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‘Come on,’ she teased. ‘I know a place where they serve ice-cream that’s home-made and hasn’t been crammed with a load of additives.’
The shop was run by a friend of hers, and the two of them strolled into the park opposite as they ate them.
‘You’re really into healthy food yourself, aren’t you,’ James remarked admiringly.
She nodded. ‘I have a friend who has a little boy who becomes a monster when he eats any food that contains the additives E100 to E300. When he was younger she fed him on all the things it’s easy for little children to eat, hamburgers, sausages, white bread, cakes, crisps—interspersed with the goodness of vegetables and fresh fruit—and he was like something demented most of the time. Helen, his mother, nearly had a nervous breakdown because he was so bad. He was aggressive, violent, didn’t sleep at night—and so neither did she. It became so bad that Helen finally insisted their doctor refer him to a psychiatrist.’
‘And?’
‘And apart from the fact that he was hyperactive they said there was nothing wrong with him,’ Aura drawled. ‘And so it went on, with Helen becoming more and more run down, and Jonathan being a little demon. And then one day Helen read an article on colourings and preservatives in food, and the effect they could sometimes have on children. She was so desperate by this time that she would have tried anything. She changed his diet completely, which didn’t please him at first, especially when he had to drink pure fruit juice instead of the diluted or fizzy kind—most of them are full of colourings and flavours. Within three days Jonathan was already a different child, bright, happy, loving. It was difficult to believe the difference it had made in him. At first Helen feared it might just be a fluke, that any day he would revert to the little monster. It’s been two and a half years now, and he’s one of the most adorable children you could ever wish to meet—as long as he doesn’t accidentally get any of those additives in his food! Helen has even had a second child, something she swore she would never do after the first year she had with Jonathan.’
‘Where do you come into it?’ James asked, interested.
‘At the time people were still very sceptical about the harm of the additives, especially as they make the food look and taste more attractive most of the time, and a lot of the manufacturers refused to accept that their products could produce this Jekyll and Hyde effect. Consequently Helen had tremendous difficulty finding food for Jonathan that wouldn’t make him feel too different from everyone else. I was looking for a business at the time——’
‘So you opened “Health is Wealth”,’ James realised appreciatively.
She nodded. ‘I’m sure that if those additives can be harmful to children then they must also be harmful to adults, in ways we don’t even realise. I refuse to have anything that contains additives in my shop. You have to eat healthily to be healthy, I believe. Does that sound too much like preaching?’ she grimaced, realising how long she had gone on about her favourite subject.
He shook his head. ‘It sounds like a woman who believes in something.’
She gave a rueful shake of her head. ‘Like a woman who had Jonathan to stay with her for a week to give Helen a break—before she had managed to sort out his diet,’ she corrected self-derisively. ‘After only one day with him I understood why Helen couldn’t cope. As for the nights——! Five minutes’ nap in between hours of playtime nearly killed me. Of course some children just are hyperactive, although luckily Jonathan wasn’t one of those ones. He often stays with us now, he and Mummy get on very well together.’ Because Jonathan accepted ‘Aunt Meg’ exactly as she was.
‘I don’t know what was in or out of it, but the ice-cream was delicious.’ James put the last of it in his mouth before throwing the tub in the bin.
Aura was suddenly mesmerised by the smear of ice-cream on his top lip. What would his reaction be if she reached up and——
His eyes darkened. ‘Lick it off, Aura,’ he encouraged throatily.
Her breath lodged in her throat, her startled gaze clashing with his, a blush darkening her cheeks as she realised he had been well aware of the eroticism of her thoughts. ‘We had better be going——’
‘Not yet.’ He clasped her shoulders, his hands a sensual caress against their nakedness. ‘Lick it off, Aura,’ he urged again. ‘I want to feel your tongue on me.’
Aura didn’t think her breathing would ever return to normal as it once again stopped in her throat. He wanted to feel——! The images that statement aroused in her mind went much further than his top lip.
‘Please, Aura!’
His eyes compelled her to move, and she slowly went up on tip-toes to place her mouth against his.
As always, when she was close to this man, she was lost at the first touch, their mouths open and moist as they tasted each other.
James finally raised his head. ‘Your tongue, Aura,’ he groaned raggedly. ‘Give it to me!’
Her eyes closed as he enfolded her against him, feeling dizzy and excessively warm at the same time, obeying his command mindlessly, tasting him and the ice-cream together, having no doubt about which one was making her head spin; she had eaten a whole tub of the delicious ice-cream without feeling in the least light-headed, but the smallest taste of James left her hungering for more.
And she took more, moving down his jaw and throat with open-mouth kisses, reaching the open neck of his T-shirt, the slightly salty taste of his flesh making her thirst, and melt, and ache …!
