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  But then he did soften. It was obvious in his glance, his very demeanour. ‘She’s not a well woman, our Jessica,’ he said, and Holly could see the concern, the genuine concern. ‘And it would be best, whatever we think, if when we arrive in Port Hedland she thinks we’re at least ...’

  ‘At least what?’ Holly finally had to demand. He’d left the sentence hanging in mid-air, but with something, some undercurrent that left her rigidly alert, cautious.

  He grinned, and it was that infuriating grin of a ten- year-old with a secret. ‘It’s ... a bit tricky to explain without you blowing your top, especially under the circumstances. Let’s just say it’s rather important to Jessica that we, uhm, like each other.’

  Holly’s stomach flip-flopped as realisation struck her. It couldn’t be true; it mustn’t. She could handle almost anything, especially for the sake of her aunt’s health, but ... this? Her voice was squeaky when she finally got out the words. ‘Like each other just exactly how?’

  ‘Oh, I think you can figure it out easily enough,’ he replied, and this time his grin was genuinely rueful.

  ‘She’s been matchmaking!’ Holly spat out the obvious truth as if it left a bad taste in her mouth. No wonder this man had been so put out at her apparent style. What a jolt it must have been to find himself matched with a ... a ... gold-digger. Or worse, she thought, but couldn’t admit to the word for it.

  Then she caught Wade’s glance and realised she was only half right. That the truth was far more involved and far more convoluted than she had ever begun to imagine.

  And — silently, because out loud would be worse than a waste of time — she wished Amanda dead.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ‘It’s worse than just matchmaking, isn’t it?’ she heard herself asking in a small, almost childlike voice. And dreading the answer. ‘She’s convinced herself that the match has already been made, hasn’t she?’

  Wade’s glance was a curious mixture of sympathy and sternness. Not that she could expect much else, Holly thought. What a shock his eavesdropping must have been! Bad enough to know he was the unwilling half of a matchmaking venture by some woman he truly cared for, but to find the other half was — or at least appeared — little better than a whore ...

  ‘Well then she’ll just have to think again, won’t she,’ Holly said. ‘Because while I think we might — just might — be able to conceal our mutual antipathy, I can’t imagine either of us being good enough at acting to carry off the impression of anything more ...’

  ‘Intimate?’ he said when she found her tongue twisting and unable to finish a simple statement. And his eyes were alight now with an unholy glow that made Holly distinctly wary. That single word, just the way he’d said it, was enough to touch her body like a caress, and she hated herself for her reaction.

  ‘Mutual antipathy is, I’d suggest, putting it much too strong, but intimate ... well ... I thought you put on a rather good performance of that earlier today,’ he said, and quite without warning reached out to take her hand.

  Holly never had a chance. She tried to retract her hand, but his lean fingers held her captive while his thumb stroked idly at the racing pulse in her wrist.

  ‘And it was an act, of course,’ he said rather musingly. ‘My, what a strange girl you are. You talked so far from innocence, there with your tarty friend at the airport, but you can put on a blush without even trying, or tears, or even a fit of trembling. Makes me wonder which was really the act, and if you, yourself, really know.’

  And he laughed, softly, but it seemed cruel, barbed laughter that tore at Holly’s composure, wounding her as effectively as he did with his caressing, deceitful fingers.

  ‘Damn you,’ she whispered, trying vainly to pull away her hand, yet inwardly wishing it could stay in his grasp forever.

  ‘Why?’ he whispered in return. ‘For turning you on? And don’t bother to deny it; your pulse is racing like wildfire.’

  ‘That’s anger, not being turned on,’ she lied, trying again to snatch her hand free. ‘You, of all people, should know that nothing you do is likely to turn me on. Mutual antipathy ... remember?’

  ‘I remember,’ he said with an enigmatic glance. ‘But will you? Maybe we’ll have to see about that, later.’ And her heart sank with the sudden realisation of where she’d be spending that night. Alone ... in a private flat to which only Wade Bannister held the key.

  ‘Let’s not bother,’ she sneered as convincingly as she knew how. ‘I’m sure even Aunt Jessica would draw the line someplace in her illusions. At least, I wish she had.’

