Nights of Passion

‘You could.’

‘Mum—’

Daisy had obviously realised that things were not going as well as she’d anticipated. But Joe didn’t need her involvement, any more than Rachel had wanted his earlier. ‘Just leave this to your mother and me,’ he said, trying for a pleasant tone. ‘Why don’t you go and do some packing or something?’

Daisy sniffed. ‘Mum,’ she said again, the word full of entreaty, and Rachel took a deep breath.

‘Mr Mendez is right,’ she said. ‘Perhaps it would be as well if he and I had a private word. Just go up to your room, okay?’

‘But, Mum—’

‘Do as your mother says,’ said Joe sharply, and Daisy’s jaw dropped in surprise.

‘You can’t tell me what to do,’ she protested, any admiration she’d felt towards him momentarily extinguished by his tone.

Joe stared at her. ‘Can’t I?’ he countered, his mood deteriorating rapidly, and her lower lip jutted.

‘Mum—’

‘Oh, just go upstairs, Daisy.’ Rachel didn’t appreciate Joe’s interference either, but it was easier not to get into it with the girl present. ‘Please.’ She softened the word with a slight smile. ‘I’ll call you when you can come down again.’

Daisy pursed her lips but, after a few moments, she slouched moodily out of the room. A few seconds later, they heard her climbing the stairs.

Rachel waited until she’d heard the door to Daisy’s bedroom bang closed before giving Joe a frigid look. ‘I hope you don’t expect me to apologise,’ she said. ‘Thanks to her father, Daisy is in the middle of all this. Naturally, she feels confused.’

‘You think?’ Joe propped his hips against the counter opposite and folded his arms. ‘I thought that was me.’

‘You?’ Rachel was taken aback now. ‘You’re not confused.’

Joe shrugged, as if that might be open for discussion, but all he said was, ‘I am also in the middle of this feud you’ve got going with Steve.’

Rachel tried to calm herself. ‘It’s not a feud.’

‘Then what is it?’ Joe’s dark brows ascended. ‘I gather the divorce wasn’t an amicable one.’

‘Did Steve tell you that?’

He had, but Joe wasn’t about to admit it. ‘It seems fairly obvious,’ he said, avoiding the question. ‘Why don’t you want Daisy to spend time with her father? Just because you don’t get on—’

‘I’ve never stopped Daisy from seeing her father,’ Rachel broke in hotly. ‘And, if he’s told you I have, he’s lying.’

Joe sucked in a breath. ‘So how come Steve hasn’t had any physical contact with Daisy since he left England?’

Rachel gasped. ‘I don’t have to explain myself to you!’

‘Humour me.’ Joe didn’t really know why he was pursuing this except that she seemed so frustrated. ‘You have to admit, it’s twelve months since he and Lauren moved to Florida.’

‘I know.’ Rachel hesitated, but the need to defend herself drove her on. ‘But—well, at Christmas, Daisy didn’t want to visit her father. Her grandparents would have been so disappointed if we hadn’t had Christmas Day with them, and school started again at the beginning of January.’

‘Okay.’ Joe shrugged. ‘I’ll accept that you wouldn’t want to send Daisy away at Christmas. But according to Steve she could have visited earlier this year.’

‘You mean at Easter?’ Rachel’s nostrils flared. ‘Didn’t he tell you? Daisy was ill at Easter. She had glandular fever and, if you know anything about the disease at all, you’ll know that it can take months to recover fully. As a matter of fact, I phoned Steve and asked if there was any way he could come and see her.’ Rachel’s nails curled into her palms when she remembered her ex-husband’s response. ‘He—he said he already had plans for the holiday. Which obviously didn’t include crossing the Atlantic.’

Joe frowned ‘He didn’t tell me that.’

Rachel snorted. ‘I wonder why.’

‘You don’t like him much, do you?’

‘I don’t like what he’s trying to do to me and Daisy,’ said Rachel flatly.

‘What is he doing?’ Joe was curious.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘I’d still like to know.’

‘Why?’ She turned to the bags on the table and started unloading their contents. ‘So you can tell Steve what a mean, resentful cow I am when you go home?’

Joe caught his breath. ‘Hey, you’ve got some attitude there!’ he exclaimed. ‘I don’t think you’re mean or resentful. I just think you and Steve have got your wires crossed and you both need to sort yourselves out. For Daisy’s sake.’

‘Yeah, right.’

