Burning with Passion Read online

  Michelle opened fire again as she and Caitlin prepared the entrée. ‘Who is David Hartley, anyway?’

  ‘You know that already.’

  Caitlin didn’t wish to divulge the information that she had quit her position today. It was none of Michelle’s business. Besides, at the rate things were happening, Caitlin couldn’t discount going back to work for him. Maybe tomorrow.

  ‘What is he?’ Michelle asked tartly.

  ‘You know the answer to that as well.’

  ‘How much money does he have?’

  ‘I have no idea. Why don’t you ask him?’

  Michelle’s eyes narrowed. ‘How much money does he owe on the Ferrari?’

  Caitlin began to bristle. ‘Five million, seven hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars and sixteen cents.’

  ‘He might be about to go bankrupt,’ Michelle said sweetly.

  ‘I don’t care.’

  ‘People who spend their money on flashy cars and cases of French champagne often do go broke. Serves them right, too.’

  Envy, Caitlin thought.

  She’d never been in tune with her older sister. She suspected Michelle had married Trevor because he was a good, solid income-earner. Perhaps that was also why she stayed so close to their mother, who held the purse-strings in their family. It was a fairly hefty purse since the sale of the farm. Caitlin didn’t like this train of thought but she couldn’t dismiss it.

  They cleared the table of the soup-plates, started cooking the baked vegetables, then served the entrée. Her mother and father were having a wonderful time. Trevor was assiduously keeping glasses filled. Caitlin wondered if they would have to hire a fleet of taxis to take everyone home when the party was over. The atmosphere was very merry.

  David had appointed himself disc-jockey and was playing guests’ requests from her parents’ collection of old-time songs. He didn’t seem to mind, being here with her family, solving their problems, contributing to their pleasure. He grinned at Caitlin, as though he was really enjoying himself. It made her feel happy. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling back at him before returning to the kitchen.

  Once dinner was over, she would make the opportunity to ask David about his family. His claim that he had been lonely for most of his life seemed to indicate a long lack of close relationships. Perhaps that was the reason for his reticence on the subject, and also why he drove himself so hard to be successful at business. It filled in what he missed out on in other areas of his life.

  Now that David had opened the door for her to ask him about his feelings, Caitlin decided she could satisfy herself about a lot of things that had frustrated her in the past. She could hardly put more of a step wrong than when she had walked out on him this morning. His subsequent response to that action proved she could take more steps than she had ever dreamed possible.

  Her heart felt particularly light as she emptied the dishwasher of the soup-plates, ready to load in the entrée plates. She put the clean crockery away on its shelf in the walk-in pantry, collected the carving dishes for the legs of pork and lamb, and set them on the kitchen bench.

  Michelle made the gravy and put it aside to be heated again later. With their schedule right up to the minute, Michelle took the opportunity to peck at Caitlin again.

  ‘Why has Dad got to deal with you? What about?’

  Caitlin gritted her teeth. She was sick of Michelle’s peevish mood. If the burr under her sister’s skin was frustrated curiosity, perhaps the best thing to do was give her something she could really chew on. She turned to Michelle with a careless shrug.

  ‘Oh, Mum found out that I’m having an affair with David.’

  Michelle’s mouth dropped open. Her eyes whirled with the thought that Caitlin might have found herself a better deal with David Hartley than she had with Trevor. It was unacceptable.

  ‘You’re not!’ she jeered in disbelief.

  ‘I most certainly am! And what’s more...’ Caitlin advanced on Michelle to shove her enviable situation right down her sister’s throat ‘...I am enjoying it to the hilt!’

  It was only a little white lie, Caitlin reflected, and it couldn’t possibly do any harm.

  ‘Darling!’

  The impassioned endearment that seemed to break over Caitlin’s head stunned her into utter stillness. It was David’s voice! He’d heard what she’d said to Michelle!

  There was a crash of stacked plates being dumped on the tiled bench-top behind her. Strong hands grasped her waist and drew her against him. Warm lips descended on her bare shoulder. ‘Let’s make love immediately,’ he intoned with heated fervour. ‘I need you so badly. I’ve waited so long. You’re so beautiful.’

