Echoes of the Heart (12 page)

She frowned. What was he talking about? Surely he didn’t expect her to believe that he’d suffered when their affair was over? That was impossible.

The door to the private departure lounge slid open. A female airport worker sashayed toward them.

‘Good morning, your aircraft is ready for boarding. You can proceed directly through the gate now, Mr Formosa,’ the woman purred. Sending Jake a thousand mega-watt smile, her body language signalled her interest in him. ‘Would you like to follow me?’

Amanda seethed and slowed her pace to fall back a bit as they followed the airport employee through the gate and down the stairs. ‘It’s no wonder you’re a heartless womaniser,’ she said in a voice low enough for Jake’s ears alone. ‘It sickens me the way women throw themselves at you.’

‘Would that be sickened with jealousy by any chance?’

‘Hardly!’

‘Hmm,’ he mused.

‘You are seriously the most arrogant male I’ve ever met to even think that.’ She stopped in her tracks and regarded the airport worker pointedly as the other woman glided ahead of them. ‘You could always take her to your island,’ she jibed under her breath. ‘You might find her a lot more amenable.’

Jake arched one eyebrow. ‘I don’t think I’ll have any problems with your amenability, sweetheart.’

She scowled. ‘Go to —’

‘Careful,’ he warned. ‘Better curb your shrewish comments or I might decide to take her. Then you won’t get your money, will you?’

‘You’re —’

Effectively cutting off her words again, he bent his head and covered her lips fleetingly with his own. ‘Save it. Our aircraft awaits.’

‘Mr Formosa, you just need to go through the security check point here and then you’ll be clear to proceed to the aircraft stairs.’

‘Thank you.’

Somehow, Amanda recovered from the touch of Jake’s lips and forced herself to smile politely at the woman as they proceeded toward the security point. As she placed her handbag down for screening, resentment welled within her at Jake’s ability to make her want him.

A wolfish smile spread across his features as they cleared the last checkpoint and were directed out to the tarmac. ‘Your month starts now, sweetheart.’

She glared at him and raised her voice slightly so her words would carry over the noise of a nearby aircraft. ‘Better set your stopwatch. Don’t think you’re getting a second more than we agreed to.’

His smile broadened. ‘Afraid you’ll become addicted?’

The laugh she forced was hollow. ‘To become addicted to something, you have to like it in the first place.’

Stopping mid-stride, he took her hand in his and caressed the inside of her wrist with slow, circular movements of his thumb. ‘I remember you liked what I did to you in my office very much.’

Every rotation of his thumb reminded her of how he’d used his fingers to great effect on the quivering bud between her thighs. His touch set off an alarming chain reaction where each nerve synapse fired up her arm, across her chest and straight downward to that same spot. His expression told her he knew exactly what he was doing.

‘Addiction is dangerous for your health,’ she told him shakily as she moved toward the Learjet that belonged to his family. ‘I steer well clear of all drugs.’

‘Be that as it may, your body is craving mine, and this time you’ll stay until I’m finished with you,’ he said with confidence.

‘That’s what you’re paying me for.’

‘And you’ll earn every cent.’

The electronic ring from the mobile phone in Amanda’s handbag stopped her mid-stride. Only the nursing home had her mobile number and that was for emergency contact. A shot of adrenalin surged through her. Gripped by a sense of sheer urgency, she fumbled through her bag. Something must be dreadfully wrong!

She swallowed down on her anxiety and jabbed at the small keypad to answer the call she dreaded. ‘Hello?’

Jake’s fingers removed the phone from her hand with swift ease and purpose.

‘Give that back!’ She protested, but the phone was already held to his ear.

‘Amanda can’t talk right now.’ A second later his brow creased. ‘I understand.’ He hesitated, the questions in his intense regard burned into her. ‘Just a moment.’

Paralysed with concern, she held her breath.

‘You’d better take this.’ He passed the telephone back.

Her fingers trembled as she took it from him. ‘He…Hello,’ she stammered.

Aware of Jake watching her, she turned away from him as she strained to hear against the noise around her. She raised her free hand to cover her other ear as a catering truck passed by. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t hear you.’

In the next instant Jake’s arm was around her shoulder, guiding her off the tarmac and back into the relative quiet of the airport building.

