Perfect Partner

Juliet silently fumed at him as they travelled to her home. Arrogant fool! And she was even more of a fool for letting him affect her in this way.

‘Are you going to invite me in for coffee?’ he asked once they were parked outside her home.

‘Not tonight. I—I’m a little tired,’ she feigned weariness.

One of those long artistic hands came out and touched her pale cheek. ‘All right, Juliet.’ That attractively curved mouth was once more coming her way. ‘God, I want you badly,’ he told her before kissing her with a savagery designed to take her breath away.

But it didn’t. This time she was ready for him, her anger stopping her from responding, the sheer audacity of the man making her furious. He wanted her! And no doubt he thought it would be easy to get her into bed with him. He was in for a surprise if he really thought that. She wouldn’t be taken unawares again.

He moved back, shrugging at her lack of response. ‘As you say, you’re tired. So I’ll say goodbye until tomorrow.’

Juliet hastily left the intimacy of the car, forcing herself to turn and wave to Jake before he drove off. She had been wrong about him, he was a typical male chauvinistic pig if ever she had met one! And she had met plenty of them in the past, although Jake Matthews came a definite first for chauvinism.

He was the type of man she most despised, after all, the sort of man who didn’t think women had a brain, that they were only there to cook and provide sexual pleasure for men. She always liked to be an equal partner in her relationships with men, in fact she insisted on it, and as far as Jake Matthews was concerned she hadn’t been allowed to make one decision for herself. She didn’t know what sort of women he was usually attracted to, but she certainly wasn’t one of those women who were just grateful to be thought worthy of sharing the television personality’s bed.

The telephone was ringing when she entered her flat, and she didn’t need two guesses who it was. ‘Hello, Melanie,’ she greeted dryly, sitting down in the chair next to the telephone, knowing from experience how long Melanie’s telephone calls usually were.

‘Hello.’ Her friend wasn’t in the least abashed that she had known it was her. ‘I just called to see how Jake enjoyed kissing that dried-up old spinster Caroline Miles. He did kiss you, didn’t he?’ Melanie asked excitedly.

CHAPTER TWO (#u60fc0c98-6202-5176-9454-064f636143f3)

HEAVENS, yes! She had forgotten all about being Caroline Miles in her anger, had forgotten her pseudonym. What a shock Jake Matthews was going to get when he found out he told that ‘dried-up old spinster’ that he wanted her, badly, and had actually shown her how badly. What a lovely revenge on him, on him and his damned arrogance!

It would be sheer joy to see his face when he was told the truth, in fact it was worth going out with him, putting up with his chauvinism, just for the anticipation of being able to tell him that she was Caroline Miles, and that it was her book Mason’s Heritage that he had called ‘romantic rubbish’.

She had watched his programme in stunned disbelief, had read his review with tears in her eyes, hurt by his criticism, and it wasn’t until she had finished crying her heart out that anger had taken over. It was then that she had told Melanie and Michael that if she ever had the misfortune to meet the insulting Jake Matthews she would tell him exactly what she thought of him. Now that she had her chance she would make the most of it, would choose a time when it would have the most effect.

‘Juliet?’ Melanie interrupted her pleasurable anticipation. ‘Juliet, are you still there?’

She had forgotten all about poor Melanie! ‘Yes, of course I’m still here,’ she hastily assured her.

‘Well, did he kiss you? He must have done,’ Melanie answered herself. ‘Michael said he was being very forceful.’

‘Michael also said he wished he dared be that way with you,’ Juliet recalled dryly.

‘He never would be,’ Melanie said confidently. ‘What did Jake think of your being Caroline Miles?’

‘He didn’t think anything—he doesn’t know.’

‘You didn’t tell him?’ her friend gasped her astonishment.

‘No. And I would be grateful if you and Michael would refrain from telling him too.’

‘Why?’ her friend asked suspiciously.

‘Because I’m saving that little surprise for a more appropriate time.’

‘Appropriate?’

‘Yes,’ Juliet dismissed impatiently. ‘Do you know he actually wanted to go to bed with me?’ she revealed indignantly, finding she became angry just at the thought of it. No man had ever pursued her that forcefully on their first meeting before. And she didn’t like it. Jake Matthews had known her only long enough to want her body, certainly not long enough to be interested in the person she was. And how that infuriated her! He would probably have expected her to cook his breakfast in the morning too, before he rushed off to his office, never to be seen again.

‘I gathered that much from Michael,’ Melanie giggled.

‘I mean now, tonight.’

‘Yes,’ her friend acknowledged.

Juliet frowned. ‘Aren’t you shocked?’

‘No. But you are, I can tell. And I always thought you were liberated.’

‘Not that liberated!’

‘Don’t be such a prude, Juliet,’ Melanie chided. ‘There’s nothing wrong in going to bed with a man if it’s what you both want. And Jake’s certainly too old to go in for the hand-holding, gazing-into-your-eyes relationship. So are you, come to that,’ she added thoughtfully.

She hadn’t thought she was. Surely love and romance weren’t completely dead? No wonder she preferred to write about the past, to imagine herself back in a time when men weren’t ashamed to love and protect a woman.

Heavens, what a contradiction she was! She wasn’t prepared to relinquish an ounce of her freedom, not careerwise or emotionally, and yet she secretly longed to be swept off her feet, to be cherished, to be made to feel the most important thing in some man’s life. One of her ideals would have to go, and she had a feeling, in this day and age, that it would be the latter. One of these days she would probably settle down to marriage quite happily, a marriage where she would be allowed to feel an equal partner but would never know what it was like to be the very pinnacle of one man’s existence.

‘Don’t you think a few hours’ acquaintance is rather brief notice of an invitation to bed?’ she asked Melanie mockingly.

‘Depends on the man,’ her friend answered seriously. ‘Jake doesn’t appear to be the sort to waste time.’

‘Well, I think he could have wasted a little more time than he did!’ Juliet said waspishly.

‘Are you seeing him again?’

‘I may be,’ she evaded.

‘Which means you are,’ Melanie said excitedly. ‘And Michael and I are to keep quiet about your writing. Don’t take Jake for a fool, Juliet, that’s all I ask. On the outside he’s perfectly charming, but inside there beats a heart of steel. I also happen to know,’ she added slowly, ‘that there’s a certain Patricia Hall in his life at the moment. She’s a reporter on the same newspaper he works for.’

No wife, but a girl-friend. ‘I’m only having dinner with him, he’s perfectly free to keep—Patricia Hall, I think you said? I have no intention of giving up Ben and Stephen on the basis of one date with Jake Matthews.’

‘It may develop into more than that. If he’d looked at me the way he looked at you …!’

‘You wouldn’t be here alone now, I suppose,’ Juliet teased.

‘Juliet! You know Michael was the first and only man I’ve ever slept with!’ Melanie sounded hurt.

‘I’ll never know how.’

‘Well, really!’

Juliet laughed. ‘Before you explode I think you should know I was only teasing. It’s just that when we were at school you seemed to fall in love every other month.’

‘That’s a slight exaggeration,’ Melanie told her indignantly. ‘And I was never truly in love until I met Michael.’

‘I’ll tell him how loyal you are the next time I see him,’ Juliet mocked gently.