by Sandra Field
If it was something as impersonal as finding her a job, surely he could have given her any relative facts over the phone? She felt a heady rush of hope and excitement. Perhaps he was hoping to continue their affair?
But how could two people have an affair with the Atlantic between them? Unless he was thinking of the odd times he came over on business?
If he was, she knew she wouldn’t refuse. Seeing him, however infrequently, would be preferable to not seeing him at all…
When she had pulled on off-white trousers, a blue silky shirt and a pair of sandals, she fastened her hair into a loose knot and went downstairs.
There wasn’t a soul in sight, and, having crossed the hall, she hesitated, unsure which of the several doors Gray had indicated.
She was approaching the first, which was slightly ajar, when a voice she knew, Jason’s voice, cried in anguish, ‘Oh, please, