Echoes of the Heart (3 page)

‘You don’t suppose…’

‘You’re thinking he’s another one of Amanda’s lovers?’

‘Well…’

‘There’s no way a man like Formosa would be interested in Amanda!’

‘But —’

‘Forget it. He’s got women throwing themselves at his feet—especially since his divorce from Sophie Hamilton.’

‘You’re right. Amanda might be able to dress in designer clothes, but she’s got no pedigree. He wouldn’t want her.’

It gave Amanda no satisfaction to know Jake had wanted her once. She hadn’t realised at the time that he’d only been interested in her as a bit of holiday entertainment to assuage his incredible libido while he was apart from his girlfriend—the woman who later became his wife.

Used and abused.

It was a common phrase, but in her case it rang true. She’d been used by Jake and abused by Lloyd. She’d let it happen, but she wasn’t going to repeat her mistakes. Now she was free and she was determined to chart her own life.

With a defiant tilt of her head, Amanda turned away from the hall and decided to boycott the wake. Lloyd hadn’t honoured her in his lifetime, and she would be damned if she was going to pretend to honour him in his death. She’d paid enough during her marriage. She owed nothing more.

Increasing her pace, she walked in the direction of the cemetery gates. A few minutes later she could see Hugh in the distance, getting into his car. If she could reach him in time, he’d take her away from here. Even if she was spotted leaving with Hugh and someone took it as confirmation they were lovers, it was tough luck. She just had to get away.

Hugh was closing the door.

She broke into a run. She had to reach him.

‘Hugh!’ she called, but he didn’t hear her.

The car door closed as she sought the most direct path to him and rounded a corner between a couple of massive headstones.

‘Aah!’ The air rushed out of her lungs as she collided with a hard, broad, muscular frame of tensile steel. Masculine arms closed around her, steadied her and caged her against him, preventing her flight to the sanctuary of Hugh’s car.

In an instant she recognised the essentially male scent of him, and knew the hard strength of his chest. Memories of the long length of his body against her own came pouring back, and her blood thundered at every pulse-point in response.

‘Running to your lover, Amanda?’

Jake’s deep, sexy voice, blew every fuse in Amanda’s nervous system and created sensations that prickled up and down her spine. Her surroundings blurred. She fought against the loud whooshing noise in her ears to try to stay alert and in touch with the reality of her situation.

Taking advantage of her confusion he steered her a few steps to the left, into relative seclusion between two huge crypts.

Slowly she raised her eyes, sucked in great, gulping breaths of air and shook her head in helpless bewilderment. ‘This isn’t real.’

Black eyes mocked her. ‘It’s no dream,’ he stated with quiet calm. His hands slid down to the indentation of her waist, leaving a trail of fire where he touched.

It wasn’t a dream, it was a nightmare.

Her breath constricted in her chest. She tried to pull away from his embrace, but he held her tight. The warmth of his body seeped into hers, and a flame of awareness ignited within her. A flame that had burned between them when they’d first met and had quickly raged into an inferno of uncontrollable passion.

It was imperative she extinguish that flame right away. She needed to walk away from him before she was singed.

Jake’s closeness severely undermined her self-confidence and made her forget that he was her enemy, not her friend.

Her friend. Hugh. Turning her head in the direction of Hugh’s car, she saw him driving off. A half-sob escaped her parted her lips. Her heart was like a caged bird in her chest, flapping its wings fruitlessly against her ribcage to find a way to freedom. But there was no escape now.

Jake ran the tip of one finger down her left cheek. ‘Your lover’s not sticking around to face the music with you. He’s gone.’

‘Hugh is not my lover.’ Although she pulled out of his hold she couldn’t bring herself to turn and walk away. ‘What are you doing here?’ Her voice was a mere whisper.

‘I had some unfinished business to attend to.’

‘Unfinished business? At a funeral?’ That didn’t make sense. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘It’s quite simple.’ His eyes hardened aggressively. ‘Lloyd Bennett had something of mine that I want. And I’ve come to claim it back.’

‘Lloyd had something of yours?’ Amanda frowned. Was she to add theft to Lloyd’s long list of criminal activities? ‘I hadn’t even realised you knew each other.’

