‘My passport...’
‘Yes, it wasn’t at the hotel and I want it.’
She glanced sideways at where her bag lay on the dressing-table, and Jake, intercepting her glance, swiftly picked up the bag and opened it.
Seeing Jake rummaging around in her bag was the incentive Lexi needed to find her pride and her temper. ‘Put that down, damn you,’ she demanded and, stepping forward, reached up to grab it. ‘You have no right to go through my personal belongings.’ She jumped up, trying to catch Jake’s hand holding her bag, but only succeeded in losing her balance and falling hard against his broad chest. A long arm snaked around her waist pinning her to his side while the bag dropped to the floor, but she saw her precious passport firmly clenched in his fist, way out of her reach.
‘Now, now, Lexi, don’t get excited.’ She heard his chuckle and saw red.
‘Give me that.’ She kicked out at his shin and futilely tried to reach his outstretched arm.
She almost fell over as Jake abruptly released her, his dark eyes turned from her open passport to her furious face.
‘So that’s how you did it. I should have guessed,’ he said harshly, all amusement gone. ‘Miss Alexandra Laughton.’ He read her name as if it was a dirty word. ‘You never did get this changed.’
She stared up at him, her violet eyes simmering with anger. But his embittered gaze made her bite back her angry demand. He looked ready to do violence and she didn’t understand why, but a fine-honed sense of self-protection had her stepping backwards until she could go no further, the wall at her back.
Jake followed her, his large body tense like a coiled spring, his rugged features taut with barely controlled anger. His strong hands shot out and rested heavily on her slender shoulders. He pushed his dark face to within inches of her own.
‘My God, you had it planned all along,’ he hissed, his breath grazing her face. His dark eyes studied her, taking in the smooth forehead, the delicately arched eyebrows, the soft curve of her cheek.
Lexi’s tongue snaked out over her dry lips in a nervous gesture, her heart thudding in her breast; a violent tension hung in the air between them, and she didn’t know how it had happened.
‘Such a beautiful, innocent face disguising a viciously devious mind.’ Jake shook his dark head, his hands f
alling from her shoulders.
‘That’s rich...’ Lexi stopped as her wary gaze clashed with Jake’s, and what she saw in the black depths froze the blood in her veins.
‘You have a good right to look afraid, Lexi, but right at this moment I don’t think I could bear to touch you, or if I did I would strangle you.’ And spinning around he stormed out of the room.
Long after he left Lexi was still leaning against the wall; she did not trust her legs to carry her one step. She had never seen Jake so furious or such hatred in another human being’s face in her life. Slowly recovering her self-control, she pushed herself away from the wall and crossed the short space to the chaise-longue and collapsed upon it.
What did Jake mean, she had planned? Instead of ranting simply because she had never got around to changing her passport, he should have been thanking her. Five years ago it had enabled Lexi to walk away, leaving Jake and his mistress with her old home and a clear field... The man was obviously unbalanced...
As for a devious plan, that was laughable. Lexi had rarely planned anything in her life. It was one of her failings, she freely admitted. She tended to be a creature of impulse; she had married Jake on little more than an impulse. She had left England in the same impulsive manner, when, if she had stayed and fought, she could have been a free woman now. Instead of which, she was caught in a nightmare of a marriage where both parties hated each other’s guts.
Jake had accused her of being devious. What a joke—if any one was devious it was Jake. He had married her for the manor; true, he had paid her father’s debt, but she was sure it could not have been anything like the amount of money Jake intended making with the hotel. He had got her pregnant by mistake; he had not wanted a child. A tear slid down her cheek. Five years ago this very day Lexi had lain in the hospital bed having miscarried their child, and Jake had turned up hours after the event with a few lame excuses about business for neglecting Lexi. Now he turned up again, this time demanding a child, and with Lorraine, his mistress, in tow to take care of Lexi’s job, while presumably Lexi obliged her husband. The black irony of the situation was too much to bear.
Collapsing on the chaise-longue, she gave way to her shattered emotions, tears of self-pity gushing down her cheeks.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LEXI rolled over and fell with a thump on the floor. Her eyes flew open and for a second she wondered where she was. Struggling out of what felt like a strait jacket but was in reality a light cotton sheet, she sat up cross-legged on the floor and gazed around her as the events of the morning filled her mind. She sighed, rubbing her elbow where it had caught the carved-wood frame of the front of the chaise-longue; it was an elegant piece of furniture but not the best place to fall asleep, she thought ruefully, her eyes widening as she realised someone must have come in her room and put the sheet over her. Not that it was necessary; she felt hot and sweaty and longed for a bath. She glanced at her wristwatch and jumped to her feet in shock. It was almost four. Jake had said lunch at one...
With a toss of her head she stalked across to the door set in the wall by the dressing-table. She had missed lunch, but what the hell! Jake could hardly kill her for it, and she badly needed to find the bathroom. Opening the door, her lips parted in a smile of pleasure, as she looked around the exquisitely appointed bathroom. Her smile vanished when she caught sight of herself in the length of one mirrored wall. God, what a mess! Her hair was sticking out like a bush, her eyes were red-rimmed and her clothes were wrinkled beyond belief.
Five minutes later, stripped naked, she stood in the huge double shower; her muscles ached in places she had forgotten she possessed and dark smudges marred her smooth flesh, telling their own story, but under the relaxing influence of the warm soothing spray she slowly felt the ache and tension drain out of her. She washed her hair with a sweet-scented jasmine shampoo, one she had chosen from a good selection displayed on the vanity-unit alongside the circular bath. She had toyed with the idea of having a bath but after seeing the size of it decided it would probably take half an hour to fill, and, much as she told herself she didn’t care about missing lunch, she could not ignore the pangs of hunger rumbling in her stomach for much longer.
Stepping out of the shower, blinking the water from her eyes, she stretched out a hand to where she thought the towel might be and was relieved to find it. With her head bent she dried the water from her eyes then swept the towel up around her hair in a turban. Throwing her head back, she straightened and froze with her hands at the knot in the towel.
Jake was standing in front of her, his blue eyes dancing with amusement as he took in her shocked expression, and quite a lot more besides.
‘Very nice.’ His gaze slid slowly down her naked body, lingering on her full breasts, and before she realised what he was doing he leant forward, his mouth catching the tip of her breast.
She lashed out at his dark head, stepping back, trying to ignore the flash of tingling awareness lancing through her body. ‘Get out,’ she cried and, swinging round, she grabbed a large white bath sheet from a nearby towel-rail and wrapped it hastily around her heated body.
‘I couldn’t resist catching the drop of water from your breast, Lexi, there’s no need to throw a fit,’ he drawled with mocking amusement.