  ‘Good grief!’ Michelle cried in stricken horror. She spun on her heel. ‘Trevor! Trevor, come here at once! Get Dad! Get Mum! There’s a mad rapist in the kitchen.’

  ‘It worked,’ David said with some elation. ‘Now, quickly, Caitlin, into the pantry...’

  Before Caitlin could collect her wits she was in the pantry.

  ‘...and lock the door,’ David concluded triumphantly, suiting his actions to his words.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

  ‘Keeping your parents happily united.’

  ‘They don’t need any more uniting!’

  Her mouth was an open invitation which he immediately plundered. Caitlin closed her eyes. Her disgrace was complete. Michelle would see to that.

  David was leaning against the door, his arms wrapped protectively around her, her body pressed to his, and he was kissing her with such devouring, heart-warming passion, any defences she might have raised disintegrated under the devastating impact of his lips, his tongue, his teeth, the sheer sensational power of his desire for her.

  He not only left her breathless, he bound her to him with a sensual intensity that Caitlin didn’t wish to fight. They had been lovers for months, and the addiction to his lovemaking was not crushed in a day. It was as though his body called to hers, arousing a compelling need for the togetherness it promised, a bonding that banished loneliness.

  She strained closer. He moved his legs further apart to accommodate her, giving a more intimate contact, and she felt the hard burning heat of him seep through her thin clothes, appeasing the empty ache she had tried to ignore all day. Right or wrong, she revelled in his need for her, and she recklessly abandoned the constraints she had imposed on herself for the sake of her self-respect.

  Her hands slid around his neck, her fingers thrusting through his hair, holding him to her, stroking him, loving him with a fierce, exultant love that returned kiss for kiss in an escalating frenzy of passion. His mouth moved from hers to graze erotically over her ear. ‘Caitlin...Caitlin...’ he breathed, as though repeating an ancient mantra inscribed on his soul.

  She felt she was being drawn into a sweet swirl of deep inner thrall...a force of nature that would consume their separate lives and meld them into one being. The rest of the world was in darkness. The nights with David had always compensated for the concerns of the days. Almost. She had sometimes wished the nights would never end.

  She lifted her eyelashes. There was no light. There was only a darkness that pulsed with feeling. She closed her eyes, content that it should be so. Let all the lights of the world go out as long as she could be with David like this.

  The sound of voices approaching broke into their absorption with each other. Unwelcome. Inescapable. Causing David to lift his head and listen.

  ‘It’s not the fuses,’ said one.

  ‘Well, something caused the lights to go out,’ said another.

  ‘That was you, David,’ she whispered.

  ‘Power’s gone, as well,’ someone else said.

  ‘No, Caitlin. It was you,’ David murmured.

  ‘Better ring up the electricity commission. Get someone out here as quickly as possible.’

  Caitlin looked at David although she didn’t see him in the pitch blackness. ‘How did you do it?’ she whispered again.


  ‘I?’ His voice was thick with emotion, but sounded innocent.

  Above the sounds of confusion and crisis arising from the other side of the pantry door, there was one voice that carried with the clarity of a ringing bell.

  ‘How will I ever live this down? The meal is ruined!’

  It was her mother’s voice.

  She heard David sigh.

  CHAPTER TEN

  THE meal was not ruined.

  David took charge.

  He elicited the information that this was the only house in the street without lights. He despatched Caitlin, Michelle and Trevor to the neighbours’ homes with the pots and pans of vegetables. The heat in the ovens would finish cooking the meats. He persuaded her parents and their guests to resume their places at the candlelit table, poured champagne for them all, proposed a toast to the happy couple celebrating their thirtieth wedding anniversary, and instigated the speech-making that would normally have taken place after the meal.

  In the meantime, the County Council arrived, diagnosed a power overload due to the number of electrical appliances being used, sent an electrician up a pole to change a transformer, and in half an hour had fixed the problem.

  Henry Ross took the opportunity to sing, ‘When the lights come on again...’ and the guests to join in, ‘...all over the world...’ to much laughter and merriment.

