FANTASIES AND THE FUTURE.

Miranda Lee.

Hearts of Fire.

"You've no idea, Ava, just how many bored and neglected women there are around Sydney, and a lot of them look upon men like me as easy meat."

The guy who came to mow the lawns turned out to be as stunning as any of Ava's fantasies, though she soon realized Vince Morelli thought she was just another rich, lonely lady looking for excitement. But, all the same, Vince's arrival meant an end to Ava's narrow, virginal existence.

Life was changing for Gemma, too. But maybe for the worse--those evil rumors that Damian Campbell whispered to her about Nathan couldn't be true...could they?

PRINc.i.p.aL CHARACTERS IN THIS BOOK.

GEMMA SMITH: On her father's death, Gemma discovered a magnific ent black opal worth a small fortune, and an old photograph which casts doubt on her real ident.i.ty. In search of the truth and a new life, she goes to Sydney where she is seduced by and then married to Nathan Whitmore.

NATHAN WHITMORE: Adopted son of Byron Whitmore, Nathan is a talente d playwright. After a troubled childhood and a divorce, Nathan is ruthless and utterly controlled. Will he ever be the loving, caring husband of whom Gemma has dreamed?

AVA WHITMORE: Byron's much younger sister. Sweet-natured and a l ittle naive, Ava has always felt she was hopeless at everything. Now, at nearly thirty, she struggles with her weight and has had little success with men; she also lacks confidence about her hobby -painting. Ava longs to love and be loved. . .

VINCE MORELLI: Of Italian heritage, Vince is the owner of a garde ning and construction business. He is keen to marry and have a family, but he is a little cynical since, in his line of work, his charm and good looks attract the attentions of rich, lonely women intent on seducing him. . .

BYRON WHITMORE: Patriarch and head of the Whitmore family, he is a strong, dynamic figure whose unhappy, loveless marriage came tragically to an end.

DAMIAN CAMPBELL: Younger brother of Celeste, head of the Campbell Jewels empire. Damian is sales and marketing manager, and interested only in self-gratification and s.e.xual pleasure. . . He doesn't care whom he hurts in their pursuit. . .

LENORE LANGTRY: Talented stage actress, ex-wife of Nathan Whitmore and mother of Kirsty, Lenore has finally found love with top solicitor Zachary Marsden.

JADE WHITMORE-GAINSFORD : Only daughter of Byron and Irene (nee Campbell), she is married to Kyle Gainsford, Whitmore's marketing head. They are expecting a baby.

Miranda Lee is Australian, living near Sydney. Born and raised in the bush, she was boarding-school educated and briefly pursued a cla.s.sical music career before moving to Sydney and embracing the world of computers. Happily married, with three daughters, she began writing when family commitments kept her at home. She likes to create stories that are believable, modern, fast-paced and s.e.xy. Her interests include reading meaty sagas, doing word puzzles, gambling and going to the movies.

A Note to the Reader:.

This novel is one of a series of six novels set in the glamorous, cut-throat world of Australian opal dealing. Each novel is independent and can be read on its own. It is the author's suggestion, however, that they be read in the order written.

THE STORY SO FAR. . .

After her father's death, Gemma Smith had left the opal fields of the Outback for Sydney to find out the truth about her mother, and to sell her priceless discovery, a flawless black opal. Fate introduced her to Nathan Whitmore, a famous playwright, who offered her a reward for the black opal, which had been stolen from his adoptive father twenty years before. Highly attracted by Gemma's vulnerability, Nathan also seduced and married her. Gemma's life was turned upside-down, while she witnessed startling changes in the Whitmore household too: Nathan's wild-child adoptive sister Jade found happiness with Kyle Gainsford, while Melanie, the family housekeeper, let go of the terrible memories of her past and married Royce Grantham. But Gemma was not sure there was a happy ending for herself and Nathan; her ruthless, emotionally controlled husband wanted her to have a baby, but she had many doubts - what of his relationship with his ex-wife Lenore, despite the latter's commitment to Zachary Marsden? And what was the secret of her real origins? It all seemed as tangled as the feud between the Whitmores and the Campbells - now that Celeste Campbell owned the priceless black opal, the Heart of Fire. . .

