In the Market for Love (9 page)

She knew he’
d follow her.

*          *          *

Jake was behind her as she bounded out of the restaurant and up the stairs, the taut muscles of her calves twitching above her strappy heeled sandals, her skirt swaying as it brushed against her legs.

He was quicker and stronger as he stretched
one arm out to hold the door closed at the top of the stairs. He wanted to prolong their time together and steal whatever moments he could.

Rachel
gazed up at him through lowered lids. “You’re not thinking of breaking your promise, are you?”

“Whatever gives you that idea?”

He could see she was enjoying this, revelling in the power he’d inadvertently given her with that promise.

He pulled
his arm back from the door. He wouldn’t stop her from leaving, nor would he attempt to kiss her, no matter how much he wanted to.

At the top of the darkened stairs the air was cool but between them it was a humid haze
, a barrier Jake dared not cross.

He
took in the rich crimson of Rachel’s top, her neckline exposed so enticingly, the bare ivory skin pale and smooth. The top showed off her collarbones before the sweep down to the swell of her breasts. He wanted to reach out. He wanted her.

Jake took a step back and
pulled the door open. If she stood before him any longer he’d no longer be a man who kept his word.

“I keep my promises,” he sai
d.

Rachel stood her ground
and looked him up and down.

She lifted one hand and brushed it gently against the small area of tanned skin at his neck where his shirt was slightly open. With a touch that was barely there, her fingertips moved
upwards to cup his jaw in her hand. She arched her neck and pressed her lips against his.

“
I
didn’t make any promises,” she said, her mouth still close to his.

Then she left.

A bolt of excitement burned inside him. That woman knew exactly how to play with him. Tease him.

What was he doing? He hadn’t told her about his marriage yet he’d found the chan
ce to tell her about his mother and grandmother.

Rachel certainly had a lot in common with the women in his fami
ly. She’d had more than her fair share of trials with the death of her husband and the debts he’d left her. There was more to that story than she was letting on. Yet she didn’t dwell on it morbidly or wallow in self-pity. Instead she was filled with a radiant vitality.

Jake shook his head. He’d wanted
her to show some interest in his son. He’d mentioned Connor’s name several times, waiting for her to respond but she didn’t. Was it possible she wasn’t interested in children? Or in a man with a child?

H
e didn’t care. He seethed in a blaze of longing he’d never before experienced. He would have her.

And now,
what could possibly stand in his way?

Rachel had never known
a man who made her feel the way Jake did.

A tingle shot up her spine as she remembered the way he’d kissed her in the boardroom, the way he’d pushed her to the edge.

It had been dangerous.

And she wanted to go there again.

It was only natural that kiss should come to mind since the agency offices were only a few floors above her. Rachel’s boss had asked her to hand deliver some important documents to their company lawyers who were in the same building as Agency 66.

The agency had revised one of their concepts for the campaign and it was waiting to be collected. She was already in the building. It made sense for her to collect it now.

She handed over the legal documents, closed the door behind her and ambled towards the landing with two banks of elevator doors on either side. Reaching for the lift button, her fingers trembled as they hovered over it.

It was as though the hand wasn’t hers. It belonged to someone else.

Up or down? Up to the agency? Or down to exit the building?

Jake had stopped by her office unannounced. He hadn’t cared if she were busy or unavailable. He
hadn’t thought it brash or rude. And it wasn’t. They were colleagues. And now they were something more. Surely she could be equally assertive.

“Up or down?” she asked herself softly, surprised to hear the words come out loud.

“Down please.” A deep male voice came from behind her.

Rachel spun her head around to see a tall man in a business suit. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t even heard the shuffle of his footsteps on the marble floor.

“Certainly,” she said.

This time there was no hesitation, no tentativeness.
She hit the button.

“I’m going up,” she added.

She arched her neck upwards and the recollection of the dizzying height to which Jake had taken her came flooding back to her again. She was going all the way to the top.

*          *          *

“Why did you come here today?” Jake asked, incensed that Bianca dared visit him at the agency over some petty matter.

She
flung her pale hair behind her shoulders. She was the mother of his child. That was the only reason she was still part of his life.

“I
had some time after I finished at the hairdresser,” she said.

When
she and Jake first met, her hair had been light brown, streaked a gentle honey blonde by the sun. Now it was chemically bleached and straightened. Stripped of all colour, it hung brittle and lifeless down her back.

It struck Jake that their relationship was equally d
rained of its lustre. There wasn’t much left between them and the little which remained was increasingly hard work. And extremely fragile.

No wonder he’d never given her his grandmother’s engagement ring. Perhaps he’d known even then that things wouldn’t work out between them, though he hadn’t wanted to face it
at the time.

Bianca leaned over his
desk to admire a photo of Connor. Jake looked away. He didn’t need to see her breasts hanging out of a particularly revealing red top. Since a breast enhancement three years ago, she was continually putting her chest on display with skimpy clothing. Very little of her was natural any more.

She flitted
quickly past the pin-up board covered with Connor’s drawings and stopped to pay homage to the spectacular views from Jake’s office. The hint of a contemptuous sneer on her face, she glanced around the rest of the room as though it was in need of severe maintenance.

