Mistress For Hire (Harlequin Presents) Read online

  “What exactly are you suggesting?” Lisa demanded.

  “I’m a wealthy man,” he said in a low voice. “I already come to Melbourne quite frequently on business and I could come even more frequently for pleasure.”

  “You make me sound like a fast-food outlet,” she hissed. “Juicy steaks, medium rare, prepared to perfection while you wait! And a money-back guarantee if we fail to satisfy.”

  Matt look at her from under half-closed lids.

  “Oh, I don’t think you’d fail to satisfy,” he murmured.

  ANGELA DEVINE grew up in Tasmania surrounded by forests, mountains and wild seas, so she dislikes big cities. Before taking up writing, she worked as a teacher, librarian and university lecturer. As a young mother and Ph.D. student she read romance fiction for fun and later decided it would be even more fun to write it. She is married with four children, loves chocolate and Twinings teas and hates ironing. Her current hobbies are gardening, bush walking, traveling and classical music.

  Angela Devine

  MISTRESS FOR HIRE

  To my sister.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER ONE

  ‘TIM!’ shouted Lisa. ‘Aren’t you back yet? I’m getting a cramp in my shoulder!’

  She raised herself on one elbow and gave an exasperated sigh. Even with the padding of a thick Chinese quilt spread beneath her, a dining table was not the most comfortable place to lie naked except for a thin drapery of silk. She twitched the green sari impatiently back from the curve of her hip, sat up and swung her legs over the side of the table. Luckily there were no neighbours who could look in, and the tossing green canopy of a silver birch tree produced exactly the quality of shifting greenish-gold light that Tim wanted for his study. It was to be called Female Nude on a Spring Afternoon, but as far as Lisa could see, it would never be finished unless Tim got out of the annoying habit of running out for a drink whenever his inspiration flagged. Suddenly she thought she heard the sound of a soft footstep downstairs.

  ‘Tim?’ she called hopefully.

  There was no answer. Sighing again, Lisa rose to her feet and padded around the room. She had to admit objectively that it was in a bit of a mess, not that that bothered her or Tim. Why would any sane person want to have a dining room when they could so easily turn it into a studio? Oh, there were still a few signs of gracious living—the gold and white striped wallpaper, the cream Austrian blinds drawn up into opulent swags above the large picture window, a bowl of yellow roses that filled the room with their heady perfume, not to mention the Chippendale chairs pushed casually back against the wall or the handsome mahogany sideboard that was almost buried beneath the litter of paints, rags and brushes. Yes, there were still a few faint indicators of the Lansdon family’s wealth and good taste, but on the whole the room looked exactly like what it was. A work space for two enthusiastic painters. And just at the moment Lisa felt she would far rather be painting than posing.

  She arched her back, trying to stretch the stiffness out of her neck and wriggling her shoulders to loosen them. What she needed was a really good work-out to loosen her stiffness so that she wouldn’t get pins and needles and start fidgeting the moment Tim came back. Yawning widely, she reached out one hand and put a cassette in the tape recorder. Ravel’s “Bolero”—now that was the sort of music you just had to dance to! She began to move voluptuously around the room, her back to the door, letting herself sway and posture sensually with the beat of the music. Anywhere else Lisa would never have dreamed of dancing naked, but Tim was dedicated enough to art to see her body only as an interesting combination of planes and surfaces, even if he did return while she was still in action. Ever since he had met Lisa acting as a model in his life drawing classes six months ago, he had regarded her as a cross between a great aunt and guru. Since she was only six years older than him this amused her, but it also made her feel safe. Safe enough to move into Tim’s luxury flat when he made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. If Lisa would give him painting lessons, she could have free board in return. She paused fractionally in the middle of a long, sensuous stretch, expecting to hear Tim ordering her to get back up on the table and pose for him. Sure enough, she heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps halting in the doorway. Lisa gave one last, voluptuous wriggle, hoisted herself on the table, flung the drapery dramatically around her and addressed him over her shoulder.

  ‘Hurry up, sweetie. I can’t wait another minute.’

  ‘Now there’s a tempting invitation,’ murmured the hoarse voice of a total stranger.