CHAPTER ONE.

AVA was sitting at her easel, paintbrush in hand but h er mind a million miles away, when her brother stormed into her studio-c.u.m-sitting-room.

'Ava! I can't find my favourite tux. It's certainly not hanging with my other suits. I've looked d.a.m.ned well everywhere. Would you have any idea where it could be?'

Ava's startled face was quickly filled with a fl.u.s.tered guilt. 'I -er -I took it the dry cleaners a couple of weeks back. Remember, you got a wine stain on it from Jade's wedding?'

'And?' Byron growled ominously.

'I. . .urn. . .forgot to pick it up.'

Byron didn't say a word. He simply glared at her for a second, shook his head in total exasperation, then spun on his heels and stormed out again.

Ava jumped up, her palette sliding from her lap and * crashing to the parquet floor. With a groan of dismay, she dithered, then decided to ignore the palette and raced after her brother. 'I. . .I'm sorry, Byron,' she called after him as he marched along the upstairs hallway. 'It won't happen again. I promise.'

That's what you said the last time,' he threw back over his shoulder before abruptly grinding to a halt and whirling around to face her. This past six weeks has been nothing but one disaster after another. G.o.d knows why I let you talk me into giving you a chance at running this household. I suppose I was swayed by your argument that since there was only the two of us pathetic old Whitmores left living in this great empty barn of a house you could possibly manage. But that was just wishful thinking!'

'You might be pathetic and old,' Ava countered, finding her temper at long last. "But I'm not! I'm only thirty and I think I've done rather well considering I've had no experience with housework. I certainly don't consider a small memory-slip such as forgetting to pick up some dry cleaning a disaster ! Frankly, Byron, I was hoping you'd be encouraging, rather than bullying. Melanie a.s.sured me you'd changed since the accident, but I can see you're still the same unsympathetic, insensitive chauvinistic tyrant you've always been!'

Her outburst concluded, Ava was on the verge of subsiding into her usual wimpish mush when Byron laughed. His reaction took her by surprise and she simply stared at him.

Laughing, her brother looked a long way from being old and pathetic as well. Though rising fifty, he was a fine figure of a man, his extremely tall, broad- shouldered frame kept in shape with hard sessions in his own private gym downstairs. Admittedly, his wavy black hair was sprinkled liberally with grey, but it was still thick and l.u.s.trous. His strongly chiselled face was as handsome as ever, despite a few lines, and his blue eyes, now glittering with a dry amus.e.m.e.nt, were still holding women in thrall.

Recently, Byron had started dating a divorcee named Catherine who was in her mid-thirties and quite stunning-looking. Ava, however, could not stand the woman, who was a first-cla.s.s sn.o.b and very patronising in her manner. She obviously fancied herself the next Mrs Byron Whitmore -no doubt she was already auditioning for the part since Byron had stayed overnight at her unit a couple of times already -but Ava knew that i f such a marriage ever took place she would move out of Belleview.

Where she would go, she had no idea. She had no real money of her own until she married, Byron having control of her sizeable inheritance till that unlikely event occurred. Meanwhile, all she had was a very modest allowance, though Byron's daughter, Jade, had given her all her mothers jewellery to do with as she liked. But it still sat, untouched, in the safe in the library. Ava didn't want anything to do with anything that had belonged to Irene.

'I knew you had some spirit somewhere, Ava,' Byron surprised her by complimenting. 'You are my sister, after all. So Melanie thinks I've changed, does she? That's the pot calling the kettle black, don't you think? I'm still getting over our prim and proper ex-housekeeper being a closet vamp and ensnaring one of the most famous sportsmen in the world! Next thing I'll find out you've been having an affair with the chauffeur on the sly!'

'We don't have a chauffeur!' Ava retorted. 'Though maybe it would be a good idea if we did. Then you wouldn't have to stay over at ladies' places simply because you've had a few drinks, and I'd have someone to run me around doing all the ch.o.r.es I have to do these days!'

Ava's heart beat faster at such a thought. It had been one of her recurring romantic fantasies over the years, being a beautiful heiress who hired a gorgeous young Italian to be her chauffeur, then fell in love with him. Italians figured largely in all of Ava's fantasies. She found their darkly brooding looks and macho att.i.tude to women very exciting.