  Trevor was able to start the carving; the neighbours carried in the cooked vegetables and joined the party. Caitlin and Michelle served the dinners, and, since everyone’s appetite was sharpened by the unscheduled delay, the meal was enjoyed all the more.

  Despite the undoubted success of the rescue operation, or perhaps because of it, Michelle made it her business to tell Mummy that Caitlin and David were doing things in the pantry when the lights went out. She sweetly informed Caitlin that this was for her own good.

  Trevor thought so, too. The family should not be subjected to such scandalous behaviour and it was perfectly clear that David Hartley was the kind of man who rode roughshod over everyone and anyone.

  Trevor was undoubtedly piqued that he had been appointed a labourer during the crisis while David shone as a team leader.

  After the sweets course and before coffee was served, her father slipped away from the dinner table and took Caitlin aside. ‘Caitlin, I’d like to speak to you if I may,’ he said in his mild and gentle manner.

  ‘Sure, Dad. What about?’

  ‘David Hartley.’

  Caitlin’s heart sank. ‘Do you have to?’

  ‘Your mother said I had to deal with you.’

  ‘Well, in that case...I suppose we’d better get it over and done with.’

  ‘Trevor said I had to be stern with you.’

  ‘Trevor would,’ Caitlin muttered.

  ‘And Michelle said I was to be severe. Indeed, I think the word “harshly” came into the conversation. Harshly severe.’

  ‘Oh, dear,’ Caitlin said with resignation.

  ‘I don’t see that I have any option, Caitlin. None that’s viable.’

  ‘No,’ Caitlin agreed. ‘You’ll have to do it.’

  ‘Perhaps it would be best if we did this privately. Could I ask you to step into the study please, Caitlin?’

  ‘Sure, Dad.’

  The study was more a room of memorabilia, her father’s escape to the past. Photographs of his best horses covered the walls, along with the ribbons they had won at shows. The purple rosette for ‘Supreme Champion’ in the Galloway Class took pride of place. Caitlin walked over and touched it.

  ‘I do understand how much you must miss this, Dad,’ she said in soft sympathy.

  ‘It’s a loss, but your mother was right to sell up, Caitlin. The doctors said I wouldn’t last if I kept up the work. When I had that queer turn this morning...’

  Caitlin turned in quick concern. ‘You did? You should have told me, Dad.’

  ‘I got over it. Made me face up to a lot of things today.’

  Caitlin reflected that it had been that kind of day for her, too...facing up to what she wanted and where she was going with David.

  ‘Your mother’s been trying to interest me in other things for my own good,’ her father went on. ‘I was being a stubborn old fool...not co-operating. Didn’t want to let go. Your mother’s a wonderful woman, Caitlin. Always knows best.’

  ‘Yes, Dad,’ she agreed, not wanting to throw even the tiniest spanner into the harmony that had been established between her parents. Privately, she reserved the opinion that no one had the right to decide for anyone else what was ‘for their own good’.

  Her father coughed. ‘Well, almost always.’ He gave her an intent look. ‘Do you love David, Caitlin?’ he asked quietly.

  ‘Bits and pieces,’ she answered with a rueful smile.

  He nodded his head sagely. ‘I understand.’ He pulled himself erect and walked towards his daughter, put his hand gently on her shoulder. ‘Don’t take any notice of what anyone else says, Caitlin. Do what your heart tells you is right.’

  ‘I try to, Dad.’

  ‘I want you to be happy.’

  ‘I know that.’

  ‘There’s only one thing to remember, Caitlin. “To thine own self be true”.’

  She put her arms around his shoulders and hugged him.

  He grumped into his throat. ‘That’s about as severe as I can get, Caitlin.’

  ‘You’re the most wonderful dad in the whole world.’

  ‘I have my failings.’

  ‘We all do.’

  ‘I’ve tried hard.’

  Tears were shimmering in Caitlin’s eyes. ‘You don’t have any failings for me, Dad,’ she looked up at him. ‘Why are people the way they are?’

