The Rumours Collection

He leaned back in the leather chair and balanced one ankle over his thigh. ‘My calendar is pretty heavily booked. What did you have in mind?’

Her grey-blue eyes came back to his. ‘I have a function I need to attend in Gloucester. I was hoping you’d come with me—you know, to keep up appearances.’

‘What sort of function?’

‘Just a drinks thing.’

Jake steepled his fingers against his nose and mouth. The little minx was up to something but he would play along. He might even get another kiss or two out of her. ‘Sure, why not?’

She put the pen down. ‘I’m going to head back to London now.’

He felt a swooping sensation of disappointment in his gut. It would be deadly boring staying here without her to spar with. They hadn’t had any time together without anyone else around for years. He hadn’t realised how much he was enjoying it until the prospect of it ending now loomed. But there would be other opportunities as long as this charade continued. And he was going to make the most of them. ‘You’re not staying till morning?’

‘No, I have stuff to do at the boutique first thing and I don’t want to get caught up in traffic.’

Jake suspected she was wary of spending any more time with him in case she betrayed her desire for him. He wasn’t being overly smug about it. He could see it as plain as day. It mirrored his raging lust for her. Not that he was going to act on it but it sure was a heap of fun making her think he was. ‘Are you going to see Myles?’

Her gaze slipped out of reach of his. ‘Not yet. We agreed on a month’s break.’

‘A lot can happen in a month.’

Her lips tightened as if she was trying to remove the sensation of his on them. ‘I know what I’m doing.’

‘Do you?’

Her eyes clashed with his. ‘I know you think relationships are a complete waste of time but commitment is important to me.’

‘He’s not the right man for you,’ Jake said.

Her hands went to her slim hips in a combative pose. ‘And I suppose you think you’re an expert on who exactly would be?’

He pushed back his chair to come around to her side of the desk. She took half a step backwards but the antique globe was in the way. Her eyes drifted to his mouth and her darting tongue took a layer of lip-gloss off her lips. ‘If Myles was the right man for you he’d be down here right now with his hands at my throat.’

Her eyes glittered with enmity. ‘Not all men resort to Neanderthal tactics to claim a partner.’

He took a fistful of her silky hair and gently anchored her. ‘If I was in love with you I would do whatever it took to get you back.’

Her eyelids went to half-mast as her gaze zeroed in on his mouth for a moment. ‘Men like you don’t know the meaning of the word love. Lust is the only currency you deal in.’

Jake glided his hand down from her hair to cup her cheek, his thumb moving over the creamy perfection of her skin like the slow arm of a metronome. He watched as her pupils enlarged like widening pools of black ink, her mouth parting, her soft, milky breath coming out in a soundless gasp. ‘There’s nothing wrong with a bit of lust. It’s the litmus test of a good relationship.’

‘You don’t have relationships,’ she said, still looking at his mouth. ‘You have encounters that don’t last longer than it takes to change a light bulb.’

He gave a slanted smile. ‘Who needs a light bulb when we’ve got this sort of electricity going on?’

She pursed her lips. ‘Don’t even think about it.’

He brushed his thumb across her bunched up lips. ‘I think about it all the time. How it would feel to have you scraping your nails down my back as I make you come.’

She gave a tiny shudder. Blinked. Swallowed. ‘I’d much rather scrape them down your arrogant face.’

Jake smiled. ‘Liar. You’re thinking about it now, aren’t you? You’re thinking about how hot I make you feel. How turned on. I bet if I slipped my fingers into you now you’d be dripping wet for me.’

Twin pools of pink flagged her cheekbones. ‘It’s not going to happen, Jake,’ she said through tight lips. ‘I’m engaged to another man.’

‘Maybe you’ll feel different once you’re wearing my ring. I’ll pick you up at lunchtime tomorrow at the boutique. Be ready at two p.m.’

Her eyes flashed with venom. ‘I have an appointment with a client.’

‘Cancel it.’

She looked as if she was going to argue the point but then she blew out a hiss of a breath and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her for good measure.

Barely a minute later he heard her car start with a roar and then the scream of her tyres as she flew down the driveway.

He smiled and turned back to his laptop. Yep. A heap of fun.

