Body Language. Millie Criswell
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her nails were digging into her palms.
‘Why Majorca, Caro?’ Jake suddenly asked as his hands tightly gripped the steering wheel.
His emotions were in turmoil, Jake acknowledged wryly. And not just because he had met his daughter for the very first time…
Being with Caro again, recognising the bloom mother hood had given to her beauty, being able to smell the perfume she always wore—which Jake knew he would associate with Caro until the day he died—was churning up his memories as much as he was sure his own presence was churning up Caro’s…if for a completely different reason.
And not good memories, either, going by her recent reaction to him!
‘Why not Majorca?’ Caro countered guardedly.
Jake sighed heavily. ‘Did you go there because you knew it was the very last place I would think of looking for you?’
Caro shot him a surprised look. ‘It never even occurred to me that you would want to look for me.’
His mouth compressed. ‘Don’t be so naïve, Caro. Once I had calmed down enough to be able to think straight, of course I looked for you.’
Her frown was pained. ‘I can’t imagine why…’
‘Can’t you?’ Jake grated.
Caro’s face was very pale. ‘Gavin knew where I could be reached—’
‘And no amount of cajoling, persuasion or even threats of outright violence would make him tell me where that was,’ Jake revealed, his expression tight as he recalled his brother-in-law’s refusal to even discuss Caro, let alone tell Jake where she was.
Even the threat of being sacked hadn’t shifted Gavin’s loyalty to Caro—probably because Gavin, although in a world of his own most of the time, was well aware of his own value in the world of computer software! Whatever the reason, nothing Jake had done or said had managed to shake the younger man’s resolve not to reveal his sister’s whereabouts.
Jake could still remember the knife-thrust of Gavin’s last comment on the subject. ‘If Caro had wanted you to find her, then she would have made sure you could do so by now.’ The truth of that statement had been undisputable. And painfully final…
‘I’m sure that Gavin would have forwarded any correspondence to me, if you had asked him to.’
‘I didn’t want to write you a letter, Caro!’ Jake exclaimed.
‘I was referring to the divorce papers.’
‘There isn’t going to be any divorce,’ he said definitely. ‘Not a year ago, and certainly not now.’ He gave a pointed look in the mirror at Magdalena.
Caro had been afraid this was going to be Jake’s reaction to knowing he had a daughter. Afraid and not a little apprehensive. She knew Jake well enough to know that once he was set on a course of action nothing deterred him from achieving his goal.
In the same way Jake had decided two years ago—once he’d realised that Caro simply wasn’t the type of woman to have affairs—that she would have to marry him instead…
The only problem with that, of course, had been that once Jake had physically tired of her she had still been his wife!
And after growing up experiencing her father’s numerous affairs, not the type of wife to meekly sit back and tolerate Jake behaving in the same way…
She drew in a determined breath. ‘Jake, I have no intention— This isn’t the way into central London!’ Caro said, as she realised Jake was driving in the opposite direction from the one she wanted to go.
He gave a terse inclination of his head. ‘That’s because we aren’t going into the City.’
Caro felt a shiver go down her spine. ‘Then where are we going?’
Jake shrugged. ‘I own a house in the country.’
She blinked. ‘You do?’ When Caro had married Jake she had simply moved into his penthouse apartment in Mayfair with him. Much as Caro would have preferred it, there had never been any suggestion of them moving out of London. ‘Why?’
Jake raised dark brows. ‘Are you asking as my wife, or just out of idle curiosity?’ he taunted.
‘Neither!’ Caro snapped. ‘I…’ She moistened dry lips.
‘I’m just surprised that you’ve moved out of London, that’s all.’
‘I said I have a house in the country, Caro, not that I actually live there,’ Jake answered coolly.
‘Oh.’ She gave a knowing nod. ‘Then the house is just a business investment?’
‘Something like that,’ he said.
Caro eyed him warily. ‘And that’s where we’re going?’
He raised a dark eyebrow. ‘Do you have a problem with that?’
Now that her initial shock had worn off, Caro had a problem being there with Jake at all!
Much as she wished it wasn’t so, Caro was totally aware of her husband as he sat beside her, wearing a casual black cashmere sweater with faded jeans. So much so that she could almost feel the lean sensuality of his hands and fingers on the steering wheel. Was totally attuned to the width of his shoulders. His muscled chest. His taut stomach. His powerful thighs and legs.
Caro was aware of all of those things from the top of her head to the tips of her toes!
It had been this way from the beginning, of course. Caro had been completely bowled off her feet the moment she was introduced to Jake, when she’d accompanied Gavin to a summer party at Montgomery Software.
At the time the attraction had appeared to be mutual.
No, it had been mutual! Whatever had followed, Caro had absolutely no doubts that Jake had initially wanted her physically. Enough to marry her, at least…
She gave a weary sigh. ‘I can’t see that the two of us talking now is going to resolve anything, Jake. It never did in the past.’
His jaw tightened, a nerve pulsing in his cheek. ‘You must realise the situation has now changed, Caro.’
She closed her eyes briefly. ‘Because of Magdalena?’ She was going to kill her little brother when she finally managed to drag him away from his computer. Hang, draw and quarter him! ‘Of course because of Magdalena!’ Jake rasped his impatience. ‘You’ve obviously done a fantastic job with her so far—’
‘How kind!’
Jake eyes glittered warningly as he heard the heavy sarcasm in her tone. ‘Where do you live in Majorca? How do you work to support yourself when you have a young baby to care for?’
Her cheeks were flushed. ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business, do you?’
‘I’m making it my business!’
She shrugged slender shoulders. ‘I had some money of my own saved when we separated a year ago—’
‘When you walked out on me, you mean,’ Jake corrected her harshly.
Caro stared at him for several long seconds. ‘Whatever,’ she finally dismissed. ‘There was enough money to enable me to buy a small finca in a village on the west coast of the island. It’s nothing grand, but it’s perfectly adequate for the two of us.’
Jake didn’t want just ‘adequate’ for his wife and daughter! ‘That doesn’t answer my question as to how you have continued to support yourself and Magdalena.’
Caro’s eyes flashed. ‘How do you imagine I support myself, Jake? By taking a paying lover every night?’
Jake’s mouth went completely dry at the thought of her taking even one lover, let alone a different one every night. Caro was his.