The Prince Brothers: Satisfaction Guaranteed!: Prince's Passion / Prince's Pleasure / Prince's Love-Child
He grimaced. ‘The fact that there is a reporter and photographer outside—who, no matter what you might hope, aren’t likely to be going anywhere soon. Which means—’
‘Yes?’ She had stiffened warily now, stepping back as she moved out of his arms to self-consciously straighten her hair, embarrassed at the way she kept falling into his arms.
Yes, she was attracted to him. Yes, she wanted him. But he was the last man she should keep responding to in this way.
Nik’s look of regret deepened at her obvious withdrawal. ‘Which means that you and your father will have to be the ones to leave. If only temporarily.’
Her eyes widened. ‘That’s ridiculous. It’s you they’re after, so when you leave, they will leave with you.’
She had moved house six months ago because continuing to stay at the family home had seemed to be badly affecting her father, his lapses more extreme as he shut himself off even from his surroundings; to move him again now—even temporarily!—was out of the question.
Nik raised dark brows. ‘And if they don’t?’
‘They will,’ she said flatly.
He shook his head. ‘I wish I could be as sure of that as you appear to be…’
Jinx looked at him sharply. ‘What do you mean?’
He shrugged. ‘Just a hunch I have. Jinx, does it really matter why they’re hanging around out there?’ he continued impatiently as she made to protest once again. ‘The fact remains that they are there, and they have a lot more patience than you do. And your father isn’t going to remain asleep upstairs for ever,’ he added softly.
No, he would be down within the hour, and when he did come down he was unlikely to understand why it was she didn’t answer the knocking on the front door. But where on earth was she supposed to go in order to avoid those people outside? Nik just didn’t understand. There was no way she could take her father to the impersonality of a hotel, and it wasn’t fair to just invite themselves to stay with friends, either.
She drew in a ragged breath. ‘I still think that they will leave when you do,’ she told him stubbornly.
He raised an eyebrow, signaling his disagreement with that statement. ‘Shall we give it a try?’
Jinx looked at him with narrowed eyes, suspicious of his confident tone, as if he knew the reporter and photographer were waiting for her and not him.
But that couldn’t be so. The only interest a reporter could possibly have in her was if they were to know of the J. I. Watson connection, and there was no way—
What about her meeting with Nik Prince this morning in the very public lounge of a large London hotel—a man already reported to be on the trail of the author J. I. Watson so that he could acquire the movie rights? What about her visit to James Stephens’s office this morning?
She felt her heart sink as she faced the possibility that she could have been the one to lead the press to her home. It would be just too ironic if that were the case.
It was, also, primarily Nik Prince’s fault, she decided angrily. If he hadn’t been so persistent in the first place—If he hadn’t discovered the connection—If he hadn’t followed her here—
‘Don’t bother,’ she snapped, glaring her displeasure at him. ‘Where do you suggest we go, then?’ she demanded pointedly.
‘Well, I’ve already given that some thought—’
‘Why am I not surprised?’ Jinx huffed.
Grey eyes gleamed warningly. ‘There’s no need to get angry with me—’
‘Who else can I get angry with?’
Dark brows rose mockingly. ‘And that’s reason enough, is it—because I happen to be here?’
‘For the moment—yes!’ Her eyes flashed deeply violet. ‘I’m still not convinced this wasn’t all your fault. Everything was just fine before you came into my life—’
‘Everything was not just fine!’ he rapped out, eyes now a shimmering silver. ‘Your father is very ill, and likely to remain so if he doesn’t get professional help. Your own life is a mess—’
‘I beg your pardon?’ She stiffened resentfully.
‘Look at you, Jinx. You have a job as a university tutor, but you can’t do that at the moment because of taking care of your father. You’re a famous author, but for the same reason you can’t lay claim to that either.’ He gave an impatient shake of his head. ‘As for your personal life—’
‘Stay out of my personal life, Nik!’ she cut in coldly.
