Bad Influence

‘Oh? And what did you have in mind?’

He regarded her for a moment in quizzical assessment, and then he shook his head. ‘No, I don’t think this is quite the right moment to explain,’ he responded. ‘Why didn’t you tell me who you were?’

She hesitated, drawing in a long, steadying breath. ‘I don’t think this is quite the right moment to explain,’ she countered crisply. ‘I’m sorry about the misunderstanding with the security people—I hope your injuries aren’t serious?’

‘I’ll live,’ he returned, an inflection of sardonic humour in his voice as he cautiously felt his swollen eye. ‘Ow! Those guys can sure pack a wallop!’

‘I’ll ask the kitchen to send you up a raw steak.’

‘You could try kissing it better…’ he taunted, leaning his hands against the wall on each side of her shoulders to trap her between his arms.

Her blue eyes flashed him a frost warning, and she ducked neatly under his arm. ‘I’ll ask the kitchen to send you up a raw steak,’ she reiterated dampeningly as she turned him an aloof shoulder and walked back to the ballroom.

He chuckled with wry amusement. ‘You know, you should always wear diamonds,’ he remarked in lazy mockery. ‘They go with your eyes.’

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_6913c26c-1807-523c-aac9-49da3e409b7c)

‘DECENT shiner you’ve got there, old man.’

lake squinted out of his good eye, smiling wryly as the pale young man, whom he recognised as the one he had mistaken for Georgia’s rich sugar-daddy, came over to join him, leaning against the bonnet of the Range Rover. ‘You should see the other guy.’

Robin Rustrom-Smith chuckled. ‘I had a ringside seat It’s all over the papers, you know. Our Sweet Georgia is not going to be best pleased with you—doesn’t like that sort of publicity.’

Jake shrugged his wide shoulders in a dismissive gesture, holding his binoculars gingerly to his eyes to watch the string of horses galloping across the soft Lambourn turf. ‘How was I supposed to know who she was? She never told me her name.’

‘Ah, so that’s why you were so reckless. You got off lightly, you know—the last chap who tried it on with her still bears the scars.’

‘You don’t say,’ Jake drawled with laconic humour.

‘No, I’m serious. Took her horsewhip to him—lovely aim, straight across the cheek. Ten years ago, that was—no one else has dared risk it once.’

Jake lowered his binoculars, turning to stare at his genial informant in frank astonishment. ‘You mean…no one?’ he queried. ‘No one’s even…? But she’d have been…what, sixteen?’

‘Seventeen.’

‘Oh, come on!’ Jake laughed. ‘You’re kidding me. A good-looking broad like that? She must have ‘em queuing in the aisles!’

Robin shook his head. ‘If there’d been any action, I’d have known about it—m’sister Margot’s one of her best friends, and you know what women are for talking about that sort of thing. Oh, I agree she’s a great girl, but when it comes to trying it on with her…To tell you the truth, even the thought of it scares me into the middle of next week—and I’ve known her since we were children.’

‘So you mean she’s still…?’

Robin nodded in cheerful confirmation. ‘Of course, it was the Old Man’s fault—her grandfather. The tight-fisted old goat was always convinced that anyone who looked twice at her was after his money, so he all but locked her up in a chastity belt and threw away the key. Siberia, we used to call her at school—couldn’t warm her up with a blowtorch.’

‘Well, well…’ Jake lifted his binoculars again. ‘Well, well, well…’ That was certainly no longer true—as he had every reason to know. Or was that the sort of game she played? He had met the kind before, promising everything and then refusing to deliver until they had got whatever it was they wanted—usually a ring on their finger and a mealticket for life.

Not that the frostbitten Miss Geldard had any need of a meal ticket—she could afford to buy not only her own lunch, but the whole damned restaurant if she chose. Nor did she need to resort to those sort of tactics to get herself a husband, if that was what she wanted—with one snap of her fingers she could have half the available men this side of the Rockies queuing up for her hand.

So what was it? Some kind of power trip? Was that what turned her on? Didn’t she have enough power as chief executive of her family firm? But then he had met a lot of men to whom power was like a drug—the more of it they had, the more they needed. Why shouldn’t some women be like that? And in her position she must have to fight her way in a man’s world every day of her working life—what better way to even the score than by hitting back below the belt, as it were…?