  Lisa froze in shock, then swung round.

  ‘Who on earth—’ she began, then flushed to the roots of her hair as she realized she had only made matters worse. Instead of a discreet partial rear view, the stranger was now getting a full frontal and enjoying every moment of it to judge by the gleam in his ice-blue eyes. Lisa had a confused impression of a tall, powerfully built man dressed in an autumn-toned checked jacket, beige slacks and a striped tie. The amused contempt in his smile galvanized her into action. She snatched at the silk drapery and tried to wind it protectively around her as she stood up. That was a fatal mistake. As she scrambled off the dining table she tripped and fell to the floor with a startled shriek, losing half her covering in the process.

  ‘Dear me,’ said the stranger softly. ‘I seem to have given you a surprise.’

  He crouched down as if to help her, but only succeeded in stepping on her sari.

  ‘Don’t touch me!’ yelped Lisa, scrabbling vainly at the length of silk. Was he deliberately standing on it? ‘Who are you? How did you get in?’

  His reply came in a lazy drawl, as if this were nothing but a routine social occasion.

  ‘My name is Matt Lansdon. I’m Tim’s uncle. The door was unlocked so I just came up. I presume you must be Lisa Hayward?’

  ‘Tim’s uncle?’

  Lisa stepped back a pace in shock as she realized that this was the ogre she had heard so much about, the hard-hearted trustee who had thwarted Tim’s burning desire to study art and insisted that he do economics at Melbourne University instead. Subconsciously she realized that she had been expecting a white-haired, fire-breathing old dragon of about eighty, but this man was relatively young. Certainly no more than thirty-five or thirty-six, with a hard, tough, youthful physique and only a faint silvering of the temples and an indefinable aura of authority as emblems of the power he held over his nephew. As Lisa continued to gape at him, he spoke again, like a lawyer cross-examining a witness.

  ‘I assume you must be Lisa Hayward?’

  ‘Yes, how did you know?’ she demanded defensively.

  ‘I’ve heard a lot about you,’ he replied.

  There was a steely note in his voice, which sent a shiver of misgiving through her. For a moment he looked at her as if she was something that had crawled out from beneath a log, so that her chin came up and her eyes flashed dangerously. Then she made an effort to see things from his point of view. After all, it was hardly surprising if he disapproved of her, considering the circumstances in which they had met. In a desperate attempt to regain her poise she wrenched the sari out from under his foot and swathed herself in it.

  ‘I—I’m sorry about this,’ she stammered. ‘Tim and I were just about to…’ Her voice trailed away as she realized suddenly that the painting lessons she was giving Tim were supposed to be a deadly secret. Matt Lansdon gave her a sardonic smile.

  ‘Don’t explain,’ he begged.
‘I can imagine what you were just about to do. You’re Tim’s lodger, I gather? So tell me, what’s the arrangement? Do you pay him rent and share expenses or something of that sort?’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Lisa unhappily. ‘Well, that is…I don’t exactly pay rent. We have another arrangement.’

  ‘Indeed? How interesting. You know, you make me more and more anxious to see Tim and have a little talk to him, Miss Hayward. And perhaps you and I should have a chat, too. Although you might like to get some clothes on first?’

  Lisa’s cheeks burned. Little chat, indeed! There was no way she wanted to talk to him! Any fool could see what he thought was going on between her and Tim, and she didn’t see why she should suffer the ordeal of stammering out a lot of incoherent explanations that wouldn’t make sense. Why couldn’t Tim have the courage to come right out and tell his uncle the truth? That he hated economics and wanted to study art and that Lisa was trying to help him achieve his ambition in return for having a roof over her head? And where was Tim, anyway? How long could it possibly take to go to the pub across the road?

  At that moment the telephone rang. Clutching her sari protectively around her, Lisa lunged at the receiver. A muted uproar of chinking glasses, bar-room conversation and the click of billiard balls immediately assaulted her.

  ‘Lisa?’

  ‘Tim,’ she cried gladly. ‘What are you doing? You said you’d only be gone five minutes!’

