Sensual Encounter

‘Yes, well—–’ she avoided his searching gaze, ‘I had no intention of hitch-hiking around Canada for three months with a man I’d only just met!’

‘Hitch-hiking?’ he repeated with a frown. ‘Who said anything about hitch-hiking?’

Her gaze moved scathingly over his casual attire, the faded denims even patched in a couple of places. He was decidedly out of place in the tasteful elegance of her home, the exact opposite of Richard’s sophistication, despite the fact that the two men were of a similar age, both in their mid-thirties.

‘Oh, I see,’ Jared derided tauntingly as he correctly read her scorn. ‘You don’t think I’m capable of affording any other form of transport. Are you a snob, Katharine Mary Collier?’ His eyes were narrowed again.

‘No, of course not!’ She flushed in spite of herself. ‘You told me yourself that you live on your wits, and I just—–’

‘Don’t believe in roughing it with someone like me when you can ride around with friend Richard in the Porsche. That is his car outside, isn’t it?’ he mocked.

‘Yes. But—–’

‘Nice car.’

‘He thinks so,’ she said stiffly.

‘And you, do you think so too?’ His voice was taut.

‘Of course,’ she bit out. ‘Look, Mr Rourke—–’

‘Mr?’ he derided mockingly. ‘Really, Kate, you’re being ridiculous now. I doubt your friend can hear us out here, it’s quite safe to call me Jared when we’re alone.’

‘All right, Jared,’ bright spots of angry colour darkened her cheeks, her eyes gleaming, ‘Richard is my friend, and why you’ve had to come here and try and cause trouble I have no idea.’

His eyes widened. ‘What trouble have I tried to cause? I wasn’t to know you would have your boyfriend here.’

‘You could have called first!’

‘It took me long enough to find out your real name and address, let alone your telephone number!’

‘How did you find out my name and address?’ she frowned.

‘It wasn’t easy,’ he shrugged. ‘But I remembered you said you were in advertising. I have a few connections in the business world,’ he ignored her scathing snort, ‘people who owe me a few favours. Luckily there aren’t too many redhaired beauties like you in advertising. It was a simple matter to visit all the ones who fitted the description. You were third on the list.’

‘The fact that I did give you a false name should have told you something,’ she snapped.

‘Oh, it did,’ he nodded unconcernedly. ‘It told me you didn’t mind spending a couple of days with me, but you didn’t want any of your high-class friends to find out about it.’

Kate glanced towards the lounge with a hunted look in her eyes. ‘Will you please keep your voice down?’ she hissed vehemently. ‘I don’t want Richard to hear.’

‘No, we mustn’t have that, must we?’ he taunted. ‘Tell me, Kate—–’

‘Darling, are we—Are you still here?’ Richard frowned his irritation as he saw the other man at the door. ‘Hasn’t Kate explained to you that Gill lives downstairs?’ His arm went possessively about her slender waist.

‘Kate’s explanation was very exact,’ Jared told the other man tautly.

‘Then if you’ll excuse us,’ Richard said haughtily, ‘we happen to be going out.’

Kate bit her lip anxiously at the derogatory tone of Richard’s voice. One thing she had learnt about Jared Rourke, if he had something to say then he said it. Richard’s disdainful attitude was guaranteed to spark the Irish temper lurking in the icy blue eyes. She waited for the explosion that would ruin all her carefully laid plans, plans that would make her Richard’s wife. But not if Jared told him about their meeting three months ago, not if he told him about the two days—and nights—they had spent together.

‘Then I won’t keep you any longer.’ Jared pushed away from the doorframe in one lithe movement. I mustn’t keep Gill waiting,’ he added wickedly.

Richard looked uncomfortable at the suggestive tone in the other man’s voice. ‘Er—no. Well, glad to have been able to help you, Mr—–?’

‘Rourke,’ Jared supplied, his expression mocking as he looked at Kate. ‘Thank you, Miss Collier. I’ll tell Gill how helpful you’ve been.’

Kate was left with the impression that it was a possibility that Jared would tell Gill exactly that—and he didn’t even know Gill! Not yet, anyway. She knew from experience that that wasn’t necessarily a drawback as far as Jared was concerned; once he made his mind up to do something he did it, regardless. It could be Gill’s lucky night—if she liked attractive Irishmen, that is. Strangely that thought didn’t please Kate at all.

