The Faithful Wife by Diana Hamilton

headway on my own. Let me know if you want me to arrange transport to get you out of here.’
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    Closing the door behind him, he clattered down the staircase. No way could he spend the night tossing and turning in a bed only a few feet away from hers, with only a partition wall separating them.
    Seeing her again had brought needs he’d subjugated for twelve arid months bludgeoning back to life. He was only flesh and blood!
    Hell! Here he was, Jake Fox, subject of enough articles in the financial press to fill a ten-ton container, having made his first paper million on the money markets before he was twenty-two and now, at thirty-four years of age, the head of his own worldwide insurance company—yet he was totally unable to handle this woman and what she did to him, take her dubious machinations in his stride.
    But hadn’t she always made a sucker out of him?
    Tossing an armload of dry logs on the embers, he sank into a chair, almost welcoming the hypnotic howl of the wind, the insistent memories that now could not be denied...
    The very first time he’d set eyes on her...
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    The first time he set eyes on her she was wearing a gold satin beaded shift that shimmered when she moved. And how she moved!
    Clutching an unwanted, untouched glass of white wine in his hand, he couldn’t find words to describe what he was seeing—the sinuous grace, the endless legs, the softly seductive curves of hip and breast. The sheer poetry as her head turned slowly on the perfection of the long and fragile stern of her neck. The strange, fabulous eyes meeting his briefly across the room, holding for a moment—almost as if the contact puzzled her—before she turned back to her companion.
    He was holding his breath, he discovered. He hadn’t wanted to come to this party. But he hadn’t not wanted to, either—just killing time until his dinner date.
    â€˜Eyes off, buddy!’ Alex muttered at his side. ‘The lady’s taken.’
    â€˜Sorry?’ Jake’s brows met. He’d bumped into Alex Griffith in the City, just as he’d emerged from his Lombard Street head office, his mind still on his recent successful Far Eastern acquisition trip.
    Friends since schooldays, they kept in touch more—as now—by luck than arrangement.
    â€˜Have dinner?’ Alex had suggested.
    Jake had shaken his head in regret, they had a lot of catching up to do. ‘Sorry. I promised to feed Kitty at The Dorchester. She’s thinking of applying for a teaching post in Chester. Wants my advice.’
    â€˜Not boyfriend trouble this time?’ Alex’s tawny eyes had crinkled at the corners and Jake had grinned.
    â€˜Happily not, it would seem. Though I’m not counting my chickens. Something like that could be behind the sudden need to move to the sticks.’
    His kid sister brought as much dedication to her social life as she did to her chosen profession. And more often than not Jake was landed with the job of picking up the pieces. Looking out for Kitty was something he’d got used to. What else were brothers for—especially as there were no parents around to sort out the crises she seemed to thrive on?
    â€˜Tomorrow? Lunch?’
    â€˜Flying out to Dubai.’
    â€˜Tell you what,’ Alex had shot a glance at his watch. ‘I’m due at this cocktail thrash around now. Duty thing—know how it is? Daren’t miss it, or I’d suggest a quiet drink. Why not keep me company?’
    So here he was, almost wishing he’d not tagged along, until his attention had been riveted by the raven-haired beauty in the shimmering dress. He couldn’t take his eyes away.
    â€˜Who is she?’
    The face of La Donna.’ Alex hadn’t had to ask who Jake was talking about. ‘Shock to the system, what? I’ve met her once or twice. Got myself introduced during an interval at Covent Garden. But no dice. If I thought I stood a chance