animals but I’m thinking he’s the manager and Jake’s the owner. Jake, your stepmother set the lodge up as an indulgence for the wealthy. That’s gone out the window. What it needs now is to be a place people can come to recover. If I were you I’d think about pushing that aspect hard. Even when the fire’s forgotten there’ll always be people who need an interim place, between hospital and home. Pets are the first thing. Rob could make individual runs attached to the bedrooms. Guests can contain their own pet as much as they like, but still take it for runs or cuddle it in bed at night.’ She hugged Itsy and Rusty. ‘Like I do. It’ll be great.’
And there it was again, that queer lurch he didn’t know what to do with.
‘Oh, if we could keep our cat…’ Glenda said, while he tried to figure what exactly he was feeling.
‘And you know what else? You could organise medical visits,’ Tori said, and she was speaking directly to him now. ‘Maybe you could set up treatment rooms so you could have visiting doctors, physiotherapists, hand therapists, counsellors, anyone you need.’
‘You’re talking staff,’ Jake said, trying to focus on business when he just wanted to focus on Tori.
‘You can afford it,’ she said blithely and grinned. ‘I chose a very cheap pup.’
‘You did.’ He was distracted, but his mind was on what she’d said. Manwillinbah Lodge as a health resort?
He looked at Glenda and he thought, It could work.
Maybe Rob would enjoy the challenge.
Maybe he’d enjoy the challenge, he thought fleetingly, but he stomped on that thought almost before it had a chance to reach the surface.
‘Maybe,’ he said, trying to sound dampening, but neither Tori nor Glenda would be dampened.
‘It’ll be lovely,’ Glenda said, smiling and smiling. ‘Doreen and I will come and stay all the time.’
‘He hasn’t said we can take Pickles yet,’ Rob reminded her
‘Are you allergic to cats?’ Glenda asked, suddenly frowning. ‘Like your stepmother?’
He knew nothing about his stepmother. ‘I’m not allergic,’ he said shortly.
‘Do you like cats?’
‘Yes, but-’
‘Then there’s no problem,’ Rob said.
‘You could buy a cat,’ Tori told him, and they all looked at her. She coloured a little but held her ground. ‘He… Jake said he couldn’t buy a puppy because he works fourteen hours a day.’
‘Do you, dear?’ Glenda demanded. ‘That’s far too long.’
‘Yes, but he could still have a cat,’ Tori said patiently. ‘Or better still, two cats. Cats are fiercely independent but they’re still there when you get home at night.’
‘You need someone,’ Glenda said, and glanced at Tori, who was still colouring, and amended her statement. ‘I mean…something.’
‘I think I know someone with a litter of kittens,’ Tori said.
‘No!’
‘No?’ Tori said cautiously, and he thought he heard laughter behind her tentative query.
‘If I want a cat I can get one in New York.’
‘Yes, but will you?’
‘No.’
‘No?’
‘I don’t have room in my life for anything.’
‘Or anyone?’ Glenda said, forgetting to be innocent, and she was looking from Tori to Jake and back again.
‘No,’ Jake said, steadier this time, and firmer. ‘And Mrs. Matheson will have dinner on. We need to get back.’ And he swung himself into the driver’s seat without another word.
She sat in the passenger seat holding her dogs, while Jake concentrated on driving. Rob and Glenda were chatting in the back seat. Jake was staring straight ahead and she thought there were things in this man’s past that were hurting now.
She’d noticed the way he’d watched the crazy little male pup as he did his round-ups. He’d looked…hungry. She saw the same expression when he glanced at her. As if he was looking at something he wanted but couldn’t have.
Fair enough, she thought. She felt a bit the same. Or, okay, she felt a lot the same.
They collected Pickles from the cattery. The ancient tabby purred with pleasure when Glenda collected him. He eyed the dogs with weary indifference through the bars of his cat cage, as if to say, If this is what I have to put up with to be free, then so be it.
But Tori’s dogs weren’t staying with Pickles at the lodge. She was taking them back to the relocatable tonight. Her new home.
She had an almost irresistible urge to stay at the lodge one more night, but she glanced across at Jake’s set face and she thought, No, one more night would be one night too many.
Maybe last night had been one night too many-but then neither of them had planned it. It had just happened, a primeval need that had shocked them both.
Mrs. Matheson was on the verandah. She walked down to meet them and added her voice to the chorus urging her to stay.
‘No,’ she said, sounding ungracious, suddenly close to tears. She thrust the dogs into Jake’s arms and disappeared inside to fetch her possessions. When she came back out Glenda and Mrs. Matheson and Rob had gone. There was only Jake, leaning against her car. He was holding Itsy, and Rusty was at his feet.
He didn’t look like a millionaire, she thought inconsequentially. He looked a bit rumpled, casual, nice.
Jake.
She had to go.
She thrust her stuff into the trunk and lifted Itsy from Jake’s arms before she got teary. She put the dogs in the crate in the back seat, and she was right to leave.
She was ready to walk away.
‘Jake…thank you,’ she whispered, holding out her hand in an absurdly formal gesture of farewell-but suddenly she couldn’t say anything more because he had her in his arms and he was kissing her, in a crazy way, in a way that said he wanted her, he needed her, she was his woman.
This had nothing to do with reality, she thought wildly, but she let herself be kissed. Of course she let herself be kissed.
And kissed and kissed.
This was still about last night. It was about the letting down of barriers-the beginning of her new life.
It had nothing to do with her wanting this man.
She couldn’t want him.
But for just a moment, well, maybe for just several moments, she surrendered to him, and she felt her body light from within. She felt beautiful. She felt wanted. Jake was kissing her, holding her, her breasts were moulding to his chest, her feet were hardly touching the ground-and she felt all woman.
And when finally he let her go, when finally he put her away from him and held her at arm’s length, she felt as if her world was shifting.
She felt breathless and bruised…and like she couldn’t bear to walk away.
And it seemed that neither could he. ‘Come to Manhattan with me,’ he said, and her world didn’t just shift; it threatened to roll right over.
‘Come to Manhattan?’
‘Tori, this thing between us…’
‘What…thing?’
‘The thing that says I want you,’ he said simply.
Simple? There was nothing simple about this. What was he asking? She stared up at him, dazed beyond belief.
‘Tori, I don’t understand this,’ he said softly, tugging her close again, kissing her hair. ‘I’ve never felt like this. I’ve never expected to feel like this. But now… I’m due to start work back in Manhattan next week and how can I leave? How can I walk away from you?’
‘I guess…you don’t have to leave,’ she whispered, trying to make sense of what he was saying. ‘You own two
