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picture and sighed. 'The answer is complicated. Firstly I came because I've
been reading highly coloured gossip items about Clea and my son ...'
Joanne's breathing tightened and he looked at her sharply.
'How often has Ben been here?'
'Quite often during the last week,' she said expressionlessly.
He nodded, 'So it was true.'
'You haven't asked Clea?'
He laughed. 'Would she tell me the truth?' His brows registered wry
amusement. 'Clea is very lovely, but she tells lies when she thinks it's
necessary.'
Joanne flushed, looking away. 'Please don't!' She could not listen to any
more brutal remarks about her mother. She would not listen.
Jeb Norris watched her thoughtfully. 'Nobody is perfect, Joanne,' he said. 'I
love Clea just the way she is.'
This time it was the present tense, and her eyes flew to his face. 'Love?' she
repeated huskily.
'Yes,' he said frankly. 'I said the answer was complicated it is. When I read
that Ben had been seeing Clea I was knocked sideways. It seemed almost
incestuous.' He grinned at her. 'I haven't seen her since she ran off with your
father, but I still thought of her possessively. Once I realised that, I knew I
had to come here ... I knew I still loved her.'
She sighed, her shoulders relaxing from the tension which had held them.
'What has Ben been up to?' he asked her, watching her.
'Hadn't you better ask him that?'
'I doubt if he'd be frank,' Jeb said ruefully. 'He and I have barely spoken to
each other for years. He can't stand the sight of me. The blood rushed to my
head when I heard he'd been seeing Clea because I had a shrewd idea he was
getting back at me through her, and I still think that was his plan.'
Perhaps it had been, she thought. Ben had come here to hurt if he could, but
had he been untouched by Clea's loveliness or had he been as bowled over
by it as most other men were?
'Clea says he was going to back her new film.' Jeb stared down at her, lifting
an eyebrow quizzically. 'Do you think that's the case?'
'That's what they both told me,' she said, but Ben had said later 'Was I?' in a
biting tone which made it impossible to guess what he really meant to do.
'I can see why that appealed to Clea,' Jeb murmured. 'But what was Ben up
to? He hates her. What was he playing at?'
He hates her. Joanne shivered. Yes, Ben hated Clea and he hated her, too, as
Clea's daughter. He despised them both. What had he been planning? Had he
meant to let Clea get excited about the film, feel safe and happy again, only
to let*her down publicly, drop the film and her with it? That would have
humiliated Clea. It would have hurt. It might even have ended her film
career if she could not find another backer.
'I'm going to marry her,' said Jeb, and she looked at him in surprise. 'I want
her tied up so tight she'll never get away from me again.' He grinned,
ruefully self- mocking. 'She got away from me once. Never again.'
Joanne laughed. 'Have you told her?'
'Yes,' said Jeb, and his eyes were hard. 'I told her.'
Clea was not getting a man who would run after her like a pet dog this time.
She was getting a man who for all his amused affection for her was granite at
bottom, and looking at him, Joanne could see where Ben got it from, that
stony, unmoving expression.
'God help her if she plays me up,' Jeb added, and he was not being funny.
Joanne could see that. How would Clea cope with him? she wondered. She
was spoilt, hopelessly spoilt by years of getting her own way and now she
would find herself being managed firmly but inexorably and how would she
like that?
'Have you seen Ben since you arrived?' she asked him anxiously.He shook
his head. 'You know, Ben had a bad childhood. His mother was a sick
woman.'
'He told me,' she said miserably.
He looked at her sharply. 'He did? That's interesting. He rarely talks about
her. It was hard for him young boys are sensitive. She was his mother, yet
he despised her. He showed it openly and it hurt her. He looked at her, talked
to her, with contempt. I had to x talk to him about it, and we had some bad
rows. When he got older he changed towards her... he started taking her side,
protecting her, as he saw it, against me.' His mouth twisted. 'Ben despised
me. He knew all about Clea, of course.' He laughed harshly. 'One thing about
Ben ... he never had women trouble.'
Joanne could believe that. Ben would hate and despise women. Her first
impression of him had been accurate. The cold, sardonic stranger looking
around that room full of beautiful women, dismissing them all with
contempt, had been Ben's true persona.
They had both been born outsiders. She had hidden in the shadows, effacing
herself, while Ben had turned to face the rest of the world, deliberately
isolating himself and despising everyone he met.
'He couldn't blame me more than I blamed myself,' Jeb told her. 'I'd stopped
loving my wife before I met Clea. Linda had a cancer of the mind. Her
drinking had nothing to do with Clea, but Ben would never have believed
that. It didn't start when I met Clea. It had been kept out of sight, but it was
there long before that. Linda tried to stop it, but she couldn't and that was
what killed my feelings for her, not Clea.'.
Joanne was embarrassed, not wishing to hear all this, because it was
involving her more and more with Ben, making her see far too clearly how
terrible his life must have been as a child.
'Please,' she muttered miserably, and Jeb looked at her with a grimace.
'I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you all this ... it's none of your business. I've
embarrassed you.' He patted her shoulder, smiling. 'I'm taking Clea to lunch
in Nice. I'd like to take you, too.'
She smiled back politely. 'Thank you, but I, have another date. Some other
time, I hope.'
'You can be sure of that,' he said firmly. 'I want to get to know you, Joanne.
How do you feel about me as a stepfather?'
She laughed. 'I think it might be fun!'
He looked delighted. 'I promise it will be,' he said, nodding. 'I've always
wanted a daughter to spoil and fuss over ... nobody was allowed to fuss over
Ben. He was a very stubborn, difficult boy.'
Boy, she thought wryly. Had he ever been that? The word did not apply to
that hard, dark arrogant face and she could not think of him except as the
man whose touch last night had turned her bones to water and made her
heart beat like a drum.
Clea came in looking ravishing in a simple blue dress, the skirt full, the
bodice cut low and suspended on thin straps which crossed over her throat.
A white bolero covered her bare shoulders. She looked barely older than
Joanne and Jeb smiled at her in admiration.
When she looked up at him the little-girl look was in her eyes and her mouth
was sweetly. submissive. Jeb kissed her and Clea looked radiant as she drew
back from him.
She gave Joanne a little, shy smile, her eyes searching to catch her daughter's
reaction. Joanne smiled back at her because Clea looked so vulnerable, so
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