Tasmanian Tangle Page 10

  There was also the plain fact that he intended to try and make up for his lapse of humour on the return journey, and as before, Tanya could see no reason why he should bother.

  The sight of the large flask set right in the middle of the kitchen table complete with two cups and saucers and a plate of biscuits made her even more depressed, as she had hoped that for once Connie had failed in what she would consider to be her duty. Even the delicious smell of the hot coffee wafting towards her as Kade filled the two cups did not lighten her mood, and her look was hardly grateful as she accepted a cup from him.

  `Biscuit?' asked Kade, as he settled himself down on one of the kitchen chairs, and raised one expressive eyebrow at her refusal.

  If he made one more remark about her needing to put on weight, then she would go straight up to bed and leave him to it, she told herself grimly as she stared back at him still holding the plate out towards her. `Well?' she demanded with a glint in her eye.

  Kade's blue eyes sharpened perceptively as he met the challenge. 'I daren't say a word,' he said sardonically, as he put the plate down. 'Not even a nice one,' he added meaningfully. 'The trouble with you, Tanya, is that you're always looking for trouble, and that isn't going to be good for business.'

  Tanya gasped audibly, and stared at him. Was he deliberately baiting her? she wondered, and decided that he was. She had spoilt his planned act of smoothing over her ruffled feelings and he hadn't liked that. 'No, it isn't, is it?' she replied smoothly, surprising herself with her cool answer. `So let's face it, shall we? I'm not cut out for it.' Her last words were not quite so firm, the tiredness she had felt earlier had suddenly overtaken her. 'Can you really see me as a business woman?' she asked him wearily.

  Kade's narrowed eyes rested on her flushed cheeks and her bright hair whipped in a halo round her small features by the strong breezes coming in the car window on the way back. He could see her as anything but, but he had no intention of saying so. 'You're tired,' he said abruptly, and stood up. 'It's time you hit the sack... You'll be okay.'

  Tanya blinked rapidly. He wasn't going to give in, and she was too tired to argue about it now. She stood up and turned tiredly towards the door. 'If you say so,' she said in a low dispirited voice, and turned to leave. 'Goodnight,' she added indifferently.

  Kade was standing by the door when she reached it. 'Is that all I get?' he said softly.

  Tanya looked up at him. Here was the big brother act again, she thought dispiritedly. Now he was sorry for her, he knew she was low and was trying to comfort her, much as a big brother might have done, or her father come to that. Because he had made the gesture she could not ignore it. Tomorrow they would fight again, but it would be churlish of her to refuse to accept the peace-offering.

  Accepting the gesture in the spirit that it was given, Tanya automatically lifted her face towards him and offered him her cheek in the same way as she had done with her father. She felt Kade's firm lips on her cheek, and as she would have done with her father, she turned to say another goodnight before leaving him, but he had not moved away from her.

  The next moment she found herself pulled none too gently into his arms, and receiving a very unbrotherly kiss that made her senses reel. The action was too fast and too sudden for her to take evasive measures, and

  she just had to accept the kiss whether she liked it or not.

  The shock had still not worn off when he released her, and she stood staring at him with wide eyes. Her stunned reaction caused him to take a deep breath, then swing away from her. 'I'm sorry, kid,' he said stonily. 'I guess I took more on board at that party than I usually do. No hard feelings, I hope?' he added, casually dismissing the event.

  'No hard feelings,' Tanya answered, just as stonily, and this time was able to leave him.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  IT was a long time that night before Tanya fell asleep. Her mind was in a turmoil and her thoughts were not inducive to sleep.

  Having now absorbed the shock of Kade's hard forceful kiss, she was now left with the aftermath—an aftermath that had brought certain undesirable elements into their relationship. It was his casual 'no hard feelings' remark that was causing her most of her worry. As for his excuse of having taken too much drink—well, that was a non-starter, and although it had been a convenient excuse, he must have known that it was a pretty lame one, and that she would see through it.

  Why then had he kissed her like that? She had given him no encouragement whatsoever. She turned over on her left side and bunched her pillows up under her head. So he felt sorry for her, but you didn't go about kissing folk you felt sorry for—at least not like that! It was plain that he had given way to an impulse and had immediately regretted it. His 'Sorry, kid' apology was proof enough of this. It was as if he had had to remind himself that she was totally inexperienced. Her reaction alone would have shown this, she thought.

  Her smooth brow deepened into a frown. It wasn't like Kade—at least not like the Kade she thought she knew. Did she know him, she asked herself, or had she built up a completely false picture of the man who had dominated her father's business for all those years?

  Hadn't her mother fallen into the same trap? Building him into a godlike figure, only to find that he had feet of clay. Had she, too, just found this out? Wasn't he just like any other man, with the same instincts and the same needs as other men?

  She felt the tears gathering at the back of her eyes. She had trusted him. She had offered him her cheek and he had taken her lips. She might have expected this of any other man, but not Kade.

  She closed her eyes as she felt a wave of bitter disillusionment flow over her. What right had he to order her to stay away from what he considered unsavoury types? What difference was there between him and the man he had spoken so disparagingly of in the car coming home? A tiny voice reminded her that Kade worked for his living and the other didn't, but she refused to listen to it. She was in no mood to accept the finer points of any such argument.

