The Costarella Conquest (14 page)

T
HE
whistle startled everyone who heard it. Conversations were momentarily cut off. Feet stopped moving. Heads turned. Laura's heart felt as though it had been kicked. Her mind instantly recalled the kiss-off line she'd written to Jake.

As for any future meeting between us, you can whistle for me.

Had he done it?

Please…let it be him wanting a meeting with her.

A meeting with a future in mind.

The other people resumed their movement into the elevator. Laura didn't. She had to turn around, had to see. If it was Jake who had whistled, he'd be looking at her, perhaps holding out a hand in an appeal for her to stay where she was, wait a minute.

A chance to nothing, she told herself, her heart hammering as she acted on her need to know, throwing a quick glance over her shoulder. Jake had left his barrister's side and was striding towards her, determined purpose burning in the eyes that locked onto hers, holding her still until he could reach her.

The elevator doors closed. Laura was the only person left behind. But Jake was coming to her. They hadn't talked to each other for almost a year. She had no idea what was on his mind, yet the leap of hope in hers was so strong, it was impossible to put a guard of caution around it. He could probably see it in her eyes, the wanting, the needing. Pride couldn't hide it. She had none where he was concerned.

He stopped about a metre away from her, tension emanating from him, making her nerves even tighter.

‘It's been a long time,' he said.

‘Yes,' she agreed, the word coming out huskily. Her throat was choked up with a mountain of tumultuous emotions.

‘There's a good coffee shop on the corner of the next block. Can I buy you a cappuccino?'

She swallowed hard to get rid of the lump. He was offering time together, wanting time together. A meeting. ‘I'd like that very much,' she answered, her voice still furred with feelings that were totally uncontrollable.

‘Good!' he said and stepped around her to press the elevator button, summoning it to this floor again.

Third time lucky, Laura thought giddily.

Jake flashed her a smile. ‘I wish you well, too, Laura. I always have.'

She nodded, yearning for far more than well-wishing from him.

‘Are you still living with your father?' he asked.

‘No. I have a full-time job now. Landscape
designer for a firm of architects. I can afford my own apartment.'

‘What about your mother?'

‘She moved out the same time I did. She's okay. Much happier.'

‘Sharing your apartment?'

‘No. Nick Jeffries, our former handyman/gardener, carried her off to his home. He's a widower and they're very much in love.'

‘Wow!' Jake grinned, surprised and seemingly delighted by this turn of events. ‘I guess you don't have to worry about her anymore.'

‘No, I don't. Having nothing to fear from Nick, she's already blooming into a far more positive person.'

‘That's good. Great!'

He really did look pleased—pleased because he didn't want anyone to be her father's victim, or pleased because she was completely free and clear of any continuing connection with her father? Was he checking to see if he could reasonably resume a relationship with her with no negative fallout from it? Did he want to? She was still her father's daughter. Nothing could change that.

The elevator arrived and Jake waved an invitation to precede him into it. They were the only people occupying the small compartment on this ride. Jake stood silently beside her on the way down. Laura was too conscious of his close presence to think of anything to say. She had been intensely intimate
with this man and the memories of it were flooding through her mind—the passionate kisses, the exquisite sensitivity of his touch. She had to press her thighs tightly together to contain the hot, searing need to have him again.

As they walked out to the street she was fiercely wishing he would take hold of her hand but he didn't attempt even that simple physical link with her. The evening rush hour hadn't quite started. The sidewalk wasn't crowded. There was no reason for Jake to take her arm to keep them together and he didn't. They reached the coffee shop without touching at all and Jake led her to a booth, waiting for her to slide in on one bench seat before seating himself across the table from her.

‘Like old times,' she remarked, managing an ironic smile to cover the sick feeling that this might be the last time she shared a table with Jake.

He returned the smile. ‘A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. Are you happy with the career you've chosen?'

She nodded. ‘It's very challenging but I'm loving it. What about you, Jake? Have you moved on to renovating another house?'

‘Yes. I sold the last one.'

‘I know.'

He looked quizzically at her and she flushed, realising she had given away the fact that she had tried to visit him. Too late to take back those revealing words. She heaved a sigh to relieve the tightness in
her chest and plunged into telling the truth. What point was there in holding back?

‘On the day we left Mosman—it was just before last Christmas—Mum found a bunch of other photographs of you in Dad's safe. They made me realise he'd set you up, then spun a false story to make me believe…' She hesitated, inwardly recoiling from repeating the horribly demeaning picture her father had drawn.

‘That I was a liar and a cheat,' Jake finished for her with a wry grimace. ‘I didn't blame you for believing him, Laura. It was my fault. I should never have touched you. It put you in a rotten position when I made my move against him.'

His use of the past tense hurt. If he regretted their relationship, what hope was there for a future one? But she was halfway through her explanation and she wanted to finish it.

‘Anyhow, it made me feel really bad about how I'd completely written you off, so I went to your house at Woollahra, wanting to apologise, except you were gone and other people had moved in. I had no means of contact with you unless I came to the hearing, and I'm glad I did. Listening to everything being laid out made me understand why you had to take my father down. You were right to do it. And I do wish you well, Jake.'

There!

Definitely water under the bridge now!

And she'd managed it with reasonable dignity.

A waiter arrived to take their order and Jake asked for two cappuccinos, quickly inquiring if she wanted something to eat as well—a toasted sandwich? Laura shook her head. Her stomach was in knots. After the waiter had left them, Jake regarded her seriously for several moments, making the knots even tighter.

‘It's not over, Laura,' he said quietly. ‘There will be ugly things said about me in the days to come.'

The dirt her father had up his sleeve.

‘Will they be true?' she asked.

