Battle Lines. (20 page)

Reality seeped into her passion drugged mind quickly. What had she been doing again? How did she keep managing that? 

She stepped back and stared up into Jake’s eyes. She could see the raw hunger in them. The animal passion simmering. But, it did not frighten her, instead she found that it excited her. It made her feel powerful.

“I should… answer that.” She told him but still she did not move.

“Leave it.” He ordered thickly and put out a hand toward her.

“I… should get it.” She repeated and this time her voice was firmer, stronger. She stepped back again. Grabbing at her top and holding it around herself to cover her breasts.

She turned away from Jake, from that look on his face. From those piercing eyes that saw so much, too much. And she stepped toward the telephone still persistently ringing. With a shaky hand she reached out and picked up the receiver.

“H-hello.” Her voice sounded shaky and weak, she could still hear the passion in it. Behind her she heard Jake swear and his clothing rustled.

“Hey boss.” It was Harry.

“Har –” she stopped herself just in time. Remembering Jake was standing just inches from her.

“A-Alan, what’s up?” She felt Jake stiffen and the air around them grew frosty instantly. Amanda felt her heart lurch painfully in her chest. How could one word change everything so dramatically, she felt the need to cry but she held it together.

“Jake is with you.” Thank God Harry was quick.

“Aah, that would be a yes.” She told him shakily.

“Sorry to have disturbed you then. It sounds like I interrupted… something.” Harry said. She was going to kill him, she decided.

“No-no. You didn’t.”

“Are you sure? You sound a little… breathy.” Harry told her.

“No, nothing it’s okay.” She said.

“It could have waited. I’m sorry”

“No Har- Alan. It’s fine really.”

“If you are sure I didn’t disturb… something.” He said again. Amanda closed her eyes briefly.

“No you did not.” She said firmly.

“So would you like to know why I am calling?” He asked her.

“Yes please.” She said, her voice taking on a warning tone.

“Are you sure you want to know.”

“I am very sure.”

“How sure are you?”

“Har… Alan, dear. Why don’t you just tell me.”

“Okay, I’ll take pity on you. You sound like there’s something else you would rather be doing.” Harry goaded. She was definitely going to kill him.

“I told you, there isn’t.”

“Of course not. That’s why your voice sounds like that.” Harry pointed out. “Anyway, Marsha wanted to remind you of that meeting first thing in the morning. She was worried that you would forget and come straight to the office and miss the appointment.” Amanda wracked her brain, trying to think what meeting she had set up. She heard the rustle of paper at Harrys end. “Here it is. Guy Constantine.” Now she remembered.

“Yes, that’s right.” She said. She had set the appointment up months ago. She had forgotten all about that.

“You are meeting him in the breakfast room of his hotel. The Ariel.” Harry whistled. “That’s very upmarket.”

“Thanks for reminding me Alan.” She said.

“That’s okay. Darling. I am glad I could help.” He said. Amanda gripped the receiver tightly, imagining it was Harry’s neck. “And sorry for interrupting your… not something.” He added.

“Bye then.” She said firmly, working hard not to lose her temper with him.

“Bye.” He said. But then she remembered Jake and so she said.

“I-I l-love you.”

“Gee shucks. You’ve made me blush now. I luv you too pudding face.” She was definitely going to kill him. Very slowly and painfully. She replaced the receiver back in its cradle.

“So, where is the delightful Alan?” Jake asked harshly, the passion from his voice was gone and it was replaced with the harshness of anger. Amanda shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself for comfort.

“Out of town.”

“Where. Out of town?” Jake asked her.

“Don’t worry Jake he will be back in time for dinner.” She assured him stiffly.

“I wasn’t worried.” He bit the words out as if they were causing him physical pain.

“I don’t know what your problem is with Alan.” She said.

“Don’t even get me started.” She felt him take a step closer to her. “Mandy now is the time.” He ordered.

“For what.” She turned to face him. Though, she regretted that instantly. She did not feel quite so brave as she looked up into his angry face.

“You know what.” He told her quietly.

“I. It’s. You…”

“If you have something to say now would be the time.” Jake coaxed.

“I have no idea what you are on about.”

“Yes you do.”

“Jake please, stop.”

“Mandy.” His voice dropped. “Please, stop.”

“I have nothing to say.” She told him resolutely.

“Mandy I keep throwing you the life line. I keep letting you know. Still you are not listening. End this.”

“End what?” She played dumb. The truth was it was difficult to say it. She knew Jake would be angry with her for the lies.

“Once it’s done it’s done. You will feel better.” Jake tried again.

“I have nothing to say.”

“Mandy he doesn’t love you. He couldn’t possibly.”

