Stranded with the Tycoon (Mills & Boon Cherish)

by Pembroke, Sophie

  ‘Hello?’

  Maybe she would answer after all.

  ‘Hey. Merry Christmas. You okay?’

  ‘Happy Christmas to you, too.’ There was a rustle of fabric on the other end of the phone. Was she in bed? ‘I’m okay. Tired.’

  ‘How did dinner go?’ That was what you did, wasn’t it? When you wanted someone to stay in your life even if just as a friend? You asked about stupid things you didn’t care about.

  ‘You can’t tell me that you’re suddenly interested in my family gatherings after all the time you’ve spent maligning them this week.’

  Luce’s voice was amused, but Ben could hear a sharper edge under it. He’d hurt her, even though he’d tried so hard not to.

  ‘No, not really.’ Ben sighed. ‘I just don’t understand why it was so much more important to you than...everything else.’

  ‘Because you never asked,’ Luce responded promptly.

  She had a point. Unfortunately, he’d found, she usually did. ‘Okay, then, I’m asking. What was so important about this dinner?’

  ‘Hang on,’ she said.

  Ben heard the click of her phone being put down somewhere. There was more rustling, then she picked up the phone again.

  ‘Were you just getting undressed?’ Ben asked, the image waking up his exhausted body instantly.

  Luce gave a low laugh. ‘It’s gone midnight and I am more than ready to be out of this dress. Besides, if we’re going to have this conversation I want to be comfortable while we’re doing it.’

  ‘What conversation?’ The word made Ben nervous. He usually tried to avoid being in any situation with a woman that required him to have a serious conversation.

  ‘The one about my family and why you’re so offended by my taking care of them. And don’t think I didn’t notice that we managed to not have this conversation at any point where we couldn’t just hang up on each other.’

  ‘Well, we were a little preoccupied at certain points.’

  ‘Ben?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘We are not having phone sex.’

  Damn. ‘I know that. So—go on. Tell me about this dinner.’

  Luce sighed. ‘It wasn’t just a dinner. It was for my brother Tom. He’s had a rough time of it the last few years. Longer, really. But when his marriage broke down a couple of years ago he totally fell apart. And because he was in such a state my mother was beside herself, too. It was just when Dolly was applying to drama schools and, well...’

  ‘You got stuck trying to hold everyone together?’

  ‘Yeah. Anyway, this was the first time since then that Tom’s met someone he’s wanted to introduce us to. First time he’s seemed interested in anything, let alone anyone, since Hattie left him.’

  ‘And you didn’t want to risk it not happening?’

  ‘I just... It was a big deal for my family. And he’ll be with her tomorrow. This was our only chance to be all together.’

  ‘I get that.’ Ben thought about Luce, alone in that big house, trying to make her family happy so that she could finally relax enough to find some happiness herself. ‘I guess I just don’t get why they’re all your responsibility.’

  ‘Who else would look after them?’

  It was a throwaway comment, Ben knew. Self-deprecating, accepting the inevitable. But could he hear a real question under it? Was she ready to cast off some responsibility?

  ‘Maybe it’s time they learned to look after themselves.’

  ‘Maybe.’ She didn’t sound entirely convinced, but it was a start. ‘Did you make your meeting with your brother in the end?’

  ‘I did.’ It was the reason he’d called, actually. ‘He has some new ideas for the business. A new role he wants me to take on.’

  ‘Sounds interesting.’

  ‘It is.’

  ‘You don’t sound sure.’

  ‘It’s a lot to take on.’

  ‘A big responsibility.’ To her credit, she didn’t mock him for that. ‘Tell me about it.’

  How to explain? ‘Well, you have to understand when my dad ran the business it was all about turnover. He bought up a hotel, made it a functional and decent place for businessmen, then moved on to the next one. Over time they became higher and higher end, with more amenities and luxurious surroundings, but the basis was the same. It was somewhere to work.’