‘I’m already in it—’
‘Then I suggest you get out of it again!’ she practically shouted. ‘I don’t need you, Nik, or your amateur psychiatry concerning my father; I believe I am the best judge of what is and isn’t good for him! I just don’t need you in my life…full stop!’ She glared at him.
He drew in an angry breath. ‘That wasn’t the impression I got a few minutes ago—’
‘Oh, let’s bring that into it, shall we?’ she scoffed. ‘So I’m attracted to you; so what? Why is it that men feel they can differentiate between love and lust, but we women can’t? Because I assure you that we can, Nik.’ She gave a humourless laugh, angry with herself as much as him for the way she had once again given in to the desire she felt for him. ‘I can,’ she claimed, her gaze challenging now as she met his.
Nik wanted to shake her. Wanted to grasp her shoulders and shake her until her teeth rattled.
Lust. She lusted after him?
No woman had ever said anything like that to him ever before—even if it had happened to be the truth! And, coming from Jinx, he found that he didn’t like having it said to him now, either!
‘What’s the matter, Nik?’ she taunted his silence. ‘Don’t you like having the tables turned on you?’
No, he damn well didn’t! It was an unpleasant experience to be told that someone—Jinx!—lusted after him.
At the same time he could accept the irony of it. Wasn’t it how he had always conducted his own personal relationships, feeling desire without the love?
Maybe it was, but that was still no explanation for the resentment he felt at having this five-foot-one-inch of a woman say the same thing to him…
He drew in a controlling breath. ‘Not particularly,’ he acknowledged. ‘I’m also not sure it’s the way for a nicely brought up young lady to be talking,’ he mocked, knowing by the way the colour suddenly blazed in her cheeks that he had scored a direct hit with his barb.
But did he really want to score direct hits where Jinx was concerned? Wasn’t that just guaranteed to alienate her even more?
It was too late to realize that, Nik admitted ruefully as her expression became haughtily remote, violet eyes turning to icy blue. ‘Probably not,’ she accepted tersely. ‘Now I really think it’s time for you to leave, Nik.’
After which she would be at great pains to make sure the two of them never met again.
It was there in the resolve of her expression, in the coldness of her eyes, the defensive stance of her body.
But he knew where she lived now; he could always—
No, he couldn’t, he accepted heavily. That would make him as bad as the reporter and photographer lying in wait for her outside.
Which brought him back to his initial point…
‘Jinx, you really can’t stay here—’
‘I really can, Nik,’ she insisted. ‘In any case,’ she continued firmly as he would have spoken, ‘whether I decide to go or stay is really none of your business.’
He wanted to make it his business, wanted to pick Jinx up, throw her over his shoulder and carry her away from here. Be a regular caveman, in fact—which would go down with Jinx about as well as a lead balloon!
But the alternative was leaving her and her father here at the mercy of the press…
He drew in a deep breath. ‘I have a friend—well, he’s more like family, I suppose—it’s a bit complicated,’ he tried to explain, sure that now wasn’t the right time to be discussing his sometimes complicated family tree. ‘Have you ever heard of Ben Travis?’ he asked instead.
‘Should I have done?’ Jinx returned cautiously.
‘Probably not—although he is married to Marilyn Palmer.’
Jinx’s eyes widened. ‘The famous Hollywood actress?’
‘The one and only.’ Nik nodded. ‘And Marilyn’s daughter, Gaye, is married to the brother of Stazy’s husband, Jordan Hunter.’
‘The acting world is almost incestuous, isn’t it?’ Jinx scorned.
Nik felt the anger flare in his gaze, his mouth tightening to a thin line. ‘Ben is a psychiatrist—’
‘I’ve already told you, my father doesn’t need a psychiatrist,’ Jinx interrupted. ‘Time and love are all he needs. And a little peace and quiet to go with it,’ she added pointedly.