“Of course he loves me.” She tried to sound off hand but it sounded more like a cat being strangled.

“Look at the way he treats you.”

“He treats me just fine.”

“I refuse to believe that you would allow anyone to treat you the way he does. It just isn’t in your nature to roll over and play dead.” And he was right. She knew that. “You have far too much fire and passion in you for that.” He told her forcefully.

“Jake.” She sighed. “He is a good man.”

“He treats you badly.”

“He treats me well.”

“He’s not man enough for you.” Jake told her. Amanda’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“Excuse me.”

“You heard me. He is not man enough for you. He is too weak to handle a red head.”

“How dare you. What kind of man do you think can handle me?” Amanda put her hands on her hips as she regarded him angrily.

“You need someone with a firm hand Mandy. And Alan is not it.”

“You are… you are arrogant do you know that. A brute, a bully. A firm hand.” She scoffed. “What, do you think we live in the sixteenth century or something?”

“I stand by what I just said. Any man weaker than you, you would have no respect for. We both know that. You wouldn’t want a man that you could walk all over. You need a man with a firm hand. A man that can handle that temper of yours. A man that can handle that passion.” Jake continued relentlessly. She could feel the heat in her cheeks.

“This is none of your business.” She snapped at him. Growing tired and weary. She did not want to fight with him. This weekend had been wonderful. It was being spoiled.

“Wrong.” He barked angrily making her jump. “It is very much my business and I intend to continue making it my business.”

“Of course it isn’t.” she laughed nervously. “My life is my life. I do not belong to you. I am not your property.” She told him hotly as she forced her chin up in an act of defiance that she did not quite feel.

“You… are… mine.” His voice dropped to a menacing whisper. His eyes clouding. His jaw clenching and that pulse ticking away in his neck. “You have always been mine. You will always be mine.” Amanda shivered but not from cold.

“Jake… please. Let’ not get into an argument over this.” She pleaded with him.

“Leave him.” Jake demanded thickly.

“Why would I do that?” she asked him. Jake swore under his breath and raked a hand through his hair. Amanda took a step back from him. It was all going horribly wrong.

“Why do you do this? Why do you always…?” Jake stopped unable to find the right words.

“I don’t know.” She said sadly.

“Yes you do.” He told her.

“Jake I think you should go.”

“Yes, I think I should.” He agreed. “Otherwise I may do something that I will end up regretting.” And then he was gone. Her front door slamming shut behind him.

Her body and her heart ached. Her stupid pride again. Why couldn’t she learn? This argument would have never taken place had she just stopped allowing pride to be her dominant emotion.

Amanda stood rooted to the spot for a long time before finally dragging her weary body up the stairs to take a shower.

Amanda spent the evening cursing herself. She should have told him. She should have come clean and just owned up. This would all be over now.

Amanda barely touched the microwave dinner she prepared herself. In the end she admitted defeat and chucked it in the bin and then she made her way upstairs to bed.

But sleep did not come, her thoughts were taken up with images of Jake. Images of that hurt angry look in his eyes just before he had walked out and slammed her front door behind him.

It had certainly been a whirlwind weekend. She had finally found Jake, lost him again and lost a chance to be having his baby. She cried then and she didn’t stop until she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 21.

Her meeting with Guy Constantine had gone well. He was on the lookout for an antique piece of jewellery and she got the impression that it was for someone special. He had given her a description of what he was looking for and had then told her that money was no object.

Amanda left feeling happy and she began to put a plan of action together. She would get in contact with her contacts. She was confident she would be able to find something that would meet the standards that he had set.

She pushed her sunglasses up her nose as she strolled along the pavement on the way back to her office. A little bonce in her step. All thoughts of the weekend pushed firmly to the back of her mind for now. The weather was too nice and her business just got a much needed boost, at least potentially.

If she did a good job, then hopefully Guy would recommend her to his contacts. The man was a multi, multi billionaire. Everything about him had spoken of how much he was worth. But he wasn’t arrogant.

He had been very Self-assured, confident. It had been a pleasant meeting and he had been attentive and very Greek.

Amanda was whistling to herself when she arrived in the office moments later. She stepped out of the heat of outside into the cooler interior of her office building.

“Someone’s in a good mood.” Marsha observed as she looked up from her computer.

“Who wouldn’t be on a beautiful day like this? The sun is shining. The breeze is cool. All is right with the world, well… almost.”

“A-ha.” Marsha said and Amanda looked up at her as she retrieved her post from the edge of Marsha’s desk. She frowned.

“What’s that supposed to mean.” Amanda asked.

“Oh nothing. Don’t mind me. It’s my age.” She held up her hands in a display of surrender.

“Your age… my eye.”

“I meant nothing. I promise.”