He gave a brief wave of his hand as he stepped into the lift, his blue eyes burning with mocking mischief as he pressed the button to close the doors. Kate watched the lift floor numbers above the doors, her mouth tightening as it stopped on the floor below. Damn him, he was going to see Gill! He had gone to all the trouble of seeking her out, and now he had gone to the flat of a woman he didn’t even know.

She closed the door with forceful anger, wondering why Jared should go through the lengthy process of finding her only to meekly leave again. It didn’t seem like the man she knew. But going to see Gill he was! She knew better than most what a sensual man Jared Rourke was, how much he enjoyed women.

‘Odd-looking man,’ Richard said thoughtfully.

Kate gave him a sharp look. ‘Odd?’ she questioned his choice of word.

‘Well, he must be my age,’ Richard derided with a twist of his lips, ‘and yet he looked like some damned hippie.’

Jared’s casual clothing hardly made him a hippie, in fact the tight denims suited him, as did the rakish hairstyle, the leather jacket emphasising the width of his shoulders. She had forgotten his shoulders were that broad, his waist that narrow, his hips so powerful, his legs long and lean. Damn him, why did he have to be so attractive!

‘Hippies went out years ago,’ she snapped her agitation.

‘Exactly,’ Richard drawled derisively.

For the first time in weeks Kate felt irritation with him. ‘Nothing about Mr Rourke looked outdated to me,’ she said tautly.

He seemed not to notice her lack of good humour, glancing at his wrist-watch once again. ‘We really will have to go now, Kate.’ He held out the silver jacket that complemented the simplicity of style of her black dress and matched the colour of her sandals and evening bag. Richard knew he could never fault Kate’s way of dressing, everything she wore was stylish and complimentary to her slender beauty—even creations that didn’t belong to his stores!

If Richard could have read her thoughts at that moment he would have been a little shocked by her thoughts. She was remembering a time not so long ago when her clothes had been as casual as Jared Rourke’s, of walking on a golden beach in her tight denims, her anorak stained with sea-spray. It was a memory she had tried to put out of her mind; seeing Jared again had reminded her of a lot of things she would rather forget.

‘Yes, let’s go.’ She put her arm through the crook of his. ‘I’ve been looking forward to our evening together.’

Richard looked pleased by her eagerness, and he visibly preened as they went down in the lift, liking the way she clung to his arm. Although he didn’t look quite so happy when he saw the way a red Lamborghini had trapped him into his parking space. ‘Damn,’ he frowned at the rakish angle of the red car, before getting in behind the wheel of the Porsche to manoeuvre it slowly out on to the road with Kate’s guidance from outside.

Kate glanced up to Gill’s flat, wondering if Jared was going to be out of luck a second time tonight; the Lamborghini probably belonged to Gill’s new boyfriend, the one she was trying so hard to impress.

They weren’t having a very good start to what was supposed to be a special evening, Kate thought ruefully as they finally got started on the drive to the restaurant. Tonight she and Richard were having a celebration dinner; it was just like Jared Rourke to turn up and disturb her. Three months he had had to put in an appearance, and he had to turn up tonight of all nights!

But he had a way of doing that—hadn’t his unexpected appearance been the reason she had met him in the first place?

The south-western coast of England in mid-March was not where she had intended to be three months ago, in fact she had intended being somewhere else completely at the time. But circumstances had dictated that she had to get away, and the hotel where she had spent many holidays with her parents as a child had appeared like a refuge when the yearly brochure had arrived in the post, a ritual that had continued despite the fact that she hadn’t been there in five years.

It was a large impersonal hotel in one of the large coastal towns of Devon, providing many sporting or intellectual entertainments if you wanted them, but leaving you free to just be on your own if you preferred that. Kate did. She wanted to be alone. But on her first evening there she had met Jared Rourke, had met him at a time when all her defences were down. That was the excuse she had given herself over the months to explain her behaviour with him.

She had walked down to the secluded cove a short distance from the hotel, the sand silver-gold in the moonlight, the sea battling with the cliffs that prevented it sweeping overland to cause destruction in its wake. The chilling water had been cold about her ankles, the rest of her huddled down in warm clothing as the elements echoed her mood, stormy. When she walked into the solid object blocking her pathway she couldn’t hold back her gasp of surprise.

‘Did I hurt you?’ queried a concerned voice from the darkness.