‘It’s Sister Forbes from the nursing home,’ the caller said. ‘Your aunt had a stroke. She’s in intensive care at St. Vincent’s Private Hospital.’

Amanda felt herself sway against Jake as she absorbed the news. The words echoed through her brain. Swallowing past the lump of fear welling in her throat she said, ‘I’ll be there as quickly as I can.’ She returned the phone to her handbag and turned anxiously to Jake. ‘I have to —’

‘I know.’ He framed her face in his large hands and brushed her lips gently with his own. ‘I’ll get you there.’

He turned to address a nearby security person. ‘We won’t be departing as planned.’

Two seconds later, Jake had his own phone out, ordering his driver to return for them and cancelling their flight.

Within ten minutes Amanda sat with Jake in the back of his limousine as they were driven to the hospital. Tension pervaded every muscle of her body as she thought about her aunt.

One of Jake’s arms went around her in a gesture of support—a complete turnaround from the man who’d been so insulting only minutes before. In her distress she yearned to burrow into his chest and take the comfort he offered, but she resisted the urge to crumble against him. Instead, she shrugged his arm off her and moved as far away from him as she could.

She had to be strong. He wasn’t her friend, and she couldn’t take comfort from him. All his recent actions told her he was more interested in destroying her than supporting her, so his behaviour confused her.

As thoughts tumbled through her mind, she stared unseeingly through the limousine window, willing her aunt to find the strength to recover.

After what seemed to be the longest drive in history, the limousine pulled up at the entrance to the hospital.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Amanda lashed out at Jake, venting her anxiety on him as he got out of the limousine and followed her toward the hospital entrance.

‘Coming with you to your Aunt Irene.’

His quiet calm made her more agitated.

‘No! You’ve got no right to be here,’ she exploded. ‘My aunt is seriously ill.’

‘That’s why I’m coming.’

‘What do you want me to do?’ Hysteria surged through her veins and she waved her hands between them. ‘Waltz into her hospital room and introduce you as the man I’m being paid to have sex with for the next month?’

‘Amanda,’ he addressed her quietly, like she was an excitable child. ‘You’ve been biting your lip and chewing at your fingernails relentlessly since we left the airport. I know you’re worried sick about your aunt.’

‘Of course I’m worried.’

He reached out, placed his hands on her upper arms and looked deep into her eyes. ‘You don’t have to face this by yourself.’

The compassion in his face made her heart contract sharply.

His hands slid down her arms to her hands and he covered them with his. ‘I know a little of what you’re going through. It was a harrowing experience when my father was in intensive care.’

His empathy squeezed her heart. The softening of his expression made her want to cry. The caring in his eyes was unmistakable. There was no sign of the ruthless businessman who’d blackmailed her into spending a month in his bed and cut her to the quick with his insults. He was the Jake she’d fallen in love with. The man she’d felt so attuned to.

‘I’m thankful I didn’t have to go through my father’s crisis alone. I had my mum to worry with.’

All the warmth around her heart turned cold.

‘Your mum and Sophie,’ she blurted in condemnation. ‘But you didn’t want me there when I offered.’

His head tilted on an angle as he regarded her with a frown. ‘I did want you there, but I couldn’t have you.’

‘Of course not.’ Her anxiety over Irene’s condition was making her incautious in what she said, but she couldn’t stop herself. ‘It wouldn’t have done to be photographed publicly with some nobody from the western suburbs hanging off your arm, especially when your fiancée was available.’

His face hardened.

‘Just stop your sniping for a moment and listen to me.’ There was an edge of impatience to every word. ‘My father had a heart attack when he and I were arguing about you.’ He put up a hand to stop her as she opened her mouth to speak. ‘No, he didn’t approve of my relationship with you, and under the circumstances it would have been highly inappropriate for you to be at his bedside with me, don’t you think?’

His statement shocked her into silence. A multitude of questions bombarded her, begging to be answered. There was also the realisation that there may have been another perspective to consider when she’d been so hurt. Had he truly wanted her by his side? Confused and starting to feel guilt prick at her conscience at being the trigger for Mr Formosa’s heart attack, she shifted slightly from one foot to the other. Then, she remembered how hurt she’d been by the newspaper photo she’d seen of Sophie leaving the hospital with Jake. Who was Jake trying to kid that he’d wanted her there? He hadn’t needed her when he’d had Sophie to turn to for support.

