Wild and Willing! (13 page)

‘Better,’ he approved as she offered her face for inspection. ‘When Jessie sees this pair she’ll probably faint.’ He regarded his grubby brothers with a tolerant eye.

‘She’s here too?’ Anna was unable to keep the dismay from her voice.

The young man gave no sign of noticing anything amiss in her reaction; he nodded. ‘She doesn’t let Adam out of her sight for long,’ he said sourly, with a thinlipped smile.

Anna didn’t know how to respond safely. Nobody could accuse her of being unbiased on the subject!

‘People like to be together when they’re in love.’ Considering how eaten up she was with jealousy, she gave herself ten out of ten for selfless generosity!

‘In love!’ Jake scoffed. ‘Uncle Adam doesn’t love her.’

‘I don’t think Adam would like it much if he knew you were discussing him with me,’ she said uneasily. Well, she could hardly agree with him, could she?

‘It’s just I feel so damned responsible. If it wasn’t for getting lumbered with us he wouldn’t…’

The anguish in the young man’s eyes brought a frown of concern to Anna’s smooth brow. ‘You mustn’t feel like that,’ she said sincerely, her heart going out to him. ‘Your uncle’s quite capable of making his own decisions.’ Even if they are all wrong! she added silently.

‘You don’t know Jessica,’ Jake said darkly. ‘She played on his doubts about his ability to give us a decent home and came over all caring and concerned. Mum always said she was more tenacious than the rest,’ he reflected bitterly.

‘The thing is, Uncle Adam got his fingers pretty badly burnt when he was at medical school. I can’t imagine it, but Dad said he was completely besotted with this girl…well, woman actually. He refused to believe his friends when they tried to warn him she was just playing with him.

‘To cut a long story short she hurt him pretty badly. He became pretty cynical about involvement after that. I gather he’s not been a monk, but all the women have been like Jessica—self-sufficient, invulnerable and most importantly shallow and superficial.’

Anna took a deep breath. ‘I don’t think you should be telling me any of this,’ she said earnestly, laying a comforting hand over his on the table. The idea of Adam being young and vulnerable took some adjusting to. Was this the time Adam had almost given up medicine? she wondered. It seemed very likely. There had obviously been more to the incident than simple infatuation. Did he still dream of his mystery woman?

‘Sorry, but sometimes it’s easier to talk to a disinterested party,’ he confessed with a smile.

Anna felt as if guilt was written clearly all over her face. I’ve been greedily digesting every snippet of information he has fed me, she thought. She was horrified at the position of confidante she found herself in.

‘You’re right, I’ve no right to unburden myself to you.’

‘It’s not that—’ she began. Her words were cut off as the twins managed to knock their drinks over in what looked suspiciously like a rehearsed manoeuvre. They giggled as the liquid dripped noisily onto the tiled floor and soaked the white linen tablecloth. A pair of deeply polished leather shoes appeared amongst the widening pool, and Anna’s eyes travelled slowly upwards.

‘So here you are.’ Adam’s cold glance took in the general chaos and came to rest fleetingly on the innocently clasped hands on the table.

‘We’ve been traipsing around for hours looking for you. I do think you could have shown more consideration.’

Anna managed to drag her eyes from Adam’s face to see the features that matched that bland voice. A voice that managed to imply criticism without any audible alteration of the cool monotone.

The features were just right for the voice—nothing was out of place, nothing marred the enviable symmetry, but neither was there anything remarkable in the other woman’s face. Beauty
could
be insipid, and here was
living proof, Anna decided uncharitably as her eyes swept over the perfectly groomed slender figure. Here was someone who would never embarrass Adam with tiresome spontaneity.

‘Five minutes, actually,’ Kate corrected her, referring to her watch. She moved forward from behind her uncle. ‘Hello,’ she said to Anna. ‘Is your leg better? I never did thank you for helping us out on the phone.’ She didn’t pause to permit a reply. ‘It’s a very small town and I said they’d be eating. They do—continually.’ She bent down beside her younger brothers and quietly took them to task for the mess.

‘It’s time we were going, darling, if we’re to get back to your mother’s this evening.’ Anna was relieved that Jessica had deflected Adam’s attention from her own face. His tight, brooding regard had made her totally inarticulate.

‘Sorry about the mess,’ she said, quelling the faintest quiver of her lips as she looked at the twins. ‘The ice cream was my treat. It’s remarkable how far they can spread it,’ she added with a hint of awe.