“No, no. Go on.” She said.

“Don’t pay me no attention.” Marsha told her.

“Come on, I distinctly heard a tone.” She said to Marsha.

“A tone, me?” Marsha tried to look innocent but she did not quite pull it off. “I told you, it’s my age.”

“Your age… my eye. Where’s Harry?” She asked

“You just missed him. He’ll be back sometime after lunch.”

“Where did he go?”

“He… had an… appointment.” Marsha cleared her throat with a little cough.

“Appointment?” Amanda frowned.

“Yes.”

“There’s nothing in the diary.” She said.

“Yes well. I… I forgot to pencil it in.” Marsha fidgeted on her chair.

“That’s not like you.” Amanda watched her secretary. She was hiding something, she could tell.

“It’s my age.” Marsha said.

“Your age… my…” She stopped and shook her head.

“You might want to see a doctor about that eye of yours.” Marsha told her.

“You might want to see a doctor about your age.” She snipped back.

“There’s nothing that can be done about my age.” Marsha complained. “I know. I have tried.” Amanda couldn’t help herself, she laughed at her secretary.

“Who is the appointment with?” Amanda said when she had got herself back under control.

“Um, well.” Marsha was becoming agitated. “Harry didn’t say exactly.”

“He would not say or, you do not want to tell me?” Amanda quizzed.

“I can’t.” Marsha drew in a breath. “I have been sworn to secrecy.” Really? Amanda was intrigued now.

“So then you know.” She said.

“But I am not going to tell you.”

“What is it about?”

“I… I…”

“You don’t know.” Amanda guessed.

“That’s right. I don’t know… honest.”

“Please tell me he hasn’t gone to an auction?” She asked her.

“Oh no.” Marsha quickly reassured her. Which meant that Marsha knew way more than she was telling.

“So then who is he meeting?”

“Please don’t keep asking me questions. They have sworn me to secrecy and I hate being piggy in the middle.” Marsha pulled a face at her.

“Fine.” Amanda huffed, she admitted defeat and crossed the room to her office but then stopped, ‘they’ she opened her mouth fully intending to ask her assistant but then closed it again. Marsha was right it wasn’t fair.

“Thank you.” Marsha called to her back. “You will love it I promise.”

“Mm.” She said making a mental note to herself that she would ask Harry about it as soon as she could.

But for now, she contented herself with getting some work done. She opened her office door and went to step over the threshold but she stopped and gasped as she took in the scene. She turned back to Marsha who was sat with a big beaming smile on her face.

“Have you seen?” Amanda waved a hand and, Marsha nodded her head enthusiastically as she grinned from ear to ear.

Amanda turned back to look in her office, hardly being able to believe her eyes and a smile unwittingly found its way to her lips.

Her eyes took in the five vases on her side table filled with pink shrimps. And then on the window sill behind her chair ten champagne flutes with jelly worms hanging over the sides and what looked like coloured sugar inside the glass, placed just so to create a layered effect.

Her eyes moved to the other window sill by the large book shelf. A neat row of sherbet fountains lined it and then onto the bookshelf and she chuckled as she saw the rows of white mice all staring at her.

And then on to her desk where she could see strawberry laces writing out ‘good morning’ across her desk. And on the corner of her desk by her phone a small glass fruit bowl full of love heart candy.

She reached out and picked up a handful to look at them and laughed when she read silly little things on them like ‘be mine’ and ‘kiss me’ and ‘luv u’

Jake! It could only have been Jake.

Amanda turned back to her door, her eyes caught the small coffee table up against the wall. She giggled as she saw the championship cup, that she had won. It was filled to over-flowing with jelly red hearts.

She looked back at Marsha sitting at her desk. She was in the process of holding the phone receiver in her hand and punching out buttons.

“Marsha,” Marsha jumped out of her skin and looked up at her. Amanda noted the guilty flush that warmed the woman’s cheeks. “When you are finished. Is there any chance you can try and find a large container?” She asked the other woman.

“I’ll see what I can find.” She told her and then turned her attention back to the phone. Obviously someone had answered it. “Ah yes. Sorry.” Marsha fell silent for a minute and then said. “Yes, that’s right just this minute. It was a picture that’s for sure. No problem. You are very welcome.”

Amanda went back into her office and pulled back her chair so that she could sit down as she looked around the room as though she were shell shocked.

The whole room smelled like she had stepped into an old fashioned sweet shop.

How had Jake managed this? Amanda sat up straight in her chair and her heart did a funny lurch. Had he been in her office? He must have, how else had he done it.

Amanda reached down to the bottom draw of her desk the one that held the photograph and she gasped.

