New Year Kisses: His Cinderella Mistress

‘Three old maids’, indeed! Max could easily predict the reaction of any of the three undoubtedly beautiful sisters to being called that! It had been interesting to meet the third sister, March, when he’d got to the farm, to see the physical similarity between all three sisters. Although March, he had quickly learnt, was the most tempestuous of the three, telling him in no uncertain terms exactly what he, and the Marshall Corporation, could do with their offer to buy the Calendar property. May had been a little politer, but her answer had still been the same as that of her siblings.

But for some reason Max didn’t actually want to correct Jude in his mistake concerning the age of the three sisters, didn’t want to give the other man the opportunity to perhaps put two and two together and come up with four, to question the reason for Max’s own reluctance to pursue this thing any further.

‘They were born there, Jude,’ he repeated March’s indignant remark of earlier. ‘The family has lived there for generations—’

‘Max, are you going soft on me?’ Jude cut in disbelievingly.

As well he might. He and Jude had been at school together, had lost touch for a while when attending different universities, but Jude had sought Max out several years later when his business empire had begun to expand, easily persuading Max to become his personal and company lawyer. It was a decision that Max had never regretted. Until today…

‘No, of course not,’ he dismissed harshly. ‘I just—’

‘You just…?’ Jude prompted speculatively.

‘Leave it with me for a few more days, okay?’ he answered impatiently, willing himself to relax as his hand tightly gripped the receiver—so much for his earlier decision to tell Jude to just cut and run over this proposed deal. So that he could cut and run himself! ‘How are you doing with the beautiful April?’ he prompted tautly.

‘Changing the subject, Max?’ Jude guessed shrewdly.

That was the problem with Jude: he was too astute. And the last thing Max wanted was for the other man to even begin to guess at the emotional tangle Max now found himself in.

Part of him wanted to just pass the problem of the Calendar farm over to someone else, and in the process get himself as far away from January as he possibly could—something that he now knew he needed to do. But the professional side of him, the part of him that had been loyal to Jude and the Marshall Corporation for the last fifteen years, decreed that he had to continue trying to talk the Calendar sisters into selling their birthright.

‘Not particularly,’ he came back easily. ‘I merely wondered if you had been any more successful with April than I was,’ he added dryly.

‘Not in the least,’ Jude came back cheerfully. ‘She insists on treating me as if I’m nothing more to her than a naughty little brother.’

‘Novel.’ Max grinned at the thought of the arrogantly successful Jude being cast in such an unflattering role.

The other man chuckled. ‘Actually, I’m quite enjoying it. She really is a fascinating woman,’ he added appreciatively.

Nowhere near as fascinating, to Max, as January had proved to be! But at least he had veered the other man off the subject of the Calendar sisters, which was, after all, what he had set out to do by introducing the subject of April Robine.

‘To get back to the Calendar farm,’ Jude continued determinedly—proof that, as usual, he hadn’t been veered off the subject at all! ‘We really need to get that settled and out of the way in the next few weeks, so that we can get on with drawing up the plans. Offer them more money if nothing else works,’ he added hardly.

Dogged. Single-minded. They were qualities in Jude that he had always admired in the past. But where this particular problem was concerned Max found those traits extremely irritating.

‘I’m well aware of the time-scale involved, Jude,’ he snapped. ‘But I don’t think, in this case, that the offer of more money is going to make the slightest bit of difference.’

In fact, Max was sure that it wouldn’t. The offer already made was far above the market value of the property, and despite the fact that the Calendar sisters obviously weren’t exactly wealthy, none of them had been in the least tempted to accept the offer. Money, it seemed, just wasn’t important to them.

‘I really don’t want to have to come over there myself, Max,’ Jude said softly.

Max didn’t want the other man to come here himself, either. For one thing, it implied failure on his part if Jude had to deal with this himself. For another, he simply didn’t want Jude coming here, meeting the three sisters, putting that two and two together, and realizing that Max’s real problem was January!

It seemed that, unless he wanted to admit the truth to Jude, that he had unwittingly become personally involved with January, one of the Calendar sisters, something he would rather not do, he really had no choice but to stay here and continue the negotiations on Jude’s behalf.

‘I asked you to leave it with me a few days longer,’ he reminded the other man harshly.

‘A few more days is all you have, Max,’ Jude conceded warningly before abruptly ending the call.

Max slowly replaced his own receiver before turning to stare frustratedly out of the window of his hotel room, the snow once again falling outside not helping the darkness of his mood. What a damned mess!