  Tim’s voice gurgled down the line at her. Lazy, amiable and already slightly slurred.

  ‘Don’t get upset, gorgeous,’ he urged. ‘I ran into Barbara and some of the others at the pub and we’re all going to have a counter meal and then go on to a party at Tony’s place, so I guess the painting session’s over for today. Oh, Tony says you can come to the party with us, if you want. I don’t suppose you’re interested, though, are you?’

  The invitation was lukewarm and Lisa’s reaction was exactly the same. She thought of the horseplay, the drinking, the numerous dogmatic arguments about the meaning of life that always seemed to go on at student parties and immediately felt as though she was approaching her hundredth birthday.

  ‘No, thanks, Tim,’ she said crisply. ‘I don’t feel like a party and you can’t go right now, either. Your uncle Matt is here and he wants to have an urgent talk with you.’

  There was a muffled groan at the other end of the line.

  ‘Uncle Matt? Hell, I’m out of here! See you later, Lisa.’

  ‘Tim, he wants to speak to you! You can’t just hang up—’

  Suddenly Matt shouldered her aside and grabbed the phone from her hands.

  ‘Timothy? I’m warning you—’

  There was a distant click at the other end of the line and Matt gave a snort of exasperation. His eyes were narrowed to mere slits of cold blue light as he put down the receiver, and the set of his mouth left Lisa in no doubt at all that he was very angry.

  ‘Young fool!’ he growled. ‘When is that boy going to learn that he can’t escape trouble by ducking out of a difficult situation? He hasn’t even got the guts to stand by you, and I’m supposed to believe that he’s mature enough to run his own life! Heaven preserve us, I think Sonia’s right for once!’

  Lisa stared at him with a puzzled frown. What on earth did he mean by talking about Tim standing by her? And what did Tim’s mother, Sonia, have to do with it? Was Matt Lansdon unbalanced? He didn’t look unbalanced! He looked like a powerful man unused to being thwarted and very annoyed about it. She forgot these speculations as Matt suddenly turned his anger on her.

  ‘Well, Tim may have escaped for the moment,’ he said in a hard voice. ‘But that still leaves you, sweetheart, and you and I have a lot to discuss. I suggest you begin by getting dressed in something more substantial than a sheet of cling wrap.’

  His contemptuous tone touched Lisa on the raw. After all, it wasn’t her fault that Tim had hung up, leaving his uncle in the lurch, and she certainly hadn’t invited Matt Lansdon to enter the house and see her naked.

  ‘I’ll get dressed when and if I choose to!’ she flared. ‘May I remind you, Mr Lansdon, that this is my home and you are an uninvited visitor here? What’s more, I’m not your sweetheart and I don’t like being spoken to in that tone of voice.’

  His reply was low, silky, threatening.

  ‘And may I remind you, Miss Hayward, that I am the legal owner of this flat? Tim is my tenant, not you, and he has no right to sublet without my permission. I could throw you out on the street at this very moment if I chose to do so.’

  Lisa was taken aback, but didn’t show it. The news that Matt Lansdon was the legal owner of the flat came as a complete surprise to her, but that wasn’t the real crux of the problem. She was beginning to realize that she had leapt quite blithely into her rental arrangement with Tim without having any idea of the possible repercussions. At the time it had all seemed gloriously simple. Free art lessons in exchange for free board. Yet there had been several occasions since then when Lisa had wondered whether the benefits of free accommodation really made it worthwhile putting up with Tim’s often juvenile behaviour. And if she now had to suffer the blazing antagonism of his uncle, as well, the whole situation would become utterly impossible.

  ‘I see,’ she said levelly. ‘In that case, perhaps you would like me to pack my belongings and leave right now?’

  Matt’s eyes skimmed over her, not with any sensual intent, but with a piercing scrutiny she found profoundly unnerving.

  ‘That might well be the best solution,’ he rasped. ‘And it’s certainly what Sonia would prefer, but I want a few answers first. Before you go anywhere else, Miss Hayward, you’re going to give them to me. Get dressed at once and we’ll have a little chat about what’s been going on here since you moved in with Tim.’