‘I think, if my aunt knew about my role as your playmate of the month, she wouldn’t approve of my relationship with
you
. Under the circumstances, it would be highly inappropriate for you to be at her bedside with me, don’t you think?’ she threw back at him.

His face was a mask of fury. ‘Just shut up, Amanda, and get going. If you really think I would drive off and leave you here by yourself, you’re wrong.’

‘I…I…’ Oh God, she wanted him with her. She didn’t want to be alone through this crisis. She ached for his support, but a voice in her head told her she would pay dearly if she trusted him.

‘You can’t meet her,’ she insisted, torn between getting rid of him and racing up to see her aunt.

For a moment she thought he was going to argue the point but he inclined his head in a conciliatory gesture.

‘I’ll wait outside the room, but I will be there for you if you need me.’

She breathed out. The emotional rollercoaster ride started all over again as her heart lurched and tears pricked her eyes.

‘Stop being so damned kind to me,’ she told him with an unsteady voice. ‘I cope far better with you when you’re being horrid!’

How could she keep up her barriers against him when he treated her with consideration? This was the man she’d believed existed. The man she had fallen in love with and started planning her future around. Even as she needed him to be that man again, she worried at the thought. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t control her physical desire for him, but she needed to distance herself from him emotionally. It was easier to keep her emotional distance from the ruthless man he’d turned into. If he reverted to the man she’d met at Whale Beach, she’d be lost.

Amanda’s vulnerability stabbed at Jake. Everything in him demanded he support her through this crisis.

‘I’m tired of being horrid,’ he said with a smile of self-derision. He pulled her into the circle of his arms, and brushed a tender kiss across her sweet, lush lips. ‘Let’s go,’ he urged, guiding her into the hospital.

When he’d heard the phone, he’d suspected it was Middleton. On learning of her aunt’s stroke, he’d been transported back in time to his father’s health crisis. He knew how distressing it was to wait in intensive care—the nerve-wracking waiting and sense of powerlessness. There was no way he could let Amanda go through it alone.

He stood beside her, holding her hand as she confirmed her aunt’s location with the staff member at the information desk.

‘I hate hospitals,’ she confessed with a shudder as they walked to the lifts.

‘You’re not the only one,’ he admitted. He’d rather be anywhere else. ‘The antiseptic smell reminds me of my father’s heart attack.’ It brought back the remorse he’d felt believing the argument he had with his father had been the cause of the attack.

‘Your father’s okay now?’ she asked.

‘His heart condition is being managed well.’

Amanda tapped her fingers against her handbag in a nervous gesture. Jake realised her aunt must be facing an uphill battle. ‘When I met you, you told me about your aunt’s Multiple Sclerosis. Has the condition progressed much in the last couple of years?’

She tensed beside him. ‘She deteriorated rapidly just after...She needed nursing home care two years ago because her condition worsened very quickly.’

‘You and your aunt have always been close, haven’t you?’ He remembered Amanda speaking about her aunt. He’d gathered the bond between the two women was strong and loving, but he’d been disturbed by the profound guilt Amanda carried about her upbringing. She’d told him Irene’s fiancé couldn’t accept her decision to raise Amanda and broke off the engagement. Irene had only been in her early twenties then and she’d never loved another man. Amanda believed she’d ruined her aunt’s happiness.

‘She’s my world,’ Amanda confirmed as the lift stopped at Irene’s ward.

Jake was curious about the aunt who’d had so much influence on Amanda. Was Irene disappointed Amanda had sold herself in marriage to Bennett, or had her own experiences taught her not to trust in love? It was possible she’d instilled that attitude into Amanda. He wondered whether Irene had such a hard time scrimping and saving to care for herself and her niece that she’d encouraged Amanda to secure her financial future through marriage to Bennett.

***

Amanda was thankful for Jake’s strong presence outside the hospital room. A couple of hours ago, he’d sent one of the nurses in with coffee and sandwiches for her. All traces of antagonism had vanished as soon as he knew about her aunt’s hospitalisation, but it didn’t make sense that he was prepared to sit outside her aunt’s hospital room when all he wanted was the use of her body. His father’s hospitalisation must have left a lasting impression on him that he could empathise with what she was going through and put aside their differences.