‘Is Hope Lacey
really
your sister?’ The incredulity was insultingly over the top. ‘When Adam told me I couldn’t believe it. You don’t have the same affinity for the camera, do you?’ She gave a tinkling laugh. ‘I watched you on the news report.’

It was rude, but Anna was used to this opening comment. ‘Ain’t the gene pool a peculiar thing?’ she said breezily. ‘Mind you, I wasn’t at my best that day.’

‘Could you get me an autograph? Lacey is out of this world.’ Jake grinned beguilingly at Anna. ‘And I don’t know about not being at your best—the camera got some great shots of your cleavage.’

‘For
you
I’ll get her to put a very personal message,’ she twinkled back, grateful for this youthful defence.

‘I hope you’re fully recovered now, Miss Lacey.’ There was a noticeable lack of warmth in Jessica’s voice.

Anna tapped the bandaged leg stretched out in front of her. ‘I should get rid of this next week,’ she said. ‘I hope the incident hasn’t given you a bad opinion of our little town, Miss…?’

‘Jessica. Jessica Talbot. Do call me Jessica; I’ve heard
so much
about you I feel I know you quite well already.’

‘Jessica,’ Anna said dutifully. The muscles in her cheeks were aching from maintaining the fixed smile. ‘It’s normally very quiet here.’

‘I was very impressed, Anna, by your little operation. I’m in public relations myself.’

‘The next time we need to raise public awareness I’ll have to come to you for advice.’

‘Do you make a habit of doing this sort of thing, then?’ Jessica’s laugh held a definite edge of mockery.

Was it a guilty conscience, Anna wondered, or was it not just the demonstration she was talking about? ‘If I get my soapbox out Adam will shout at me.’ She fluttered her eyelashes vigorously in his direction.

She was damned if she was going to let this woman intimidate her! There was a challenging expression in the depths of her wide brown eyes as she gazed at him.

‘Given enough rope, you’ll hang yourself one of these days, Anna.’

Sam, sensing but not understanding the criticism in his uncle’s voice, climbed onto her lap. He wrapped his chubby arms around her middle. ‘
I
like you,’ he said defiantly.

‘And I like you, Sam,’ she responded warmly, ruffling the curly fair hair. His twin laid his head on her lap and she smiled. ‘If it hadn’t been for you two I’d have had no opportunity to pig out on ice cream.’

‘Isn’t that amazing, Uncle Adam?’ Kate said. ‘Anna can tell the difference between them already. Some people never get the hang of it.’ She gazed innocently at Jessica, and Anna began to feel almost sorry for the woman.

‘I’ve been trying to instil a few basics concerning nutrition, but then a
stranger
wouldn’t know that…’ The comment was accompanied by a smile of understanding warmth. The embryonic sympathy died a death in Anna’s heart.

‘Forbidden fruits always do hold a fatal fascination for children,’ Anna observed with equal sweetness.

‘Some adults have the same problem.’ There was nothing ambiguous about the ‘hands off’ message this time.

Anna’s fingers curled and she realised that with her free hand she was still clutching Jake’s hand. She self-consciously released it. ‘How did you know I have a sweet tooth?’ she asked, rallying her composure. She was consumed by deep humiliation; had the warning been as clearly audible to everyone else?

‘The chocolate moustache?’ Jake suggested with a grin.

Bless the boy! ‘How did it go at the school?’ Anna asked, trying to keep the conversation civilised. It would hardly be fair to the children if she started a slanging match.

‘The local ones aren’t up to much. We’ll have to broaden our horizons.’ Jessica spoke dismissively.

‘I went to a local school,’ Anna said quietly. She was seething at the overt disdain in the other woman’s voice.

‘And you’re into some sort of alternative medicine, I believe.’ Her expression made it clear this was pretty low on her scale of social evolution. The throbbing in Anna’s temple grew stronger. ‘I don’t think—and I’m speaking for Adam here…’

‘I would; he’s not particularly articulate, is he?’ Anna commiserated.

‘
We
wouldn’t want anything like that for the children,’ Jessica continued. ‘He was only saying the other day how absurd all this fringe stuff is, not to mention dangerous.’

‘I prefer the term “complementary”,’ Anna said tightly. The look she sent Adam was murderous. ‘I think you’ll find it’s not obligatory to think for yourself at the local high school, but they do encourage it,’ she admitted.