There was obviously no way Jude was going to back down from buying the Calendar farm. Which meant that Max couldn’t either.

But how to persuade the Calendar sisters into changing their minds was the problem. Having now met all of them, an insurmountable one, as far as he could see.

But nowhere near as insurmountable as the problem January had become to him personally.

Indulging in an affair with her for the time he was in the area had seemed like a pleasant way to spend his free time. The fact that she had turned out to be one of the reasons he was here at all completely changed that. Besides, having got to know January a little better, having met her sisters, he now knew that January was not the type of woman to have an affair. With anyone.

But least of all him.

Whereas he knew he still wanted her with a fierceness that took his breath away, that everything about her fascinated him: the way she moved, the way she talked, everything!

CHAPTER FIVE (#u2d3b7eea-309d-5661-a8ff-30b6e5e02cfa)

‘EXACTLY what do you think you’re playing at?’ January demanded without preamble the moment Max opened the door of his hotel suite to her insistent knock.

To give him his due, he looked momentarily taken aback by her unexpected appearance, although that surprise was quickly masked as he looked down at her with mocking enquiry. ‘Changed your mind about our dinner date?’ he drawled dryly.

Her eyes flashed a warning. ‘I’ve changed my mind about nothing concerning you, Mr Golding,’ she snapped. ‘Absolutely nothing!’ she repeated as she pushed past him into the sitting-room of the hotel suite, turning to glare at him when she reached the centre of the room.

He slowly closed the door before strolling in to join her. ‘You seem a little—agitated?’ he prompted lightly.

Agitated? She was blazing! In fact, she was in such a heated temper that she really didn’t need the added warmth of her blue anorak, or the gloves and scarf she had earlier pulled on with it.

‘Did you have to tell my sisters that the two of us had already met?’ she challenged accusingly. ‘Yes, of course you did,’ she scathingly answered her own question before he even had chance to do so. ‘It was all part of the plan, wasn’t it?’ she said disgustedly. ‘All part of that—’

‘Stop right there, January,’ he cut in softly—although one glance at the grimness of his features was enough to tell January that his tone was deceptive, that he was now actually as angry as she was, he just showed it in a different way! ‘You appear to be—upset,’ he allowed evenly. ‘And I’m sorry for that. But, at the same time, I also think you are becoming slightly paranoid about this situation—’

‘Paranoid!’ January echoed disbelievingly. ‘Is it “paranoid” when my sisters are absolutely stunned that I somehow forgot to mention that I had already met the lawyer Max Golding? That I was actually supposed to be going out on a date with the man this evening!’ she added disgustedly.

She didn’t add that he was also the man she had allowed to kiss her so passionately yesterday evening. Or that he was also the man she had been falling in love with!

May and March had been far from happy when January had finally arrived home—minus the car; it really was stuck fast in the ditch. Because somewhere, during the course of their conversation with Max this afternoon, he had let drop the fact that he and January had already met!

To say her sisters had demanded an explanation for January’s previous oversight would be putting it mildly. The fact that they had both calmed down once she’d told them exactly what had happened, that they were now just as suspicious of Max’s motives as she was, didn’t alter the fact that Max had deliberately put her in that defensive position in the first place.

Max gave a shake of his head. ‘January, so far I’m not having such a good day myself, so do you think we could just sit down and talk about this like two reasonable adults?’ he prompted hardly.

‘That may be a little difficult—when only one of us is reasonable!’ she came back scathingly.

She would never forget the way her sisters had looked at her on her return this afternoon, could still see that uncertainty in their expressions as they’d waited for her explanation. Oh, she didn’t doubt for a moment that they had both believed her explanation, that she was completely innocent in the whole matter, it was only when she’d gone up to her room to change out of her damp clothing that she had decided not to waste another minute before telling Max Golding just how underhand and devious she thought him to be.

He shrugged. ‘I’m not even going to ask which one of us you consider that to be,’ he returned dryly. ‘Although,’ he continued firmly as she would have snapped a reply, ‘I think the fact that you’ve driven out here, in the middle of yet another snowstorm, rather negates your being eligible for the description!’ he added hardly, blue gaze disapproving.

January opened her mouth a second time to give him that sharp reply, and then changed her mind as her gaze drifted past him to the window, where the snow could be seen falling heavier than ever.

To be honest, she hadn’t really noticed the snow falling as she’d driven to the hotel, had been so angry, so consumed with all the things she was going to say to Max, going over and over inside her head the conversation that she intended having with him, that she had driven to the hotel on automatic. So much so she hadn’t been aware of the snow!