Taggart's Woman

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘Heather and I were just on our way out to lunch,’ Lionel supplied lightly.

  ‘And I was just on my way to invite you to join me for lunch,’ Stella pouted her disappointment.

  ‘No problem,’ drawled Daniel, speaking for the first time since he had stepped out of the lift, his flinty gaze fixed on Heather. ‘Why don’t you join Lionel, Stella? Heather and I have a few things to discuss anyway.’

  Heather gave him a wary look, not liking his tone of voice at all. And then she remembered her own anger towards him, her eyes sparkling with challenge. ‘Yes, the two of you go ahead,’ she invited. ‘Daniel and I have several things to—talk over.’

  Grey eyes narrowed at her own significant pause, Daniel’s fingers were steely on her arm as he guided her to his office, nodding tersely to Gloria as he waited impatiently for Heather to precede him into the room.

  She couldn’t remember ever having been in Daniel’s office before, but the large furniture and austere decor were exactly what she would have expected of him; it matched his personality, dark and unrevealing.

  She faced him boldly as he sat behind the wide mahogany desk, not at all intimidated by the coldness in his eyes. ‘Are you sure you have the time now for this discussion?’ she scorned angrily. ‘I thought you were supposed to be very busy today.’

  ‘Did you?’ he returned softly.

  ‘Yes,’ she snapped, her eyes flashing a warning.

  He shrugged. ‘Even I have to eat, and this happens to be my lunch break.’

  ‘I suppose I should be flattered that you want to waste any of it on me!’ Her eyes glittered.

  Daniel’s expression darkened. ‘I don’t know what the hell’s got into you today—’

  ‘Don’t you?’ she challenged brittly, sitting opposite him now. ‘Perhaps the name Ronaldway will jog your memory!’

  Grey eyes narrowed, flickering to the nakedness of her left hand. ‘If you didn’t like the rings he showed you this morning I’m sure he has others. I thought you would like the diamonds, but if there’s some other stone that you prefer—’

  ‘I’d prefer it if we chose the ring together, not have you telephone your orders through as if you were ordering room service!’ Heather’s cheeks were flushed with anger, and she was breathing deeply in her agitation.

  ‘Not at all,’ Daniel drawled. ‘I’m very particular about the food I eat!’

  Heather stood up, shaking with the force of her anger. ‘You arrogant son-of-a—’

  ‘My mother wasn’t a bitch.’ Daniel had stood up to move around his desk, catching her wrist as she would have struck him, his eyes glittering dangerously. ‘She was a little stupid, more than a little naïve, but pleasant none the less. Now, if you had called me a bastard it would have been a different matter,’ he rasped. ‘Because that’s indisputably what I am. “Father unknown”, I believe it says on my birth certificate!’

  Her anger left her as suddenly as it had flared up, sure he knew exactly what it said on his birth certificate. They had so much in common, she and this man who hid the pain of his fatherless background behind a veneer of coldness. Oh, she had known who her father was, she had been told by her mother of his death in a car accident when Heather was only five years old. But both of them had grown up without a father’s love.

  ‘Don’t pity me!’ Daniel thrust her away from him as he correctly read the compassion on her face. ‘As you can see, I’ve done very well without knowing my father!’

  He had done well to spite his father—whoever he was. She could see it in his face now, his wealth a challenge to the man who hadn’t cared enough to be his father. It was as if he were saying, ‘Am I good enough for you to know now?’

  ‘You’re a clever man, Daniel,’ she admitted softly. ‘But not clever enough,’ she added boldly, ‘to know that I would rather not wear your ring at all than have you send over a batch for me to choose from as if it were a new dress, or something equally as unimportant!’

  ‘It’s only a ring, Heather, a symbol of ownership, not love,’ he dismissed scathingly.

  But it was so much more than that to her! Oh, what was the use? Daniel didn’t love her, he would never understand how important wearing his ring had seemed to her.

  ‘Then maybe we shouldn’t bother with—’

  ‘The marriage?’ he finished erroneously. ‘Did your lover persuade you to continue to fight the will, after all?’ he scorned.

