Substitute Bride Read online

  Rather to her surprise, James didn’t bait her during the trip to Hobart. In fact, he seemed to go out of his way to be pleasant without probing any uncomfortable subjects. He talked about everything under the sun. Favourite foods, favourite films, the weather, music, business, politics, childhood ambitions and pet hates. And he showed an uncanny knack for drawing out her opinions too.

  By the time the brick chimneys of the woollen mill rose into view against the blue backdrop of the Derwent estuary, Laura felt she had known James all her life. Not that she necessarily liked everything she had discovered about him—far from it! Although he was undoubtedly intelligent, forceful and a stimulating companion, he could also be downright pig-headed on a number of issues. All the same, she couldn’t deny that her ruffled feathers were soothed and that she was beginning to find him more complex and intriguing than she had ever guessed.

  After a brief tour of the woollen mill, James took her to lunch in the revolving restaurant at the casino. By now Laura was beginning to wilt from the combined effects of a long drive and an hour of industrial detail, but her spirits revived at the sight of the view. When a smiling waiter showed them to their seats at a table by the window, she caught her breath in amazement.

  ‘What an incredible panorama! You must be able to see for fifty miles, and there’s so much variety. The mountain, the city, the sea, and…are those offshore islands?’

  ‘Peninsulas, more likely, although it’s hard to tell. Anyway, if we eat at exactly the right pace, the restaurant should do one full circuit of the tower so that you can see everything before you leave. Now, would you like something to drink?’

  ‘Yes, a gin and tonic, please.’

  Laura sat down in the comfortable upholstered chair, enjoying the opulence of the starched tablecloth, the flowers, the silver, the attractive china. From time to time she had taken clients of the firm out to expense account lunches in equally good restaurants in Sydney, but in her own private life she had always been thrifty. At first she hadn’t had much money to splash around and later she had been saving for a home of her own. Even now it gave her a thrill to be eating out in a place like this, although James seemed as relaxed and casual as if it were his natural environment.

  After a reviving drink they studied the menu and Laura opted for smoked salmon followed by fillet steak with salad, while James chose a lobster bisque and an Italian veal dish with fried potatoes. After ordering, they sat back and smiled at each other while the waiter poured white wine for them.

  ‘Cheers,’ said James.

  ‘Cheers,’ echoed Laura.

  As she lifted her glass she accidentally dislodged a small white flower from the glass vase between them. It fell out on the tablecloth and James picked it up and put it back in the water.

  ‘There were hundreds of these things in the paddock next to the deer enclosure a week or two ago,’ he remarked. ‘Snowdrops, aren’t they?’

  ‘Snowflakes,’ Laura corrected. ‘You can tell by the little green dots on the petals.’

  James’s eyes widened.

  ‘I thought Bea was the one who’d studied horticulture, not you.’

  Laura twinkled at him.

  ‘Well, she probably only did it because I pushed her into it,’ she admitted. ‘I’ve always loved growing things. My biggest ambition in life is to have a garden.’

  ‘Don’t you have one at the moment?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘No. I wanted to buy a home of my own, but with Sydney prices as they are, the best I could afford was a two-bedroom flat.’

  James sipped his wine and rolled it round reflectively on his tongue before he spoke.

  ‘You told me once that you’d like to go to Queensland and visit the rainforests. Was that your ambition or Bea’s?’

  ‘Mine,’ said Laura. ‘Most of what I told you was really about me, although it’s very odd, really. Somehow, when I was talking to you, I kept discovering things about myself that I never knew before. I didn’t even know until I said it that I wanted to go to Queensland.’

  ‘Then do it!’ urged James. ‘I think it’s a mistake to have passionate longings for experience and do nothing about it.’

  ‘You said you wanted to go to Queensland too, and ride horses and laze about on the beach,’ she reminded him. ‘Are you going to do that?’

  ‘Perhaps we should join forces and do it together,’ he said half to himself. ‘Go beachcombing and visit the national parks. Combine our interests.’

