Marriage At A Price

‘Would you help me? I mean…a personal introduction would be much better than my just ringing up these people out of the blue.’

He seemed a little taken aback by her request.

‘You did say you were a gentleman of leisure,’ Courtney pointed out with a decidedly flirtatious smile.

He smiled back, if a little ruefully. ‘You have a hide, Ms Cross. Has anyone ever told you that?’

‘Several people, actually.’

‘I’m not surprised. But, okay, I guess I could do worse things with my time than squire a beautiful young woman around town. Have you been down to Sydney before? Or is this your first visit?’

‘Lord, no, I’ve been lots of times over the years. And frankly I’m always happy to get home to Crosswinds.’

‘You don’t like the city?’

‘Can’t say that I do. What you see is not always what you get.’

‘So young to be a cynic.’

‘Is there a right age to see through hypocrisy?’

‘I guess not…’ He looked thoughtfully down into his champagne for a few moments before glancing back up. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again with no words coming out. His blue eyes grew arctic-cold, then colder still, his gaze fixed on something beyond Courtney’s shoulder.

Female intuition warned her that only one person could cause this reaction. The treacherous Katrina. The woman who’d ditched him and married another man; the woman Lois said he was still besotted with.

But that didn’t look like love glittering in Jack’s chilling blue eyes. It was more like hate. Hate, and the need for vengeance.

CHAPTER THREE

WHAT kind of woman, Courtney puzzled as she sat there, could inspire such strong emotions in a man like Jack Falconer?

If Courtney had been alone, she’d have simply spun round in her chair and taken a good, long, hard look. But this situation called for a bit more subtlety, despite the fact that subtlety was not her strong suit.

She improvised. ‘I need to go to the loo. I won’t be long.’ Standing up, she turned and pretended to search the room for the ladies’ whilst zeroing in on the direction of Jack’s piercing gaze.

And there she was, standing by the bar, clinging to the arm of a white-haired gentleman whose suit jacket was struggling to remain done up over his portly stomach.

Courtney had no doubts it was Katrina.

Lois had said she would understand Jack’s infatuation once Courtney saw her. And she did.

Katrina would have given any supermodel in the world a run for her money. She had everything they had, and possibly more. The height. The figure. The face. The hair. Definitely the clothes.

She was wearing a superbly cut calf-length cream woollen dress which hugged her stream-lined body, revealing every flowing but delectable curve. Her hair, which was a similar cream colour, was worn up in a rather severe French pleat which served to emphasise the perfection of her classically beautiful face. Gold and diamond earrings winked in her lobes. Her neck was bare, perhaps because she didn’t want to distract any man’s eyes from its elegant length, and the impressive cleavage the dress’s deep V-neckline put on display.

Courtney couldn’t see the colour of her eyes from that distance but she could certainly see the colour of her mouth. A rich blood-red.

Jack’s blood, she thought angrily.

Seeing the man Katrina had chosen over Jack, however, confirmed Courtney’s guess that this was all a matter of money. Katrina had obviously wanted to marry money, and Jack no longer had enough. What a cold-hearted money-grubbing bitch!

‘The ladies’ room is over there,’ Jack said, misinterpreting her lengthy hesitation.

Courtney whirled back to face him. He’d sounded totally composed, but his eyes betrayed emotions best not explored. ‘Where?’

He pointed to a far corner.

Courtney quickly assessed that there were two routes she could use to make her way there. One went straight between the tables, the other skirted the bar. Courtney went between the tables on her way there, and skirted the bar on her way back. Superbitch was still there, sipping a cocktail and hanging on hubby’s every word.

‘Hi, Katrina,’ Courtney said breezily as she passed, but without stopping. Long enough, however, to see the cow’s green eyes—they would be green, wouldn’t they?—lift in surprise, then trail after her.

Courtney threw Jack a blinder of a smile as she walked towards him, and he automatically smiled back, as she had known he would. ‘You were quick,’ he said once she’d sat down again.

‘Didn’t have to touch up my make-up,’ she said truthfully. ‘Or my hair.’

He gave her face and hair a long, thoughtful look. ‘You don’t need to. You look great.’

‘Thanks. You look great too.’

His laughter was real, and his eyes warm with genuine amusement. ‘You are a very unique girl, do you know that?’

‘Yep.’

He laughed again. ‘Didn’t your mother ever teach you modesty?’

‘Lord, no. She taught me to say what I thought and do what I pleased.’

Jack’s straight dark brows shot upwards. ‘A very unusual mother, from the sounds of things.’

‘She was.’

‘You must tell me more about her. And about yourself. But first, I think another drink is—’

When he broke off, his eyes freezing once more, Courtney knew the reason why. She’d bargained on Katrina watching where she went, then not being able to resist coming over. It was one thing to dump a man. Quite another to find him seemingly happy in the company of another woman. And a much younger woman, at that.

If there was one thing guaranteed to get up the nose of a thirty-something female, it was seeing her ex with a younger woman.

And Courtney wanted to get up Katrina’s oh, so perfect nose to the nth degree.

‘Jack,’ came a softly purring voice which could belong to none other but the scheming cow herself. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here today.’

She drifted into Courtney’s view. Hubby, however, was nowhere in sight.

Jack smiled a smile that sent shivers running down Courtney’s spine. Here was a man who would not forgive easily. Or forget. It occurred to her that Jack’s embezzling partner would be wise to stay exiled for ever in his South American hide-away.

‘Why ever not, Katrina?’ Jack drawled, leaning his broad shoulders back against his chair. ‘Big Brutus is going to win today and I’m going to be there to accept the trophy. Along with Courtney, here.’

Glittering green eyes swung her way. ‘I’m sorry,’ Katrina said with lemony sweetness. ‘You said hello to me, but I can’t seem to place you.’