  Her cheeks were flushed, his fingers biting into her wrist where he still held her. ‘I was going to say, not bother with an engagement ring,’ she corrected impatiently. ‘It seems to mean so little to you, it hardly seems worth the effort. What lover?’ She frowned.

  ‘Wingate!’ he dismissed harshly. ‘I think I should tell you here and now that, although this airline may be half yours, I do not appreciate your intervention in management decisions concerning members of the staff—even if you’re sleeping with the member of staff in question. Especially if you’re sleeping with the member of staff in question!’ he added grimly.

  Heather’s eyes were dark purple in her pale face. ‘You’re talking about Phillip?’ she prompted incredulously.

  ‘Of course I’m “talking about Phillip”,’ he mimicked cruelly, thrusting her disgustedly away from him. ‘Last night, you and Lionel decided to move Wingate up to Manchester for a while so that he could get over his disappointment at not being chosen as your groom,’ he scorned. ‘After sharing your bed with him for the night, and when Lionel had already begun to put the proposal in action, you called him and told him you don’t think it’s necessary after all!’ His eyes glittered.

  ‘That isn’t the way it happened—’

  ‘Did you see Wingate after I left you last night?’ Daniel cut in harshly.

  The colour came—and then went, in her cheeks. ‘Well—yes. He did come to see me. But not—’

  ‘And he persuaded you to give him a reprieve about Manchester,’ Daniel accused disgustedly. ‘Is that all it takes to get your compliance, a night in your bed?’ His flinty gaze raked over her contemptuously.

  ‘You’re being unfair—’

  ‘I’m warning the woman who’s about to become my wife that you’d better be damned sure you know what you’re doing when you go through with the wedding next month,’ he told her harshly. ‘Because once you are my wife, only death will free you!’

  ‘Daniel!’ she groaned weakly, a shiver of apprehension running down her spine.

  ‘Oh, get out of here!’ He moved away from her with disgust. ‘Enjoy your pretty lover in your bed for the next four weeks. But make damn sure I never find him in our bed after that time. I’d break his damned neck for him!’

  Heather looked at his bent head as he sat down to study some papers on the top of his desk, sure that he meant every word that he said. He was capable of physical violence if the occasion warranted it.

  When she had telephoned her uncle this morning she had had no way of knowing he had already discussed the move to Manchester for Phillip with Daniel, although she realised now that as one of the airline’s top executives Phillip couldn’t be sent to the other office without clearing it with Daniel first. She should have known that, and the construction Daniel would put on her request that they forget about the idea. But at the time, she had just thought she was helping a friend, not stirring up this hornets’ nest. And she didn’t know what she could say to undo the damage she had already done, except to tell Daniel that Phillip wasn’t her lover, and he had already made it obvious he wasn’t going to believe that.

  Glacial grey eyes raked into her as Daniel suddenly looked up. ‘Still here?’ he taunted, sitting back in his plush leather chair. ‘I thought you would have hurried off by now to make the most of the time you have left to spend with your lover!’

  She drew in an angry breath. ‘I’m not even going to try and justify myself to you just now,’ she snapped. ‘You obviously—’

  ‘That’s good,’ he drawled before she could finish speaking. ‘I
doubt that you could, anyway,’ he added derisively.

  ‘Oh, I can, believe me.’ She trembled as she thought of the shock he was going to receive on their wedding night. ‘But, right now, I don’t intend to.’

  ‘Of course not,’ he mocked.

  Her eyes flashed. ‘You don’t think I can, do you?’

  He shrugged. ‘What does it matter what I think?’ he dismissed. ‘You have yourself a bridegroom, the wedding takes place in four weeks, and for two months after that we try to remain faithful to each other. What else do I need to know?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she bit out; he made it sound as if she had bought herself a bridegroom. He benefited as much as she did by this marriage, more if you considered that she was also gaining a husband she loved but who didn’t love her!

  ‘I’ll see you in church on the twenty-fifth,’ he nodded abruptly.