  Lisa felt a sinking sensation. Tim’s uncle was wearing the gloating expression of a dentist intent on performing a series of thorough and painful extractions. She wouldn’t stand a chance if he started interrogating her.

  ‘I can’t!’ she gabbled, improvising wildly. ‘I have an appointment at the hairdresser’s in fifteen minutes’ time and after that I’m going to the opera at the State Theatre.’

  Why had she said that? Perhaps because she would have given her eyeteeth to go to the performance of Carmen tonight. As usual, she couldn’t possibly afford a ticket, but Matt Lansdon didn’t know that. And at least it should get rid of him!

  ‘Indeed?’ drawled Matt sceptically. ‘What a pity. Still, the solution’s obvious. I’ll go to the opera, too, and we’ll have supper together afterwards. That should give us plenty of time to talk.’

  Lisa flashed him a stricken look.

  ‘Y-you can’t,’ she stammered.

  ‘Why not? It’s the simplest thing in the world. Oh, but you’d better give me your ticket so that I can go to the box office and arrange for you to sit with me. Have you got it somewhere handy?’

  ‘Um…no…actually I’ve lost it! I was going to see if I could buy another one when I arrived there.’

  ‘Really? Well, there’s no need for that. I’ll organize it all. You’ll come as my guest, of course.’

  She could see perfectly well that he didn’t believe her, and humiliation scorched through her. Yet she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of admitting she had lied.

  ‘How nice of you to invite me,’ cooed Lisa.

  The flash of angry amusement in his eyes showed that he had caught the irony in her tone. His dark eyebrows peaked.

  ‘It’s not an invitation, Miss Hayward, it’s more in the nature of an order.’

  ‘Why should I take orders from you?’ she whipped back.

  The cynical amusement in his expression grew more apparent than ever.

  ‘If you have the slightest concern for Tim’s welfare, you will,’ he replied curtly. ‘I’ll pick you up at seven. Good day to you, Miss Hayward.’

  Once he had left and Lisa had carefully locked the front door after him, she sank down in a dining chair,
buried her head in her hands and groaned.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ she demanded aloud. ‘Why is he so hostile to me? I know I had no clothes on, but he surely can’t think I’ve seduced his precious nephew! Anyway, doesn’t he know that Tim’s having a torrid affair with Barbara Simpson? No, of course that’s not the kind of thing that Tim would admit to good old Uncle Matt, is it? And who could blame him? Still, I could murder the stupid kid for running off and leaving me to deal with all this. Lord, what a mess! I’ve a good mind to go out and not be here at seven o’clock when his wretched uncle comes back.’

  All the same, Matt’s parting shot had been shrewdly aimed. As Lisa ran a steaming hot bubble bath and lowered herself into it with the bathroom door locked—she wasn’t going to risk a second interruption—she pondered his words. What possible connection could there be between Tim’s welfare and Lisa’s acceptance of Matt’s invitation? And hadn’t there been something vaguely sarcastic in his tone, as if he didn’t believe Lisa had the slightest interest in Tim’s welfare? It was all very puzzling, and she had to admit that her curiosity was stirred, although there were also other, less comfortable feelings simmering inside her.

  The thought of going to the opera with Matt filled her with mingled dread and annoyance. Normally she would have jumped at the chance, since she adored the drama and passion and vitality of opera but could rarely afford tickets. Yet the thought of sitting side by side in an auditorium all evening with Matt Lansdon was about as appealing as being escorted by a sabre-toothed tiger, and a hungry one at that. And that was not a bad image, she reflected, soaping a sponge and brushing it dreamily over her breasts. There was definitely something primitive and feral about the man that seemed all the more dangerous in contrast to his impeccably tailored clothing. Now that she thought about it, she remembered that Tim had told her his uncle was a grazier in Tasmania, and he certainly dressed like one. The aura of old money, old Georgian houses and antiquated notions about masculine power and importance clung to Matt Lansdon as persistently as the leathery aroma of his expensive aftershave. A deeply conservative man, if Lisa was any judge. And yet beneath the conservatism lurked something wild that sent an odd, unwelcome thrill through her.