Meaning she really wanted him to leave now. Not that he hadn’t thought she’d meant it in the first place, but now she absolutely wanted him out of her home. And her life…? Unfortunately, yes.
Nik sighed. ‘Can I call you later?’
Jinx’s gaze narrowed suspiciously. ‘Why?’
He made an impatient movement. ‘So that I can check that everything is okay!’
‘And why shouldn’t it be?’
‘Jinx, will you just try being a little less defensive for a few minutes and actually think?’ Nik exploded in frustration. ‘If I leave—when I leave,’ he amended as Jinx raised mocking brows, ‘if, as I suspect, the reporter and her buddy continue to hang around outside, then I’m going to need to know about it—’
‘Why?’
He really would strangle her in a minute! Which would achieve precisely nothing. But it might make him feel a lot better. If only fleetingly.
‘Okay, let me put this another way,’ he bit out, inwardly wondering how he could have been so aroused by her a few short minutes ago and now felt like throttling her! ‘I am going to call you later to see how everything is.’
‘You are?’
‘Yes, I ar—am,’ he corrected himself irritably.
She arched dark brows. ‘And exactly how do you intend doing that when you don’t have my telephone number?’
Go, Nik, he told himself. Now. Before you actually do reach out and do something you’re going to regret!
‘But I do have your telephone number, Jinx,’ he couldn’t resist assuring her triumphantly, at the same time congratulating himself on his perspicacity.
‘I don’t see how—’
‘It’s right there on your telephone,’ he pointed out, at the same time giving a rueful wince as he waited for the explosion that was sure to come.
‘You—you—’ Jinx stared at him in disbelief. ‘You really are one devious bast—’
‘When are you going to realize I’m trying to help you?’
‘When are you going to realize I don’t want your help?’ she returned furiously.
Nik stared down at her frustratedly, his hands clenched at his sides. ‘Fine,’ he bit out tersely, turning away abruptly, breathing deeply in an effort to calm down. Almost an impossibility when around this woman. ‘I will call you later, though,’ he added determinedly even as he left the study and strode forcefully down the hallway to the front door.
‘Don’t hold your breath on getting a reply,’ Jinx called after him.
Nik came to a halt as he reached the door, forcing himself not to retaliate, to just open the door and leave. But it wasn’t easy.
In fact, as he was quickly learning, nothing was easy when it came to Jinx Nixon…
CHAPTER TEN
‘HELLO…?’ Jinx at once berated herself for sounding so hesitant as she answered the telephone call later that evening. After what he had said earlier, Nik Prince was sure to be the caller, and being hesitant around that man could only lead to him attempting to walk all over her—only attempting, of course, because he wouldn’t succeed!
But he had been right about the reporter and photographer; the two of them were still waiting outside. In fact, the photographer had left for a brief time and returned with a car, in which the two of them now sat. It looked as if they were even eating hamburgers and drinking cola now, too. And waiting. And they appeared to be able to carry on doing just that for as long as it took for Jinx to have to finally leave the house, if only in order to buy food.
‘Juliet?’ a female voice answered. ‘Juliet Nixon?’
Jinx’s wariness increased at hearing this unfamiliar voice. ‘Yes…’
‘This is Stazy Hunter,’ the woman responded. ‘We met briefly at Susan and Leo’s the other weekend.’
As if Jinx needed any reminding of who the other woman was! And where they had met wasn’t the relevant point at the moment—the fact that this woman was Nik Prince’s sister was!
She straightened defensively, unsure yet as to whether the other woman had got her telephone number from her brother or from Susan. ‘What can I do for you, Mrs Hunter?’
‘Please call me Stazy,’ the other woman invited, her American accent softer and less pronounced than her brother’s. ‘And I believe your friends call you Jinx…?’
Yes, they did—but she very much doubted this woman was ever going to become her friend. ‘I don’t wish to sound rude, but exactly why have you telephoned me, Mrs—Stazy?’ she corrected awkwardly; she would so much rather have kept things formal between the two of them, but at the same time Stazy Hunter sounded a genuinely warm and friendly person. So unlike her eldest brother!
