he hadn’t realised earlier that Stazy’s temperament matched her long, fiery-red hair. Later, he promised himself.
‘My darling boy—’
‘I am not your “darling” anything,’ he snarled, his expression contemptuous, completely unmoved by Stella’s kittenish looks; in her case, they were only skindeep! Literally. As her favourite cosmetic surgeon knew only too well! Hell, she looked little older than he did, forty at the most, and yet of course she was much older than that... ‘I suggest we get out of here.’ He firmly grasped her arm as he closed the door behind him, turning her to leave. ‘Before anyone else becomes aware of your presence.’
Stella stood her ground in the hallway. ‘I’m not going anywhere, Jordan,’ she resisted. ‘I want to see Jonathan on his wedding day. And, of course, Jarrett—’
‘Aren’t you rather presuming that any of us want to see you?’ Jarrett rasped harshly from behind them, having quietly left the reception room to join them. ‘And in the circumstances that’s presuming all too damned much! You’re an uninvited guest, Stella,’ he added coldly, looking down the length of his arrogant nose at her. ‘I suggest you leave right now—before I have you thrown out!’
Jordan looked admiringly at his oldest brother. As usual, Jarrett wasn’t pulling his punches. Stella now had an unattractive flush to her cheeks, her eyes glittering dangerously at Jarrett’s insulting tone, meeting his gaze challengingly. But, nonetheless, Jordan was in no doubt who would win this particular battle of wills!
‘You wouldn’t do that, Jarrett.’ Stella was finally the one to speak—and not as confidently as her words implied, either.
Jarrett’s mouth thinned. ‘Try me,’ he returned softly, meeting her defiance unflinchingly.
‘But I haven’t even seen Jonathan yet,’ Stella protested. ‘Or met his bride—’
‘And you aren’t about to, either,’ Jarrett bit back. ‘In another couple of hours Jonathan and Gaye will leave the reception. So far they have had a perfect day; I don’t intend letting you ruin it for them!’
‘That’s a very cruel thing to say to me, Jarrett. But then you always were unfeeling,’ Stella told him emotionally.
As displays went, it was certainly a good one, Jordan acknowledged cynically; tears swam in those huge brown eyes, and her chin quivered ever so slightly in an effort to control herself. But Jordan knew as well as Jarrett did that it was all an act; Stella had never cared for anyone else in the whole of her life, and she was too damned old to change now—despite her cosmetic surgeon!
Jordan’s mouth pursed contemptuously. ‘Jarrett is right, Stella,’ he said coldly. ‘You aren’t staying.’
He inwardly acknowledged he hadn’t exactly been the life and soul of the party today himself—for which he probably owed Stazy an apology. No wonder she had decided to leave so abruptly; she had been as sick of his company as he was!
But he also knew that Stella’s presence at the wedding reception was tantamount to introducing a cat amongst the pigeons. ‘I’ll take you wherever you want to go,’ he offered. ‘But you aren’t staying here.’
‘Oh, but I am,’ Stella informed him confidently. ‘Quite literally. I have a suite booked on the fourth floor!’ she announced triumphantly.
Where she had no doubt waited out the first part of the evening before coming down here to make her entrance! For Jordan didn’t doubt this whole thing had been premeditated, and he could see by Jarrett’s narrowed eyes that he knew it too.
‘What do you want, Stella?’ Jarrett snapped impatiently.
Her head went back defensively. ‘Why should you assume I want anything?’
Jarrett sighed. ‘Because your sort always want something—’
‘My sort!’ she repeated in a voice rising with hysteria. ‘How dare you? How dare you—?’
‘Believe me, he dares,’ Jordan told her dryly, still retaining that firm grasp of her arm; there was no way she was going to slip past both of them and make her entrance as planned. ‘And so dare I. Let’s go. Quietly,’ he instructed firmly, aware that he and Jarrett couldn’t remain out here for much longer before attracting attention to the fact they were both missing from the reception.
He didn’t give Stella any more opportunity to argue with him, pulling her along beside him down the hallway and back into the main reception of the hotel.
She waited only that long before pulling her arm out of his grip, glaring up at him, her face set in an angry mask. ‘You have no right, Jordan—’
‘I have every right!’ he returned icily. ‘And so does Jarrett. Jonathan too, if he knew you were here.’ He shook his head. ‘I can’t believe the nerve of you, just turning up here and expecting a welcome!’
‘I am your mother!’ she cried furiously.
He looked at her dispassionately. Yes, this woman had given birth to him. To Jarrett and Jonathan too. But his mother...?
He didn’t think so! He had been fourteen when she’d walked out on him, his two older brothers, and her newly bankrupt husband. The previous years of his life had been filled with a long line of his mother’s lovers, and her verbally violent rows with their cuckolded father. As for the loving and caring part of motherhood—! Jarrett and Jonathan had more or less brought him up, looked out for him, even before their mother left; in fact, he couldn’t remember a single occasion when she had been there for him...
‘Mother is only a word, Stella,’ he said frigidly. ‘And in your case it isn’t even correct.’
He looked at her critically, her beauty, the slender figure, the fashionable clothes. None of it impressed him. He had seen this woman only once in the last twenty years, very briefly, after her second marriage had fallen apart and before she’d found husband number three. She had come to London to seek out her ‘little boys’, though at twenty-five, twenty-seven and twenty-nine they had hardly been that any more. If, indeed, they ever had been...
‘What’s happened, Stella?’ he asked dryly. ‘Has husband number three grown tired of you too?’
The angry flush that coloured her cheeks told him he had guessed correctly. It hadn’t been too difficult; they might have no contact with her, but Jarrett, in his wisdom, kept a weather eye on her life—in the hopes of ensuring it never interfered with theirs!
Stella looked at him accusingly. ‘You’re becoming as hard and unfeeling as Jarrett!’
‘We both had a good teacher,’ he returned hardly.
Stazy should be back at her apartment by now. If he could get away from Stella, return to the reception and make his excuses to Jonathan and Gaye, he might just be in time to call on Stazy before she went to bed...
Stazy in bed... That lithe, silken body naked, her only adornment her long flaming red hair...
Now there was something worth seeing. How ever could he not have noticed what a stirringly beautiful and desirable woman Stazy was?
He had been acting like a complete idiot all evening, scowling at everyone, barely