Seeing Bianca standing in his office, it struck Jake that she simply didn’t fit into his world. Her main concerns seemed to be with appearances, shopping and lunch dates. She had no idea what it was like
to work and run a business. What’s more, she was completely devoid of any sense that she might be out of place.

“I asked you w
hy you came,” he said.

Her
lips curled to a smug smile. “Because we’ve got some business to discuss.”

Both of them
knew exactly why she’d come to Jake’s office. The same reason she phoned him at work. Because it riled him.

“Fine,” h
e said. “Let’s get on with it then.”

“It’s about that trip to Italy you suggested.”

He opened his mouth to argue but thought better of it. “Go on.”

“I think it’s an excellen
t idea. A month away will do me good.”

Jake nodded, refusing to speak. He knew Bianca had something else to say and he wasn’t going to make it easy for her.

She sauntered over to his desk and ran her fingers along the edge of the mahogany. “I’ve booked already. I’ll be leaving in a few weeks. So I’ll be away over the school holidays. You’ll have to take of Connor.”

Always putting her needs and desires ahead of those of her child. This was typical of her.

Jake’s mind spun into overdrive as he thought of the projects he was managing, who he could delegate them to and meetings that would need to be rescheduled. One thing was for certain. He wasn’t prepared to let his son have two dreary weeks at home with the nanny because his mother had abandoned him.

He raked a hand through his hair
. “Do you have any idea how hard this is for me? Any idea how hard it is to juggle everything at work at such short notice. I’ve got an advertising agency to run, you know.”

L
ips pursed, she held his gaze. “You know, you’ve seemed different lately. Like you’ve had something big on your mind. But if your business is more important to you than your son–”

“For crying out loud, woman. You’re the one flitting off to Italy, not me.”

“I can always stay here if you don’t want me to go.”

“Go, go!” Jake exploded. “I want you to go.”

Fine. She could go away for a month and spend as much money as she wanted. He’d be glad to be rid of her.

*          *          *

Rachel stepped out of the lift, pushed open the agency’s heavy glass door and strode to the reception desk where she asked for Jake only to be told he was with someone at the moment.

“Please take a seat,” the receptionist said. “I’ll phone through and see if he’ll be free soon.”

Just then Marcus appeared, a friendly smile washing over his face as soon as he recognised her. “You must be after Jake?”

Rachel nodded
.

“Don’t worry about it, Anne,” Marcus said to the receptionist. “Jake’s visitor is on the way out. I’ll show Rachel through.”

“Thanks,” she said.

*          *          *

“Jake darling, I don’t know why you don’t take one of the bigger offices.” Bianca’s voice sailed over her shoulder as she ambled out of his office door. “The harbour view is excellent but this office really doesn’t do you justice.”

She and Jake had had this
conversation many times before. He owned the agency yet he hadn’t chosen the largest, most prestigious office for himself and no matter how many times he tried to explain, she’d never understand.

Bianca waved her hand vaguely in the direction of the two larger offices down the hallway but she was already
on her way out. She didn’t want a reply.

Then h
e saw her.

Rachel.

Being led down the hallway by Marcus.

With Bianca head
ing towards them.

Jake stood still, unable to stir, as the world
around him moved slowly.

Bianca crept gradually towards Rachel. Marcus stopped, as if sensing something might be amiss. And Rachel, uncorrupted and pure, was gliding towards disaster with innocent grace.

Jake watched as if it were happening in slow motion. It was as though a baseball bat were being swung into a window and he was too slow, too far away to stop it.

A
ll he could do was watch and wait for the glass to shatter.

*          *          *

The vision of Jake, darkly handsome as he stood in his office doorway, brought a smile to Rachel’s lips.

He cupped his chin in one hand, his expres
sion intense. He looked a bit ruffled this afternoon which was unusual but the slightly tousled hair and gentle frown made him more handsome. The imperfections, if you could call them that, only highlighted his good looks.

Suddenly a bright halo of long blond
hair took Rachel’s attention as a voluptuous woman strutted past. She was a striking figure with her blouse gaping as she thrust her chest out. Rachel looked away, embarrassed to find herself staring at another woman’s breasts.

Behind her, Marcus’ voice took her attention and she turned,
thinking he was saying goodbye to her. Instead he’d linked arms with the blond woman as he led her away.

Rachel shrugged. She hadn’t come here to see Marcus, after all.

She bounded towards Jake.

*          *          *

Jake ushered Rachel into his office. Down the hallway, he saw Bianca leave and Marcus slip into his own office.

It was a miracle
. Rachel and Bianca had slid past each other as though magnetic forces of repulsion kept them apart. If Rachel had arrived two minutes earlier, he didn’t know what he would have done. Bianca and Rachel in the same room. He shuddered at the thought. That was never meant to be.

His relief was immeasurable but short lived. He had to tell her. Now. He should never have let it get this far.

He closed his office door, something he never did. His door was quite literally always open to his staff. Today he needed privacy.

Rachel tossed her dark hair behind her shoulders, looked around, then turned
to face him. “You have a lovely office.”

Floor to ceiling windows
looked out onto the harbour. Inside, an enormous abstract painting hung on one wall. The pin-up board showing off Connor’s colourful drawings sat on the other side.