  ‘And that’s where you grew up?’ Luce said, surprising him with the sympathy in her voice. ‘That must have been—’

  ‘It was fine,’ Ben interrupted. ‘I got to travel the country before I was ten and the world before I was twenty. Not many kids had that chance.’

  ‘No, but most kids had a home instead of a hotel.’

  She sounded as if she wanted to ask more questions, and Ben really wasn’t in the mood to be psychoanalysed, so he moved on quickly.

  ‘Anyway, Seb wants to change the model. He wants us to look at adding more boutique hotels to our chain. Maybe even some family-friendly ones.’

  ‘That sounds great. He wants you to run this?’

  She sounded surprised, but Ben was too tired to be offended. ‘Starting with the Royal Court in Chester.’ Ben closed his eyes, remembering Seb saying, ‘Just because you’re good at doing what Dad did, it doesn’t mean it’s what you have to do. It doesn’t always have to be about the quick fix and moving on. I think you’ll enjoy the challenge of long-term development more.’

  Was he right? Ben supposed he’d find out soon enough.

  ‘So you’re heading back to Chester?’ Luce asked.

  ‘Not yet. Got to visit some of our hotels on the continent first. But I should be able to get there in a few weeks.’

  ‘So you’ll be away a while?’

  ‘About a month.’ Normally the idea of getting away, of waking up in a different city every few days, would be appealing. Especially after an interlude with a woman who was getting too close for comfort. But today...it seemed too long.

  There was a lengthy pause, and Ben cast around for something else to say to keep her on the phone. It had been so much easier when they were in the cottage, shut away from the rest of the world. Where he’d had her all to himself without having to share her.

  ‘Should I...?’ He took a deep breath and started again. ‘Can I call you when I get back?’

  Luce’s voice was soft as she replied, ‘Yes, please.’

  * * *

  Luce was surprised, in a way, at how easily she slipped back into her old life. Her pre-Ben life. There was no reason to be, she supposed. After all, she’d lived without Ben in her life for a lot longer than when he’d been there. But still, those few days at the cottage had been transformative, somehow. She wasn’t the same person she’d been before she went. Even if it wasn’t obvious in her everyday life.

  ‘What are these files?’ Dolly asked, poking at a stack of folders on the dining room table a few weeks later, when she came over to indulge in Luce’s tea—and her biscuit tin.

  Luce glanced over. ‘Just some stuff Dennis wants me to sort through for him.’

  Dolly raised her eyebrows. ‘And this is more important than your own work because...?’

  ‘It isn’t.’ Luce swept the files into a box on the nearby dining chair. ‘That’s why I haven’t done them yet.’ Besides, Dennis was still sulking about her missing the lecture in Chester. Given the way she’d snapped at him when he whined, he probably wouldn’t be asking her to do anything else for him any time soon.

  ‘Good.’ Dolly settled herself onto one of the other chairs, tipping it back to rest against the wall behind her. ‘You’ve changed, you know. In a good way,’ she added hurriedly. ‘But you definitely seem different since you went away last month.’

  Luce stopped tidying. ‘Do I?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Dolly slan
ted her head to the side and looked her up and down for long enough to make Luce blush. ‘Maybe more self-assured, I guess. Which is good.’

  ‘More self-aware, I think.’ Luce bit her lip as she considered her sister.

  She needed to tell someone her news, and Ben was still away. She’d thought about calling a few times, always late at night when she was tucked up in bed, but she couldn’t tell him this over the phone. It wasn’t fair. But Dolly... She seemed more of an ally than she ever had before lately. She’d always been the baby, the one who needed the most looking after, but recently she’d been more of a friend than an obligation. Someone who cared about Luce rather than just needing things from her. She could tell Dolly.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Dolly let her chair tip onto four legs again, leaning forward to rest her wrists on her knees. ‘Come on—tell me. It’s obviously something big. You’re actually blushing.’

