Diamonds Are Forever: The Royal Marriage ArrangementThe Diamond BrideThe Diamond Dad

by Rebecca Winters

  ‘I mustn’t anything, Annie,’ he cut in gently. ‘You were hurting, and the best way to get rid of some of that hurt was to—’

  ‘Hit you!’ She groaned again, burying her face in her hands, crying in earnest now. Which was all she seemed to have done just recently!

  ‘Aw, Annie, don’t cry!’ Rufus moaned protestingly. ‘I can’t stand it when you cry. Especially over someone like Anthony.’ His voice had hardened. ‘Annie, stop it!’ he instructed harshly as he gathered her up into his arms.

  It was the first indication she had that he had stopped the car, and she raised her head to look around them dazedly, realising as she did so that Rufus had pulled the car over onto the hard shoulder and parked there. Something that was completely illegal, unless it was an emergency—

  ‘This is an emergency, Annie,’ he stated, and Annie realised she must have spoken the words out loud.

  Then, as his mouth came forcefully down on hers, she wasn’t thinking at all, only feeling.

  And was she feeling! She had never known anything like this searing pleasure she found in his arms, never felt this heat in her body, a need for more, for—

  ‘Are we there, Daddy?’

  It was as if Rufus and Annie had received an electric shock as they simultaneously registered the sleepy sound of Jessica’s voice from the back of the car. They moved quickly apart, Annie more flustered now than she had been a few minutes ago. Every time this man kissed her she responded unrestrainedly. She hardly knew herself!

  ‘Annie—’

  ‘Daddy, are we there?’ Jessica’s voice rose querulously as she received no response to her first question.

  Rufus gave Annie a look before turning in his seat to look at his daughter. ‘No, Jess, we aren’t there yet—’

  ‘Then why have we stopped?’ Jessica persisted, totally disorientated as she looked around her.

  Annie returned Rufus’s gaze helplessly as he looked back at her for assistance; they could hardly tell the little girl the truth!

  ‘Er—well—Annie had something in her eye!’ Rufus finally burst out awkwardly, giving Annie a censorious glare as she tried to hold back her laughter.

  Something in her eye, indeed. Mud, probably!

  She had allowed Rufus to kiss her again. Last night he had kissed her because he was angry. And she was upset. Today he had kissed her because he felt sorry for her. Because she was upset. The common factor to both incidents seemed to have been her tears. Then she would just have to make sure she didn’t cry again! In his presence, anyway …

  ‘Is it better now?’ Jessica, thankfully, was still sleepy.

  Rufus gave Annie a mocking glance. ‘Is it better now?’ he teased softly. ‘Did I kiss it better?’

  She gave him a frowning look before turning to Jessica. ‘I’m much better now, thank you. So much better, in fact—’

  ‘Oh, hell!’ Rufus muttered with feeling, watching the driving mirror in front of him.

  Annie looked at him in alarm. ‘What is it?’ she prompted in a puzzled voice. ‘Rufus?’

  He shook his head. ‘The trouble you’ve caused me, woman!’ Even as he spoke he was thrusting open the car door next to him. ‘I find it difficult to believe I’ve only known you forty-eight hours!’ He swung easily out of the car.

  Annie turned just in time to see a policeman approaching the Mercedes, a brightly marked police car parked a short distance behind them. Their having stopped here was, as she had already surmised, illegal. And she very much doubted that the policeman would accept the story of there having been something in the eye of the lady passenger in Rufus’s car. Rufus was right: she was nothing but trouble!

  Jessica scrambled up into a sitting position, looking out of the back window. ‘Has Daddy done something wrong?’ Her voice sounded slightly awed. ‘Is he going to get told off?’

  She hoped not—or she would never hear the end of it!

  The two men continued to talk on the roadside for several minutes, and Annie’s heart sank with dismay as the young policeman took his notebook out of his pocket and began to take notes. He was booking Rufus! And it was all her fault. Rufus was going to be furious with her this time, no doubt about it.

  She inwardly prepared herself for his blistering attack as he parted from the policeman, a folded piece of paper in his hand as he walked briskly back to the car, his expression grim. There wasn’t going to be any kissing better this time—even if she was upset!