Rachel had started putting perishable items into the fridge, but now Joe couldn’t prevent himself from moving round the table and grabbing her arm. ‘Hey,’ he said, immediately aware of her soft flesh beneath his fingers. ‘I’m not your enemy.’ He released her again, unconsciously rubbing his palm down the seam of his jeans, as if that would remove the tantalising memory of her skin. ‘I’m just trying to understand what’s going on here. Fill me in. Tell me about when Steve still lived in London.’

Rachel shivered. It was the first time he’d touched her, and she was overwhelmingly aware that her response had been far from indifferent. For a moment, her senses had been assaulted by the clean, male scent of his body, his heat briefly robbing her of the will to move away. She was aware of her nipples pebbling beneath her cotton tee shirt, a melting feeling that centred somewhere low in her abdomen, turning her limbs to water.

Realising she had to get a hold of herself, she shoved the pack of cheese she was holding into the fridge and backed up against the closed door. That was better, she thought, feeling the chill cooling her spine and causing goose bumps to take the place of the beads of sweat that had feathered the back of her neck.

Then, without exactly looking at him, she said, ‘Why should it matter to you?’

Joe shook his head. Damned if he knew. He didn’t know what the hell he was getting into here, but he knew he couldn’t just walk away without at least attempting to understand what was going on.

In an effort to distract himself from the urge to capture her chin in his hand and force her to look at him, Joe propped his hips against the table behind him and folded his arms. ‘How often did Daisy see her father before he moved to the States?’ he asked, and her green eyes flickered briefly in his direction.

‘How often?’ He sensed she didn’t want to answer him and he wondered why. ‘Um—she saw him,’ she said with a lift of one shoulder, prevaricating. ‘Anyway, that’s not why you’re here, is it? I expect you’d like to confirm the arrangements for Monday. If you’ll tell me where and at what time you’d like us to meet you …’

‘My chauffeur will pick her up.’ Joe was aware that she was nervous, that she’d like to get this over with and for him to go. He frowned, and then asked curiously, ‘What’s wrong? Why are you so defensive? Is it because Steve wanted to take Daisy to Florida with him when he left England and you wouldn’t let him?’

‘What?’ Rachel was forced to look at him now, stunned at the accusation. And despite her reluctance to discuss her exhusband with a virtual stranger, she added tensely, ‘Steve never even suggested taking her with him. Did he tell you that he did?’

Joe raked long fingers over his scalp. He should never have started this. ‘That was the impression I got,’ he said at last, watching the colour drain out of her face. His free hand curled into a fist. ‘Obviously I was wrong.’

‘Yes.’ Rachel drew a choking breath and turned away, unable to look at him any longer. ‘Yes, you were,’ she continued, pressing her palms against the door of the fridge now, aware that it wasn’t helping. ‘If—if you must know, I don’t think Daisy even noticed when Steve left the country.’

There, she’d said it. Something she’d never said to anyone, not even Steve’s mother. But it was true nevertheless. Her exhusband had spent little time with Daisy when they’d been together, and after the divorce he’d always been too busy with his new wife and her friends—and, of course, his golf—to care that Daisy was growing up without a father.

Joe stifled an inward groan. He knew he’d upset her, knew he’d torn the skin off an old wound that was apparently still raw enough to bleed. And that wasn’t his nature. He didn’t hurt women; even the women he’d ended relationships with were still speaking to him. Yet, although he’d guessed he was getting into deep water when she’d avoided his question, he’d persisted in probing, in exposing her vulnerability.

His muscles tightened. He should get the hell out of here now, before he did something they would both regret. He didn’t even know why he felt such a sense of responsibility towards her, but the fact remained, he did.

Pushing away from the table, he laid an impulsive hand on her shoulder. She jumped, and he realised she was trembling. God, this was a woman who’d been married and divorced, who’d borne a child, for heaven’s sake; yet he still felt responsible for her. He couldn’t resist; his fingers tightened on the fine bones beneath her tee shirt and the urge to pull her into his arms became almost irresistible.

The air between them was fairly crackling with emotion, and for once he wished Daisy would interrupt them. Hell, this wasn’t his problem, he told himself, but that didn’t stop him from moving closer until her bottom brushed temptingly against his thigh.

Rachel moved then, jerking away from him, not understanding why her eyes were suddenly filled with tears. She’d shed all the tears she was going to shed for Steve Carlyle, she told herself fiercely. And she didn’t need Joe Mendez’s pity either. She could just imagine how this would play when he got back to Florida, and the idea that Steve and Lauren might find her stupid feelings amusing was totally humiliating.