  Luce’s face grew immediately hotter in response. ‘Okay. But you can’t tell Mum. Or Tom. Or anybody just yet.’

  Dolly’s eyes widened. ‘Now I’m really intrigued.’

  Gripping the edge of the table, Luce summoned her courage and said it out loud for the first time. ‘I’m pregnant.’

  For a long moment Dolly just stared at her in silence. Then she clapped her hand over her mouth, not quite muffling the squeak that came out.

  Luce sank into a chair. ‘I know. I know. It’s absurd.’

  ‘It’s wonderful!’ Jumping up, Dolly wrapped her arms around her, and Luce relaxed into the hug. ‘I’m going to be an aunt!’

  ‘You are,’ Luce said firmly. She’d considered the other options—of course she had. But this was her baby—hers and Ben’s—and it might be her only chance. She was financially capable of looking after it, she had her family around her...

  ‘God, how the hell are you going to baby-proof this place?’ Dolly asked, looking around.

  ...and she lived in a death trap.

  ‘That’s on my list of things to figure out,’ Luce said. ‘To be honest, given the length of the list, it might take me a while to get around to it.’

  Dolly perched on the table beside her, looking down through her long dark hair. ‘Okay, I’m not asking the obvious question, because I figure you’ll tell me when it’s right. But just promise me it’s not Dennis’s.’

  Luce laughed. ‘Trust me. The father is about as far from Dennis as you can imagine.’

  ‘In that case, I really want to meet him,’ Dolly said. ‘I take it it’s the old university friend, then? The one you got snowed in with?’

  Luce nodded. ‘That’s him.’

  ‘Funny...I didn’t even know you were still in touch with any of your friends from then.’

  ‘You mean, you didn’t know I had any in the first place.’ She hadn’t, really. Mandy had been her housemate, but had only been friendly when it suited her.

  ‘That, too.’

  ‘We weren’t...close then.’ Understatement of the year.

  Dolly nudged her with her shoulder. ‘You obviously are now. Have you told him?’

  God, how had things changed so that Dolly was the one asking sensible questions? Luce had imagined this conversation the other way round all through Dolly’s teenage years. ‘Not yet. He’s away on business. I don’t want to tell him over the phone.’

  ‘Fair enough. How do you think he’ll react?’

  Luce thought of Ben recounting his life rules over dinner in Chester, his explanation of the one-night rule, and said, ‘Badly.’

  Really, who wouldn’t? Yes, he’d asked if he could call her when he got back from his business trip, but that wasn’t the same as having a lifetime tie to another person and the responsibility of a baby thrust upon him. Of course he was going to react badly. It was what he did next, once he’d calmed down, that mattered. How would he try to fix her life this time? Because if his answer was to throw money at the problem, rather than time or love, she was done with Ben Hampton.

  ‘Then he’s an idiot. Clearly having you in his life would be the best thing to ever happen to him.’

  Luce looked up, astonished. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘And, anyway, it doesn’t matter what he says. Auntie Dolly will be here to make things brilliant every step of the way.’

  To her surprise, Luce found that made her feel a whole lot better.

  * * *

  Ben stared up at the building of the Royal Court Hotel, the February wind whipping down the cobbled streets and through his coat. How the hell was he going to look at this place objectively, think about changing anything, without thinking about Luce? Hell, she was all he’d thought of for over a month. In every Hampton & Sons hotel he’d visited there’d been something to remind him of her. A bedspread or a cushion in the same soft fabric she loved. A gin and tonic at the bar. Shining dark hair glimpsed across a room. She was haunting him, and he couldn’t even figure out why. Was it because he’d left her as broken as he’d found her? Maybe more so? Or was it as simple as a bruised ego? He’d offered to break his rules for her and she’d turned him down.

  He’d considered finding someone else—someone to prove the validity of his one-night rule—but none of the women he’d met seemed to appeal. Nothing did. Not the New Year’s Eve party he’d found himself at in New York, nor the cutting-edge restaurant in Sydney. And as the jobs dragged on and delays crept in all he wanted was to be back in his cottage. With Luce.