The other woman gave a husky laugh. ‘Don’t worry, I don’t have Nik breathing down my neck listening in on the conversation!’
That was something, at least! ‘But he did ask you to telephone me?’ Jinx said sharply.
‘Yes, he—he’s concerned about you…’ Stazy Hunter told her ruefully.
‘Then he has no right to be,’ Jinx snapped. ‘Something I have already told him once today!’
‘So I believe,’ Stazy chuckled appreciatively.
How much had Nik told his sister about the two of them? Not that there was a ‘two of them’, but she didn’t particularly enjoy the thought of Nik discussing her with his sister at all.
‘Is the reporter still there?’ Stazy asked.
Jinx thought briefly of lying to the other woman, but what would be the point of doing that? Nik, when told of the conversation by his sister—as Jinx was sure he would be, even if he wasn’t breathing down Stazy’s neck right now!—would be sure to know that she was lying.
‘Before you answer that,’ Stazy Hunter continued warmly, ‘may I just say how much I enjoyed your book. It made me cry as well as laugh,’ she added sincerely.
Nik really had been confiding in his sister, hadn’t he? Although it would probably have been a little difficult explaining his ‘concern’ for Jinx without telling the other woman of her connection to J. I. Watson.
Nevertheless, Jinx felt a warm glow at the other woman’s praise for No Ordinary Boy. The books, five of them in all, had been written from the heart, and had made Jinx ‘cry as well as laugh’ too.
‘Thank you,’ she accepted huskily. ‘And, yes, the reporter is still here, but it really isn’t a problem.’ At the moment…!
If the pair outside were set in for the duration, then it could definitely become a problem. And Jinx had a feeling that was exactly what they were going to do.
‘Are you sure?’ The frown could be heard in Stazy’s voice. ‘I know how intrusive the press can be.’
Well, she would, wouldn’t she? Jinx acknowledged; Damien Prince, the legendary Hollywood actor, although dead for some time now, had been Stazy’s father as well as Nik’s, which meant the other woman had probably grown up surrounded by that intrusive press.
‘They really aren’t a problem,’ Jinx repeated. ‘It’s very kind of you to have called in this way, Stazy,’ she added briskly, ‘but—’
‘Kindness has little to do with it,’ the other woman assured her. ‘But I didn’t just telephone to check up on the reporter. Nik thinks, and I have to agree with him, that it would be a good idea if you came here and stayed with me for a few days. You and your father, of course.’
Jinx frowned, totally speechless just at the idea of Nik putting forward the idea of inviting her to stay at the home of his sister.
‘Then he has no right to think any such thing!’ she finally answered incredulously. ‘For one thing, I wouldn’t dream of intruding on you and your family in that way—’
‘Oh, you wouldn’t be intruding,’ Stazy Hunter assured her. ‘In fact, Jordan is away on business for a few days, so I would quite enjoy having some female company.’
‘For another, it’s totally unnecessary,’ Jinx added firmly. ‘I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, Stazy, it’s just that—I’m well aware of whose idea this actually was! But please assure Nik that I don’t need his help, that I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.’ She hoped she didn’t sound too rude to the other woman; she just wanted to make sure that Nik got the message she wanted him to receive—which was, ‘Leave me alone!’
‘Okay,’ Stazy accepted, obviously not in the least offended. ‘But I’ll leave you my telephone number, anyway, shall I? Just in case.’
In case of what, Jinx had no idea, but she wrote the other woman’s telephone number down anyway before saying goodbye.
She continued to sit by the telephone for several minutes after ending the call, a frown marring her creamy brow. Nik just couldn’t stop interfering in her life, could he? Well, hopefully, that last message, relayed to him via his sister, might make him falter a little in his tracks. Although, knowing Nik, Jinx wouldn’t count on it.