  She wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or sad about that …

  And she really didn’t have the time to dwell on the subject as Rufus got back into the car beside her.

  ‘Daddy—’

  ‘Not yet, pumpkin,’ Rufus told his daughter tautly, glancing in his driving mirror. ‘I need to get us back onto the road as soon as possible.’ He switched on the engine, put the car into gear, and very neatly manoeuvred the vehicle back into the swift flow of traffic.

  Annie didn’t know what to say, wasn’t sure she should say anything; it might just make matters worse. If that were possible!

  ‘A bit of luck, that.’ Rufus was finally the one to break the silence, sitting back more comfortably in his seat now that they were well away from the police car.

  ‘Luck?’ Annie echoed incredulously; it was the last description she would have applied to the encounter!

  ‘Mmm.’ Rufus gave her a brief grin. ‘The policeman recognised my name, and it seems he’s a fan of mine. He particularly liked a piece I wrote last year about suburban crime; his brother, another policeman—it seems to run in the family!—was mentioned in it quite favourably. Apparently he meant to keep the article, but his wife unwittingly used that newspaper to light the fire; he asked if I could send him a copy. I’ve got it on disk somewhere in the flat, so I’ll look it out for him when we get there.’

  The piece of paper Rufus had been given wasn’t a ticket at all, but the policeman’s address. And she had been imagining all sorts of horrors—charges, court appearances …!

  ‘So there are some benefits to being famous,’ she said tartly.

  Rufus glanced at her again briefly. ‘I’m not famous, Annie,’ he finally said slowly.

  ‘But your work is,’ she challenged, not really sure why she was so angry, only that she was!

  ‘Perhaps.’ He shrugged dismissively. ‘What the hell? It saved us from a severe reprimand. He just laughed when I told him I’d stopped because you had something in your eye!’ Rufus reached out and squeezed her hand again, conspiratorially this time, before replacing his own hand on the wheel.

  ‘Shall I go back to sleep for a while, Daddy?’ Jessica spoke again from behind them.

  Reminding Annie of exactly what she was doing here! She was here as Jessica’s nanny, was here on sufferance, had no right to be angry—about anything.

  ‘If you like, pumpkin.’ Rufus answered his daughter absently. ‘We’ll be a while yet.’

  Jessica gave a weary sigh as she settled down again on the back seat, and Annie could have sighed along with her; they hadn’t even reached London yet, and she was already wishing she weren’t here! How on earth was she supposed to share an apartment with this man for the next few days, even with Jessica present …?

  ‘You’ve gone very quiet,’ Rufus remarked a few minutes later.

  She looked across at him. ‘Have I?’ she said guardedly—because on her guard was how she was going to have to be with this man in the future!

  ‘You know you have,’ he bit out impatiently.

  Annie let out a breath. ‘I don’t believe I’ve ever been a chatterbox.’

  ‘I didn’t say that’s what you are, you just—Damn it woman,’ he snapped irritably. ‘I never know whether to kiss you or shake you when you annoy me like this!’

  She swallowed hard. ‘In future I suggest you stick to shaking me—it’s probably safer for everyone!’

  Rufus threw her a stunned glance, and then he threw back his head with that now familiar shout of laughter. ‘You, young lady, ar
e not good for my ego,’ he explained once his amusement had abated.

  Her own mouth quirked with laughter in spite of herself, her bad humour of a few minutes ago totally dispelled. ‘It wasn’t your ego I was thinking of,’ she taunted lightly. ‘The next policeman may not be a fan of yours!’

  ‘True,’ he agreed dryly. ‘But the onus is on you not to do anything that will make me want to kiss or shake you!’

  She wasn’t quite sure, at the moment, how she was supposed to do that; if she spoke she seemed to say the wrong thing, and if she didn’t speak that seemed to be wrong too!

  The safest thing to do seemed to be to join Jessica—and go to sleep!

  She closed her eyes, feigning tiredness, and very soon she wasn’t pretending at all, but genuinely asleep …

  It was dark by the time they entered London, and, having just woken up, it was a minute or two before Annie realised in which part of the city they were. It wasn’t one she was too familiar with, Mayfair being an area she had only passed through in the past. But she wasn’t at all surprised when Rufus turned the black Mercedes down into an underground car park situated beneath a prestigious apartment building; he effectively owned Clifftop House and all the land around it, so it stood to reason that his London home would be just as prestigious.