CHAPTER SIX

JAZ HAD JUST finished with a customer who had purchased one of her hand-embroidered veils for her daughter when Jake came into the boutique. The woman smiled up at him as he politely held the door open for her. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I hear congratulations are in order. You’ve got yourself a keeper there.’ She nodded towards Jaz. ‘She’ll make a gorgeous bride. When’s the big day?’

Jake smiled one of his laidback smiles. ‘We haven’t set a date yet, have we, sweetheart?’

‘No, not yet,’ Jaz said.

‘I can’t wait to see the ring,’ the woman said. ‘I bet you’ll give her a big one.’

Jake’s dark-blue eyes glinted as they glanced at Jaz. ‘You bet I will.’

Jaz felt a tremor go through her private parts at his innuendo. Did the man have no shame? She was trying to act as cool and professional as she could and one look at her from those glittering midnight-blue eyes and she felt like she was going to melt into a sizzling pool at his feet. She wouldn’t have mentioned anything about their ‘engagement’ to the customer but it seemed there wasn’t a person in the whole of London who hadn’t heard fast-living playboy Jake Ravensdale was getting himself hitched.

The woman left with a little wave, and the door with its tinkling bell closed. Jake came towards the counter where Jaz had barricaded herself. ‘So this is your stamping ground,’ he said, glancing around at the dresses hanging on the free-standing rack. ‘How much of a profit are you turning over?’

She gave him a flinty look. ‘I don’t need you to pull apart my business.’

His one-shoulder shrug was nonchalant. ‘Just asking.’

‘You’re not just asking,’ Jaz said. ‘You’re looking for an opportunity to tell me I’m rubbish at running my business, just like you keep pointing out how rubbish I am at running my personal life.’

‘You have to admit three engagements—four, if you count ours—is a lot of bad decisions.’

She gripped the edge of the counter. ‘And I suppose you’ve never made a bad decision in the whole of your charmed life, have you?’

‘I’ve made a few.’

‘Such as?’

He looked at her for a long moment, his customary smile fading and a slight frown taking its place. ‘It was crass of me to bring those girls to my room that night. There were other ways I could’ve handled the situation.’

Jaz refused to be taken in by an admission of regret seven years too late. ‘Did you sleep with them?’

‘No.’

There was a pregnant pause.

‘Where did you go after that?’ he said. ‘I didn’t see you for the rest of the night.’

Jaz looked down at the glass-topped counter where all the garters were arranged. ‘I went back to my room.’

He reached across the counter to take one of her hands in his. ‘Look at me, Jasmine.’

She slowly brought her gaze up to his, affecting the expression of a bored teenager preparing for a stern lecture from a parent. ‘What?’

His eyes moved between each of hers as if he was searching for something hidden behind the cool screen of her gaze. She could feel the warm press of his hand against hers, his long, strong, masculine fingers entwining with hers, making her insides slip and shift. She could smell the sharp citrus of his aftershave. She could see the dark shadow of his regrowth peppered along his jaw. She could see every fine line on his mouth, the way his lips were set in a serious line—such a change from his usual teasing slant. He began to move the pad of his thumb in a stroking fashion over the back of her hand, the movements drugging her senses.

‘It wasn’t that I wasn’t attracted to you,’ he said. ‘I just didn’t want to make things awkward with you being such a part of the family. That and the fact you were too young to know what you were doing.’

Jaz pulled her hand away. ‘Then why lead me on as if you were serious about me? That was just plain cruel.’

He let out a deep sigh. ‘Yeah, I guess it was.’

She studied his features for a moment, wondering if this too was an act. How could she believe he was sorry for how he’d made her think he was falling in love with her? He had been so charming towards her, telling her how beautiful she was and how he couldn’t wait to get her alone. She had fallen for every lie, waiting in his room, undressing down to her underwear for him in her haste to do anything she could to please him. She had been too emotionally immature to realise he had been winding her up. She had been too enamoured with him to see his charm offensive for what it was. He had pulled her strings like a puppet master. Hating him was dead easy when he wasn’t sorry for how he’d treated her. For the last seven years she had stoked that hatred with every look or cynical lip curl he aimed her way. But if this apology were genuine she would have to let her anger and hatred go.