‘Rachel,’ Joe said helplessly, ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be. I’m not.’ She pulled a tissue out of the box on the window sill and quickly blew her nose. ‘I’ll get Daisy. I expect she’s dying to know what’s going on.’

Joe groaned. ‘What is going on, Rachel?’ he demanded, and she was obliged to turn and face him.

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she said, striving for a lighter tone. But when she attempted to move past him, Joe saw the betraying sparkle of tears on her lashes.

‘Hell, Rachel,’ he protested, and ignoring all the good advice he’d been giving himself, he caught her about the waist and hauled her into his arms.

CHAPTER FIVE

IT WAS meant to be a way of comforting her, of showing his support, of proving he wasn’t a selfish bastard like her exhusband appeared to be, or so he told himself. But it didn’t turn out that way. From the moment their bodies came together, from the moment her tee shirt parted from her jeans and he felt the softness of bare flesh beneath his hands, a knot of pure sensual need twisted in his belly.

She was breathing rapidly, her breasts flattened against his chest so he could feel every agitated gulp she took. Her lips were parted and the warmth of her breath was moistening the skin of his throat, spreading heat to every sensitised extremity.

‘Rachel,’ he said again, his voice thicker now, and the urge to slide his hand beneath her shirt and find the swollen peaks that were rubbing oh-so-sensuously against his shirt proved irresistible. He could see the pulse palpitating just beneath her ear, and he wondered how it would feel against his tongue.

He thought she said something then, but the faint whisper of her voice was drowned by the pounding of his own heart. With the womanly scent of her body to distract him, it was hard to think of anything but how incredible it would feel to have her naked beneath him.

He was becoming aroused. His trousers were becoming uncomfortably tight, and he guessed if he could feel it she could feel it, too. Not that that stopped him from wanting her, but it was time to grasp what little control he had left and put an end to this madness.

It took an effort, but he pulled his hands from beneath her tee shirt and raised them to her shoulders. Then gently, but firmly, he attempted to put some space between them. It would be easier to think without the innocent sexuality of her body seducing his, he told himself grimly. But when he saw her face, his good intentions crumbled. She looked so bewildered suddenly that something inside him seemed to snap. With a groan of resignation, he abandoned any hope of getting out of this unscathed. Pulling her against him again, he captured her face between his palms and lowered his head to hers.

Her lips were barely parted, but when he skimmed his tongue over the full lower one she caught her breath. Joe pushed his tongue inside, searching, possessing, doing what he admitted he’d wanted to do since he’d first glimpsed those tears on her face.

‘Dear God,’ he muttered, as desire rose hotly to the surface. His hands slid down her spine, moulding her to him, finding the provocative curve of her bottom before gripping the back of her thighs.

The kiss deepened and Rachel’s world seemed to narrow to this man’s mouth, this man’s hands. Her head was swimming, emotions she’d never experienced before causing her whole body to feel hot and alive. She was drowning in a dark sea of intimacy, of passion, where the satisfaction of her senses was the only thing that mattered.

Joe’s senses rocketed, the blood pounding in his ears, his mind spinning dizzily out of control. With his fingers spreading against the back of her head, he crushed his mouth to hers with increasing urgency. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, he told himself. Not when she was kissing him back with a hunger that matched his own.

And then, from a distance, Rachel heard a familiar voice calling her. ‘Mum! Mum!’ There was a pause, which allowed her to identify the sound. ‘Mum, can’t I come down now?’

Daisy!

Oh God!

Rachel’s strangled cry startled Joe. He, too, had heard the other voice, his brain scrambling to remember where he was. Then, like a douche of cold water, it came to him: he was trying to seduce Steve Carlyle’s ex-wife.

He pulled away automatically at the same moment Rachel was wrenching herself free. For God’s sake, what had he been thinking? What crazy impulse had made him behave like a savage?

Rachel was heading for the door into the hall. He could see she was panicking, unaware that her tee shirt was loose and crumpled and that his stubble had scraped her cheeks. Her hair was loose from its knot. It tumbled down around her shoulders, and Joe wondered how it would feel if he threaded his fingers through the silky strands. However, the look she cast at him over her shoulder brought the whole situation into damning focus.

He’d goofed, and badly. Her expression said it all. And while he wasn’t totally to blame for what had happened, if he hadn’t touched her the situation would never have developed as it had.

