Burning Obsession

So that was the story Jordan had given them! ‘Yes.’ There was no point in disputing what he had told them.

‘He’s in with your father now, you said?’

‘Yes,’ Kelly confirmed.

‘I’ll take him in a cup of tea, shall I?’

‘He would like that. Thank you.’ Kelly gave a tight smile. Yes, Jordan would like that very much. This young Sister, Sister A. Fellows it said on her plastic name-plate, was a honey-blonde, and her uniform showed what a perfect figure she had, her legs long and shapely. Just Jordan’s type. It seemed to be that wherever she went there were women who were just his type!

Sister Fellows patted the smooth style of her hair. ‘I’ll see to it now. Perhaps I’ll see you later, Mrs Lord.’

But Kelly could tell the other woman was already thinking of her next meeting with Jordan. ‘Perhaps,’ she agreed tightly, walking away with hurried steps.

She had plenty of time to think when she got back to the hotel, plenty of time to think of the way Jordan had just kissed her. To say she had been surprised by the move was putting it mildly, it had been absolutely the last thing she had expected to happen.

Remembering the way she wouldn’t even let him touch her after losing the baby, she found it all the harder to accept that she had gone into his arms just now as if it hadn’t been five years since it had last happened.

She could still remember the last kiss Jordan had given her, his anger and utter frustration. Her father had duly arrived for dinner the night she had got home from hospital, and his shock on seeing her had been quite understandable.

‘It’s terrible, terrible,’ he kept muttering, obviously deeply upset.

‘Yes,’ Jordan had finally put a stop to this, ‘but there’ll be other babies, in time.’

‘No!’ Kelly cried. ‘No more. Not ever.’

‘The doctor said there was no reason why you shouldn’t be able to have another baby in a year or so.’

‘Damn what the doctor said!’ she said shrilly. ‘I meant I don’t want any more.’

‘Of course you do,’ Jordan chided, doing his best to keep his temper with her. ‘You’ve always wanted children.’

‘Not yours,’ she spat at him. ‘I don’t want any more children by you!’

‘Kelly——’

‘Keep out of this, David,’ Jordan ordered tautly. ‘This is between my wife and myself.’ His narrowed eyes fixed on Kelly. ‘Are you saying you don’t want to sleep with me any more?’

‘Jordan, I don’t think——’

‘Stay out of this, David!’ he was told fiercely. ‘If you don’t like the conversation then go and wait for us in the lounge.’

‘Yes, do that, Daddy.’ Kelly’s defiant gaze hadn’t left Jordan, the naked fury in his face.

‘Jordan——’

‘Just leave us for a while, David,’ Jordan had told him, and with extreme reluctance he had finally done so. ‘Now,’ Jordan once more turned to her, ‘just say what you have to say and let’s have this out in the open.’

‘I’m leaving you,’ she told him calmly. ‘Tonight. Right now. I’m going home with my father.’

‘And you think I’ll let you do that?’

‘I know you can’t stop me,’ she said coldly.

‘Like hell I can’t!’ His chair went back with a clatter as he stood up from the dining-room table, pulling her to her feet too. ‘There’s always been one way I can reach you.’ His mouth came ruthlessly down on hers.

Kelly had stoood like ice as he devoured her with a restless hunger, trying his damnedest to evoke a response in her. But she hadn’t given him one, had been revolted by his touch as she thought of him kissing Angela Divine in exactly the same way.

Finally he pulled back, thrusting her away from him with a moan of self-disgust. ‘So you can’t even kiss me now,’ he sneered. ‘Okay, go with your father, and when you come to your senses give me a call. I’ll come and bring you back to me, where you belong.’

‘I belong to no one,’ she snapped icily. ‘Especially you. I hate you!’

‘And God knows that at this moment I hate you too!’ Jordan slammed out of the room, and seconds later out of the house too, the silence deafening after his departure.

Her father had tried to persuade her to leave it for a few days, to give herself time, but she had refused, packing a suitcase and leaving with him before Jordan returned.

Maybe Jordan’s question this afternoon about why she had never gone back to him had been referring to that scene. He had left the door open for her it she ever wanted to go to him. But she hadn’t even thought about it, had travelled with her father on business, had been his hostess in his Hampshire home. Going back to Jordan had never occurred to her.

Then why had it occurred to her now?

Kelly was sitting with her father when he woke up late the next afternoon. She had been talking to him as usual, had been telling him of her confusion about Jordan.

Jordan had been right, they saw little of each other, and when they did meet he was always coolly polite, almost as if that incident in this very room had never happened.

It was as she was telling her father this that his eyelids had begun to flicker, his lips to move slightly. When his eyelids suddenly opened Kelly almost burst into hysterical sobs, pressing the button by the bed to bring the doctor to the room.

She stood up, smiling down tremulously at her father. ‘Daddy?’ she said huskily, her tears choking in her throat. ‘Daddy, it’s Kelly.’

‘Hello, darling,’ he spoke as if he hadn’t been unconscious for the last five days, as if he had just woken up from an afternoon nap. ‘What time is it?’

She looked at her watch. ‘Four o’clock in the afternoon. How do you feel?’

‘Well, I’ve got a headache,’ he grimaced. ‘And I’m thirsty.’

‘A good sign.’ The doctor who was in charge of her father’s case entered the room, a tall, loose-limbed man of indiscriminate age. His face was young, but his hair was sparse and streaked with grey.

‘Good afternoon, Doctor,’ Kelly’s father greeted politely. ‘Where’s that son-on-law of mine?’

‘You remember him being here, Daddy?’ Kelly said excitedly.

He turned puzzled eyes on her. ‘No, I can’t say that I do. But it follows that if you’re here then so is Jordan. I’m sorry I interrupted your holiday, darling.’

She frowned. ‘But, Daddy——’

‘Could I examine your father alone, Mrs Lord?’ the doctor interrupted. ‘You can talk to him in a few minutes. Perhaps you would like to telephone your husband while you’re waiting.’

‘Oh yes, yes, of course.’ She squeezed her father’s hand. ‘I won’t be long, Daddy.’

The telephone at the hotel suite was answered by Janet Amery. ‘Mrs Lord?’ she acknowledged. ‘Yes, Mr Lord is right here,’ she said in answer to her query.