His hands threaded through the silky softness of her hair as he raised her face to his once again, the kiss fiercer this time, their bodies touching from chest to thigh.
Aura felt herself spinning out of control, wanting to be even closer to him, caressing the hardness of his back as she clung to him.
‘—youngsters of today have no shame,’ muttered a disgusted male voice. ‘In our day we would at least have gone somewhere a little more private to do that sort of thing!’
It took a few seconds for the words to penetrate the sensual spell Aura and James were under, but it finally did, and they looked about them dazedly, the park as deserted as it had been earlier—except for an elderly couple walking their dog some distance away, the woman seeming to be asking her husband exactly how often he had ‘gone somewhere a little more private to do that sort of thing’ when he was younger—because he certainly hadn’t been with her at the time!
Aura and James looked at the elderly couple and then at each other, their joined laughter breaking the sudden tension.
‘For my part,’ James drawled drily, ‘I’m just grateful to be included under the term “youngster”!’
‘I think I am too,’ Aura laughed softly as they walked side by side back to the car. ‘Anyone over twenty-one is considered old nowadays.’
‘In that case I’m ancient—and being with you makes me feel far from that.’ He unlocked the car door for her. ‘I’ve enjoyed today,’ he told her softly as he got in the car beside her, making no effort to turn on the ignition.
She swallowed hard. ‘I have too.’
‘Can we do it again?’
‘Me slaughter you at tennis?’ She attempted to tease, her palms damp with tension. How could she not see him again when she enjoyed being with him so much! He made her laugh, was genuinely interested in what she had to say, made her feel very much alive and aware of what was happening about her. She hadn’t felt so alive since—she couldn’t care for this man, she realised desperately. ‘I don’t think so,’ she told him harshly. ‘It wouldn’t be a good idea to mix business and—and pleasure.’
‘You have enjoyed being with me, then?’ His eyes were narrowed, those ominous grooves in his cheeks appearing and disappearing, as if he couldn’t decide if he were angry or not.
‘Who doesn’t enjoy winning?’ She deliberately misunderstood him.
His mouth tightened, the grooves very much in evidence now. ‘There isn’t going to be a loser between us, Aura. We can both win, if you’ll only let us.’
‘I really do have to get back now,’ she told him lightly. ‘I don’t like to leave my mother alone for too long.’
‘The subject of my taking you out again is closed?’ he rasped.
‘Yes.’
‘Very well.’ He nodded abruptly, switching on the ignition. ‘But I’m not going to lose you now I’ve found you.’
Why did that sound so much like a promise, and not a threat?
CHAPTER THREE
THE next day he came to the shop to buy everything he needed for a ‘naturally healthy diet’; the day after that he came in to tell her how much healthier he felt already and to deliver some magazines he had thought her mother might enjoy reading; the day after that he arrived with an article he had found on additives that he thought might interest her.
He was pushy in the nicest possible way, possibly because he knew she wouldn’t accept anything else; she was sure he wasn’t usually quite this obliging, always making sure he never stayed long enough that she had to ask him to leave. It was as if he were making a place in her life for himself without making her feel any pressure, and she knew she was coming to look forward to his daily visits in spite of her dire warnings to herself that she shouldn’t.
‘Is James coming over this evening, dear?’ her mother asked eagerly over their early dinner.
Aura had been waiting all day for him to turn up at the shop, intending to tell him that the visits had to stop. When he hadn’t arrived she had been disappointed instead of relieved, and that made her angry. ‘I have no idea,’ she dismissed tautly. ‘But if he does I won’t be here!’
Her mother blinked at her vehemence. ‘Has he done something to offend you?’
Only become a necessary part of her life. And she wouldn’t, she couldn’t accept him into it. James might not be a married man, but there was too much danger attached to going out with him, and it didn’t just come from her innocent involvement with Adrian.
‘No,’ she assured her mother lightly, rewarded by her mother’s serene expression. ‘I just told Helen that I would go over to see her tonight, Simon’s away on business and she could do with a little company.’
‘That will be nice,’ her mother approved. ‘I often think you don’t get out enough. Especially now that Adrian——’
‘Whatever you do don’t ever mention Adrian to James,’ she said frantically as she realised her mother was one way James could find out she had once dated his married partner, albeit unknowingly.
‘As if I would, Aura,’ her mother reproved gently. ‘James seems to be a very possessive man to me; I doubt he would like to hear about the men you saw before the two of you met.’
She frowned. ‘Mummy, I hope you aren’t reading more into James’s visits to us than is actually there?’
Her mother gave one of her more serene smiles. ‘Of course I’m not, dear.’
Now why didn’t she feel reassured by that assurance? Possibly because her mother had shown a decided preference for James from the first, and because his kindness to her mother was something he genuinely felt and not just something he affected for her benefit. Between the two of them she could find herself involved in a situation that could only spell disaster!
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