  She wasn’t surprised by the security of the building, either, a guard situated in the car park itself, another one in the lobby upstairs. Not that the men challenged their progress at all, obviously recognising Rufus as one of the wealthy tenants. The apartment itself didn’t actually seem like part of a block, being on the ground floor, with its own high-walled garden at the rear.

  It was beautifully furnished, too, with obviously genuine antique furniture, the carpets in muted golds and greens. Elegance was the word that came to mind as Annie looked around. It was a far cry from the minute flat she had shared with three other girls until a short time ago; the huge sitting-room was almost as big as their whole accommodation had been!

  ‘I only rent it, Annie.’ Rufus was watching her reaction to her surroundings. ‘I don’t own it.’

  The monthly rent on a place like this would probably amount to almost a year’s wages for her!

  ‘God damn it!’ Rufus suddenly ground out. ‘I’ve never had to apologise for my choice of home before!’

  It wasn’t his home that bothered her—given the choice she would probably have gone for somewhere like this herself! No, it was the location and obvious cost of it that overwhelmed her, and emphasised the gulf between her own lifestyle and that of the Diamond family. But she certainly wasn’t asking him to apologise for it!

  ‘It’s very nice,’ she told him stiltedly, swallowing hard as he just looked even more annoyed. And they both knew what happened when he became annoyed!

  ‘It’s very tidy,’ Jessica put in. ‘You obviously haven’t been home for a while, Daddy,’ she added mischievously.

  ‘Not at all in the last three months,’ he acknowledged wearily. ‘I submitted my last story when I arrived in England on Wednesday, and came straight down to Clifftop House.’

  Annie frowned across at him; he had been in a hurry to get there …

  To see Jessica? Or had it been something else that had brought him so quickly to the family home?

  He returned her questioning gaze enigmatically, and Annie knew she would find no answers there, not unless Rufus was prepared to give her them. He didn’t look as if he was!

  ‘I did, however, have some supplies brought in earlier today,’ Rufus continued briskly. ‘So it’s a cup of tea for Annie and myself, and a juice for you, young lady.’ He ruffled Jessica’s hair affectionately. ‘You show Annie to the bedroom next to yours, Jess, and I’ll go and make the drinks.’

  Annie was glad of these few minutes’ respite, if only to accustom herself to her new surroundings. She should have realised that Rufus’s apartment wouldn’t be anything like the rooms in the old Victorian house that had been her own home until two months ago. He was a Diamond, came from a very wealthy family. She should have expected this.

  It was proof of just how lacking in professionalism their relationship had become that she hadn’t expected this. She made Rufus laugh, made him angry, annoyed him, and in the last twenty-four hours he had kissed her, twice. She had almost forgotten they were employer and employee. She mustn’t forget again.

  ‘It’s a lovely room,’ she told Jessica once the young girl had shown her to the bedroom she had been allocated. And it was a lovely room, the gold and cream decor making it appear warm and welcoming. But it didn’t really matter whether it was a lovely room or not; she would only be occupying it for a short time!

  ‘It’s ages since Daddy brought me here,’ Jessica told her wistfully.

  So the trip to London wasn’t a regular occurrence; Annie couldn’t help wondering what had prompted it this time …

  She smiled at Jessica. ‘Perhaps twisting your ankle wasn’t such a bad thing, after all,’ she teased.

  Jessica grinned back at her, a grin that was so like her father’s. For the first time Annie found herself wondering what Joanne had looked like. There were no pictures of Jessica’s mother at Clifftop House, and she had only noticed a large framed photograph of Jessica in the sitting-room here. One thing Annie was pretty sure of: Joanne wouldn’t have been a short redhead!

  Now that was a strange thought to have come into her head …

  ‘Let’s go and have our drinks,’ Jessica prompted. ‘Daddy isn’t very domesticated,’ she confided. ‘So the tea will probably be awful!’

  They were still laughing together over this as they entered the kitchen a few seconds later.