Of course nothing too s.e.xy or sordid ever happened in her fantasies. Being a virgin and terribly shy with the opposite s.e.x, Ava had never got beyond picturing herself hugging or kissing a man. Was this perhaps because she could never imagine herself taking her clothes off in front of one? Or his finding pleasure in her short, top-heavy, roly-poly figure?

'Over my dead body!' Byron p.r.o.nounced quite testily, his amus.e.m.e.nt fading as quickly as it had come. 'A lot of chauffeurs are sleazy gigolo types on the make. I wouldn't let you within a hundred miles of the sort of good-looking but unscrupulous young creep who usually applies for such a position!'

'As if any good-looking young man would look at me twice,' Av a muttered. 'I'm no Celeste Campbell.'

Ava could have bitten her tongue out for having mentioned that dreaded name. Byron's eyes darkened, a muscle twitching along his jawline as he battled to control his temper. There'd been a short time, after the attempted robbery at the ball a couple of months ago, when he had spoken of his scandalous sister-in- law with a certain reluctant admiration. Her defence of herself that night, using her undoubted skills as a martial arts expert, had clearly impressed him. Or maybe, since she'd just bought back the Heart of Fire -the opal that was rumoured to have somehow ca used the original feud between the Whitmores and the Campbells - he'd deci ded to try to let bygones be bygones.

But such was not to be. Celeste had come to the hospital to visit Melanie, who'd accidentally been shot during the drama, with her new chauffeur in tow. It had quickly become clear to all Melanie's other visitors-which included both Byron and Ava -that the handsome youn g man was the latest toy-boy lover of the glamorous head of Campbell Jewels. Any hope of reconciliation had been dashed with Byron raving all the way home that the woman was a disgrace to her s.e.x.

'A woman like Celeste can look after herself,' he bit out now. 'Whereas an innocent like you, my dear, would be easy meat to the type of conscienceless young stud she eats for breakfast. There will be no chauffeur her e at Belleview. Please do not bring the subject up again!'

I wouldn't dream of it.'

Byron's expression softened at her suddenly depressed tone. 'Poor Ava. . .I'm a beast to you sometimes. I don't mean to be, love. I really don't. You do know I always have your best interests at heart, don't you?' He slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side. 'Am I forgiven for snapping at * you?'

Ava felt tears p.r.i.c.king at her eyes. 'Yes,' she mumbled.

Then I must go. I'm supposed to be at Catherine's by eight. By the way, don't worry about breakfast for me tomorrow. I'll - er - drive straight to work from there in the morning. You'll be all right on your own, won't you?'

'Of course,' she said stiffly. 'I'm a grown woman, Byron. Why wouldn't I be all right?'His small smile suggested that, while she was a grown woman in years, she wasn't at all in experience.

'In that case I'll be off now. Everything's locked up downstairs. I double checked. See you-tomorrow evening.'

Ava just managed to smother another exasperated retort. Double checked the doors. Truly! 'Goodnight, Byron,' she said with crisp politeness. 'I hope you have a good time.'

'I will.'

Ava's mouth set into a mutinous pout as she watched Byron stride off down the hall. I'll just bet you will, she thought crossly. Everyone in this family's having a good time lately but me. You're having an affair with the coolly beautiful Catherine. Melanie's settled in an English mansion with her dashing racing driver husband. Jade's married her billionaire boyfriend and Nathan -G.o.d bless his black heart! -seems to have m anaged so far to hide his true self from his gloriously innocent child-bride.

Ava's irritation sustained her till Byron disappeared down the stairs and she was faced with the unpalatable thought of actually staying home alone all night in this big barn of a house. The prospect did make her a little nervous, but to have admitted as much would have only confirmed her brother's opinion that she was still a child in a woman's body.

The front door banging confirmed that she was indeed alone, a shiver of nerves running through her. This only irritated her further. Good lord, what did she think could possibly happen? If some mad rapist broke in, he would take one look at her and run for his life!

With a scoffing laugh, Ava whirled and strode back into her empty studio, where she swooped up the palette from the floor and banged it down on the side- table beside the easel. Crossing her arms, she studied the watercolour she'd been working on, finding no satisfaction in the half-finished landscape. Something wasn't right. The balance of shape, or the colours she'd chosen. Or perhaps it was the subject-matter. She'd tried to paint that particular scene many times.