  When she recalled his earlier disparaging remarks about his not hankering after kids, she wished she had had the presence of mind to slap his arrogant face after he had kissed her. For all his fine ideals it had not prevented him from taking advantage of her at the first opportunity offered!

  There would never be another one offered, she vowed silently. To think she had been stupid enough to actually ask him to teach her the rudiments of the romantic side of life! Her soft lips twisted ironically; he had said she would regret it, hadn't he? And she did! Her lips now set in a purposeful line. Just let him make another advance on those lines and she'd let him know that she didn't hanker after older men either!

  Whatever daydreaming she had done in the past

  where he was concerned was now well and truly over. It had been over before their return journey back from the party, when she had admitted to herself that in thinking that she was in love with Kade she was just following the fashion. It had been different then, she told herself bitterly. She had still respected him, and still been a little in awe of him, but not now. She no longer trusted him. Her instinct to get out had been right, and Kade had known it all along, but hadn't cared how much hurt he inflicted upon her as long as he fulfilled his side of the bargain he had made with her father.

  If he could fulfil his side of the bargain with so little regard for her feelings—then so could she. He could be as sarcastic as he liked, but she would not give him the satisfaction of knowing that he had riled her, even though this was not going to be easy. He had a nasty habit of getting under her skin and somehow she had to cure this tendency of hers to hit back at him. It wouldn't get her anywhere—at least nowhere that she wanted to go, she thought as she recalled a certain look in his eye whenever she had managed to score a point over him.

  At breakfast the following morning, Connie wanted to know all about the get-together after the meeting, and who was there, and did Tanya meet the so-and-so family, and reeled off names.

  Tanya did her best, but it was a poo
r best, and she knew it. Her earlier enthusiasm over her evening out had somewhat waned in the light of consequent events, and her thoughts were on the coming meeting with Kade after breakfast. She could see a miserable day ahead, with Kade seizing upon every opportunity

  offered to lash out at her. He must have had some bad moments after his slip-up last night and no doubt would go all out to quash any romantic notions she might be harbouring on that score.

  'Well, as long as you enjoyed yourself,' said a disappointed Connie, when the fact that Tanya's thoughts were obviously elsewhere finally penetrated through to her. 'You'll be getting some invitations now, you wait and see,' she promised her happily. 'No reason why you shouldn't accept them either,' she went on half-scoldingly. 'You could do with a few more parties, that's a fact,' she added, as she disappeared into the kitchen regions.

  After breakfast Tanya slipped up to her room to collect the matching jacket to her dark blue tailored pants, and frowned at its immaculate cut. It wasn't really the sort of thing to wear on a fruit farm, but then none of her clothes were. She needed jeans and plain blouses, not the white and blue striped silk one that she wore at present and that belonged to the suit.

  When she was ready she gave herself a critical look in the mirror, and saw with annoyance that her hair was not behaving itself, and refused to stay neatly in position. She gave an exasperated sigh and on an impulse plaited it, securing the ends with two tightly twisted elastic bands. The result somewhat surprised her, for her hair was not long enough to achieve the desired neat appearance but stuck out on either side of her head, making her look not much above sixteen.

  Kade's words came to her as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. 'Kid', he called her, she thought grimly—well, she certainly looked the part now, and that, she told herself firmly, ought to settle any worry of

  his about her nurturing any romantic notions where he was concerned.

  To add to the illusion she wanted to create, she took off her jacket; the day would get much warmer later on and she would only end up carrying it around. Next she let her blouse hang loose around her waist instead of leaving it tucked under the waistband of her pants. When she had finished she stood back and surveyed the result and gave a nod of approval. She couldn't see anyone mistaking her for Kade's wife now—his daughter, maybe, she thought with grim satisfaction.

  A hoot on a horn made her hastily snatch up her shoulder-bag and rush for the door. She had no intention of giving Kade a stick to beat her with that early in the morning by being late on parade!

  The car door was open on her side when she reached it, as if Kade was impatient to get going, and she got in hastily thinking that it looked as if her earlier presumption of his being in a bad mood was correct.

  Kade started the motor as soon as she had slammed the car door behind her, and gave her a quick odd kind of assessing look that she could not interpret, but there had been a look of amusement in his eyes before he gave his attention to the road again.

  If this was so, then it must have been the hairstyle that had amused him, thought Tanya sourly, but she had no intention of giving him an opportunity of commenting upon it. She ought to have known better!

  'It did upset you, didn't it?' he said in a slow amused voice. 'It proved that I was right, though, didn't it?' he added casually.

  Tanya looked straight ahead of her but was unable to prevent the flush of delicate pink staining her cheeks

  and was certain that he had taken full note of her discomfort. 'If you're referring to last night,' she replied coldly, 'I'd rather forget it, if you don't mind. I'm surprised you brought it up,' she added tartly, 'I should have thought you'd have been terrified of my overreacting to what was obviously meant to be a comforting action on your part.'

  'Comforting?' queried Kade with a slight frown. 'Is that how you saw it?' he asked curiously.

