‘Why do you think you’d screw up your children’s lives?’ Jaz said.
He stirred his coffee before he answered. ‘I’m too much like my father.’
‘I don’t think you’re anything like your father,’ she said. ‘Maybe in looks but not in temperament. Your father is weak. Sorry if I’m speaking out of turn but he is. The way he handled his affair with Kat Winwood’s mother is proof of it. I can’t see you paying someone to have an abortion if you got a girl pregnant.’
He shifted his lips from side to side. ‘I wouldn’t offer to marry her, though.’
‘Maybe not, but you’d support her and your child,’ Jaz said. ‘And you’d be involved in your child’s life.’
He gave her one of his slow smiles that did so much damage to her resolve to keep him at a distance. ‘I didn’t realise you had such a high opinion of me.’
She pursed her lips. ‘Don’t get too excited. I still think you’d make a terrible husband.’
‘In general or for you?’
Jaz looked at him for a beat or two of silence. She had a sudden vision of him at the end of the aisle waiting for her with that twinkling smile on his handsome face. Of his tall and toned body dressed in a sharply tailored suit instead of the casual clothes he preferred. Of his dark-blue eyes focused on her, as if she were the only woman he ever wanted to gaze at, with complete love and adoration.
She blinked and refocused. ‘Good Lord, not for me,’ she said with a laugh. ‘We’d be at each other’s throats before we left the church.’
Something moved at the back of his gaze as it held hers, a flicker like a faulty light bulb. But then he picked up his coffee cup and drained it before putting it down on the table with a decisive clunk. ‘Ready?’
* * *
Jake walked Jaz back to the boutique holding her hand for the sake of appearances. Or so he told himself. The truth was he loved the feel of her small, neat hand encased in his. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking about those soft, clever little fingers on other parts of his body. Stroking him, teasing him with her touch. Why shouldn’t he make the most of their situation? He had a business deal to secure and being engaged to Jasmine Connolly was going to win him some serious brownie points with his conservative client Bruce Parnell. It wasn’t as if it was for ever. A week or two and it would be over. Life would go back to normal.
‘I have a work function on Wednesday night,’ he said when Jaz had unlocked the door of the boutique. ‘Dinner with a client. Would you like to come?’
She looked at him with a slight frown. ‘Why?’
He tugged a tendril of her hair in a teasing manner. ‘Because we’re madly in love and we can’t bear to be apart for a second.’
Her frown deepened and a flash of irritation arced in her gaze. ‘What’s the dress code?’
‘Lounge suit and cocktail.’
‘I’ll have to check my calendar.’
Jake put his hand beneath her chin and tipped up her face so her eyes couldn’t escape his. ‘I’m giving you the weekend for the wedding expo. The least you could do is give me one week night.’
Her cheeks swarmed with sheepish colour. ‘How did you know it was a wedding expo?’
He gave her a teasing grin. ‘I knew there had to be a catch. Why else would you want me for a whole weekend?’
Her mouth took on that disapproving schoolmarm, pursed look that made him want to kiss it back into pliable softness. ‘I don’t want you, Jake. You’ll only be there for show.’
He bent down and pressed a brief kiss to her mouth. ‘I’ll pick you up from here at seven.’
* * *
Jaz was still doing her hair when the doorbell sounded on Wednesday evening. She had run late with a client who had taken hours to choose a design for a gown. She gave her hair one last blast with the dryer and shook her head to let the waves fall loosely about her shoulders. She smoothed her hands down her hips, turning to one side to check her appearance in the full-length mirror. The black cocktail dress had double shoestring straps that criss-crossed over her shoulders, the silky fabric skimming her figure in all the right places. She was wearing her highest heels because she hadn’t been able to wear them when going out with Myles, as he was only an inch taller than her. A quick spray of perfume and a smear of lip-gloss and she was ready.
Why she was going to so much trouble for Jake was not something she wanted to examine too closely. But when she opened the door and she saw the way his eyes ran over her appreciatively she was pleased she had chosen to go with the wow factor.