  ‘Care to share the joke?’ Rufus invited indulgently as he stood across the room pouring the tea.

  Annie looked at Jessica, Jessica looked at Annie, and they both shook their heads at the same time, causing them to burst into laughter once again. In fact, it felt good to Annie to be able to laugh; there had been so little to laugh at just recently.

  ‘Oh, I see.’ Rufus nodded knowingly. ‘I’m the brunt of it!’ he accepted as he handed Annie her cup of tea.

  The sight of the tea set the two of them off into peals of laughter once again, so much so that Annie couldn’t take the cup from Rufus for fear of dropping it.

  ‘Oh, I understand—it’s the tea that caused the laughter in the first place!’ He put the cup down, peering down into it. ‘I must admit, it does look pretty awful.’ He grimaced.

  ‘That’s exactly how I said it would look!’ Jessica still giggled. ‘Why do you think I always prefer to drink juice when I’m here?’

  ‘You little monkey!’ Her father gave her an imaginary cuff about the ear. ‘I suppose you think Annie can do better?’ he challenged.

  Annie’s eyes widened. ‘I wasn’t the one disparaging your tea-making skills!’

  ‘No—but you were laughing at them,’ he instantly returned.

  Annie took a tentative look into the cup he had been about to give her, her distaste instinctive as she saw the mud-coloured fluid. ‘How many teabags did you put in the pot?’ she asked incredulously.

  ‘I like strong tea,’ he defended dryly.

  ‘So do I,’ she replied. ‘But—I was always told “one for each person, and one for the pot”.’ She looked at him questioningly.

  ‘It’s a big pot,’ he muttered grudgingly.

  Annie looked at him knowingly. ‘How many teabags did you use?’ she persisted.

  ‘Enough,’ he muttered again.

  ‘Daddy!’ Jessica scolded him lightly. ‘You’re pre-prevar—’

  ‘Prevaricating,’ he finished irritably. ‘Okay, six. I put six teabags in the pot!’ He glared at them both.

  Annie bit her lip to stop herself from laughing again, saying nothing more, and went to empty the teapot and start again. At least he had managed to warm the pot for her! ‘Would you care for tea, too, Jessica?’ She held a fourth teabag over the pot.

  ‘Don’t you dare say yes, jus
t because I haven’t made it,’ her father warned. ‘I’ll be in the lounge when you’ve made the tea.’

  Annie watched him leave the room, her mouth still twitching with laughter. ‘Do you think we’ve hurt his feelings?’ she murmured to Jessica.

  ‘No.’ The little girl made herself comfortable on one of the stools that stood in front of the breakfast-bar. ‘He’ll probably be glad to have a decent cup of tea himself for a change!’

  Annie didn’t know whether he was or not when they joined him in the lounge, Rufus taking the cup of tea from her without saying a word. But it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, and on reflection Annie had to admit she had enjoyed the exchange in the kitchen. They might have been a real family—

  She pulled her thoughts up sharply. Families were for other people, not her. One day she might have a family of her own, but until then she must guard against becoming too attached to Jessica. And her father …!

  Rufus made her laugh. She had never really been able to do that with a man before. And that laughter was even more heady than his kisses had been. Dangerous territory, she realised that. Because Rufus wasn’t the marrying kind. He loved his daughter, that much was obvious, and no doubt there had been women in his life since his wife died, but his choice of career didn’t allow for any permanent relationships. And he already knew, from the conversation he had overheard between herself and Anthony, her views on mistresses—

  She brought her thoughts up sharp once again. What on earth was she thinking of? The man had kissed her twice, not declared undying love for her. Or anything else, for that matter!

  ‘Very nice.’ Rufus put his empty cup down.

  ‘Daddy!’ Jessica reproved him once again.

  ‘I said it was nice, didn’t I?’ he retorted irritably. ‘Can you cook too?’ He turned to Annie, his expression hopeful.

  ‘Please say you can!’ Jessica looked at her imploringly.

  She hadn’t thought about it before, had become used, over the last couple of months, she realised, to the fact that there was a cook in residence at Clifftop House to prepare the meals for everyone. But this was a bachelor apartment, had none of those niceties …