  ‘As do I,’ he muttered, and released her wrist so suddenly that Holly practically felt the ice, the contempt.

  But then, to her utter surprise, he burst into laughter. And it was genuine laughter, not staged and not filled with the bitterness she might have expected. ‘Poor old Jess,’ he chuckled. ‘So many dreams, but forgetting there were real people behind them with a ... an instant mutual antipathy. It’s a bit sad, really. But then,’ and now his eyes were hard, cold with the seriousness of his thoughts, ‘I suppose we’ll just have to let her down as gently as we can. Who knows, by the time we’ve collaborated that long we might actually get along.’

  Then warning flags went up behind his eyes, but Holly leapt into the breach with an immediate demand for more information. ‘Just how bad is it?’ she cried softly. ‘What, exactly, is Jessica going to expect from us?’

  ‘A lot more compatibility than either of us seems able to muster,’ was his reply, placid and yet somehow definite, firm.

  ‘And you’re positive that she wouldn’t accept that we’re just not compatible?’

  ‘Positive,’ he replied without hesitation. ‘Especially because based on everything she knows — or thinks she knows — we ought to be very compatible.’

  ‘Which is something she couldn’t possibly have determined without a lot of help from you,’ Holly guessed out loud. And had to stop herself from verbalising a regret that he’d shown up late at the airport, that he’d overheard a conversation — a monologue, really — that could give him nothing but the most unfair and worst of impressions.

  Wade shrugged, the gesture that nebulous type that could have meant anything at all. ‘We did talk about you a fair bit, or at least Jessica did. All I ever did was honestly say that I thought your pictures showed you must be a very attractive young woman; she took it from there.’

  Holly could have cried. What a horrible mistake, what a useless mistake, she thought. If only she’d known, but she hadn’t, and perhaps it was best this way. Meeting Wade Bannister on her aunt’s terms, she might have fallen all too easily into the still-ready trap.

  ‘Well, what do you propose to do about it?’ she demanded peevishly. And when he didn’t answer immediately, seeming to be lost in thoughts of his own, a sudden rash of vengeful brilliance occurred to her. It was perfect, the more so because it might ensure that he’d leave her alone, permanently.

  ‘Maybe we should just get married on the way to the airport,’ she said brightly, and had the satisfaction — the immense satisfaction — of seeing him blanch at the thought. It was only for a second, but Holly knew she’d struck a nerve as surely as if she’d used a dentist’s drill on him.

  ‘I really think it would suffice if we could appear just reasonably friendly,’ he said, the words sliding through clenched teeth. ‘Even your Aunt Jessica can’t be expecting miracles.’

  ‘Oh, but think how pleased she’d be,’ Holly cooed, twisting the knife deeper and savouring every evidence of Wade’s discomfort.

  ‘Stop it.’ The command in his voice was unmistakable, but Holly was past caring. She had the bit in her teeth now, and she was going for broke.

  ‘Of course, she’d be devastated at missing the wedding, so maybe we’d best have her fly down for it,’ she mused, hiding her inward smile behind glittering, liquid grey eyes. ‘You could afford that, surely?’

  ‘I said stop it, and I meant it,’ he said in a voice as cold
as death.

  ‘No; why should I?’ Holly retorted. ‘You can’t have it both ways, and if you won’t stop treating me like a ... like a ... gold-digging whore, then you can’t complain if I act like one, can you?’

  ‘I’ve already said I’d give you the benefit of the doubt, and certainly you can’t say I’ve treated you like a ... like that tonight,’ he replied, still cool, still without ever showing that he might be under the slightest pressure.

  ‘Benefit of the doubt — fiddlesticks!’ Holly retorted. ‘You haven’t even thought of accepting my explanation and frankly I doubt if you ever will, so what’s the point of continuing this charade? It’s perfectly obvious you and I can’t even be decently civil to one another, let alone fool Jessica into thinking we might actually like one another.’

  ‘Her, and more than her,’ he growled, with a curious little grin and his ice green eyes directed in such a fashion that warned Holly his attention was now looking somewhere beyond her.

