‘I have one now too,’ she told him dully. ‘Ben Durston is Maggie’s live-in boy-friend.’
He whistled through his teeth. ‘I shouldn’t be surprised, but somehow it just didn’t occur to me. Other things on my mind, I suppose,’ he said ruefully.
‘Such as?’ Kelly asked softly.
Jordan sighed. ‘You, mainly!
‘Jordan,’ she bit her lip, ‘Maggie told me how she’d been after you for years, I—I just want to say I’m sorry I misjudged you concerning her. She really wasn’t a true friend.’ Her mouth trembled with emotion. ‘In fact, she’s been anything but that. Why didn’t you tell me about her?’
‘And ruin all your illusions about her?’ he mocked, shaking his head. ‘I couldn’t do that to you.’
‘And yet you’ve hurt me in so many other ways.’
‘I haven’t mean to,’ he denied huskily.
‘Having an affair with Angela Divine wasn’t supposed to hurt me?’ Kelly scorned.
He frowned darkly, sighing his impatience. ‘Do you think I have affairs with every woman I meet?’
‘I know about that one.’
‘The same way you knew about Anne and myself?’
She blushed at his intended rebuke. ‘I heard you, you and Angela, discussing going away together.’
He looked stunned. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he dismissed tersely. ‘I didn’t have an affair with Angela, and I certainly never discussed going away with her—unless it was on business?’
‘Definitely not.’
Jordan shrugged. ‘Then you’re mistaken.’
‘But I can’t be! I heard you.’
‘Tell me,’ he invited softly.
She did so, leaving out none of her anger and frustration. She had to give him credit for nerve, he didn’t look in the least perturbed by her disclosure.
‘It was Ian,’ he said at the end of her explanation.
Kelly looked puzzled. ‘What was?’
‘Ian was the one going away with Angie. Laura was the possessive woman in his life, and her father was the man with influence.’
She held her breath, horror in her eyes. ‘No…’ And yet hadn’t Laura herself told her that Ian had been two-timing her at one time?
‘Yes!’ Jordan insisted savagely.
‘Then all this time…’
‘Yes, what about all this time, Kelly?’ He moved forward to link his hands at the base of her spine. ‘Just when did you hear this little conversation?’
It was too much, too many shocks in one day. She leant her head wearily against Jordan’s chest. ‘It was—’
she closed her eyes to shut out the pain. ‘It was the day I lost the baby,’ she revealed in a rush.
She heard his ragged intake of breath, and his arms pressed painfully into her sides. ‘Did it happen—because of that?’ he asked shakily.
‘Yes Oh God, yes!’