Her dissatisfaction with it grew and soon she was reefing it off the easel and almost throwing it against the far wall with all the other unfinished paintings. Naturally they were turned away so that she didn't have to look at them.

Ava flopped down on her old sofa, punching the cushions with frustration. Dammit! Why can't I ever be a success at anything? I really thought I could handle the running of the house. I really thought I could. . .

Ava's mental haranguing was terminated abruptly by the sound of a door banging somewhere. Her blue eyes flung wide, her heart jumping into her mouth. Had Byron come back for something? Was there a window open, perhaps? Or was she about to be murdered in her bedroom?

'Auntie Ava!' a female voice sang out. 'Where are you? It's only me. Jade!'

The blood hardly had time to flow back into Ava's face before her exuberant niece popped her highly arresting head into the studio. 'Ah, there you are!' she grinned, dark blue eyes sparkling beneath a shock of spiked white-blonde hair, huge golden hoops hanging from her ears.

Jade's grin faded to a puzzled expression as she pushed the door right open and stood there, frowning over at her aunt. 'You do realise your television set isn't on. Auntie, don't you?'

Ava got to her feet with a weary sigh. Jade had that effect on her sometimes, the girl's vibrant energy making her feel old, though she was grateful for the company. 'I was just resting,' she said.

'Aren't you feeling well?' Jade asked worriedly.

'I'm quite well. I'd be even better, however, if your father was a bit easier to please.'

'I know just what you mean. Auntie. I do feel sorry for you. What you need is to find yourself a husband like I did and get out of here.'

Ava had to laugh. Her , find a husband ? 'I'm sure Kyle wouldn't like to think you married him just to move out of home.'

A naughty smile pulled at Jade's generous mouth. 'Oh, I don't think he thinks that.' She patted her gently rounding stomach. 'I married him for other reasons.'

Ava did her best to ignore the unexpected stab of pain and envy in her heart.

'Come and talk to me, Auntie,' Jade went on blithely, 'while I have a look to see if any of the clothes I left behind will fit a mum-to-be.'

They trundled along the hall into Jade's room, where Ava sat on the side of the bed while Jade began rummaging in wardrobes and drawers.

'So how's the housekeeping going?' she asked, folding a huge T-shirt and placing it on a chair. 'You managing OK?'

'Fair enough, but I doubt your father would agree. Of course I can't cook anything too complicated yet so we have a cook come in every night. I make breakfast, though, and I do most of the general housework, though a lady comes in on Mondays and Fridays to do the ironing and the heavy cleaning.'

'I'm impressed, Auntie. After all, you've never been all that domesticated, have you? Not that I'm much better. I have trouble boiling water.'

'Don't exaggerate, Jade. You're a very smart girl. Your father is very proud of you and the way you've turned around Whitmore's. He says you're a born marketing person.'

'Pops said that? Goodness, then I must be good, mustn't I?'

'There are many meanings of the word "good".'

Jade looked over at her po-faced aunt and laughed. 'You're a card, Auntie.' She pulled a very s.e.xy black bra out of a drawer and held it up. 'Hmmm, perhaps I should take this home. I might need to start wearing a bra soon.' She tossed it on to the growing pile on the chair. 'So tell me, what's my dear father been up to that's bugging you besides picking on everything you do or don't do?'

'He's having an affair, for one thing. With that , Catherine person he's been seeing.'

Jade shrugged. 'You can't blame him for that. He's still a relatively young man. What is it about her that you disapprove of so much?'

'She's a sn.o.b.'

Jade laughed. 'So's he.'

'Yes, but not the same sort of sn.o.b. Byron has cla.s.s, and. . .and. . .standards.'

'Goodness, I must meet this Catherine. And soon! I think I have the right venue too. Kyle and I want to give Pops a party for his fiftieth birthday. It's next week, you know?'