‘I knew who he was. Although we were often at the same functions, I gave him a wide berth. He was only introduced to me once,’ Jake replied with disdain. ‘You were with him.’

The night at the restaurant
.

Amanda relived the clawing horror she’d experienced when she realised that her husband of only a few hours was intent on introducing her to colleagues who were dining at the same restaurant—and that those colleagues were dining with Jake. Worse still, Jake was there with Sophie Hamilton, the beautiful heiress to a mining fortune who was destined to become his wife.

The pain Amanda had experienced that night was so intense it had felt as though her heart was being ripped out and trampled on. She’d walked away from Jake when she found out he’d been sleeping with her while he was as good as engaged to the heiress.

‘I met Bennett six weeks after I’d last seen you.’ His tone was accusing.

‘A lot happened in those six weeks,’ she said, her voice rasping through a tight vocal tract.

‘Evidently. While I was called upon to attend crucial meetings in New Zealand and the U.S. to stave off a takeover bid on the family company, I had no idea the reason you weren’t returning my calls was because you’d taken another lover to your bed.’ His expression was one of revulsion. ‘I thought you were upset because you were feeling neglected.’

‘Calls? You didn’t call me.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘I called your mobile phone only to find the number was disconnected.’

She’d lost her phone. Lloyd had kindly had it replaced but had said the number had to be changed.

‘I phoned the legal firm where you worked only to be told you didn’t wish to speak to me and that I was not to phone again.’

Her eyes hurt as they widened in stunned surprise. Horror hurtled through her as she pieced everything together. Now, armed with the knowledge that Lloyd had hated Jake, pieces of the puzzle began falling into place. If it had been anybody other than Lloyd, it would seem far-fetched. But knowing him, and the elaborate schemes he’d hatched, she felt instinctively that her suspicions were correct. Lloyd had worked very hard to keep her away from Jake.

He’d overheard her confessing to another legal secretary in the coffee room about her relationship with Jake. Only days later, when the phone call she’d made to Jake had been answered by Sophie, Lloyd had found her crying at her desk. He’d comforted her.

If Jake was his sworn enemy, he would’ve wanted revenge. That was the way Lloyd operated. In his twisted mind, making sure Amanda didn’t receive and return Jake’s phone calls would have allowed him to score points against his sworn adversary. Then, when Amanda’s aunt had fallen drastically ill, it had given him the chance to press Amanda into marriage. He’d intended her to be parted from Jake for good.

Pain shot through her as her heart clenched.

It didn’t matter that Lloyd had come between them. It didn’t matter either that Jake had tried to phone her. His attempts to contact her wouldn’t have changed the outcome of their parting. Their break up had been inevitable.

‘I didn’t know about your phone calls.’

‘I find that hard to believe.’

‘Even if I had, there was no point to them. We didn’t have a future together.’ There was no way she could have stayed with him knowing that he was planning marriage to Sophie.

‘Only weeks after you’d shared my bed, I discovered you were Bennett’s bride,’ Jake continued. ‘That you were expecting his child. That was a pretty low blow.’

She didn’t want to relive those memories. They brought back all the heartache and sadness of losing Jake and the knowledge he’d betrayed her. The night he’d referred to at the restaurant, he’d been so totally removed from the person she’d fallen in love with—so bitter and caustic—she’d barely recognised him. The ugly scene that had ensued as Jake followed her when she went to the restroom was indelibly etched into her mind. As hard as she’d tried to erase it from her memory banks, she recalled it as vividly as if it had happened mere hours ago.

She sank against the hard support of the restroom wall with relief, shaking from head to toe. Her wobbly legs threatened to collapse beneath her. Releasing a pent-up breath, she raised her hands to cover her face.

Seconds later, the sounds of conversation and laughter from the restaurant intensified over the softly piped music in the room when the door swung open. Her hands slid from her face and her eyes were snared by the intense, smouldering fury radiating from Jake.

Words froze on her lips when she opened her mouth to protest at his presence in the ladies’ room. All she could manage was some strangled, inarticulate sound as she saw tension etched into each of Jake’s features. His lips were drawn into a thin line and his jaw clenched, causing a tiny pulse to flick above his jawline.