That was scary.

Her anger was a barrier. A big, fat barricade around her heart because falling in love with Jake would be nothing less than an exercise in self-annihilation. She only fell in love with men she knew for certain would love her back. Her ex-fiancés were alike in that they had each been comfortable with commitment. They’d wanted the same things she wanted...or so they had said.

Jake glanced at his watch. ‘We’d better get a move on. I made an appointment with the jeweller for two-fifteen. Have you got an assistant to hold the fort for you till you get back?’

‘No, my last girl was rude to the clients,’ Jaz said. ‘I had to let her go. I haven’t got around to replacing her. I’ll just put a “back in ten minutes” sign on the door.’

He frowned. ‘You mean you run this show all by yourself?’

She picked up her purse and jacket from underneath the counter. ‘I outsource some of the cutting and sewing but I do most of everything else because that’s what my customers expect.’

‘But none of the top designers do all the hack work,’ Jake said as they walked out of the boutique into the chilly autumn air. ‘You’ll burn yourself out trying to do everything yourself.’

‘Yes, well, I’m not quite pulling in the same profit as some of those houses,’ Jaz said. ‘But watch this space. I have a career plan.’

‘What about a business plan? I could have a look at your company structure and—’

‘No thanks,’ Jaz said and closed and locked the boutique door.

‘If you’re worried about my fee, I could do mate’s rates.’

She gave him a sideways look. ‘I can afford you, Jake. I just choose not to use your...erm...services.’

He shrugged one of his broad shoulders. ‘Your loss.’

The jeweller was a private designer who had a studio above an interior design shop. Jaz was acutely conscious of Jake’s arm at her elbow as he led her into the viewing area. After brief introductions were made a variety of designs was brought forward for her to peruse. But there was one ring that was a stand out. It was a mosaic collection of diamonds in an art deco design that was both simple yet elegant. She slipped it on her finger and was pleased to find it was a perfect fit. ‘This one,’ she said, holding it up to see the way the light bounced off the diamonds.

‘Good choice,’ the designer said. ‘It suits your hand.’

Jaz didn’t see the price. It wasn’t the sort of jeweller where price tags were on show. But she didn’t care if it was expensive or not. Jake could afford it. She did wonder, however, if he would want her to give it back when their ‘engagement’ was over.

Jake took her hand as they left the studio. ‘Fancy a quick coffee?’

Jaz would have said no except she hadn’t had lunch and her stomach was gurgling like a drain. ‘Sure, why not?’

He took her to a café a couple of blocks from her boutique but they had barely sat down before someone from a neighbouring table took a photo of them with a camera phone. Then a murmur went around the café and other people started aiming their phones at them. Jaz tried to keep her smile natural but her jaw was aching from the effort. Jake seemed to take it all in his stride, however.

One customer came over with a napkin and a pen. ‘Can I have your autograph, Jake?’

Jake slashed his signature across the napkin and handed back the pen with an easy smile. ‘There you go.’

‘Is it true you and Miss Connolly are engaged?’ the customer asked.

Jaz held up her ring hand. ‘Yes. We just picked up the ring.’

More cameras went off and the Twitter whistle sounded so often it was as if a flock of small birds had been let loose in the café.

‘Nice work,’ Jake said when the fuss had finally died down a little.

‘You were the one who suggested a coffee,’ Jaz said, shooting him a look from beneath her lashes.

‘I heard your stomach rumbling at the jeweller’s.Don’t you make time for lunch?’

She stirred her latte with a teaspoon rather than lose herself in his sapphire-blue gaze. ‘I’ve got a lot on just now.’

He reached across the table and took her left hand in his, running his fingertip over the crest of the mosaic ring. ‘You can keep it after this is over.’

Jaz brought her gaze back to his. ‘You don’t want to recycle it for when you eventually settle down?’

He released her hand and sat back as he gave a light laugh. ‘Can you see me doing the school run?’

‘You don’t ever want kids?’

‘Nope,’ he said, reaching for the sugar and tipping two teaspoons in. ‘I don’t want the responsibility. If I’m going to screw anyone’s life up, it’ll be my own. That I can live with.’