Her temper had reached sizzling point and she was having great trouble keeping her tongue in check. It was as well they then decided to go or Adam might have discovered how restrained she had been up to that point.

Chubby hands clutched at her as they said their goodbyes. The twins meekly followed Adam, who, other than giving her a curt nod, hardly acknowledged her presence at all. She wasted time in the ladies’ room, waiting for Simon and gathering her wits before emerging outside.

‘You took your time!’ Adam growled.

The wits she’d so carefully gathered went walkabout instantaneously. ‘It’s my time,’ she snarled back. ‘If I’d known you were waiting, naturally I’d have run!’ she observed with acid sarcasm. ‘To what do I owe the honour?’

‘Don’t play the innocent, Anna. What exactly are you up to?’

‘Give me a few clues. I’ve not the faintest idea what you’re talking about.’

‘I’m talking about your ingratiating yourself with my nephew—my family,’ he drawled, with a hateful, as-if-you-didn’t-know expression. ‘Trying to exclude Jessica.’

‘Ingratiating!’ she echoed. Anger spilled over into her sparkling eyes and stiffened her slender body. ‘I was merely being friendly. There isn’t some sinister hidden agenda behind
my
actions. If they don’t like her it’s not my fault!’

A sceptical frown hardened his features. ‘I suppose you weren’t holding his hand either?’ he scoffed. Anna could hear the suppressed rage throbbing in his voice. ‘People say he looks like me.’

‘Meaning I can’t have you, so I’ll make do with a
younger version? You really do have an inflated opinion of your charms, Adam Deacon!’ Was he real? she wondered incredulously. ‘Jake appears to be a warm, sensitive boy, a fact which made more impact on me than the superficial resemblance. For your information I do not seduce young boys! It couldn’t be that you’re jealous, could it?’ she taunted.

‘Jake is a young man, not a boy. An impressionable young man’ he added, pointedly ignoring her jibe and regarding her with austere disdain.

‘What am I supposed to do? Cross to the other side of the street when I see him coming just to shield him from my fatal charm?’ she said witheringly. ‘Just because
you
made a fool of yourself at his age don’t assume he’s that immature…’ She stopped mid-flow, a horror-struck expression spreading across her animated features.

‘All you had to do was ask. There was no need to butter up Jake.’

‘I wasn’t buttering up Jake! I like Jake.’ Her expression made it clear her approbation didn’t extend as far as his uncle. ‘Besides, I was only making an educated guess. A man of your age who isn’t married or committed is either gay, which you’re not…’

‘I’m relieved to hear that,’ he said drily.

‘Or,’ she continued, frowning at this frivolous interruption, ‘he’s suffered a disillusionment which has made him afraid of commitment. Either that or they’re just self-centred and shallow. I’d have said you were the latter, but from your reaction it would seem you’re emotionally scarred.’ She made her voice throb dramatically with fake sympathy. ‘Poor old Adam; he’s a sensitive soul really. I take it Jessica’s stepfather stopped you dropping out at the crucial moment?

‘Just think, if he hadn’t, it might have been you, not me, who was the weirdo! The Establishment would have lost one of its props.’ God, what a bitch I sound, she
silently groaned into the awful, expanding silence. She regarded him apprehensively. With anyone else she could have retracted her rash words, but not with Adam.

‘I’m amazed you’ve survived this long without someone throttling you.’ She found his anger, quiet and subdued, more disturbing somehow than any raised voice. ‘Just stop making waves, Anna. Leave my family out of this.’ There was angry bitterness in his warning.

‘As I said, it’s not my fault they don’t like Jessica,’ she countered stubbornly, with a provoking smile. The sooner Adam learnt she wasn’t about to sit back and let him tear her moral character to shreds every time he felt like it the better!

‘There is no popularity contest,’ he shot back defensively. ‘Children often resent discipline.’

‘Not when they know the restrictions and prohibitions originate from love.’ She refused to be silenced by the deep frustration she read in his eyes. Empathy with this man was a luxury she couldn’t permit herself.

His perception of the situation was wrong;
surely
he could see that? Jessica felt no pleasure in the children’s company.

‘Why can’t you admit you were wrong, Adam?’ She felt deep anger that he was stubbornly going to ruin not just his own life but hers too.

Adam placed his hands deliberately around the slender column of her white throat, the touch light, barely making contact with her skin. It was enough to send a flurry of shivery, warning sensations along her nerve-endings. Her throat was clogged with thick, hot emotion. The tension building up inside her was shattering.