  Heather turned and left, her head held high. She wasn’t as easily dismissed as he thought, and he would soon learn that!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘—NOW speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.’ The vicar paused only briefly, and yet Heather felt herself tense, her breath held expectantly.

  The last four weeks had been busy, so many things to organise, not least of them being the sale of the old house and the acquisition of the new one, that the time had sped by so fast Heather hadn’t had time to know what day it was, let alone dwell on the consequences of what she was doing marrying Daniel at all.

  But now she did, and she realised that there were at least three other people in the church, besides Daniel and herself, who knew that they were marrying each other for all the wrong reasons; Uncle Lionel and Stella, and her father’s—and now her own—lawyer.

  Why didn’t any of them speak up, she thought a little hysterically, denounce this marriage as a sham? Why didn’t she? This marriage was a travesty, an insult to the vows she and Daniel were about to make to each other. Someone should stop it! Why didn’t—

  She gave a nervous start of surprise as she felt Daniel’s fingers glide caressingly down her arm to become entwined with her own, soothing her, calming the hysteria in her more effectively than any words could have done.

  She blinked up at him, unaware of how pale she had suddenly become. The warmth in his eyes made her heart leap, beating faster as she became mesmerised by his powerful presence, reciting her vows huskily when the time came.

  She loved this man, would be a good wife to him, whether he wanted her to be or not. Oh, she knew he didn’t love her, but maybe he could learn, in time.

  They had been together a lot the last month. Daniel might not have wanted to see her again, until they stood side by side today, when she had left his office all those weeks ago, but once their engagement became public knowledge they had received numerous invitations, and Daniel had been forced to accompany her to at least some of them. He was still the same man that mocked her and all her friends but, over the weeks, they had at least learnt to relax a little in each other’s company.

  Until today! Today Heather had left her bed with the knowledge that before she returned to it she would be Daniel’s wife, that he would be sharing it with her, for at least part of the night. Their new house, the house they had finally chosen together, wouldn’t be ready to move into for another week, and so, as Daniel couldn’t get away just now, they were being forced to spend the next week in her father’s house. It was far from an ideal arrangement, but they could hardly move into a hotel when their house was in town.

  God, how she was dreading tonight! She would be making love with a stranger. She loved Daniel—was sure, after loving him all this time, that she always would—but the limit of her experience with men could be written on a postage stamp, and Daniel was used to experience from his bed-partners. As the wedding—and consequently the wedding night—had loomed nearer, she had changed her mind about Daniel being surprised when he realised she was a virgin, and had instead decided he was more likely to be disappointed. She very much doubted he would relish the idea of initiating an innocent. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy to accomplish, but she was going to try and make sure he didn’t get an innocent!

  The formalities over, the register signed, in no time at all they were walking back down the aisle as husband and wife.

  Heather Taggart. She was now Mrs Daniel Taggart. She had loved him for so long, and so helplessly, that she had never dreamt this day would come. And for all the wrong reasons. But other marriages had started with less and been a success, her mother’s marriage to Max had been one of them. He might have disliked Heather, but she had never doubted his true affection for her mother, knew of the deep love he had had for her when he was devastated by her death. And if that marriage could survive against all the odds, maybe this one could, too!

  Daniel sat grimly beside her in the white limousine that had been hired especially for the occasion, as they were driven to the reception that was being held for them at one of London’s leading hotels.

  He had hated this wedding and all it stood for, Heather could see that from his expression, blinking back the threatening tears as she watched him brush confetti and rice from his hair with barely concealed impatience. And the dress she had chosen with such care, its Regency style and her loosely upswept hair suiting her perfectly, might have been a sack for all the notice he had taken of it, his expression being one of resignation rather than happiness as she walked down the aisle as his bride.

  ‘Never mind, Daniel,’ she bit out bitterly, drawing his attention from out of the window to her. ‘Only another few hours of this and you can consider your duty as my husband done!’

  ‘Really?’ He arched dark brows. ‘I thought I had one more duty to perform!’

  And he didn’t mean partnering her during the first dance at the reception! ‘If our wedding night is so distasteful to you—’

  ‘Oh, it isn’t,’ he said softly, suddenly very close, the length of his thigh resting against hers, burning through the chiffon of her dress. ‘We have yet to find out if you can arouse me!’