  Laura suffered such a shock at these words that she choked on her wine and was seized by a coughing fit. By the time her eyes had stopped streaming the waiter had arrived with the smoked salmon and lobster bisque and James was busy ordering her a glass of water. She felt too embarrassed to try and re-open the subject, particularly since her voice was temporarily reduced to a croak, but she pondered James’s words as she cautiously began to eat her smoked salmon. This was the first time he had ever suggested that their relationship might have any future beyond the immediate one, but did he mean it? Or was it merely idle conversation? She watched him covertly from under her eyelashes, trying to read his face.

  ‘Better now?’ he asked.

  She nodded and took another sip of water.

  ‘Yes. Sorry about that.’

  ‘That’s all right. How’s the smoked salmon?’

  ‘Excellent, thank you.’

  The conversation turned to food, and she was almost relieved when they spent the remainder of the meal in the same kind of light-hearted, fluent discussion that had occupied their journey that morning. Only when James called for the bill did a warning note sound in her thoughts.

  ‘I’d better be off,’ he said, looking at his watch. ‘I promised Sue I’d see my solicitors about this shopping complex and they’re expecting me at two-thirty. Are you ready to go?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ she agreed, but she felt as if a chill, damp blanket had descended on her spirits at the mention of Sue Rigby’s name. Were she and James really only allies in the fight against the developers, or was there more to it than that?

  They parted company in the centre of the city and James pointed out the central shopping district to her.

  ‘You can’t go wrong,’ he advised. ‘Basically everything’s located in the one city block, so buy whatever you can in two hours and meet me at the Sheraton at four-thirty. We’ll have a quick cup of tea before we drive home.’

  Laura enjoyed her shopping. Normally she bought well-cut, conservative clothes that would be suitable for the office, but this time some experimental demon seemed to have taken possession of her. At first she chose the kind of classic, understated clothes she had always favoured—mix and match corduroy trousers, a couple of skirts, three blouses, a cardigan and a sweater—but in the last half-hour she went berserk. Not only did she buy some extremely sexy black lace lingerie, but she chose a flamboyant scarlet dress and a scarlet, gold and black handbag which cost more than her round trip airline ticket to Sydney had done.

  ‘Put my old clothes in the bag, please,’ she told the sales assistant. ‘I’m going to wear this dress.’

  She had her reward when she walked into the atrium of the Sheraton Hotel and found James lounging in a chair against the huge windows that framed a view of the harbour. He blinked, rose to his feet and came forward to meet her with the stunned, admiring expression that Laura was accustomed to seeing when men met Beatrice for the first time.

  ‘You look ravishing,’ he said, holding her at arm’s length and then kissing her on the cheek. ‘What have you done to yourself?’

  She smiled and sank into a chair, noticing with a mixture of embarrassment and delight that several other male heads were turning discreetly towards her.

  ‘Oh, nothing,’ she said. ‘Just a few new clothes.’

  ‘Well, they’re the right sort of clothes,’ said James warmly. ‘You know, you leave your sister for dead, Laura. Poor kid, she’s so skinny and gawky—even at the wedding you outclassed her.
And now you look absolutely stunning.’

  Laura gave a smothered gulp of laughter.

  ‘But she’s the beautiful one,’ she protested.

  ‘Not to me,’ said James, his eyes glinting as they rested on her. Then he added in a voice so low she could scarcely catch his words, ‘You know, I’m very glad you weren’t marrying Sam.’

  The waitress arrived at that moment to offer them some tea and the conversation moved to safer subjects. But later, as they were driving out of town, something else happened which made Laura wonder about James’s plans for the future. They had just left the outskirts of the suburbs behind and were coming into more open country when Laura suddenly noticed a big advertising board outside a plant nursery.

  ‘Oh, look!’ she exclaimed. ‘They’ve got lemon trees for sale. Do those really grow here? I would have thought it would be too cold for them.’

  ‘No, they do very well, provided you buy the right variety and plant them in a sheltered spot,’ said James. To her surprise, he slowed the car down. ‘Do you want me to stop and buy one for you?’

