Tender Persuasion Read online

  Tender Persuasion

  By

  Sara Wood

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  His smile was dangerous. Jade had the sensation that she was in deep trouble now.

  His melting eyes contemplated her mouth. 'I know. We could play guessing games.'

  'Guess…' Her voice tailed away into thin air.

  'Yes, you shut your eyes and guess where I'm going to touch you next and if you get it wrong, I kiss you.'

  'What… ?' Jade cleared her choked throat. She was going to regret asking this. 'What if I get it right?' she breathed.

  'Oh, then I kiss you, of course,' he smiled.

  Her brain seemed focused on the way his fingers were exploring the contours of her naked back. 'I don't want to play any games. I want…'

  'Me,' he growled throatily.

  'Dane…'

  'Sweet Jade, you can't carry a torch for your late husband for ever,' he said gently. 'You are young and beautiful and in need of loving. Here I am, here you are—you can't stay faithful to his memory all your life. I'm here, real, alive and needing you… Let me help you forget him.'

  Forget! If only she could!

  Books you will enjoy by SARA WOOD

  WICKED INVADER

  Luke McLaren needed a photographer with him in Jerusalem, and Olivia needed some pictures of the city for her picture-research agency. It should have been the ideal solution—except that Olivia had met Luke once before…

  SAVAGE HUNGER

  For Rachel, Ivan Posada's insults were exactly what she wanted to hear. For if she became involved, she would be part of a bitter family feud. Surely, then, she was right to remain detached—but could she?

  THE COUNT'S VENDETTA

  Count Vittorio de Vasari had saved Jemma from prison only on condition she go with him to Italy and learn his business. But she knew that this was just one more ploy in his long-running vendetta against her family…

  NO GENTLE LOVING

  When Helen arrived in Crete to find out more about the mother she had never known, she was met with hostility and suspicion from Dimitri Kastelli. What grudge could a rich man like him possibly have against a long-dead peasant woman? And how would he feel about Helen when he discovered who she was?

  First published

  in

  Great Britain 1988

  by Mills & Boon Limited

  © Sara Wood 1988

  ISBN 0 263 76143 6

  CHAPTER ONE

  'Incredible! It balances!' marvelled Jade, looking at the school-dinner book in amazement.

  The man sitting opposite her in the cramped, untidy office grinned at her relief. 'Cracked it at last, have you?' he asked.

  'It was all the dinners uneaten by children who were at home ill that foxed me. And the grubby little envelopes with coins missing didn't help.' She began to bag up the money, to take to the post office.

  'It's not really your kind of environment here, is it?' observed John Pavey, leaning forward on his desk. 'I am grateful to you for helping out this term, Jade.'

  She smiled at him. It had been her salvation, losing herself in the intricacies of orders for mundane things like exercise books and paintbrushes. There was the added bonus, too—the fun of being a teacher's helper.

  'You're doing me a favour as well, don't forget that.' Her long lashes swept down on her cheekbones as she surveyed herself critically. 'Am I really such a round peg in a square hole?'

  John chuckled. 'Let's say you're the most unorthodox school secretary I've ever worked with. Don't get me wrong, though, I look forward to your mornings here with enormous and gleeful anticipation.'

  'Because you never know what's going to happen?' she asked wryly.

  'Absolutely,' he enthused. 'Apart from me, I've noticed the children turning up earlier and earlier as well. They love it when you do your stints in the classroom.'

  'I love it, too,' she laughed, her teeth glistening white in her dark-skinned face. Jade had inherited her mother's Italian colouring—and her temperament. 'I don't think I'll forget our day at the manor in a hurry.'

  'Heaven, pure heaven,' grinned John. 'Especially when little Billy Love fell into the pond and discovered he could swim, and you had to go in to get him eventually, because he wouldn't come out!'

  'Glad someone enjoyed my unscheduled dip! Oh, darn,' she cried, hearing the church clock striking. 'I've taken so long that the post office will be shut by the time I get there.' She began to gather up the money bags, and searched for her shoes under the desk.

  'Knock on the cottage door. Mrs Love will let you in, especially as Billy worships the water you swim in.'

  Jade laughed as she slipped her feet into the battered sandals. 'I doubt that she was very keen on washing out the duckweed and mud from his clothes,' she said. 'Bye, then, see you tomorrow.'

  'What will the morrow bring?' murmured John to himself. 'More to the point, what will you bring?'

  'Wait and see,' she said darkly, waggling her black brows in a sinister fashion.

  She left the chuckling John, hoisted up her long cotton skirts and hurtled along the winding village street.

  John heard her frantic dash and smiled in amusement. Life was always one mad whirl with Jade around. The village was still reeling from the shock.

  Saxonbury lay in the ancient Hundred of Holmestrowe, a group of early Saxon settlements running across the valley of the River Ouse in Sussex. Its lands stretched from the high downland to the river and marshland, and up to the downs on the other side of the valley. Each village had been laid out in the same way to provide a fair share of the land resources. Saxonbury people could graze sheep and cattle on the downs and use the rich meadows in the valley for cutting hay. Above the flood plain and close to the village was the ploughland, and from the air, when the evening sun slanted its rays, the old feudal strip system of fields could still be seen.