None too gently, he raised her left hand and stared at the diamond ring and wedding band on her ring finger.

‘You married Bennett,’ he stated coldly.

All she could do was nod.

‘Is it really Bennett’s child you’re carrying, or could it be mine?’ Each word was clipped and controlled. There was no inflection, no emotion in his voice, but his stress was palpable.

Amanda swallowed hard in an effort to ease the constriction in her throat. The thought of carrying Jake’s child made her heart squeeze in her chest. Tears pricked and stung her eyes as she mourned the loss of that fantasy.

She would never carry Jake’s child.

Jake was lost to her forever. He belonged to Sophie Hamilton and she was married to Lloyd.

She pressed her lips together to prevent the whimper of pain from escaping and reminded herself she couldn’t lose something she’d never really had. Jake had always belonged to the other woman.

‘Answer me,’ he ground out with ferocity. His hand dropped hers and both his strong hands grasped her upper arms as he gave her a slight shake. ‘Is the child mine?’

‘No,’ she gasped.

She watched in horrified fascination as he paled beneath his tan. For a split second she thought he looked sick, then the dark eyes that burned into her narrowed, and she glimpsed…what? An emotion she couldn’t identify flashed through his expression. The Adam’s apple in his throat worked up and down before the shutters closed on his features. His hands dropped away from her as though she was a piece of contaminated waste.

His lips curled in revulsion. ‘I was your first lover. The moment we were parted you jumped straight into Bennett’s bed. God, Amanda, you disgust me. The man’s old enough to be your father.’

‘Jake, I...’ There was nothing she could say. She was caught neatly in the trap of Lloyd’s lies.

‘Obviously he wasn’t as careful as I was about contraception,’ he said. ‘More fool him.’

He turned away momentarily and she watched in mute horror at the clenching and unclenching of his hands at his sides.

‘Congratulations on snaring yourself a wealthy husband,’ he sneered. ‘You’re quite a piece of work.’

The miniscule amount of food she’d forced down for entrée threatened to re-appear.

‘I don’t know who to pity more—you for marrying a man who has a dubious reputation, or Bennett for marrying a scheming gold-digger.’

‘Jake…’ She wanted to explain, wanted to defend herself, but she couldn’t talk to him about her marriage. Besides, he was at the restaurant with Sophie Hamilton. How dare he attack her when he was planning marriage to Sophie?

‘My father was right about you,’ he said bitterly. ‘You were always in it for the money. You must have thought you’d hit the jackpot when I asked you out.’

‘No! I had no idea who you were when we met.’ She denied the claim, forgetting how convenient it had been for Jake to use her when all along he’d been involved with Sophie.

‘You knew!’ he declared. ‘You’d hardly give me your sacred virginity unless you thought it would pay handsome dividends. Too bad you didn’t stick around long enough to collect on your precious down payment.’

The distaste on his features scored into her heart.

Her gaze dropped to the floor tiles because she couldn’t look at him any longer. It was too hurtful to see his handsome features twisted in vicious condemnation.

‘Thank God I was always responsible for contraception, otherwise you might have tried to foist this child on me.’

His words cut. She wanted to scream out her innocence, to confess the truth to him.

She wasn’t pregnant. Not with his child or anyone else’s!

Lloyd was a liar. The fake pregnancy was a smokescreen to hide the real reason behind their hastily arranged marriage. But she couldn’t explain that to Jake. For her aunt’s sake, Amanda had to live through Lloyd’s lie.

‘Bennett is welcome to you. You were suitable mistress material, but hardly the sort of woman I’d want as a wife.’

Crushed, tears spilled out of her eyes. But at least she was saved the humiliation of him witnessing her distress. The door clicked behind him as he exited. She crumpled against the wall while he returned to have dinner with the woman who would make him a fitting wife.

Mistress material. Today, the words he’d uttered still tore savagely at her soul. Self-preservation demanded she find out what Jake wanted and get him out of life as quickly as possible. There was no point in dredging up all that had happened between them.

She tried to calm herself. ‘The past is better left where it belongs. What do you want?’

‘You walked away from me before I was ready to let you go.’ Jake’s voice was steely.