  ‘But I’ll be here such a short time,’ protested Laura. ‘Lemon trees last for decades.’

  The car glided to a halt outside the nursery. James switched off the ignition.

  ‘Who knows how long you’ll be here?’ he said. ‘A lot can happen in a short time.’

  A lot did happen in a short time. Over the next few weeks Laura and James were inseparable, and her hopes began to grow that he was falling just as deeply in love with her as she was with him. Not that he tried to kiss her again, but the way his eyes lit up when she entered a room and the warmth with which they followed her left her in no doubt that he wanted to do so. She began to feel that he was deliberately going slowly in order to let her feel safe with him, although sometimes she suspected miserably that his strategy was exactly the opposite. Could he be going slowly in order to lull her suspicions and seduce her once her guard was down? Yet there seemed no real evidence for that.

  As they shared the routine of work and play she began to feel as though he was not only the man she loved most in the world, but also her best friend. They went riding together, they planted the lemon tree and began landscaping the back garden together, they did the books for the farm together and they went to barbecues and car rallies and quiz nights with their neighbours. Laura began to feel as if she were settling into a whole new world, one where she could be very happy.

  Yet there were two discordant notes which marred the harmony of her life. One was the realisation that she would very soon have to go back to Sydney to her job. The other was the fact that James still continued to see Sue Rigby. Matters came to a head when Sue invited them both to a barbecue in order to raise funds for the fight against the proposed shopping centre.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Laura as they sat in front of the living room fire the evening before the barbecue. ‘I really don’t want to go.’

  ‘Why not?’ demanded James in an exasperated voice.

  ‘Well, to be brutally honest, I don’t like her and I’m sure she doesn’t like me, so it’s only going to cause tension if I do go.’

  ‘That’s ridiculous! It will cause tension if you don’t go and I’ve already said the same thing to her. I told her quite bluntly that she couldn’t invite the whole village and not you.’

  ‘There you are!’ cried Laura. ‘Obviously she didn’t want me to come in the first place and she only invited me because you made her. Well, I’m not going where I’m not wanted.’

  ‘I want you there!’ snapped James. ‘What’s more, I’m insisting that you come.’

  His arrogance took Laura’s breath away.

  ‘And I have to do exactly what you tell me, do I?’ she retorted.

  ‘Yes, if you want to put it that way. It’s a question of loyalty. We’ve been invited as a couple and that’s the way we’ll go.’

  As a couple. The words sent a stab of longing through Laura, followed by an equally acute pang of discontent. All the unsatisfactory aspects of their relationship rose and attacked her like a swarm of angry wasps.

  ‘That’s rubbish!’ she burst out. ‘We’re not a couple. We’re nothing like it! A couple is two people who have some kind of commitment to each other, who are emotionally involved with each other. Whereas we’re just ships that pass in the night. I’m your house guest for a few weeks, you’re my host, and before long we’ll part and not even remember each other’s faces.’

  She gave a startled cry as James suddenly moved without warning. Uncoiling from his chair like a hunting cat, he crossed the open space between them, hauled her to her feet and crushed her in the most ruthless embrace she had ever experienced. Her blood seemed to throb through her veins like molten fire as he kissed her with a savagery that terrified and exhilarated her. Her legs felt too limp to support her as he engulfed her in his arms and plundered her mouth with a pent-up frenzy engendered by weeks of patient waiting.

  ‘You’re wrong,’ he said hoarsely. ‘We are a couple, and I’m going to prove it to you, Laura. In the most primitive way there is.’

  CHAPTER SIX

  SHE knew immediately what he intended and, after the first tremor of alarm, her heart soared at the realisation. When he gripped her hand and drew her towards the door she followed him gladly, although her legs seemed to have turned to water. All the familiar details of the house seemed touched with strangeness, as if her senses were unnaturally heightened by the importance of what they were about to do. James flung his arm around her shoulders as he urged her up the stairs and she leaned weakly against him, overtaken by joy and disbelief.