  The flint and brick village school dated from 1856. With John as its head, it was comprised of two classrooms: the fourteen infants in one and seventeen juniors in another. There was one full-time teacher of the little ones, and a part-timer who shared duties with John Pavey. It was a close-knit community, and when the school secretary fell ill with glandular fever John was loath to use a supply from County Hall in Lewes.

  He knew that Jade Kendall needed taking out of herself after her recent troubles. She could type, and not only did she produce the Church newsletter each week, but she had written several children's books which were in the school library. When she came to interview him about the history of the school for her book on Saxonbury itself, he plucked up courage and asked if she would fill the temporary vacancy.

  Jade had only been working there for a week, but already the place had come alive because of her. He hadn't known her very well since she came to live in the manor house two years ago—in fact the villagers had disliked her smooth husband, Sebastian, and disapproved of the parties and goings-on.

  But since young Sebastian Kendall's sudden death, Jade had not entertained and was often seen walking the fields with her golden retriever. The villagers found her solitary grief and quiet life admirable, and warmed to her. Now, of course, Jade had other problems on her plate.

  John sighed and returned to writing the week's events in the school log-book. A lot to put in for a change! Yet… for all Jade's exuberance and sheer joy of living, he'd sensed loneliness and pain behind those lovely brown eyes. The next few months would be terrible for her: he wouldn't change places wi
th her for all the world.

  Jade skidded to a halt at Deep Thatch, her long black hair flying in all directions and her shoulder-bag banging on her slender hip. This was Mrs Love's small cottage and, on Monday and Friday mornings, it was also the village post office. As she'd thought, it was closed. Then she noticed that her big shoulder-bag had flopped open and two of the money bags hadn't been properly pushed down inside it, nor had they been thoroughly sealed!

  Her slim body whirled around in dismay, sending the fashionably shaggy mane of glossy hair whipping over her face. She pushed it back irritably. There were shiny coins dotted over the tarmac. How many had she lost? She tried not to think of the old adage 'more haste, less speed', and sat down on the grassy verge to count the contents of the two unsealed bags, emptying each one in a separate pile on to the soft gold and yellow of her patterned skirt.

  'Fifteen, sixteen… oh, bother!'

  She'd lost concentration at the sound of a throaty car revving around the twisting lane that led from the main road. A tourist. They often came down to investigate the small village with its quaint old cottages and the decaying manor, or called in to see the birthplace of the famous writer, Barlock Weir.

  'One, two…' Jade didn't look up as the car turned the bend because she was determined to count the money and find what she could before making up the difference. Money was one of her problems nowadays, and the reason for the posters which had just gone up, announcing that the manor was for sale.

  Thinking of this, she miscounted again and looked up crossly to see an incredibly ostentatious and sleek black sports car pulling to a halt a few inches away.

  Maserati, six cylinder, she registered, her eyes reflecting pain. Sebastian had owned one once.

  'Afternoon,' came a rich velvet voice.

  Jade tore her eyes from the gleaming bodywork of the car and focused on its occupant. He was examining her openly, with the kind of thoroughness that men reserved for racehorses! Offended by his scrutiny of her face, even more offended by his close interest in her body and resenting the way his dark eyes became sensuous when they reached her full breasts in the thin top, she decided to reciprocate in kind.

  Her highly arched mouth, untouched by lipstick, curved into a slight sneer. The man was a smoothie. She hated and despised smoothies. His hair, a little dishevelled from the open sports car, was nevertheless neatly cut, the black line where it met his tanned neck being immaculate, and only the few curls flopping on the broad forehead disturbed the impression of a well-groomed head.

  That was because his features were perfect, she mused. Skin a Miami bronze, as smooth and unblemished as satin and glowing with health. Probably worked out every morning in a London gym, judging by the width of the shoulders and that chest. He must be a City man: no one else would drive around these parts in such a flamboyant car, nor would they wear a black pinstripe with a pastel yellow shirt and matching hanky and rose in the middle of May!

  Critically she examined his hands. Terribly well manicured—the man obviously had never done a day's real work in his life. And they reminded…

  'I wonder if you could help me?' he murmured.

  'I haven't finished staring, yet,' she said sweetly.

  He chuckled. 'Touché. Shall I get out? You can't appreciate all of me like this. Far too much is hidden from your view.'

  Jade was startled. Ogling men were usually disconcerted by her directness; they weren't supposed to co-operate!

  'I've seen enough, thank you. I—'

  Too late, he was easing himself over the door, his long legs and strong arms managing the vault without difficulty. Perhaps he was expecting her to clap in admiration, she thought scornfully. He was definitely a gym fanatic.

  'That better?' He leant casually against the car, his thighs indecently close to Jade's face.

  'You're crowding me.' She glared, then turned her attention to the money. One, two, three…

  'Your worldly wealth?' he asked, squatting down.

  'Bother! I've lost count again!' she muttered.

