Whirlpool Read online

  It was happening again. Her miracle. As it had happened on her eighteenth birthday. Now, as then, she could feel Damian’s hunger for her, could feel the hardness of his loins against hers. Now, as long ago, she heard her own husky whisper of desire at his touch. Felt the pressure of their mutual need, like the great thrust of a lake against the dam wall, longing to burst free, to explode into foaming life.

  Would she, as then, feel the unbearable agony of rejection?

  She tore her mouth away from his. ‘Don’t!’ she gasped. ‘Damian, stop!’

  ‘Why?’ he demanded, his voice rough with arousal. He smiled down at her with smoky eyes. ‘We’ve both ached for this ever since we first set eyes on each other again.’

  ‘No!’ she whispered in violent denial.

  ‘Then if you haven’t, I have.’ His palm caressed the erect peaks of her nipples, concentrating them into twin stars of erotic passion. His very gentleness was a cruel aphrodisiac. ‘I know your body so well,’ he said, his mouth caressing her eyelids, her temples, the arching line of her throat. ‘I’ve thought of it so many times over the past six years. Remembering its sweetness, its delicacy. Remembering the taste of your kiss…’

  ‘And the taste of my tears,’ she choked. ‘You bastard!’

  She ran her trembling palms across the hard muscles of his shoulders, up his neck. Damian’s hair was crisp and thick as she knotted her fingers in its darkness. The smell of his hair was intoxicating, achingly familiar. It brought back all her passionate love for him in a devastating wave.

  She pulled on his hair fiercely, drawing his mouth back to hers. He kissed her with burning intensity, his palms roaming across the smooth skin of her back, pulling her against the thrust of desire at his loins.

  ‘God, I want you, Kirby,’ he said raggedly.

  ‘Do you?’ Sanity was making its way through the swirling mist of her passion. Sanity-and a sense of disbelief at her own loss of reason.

  She stepped back from Damian, the blood roaring in her ears. ‘Well, I want you, too, Damian. So now you know.’

  And she swung her palm with all her force at his face.

  He could probably have parried or avoided the blow. But he made no move to avert it, and the slap crashed into his cheek with considerable force. Kirby stood facing him, her whole body rigid with tension and emotion, her palm stinging. There had been a great deal of pent-up emotion in that slap.

  He met her eyes. ‘All right,’ he said softly. ‘I deserved that. I earned it six years ago. You’ve paid me back, Kirby. And now can we leave the past behind, and start again?’

  ‘Not a chance,’ she flashed at him. ‘Not a chance in hell!’

  She turned on her heel, and strode back to the kitchen. She was in a towering rage―with him, with herself. She snatched up the plates in shaking hands, and started scraping the half-eaten meals―she was finished eating, even if he wasn’t―into the dustbin.

  Damian’s voice was gentle behind her. ‘Kirby, take it easy.’

  ‘No, I will not take it easy,’ she snapped. She threw the cutlery and crockery into the sink, and started the washing up, not caring whether the glass and china broke or not. The intense desire that he had aroused in her body was still swirling in her veins, but now it only added energy to her anger. ‘I said you hadn’t changed. I was wrong. You’ve grown even more despicable!’

  ‘All because I kissed you?’

  ‘Yes! All because you kissed me!’ She slammed the plates down on to the rack to drain. ‘Is that why you said you’d help me, Damian?’ she asked through clenched teeth. ‘So you could do that to me all over again?’

  ‘No,’ he replied quietly. ‘There’s a difference. This time I wouldn’t have stopped.’

  ‘Oh, thank you for that compliment,’ she said bitterly, turning to face him. ‘What am I to you, Damian? The one that got away? Some unfinished business that you came back to conclude?’

  ‘No, Kirby. It isn’t like that.’

  ‘What’s it like, then? A movie you had to walk out of? A book you haven’t finished yet? Can’t you resist seeing how the story ends?’ She seized a cloth, and dried her soapy hands. ‘I let you destroy my life once before, Damian. I’ll never let you do that again. Never. Do you understand me?’

  She could see the mark of her palm in Damian’s cheek, a dull flush on the tanned skin. ‘I understand that you still love me,’ he replied in a calm voice.

  Kirby’s eyes blurred with tears. ‘So it’s power you want.’

  He shook his head slowly. ‘That’s not what I want, Kirby.’

  ‘You do. You want reassurance that your spell is fatal. You want me to tell you that, despite everything, despite five years of marriage to Keith, despite what you did to me, I’m still your creature. Your pawn, to toy with and manipulate as you please. Well, I’m not,’ she asserted grimly. ‘The last time you knew me I was a virgin. Now I’m a widow. I was eighteen in that summer-house. I’m a twenty-four-year-old woman now. I’m nobody’s toy, Damian. Not even yours.’

  ‘I never wanted you to be my toy,’ he said quietly, his deep eyes fixed on her face. ‘I tried to tear you out of my heart six years ago. But something of me came away, and stayed with you. I’ve never got it back, Kirby. I don’t think I ever will.’

  ‘Ask Wendy Catchpole to give it to you,’ she retorted savagely.