  A smart remark rose to her lips, but the feminine voice Holly heard wasn’t her own. It was a brittle yet very, very sensuous voice that arrived from behind her in words of genuine greeting for Wade Bannister, who was already rising to greet the newcomer.

  And his reply to the greeting was especially warm, revealed in a genuine smile and twinkling eyes that instantly lost all the icy chill Holly seemed to put there.

  ‘This is a surprise. I thought you were still flitting about in Singapore.’ He smiled in welcome to the slender, lovely blonde who followed her own words into view.

  ‘And I thought you were busy collecting your housekeeper’s little niece,’ was the reply, followed by a glance at Holly that whirled through alarm, assessment and dismissal within the flicker of one haughty eyebrow.

  Even after the formalities of an introduction, Ramona Mason did her best to ignore Holly’s presence, although the blonde’s attitude admitted mild curiosity when informed that Holly was the little niece in question.

  Ramona obviously had eyes only for Wade Bannister, and once he’d seated her at their table and ordered her drink, she did her very best to freeze Holly out entirely.

  Which should have been just fine, but for some reason it wasn’t. Being studiously ignored by the brittle blonde was almost as bad as being patronised, Holly thought. Not that she cared a fig for Wade’s taste in women; it was nothing to do with her, after all.

  Ramona, apparently, had come in to finalise the arrangements for a dinner party the following evening, and upon learning that Wade wouldn’t be flying north until the day after that, she promptly invited him to attend.

  ‘I won’t promise but to try,’ he replied. ‘I’ve got a lot of business to attend to tomorrow, but if I can get through it, and if Holly doesn’t succumb to the dreaded jet-lag, we’d love to come.’

  ‘You’ll be there, then,’ Ramona cooed. ‘I’ve never known business to keep you from a good party, and even if Miss Grange isn’t up to it, that’s no reason for you not to attend.’

  Holly translated that to mean that she hadn’t been included in the invitation anyway, and that she’d likely be wise to feign jet-lag or exhaustion, because this woman didn’t want her at the party; she wanted Wade Bannister all to herself.

  ‘I shan’t be able to go with you, of course,’ Holly said a moment later, after Ramona had, thankfully, taken her leave.

  ‘And I suppose you’ve got some quite logical reason for that remark,’ Wade replied. ‘But isn’t it a bit early to decide?’

  ‘Not at all. In the first place, she didn’t really include me in the invitation; even you could see that, I’m sure. Also, I’ve nothing to wear, as this dress is the only thing remotely suitable that I brought with me.’

  ‘And of course you couldn’t wear that, because Ramona’s seen it, and with stirling feminine logic that puts it out of bounds, or something equally ridiculous,’ he scoffed.

  ‘Something like that,’ Holly replied. Let him think what he pleased; she didn’t want to be a fifth wheel at the party and would find any plausible excuse for not attending.

  ‘Well, since I’d be wearing the same thing as tonight, 1 can’t imagine why you couldn’t do the same,’ he said. ‘That outfit is, to say the very least, suitable, and wearing it you’d have every other woman in the place green with envy, just as you’ve done tonight.’

  ‘The only green eyes in the place tonight are yours,’ Holly jibed, knowing but not daring to say that if there was envy involved, it was because of her companion, not her dress.

  ‘Ah, but not with envy,’ Wade replied with a smile. ‘Yours, on the other hand, are showing definite signs of sleepiness, so I suggest we trot back up to the flat, phone dear Jessica, and then if you’re very good I’ll tuck you into bed.’

  ‘You’ll do no such thing,’ Holly retorted, savagely wishing he couldn’t make her heart do flip-flops with a simple comment like that. Not, at least, by making it deliberately to provoke her.

  ‘Why, I wonder,’ Wade replied musingly, his eyes gleaming with mocking lights that belied the softness of his voice. ‘Is it because you have no intention of being very good? Or ...’

  ‘Because I’m quite capable of tucking myself into bed, without any help at all from you, whether I’m good or not,’ she stated firmly. ‘I will, however, very definitely accept your suggestion that we call Aunt Jessica, because regardless of your earlier assurances, I’ve been feeling guilty about not telephoning her immediately I got off the plane.’

