Part 17 (2/2)

'That is not true.' Heath spoke indistinctly, his voice slurred by some emotion she could not identify. 'It was because I cared about you that I sent you away. Haven't you realised that, you stupid kid!' He turned to rest his arm along the mantel, dislodging a porcelain cupid that smashed heedlessly on to the hearth. Oh, Helen, I don't know how much longer I can keep this up.' He pressed his forehead against his sleeve. 'I need you so badly, I just can't think straight any more.'

She gazed at him disbelievingly. 'I-I don't believe you. This-this is just some-some ruse to get me to do what you want, isn't it?'

'Is it?' He lifted his head and looked at her, and her heart turned over at the naked pa.s.sion in his eyes. 'Do you want to take a bet on that? I haven't had one decent night's sleep since you left.'

'Oh, Heath!' She was trembling, but still she didn't move and he straightened.

'You're seventeen and I'm thirty-five,' he said huskily. 'For the last three years I've been telling myself that the difference in our ages is too great, that as you grew up and had boy-friends, I'd feel differently. But I didn't.'

Helen shook her head helplessly. 'But why didn't you tell me?'

'Because I intended to fight it,' said Heath harshly. 'Why do you think I've been avoiding you since you came home from school? Why do you think I employed Angela Patterson?'

She gulped. 'I-I thought-because of what other people might say,' she breathed, and he gave her a wry look.

'Since when have I cared what other people said?' he demanded thickly.

'Other people would have had me put you in a children's home. Other people considered our relations.h.i.+p almost indecent.' He bent his head. 'I was determined that it wouldn't be so.'

'Oh, Heath!' Helen spread her hands. 'But you sent me away.'

'After seducing you, yes,' he agreed flatly. 'I didn't admire myself for that.

You were right-just then, I did want you out of the house. Loving you was an addiction I had no intention of satisfying.'

'But-but why?'

'For pity's sake, Helen, I thought I was doing the right thing. I knew I couldn't keep you with me, and marrying you seemed out of the question. I thought-oh, I don't know what I thought. I guess it did cross my mind that if I could send you away for a while we might both come to our senses, but heaven help me, it didn't work. These past weeks have been h.e.l.l on earth, and I came here this evening with the intention, as I said, of fixing you up as Mrs Golightly's companion.'

'Mrs Golightly?' Helen blinked. 'But-she just lives across the river-'

'-about three miles from Matlock. That's right,' agreed Heath heavily.

'Far enough to be out of temptation, but near enough for me to keep an eye on you, and on the people you a.s.sociate with.'

She caught her lower lip between her teeth. 'It's been h.e.l.l for me, too.'

She paused. 'I've lost weight. Haven't you noticed?'

'I noticed,' he said huskily. 'I noticed everything about you in those minutes when I thought you must have got involved with some other man.'

'Were you jealous?'

She couldn't resist the question, and his lips twisted. 'What do you think?'

he demanded. 'If I could be jealous of Fox and young Ormerod, then yes, I think you could say I'd be jealous of any compet.i.tion.'

She made a little sound of exhilaration. 'You were jealous of Miles?' She shook her head. 'He said you were, but I didn't believe him.'

'I guess he's more perceptive than I thought,' said Heath quietly. 'So- what are you going to do now? Do you still want to go ahead and take this job?'

Helen half turned to rest her spine against the frame of the door, her limbs shaking so much, she could hardly support herself. 'What-what is the alternative?' she whispered, looking at him out of the corners of her eyes, and with a m.u.f.fled oath, Heath crossed the s.p.a.ce between them.

He halted right beside her, so close that the arm she had raised to rest against the opposite framework of the door was brus.h.i.+ng his chest. Then, with evident restraint, he lifted her hand from its position and raised it to his lips, taking each of her fingers into his mouth in turn, depositing a kiss on each.

'The alternative,' he said, somewhat constrictedly, 'is that you could marry me at Christmas.'

'At Christmas?' Helen's cry was a protest.

'Yes, at Christmas,' he affirmed huskily, his mouth against her palm. 'Then no one can say you were not old enough to make your own decision. Always a.s.suming you accept my proposal, of course.'

She expelled her breath unsteadily. 'Of course I accept your proposal,' she exclaimed, looping her other arm round his neck. 'Oh, Heath!' this as he gathered her close against him. 'Oh, Heath, why must we wait so long?'

'We-oh, Helen!-we don't have to wait to be together,' he muttered unevenly, his mouth finding the parting of hers. 'I-I may be diligent in some ways, but that is not one of them. Indeed,' his fingers slid beneath her hair to cradle the vulnerable curve of her nape, 'the way I feel right now, I don't think I can wait until I get you back to Matlock.'

'You're taking me back to Matlock?' she breathed eagerly. 'When? When?'

'Tonight?' he suggested unsteadily. 'Or am I asking too much?'

'Too much?' Helen shook her head, burrowing against him urgently, sliding her arms about his waist inside his jacket with compulsive abandon.

'But I shall have to explain the situation to Ricardo.'

'Ricardo?'

Heath drew back to look at her, and she gave a helpless little grimace.

'The hairdresser who has employed me. The one Angela wanted to cut my hair, as it happens.'

'Angela wanted you to get your hair cut?' Heath interceded harshly, and she nodded.

'Ricardo said it would be a shame-'

'd.a.m.n right!' His hand slid possessively into the silken ma.s.s of curls. 'If I'd known-'

'You'd probably have agreed with her,' said Helen ruefully, and he expelled his breath heavily.

'I've been a brute, haven't I?'

'Some,' she admitted unsteadily, and he covered her mouth with his with increasing hunger.

'Leave-Ricardo to me,' he told her thickly. 'Right now, I'm not thinking very coherently. What time did you say my mother was due back?'

Some time later, Helen opened her eyes to find Heath propped on his elbow beside her in her bed, regarding her with unconcealed possession. 'You know, you're the only female I know who looks good without any make-up,'

he remarked, touching his tongue to the corner of her mouth.

<script>