  ‘If you think Wendy means a fraction of what you do to me, then you’re a fool, Kirby.’

  ‘My God,’ she said icily, ‘I didn’t think you’d stoop to that.’

  ‘It’s the truth.’

  ‘And yet you’re going to marry her?’

  ‘The marriage is extremely convenient for both parties. A lot of money is involved. But I don’t love Wendy. And she certainly doesn’t love me.’

  Kirby’s heart was pounding against her breast so painfully that she felt ill. ‘What am I supposed to say to that?’ she whispered.

  ‘Nothing. I’m not asking you to say anything. Yet.’

  She laughed painfully. ‘And when did you decide that you cared so much about me?’

  ‘A long, long time ago,’ he replied, his eyes never leaving hers. ‘But I was reminded again, last Friday night, as soon as I set eyes on you.’ He touched his cheek and smiled slightly, a softer light in the slate-blue eyes.

  ‘You pack a wallop, Kirby.’

  ‘At least I fight fair,’ she said in a low voice. ‘You go for the jugular, Damian.’

  ‘I mean business,’ he agreed.

  The anger was draining out of her, to be replaced by utter exhaustion. She looked at the mark on his face, and felt a pang of remorse. ‘Did I really hurt you?’

  ‘Damn right you did.’

  She stepped forward, and laid her palm against his cheek where she had struck him. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, her brown eyes moist. ‘But you did deserve it.’

  ‘I know.’ He took her hand, and kissed the knuckles.

  She felt the melting rush of desire all over again. He sensed it, too, and drew her forward.

  But she pulled away from him, shaking her head so sharply that the glossy curls of her hair rippled. ‘No, Damian. I meant what I said. I’m never going to let you make a fool of me again. I’m sorry that you and Wendy don’t love one another. But it really doesn’t affect me. Because I don’t love you any more, Damian. I got over you a long, long time ago.’

  He studied her eyes, then smiled. ‘Good,’ he said simply. ‘I’m glad. That means we can start with a clean slate.’

  ‘What do you mean,’ she demanded, ‘start with a clean slate?’

  ‘I mean it’s late, and I have to go.’

  ‘You still haven’t told me what your great plan is. Or were you just playing another kind of game with me when you said that?’

  ‘No, I wasn’t playing any kind of game. The plan can wait a while, though. I’ll tell you everything before the board meeting, don’t worry. Thanks for the meal, Kirby. And everything else.’

  She followed him into t
he hall. He slung the heavy sheepskin jacket over one broad shoulder, and smiled down at her. ‘How long has it been since you went to Sovereign Force?’

  ‘Years,’ she replied automatically. ‘Why?’

  ‘You said you missed riding these days. We’ll hire a couple of horses on Thursday morning, and ride up to Sovereign Force together. How about it?’

  ‘Damian, I hardly think—’

  ‘And on the ride,’ he cut in smoothly, ‘I’ll tell you about my idea for saving your company.’

  Kirby hesitated unhappily. ‘All right,’ she said at last. ‘If you really insist.’

  ‘Excellent,’ he purred. ‘In the meantime, I want you to get some papers ready for me.’ He explained what they were, and she agreed to obtain them from the company records. Kirby walked him to the door. He pulled on his jacket, looking out into the thick mist. ‘What a climate,’ he smiled. ‘You’re like the damsel in the tower in some fairytale.

  Waiting for the white knight to come and rescue you from the dragons.’

  Before she could avoid his lips, he had stooped and kissed her firmly on the mouth.

  Then he was walking down the stairs into the mist. An engine growled into life, and headlights blazed, turning the mist into a huge star-burst. She saw the dim outline of his Porsche swing around on the drive, and thought she caught the wave of his arm. Then he was gone.

  Kirby went inside, closed the door, and leaned against it feeling utterly drained. How long ago had she been congratulating herself on how much she’d matured, on how far she’d grown away from the impulsive, emotional adolescent she’d once been? Two hours? It felt like an eternity.

  She closed her eyes, and saw Damian’s face wearing that veiled, mocking smile. Felt his touch on the secret desires of her body. Remembered the husky whisper of his voice. And knew that when Damian touched her she was no longer the cool, poised woman called Mrs Kirby Waterford. She was a lot closer to the bewildered girl called Kirby Bryant who had sobbed in the darkness, long ago, as her world had come crashing down around her ears.

  CHAPTER SIX

  KIRBY went in to the factory the next morning, as she usually did two or three times a week. Somewhat to her surprise, Roderick Braithwaite was in his office. He looked up at her as she paused in his doorway.

  His expression was cold.

  ‘Good morning, Roderick,’ she said easily. ‘Nice to see you. I thought you wouldn’t be coming in for a week or two?’ She walked into Keith’s office, next door to his.

  She heard his chair scrape as he rose to follow her.

  ‘Funny coincidence,’ he greeted her abruptly. ‘1 was just talking about your whiz-kid cousin the other night, wasn’t I?’

  ‘What’s the coincidence?’ she asked innocently.

