to have an appropriate occasion on which to wear the exotic outfit she had bought in Hong Kong.
At the time of purchase, she’d had no idea that the glamorous evening suit could take on another meaning. She had seen it as wonderfully rich and perfect for her height and colouring. Tonight it had a special impact.
The jacket was highly dramatic with a design of dragons in gold and russet woven onto a lustrous pearl silk brocade. The heart-shaped neckline dipped to a row of five buttons that fastened the bodice to figure-moulding tightness. The sleeves were long and fitted, with the dragon motif featuring below the elbow. The jacket flared out over the hips, giving it a winged effect. Below it flowed a beautiful full-length circular skirt in russet silk, gold thread crisscrossing it in a diamond pattern that made it shimmer like dragon scales.
Jayne had added some complementary costume jewellery; a gold mesh necklace threaded with pearls, and long, dangly earrings of chunkier gold, studded with pearls. The massed red ringlets of her hair formed a fiery showcase for their glitter and gleam.
She had certainly turned the heads of Lin Zhiyong’s other guests. Dragon Lady was making her presence felt tonight. But would Dan respond with the respect she needed from him?
‘Ah, Mr. Drayton has arrived,’ Lin Zhiyong announced, apparently picking up some signal from the aide stationed by the gateway. ‘You will accompany me to greet him?’ he invited, obviously wanting to observe their meeting firsthand.
‘Thank you,’ Jayne accepted, maintaining her pose of absolute confidence as she matched her step to his.
How she didn’t falter when Dan entered the garden was little short of a miracle. Her heart certainly stopped in shock, kicking painfully when it resumed beating again. Her mind locked, one thought only exploding within the jammed compartment.
Baby…
He was holding a baby…a real baby…cradled contentedly in the crook of his arm…a baby with the face of a cherub, chubby little hands waving excitedly, a rosebud mouth blowing bubbles as she gurgled her delight in the glowing paper lanterns strung around the garden.
A baby with black curly hair…
Like Dan’s!
A baby that looked to be about nine months old, certainly less than a year.
It was two years since she had rejected Dan’s idea of having a baby to give her something to do, to keep her happy in their marriage, to hold her with him; ample time for him to father this child with some other woman; the baby she had denied him; denied herself.
The baby was observing her now, wide-eyed with wonder, dark-eyed like Dan…and there was an ache of emptiness in Jayne’s stomach, a heavy, dragging feeling in her thighs, a cramping in her heart.
Somehow her feet kept moving. Dan had come to a standstill, obviously having observed her approach with Lin Zhiyong and waiting for the formal welcome to the Chinese official’s home. It was not until they were virtually face-to-face that Jayne managed to wrench her gaze from his child to look directy at the man who no longer belonged to her, and would never belong to her again.
‘Hello, Dan.’ It was all she could think of to say. Her voice was smoky, insubstantial, barely emerging from the sense of dead ashes, all that was left now of their former relationship.
‘Jayne…’
The bare acknowledgement was spoken in a guarded tone. The face that had once captivated her with its entrancing mobility of expression was unnaturally still, highlighting the distinctive bone structure that had fascinated her when he was asleep; the planes of his forehead, nose, cheeks, chin, all seeming to flow gracefully, one to the other in a complement of strength, yet the soft sensuality of his mouth hinting at a poetic soul that was at odds with the tensile power of his long, lean body.
His dark eyes clashed briefly with hers before turning to their host, and Jayne was left with a disturbing impression of deep, smouldering anger. She performed the ritual introductions with passable aplomb, yet she was acutely aware of a pins-and-needles sensation firing through her body, an instinctive alert to danger.
Despite the baby, despite whatever he shared with its mother, Dan Drayton was no more indifferent to this situation than she was, and exploding mountains was not the only explosion he had in mind. The life she had crafted without him was on a short fuse. She would have to tread very carefully once she was alone with him.
DAN was so used to dealing with officials in foreign countries, Lin Zhiyong presented no problem to him. He exchanged the proper courtesies with the appropriate amount of respect, and Jayne had to admire his deft charm in sidestepping some subtly probing questions from their wily host. Dan was giving nothing away, not his private nor his professional motives for being here.
Having gained no useful information whatsoever, Lin Zhiyong found his presence required by other guests and moved away to observe what transpired between Dan and Jayne at a distance. Jayne had privately decided that if she stuck rigidly to business she was on safe ground.
‘Shall we stroll around the pond?’ Dan suggested, taking the initiative from her with consummate ease. ‘It will entertain Baby. I trust we have some leisure time for entertaining Baby this evening.’
Jayne felt a flush scorching up her neck and quickly half turned to accompany him side-by-side. If he hadn’t exactly misled her about Baby when she had called him, he had certainly not laid out the truth for her. Nevertheless, she hated the feeling of being in the wrong, hated even more Dan driving it home to her.
‘I didn’t realise that Baby was actually a baby,’ she admitted, wanting to clear the decks between them. ‘When I called you I was still in shock from Monty’s collapse.’
‘Monty now, is it? You called him Mr. Castle on the phone.’
‘I didn’t know how well you knew him.’
‘How well do you know him?’
The pointed question startled her into glancing at him. His gaze locked onto hers, holding it. He looked dark and dangerous, his eyes glittering with savage mockery. She stopped walking and confronted him face-on, deeply insulted by what he was implying.
‘Are you asking if I’m sleeping with a man who’s old enough to be my father?’ she demanded, her own eyes projecting twin bolts of blue lightning to sizzle that idea out of his brain.
‘It’s been done by many a younger woman than you, Jayne. They usually have one thing in common.’ His gaze raked her from head to foot. ‘They’re magnificently dressed and dripping with jewellery.’
Jayne almost stamped her foot in outrage at his horribly false interpretation of her dressing tonight. ‘I bought this outfit myself,’ she declared, breathing fire. ‘In Hong Kong where we had a few days’ stopover before coming on here. And the jewellery is costume jewellery, which I also bought myself.’
‘It must have cost a lot.’
‘I earn a lot. And Monty Castle is my boss. Nothing more.’
‘An extremely generous boss.’
‘He