Ava was stricken with guilt. 'Lord, I forgot!' Her groan was full of self-disgust. 'I forget everything. First, I forgot to buy the toilet paper last week, then I didn't give Byron an important telephone message, and then I forgot to collect his favourite suit from the dry cleaners. That's not all, either. Yesterday I went out shopping, forgetting that the lawn-mowing man was due. Naturally, he wasn't able to get in the locked gates and wasted a lot of time waiting around for nothing. He rang up later and was so rude I told him not to come again. Of course I haven't told Byron this last bit yet. I haven't dared. G.o.d, no wonder he thinks I'm hopeless,' she finished wretchedly.

'Poppyc.o.c.k!' Jade refuted. 'You're not at all hopeless. Everyone forgets things sometimes, especially when one is new at a job. What you need, Auntie Ava, is to have a little more faith in yourself!'

A little more faith in myself? Ava sighed. When had she ever had that? Had there ever been a time when she'd viewed the future with confidence, when she'd been br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with exuberance and optimism, when she hadn't taken the line of least resistance?

Not that she could recall.

Why was that? she wondered. She'd been a pretty child, with big baby-blue eyes and bouncing soft brown curls, and not unintelligent. She'd been able to read by the age of three. People had commented on how bright she was. Good at games, too. Goodness, she'd been able to swim like a fish as soon as she could walk. Now, hardly a day went by without her tripping over something. As for swimming. . .her body hadn't seen a swimming costume in years!

She should have turned out so very different from the unprepossessing, overweight, accident-p.r.o.ne, timid creature that she was these days. Where had it all gone wrong?

The reason you think you're hopeless,' Jade resumed, almost as though she had read her aunt's mind, 'is because my darling mother told you so every single day of her life, as she did me. She didn't get the desired result with me because I'm a chip off the old block, so to speak, but you're a real softie, and she hurt you much more than me with her horrid put- downs. But she's gone now, Auntie. She can't hurt you any more. As for Pops. . .he's all bark and no bite. Just ignore him. Look, I have to get a plastic bag to put these in. I won't be long.'

Jade strode confidently from the room, Ava happy to have a few moments to herself. What a whirlwind that girl was. But so smart, and so sure of herself. Ava did so admire the way she'd always stood up for herself, even if some of her antics as a teenager had been hair- . raising. Ava never had the nerve or the courage to be that kind of rebel. Either that or she'd had it knocked out of her very young.

She sighed over the circ.u.mstances that had placed her at the age of seven in hands other than her own loving parents. Her father had died of cancer when she'd been five, her mother shortly afterwards of a heart attack, leaving her to be raised by her older brother, Byron, unfortunately at a time when the family company had been facing financial ruin and he'd been working twenty-hour days. Two years later, he had married Irene Campbell.

It had been rumoured right from the start that .Byron had hoped the marriage would merge Campbell Jewels and Whitmore Opals -the reby rescuing Whitmore Opals -but somehow he'd got his wires cros sed. Stewart Campbell had left everything, including total control of Campbell's, to his second wife, Adele, who had apparently detested Irene, and was quick to cut her out of the estate in favour of her own children, Celeste and Damian.

Fortunately for the family's fortunes, Whitmore's had rallied -this was during the years before Celeste took control of Campbell's and resurrected the old feud -and in the end it hadn't mattered tha t Irene Campbell had brought nothing to the marriage but her own sweet self.

Ava's top lip curled up at this description of Irene. Only with Byron had Irene ever been sweet, and even then the word was inadequate. Irene had loved Byron with a love that was sickeningly obsessive. He was her prince, her G.o.d, her reason for living. In his presence, she'd been a totally different creature from the one who inhabited Belleview when he wasn't there. In his absence, she'd given new meaning to the word 'sour'.

Yes, Jade was right, Ava conceded. The deterioration t>f her self-esteem could be laid directly at Irene Campbell's feet. How insidious that woman had been, with her subtle but relentless sarcasm. Criticisms were delivered with a dry laugh, or a saccharine smile, but the effect had been the same. One was left feeling a failure. While Jade had fought back, she'd shrivelled up like a hothouse flower, turning to food for comfort, :hen retreating into her fantasy world. Worst of all, she had allowed Irene to convince Byron that his sister was a homely little nincomp.o.o.p who couldn't possibly attract a member of the opposite s.e.x, so of course any chap who showed an interest in her had to be a gold- digger!