‘Hey,’ he said, causing her to glance back at him again. However, when she lifted a warning hand to silence him, he muttered, ‘You might want to check yourself out before you leave. Or do you want your daughter to know what you’ve been doing?’

Rachel halted abruptly, her hand going to her tumbled hair, discovering the pins that had held it in place had disappeared. They were scattered all over the floor, she saw with an inward groan, but she didn’t have time to find them all now. Pulling open a drawer where she kept pens and notepads, she found an elastic band and, gathering her hair in one hand, she secured it in an untidy pony-tail.

She saw Joe arch a mocking brow as she started for the door again, but her attention was concentrated on her daughter now. ‘Just—just give us a couple more minutes, Daisy,’ she called when she reached the doorway. ‘We’re almost through.’

Ain’t that the truth? thought Joe as Daisy answered with a long drawn-out, ‘O-kay.’ Once again, he was asking himself how on earth he’d allowed himself to be distracted. Rachel was attractive, sure, but she wasn’t his type. And from the way she was looking at him, he certainly wasn’t hers.

She turned back to him with evident reluctance. He sensed she wanted to say something to defend herself, but she must know as well as he did that what had happened couldn’t be explained away. ‘I think you’d better go,’ she said at last, and he could tell she was struggling to appear more composed than she was. She licked her lips, lips that were still swollen from his lovemaking, Joe saw with some satisfaction. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do about Daisy. I’ll let you know when I’ve had time to think.’

‘To think about what?’ Joe sagged back against the table. ‘Oh, please, don’t tell me you’re going to make this an excuse for refusing to let Daisy go and visit with her dad?’

‘No.’ Rachel squared her shoulders. ‘No, she can go. I’m just not sure she should go with you.’

Joe stared at her disbelievingly. ‘Why?’ he demanded, his patience shredding. Frustration was making him antsy, and he wasn’t in the mood for any more of her attitude. ‘I hope you’re not implying that because I kissed you I’m not to be trusted with your daughter. Grow up, Rachel. You’re acting like a spoiled brat.’

‘And we both know that’s not true, don’t we?’ she retorted. She shook her head. ‘I have to think about this. I’m older than you. I can’t just dismiss what just happened as you apparently can.’

Joe blinked. ‘Why do you think you’re older than me?’ he exclaimed blankly. ‘I’m thirty-four, and I know for a fact that Steve’s only thirty-five.’

‘Steve’s not thirty-five!’ The words were out before she could prevent them. ‘He’s two years older than me. He’ll be forty on his next birthday.’

Joe looked surprised. ‘You’re sure about that?’ he asked, and she wondered if she’d put her foot in it again.

‘I’m sure,’ she admitted in a low voice, and Joe realised he hadn’t taken Daisy’s age into consideration. He remembered Steve telling him in one of his more confidential moments that he’d been married for five years before Daisy had been born.

Rachel had opened the fridge again and was stowing some tomatoes into the salad drawer. Her face was red, and he wondered what she was thinking. For his part, he was trying to come to terms with the fact that she was thirty-seven. She certainly didn’t look it. Or act it, he conceded, reliving those moments when he’d been inclined to believe she was as inexperienced as Daisy.

‘Look,’ he said gently. ‘I’m sorry, okay? What happened, happened. I’m not ashamed of it. You’re a beautiful woman. I only did what any man in my position would have done.’

Rachel wondered if that was entirely true. She couldn’t imagine Steve touching her in that way. But then, she and Steve should never have got married, never have had a baby. It was one of those sad anomalies that Daisy definitely hadn’t kept them together.

‘Is everything all right?’ Daisy was suddenly standing in the doorway, eyeing them both with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. She frowned at her mother. ‘Why is your face red? Is something wrong?’

Rachel couldn’t prevent her hand from going to her cheek, and she glanced guiltily at Joe before saying, ‘Nothing’s wrong, Daisy. Mr Mendez was just leaving.’

Daisy wasn’t stupid. ‘Leaving?’ she echoed. ‘So—are the arrangements for Monday already made?’

‘You’d better ask your mother,’ said Joe, without sympathy. ‘I think she might be having second thoughts.’

He knew a moment’s remorse when Rachel turned agonised eyes in his direction, but he refused to pretend that all was well when it so obviously wasn’t.

‘Why?’ Daisy gazed at her mother now. ‘I thought you’d agreed to let me go.’