‘Not on any professional level. He can't deny the evidence against him. It's too iron-tight. So I'm confident that nothing will change the eventual outcome. He's gone from the industry, regardless of what he uses in an attempt to discredit me.'

‘Do you know what he'll try to use?'

He made a wry grimace. ‘You were my only weakness, Laura. I'm anticipating an attack on my character revolving around my involvement with you.'

She frowned. ‘But that had nothing to do with how he ran his business.'

‘I think he'll try to link it up.'

A fierce rebellion swept through Laura. Her father had been too successful in hurting others, deliberately doing it and taking malicious pleasure in it. She wanted him to fail for once, and be shown up as the liar he was—some justice for the months of misery he'd given her.

She leaned forward, earnestly pressing for Jake
to agree with her. ‘I've taken this week off work. I could testify on your behalf. I know you didn't do me any wrong, Jake.'

His face tightened in instant rejection. ‘This isn't your war, Laura. It was wrong of me to put you in the line of fire and I won't do it again. I'll ride it through.'

‘It
is
my war,' she cried vehemently. ‘I've taken the bullets and I want to return them. I'm not ashamed of my involvement with you. It makes a much stronger stand if we ride this through together. Publicly together. Surely you can see that any capital my father might think he could make out of our connection becomes utter nonsense if we're still connected.'

He didn't offer any quick rebuttal this time. The riveting dark eyes scoured hers with blazing intensity. Laura had the sinking feeling he was unsure of her staying power. She hadn't remained strong against her father's manipulation in the past.

‘There's no other man in your life, Laura?' he asked quietly.

The question startled her—not what she had been expecting. It offered hope that Jake was considering her suggestion. ‘No. I'm free and clear,' she stated firmly.

It suddenly occurred to her that he might not be. He hadn't touched her. Just because the memory of him had made her disinterested in other men didn't mean he'd felt a similar detachment. She'd certainly
opened the door for him to move on when she'd shut it on her life.

‘I'm sorry. I didn't think,' she blurted out, flushing self-consciously over her single-mindedness, her hands fluttering an apologetic dismissal of her impulsive ideas. ‘If you're in another relationship, of course this won't work.'

‘I'm not,' he said swiftly, reaching across the table to take one of her hands in his, long strong fingers stroking, soothing her agitation. ‘There's nothing I'd like more than to be connected to you again, Laura. I just want to be sure it's right for you.'

A wild joy burst through her heart. She stared at him, scarcely able to believe she did have another chance with him. Warmth from his touch ran up her arm and spread through her entire body, a blissful warmth, promising her the loving she craved. She wanted this man so much, yet it hadn't really been right for her before, not with him limiting their relationship to great dinners and great sex. The temptation to take whatever she could of him played through her mind, but she knew that would never be enough.

‘Will you show me the house you're now working on?'

It was a critical question, challenging how much he wanted to be connected to her.

His face relaxed into a smile, his eyes twinkling sexy delight. ‘Would after we drink our coffee be too soon?'

She laughed in sheer ecstatic relief. ‘No, not too soon. Where is it?'

‘Petersham. It's about ten minutes in the train from Town Hall, then a short walk from the station. An easy commute to the city centre.'

‘Is it another terrace house?'

‘No. A two-bedroom cottage with a yard, both of which have been neglected for years.' He grinned. ‘Maybe you can give me some ideas on what to do with the yard.'

It was so wonderful that he was willing to share this project with her, she grinned straight back. ‘I'd love to design a cottage garden. Something delightfully old-fashioned. All I've done so far at work is very modern landscape.'

‘Then you'll have to go shopping for plants with me,' he said decisively. ‘Guide me into buying the best.'

More sharing. Laura's cup of happiness was suddenly bubbling to the brim. ‘No problem,' she assured him, revelling in allowing herself to love this man all over again.

The waiter returned with their cappuccinos. Jake released her hand and they sat apart again, but another journey had begun—one that shimmered with the promise of far more than the first they'd taken together. Laura couldn't remember a coffee ever tasting so good.

 

Jake could scarcely believe this incredibly fortunate turn of events. Laura hadn't moved on. Not from
him. And the time apart had not been wasted. She had achieved complete independence from her father and quite clearly would never allow herself to be subjected to his influence again. It was now totally irrelevant that she was Alex Costarella's daughter. She was simply herself—the beautiful, strong, giving woman he had come to love. And since her mother no longer needed her in any protective sense, the way ahead for them was free of any insurmountable complications.

He could throw caution to the winds, share whatever he wanted with Laura without any sense of guilt over how hurt she might be from associating with him. The whole truth was out in the open now. There was no reason to hold back on anything. Where the future might take them as a couple was entirely in their own hands. The most important thing was he could have her again. Nothing else really mattered.

Froth from the cappuccino coated her upper lip. He wanted to lick it off. Her tongue slid out and swept it away. Her beautiful blue eyes twinkled at him teasingly as though she knew what he'd been thinking.

‘I haven't wanted any woman since you, Laura,' he said softly. That was the truth, too, and he needed her to know it. The damning photographs could have left doubts in her mind about how deeply he'd felt connected to her. This was a new start and he couldn't bear anything marring it.

She smiled, happiness lighting up her lovely face.
‘It's been the same for me, too, Jake, though I did have a lot of bad thoughts about you.'

‘The woman in the photographs…she said she was being stalked and pleaded with me to walk her home from the gym. It was an act of kindness, Laura, nothing more.'

The smile broadened. ‘I like kindness in a man. Nick is very kind to Mum. She never had that from Dad.'

Neither did you. Only demands and abuse if they weren't met.

Jake understood where Laura was coming from, why marriage was not an attractive proposition to her, but maybe he could change her view of it, given enough time together. She was certainly seeing the difference for her mother.