She picked up the bar of Caramac that was sitting on top of the picture frame and then reached in to pick up the photograph. The one taken on her sixteenth birthday. Mum and dad had taken them out for a dinner.

She had her face turned to Jake. He was looking at her, his arm casually draped around her shoulders. She was smiling up at him. He looked as though he were talking to her.

Only one of a couple of moments that they hadn’t been at each other’s throats. They looked intimate, as though they had forgotten that other people existed. She noticed for the first time how lovingly she was looking up at him. How had she not seen that before?

Jake had seen it, she held her breath, worse than that Jake had seen that she had this picture and that she kept it here in her office to look at. Great.

Amanda stuffed the picture back in the drawer and closed it before looking through the rest of her drawers but there was nothing in them. Just that one Caramac bar on top of the picture.

Amanda got up and went to the door again.

“Marsha, did you set the burglar alarm?” She asked her.

“Of course I did. Do you think I would have forgotten?” Marsha asked her.

“Oh no, no. sorry. It’s just that… how did all this stuff get here?”

“Beats me but it is terribly romantic.” Marsha sighed. “Wish my husband would do something like that. The best I get is a KitKat from the petrol station once in a blue moon.” She grimaced and Amanda laughed.

“So the alarm was set?” She tried again.

“Yes, I set the alarm. I came in for a couple of hours on Saturday and they were not in there then.”

“Are you sure?”

“Oh I think I would have noticed them, don’t you?”  Marsha raised her eyebrows at her.

“No I mean about the alarm.”

“I am positive.” Amanda slowly walked back into her office but then turned and went back to the door.

“Did you see anyone on Saturday?”

“No.”

“No one came in.”

“Not a living soul.”

“You didn’t see my brother at all.”

“No.”

“Are you sure. He’s tall, dark hair, looks angry all the time.”

“No one at all came in. and certainly no one fitting that description.”

“And you are sure.”

“Amanda. You have shown me a picture of your stepbrother. Trust me if he had been here or I had walked passed him in the street I would have noticed him. He looks like, well, he looks like he does and I may be old but I am just a mere mortal.” She shrugged.

Yes, Amanda thought, Jake had always been very easy on the eye to look at. When she had been a teenager many women had paid Jake attention wherever he went. “No one came here that is the God’s honest truth.”

Just then Amanda’s phone rang and it made her jump.

“Thanks Marsha.” She said as she went back into her office and plonked herself down in her chair as she picked up the phone. “Amanda Garvie.” She said in greeting.

“And hello to you to.” Came Jake’s voice and Amanda’s hand shook.

“Jake.”

“Mandy.” He mimicked her tone.

“How did you get into my office?” She jumped right in. There really was no point in beating around the bush. It was why he was phoning her, to see whether she had seen his handiwork.

“Thank you Jake. I love it.” Jake said and she sighed.

“Thank you.” She said.

“Jake. I love it.” Amanda bit back on a grin that threatened to escape.

“Thank you Jake. I like it.” She told him and was rewarded by a rich laugh.

“You really are defiant.” He told her and it sounded as though it pleased him.

“So, how did you get in?” She ignored his ribbing.

“That would dispel the mystery of the whole thing.” He told her.

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate the gesture but, I really need to know how you got in. If you had been a burglar.”

“Don’t worry.” He assured her. “If I fall behind enemy lines I won’t talk no matter how much they torture me.”

“If you don’t tell me I will torture you.” She told him.

“I would have no problem with you torturing me.” His voice dropped suggestively. Amanda’s mouth went dry.

“Jake don’t be an arse.” She chastised him.

“How would you torture me?” he asked her. The air around her grew thick.

“I…” she stopped and held her breath for a moment and Jake began to laugh.

“You could tie me up.” He suggested helpfully.

“I have a feeling you would like that.” She said. “Or maybe not. You always prefer to be the one in control.”

“I would have no problem giving you control in the right circumstances.” He told her.

“And what would be the right circumstances?” She asked and then realised her mistake.

“It would definitely be in an intimate setting.” Jake told her and she squirmed in her chair. “And maybe a bit of lace would be involved.” He said. That throbbing sensation started deep down. How did he manage to do that to her, and so quickly?

“Jake how did you get in?”

“I am not telling you. So, were you surprised?”

“Surprised,” that was an understatement. “Yes, very.” She admitted. “It’s not every day that my office gets turned into a candy store. What on earth were you thinking?”

“What do you think I was thinking?” he asked her.

“I… I have no idea.”

“Are you sure?”

“I have no idea. Perhaps you had an insanity moment.”

“Pink shrimps.” He prompted.

“I don’t know Jake. The time I broke my ankle, the left one.” She said.

“Correct, see you know. Red hearts?”