Damn, he never had been able to resist a challenge—especially one with such a prize at the end of it! The thought of teaching Miss Geldard the danger of playing power games with the big boys, and at the same time disproving his new acquaintance’s blowtorch theory, was tempting enough to make his mouth water. Ice would never have melted more sweetly into honey…!

A third off-roader pulled up in the field, the driver climbing out and strolling over to join them, calling a casual greeting. Jake vaguely recalled having met him before—and not liking him much. He had wondered then what had caused the faint white scar down his right cheek.

‘Nice looking filly you’ve got there,’ the newcomer remarked, studying the horses in training through his own binoculars. ‘I was after her myself.’

‘Were you?’ Jake smiled grimly, the amusing irony of the remark not lost on him.

Robin chuckled softly to himself. ‘You’d best be careful, Nige,’ he put in, with the air of one feeding fuel to a fire. ‘Looks like he’s making a habit of picking up fillies you were interested in.’

The Honourable Nigel Woodvine cast his old schoolfriend a withering look down his aristocratic nose.

‘I’ve just been telling him about our Georgie,’ Robin supplied. ‘He doesn’t seem to believe me.’

Nigel turned his cool survey on Jake, letting his lip curl into a slight sneer. ‘Is that so?’ he queried, carefully calculating a degree of disdain that would fall just short of provoking any serious danger from those hard fists—he too had been present at the Geldard Foundation May Day Ball. ‘You think you can do better than the rest of us, then?’

Jake shrugged, returning the contempt. ‘Could be.’

Nigel laughed unpleasantly. ‘I doubt it. From what I gather, you’ve barely made it to first base. Granted, that’s a little further than most people have got to with the damned frigid bitch—but you won’t get her into bed.’

Jake examined his grazed hand, flexing the fingers contemplatively, wondering how the knuckles would stand up to another close encounter with hard bone. ‘You don’t reckon?’ he mused, deceptively quiet.

Nigel lifted his binoculars, coolly watching the string of horses as they turned for home. ‘No, I don’t,’ he confirmed. ‘You putting that filly in for the Geldard Cup at Ascot in September?’

‘I expect so.’

‘I’ll tell you what—I’ll make a bet with you. My bay—the one leading the string there—against your filly says you can’t get her into bed before the race.’ He lowered his binoculars, his narrow eyes glinting. ‘What do you say?’

Robin drew in a sharp breath. ‘Hey, Nige…!’ he protested, appalled. ‘I mean, come on! You can’t make a bet like that!’

‘Can’t I?’ Again he gave that unpleasant laugh. ‘Maybe our Australian friend doesn’t think he can take up the challenge?’

Jake held his anger carefully in check; sometimes there were better ways of dealing with contemptible jerks like this over-bred Englishman than using your fists. Was he really considering accepting such a dumb bet? He’d never done anything like it in his life—even in his crass adoles- cence he wouldn’t have dreamed of it. But maybe the stiffnecked Miss Geldard had it coming to her.

He lifted his own binoculars again, studying the elegant bay at the head of the string. ‘A bit showy for my taste, but I wouldn’t mind having her,’ he drawled with mocking self-assurance. ‘You’re on.’

‘Another red rose, Georgia.’

‘Thank you, Janet. Throw it in the bin like the others, please.’

‘Oh, but…It seems such a shame!’ her secretary protested. ‘He called three times yesterday, too.’

‘If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a man who won’t take no for an answer,’ Georgia responded on a note of crisp dismissal. ‘I’m leaving for my lunch appointment now, Janet. And if Mr Morgan rings again, the answer is still the same—no, I will not have lunch with him, nor dinner with him, nor will I go to the theatre or anywhere else with him.’

‘Yes, Georgia,’ Janet conceded with a wistful little sigh. Normally briskly efficient, there was a small, romantic corner in her soul that was highly susceptible to the roughhewn charm of the big Australian who had been pursuing her hard-hearted boss with such determination for the past couple of weeks.

Georgia smiled grimly, and swung her handbag onto her shoulder. ‘I have a meeting with Bernard at two-thirty, so I’ll be back by two-fifteen. And I’ll need the production figures for the Redford Road bakery by tonight—I have to write a briefing paper for next week’s board meeting.’

Her secretary nodded, making a note. ‘Do you want the figures for the past three years?’