  Roderick’s face was grim. ‘1 had a visit from him yesterday. He’s up from London, it seems. Full of questions and queries about Waterford Electronics. And he’s subjected Malcolm Denison to the same kind of interrogation as well! Like a damned wolf, sniffing round the tent! I don’t like it at all, Kirby. You had no call to go fetching outsiders into our little squabble— ’

  She gave Roderick Braithwaite a dry look from intelligent brown eyes. ‘Would you call it a little squabble, Roderick? To me it sounded like an ultimatum followed by an unconditional resignation.’

  He looked taken aback for a moment. ‘We both got emotional, Kirby—’

  ‘You got emotional.’ Kirby pressed the intercom on her desk to call her secretary. ‘Marie? Could you bring in two coffees, please?’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Waterford,’ came the tinny response. Kirby settled into the chair beneath the portrait of Keith, and looked at Roderick. ‘Do I take it you now wish to withdraw your resignation?’

  ‘1 haven’t even tendered it yet, damn it all,’ he said, his face darkening.

  ‘You didn’t come to work yesterday. Or the day before.’

  ‘Now, look.’ He sank into the chair opposite her desk. ‘1 might have got a bit emotional the other night, 1admit. I was wrong to say anything about resigning.’ His eyes flickered from side to side. ‘But my pride was hurt, Kirby. That’s why I didn’t turn up this week. It isn’t every day a man proposes to a woman he thinks the world of, and when he gets turned down flat-well, it makes him see red. Now I’ve apologised for all that. Can’t we sort out our differences without the likes of Damian Holt coming into it?’

  ‘Our differences are a little too wide for easy solutions. You demanded the chairmanship of Waterford Electronics, and I said that was impossible. It seems to me you must either accept that, Roderick, unpalatable as it may be, or do as you threatened, and look for better fortune elsewhere.’

  Marie, the office secretary, brought in coffee and biscuits at that point, silencing whatever retort Roderick had been building up to. Kirby waited until Marie was leaving, and timed her next statement to cut him off again.

  ‘As for what you call “fetching in outsiders”, it was you who threatened to take confidential information about this company to Integrated Circuits. All I did was ask Damian Holt for some advice.’

  ‘Advice!’ Roderick snorted. ‘Aye, and you know what kind of advice Damian Holt likes to give. “Make yourselves nice and small, my lambs, so I can swallow you whole!” ’

  Kirby had to hide a smile. ‘I doubt whether Damian Holt is interested in Waterford Electronics.’

  ‘Then you don’t know anything about business,’ Roderick replied rudely. ‘This is exactly the size-company that the Holt Corporation likes to take over. And, since you’ve no doubt told him a very exaggerated version of our trivial internal difficulties, he probably thinks this is a perfect opportunity for him to move in and—’ He took a deep breath. ‘Let me give you a little warning, Kirby. If you’re thinking of selling Waterford Electronics off to the Holt Corporation, just because I dropped a few comments, you’ve lost your marbles. We’d be better off sorting out our little problems without benefit of the likes of that. Asset-stripping isn’t a pretty sight, I assure you.’

  She was secretly amused by Roderick’s passion. So he thought she was planning to sell out to the Holt Corporation! He was too stupid to see that she would never dream of doing such a thing, but at least it had shaken him up considerably. ‘All I’m doing at the moment is asking Damian Holt’s advice,’ she said calmly.

  ‘And it’s certainly not exclusively to do with you. The problem is bigger than anyone board member. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life fighting off bids for the company, Roderick. I’ve asked him to find a way of making sure that this company keeps trading in a way that my husband would have approved of—without the need for constant policing.’

  ‘But that’s exactly what I would do,’ Roderick snapped. ‘I respected Keith, Kirby. He was like a younger brother to me! I only want to see Waterford Electronics carry on in the way he would have wanted!’

  She gave him a cool look. ‘Is that what you meant last weekwhen you said you were going to pull Waterford Electronics out of the Dark Ages? “Bigger and faster profits than it’s ever seen before”? That hardly sounds like Keith.’

  ‘You’re twisting my words—‘

  ‘I’m simply repeating them. Keith ran this company for the good of the whole town, Roderick, not just as a means of making fast profits. And I’m not going to give in to anyone who wants to pervert what Keith wanted.’

  Roderick was staring at her in a hostile silence. ‘You’re still sweet on him, aren’t you?’ he grated abruptly.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Damian Holt. Your heart-throb of long ago. Why should he be the one to be called in? How did you come to be lunching with him at expensive restaurants?’

  ‘Word gets around fast in this town,’ she said tersely.

  ‘You’re still soft on him, Kirby.’ Roderick sneered crudely. ‘You sit there under Keith’s portrait and accuse me of being unfaithful to his ideals. Well, he isn’t even twelve months dead, and you’re already thinking of selling out to the man who dropped y
ou in the gutter, where Keith picked you up. Who’s being unfaithful? You or me?’

  ‘How dare you?’ Kirby said shakily, her face drained of colour. ‘How dare you speak so coarsely and unjustly to me?’

  Roderick rose abruptly, and walked to the window, looking out over the angled roofs of the assembly-line.

  ‘All right, I’m sorry,’ he muttered. ‘You’re right. That was uncalled for.’