Velvet Promise

‘Without my influential presence,’ she said, deriding their tactics.

‘You and Simone never did get on, and Dani is bound to pick up on that eventually.’

‘Can I help it if my most pleasant memory of Simone is her assuring me that no one would dare to slight me in her presence!’

‘She was trying to be kind!’

‘She was implying that her snobbish friends had a reason to slight me!’ Willow snapped heatedly. ‘As if I cared for the opinion of any of them!’ She tossed her head back angrily.

‘You made it very obvious from the first that you didn’t,’ Jordan told her quietly.

She gave him a sharp look. ‘You make it sound as if it were my fault they were all sweetness and understanding in Simone’s presence and bitchy cats behind her back!’

‘Maybe it was, partly. You treated us all with contempt, and——’

‘Oh, I’ve had enough of this particular argument!’ She stood up agitatedly. ‘I think I would like a walk in the garden after all.’

Jordan looked at her silently for several tension-filled moments and then gave an abrupt inclination of his head. ‘Very well. If we go out through the kitchen we can tell Dani where you are.’

Willow was very disturbed by this constant bickering with Jordan every time they met. They had never argued in the past, had rarely found occasion to talk then, let alone argue. It was very disconcerting to find an adversary where before there had only been indifference.

‘I’m sorry.’ Jordan spoke curtly once they were outside in the sun-filled garden, Dani inside enjoying herself as the centre of her grandparents’ attention. ‘I’m prying into something that’s none of my business. As you’ve already pointed out so clearly,’ he added with self-derision.

She glanced up at him, once again shocked by the awareness of him that was the last thing she wanted in her life. Now, or ever. Russell had been enough to last her a lifetime.

‘Have you heard any more from Russell about his plans?’ she asked as casually as she felt able to when discussing seeing her ex-husband again for the first time in a year.

‘No,’ drawled Jordan. ‘But then we didn’t expect to; he’ll arrive when and if he feels like it.’

Yes, that sounded like Russell. He had continued to do the same thing in her life even after she had left him; was always full of demands. This last year of silence had been as unsettling as it was calm and tranquil, like waiting for an axe to drop. Even now Russell was keeping her guessing.

‘Do you see much of him in London?’ Jordan asked casually, and yet she sensed a real underlying interest in her answer.

She looked at him curiously as they strolled through the garden that was Simone’s pride and joy, the wild display of flowers dominated by the pink trumpet of the famous Jersey lily, the blooms seeming to grow indiscriminately when actually Simone spent hours out here achieving just that effect.

‘Nothing at all since the divorce,’ she answered slowly. ‘Why the interest?’

He raised dark brows at her defensive attitude. ‘Dani mentioned that I looked like photographs of her father.’ He shrugged. ‘It seemed a strange thing to say if she sees him very often.’

‘Russell is at liberty to see Dani any time he chooses to——’

‘Will you stop taking every remark as an insult or a personal slight!’ Those velvet eyes darkened. ‘I only wondered at the remark.’

She sighed at her fiery response to what was just curiosity, after all. ‘Russell hasn’t asked to see Dani since the divorce, and children forget so easily… She has a photograph of him next to her bed.’ She shrugged.

At first she had worried about Russell’s lack of interest in the child she had given birth to only six months after their wedding, but as the months had passed and Dani had easily adapted to not seeing the father she barely remembered, Willow had felt grateful for that lack of interest, whatever the reason.

‘So he’s finally stopped loving you?’ Jordan watched her closely.

‘I believe so,’ she dismissed lightly, showing none of the relief she had felt when she realised that had to be the reason Russell no longer haunted her making demands, demands she had met each and every time he asked. ‘Why are you asking these questions, Jordan?’ she taunted. ‘Did you think I might cause a scene when Russell arrives, is that it?’

He drew in a ragged breath. ‘You’re both adults; you’ll have to work that out between you.’

They were both adults now, but she had still been a child five years ago, had been flattered by the interest of a man like Russell Stewart then. He had been eleven years older than her, too old for her, and her parents should never have encouraged the relationship the way they had. It had been too late for her by the time she realised her image of a romantic hero had been a false one as far as Russell was concerned; he was all too human.

‘Then why the interest in Russell and me, Jordan?’ she frowned at him. ‘Don’t your reports keep you up to date on my social life?’

His mouth tightened. ‘If there are any such reports I haven’t seen any of them,’ he rasped. ‘I have no interest in reading about your life secondhand. If there had been something I wanted to know about you I would have come and asked you!’

Willow felt that fluttering awareness that was becoming all too familiar when she was around this man. ‘As you just asked me about Russell?’ she prompted unsteadily.

He nodded coolly. ‘I needed to know that he no longer loves you.’

That fluttering became a veritable surge. ‘Why?’ she croaked.

‘Because that’s the only part of your life that interests me.’

‘I can assure you I have no intention of acting the “siren” where Russell is concerned,’ she scorned.

‘I think that’s as well,’ Jordan shrugged. ‘The two of us have never found it easy to share anything, least of all the same woman’s bed.’

All the colour drained from her face. ‘What did you say?’ she gasped faintly.

His mouth twisted in a humourless smile. ‘I’m sure you heard me,’ he drawled, coming to a halt as she faltered and stopped beside him. ‘You see, that wasn’t a rhetorical question I asked you this morning.’ The leanness of his hands cradled either side of her face. ‘I really do wonder what it is about you that so captivated Russell and made him such a lovesick fool. I mean to find out for myself.’