‘I did.’ Rachel was defensive. ‘It’s just—’

‘Your mother doesn’t trust me,’ said Joe flatly, pushing away from the table. His eyes bruised Rachel’s. ‘I suggest you let me know when you’ve decided what you want to do.’

‘Oh, but—’

Daisy’s eyes had filled with tears and, before she could beg him to reconsider, Rachel intervened. ‘There’s no need for that,’ she said stiffly. ‘Just tell me where and at what time you’d like us to meet you on Monday and we’ll be there.’

Joe blew out a breath. ‘My chauffeur will pick her up about nine o’clock Monday morning,’ he responded. ‘If you change your mind again, let me know.’

Shelley was waiting at Eaton Court Mews when he got back.

She’d evidently been there for some time, because a tray of coffee was cold on the table and her face mirrored her impatience with his behaviour earlier.

‘Where the hell have you been?’ she demanded as soon as he strolled into the sitting room. ‘What do you mean by walking out like that? I go to sleep with you beside me and I wake up to find you’ve gone.’

‘Sorry.’ But Joe wasn’t in the mood to make more apologies and when Charles followed him into the room he turned with some relief. ‘Black coffee, please,’ he said. ‘And perhaps Ms Adair might like to join me. Oh, and do you have any of those English muffins? I could do with something hot and sweet.’

‘I hope you’re not looking at me,’ said Shelley, her tone softening as if she realised this was not the time to start a slanging match. But Joe only shook his head and lounged into a comfortable leather armchair.

‘Just food,’ he said, and Charles withdrew before another argument ensued.

However, realising he was allowing his frustration towards Rachel to influence his mood, Joe looked up at Shelley standing by the window. ‘Have you been here long?’

She shrugged. Although he’d only thrown his clothes on before leaving her apartment, she had evidently taken some trouble with her appearance. A pale blue gauze dress dipped provocatively at her breast before flaring gently to her knees. Four-inch heels added height to her five-feet-ten-inch frame, and her blonde bob had been spiked to perfection. Evidently she’d dressed to please, and he felt guilty that right at this moment her pale good looks left him cold.

‘Long enough,’ she said now, moving over to his chair and perching on the arm. ‘You need a shave, darling. I’m not one of those women who like getting the equivalent of razor burns every time I kiss you.’

Unwanted, the image of Rachel as he’d last seen her flashed into his mind. How was it possible that he’d found her so appealing? So appealing, in fact, that if her daughter hadn’t interrupted them.

‘Joe, you’re not listening to me!’ Shelley’s voice rose again, and now there were hectic splashes of colour in her cheeks. ‘Where have you been? Charles is so tight-lipped. He wouldn’t breathe a word.’

‘That’s what I pay him for,’ said Joe laconically, making no response when she slipped her arm around his neck. ‘There was something I had to do. An arrangement I had to make for Monday. One of the guys back home asked me to fly his daughter over and I needed to check it out.’

Shelley’s shoulders stiffened. ‘His daughter?’

‘Yeah, his daughter.’ Joe glanced up at her. ‘You got an objection?’

‘Several.’ Shelley’s eyes flashed. ‘To start with, how old is she?’

‘Gee, let me see.’ Joe pretended to think about it, hoping the distraction would lighten his mood as well as hers. ‘In her teens, I guess.’

‘Her teens?’ Shelley’s voice rose even higher.

‘Yeah. Thirteen, I think. I can’t remember.’

‘Oh!’ Her relief was evident, but when she bent to rub her lips against his Joe didn’t take the bait.

‘It’s gonna be a busy weekend,’ he said, forcing her to draw back just as Charles came back into the room. ‘Ah, food! You ought to try one of these muffins, Shell. Charles makes them himself, and they’re magic.’

‘I’m glad you find something magical,’ retorted Shelley huffily, getting to her feet again and surveying him with angry blue eyes. ‘I hope this doesn’t mean I won’t see you again before you leave.’

‘Shell—’

‘I’ve brought two cups in case Ms Adair decides to join you,’ Charles interposed swiftly as he set down the tray. He walked back to the door. ‘Let me know if you need anything else.’

‘Thanks.’ As Charles disappeared again, Joe shifted forward and broke a piece off one of the warm muffins. In actual fact, he wasn’t particularly hungry, but it was a way to avoid Shelley’s accusing gaze. ‘Come on,’ he invited. ‘Try a piece.’