‘Why do you think you’d screw up your children’s lives?’ Jaz said.

He stirred his coffee before he answered. ‘I’m too much like my father.’

‘I don’t think you’re anything like your father,’ she said. ‘Maybe in looks but not in temperament. Your father is weak. Sorry if I’m speaking out of turn but he is. The way he handled his affair with Kat Winwood’s mother is proof of it. I can’t see you paying someone to have an abortion if you got a girl pregnant.’

He shifted his lips from side to side. ‘I wouldn’t offer to marry her, though.’

‘Maybe not, but you’d support her and your child,’ Jaz said. ‘And you’d be involved in your child’s life.’

He gave her one of his slow smiles that did so much damage to her resolve to keep him at a distance. ‘I didn’t realise you had such a high opinion of me.’

She pursed her lips. ‘Don’t get too excited. I still think you’d make a terrible husband.’

‘In general or for you?’

Jaz looked at him for a beat or two of silence. She had a sudden vision of him at the end of the aisle waiting for her with that twinkling smile on his handsome face. Of his tall and toned body dressed in a sharply tailored suit instead of the casual clothes he preferred. Of his dark-blue eyes focused on her, as if she were the only woman he ever wanted to gaze at, with complete love and adoration.

She blinked and refocused. ‘Good Lord, not for me,’ she said with a laugh. ‘We’d be at each other’s throats before we left the church.’

Something moved at the back of his gaze as it held hers, a flicker like a faulty light bulb. But then he picked up his coffee cup and drained it before putting it down on the table with a decisive clunk. ‘Ready?’

Jake walked Jaz back to the boutique holding her hand for the sake of appearances. Or so he told himself. The truth was he loved the feel of her small, neat hand encased in his. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking about those soft, clever little fingers on other parts of his body. Stroking him, teasing him with her touch. Why shouldn’t he make the most of their situation? He had a business deal to secure and being engaged to Jasmine Connolly was going to win him some serious brownie points with his conservative client Bruce Parnell. It wasn’t as if it was for ever. A week or two and it would be over. Life would go back to normal.

‘I have a work function on Wednesday night,’ he said when Jaz had unlocked the door of the boutique. ‘Dinner with a client. Would you like to come?’

She looked at him with a slight frown. ‘Why?’

He tugged a tendril of her hair in a teasing manner. ‘Because we’re madly in love and we can’t bear to be apart for a second.’

Her frown deepened and a flash of irritation arced in her gaze. ‘What’s the dress code?’

‘Lounge suit and cocktail.’

‘I’ll have to check my calendar.’

Jake put his hand beneath her chin and tipped up her face so her eyes couldn’t escape his. ‘I’m giving you the weekend for the wedding expo. The least you could do is give me one week night.’

Her cheeks swarmed with sheepish colour. ‘How did you know it was a wedding expo?’

He gave her a teasing grin. ‘I knew there had to be a catch. Why else would you want me for a whole weekend?’

Her mouth took on that disapproving schoolmarm, pursed look that made him want to kiss it back into pliable softness. ‘I don’t want you, Jake. You’ll only be there for show.’

He bent down and pressed a brief kiss to her mouth. ‘I’ll pick you up from here at seven.’

Jaz was still doing her hair when the doorbell sounded on Wednesday evening. She had run late with a client who had taken hours to choose a design for a gown. She gave her hair one last blast with the dryer and shook her head to let the waves fall loosely about her shoulders. She smoothed her hands down her hips, turning to one side to check her appearance in the full-length mirror. The black cocktail dress had double shoestring straps that criss-crossed over her shoulders, the silky fabric skimming her figure in all the right places. She was wearing her highest heels because she hadn’t been able to wear them when going out with Myles, as he was only an inch taller than her. A quick spray of perfume and a smear of lip-gloss and she was ready.

Why she was going to so much trouble for Jake was not something she wanted to examine too closely. But when she opened the door and she saw the way his eyes ran over her appreciatively she was pleased she had chosen to go with the wow factor.

But then, so had he. He was dressed in a beautifully tailored suit that made his shoulders seem all the broader and, while he wasn’t wearing a tie, the white open-necked shirt combined with the dark blue of his suit intensified the navy-blue of his eyes.