  ‘I don’t know, Caitlin.’

  ‘There’s nothing I can do...’

  ‘Yes, there is.’

  ‘What is it, Dad?’

  ‘Forgive them, Caitlin. All of them. They know not what they do.’

  ‘Thanks for being so stern with me, Dad.’ She kissed his cheek.

  He smiled, loving her as he always had. ‘God bless, Caitlin, and good luck with your David.’

  He left to return to her mother. Caitlin followed him out of the study, biting her lip to hold back the floodgates of affection that were welling in her eyes for her father. He was a wonderful man.

  She ran straight into David as she was crossing the foyer to the lounge-room.

  ‘What’s wrong with you?’ he asked.

  ‘Nothing!’

  Caitlin quickly blinked back her tears. David looked stern, angry and deadly serious. Something had upset him. Had Michelle been stirring up trouble behind Caitlin’s back? After everything David had done for the family today, it would be so dreadfully unfair if she had.

  ‘There’s one question you need to answer, Caitlin,’ he clipped out, his eyes as hard as slate.

  Her heart fluttered in alarm. Her nerve-endings picked up the different nuances in the tension flowing from him. This was not David, the lover. This was David, the fighter. Something very important was on the line for him.

  ‘What is it, David?’

  Whatever was wrong, she wanted to put it right for him, just as he had put so much right for her. For better or for worse, she loved David Hartley. There were still difficulties to overcome or to negotiate around before she could feel completely satisfied with their relationship, but she had no doubt left in her mind that he was the man she wanted in her life.

  The cold light of battle in his eyes suddenly flared into a blazing furnace of fury. ‘I am well aware that I’m an uninvited guest at this feast, Caitlin. A gatecrasher who turned out to be useful. Too useful to spurn.’

  Caitlin’s heart contracted. Had her mother attacked him? ‘David, I’m not spurning you,’ she cried. Surely their kiss in the pantry was evidence enough of that.

  ‘You did this morning, Caitlin. And who do you suppose has just walked in to join the party?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘He came h
ere, Caitlin. He came to your parents’ home. Expecting you to be here. As you are.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, David?’

  ‘Then let me refresh your memory. The man who stole my patents. The man who cheated his way into becoming my biggest competitor. The man who got to the German delegation before they came to me...’

  He punched the words at her in seething accusation. She stared back at him in pained bewilderment, her brains scrambled with the implications of what he was saying.

  ‘So tell me, Caitlin...what the hell is Michael Crawley doing at your parents’ thirtieth wedding anniversary party?’

  She had no idea. None at all. As far as she knew, Michael Crawley had no connection whatsoever with her family. She herself had never spoken a word to the man. She had only seen him once when she had accompanied David to a preliminary court hearing on the litigation between the two parties.

  Like David, he was in his early thirties. He had left Caitlin with the impression of a very slick operator, with the morals of an alley cat. He was quite a handsome man and well aware of it. Caitlin hadn’t liked his eyes. They seemed to be constantly calculating his effect on others.

  ‘Well?’ David prompted tersely.

  How could she explain the inexplicable? Before she could think of a word to say, another voice intervened.

  ‘Ah, there you are, Caitlin! My Valentine!’

  Caitlin goggled at Michael Crawley. He stepped out of the lounge-room, into the foyer where she and David were standing, and didn’t so much as hesitate in coming straight to her side, smiling at her as though they shared some special, private secret.

  ‘Everything turned out wonderfully well, Caitlin,’ he said in a tone of warm intimacy. ‘I’ve been with the Germans all afternoon, thanks to you, my sweet.’

  ‘You piece of slime!’ David sliced at him.

  Crawley laughed. ‘You’ve never been a good loser, have you, Hartley?’ He leaned closer to Caitlin and sniffed. ‘Not wearing my perfume. I thought Beautiful was perfect for you.’

  Caitlin was completely dumbstruck. She couldn’t believe what was happening.

  ‘I’ll buy you some more tomorrow. Anything you like,’ Crawley went on good-humouredly. ‘More roses, as well. Jenny said you didn’t take them with you.’