The Man Who Broke Hearts. Stephanie Howard
was nothing like the way he had looked at her earlier. Then his gaze had been perfunctory and mocking. But now his eyes lingered, moving like touching fingers, caressing the full, generous curves of her breasts, the dip of her waist, the gentle flare of her hips. And it was a far too familiar scrutiny. Far too knowing. His eyes held the arrogant look of a man taking a stroll over territory he had once known very well.
How dared he? Bristling with anger, Tina opened her mouth to rebuke him. But before she could utter a word she was suddenly freezing to the spot.
For he was reaching out towards her with the handkerchief. ‘You’ve missed a bit here,’ he was saying in an amused tone as he dabbed lightly at the lapel of her cream silk blouse. Then as she tried to move he caught her lightly by the arm. ‘Stand still. How can I see what I’m doing if you move?’
A rush of panic seized her. All at once she had difficulty breathing. It was crazy; they were in a public place, surrounded by people, yet all at once Tina felt like a helpless prisoner. The hand that gripped her arm was like a manacle holding her. A manacle of red-hot burning steel.
‘You don’t need to do that!’
‘It’s no trouble, I assure you.’
‘No, really... But really...’
Her heart was jumping inside her. For not only was he holding her, not only was he touching her, but, much worse, all at once she had suddenly become aware of the light scent of the handkerchief that drifted up to her nostrils.
It was his scent. That cool, clean scent she remembered. And suddenly, like some magic carpet of the senses, it was transporting her back to that time three years ago when she had been as familiar with that scent as with the scent of her own body.
And suddenly, in her mind she was lying naked beside him, caressing him, touching him, pressing against him, dizzy and drunk with desire and love for him.
It was a shattering moment. She felt something crumble inside her as she glanced up, helplessly, into the arrogant dark eyes that looked down on her now, distant and uncaring. For a moment her heart seemed to break all over again. A sense of paralysing loss went flooding through her.
‘There, that’s better.’ Justin was stepping away now, releasing his grip on her arm as he did so. Then he handed her the handkerchief. ‘There’s another spot on the collar. But perhaps I’d better let you attend to that.’
He was mocking her. He had picked up her sudden anguish and it appealed to his sadistic sense of humour. Perhaps, she thought wretchedly, he’d done it on purpose, guessing in advance how she would react. It still amused him to play with her, even after all these years.
At that thought Tina’s anguish turned instantly to anger. She was not his plaything—though he had once treated her as though she were. She was a twenty-five-year-old woman whom no other man in the world would ever have dared to treat so familiarly. And all he was to her was a man she despised with all her heart.
She took a pointed step away from him, her blue eyes chipped porcelain. ‘It’s not like you to be so solicitous,’ she observed frostily. ‘And I can assure you I neither need nor want your help in any way.’
‘But it’s my pleasure.’ Justin simply smiled in the face of her annoyance. ‘As I said before, you’re someone pretty important these days. One feels obliged to offer one’s services.’ A sarcastic look touched his eyes. ‘Though I wasn’t doing you full justice when I referred to you earlier as features editor of Scope. I understand that these days you’re also acting editor.’
‘Only while Maggie’s ill.’ Maggie was Scope‘s editor. ‘It’s only a temporary position.’
‘But one that could lead to greater glory in the future. If you do a good job, who knows what it could lead to—especially with Maggie due to retire in a couple of years?’
Tina was well aware of that and to anyone else she would have admitted it. But not to Justin. He would only twist it.
She told him, deadpan. ‘I don’t expect it to lead to anything. Maggie will be back at her desk in a couple of weeks.’
‘She’s got some stomach trouble, I hear.’
‘Yes, but nothing serious.’
‘So, you didn’t put arsenic in her tea, after all?’ As Tina scowled at him, Justin added, ‘I wouldn’t put it past you. Remember, I know how ambitious you are. And you’re not one to let loyalty or scruples get in your way. No wonder you’ve made such a rapid rise to the top.’
Tina resented that, though, of course, she knew why he’d said it. It was all part of the lie she’d fed him three years ago.
She straightened a little, tilted her chin and defended herself. ‘I’ve got where I am because I’ve worked hard,’ she informed him.
‘Yes, I’m sure you have. Single-mindedly and unstintingly.’ Then he smiled unexpectedly and surprised her as he added, ‘Besides, you have talent.’ His hard expression softened. ‘And I take pride in having been one of the first to recognise it.’
Tina had to hold back a blush as a rush of remembrance poured through her. For it was true; he’d been one of the first to show faith in her. And she’d have felt grateful to him for that if what had happened later hadn’t happened. But the pain he had caused her later cancelled all gratitude out.
She looked back at him, breathing carefully, hiding her emotions. ‘That,’ she told him quietly, ‘was a long time ago.’
‘Indeed it was. You were young and innocent then.’ He smiled a cynical smile. ‘Or at least I thought you were.’
‘I was innocent until I met you.’
She wished she hadn’t said that. It made her sound like an undone virgin, and that wasn’t the accusation she’d wanted to make. For it was not the taking of her sexual innocence that Tina resented, but the destruction of another kind of innocence. He had totally betrayed her trust.
All the time he’d been with her, seducing her and making her fall for him, he had secretly been involved with another woman. A woman Tina had known well. Her immediate boss at JM Publishing. The flaming redhead she and her friends had dubbed the Red Dragon.
And worse. He had even asked the Red Dragon to be his wife.
Remembering, Tina was aware of a plummeting within her. Just for an instant, all the heartbreak of that betrayal was tearing inside her, vivid and real again. For that had been the worst time of her life.
But it was all in the past now. Past and forgotten. She had long stopped caring about Justin and the Red Dragon, the eternally engaged couple, for they still hadn’t married.
She thinned her lips at him. ‘You showed me the ways of the world. The seamier ways of the world, that is.’
‘Oh, I suspect you already knew them. You probably even invented a few of them. And you’ve probably invented a few more in the meantime. After all, look how well you’ve flourished.’
He was quite without remorse, but then he always had been. He had never once apologised for the terrible thing he’d done to her.
But Tina shrugged that off. Hadn’t he, in truth, done her a favour? For after her break-up with Justin she’d banished love from her heart and dedicated herself body and soul to her career. Her work had kept her sane, and without that dedication she would probably never have risen up the ladder so fast.
She hadn’t risen as fast as Justin, though. His rise had been spectacular. Over the past three years JM Publishing had mushroomed. He’d been taking over publishing houses left, right and centre, until these days his greedy wings spread halfway across the globe.
Narrowing her eyes, she observed disparagingly, ‘Judging by the little empire you’ve built for yourself, I’d say you were the one who knows