  He’d even thought about calling, asking her to join him, but he couldn’t bear to hear her say that she couldn’t leave her family, her job, whatever else it was that mattered more than he did.

  The woman might think she wanted to settle down, find true love, but until she cut those ties—or at least slackened them a little—no man stood a chance.

  Besides, it wasn’t as if he was looking to settle down anyway. His job—his life—still involved travelling the world, getting out there, and what woman would put up with that long-term?

  She could come with me. Write on the road... Except she wouldn’t. And so he wouldn’t ask. Even if the thought of waking up next to Luce Myles every morning was incredibly tempting.

  Shivering, Ben pushed open the door at last, and memories made him grit his teeth at the sight of the lobby. The desk where he’d first seen her. The bar where he’d stolen her diary. And, upstairs, the suite where she’d taken that long, long bath. God, knowing what he knew now, he wished he’d just walked in on her then. All that time wasted...hours and hours when he could have had her in his arms and hadn’t.

  And even more of them ahead.

  ‘Mr Hampton!’

  The blonde behind the reception desk beamed at him and Ben tried desperately to remember her name.

  ‘It’s so wonderful to have you back so soon.’

  Which meant that the entire hotel staff were panicking about why he needed a repeat visit, and wondering if it was a sign that their jobs were in danger. Great. ‘It’s lovely to be back...’

  ‘Daisy.’

  ‘Daisy. Right.’ Ben rubbed a hand over his aching forehead. ‘Sorry—long flight.’

  A look of carefully schooled concern settled onto her face. ‘Why don’t we get you checked in, then, sir? I’ve put aside the King James Suite for you again, if that’s okay?’

  ‘Wonderful,’ Ben said, taking the key. Not a chance in hell of getting any sleep there without Luce beside him. Great.

  Even the walk to the lift was full of memories. Ben distracted himself by watching the other guests instead, trying to observe them in a professional manner, figure out their wants and needs and how the hotel could meet them.

  The businessmen by the bar were easy; Ben’s father had known exactly what they needed. A comfortable room, with a desk or table to work at, all-night concierge and room service, meeting rooms and wireless internet access, a busin
ess centre with photocopiers and fax machines, and admin assistants they could hire by the hour. A well-stocked bar and well-served restaurant. All done. The Royal Court had them covered. Of course so did every other business hotel in every city.

  But what about the couple canoodling by the pot plant? What did they want?

  Well, if they were anything like him and Luce...privacy, a sturdy bed, champagne in the mini-bar, a big, deep bath. Maybe a romantic restaurant for dinner, breakfast from room service. Nothing unusual. And, honestly, the couple by the plant were so wrapped up in each other that it didn’t look as if it mattered where they were, as long as they had each other.

  Which just left him wondering why he and Luce had never managed that. Which was depressing. Time to move on.

  But the family waiting by the lift, with two huge suitcases and a small boy with an oversized rucksack... They didn’t look happy.

  The father was in a suit, tie knotted tightly, jacket still on, briefcase in hand. This wasn’t a man who’d left work and gone straight on holiday with his family. This was a man who was still working. And, from the frown creasing his wife’s forehead, she wasn’t too happy about it. The boy just looked miserable.

  Ben knew that look. That was the another day, another hotel look. The will I get to see my dad between meetings? look. The did I bring enough books to read? look. That boy knew his family weekend was going to be spent watching his parents arguing, then his mother putting on a brave face while his father disappeared to yet more meetings.

  Ben had been that boy. And Ben knew what would happen when the mother couldn’t take any more.

  He couldn’t change another family’s future—couldn’t explain to every father dragging his wife and kids to business hotel after business hotel instead of actually taking a holiday what could happen and how it felt. But maybe he could make it a little more fun for the families waiting for their husbands, wives, mothers or fathers to finish their meetings.