Jaz opened the door a little wider. ‘I’ll just get my wrap.’

Jake stepped into her flat and closed the door. She turned to face him as she draped her wrap over her shoulders, a little shiver coursing over her flesh as she saw the way his gaze went to her mouth as if pulled there by a powerful magnet.

The air quickened the way it always did when they were alone.

‘Is something wrong?’ she said.

He closed the small distance between their bodies so that they were almost touching. ‘I have something for you,’ he said, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket.

Jaz swallowed as he took out a narrow velvet jewellery case the same colour as his eyes. She took it from him and opened it with fingers that were suddenly as useless as a glove without a hand. Jake took it from her and deftly opened it to reveal a stunning diamond pendant on a white-gold chain that was as fine as a gossamer thread.

Jaz glanced up at him but his face was unreadable. She looked back at the diamond. She had jewellery. Lots of it. Most of it she had bought herself because jewellery was so personal, a bit like perfume and make-up. She hadn’t had a partner yet who had ever got her taste in jewellery right. But this was...perfect. She would have chosen it herself if she could have afforded it. She knew it was expensive. Hideously so. Why had Jake spent so much money on her when he didn’t even like her? ‘I’ll give it back once we’re done,’ she said. ‘And the ring.’

‘I chose it specifically for you,’ he said, taking it out of the box. ‘Turn around. Move your hair out of the way.’

Jaz did as he commanded and tried not to shudder in pleasure as his long strong fingers moved against the sensitive skin on the back of her neck as he secured the pendant in place. She could feel the tall, hard frame of his body against her shoulder blades, his strongly muscled thighs against her trembling ones. She knew if she leaned back even half an inch she could come into contact with the hot, hard heat of him. She felt his hands come down on the tops of her shoulders, his fingers giving her a light squeeze as he turned her to face him. She looked into the midnight blue of his inscrutable gaze and wondered if her teenage crush was dead and buried after all. It felt like it was coming to life under the warm press of his hands on her body.

He trailed a lazy fingertip from beneath her ear to her mouth, circling it without touching it. But it felt like he had. Her lips buzzed, fizzed and ached for the pressure of his. ‘You look beautiful.’

‘Amazing what a flashy bit of jewellery can do.’

He frowned as if her flippant comment annoyed him. ‘You don’t suit flashy jewellery and I wouldn’t insult you by insisting on you wearing it.’

‘All the same, I don’t expect you to spend so much money on me. I don’t feel comfortable about it, given our relationship.’

His eyes went to her mouth for a moment before meshing with hers. ‘Why do you hate me so much?’

Jaz couldn’t hold his gaze and looked at the open neck of his shirt instead. But that just made it worse because she could see the long, strong, tanned column of his throat and smell the light but intoxicating lemony scent of his aftershave. She didn’t know if it was the diamond olive branch he had offered her, his physical closeness or both that made her decide to tell him the truth about that night. Or maybe it was because she was tired of the negative emotion weighing her down. ‘That night after I left your room... I... Something happened...’

Jaz felt rather than saw his frown. She was still looking at his neck but she noticed the way he had swallowed thickly. ‘What?’ he said.

‘I accepted a drink off one of the guests. I’m not sure who it was. One of the casual seasonal theatre staff, I think. I hadn’t seen him before or since. I was upset after leaving you. I didn’t care if I got drunk. But then... I, well, you’ve probably heard it dozens of times before. Girls who get drunk and then end up regretting what happened next.’

‘What happened next?’ Jake’s voice sounded raw, as if something had been scraped across his vocal chords.

Jaz still couldn’t meet his gaze. She couldn’t bear to see his judgement, his criticism of her reckless behaviour. ‘I had a non-consensual encounter. Or at least I think it was non-consensual.’

‘You were...raped?’

She looked at him then. ‘No, but it was close to it. Somehow I managed to fight him off, but I was too ashamed to tell anyone what happened. I didn’t even tell Miranda. I haven’t told anyone before now.’

Jake’s expression was full of outrage, shock and horror. ‘The man should’ve been charged. Do you think you’d recognise him if you saw him again? We could arrange a police line-up. We could check the guest list of that night. Track down everyone who attended...’