  Even the polished cedar banisters sliding smoothly under her hand, the soft glow of the wall sconce on the landing and the creaking stair near the top seemed magically alive, as if they were witnesses to some tremendous event. He does love me, she thought. He loves me and wants me and now our union is going to be complete. And afterwards we’ll get married and live in this beautiful house and have babies and…Oh, I’m so happy I could die. A couple. A real couple. At last.

  The heavy cedar door of James’s bedroom creaked open and he flicked a switch, which brought two softly glowing lamps on either side of his bed into shimmering life. Then the door creaked shut behind them and James drew her once more into that devouring embrace. His massive thighs were spread on either side of hers, trapping her against him, and his hands were moving rapidly over her shoulders and arms and breasts. Closing her eyes, she lifted her face to his, revelling in his openmouthed kisses, in the hot, demanding pressure of his tongue against hers.

  ‘I want you, Laura,’ he said thickly. ‘I want you so badly. Do you want me too?’

  She shuddered as his hand moved over her breasts, stroking their satiny smoothness into hard, erect tips so that her entire body seemed to tingle and ache with need for him.

  ‘Yes,’ she gasped. ‘Oh, yes. James—’

  Her next words were lost in the low moan that overtook her as his hand slid down inside the waistband of her skirt, skimming the silken triangle of hair at the fork of her body and finding the most intimate part of her. She had never known such delirious pleasure could exist as the tingling excitement which maddened her now as his fingers moved subtly, caressingly against her.

  ‘Touch me too,’ he breathed, seizing her hand and guiding it.

  Her heart was hammering so violently that she could hear the tumultuous thunder of her own pulse, but with inexpert fingers she cupped his hot, male hardness and began to stroke it. He uttered a low groan and suddenly wrenched at his clothes, tearing open the zip of his jeans so that she felt his rigid warmth pulsing in the palm of her hand. She glanced down in mingled alarm and excitement, wondering if she ought to tell him that she had never…wondering…

  Then he kissed her so hotly that he seemed determined to suck the life out of her and she felt an aching warmth throb fiercely at her groin. Why tell him anything? He might stop, and that was the last thing she wanted now. Time enough for confid
ences when it was all over. With a faint whimper, she swayed against him, closing her eyes and feeling her breasts crush erotically against his powerful chest. When his hands moved expertly to peel off her skirt and tights, she felt only relief that the barrier was gone. Dizzily she sighed and nestled against him, wondering how and when she had kicked off her shoes. Then she closed her eyes and arched her back, offering herself to him provocatively as he unbuttoned her blouse and exposed her body to his gaze.

  ‘Look at me Laura,’ he breathed. ‘I want to see the expression in your eyes when I take off your last garment and hold you naked in my arms.’

  She obeyed drowsily, stretching like a contented cat as he flung away the blouse and paused before he tackled her black lace underwear. His own eyes were touched with fire and there was a controlled frenzy about his movements when he reached behind her and unfastened the catch on her bra. Released from their confinement, her breasts sprang free, large and lush, the nipples hard with excitement. James caught his breath at the sight and went down on one knee so that he could bury his face in their yielding warmth.

  Laura felt a shudder go through her at the brush of his sleek, glossy hair on her skin and the unfamiliar, teasing caress of his warm, moist tongue. Then his mouth moved over her nipple and he began to suck rhythmically, provocatively. She gasped and arched against him, feeling as if her bones were turning to water as he shifted his position and repeated the same exquisite torment on her other breast. Then his head moved lower.

  Holding the firm curve of her hips with his powerful hands, he suddenly stripped off her black silk knickers which were the last barrier between them. She caught her breath as he suddenly seized her in his arms and boosted her into the air, leaving her garments scattered carelessly on the carpet. In three swift strides he had reached the huge bed and flung her effortlessly down in the centre of it. Her heart pounded as she saw him looming over her in the lamplight with an avid, gloating expression in his eyes. His chest was heaving and his movements were swift and purposeful as he tore at his cuffs and the buttons on the front of his shirt. In an instant he was free of the confining fabric and with a muffled groan of impatience he flung it aside.