It Started With... Collection. Miranda Lee
frowned. ‘I take it you’re still not convinced.’
‘Does it matter?’
‘It matters to me.’
Jessie decided this conversation was running off the rails. ‘By the way, thank you for your book. I was suitably impressed. And a little surprised. I didn’t realise you were famous.’
‘I’m not so famous,’ he said modestly.
‘But you will be. Your book is fabulous.’ Jessie knew you could never flatter a man enough. Flattery, she could handle. And flirting. Just no falling in love.
He looked so ridiculously pleased, she felt guilty. ‘But you can’t possibly have read it yet.’
‘Well, not properly. But I will. Before Friday night.’
‘Stop talking about Friday night!’ he suddenly bit out in an agitated fashion. ‘I know it’s only three days away, but after last night it seems like an eternity. I don’t think I slept a wink.’
He did look tired, now that she came to think of it. There were dark circles under his eyes.
‘I didn’t sleep very well myself,’ she confessed.
‘Jessie, this is ridiculous. Why should we torture ourselves? Be with me tonight. Get Dora to mind Emily. She told me last night that she’d be quite happy to mind Emily any night we wanted to go out. I asked her. I even offered to pay her but she refused. She said she’d be happy to do it any time.’
Jessie felt both flustered and furious. ‘You had no right to go behind my back like that.’
‘No right to do what?’ he countered. ‘Try to organise things so that I can spend some time with a woman I’m crazy about?’
Jessie flushed at the passion in his voice. ‘I told you. I don’t like to be rushed.’
His sigh was ragged. ‘OK. Yes, I am rushing you. I’m sorry. It’s just that life is so short and when you see something that you really want, you have to reach out and grab it before something happens and it gets away from you.’
‘Is that what you tell people in your book?’
‘Not that I recall. This is something which has come upon me just lately. It’s possibly worse today.’
‘Why is it worse today?’
‘Would you believe my ex-wife has just been in to see me? And guess what? She’s pregnant, by some guy she doesn’t even know the name of. And she’s going to keep the baby.’ Kane shook his head in utter bewilderment.
‘What’s wrong with that?’ Jessie challenged. For pity’s sake, did he expect her to have an abortion? He’d divorced her because she wanted children. The man just didn’t understand how strong the maternal impulse could be. She could never have terminated her baby, and she hadn’t even been craving one at the time.
‘You don’t know Natalie,’ he muttered. ‘She’s not the single-mother type.’
‘Is there a single-mother type?’
‘No. I guess not. It was just so unexpected, not to mention quick. Our divorce papers only came through three months ago. You can imagine how I felt when she announced she was pregnant.’
Actually, Jessie didn’t have to imagine anything. She’d been there and heard his reaction. He’d been worried sick that it was his.
‘It’s not as though you’re still in love with her,’ Jessie said impatiently. ‘Are you?’
‘No, of course not!’
‘Then her having another man’s baby is irrelevant. Leave her to her life and you get on with yours.’
He stared at her for a second before his mouth broke into a wry grin. ‘Yes, Dr Denton. I’ll do just that. Which brings me back to tonight. What do you say, Jessie? Would you let me take you out to dinner? Just dinner.’
That was about as believable as ‘the cheque’s in the post’!
Jessie scooped in a deep breath whilst every pore in her screamed at her to agree. But to say yes would be the kiss of death. She’d show her weakness and then he’d have her right where he wanted her.
‘I’m sorry, Kane,’ she said, quite truthfully. ‘I make it a policy never to go out during the week. You’ll just have to wait. You can always have a lot of cold showers,’ she suggested with more than a hint of malice.
Their eyes met, and held.
‘I don’t think there’s enough cold water in the world to fix my problem,’ he bit out. ‘Still, I guess I’ll survive. But I would suggest that if you’re going to come into work each day looking good enough to eat, then for pity’s sake, keep well out of my way!’
‘MUMMY’S got a boyfriend! Mummy’s got a boyfriend! Mummy’s got a…’
‘Yes, all right, Emily,’ Jessie interrupted sharply. ‘I’ve heard you. And do stop jumping up and down on your bed. It’s not a trampoline. Look, go and put a video on. I’ll never be ready in time if you keep distracting me.’
Emily was off the bed and out of the room in a flash. If there was one thing that would successfully shut Emily up, it was watching one of her favourite videos.
Being left alone, however, didn’t help Jessie as much as she had hoped. Her hands kept shaking for starters, and her usually decisive mind could not seem to settle on what she should wear tonight.
Kane had told her in an email yesterday—one of several he’d sent her during the last three days—that she didn’t need to be dressed up. Something casual would be fine.
Jessie had been relieved at the time. Her wardrobe was ninety-five per cent casual. But most were on the cheap side.
The evening promised to be warm, so a skirt was probably a good choice. She pulled out a black and white one similar to the pink floral she’d worn to work the other day, the one which Kane had said made her look good enough to eat.
Oh, dear. She shouldn’t have thought about that. Her nipples tightened and a little tremor ran down the back of her legs.
A glance at her watch brought instant panic. She only had a quarter of an hour before Kane was due to pick her up at seven. She’d already showered and done her make-up since arriving home, but she was still naked under her robe, her hair was a mess and Dora would be arriving any moment with Emily’s dinner.
The darling woman had promised to feed the child, as well as look after her for the night. She seemed just as excited at Jessie having a so-called boyfriend as Emily was. Jessie hadn’t liked to disillusion them over Kane’s true intentions—they both thought he was the ant’s pants—so she let them think what they liked.
Meanwhile, Jessie just kept telling herself that tonight was nothing serious. Just fun and games.
‘Fun and games,’ she repeated as she opened her underwear drawer and pulled out a black satin bra and matching G-string from underneath her more sensible sets. They had been outrageously expensive when she’d bought them pre-Emily, and had rarely been worn. Motherhood had made her breasts larger, so when she put the bra on, her cups really did runneth over.
But oh, my, she did look seriously sexy, with a cleavage deeper than the Grand Canyon. The G-string looked OK from the front. But she didn’t even risk a peek at a rear view. What she didn’t know couldn’t depress her.
A knock on the granny-flat door was followed by Dora’s voice as she opened the door and came in. ‘It’s just me, Jessie, with Em’s dinner.’
‘I’m