In the Market for Love - By Nina Blake Page 0,23
business suit. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t even heard the shuffle of his footsteps on the marble floor.
“Certainly,” she said.
This time there was no hesitation, no tentativeness. She hit the button.
“I’m going up,” she added.
She arched her neck upwards and the recollection of the dizzying height to which Jake had taken her came flooding back to her again. She was going all the way to the top.
* * *
“Why did you come here today?” Jake asked, incensed that Bianca dared visit him at the agency over some petty matter.
She flung her pale hair behind her shoulders. She was the mother of his child. That was the only reason she was still part of his life.
“I had some time after I finished at the hairdresser,” she said.
When she and Jake first met, her hair had been light brown, streaked a gentle honey blonde by the sun. Now it was chemically bleached and straightened. Stripped of all colour, it hung brittle and lifeless down her back.
It struck Jake that their relationship was equally drained of its lustre. There wasn’t much left between them and the little which remained was increasingly hard work. And extremely fragile.
No wonder he’d never given her his grandmother’s engagement ring. Perhaps he’d known even then that things wouldn’t work out between them, though he hadn’t wanted to face it at the time.
Bianca leaned over his desk to admire a photo of Connor. Jake looked away. He didn’t need to see her breasts hanging out of a particularly revealing red top. Since a breast enhancement three years ago, she was continually putting her chest on display with skimpy clothing. Very little of her was natural any more.
She flitted quickly past the pin-up board covered with Connor’s drawings and stopped to pay homage to the spectacular views from Jake’s office. The hint of a contemptuous sneer on her face, she glanced around the rest of the room as though it was in need of severe maintenance.
Seeing Bianca standing in his office, it struck Jake that she simply didn’t fit into his world. Her main concerns seemed to be with appearances, shopping and lunch dates. She had no idea what it was like to work and run a business. What’s more, she was completely devoid of any sense that she might be out of place.
“I asked you why you came,” he said.
Her lips curled to a smug smile. “Because we’ve got some business to discuss.”
Both of them knew exactly why she’d come to Jake’s office. The same reason she phoned him at work. Because it riled him.
“Fine,” he said. “Let’s get on with it then.”
“It’s about that trip to Italy you suggested.”
He opened his mouth to argue but thought better of it. “Go on.”
“I think it’s an excellent idea. A month away will do me good.”
Jake nodded, refusing to speak. He knew Bianca had something else to say and he wasn’t going to make it easy for her.
She sauntered over to his desk and ran her fingers along the edge of the mahogany. “I’ve booked already. I’ll be leaving in a few weeks. So I’ll be away over the school holidays. You’ll have to take of Connor.”
Always putting her needs and desires ahead of those of her child. This was typical of her.
Jake’s mind spun into overdrive as he thought of the projects he was managing, who he could delegate them to and meetings that would need to be rescheduled. One thing was for certain. He wasn’t prepared to let his son have two dreary weeks at home with the nanny because his mother had abandoned him.
He raked a hand through his hair. “Do you have any idea how hard this is for me? Any idea how hard it is to juggle everything at work at such short notice. I’ve got an advertising agency to run, you know.”
Lips pursed, she held his gaze. “You know, you’ve seemed different lately. Like you’ve had something big on your mind. But if your business is more important to you than your son–”
“For crying out loud, woman. You’re the one flitting off to Italy, not me.”
“I can always stay here if you don’t want me to go.”
“Go, go!” Jake exploded. “I want you to go.”
Fine. She could go away for a month and spend as much money as she wanted. He’d be glad to be rid of her.
* * *
Rachel stepped out of the lift, pushed open the agency’s heavy glass door and strode to the reception desk where she asked for Jake only