A Marriage In The Making. Natalie Fox
to him. If that was my own daughter in those circumstances I would want someone to help her and not give up on her because she was so troubled. It did help being a mother myself.’
‘And, from what Fiesta says, a mother with nowhere else to go and very eager for this job in paradise,’ he said disparagingly.
Karis stiffened, her heart tightening at the truth of that. She remembered being evasive with Fiesta over her personal circumstances when she had applied for the job. Silly really, withholding her background when her very background was so important for the job. But she had been desperate to get away at the time and unable to think clearly and had just hoped that her eagerness to take on the care of the little boy would be enough for Fiesta.
It had as it happened but the fact that Fiesta had taken her on without delving too deeply into her past should have acted as a warning flare, and of course on meeting the irascible young boy she had understood why. Fiesta had been as desperate to sign her up as she had been to start a new life.
Karis shrugged away her hurt. ‘That’s true,’ she conceded quietly. ‘I was more than glad of the job for reasons that are my own but I’m not lying when I tell you I felt drawn to your son. Everyone else had forsaken him and—’
‘And so you keep saying,’ he interrupted wearily, and suddenly got to his feet. ‘The world had rejected him and you were his saviour. What do you want—a damned medal?’ he breathed, on the edge of anger now.
Shocked, Karis stared at him, her lips white. Why was this man being so cruel? Why was he always so angry?
Suddenly he let out a long sigh and raked his dark hair from his brow. ‘I’m sorry,’ he breathed roughly, impatient with himself more than her, she sensed. ‘Of course you don’t expect a medal. Look, this isn’t going to be easy and I’m fully aware of the problems ahead. I want my son with me now. You have a special bond with him and…and…’ His voice faltered slightly but he recovered quickly. ‘I need your help,’ he finished quietly.
Karis licked her dry lips at his plaintive request. It stabbed painfully at her emotions.
‘Insulting me is going a funny way about enlisting my help, Mr Kennedy,’ she said slowly and deliberately. ‘I’ve done my very best for Josh and you’re right, I don’t want a medal; I don’t even want your praise or your thanks. It’s enough for me that he hugs me tightly when he says goodnight, it’s enough that he trusts me. All I’m concerned about is Josh’s future—the one you are preparing to offer him.’
Slowly Karis got up from the table and faced him. She really had nothing to lose by baring her thoughts and feelings to him. Very shortly her job here on the island would be over and done with. She dared not even think of her own circumstances when that day came because Josh filled her mind at the moment.
‘I know I’m speaking out of turn here,’ she started, ‘and I apologise up front, but this needs to be said before we go any further. With your attitude I doubt if your son will have a very happy future. He needs care and attention and time and love and from what I’ve seen of you and your fiancée I doubt you could rustle up a fraction of any one of them.’
There, it was out, exactly how she felt about him and that awful Simone.
He was leaning back against the work surface, his arms folded across his chest, and looking at her with eyes narrowed warningly. But Karis wasn’t put off. She had more to say and concern and love for Josh made her brave enough to say it. ‘All I’ve seen of you so far is a broody menace where I’m concerned, Mr Kennedy. I don’t know why you attack me so when you have seen for yourself Josh is well cared for. I’m doing my best and I always have done and Josh has responded to my love and caring. If I didn’t think the idea ridiculous I’d take it that you were….’ Her voice suddenly went as if it had been switched off.
And then Karis knew. It swept over her, all-enveloping, all depressingly sad. She saw it all now—his attitude problem, his abrasive reaction towards her starting from the time he had stepped ashore and seen that she, a supposedly wild and unkempt teenager, held his son’s love and trust in her hand. It must have torn through him like a serrated knife.
‘Jealous,’ he finished for her, in a tone that was dull and weighted.
Karis lowered her lashes. Her heart was thudding at his being brave enough to make such an admission. ‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured faintly. ‘I didn’t really understand at first and then, just now, I couldn’t even say it because it’s so awful.’ She lifted her face and looked at him, her eyes wide and apologetic. ‘You are jealous of me because Josh loves and trust me, aren’t you?’ she whispered.
‘Yes,’ he admitted. His hand came up and tore through his hair as if that admission had taken the strength out of him. ‘In the short time I’ve seen you both I can see how you are together,’ he went on roughly. ‘Yes, I’m jealous of the hold you have over my son.’
Karis shook her head, realising that the snap of sympathy she had felt just now could be abruptly vaporised away by just one ill-chosen word. Did he mean to say the things he did? she wondered.
‘Just a minute. The word is bond, not “hold”, Mr Kennedy,’ she corrected him firmly. ‘I do not have a hold on your son. I do not like the menacing implication of that word.’
His eyes held hers stoically and he didn’t retract the word or apologise for how Karis had taken it—as another insult. ‘Hold or bond, whatever, it will pass when my son learns to love and respect me. It’s what I’m here for after all. Then your services will no longer be needed and you will be out of his life and that is the way it should be.’
His sudden cool, calculated plans for Josh’s future and her swift, cruel dismissal shook Karis to her very roots. She almost physically shrank away from him and in fact must have moved because his hand shot forward and grasped at her wrist as if he recognised she was about to tear out of the room before he was finished with her.
‘That’s the way it must be,’ he said quietly, ‘and you must have known that when you took the job on. Nothing is for ever. Now, if you have anything more to say on the subject of my son I would be pleased to hear it. Do you have anything more to say?’ he asked, as if her life depended on her giving him a satisfactory answer. His eyes held a curious challenging glimmer.
Suddenly the firm grip on her wrist eased slightly as he waited for a response from her. Unwittingly she gave it as his thumb ran erotically over her pulse point, backwards and forwards, tiny strokes of fiery pressure that sent her blood whooshing through her veins. She felt sure he could feel it. Karis stared at him in mute confusion. Why was he doing this—touching her so intimately? And why on earth should the blood rush in her veins this way?
Suddenly she couldn’t bear the close contact a second longer and she snatched her hand away. He didn’t protest. Her eyes flamed with indignation as she rubbed at her wrist but his eyes suddenly sparkled teasingly and it was such a sudden mood swing it shocked her.
‘I’m glad you did that. I was beginning to think you were enjoying it,’ he said smoothly.
Karis didn’t need this sort of teasing banter to follow an intimate touch that had unsettled her so deeply. She lifted her chin because she wasn’t going to take it.
‘Did you enjoy it?’ she asked directly, considering attack to be the best defence. He only smiled enigmatically, which was no answer either way. To her surprise she found her mouth suddenly had a will of its own. ‘You did it so you must have wanted to. Your motivation puzzles me, though. Past experience has taught me that small, intimate gestures like those are usually connected with sounding the ground for further exploration but so far you have done little else but insult me so you can’t possibly like me. So why did you do it? Heaven forbid it was a test of my morality.’
‘Let me put your fluttering heart at peace, then,’ he mocked, and Karis felt her temperature rise. ‘Fluttering heart’, of all things! ‘I thought you were about to leave in a hurry and I wasn’t finished with you. I realised I must have come across as a bitter