it and had no intention of hiding her hard-earned shape under dowdy matronly clothes. Lord, she was only twenty-two, not fifty-two!
Sliding from the kitchen stool, however, reminded her that the jeans she had on were close to obscene, they were so tight. Maybe she should hunt out something of Auntie Ava’s to put on. The old dear was always buying things in sales that were several sizes too small.
Jade was on the way through the family-room, heading in the direction of the front hall when the doorbell rang. ‘I’ll get it, Melanie,’ she shouted back over her shoulder. ‘It’s sure to be the mysterious Mr Armstrong.’
‘Find out if he’s staying to dinner, will you, Jade?’ Melanie called back. ‘And if he wants tea or coffee.’
‘Will do.’
She was whistling when she opened the door, her whistle changing to a low wolf-whistle as she took in the man standing there. God, but he was gorgeous! Tall, without being too tall, black curly hair, olive skin, lean saturnine features and piercing black eyes. His thick dark eyelashes were curly too, the bottom ones resting on high cheekbones that looked as if they’d been carved in stone.
He looked as if he’d been carved in stone, so still was he. And so totally unaffected by her none too subtle whistle.
Jade thought she detected the slightest flicker of something when his hard gaze raked over her eyecatching form. But if he was in any way impressed by what he saw he certainly didn’t show it. Instead, there was a fractional lifting of his already sardonically arched eyebrows before he spoke in a voice reminiscent of Melanie’s for its lack of emotion.
‘Good afternoon,’ he said coolly. ‘Mr Whitmore is expecting me. Kyle Armstrong.’
I wonder if there’s a Mrs Armstrong, was Jade’s first thought, not at all put out by the man’s apparent indifference to her charms. Nothing like a good challenge. It would make for a pleasant change. But she never tampered with married men. That was one of the lines she drew.
Pity other people didn’t, she thought bitterly.
Her attention returned to the man before her. He wasn’t wearing a wedding-ring but he was too good-looking not to be married. Taking a wild stab at his age, she came up with somewhere between twenty-eight and thirty-two. She was always hopeless at ages. She’d thought Roberto around thirty and he’d been closer to forty!
‘Good afternoon, Mr Armstrong,’ she greeted, holding out her hand and flashing him one of her most winning smiles. Her dentist had every reason to be proud of the perfectly even white teeth she displayed. ‘Yes, my father mentioned he was expecting you. Do come in. I’ll take you to him.’
Her smile turned slightly smug at Mr Armstrong’s startled reaction to her announcing her relationship with the man he’d come to see. Possibly, he expected any daughter of the wealthy Byron Whitmore to be dressed a little more classily. Or maybe he hadn’t known Byron had a daughter?
Now that was an interesting speculation. Still, Jade appreciated her father wouldn’t go round proudly showing her photograph to every Tom, Dick and Harry. He was probably terrified one of them might recognise her as the little bit of fluff they’d had one night. After all, if she’d slept with as many men as her father and Nathan presumed, Byron was bound to come across one sooner or later!
Jade brushed aside the jab of dismay this thinking brought and wondered for the first time what business the gorgeous Mr Armstrong was in. He had to be calling on business. Why else would he be dressed in a dark grey suit on a hot Saturday afternoon? Besides, her father was not one for male friends of the personal kind. He was close to Nathan, and had a type of friendship with Zachary Marsden. But that too was partly business. Zachary had been the Whitmores’ legal advisor for as long as she could remember.
Jade shut the front door and turned to their guest. He was no longer looking at her but was glancing around the house. Assessingly, she thought.
‘This way...’ She waved him along the downstairs hall that went under the staircase. Byron’s study being the second last door on the right. ‘Mr. Armstrong...’ She began as they walked side by side.
‘Kyle,’ he returned coolly. ‘Call me Kyle.’
‘How nice. Kyle, then.’ She smiled over at him. ‘And I’m Jade.’
‘Jade,’ he repeated, but said nothing more. He didn’t smile back, either.
Jade felt a momentary irritation. She didn’t like men she couldn’t read, or who didn’t react the way she expected them to. It came to her abruptly that she didn’t like men who were challenges after all. She much preferred men who fell victim to her charms immediately, and who pursued her doggedly. She enjoyed leading them a merry dance, making them almost beg for her favours, favours she did not bestow left, right and centre, au contraire to popular opinion.
She slid a sidewards glance over at the man beside her. In profile, he was not as pretty. His nose was sharp. His chin jutted stubbornly. He was not a man to beg for anything, of that she was certain. He was also staring steadfastly forward as they walked along the hallway together.
But if Jade’s mind found Mr Armstrong’s rude indifference highly offputting, her body did not. Just looking at him was making her stomach curl with a quite alien sensation. Dear God, but she would give anything to have him want her as she was suddenly wanting him.
Jade only managed to stop herself gasping in shock. For she had never really wanted a man like that in her entire life!
Oh, yes, she’d once been mad about the opposite sex, thriving on the dizzying excitement of being desired and needed and loved. But she’d been very young then, a teenager desperately looking for love and attention and approval, finding substitutes for all three in the kisses and arms of her boyfriends.
But she’d only had two actual lovers during her teenage years, not a zillion, her last serious relationship breaking up well before Nathan came back to Belleview to live after his separation from Lenore. That was when Jade’s hero worship for her adopted brother had flared to a full-blown infatuation, and, while her feelings for Nathan had seemed part sexual at the time, she could see now that they hadn’t touched the surface of real desire. Real desire was what she was feeling at this moment.
Yes, she’d tried to seduce Nathan, but not looking for sexual satisfaction—frankly, she’d never found intercourse at all memorable—but as a way to recapture his love and attention, the love and attention he’d once bestowed on her as a child and which had made her young life bearable. Admittedly, after that first bold kiss of hers, he’d quickly turned the tables on her, taking the initiative and managing to arouse her quite stunningly before he’d abruptly terminated the encounter. Her body had undoubtedly been left aching with physical frustration, which might explain why she’d raced precipitately into the arms of a new admirer a couple of days later.
The next morning, however, she’d felt ashamed of herself for the first time in her life. She’d only met the man the previous night at a party, where admittedly she’d had too much to drink. Not that that was any excuse. At least, she hadn’t gone out with him again.
There had been several admirers since. But none had persuaded her into his bed.
Jade conceded, however, that Kyle Armstrong would not have much trouble doing just that.
Suddenly, she hoped he was married. That would put an end to this amazingly intense