And did she really want him to just disappear completely from her life? She could be honest with herself, at least!
The answer was no, that even the last few hours of thinking about never seeing Nik again had left her with a heavy, oppressive feeling.
Could she really be falling in love with him?
Or was she already in love with him?
She heaved a big sigh, unable to deceive herself any longer. She loved Nik, but the problem of No Ordinary Boy apart, there could never be a future for them together. Nik wasn’t a man interested in for ever, and she was a woman who wouldn’t settle for anything less.
Impasse.
Better to just leave things as they were. She would get over this in time. Wouldn’t she…?
Not that there seemed much chance of her having that time when she looked out the window the next morning and found, not just the one reporter and photographer outside, but a dozen or more, cameras at the ready, at the moment all focused on the tall man getting out from behind the wheel of a dark green Jaguar.
Nik!
His expression was grim as he strode through the reporters and photographers, looking to neither left nor right, totally ignoring the barrage of questions being thrown at him, although it was impossible to stop the cameras flashing away.
In the circumstances, Jinx felt she had no option but to at least open the door to him, stepping out of the way as Nik turned to shut the door in the face of the more determined reporters who had followed him down the pathway. He looked cool and assured in a black shirt and faded denims, dark hair still looking wet from where he had taken a shower.
Which was more than could be said for Jinx. Having only just got out of bed, she was wearing a silky peach-coloured robe over a matching nightgown, her hair still tousled from sleep, her face completely make-upless.
‘What on earth is going on?’ she gasped. ‘Where did they all come from?’ She gave an airy wave in the direction of the front of the house.
Nik’s expression remained grim. ‘Have you seen the newspapers this morning?’
‘Not yet. Mrs Holt usually brings it with her when she comes in the mornings, and it isn’t time for her to arrive yet.’ Which wasn’t surprising, considering it was only eight o’clock in the morning!
He gave a shake of his head. ‘If she has any sense, she won’t bother!’ he rasped. ‘How long will it take you to collect up the things you and your father might need for at least a couple of days away?’
‘Five minutes,’ she answered dazedly. ‘What was in the newspapers, Nik?’ she asked as some of her normal composure started to come back to her.
‘Actually, so far it’s just the one—the one the initial reporter works for, presumably. But that won’t remain the case after today. And you can definitely say goodbye to any idea of anonymity; there’s a photograph to accompany the article speculating whether or not you’re J. I. Watson!’ He looked pointedly out of the window at the people milling around outside the house, obviously just waiting for a glimpse of the famous but elusive author.
Jinx put her hands up to her face as the enormity of what was happening washed over her. ‘This is awful,’ she groaned. ‘Just awful!’
‘Yes.’ Nik didn’t even attempt to soften the blow. ‘You do realize you should have got out of here last night when Stazy asked you to?’
Her hands dropped back to her sides, her face pale now as she looked up at him. ‘Don’t you mean, when you asked me to?’ she challenged.
‘Me. Stazy. What the hell difference does it make who suggested it?’ he growled. ‘You should have damn well taken the opportunity to get out of here! As it is, the house is now surrounded like a three-ring circus!’
She could see that—she also had no idea how her father was going to react to all this when he came down in half an hour or so.
Her father.
No matter what she might personally want, she knew it was her father she had to think of now. And getting him away from here, from reporters and photographers, had to be her first priority.
‘What do you want me to do?’ she said briskly.
Nik raised surprised brows at her sudden acquiescence. ‘Now you start being cooperative!’
Jinx felt the colour warm her cheeks. ‘I had no idea it was going to—to escalate like this!’ she defended impatiently.
‘No, in your naivety, you probably didn’t.’
Her eyes flashed deeply violet. ‘We aren’t all as world-weary and cynical as you, you know!’
Nik became suddenly still, looking down at her with hooded eyes. ‘Is that how you see me?’ he asked slowly. ‘As world-weary and cynical?’
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