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The earrings glittered up at her, each a pink diamond centred in a
baguette cluster of white diamonds much smaller than the pendant,
of course, but still fabulous. Her hands trembled a little as she
removed her gold studs and fastened a large fortune to each earlobe.
'They suit you well enough,' he said sardonically. 'I thought they
would.'
'I'm glad you're satisfied,' Laura returned coolly.
His eyes glittered with some dangerously strong emotion for a
moment, but he controlled it and nodded towards the bed. 'Is that bit
of frivolity a hat?'
'Yes. Would you like to see that on also?'
'Why not?' he drawled.
She was still positioning it on her head when the jeweller returned.
Jared answered the door but didn't ask him in again. Laura heard
him thank the man. Then he came back to her. 'Very classy,' he
commented on the hat, then opened the larger of the two boxes he
had carried in and lifted out the pendant.
Laura's skin prickled with sensitivity as he fastened it around her
throat. Their eyes met in the mirror and for one brief moment they
stared at each other strangers who were about to enter into the
most intimate relationship between a man and a woman.
'Now the ring,' Jared murmured, his face tightening as though that
moment had disturbed him in some way.
He slid the ring on her finger. The pink diamond was slightly larger
than those in the earrings but the design was exactly the same. Jared
immediately collected the boxes and tossed them in her suitcase. 'If
there's nothing else to be packed, Til call the porter,' he said, already
moving towards the telephone.
Thirty minutes later Laura was checked out of the hotel and they
were in the private lift which serviced Jared's penthouse apartment.
The nervous flutter in Laura's stomach had nothing to do with the
speedy lift to the top of the building. Jared's tension was affecting
her badly. When the lift stopped, he didn't immediately step through
the opened doors. He leaned forward and pressed the close-door
button, then seemed to gather himself before turning to her.
'Remember that my mother and stepfather mean nothing to you. In
normal circumstances you would know nothing of them. Pretend
that.'
She nodded, ironically aware of the truth that his mother and
stepfather didn't mean anything to her. She didn't even know their
names! 'If that's what we're pretending, don't forget to make a
formal introduction, Jared.'
His eyes mocked any necessity to be reminded of such a critical
detail, but Laura felt better about carrying off her role with that
point clearly settled.
'And you can also pretend that you and I, my darling...' his mouth
curled over the affectionate term '.. .are a very happy couple. So
smile.'
She smiled.
'Not bad,' he approved, and linked her arm with his in a properly
possessive fashion. 'A bit more warmth and sparkle would be more
convincing.'
'Give it to me and I'll give it you,' she retorted archly.
She could feel him relax as he gave his low laugh. 'I'll do more than
that. One thing you can be certain of... Tonight you'll know what it's
like to be my wife. All I have to do is think of that and no one's
going to doubt how I feel about you.'
A tidal wave of heat surged through Laura as his eyes blazed down
at her with furnace-explosive intent. He was going to reduce her to
just another female in one arena of their married life, even if he
could never achieve it any other way. It was not so much sexual
desire as a blistering need to get the better of her in the age-old way
of male domination. And while Laura recognised all this, and part of
her mind railed against it, the rest of her was exquisitely excited by
the prospect.
A triumphant amusement glittered in his eyes as he observed the
high colour in her cheeks. He even smiled as he stroked her burning
skin with a light finger-touch. 'You now have the warmth. Don't
forget the smile, darling. A little sparkle is required. Think of
diamonds,' he purred, then moved his finger to the lift button to
reopen the doors.
She would out-glitter him if it killed her, Laura thought, and as they
emerged from the small compartment and walked towards the
archway which led into the lounge-room she constructed a smile
that outshone the Eastern Star. However, she was not prepared for
the shock that hit her when they entered the room, and the couple
waiting for them rose from the far sofa. It took all of Laura's
considerable self-discipline to keep the smile firmly in place.
The face of the woman was older, but its beauty was unchanged..
.and the haunted eyes were those that looked out of the painting
seeking something... remembering something...aching for something
that was forever lost. And they clung to Laura's face as if they were
seeing a spectre that filled her soul with torment.
'Laura, this is my mother and stepfather, Naomi and Rafe Carellan,'
Jared introduced, and she heard the faint disquiet in his voice even
though he tried to project a relaxed indulgence.
Naomi.. .a soft waft of sound that would echo through the ranges of
the Kimberley and whisper across straw- pale plains and linger in
the blue shades of twilight... Naomi... and the haunted-haunting eyes
kept clinging to Laura's face, bringing a tension to the room that no
amount of acting could dispel.
Rafe Carellan jerked his hand out towards Laura in an effort to
distract attention from his wife's distraught state of mind, but the
hand was clasped tightly by the woman at his side.
'It is...' she whispered hoarsely, then spoke in slow, tortured little
bursts. 'You must see it, Rafe. Jared is deceiving us...is deceiving
me. They're Drew's eyes. His hairline. It's no wild coincidence. She
can't be anyone else. She is Drew's daughter.'
And the past that Jared had wanted to keep in the past was no longer
there. It was here... vibrantly alive in this room... and throbbing with
pain.
CHAPTER SIX
THE soft beauty of Naomi Carellan'S face tightened and twisted in
unbearable distress. 'When does the punishment stop?' she cried.
Her eyes filled with tears and she turned blindly to her husband for
comfort. 'Does it never end, Rafe?'
His arms came around her, gently protective in their embrace. She
leaned on him, an instinctive movement that had the familiarity of
long practice... years of leaning.. .of needing and being given
support. And the huge, solid frame of the man who gave it stood
rocksteady. But his face was also creased in suffering. Whether it
was compassion for his wife or a deep personal pain of his own, it
was impossible to tell.
He was almost an ugly man. His heavy-featured face was set on a
bull-neck, and his deeply freckled skin suggested that the wispy
white hair had once been red. But the soft brown eyes had an
intensely human appeal that contrasted sharply with the toughness
of his exterior.
'What's going on, Jared?' he demanded quietly.
'How can Mother be so certain?' Jared bit out tightly.
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