  ‘Daniel—’

  ‘Hm?’ he murmured distractedly, his mouth against the base of her throat. ‘I like your dress, by the way,’ he told her huskily, barely allowing her to feel warmed by the compliment before adding, ‘It allows me to see what I’m getting!’

  She gasped her indignation, moving as far away from him on the leather seat as she could, returning his amused gaze with a fierce glare. The Regency style was more popularly known for its high waist, but the neckline was cut quite low too, and the material was very sheer. She had chosen to wear tiny white roses in her hair instead of a veil, and so she didn’t even have that to pull defensively about her in the face of his insulting tone.

  Her mouth was set tightly. ‘Every other man at the wedding can see what you’re “getting”, too,’ she challenged snappily.

  Daniel relaxed back on his side of the seat. ‘Ah, but most of them have already had it!’ he drawled softly.

  Heather was left speechless at the insult. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he was her first lover!

  ‘But not like I’m going to,’ he added audaciously, his eyes flinty as his gaze swept over her from head to toe, leaving Heather in no doubt of his intent to know every inch of her. ‘We should make beautiful children together,’ he drawled derisively.

  Children! He wanted children? With her? ‘We’ve never talked about—having a family?’ Her eyes were wide at the thought of Daniel’s children.

  Something flickered in his eyes, the emotion unreadable. ‘Don’t you want children?’

  ‘It isn’t that—’

  ‘You don’t want my children,’ he grated incorrectly. ‘Well, resign yourself to the fact that they’re the only ones you will have; I’m having no cuckoo in my nest!’ His expression was grim.

  It was so close a description of what she had been that for a moment Heather was silent. Then the thought of children of her own warmed her, Daniel’s children. Oh
yes, she wanted them! ‘I’d like to give you children, Daniel,’ she told him huskily.

  His mouth twisted. ‘I’ll try to make it an enjoyable experience for you!’

  She sat back tiredly. She was constantly fighting a solid wall of contempt, and at this moment she was too exhausted to fight any more.

  She released her hand from his as quickly as possible once he had helped her out of the car, sweeping into the hotel slightly ahead of him to wait for their guests to begin arriving from the church. Everything went smoothly until Phillip arrived, his secretary his partner for the day.

  Heather hadn’t noticed him amongst the other guests at the church, had had eyes only for Daniel, and it was only now that she saw how grim Phillip looked. She glanced at Daniel as the other man approached them, angry at the derision in his expression.

  ‘Phillip,’ she greeted warmly to make up for Daniel’s lack of enthusiasm, placing both her hands in his. ‘How lovely to see you!’

  He kissed her, not on the cheek as the other guests had done, but lingeringly on the mouth. ‘I wish it could have been in different circumstances,’ he countered quietly.

  She hadn’t meant to encourage him with her warmth, only to show her pleasure that he had come at all! She could feel the displeasure emanating from Daniel.

  ‘Sorry,’ Daniel drawled insincerely. ‘But I’m the only husband Heather will ever have.’

  Phillip gave the other man a dismissive glance before turning back to Heather. ‘My offer still stands,’ he muttered before grasping his secretary’s arm and striding off towards the bar.

  ‘What offer?’ Daniel predictably grated at her side once the other man was out of earshot.

  She sighed. ‘He was only trying to antagonise you—as you were him!’

  ‘What offer, Heather?’ he repeated in a controlled voice, that very control dangerous.

  She gave another sigh. ‘Just that if I ever need a friend, he’s available.’

  ‘I’ll just bet he is,’ muttered Daniel, his arms about her as he nuzzled against her ear, looking for all the world as if he couldn’t keep his hands off her. And maybe he couldn’t, but from the anger emanating from him Heather had a feeling he would rather his hands were around her throat! ‘Pull another stunt like that,’ he warned harshly, ‘and I’ll book us into a room right here and make love to you!’ He gave a harsh laugh as she trembled. ‘And, as you’ve so rightly guessed, I would be far from gentle!’