  'Allow me.' His hand dipped intimately into her lap, scooping up one pile of coins, and Jade recoiled at his temerity, her mouth tightening as he flicked her a smiling glance and wickedly raised an eyebrow. In seconds, however, he had checked the money in his hand and she watched grimly while he totted up the rest. 'Four pounds twenty in that lot and two pounds seventy-eight here,' he declared.

  'Darn!'

  'You need a bit more? Saving up for a black cat?'

  Jade's angry brown eyes met his deep blue ones. 'A cat?' she repeated stupidly.

  'When I saw you, sitting by the roadside with your skirt spread out enticingly and layers of frothy white petticoat showing, I thought: aha, the village enchantress,' he grinned, his eyes melting into hers. 'The river of black hair did nothing to disprove my theory. And then I saw your slanting eyes and enchanting mouth and knew you were casting a spell on me.'

  'Don't be ridiculous,' she mumbled, quite flustered by his approach. How dared he try to pick her up?

  'This place feels as if it has stood still for the last hundred years,' he murmured. 'And finding a woman like you,' his eyes made a quick appraisal of her from top to toe, 'turning over coins by the wayside—'

  'I've lost the dinner money,' she snapped, deciding to put an end to the man's outrageous flirting. Now the money was back in its bags, she could get up safely. But he'd risen with her, and stood smiling down in a very smug and self-satisfied way. 'Move aside, I've got to find it.'

  It was the stranger's turn to look puzzled. 'Dinner money? You have to save up to eat?'

  Despite herself, Jade couldn't help grinning at the idea. Pushing him aside, she began to pick up coins on the road.

  'My goodness,' said a voice in her ear. 'This is fun. Your streets are paved with ten-pence pieces.'

  Jade chuckled, the dimple in her cheek dancing. 'They fell out of the bags as I ran,' she said.

  'And why were you running, and where were you going, and will you tell me what's going on before I burst with curiosity?' he demanded, finding money faster than she could.

  Jade's head reeled at the quickfire delivery, and knew for the first time what it was like to be on the receiving end of her own breathless speeches.

  'This is the dinner money paid by the children in the village school,' she explained, reaching out for a coin and finding her fingers grasping his. He shot her a look, half amused, half sensual, and she snatched her hand away in irritation. Wretched flirt!

  'And you were running off with it,' he said, jumping into the ditch and bringing back some coins. 'You planned to leave the country and buy a villa in Marbella.'

  Jade noticed that his glove-soft black shoes had become muddied from the tiny brook that ran through the ditch, and smiled in satisfaction. That would teach him to tease and pursue her!

  'I was taking it to the post office. I'm the school secretary,' she said primly.

  He sat down in the middle of the lane in astonishment, surprising Jade with the action. She would have bet that he was a fastidious man, not given to Bohemian behaviour. And yet he'd been unperturbed at finding his shoes were squelching around in the ditch.

  'Now that,' he said, staring hard, 'is the most bizarre thing you've said since we met. Pull the other one.' He stretched out his elegantly clad leg to her in offering.

  With difficulty, Jade bit back a smile. He was terribly handsome, terribly appealing and distinctly individual. She checked his left hand and a deep sense of disappointment welled up within her. He was also married!

  Her scornful gaze swept over him and his eyebrow rose in unspoken query. Jade tilted up her small chin and forced herself to disregard his charm. He was making her feel young and carefree again; she hadn't felt like that for years. And he was entirely the wrong kind of man to be producing those feelings!

  'It's true,' she said stiffly. 'That's why I have to find every penny.' In a more frantic manner, she continued to search and was relieved to find that it was only necess
ary to add a little of her own money.

  When she walked back, she found that he was still sitting in the middle of the road, and had been watching her all the time as she crawled along the lane on her hands and knees, presenting a good view of her rear and probably a fair amount of petticoat. Jade didn't care. She marched past him grimly, lifted the latch on Deep Thatch gate and strode rapidly up the narrow brick path.

  At the old plank door, she hesitated. John had said it would be all right to knock, but she didn't like to do so.

  'Are you reciting a spell for walking through doors?' called the stranger. 'Can I watch?'

  'This is the post office,.' she said crossly, seeing him leaning on the gate. 'And it's closed.'

  His eyes ran over the steep thatched roof which almost reached the ground on each side. Jade was grudgingly pleased that his face softened at the cottage's simple charm. He carefully examined the flint walls, almost hidden by the drooping pale blue blooms of the old wistaria which dropped its petals on the sills of the lattice windows.

  A slow, broad grin changed his appearance even more. Somewhere under that slick Don Juan exterior was a man who appreciated the quality of life, thought Jade hazily.

  'It's the most customer-friendly post office I've ever seen,' he said, walking up the path towards her, trying to take in every bit of the colourful cottage garden as he did so. Disconcerted by the way she found herself liking the man, she banged on the horseshoe knocker.

  'Hello, Miss.' Billy had answered the door and was displaying his gappy teeth to her.

  'Hello, Billy. Drowned in any ponds lately?' she twinkled.

  'I never drowned,' he objected. 'I swam. Fun, wasn't it?'

  'Hilarious. I'm still finding fish and water-beetles in my hair.'

  'Fancy!' Billy's eyes widened as he contemplated her thick tresses, obviously half expecting to see a golden carp gasping there.