James stood up and went to the back of her chair, pulling it away from the table for her. Forewarned by her woozy head Jenna stood up slowly and carefully. She wasn’t sure, but as she turned round she thought she caught sight of an amused grin just disappearing from James’s mouth.
Unlike her he must have a hard head, she thought muzzily, he certainly wasn’t exhibiting any of the unsteadiness she herself was experiencing.
She made it to the sitting-room by walking with exaggerated caution. James followed on behind carrying a tray with the coffee things on it and their glasses.
Jenna notice as he put them down that hers had been topped up.
‘I’ll never finish all that,’ she protested, but James merely smiled. ‘Drink it up,’ he told her, ‘it will help you sleep—the first few nights out here can be disturbed by trying to get accustomed to the time difference.’
For once Jenna was not inclined to argue with him. She drank her wine slowly, alternating it with sips of the deliciously hot, fragrant coffee James had poured for her.
James had opened the glass doors to the patio area and Jenna watched as he walked out on to it. Unfamiliar night sounds filled the air. She wanted to get up and join him, a heady excitement suddenly gripping her as she realised she was actually here in the Caribbean. Unsteadily she got to her feet, following him outside. She was still carrying her wine glass and he took it from her, laughing soundlessly as he looked at her.
‘Why are you laughing at me?’ Her forehead wrinkled, her voice huskily uncertain.
‘Not at you.’ He reached out and slid his arms round her waist pulling her gently against his body, and steadying her there as she swayed slightly. Jenna knew that she ought to object, but somehow it hardly seemed worthwhile. To tell the truth, it was much pleasanter to lean against James than to try to stand upright.
‘What were you laughing at then?’ She sounded petulant and she knew it, but she didn’t like the thought of his laughing at her.
‘Your attempts to walk in a straight line. I had no idea you had such a low tolerance of alcohol!’
Later, Jenna would remember those words, but now she merely frowned again, and pronounced slowly, ‘I thought I told you…’
‘If you did, you certainly did not volunteer the information.’ His voice was very dry—so much so that she leaned back against his supporting arm to look up at him and see what caused it.
Dizzily she managed to focus her eyes on his. ‘I’ve never seen anyone with such blue eyes.’ Jenna frowned. Had she really said that? Another smile curled James’s mouth. ‘Except of course the portrait…on the stairs at the old Hall.’
‘Ah, yes, my disreputable ancestor. Do you realise how little I know about you?’ he murmured quietly. ‘About the real you, I mean. You keep yourself guarded and hidden away like a miser with his gold, Jenna.’
She wasn’t sure she liked the simile: it made her sound more mean than cautious which was what she had always thought she was. She didn’t like the thought of being considered mean.
‘What do you want to know?’ she asked him gravely.
‘Oh, all sorts of things.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like why you’re so afraid of sex?’
Jenna stiffened, the softly spoken words penetrating the tipsy mist clouding her brain. She started to struggle, but James refused to let her go. ‘You are frightened of it, aren’t you, Jenna?’
‘Of course not. Why should I be? I just don’t care very much for it, that’s all…’
She stopped trying to fight him and his grip slackened enough for her to put a little more distance between their bodies. All her enjoyment of the night air and their surroundings had gone. She still felt distinctly dizzy and woozy, but now fear had chased away her earlier euphoria.
‘I’m tired,’ she announced childishly. ‘I want to go to bed.’
‘Mmm. It is rather late. Can you walk, or do you need help?’
‘I can walk, of course.’
His arms fell away and she took a few tottering steps.
She heard James move, and then she
was being lifted in his arms as he said wyrly against her ear. ‘So you can—after a fashion, but I think this will be much quicker, and safer, too, don’t you?’
Quicker maybe, but safer…Never. There was no way she could ever feel safe in any man’s arms, never mind this man’s.