get back to the hotel and pay Janet a visit!’ She closed the door decisively behind her as she left.

      ‘Ah, Mrs Lord,’ the young Sister who had been helping with the care of Kelly’s father smiled at her as they met in the corridor. ‘Your father is improving all the time.’

      ‘Yes,’ Kelly gave a jerky smile. ‘Jordan—my husband is with him now.’

      ‘Ah yes,’ the smile the other woman gave indicated that she had already met Jordan—and liked what she had seen. ‘You must be relieved that you were at last able to contact him so that he could come home and be with you.’

      So that was the story Jordan had given