  Tanya's eyes left the road and she looked at him. 'You felt sorry for me, didn't you?' she said bluntly. 'I'm just telling you that I understand how you felt, but I'd far rather you'd actually said so instead of—doing what you did.' She hesitated on the last few words, not wanting to say 'kissed me as you did'.

  To her amazement and fury Kade gave a low chuckle as he darted a quick sideways look at her. 'Has it ever occurred to you that I did precisely what I wanted to do?' he asked softly, making her cheeks turn a shade deeper pink.

  'Yes!' she bit out at him, furious at his autocratic assumption that he could do as he liked with her. 'But I prefer to incline towards my explanation rather than look on you as a womaniser!' Now chew on that! she thought tartly.

  She saw his brows go up at this, then to her further fury she saw an amused smile playing round his firm lips. 'You've a lot to learn, kitten,' he drawled maddenningly. 'But I'll give you ten out of ten for trying,' he added meaningly.

  It was Tanya's turn to frown. Did he mean taking the rise out of him? She gave a slight shrug. She would never understand him, and perhaps it was better that

  way. She ought to have picked him up on the 'kitten' label, though, but all things considered it was better that he saw her as a young girl rather than a woman. Better for both of them and decidedly safer for her!

  Their destination that day was the distribution centre situated on the outskirts of Hobart. It reminded Tanya of London's old Covent Garden. There was just as much activity and she found that she had to dodge out of the way of loaded trolleys being manoeuvred into position by busy porters intent on moving the various commodities handled, in the shortest possible time.

  It was from here that the produce was sent directly to the shipping lines to be despatched to their ultimate destinations. With the bustle and the shouts of 'Mind your back!' Kade had to shout to make himself heard as he explained the routine carried out at this stage of the business. There was never any lull in the centre, for loaded trucks were either arriving or leaving in continuous activity.

  Kade's popularity here was just as noticeable as it had been on the farm with the seasonal workers, and he was hailed on all sides as they toured the depot. Tanya came in for the same amount of curious attention as she had received at the farmers' meeting the previous day.

  'Taken to guided tours now, have you?' commented one wag with a grin, as he eyed her with frank curiosity.

  Kade grinned back at him. 'We'll have a little more respect from you, Jack Hailey,' he replied. 'This is John Hume's daughter, and my business partner, so mind your p's and q's.'

  Tanya saw the man's eyebrows shoot up and a large hand was thrust out towards her. 'Beg pardon, miss,' he

  said hastily. 'Right pleased to meet you.'

  As she took the proffered hand, Tanya felt a spurt of satisfaction at being addressed as 'Miss'. Her 'disguise' had obviously had the desired result and had foiled any attempt Kade might have made at her further discomfiture, as she was convinced he had done before. She was even more convinced when she caught Kade watching her with a certain look in his eye that told her that he was well aware of her thoughts and was deriving some amusement from the fact.

  It was a relief to her when they moved on to the office section of the depot. For one thing it was much quieter there, and it was not necessary to shout to make oneself heard. Tanya was shown where the paper work came in, and recognised the now familiar pink export forms being processed ready for export.

  As Kade went through the procedure with her, outlining every stage with studious attention to detail, she caught several envious glances darted her way by the office female staff, but mostly their attention was directed at the tall bronzed man by her side, dressed now in a blue checked shirt and grey tapered slacks. They must, she mused, look an extremely odd pair, Kade every inch a man of the world and she—? A gawky schoolgirl? she thought with some amusement, as she recalled the way her hair stuck out at odd angles on either side of her head.

  'I think that's enough for this morning,' said Kade, breaking into her musings. He then thanked the head Berk for the use of the office and steered Tany
a out of the offices and through the still busy depot, and out to the parking lot where he had left the car.

  'I noticed that you didn't ask any questions,' he said,

  as he held the car door open for her, giving her an interrogating look that warned her to be careful as to how she answered this unspoken accusation.

  'I didn't need to,' she answered quietly. 'You were so explicit,' she tacked on, darting a quick glance at his profile to note his reaction to this blatant flattery.

  She saw his strong jaw tighten, then relax into the familiar mocking smile. 'Determined to be a brilliant student, are you?' he drawled, as he negotiated the car out of the car park and out on to the main road.

  'Isn't that what you want me to be?' she asked quickly, having a nasty feeling that he had seen through her master plan to keep him happy until she could walk out on him.

  'It's what you want that matters, though, isn't it?' he shot back at her. 'And there are times when I suspect that we might not be working for the same ends,' he added significantly, and Tanya caught a glint in his blue eyes as he took a swift glance at her before concentrating on his driving.

  Even if he had guessed what she was up to, there was nothing he could do about it, she told herself comfortingly, as she answered complacently, 'Well, I suppose only time will tell,' and left it at that.

  To her relief he did not comment upon her ambiguous answer, and they drove for a few miles in silence. 'I've some paper work to catch up on,' Kade said, as they approached the home boundary, and Tanya's inward sigh of relief that he was going to give her the afternoon off was rudely shattered by his next words : 'You might as well give me a hand. It's management business. It's a pity you can't type. We'll have to fill in those interminable forms by hand. There's a lot of