  "You do, however, accept that I was right in delaying the call under the circumstances?’ he asked. ‘I did think it was best that we reached some sort of understanding before you spoke to her; at least now you’ll know what to expect.’

  ‘I know what your interpretation is,’ Holly hedged. ‘It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that you’ve overreacted a great deal to what might be no more than a natural hope that we’ll ... well ... get along, anyway. After all, in visiting Aunt Jessica I’m making myself, really, a guest in your home.’

  ‘Which, having decided for yourself that we’re quite incompatible, doesn’t please you one little bit, does it?’ Wade asked abruptly.

  ‘I would feel a great deal better about it if we hadn’t got off to such a bad start,’ Holly admitted.

  ‘Hardly my fault, though, was it?’ he replied. ‘The worst I did was to arrive a bit late at the airport.’

  ‘And then spend your time eavesdropping and putting your own totally wrong interpretations on what you heard.’

  ‘I thought we’d already settled that,’ he replied, no longer quite so friendly. ‘You’ve explained, and I’ve accepted that explanation; you couldn’t ask for more than that’

  ‘You say you’ve accepted it,’ Holly replied.

  ‘I don’t usually say things I don’t mean,’ he said. ‘Why are you so determined at this particular moment to make a new issue of it? Or can’t you face up to Jessica’s matchmaking tactics without somehow shoving the blame on to me?’

  ‘I can’t face up to them, period.’ Holly replied. ‘After all, I’ve not seen Jessica since I was ten years old. She only knows me from my letters and the occasional telephone call. How could she make such assumptions?’

  Wade seemed hardly moved. ‘She’s not getting any younger,’ he said. ‘And though it may be hard to understand from your youthful point of view, people who are getting on in years often entertain rather exotic whims about people they care for.’

  ‘Oh, stop being so damned logical,’ Holly snapped.

  ‘Only if you’ll start,’ he replied. ‘For God’s sake, woman, nobody’s asking you to throw yourself at my feet or anything like that. Just that we try and get along. Jessica’s going in for a series of tests tomorrow, and I want her in the most relaxed, happy state possible.

  ‘Which means,’ he continued ominously, ‘that she doesn’t twig to the fact either of us knows she’s going for the tests, or even that she’s not top of the world. And that she thinks we’re enjoying each other’s compa
ny here in Perth so she can sneak in and out of hospital, as she’s been doing for the past year, with the firm conviction that she’s worrying nobody but herself.’

  Holly was aghast. ‘Do you mean to tell me she’s been keeping her ill-health a secret? Even from you? I mean, well, I could understand it in my case, being so far away, but you? Surely she’d realise you’d have to notice sooner or later.’

  ‘Being typically female, she’s capable of believing just exactly what she wants to believe,’ he shrugged. ‘Or maybe she just reckons I’m stupid; I don’t know. And frankly, 1 don’t much care. If her little deceptions make her happy, or make it easier for her to cope with the problem, then who am I to rain on her parade?’

  ‘You really care for her, don’t you?’ Holly asked softly, knowing the answer, but asking anyway.

  ‘She is the closest thing I’ve had to a mother since my own died many years ago,’ he replied. ‘And quite the finest woman I’ve ever met since I was old enough to tell good from bad. If she was twenty years younger and would have had me — which I rather doubt — I’d have married her years ago.’

  Holly didn’t reply to that statement. What, indeed, could she have said? A moment later, any chance she might have had disappeared.

  Therefore, dear Holly, if she wants us to be compatible, we will be compatible! Is that now perfectly clear?’

  ‘Perfectly,’ Holly muttered, and being slightly miffed by the new arrogance, the strength of command in his voice, she added under her breath, ‘I just hope she doesn’t decide we ought to be married, while she’s at it.’

  ‘Not even for Jessica would I go that far,’ Wade growled, ‘but we will be friendly and happy and comfortable together if I have to paddle your pretty little undercarriage twice a day to make sure you keep it in mind.’

  ‘Personally, I think you’d accomplish more by just being reasonable yourself,’ she replied staunchly. ‘I don’t react terribly well to being threatened.’

  ‘That was a promise, not a threat,’ he replied. ‘But I take your point. Now let’s get this phone call out of the way.’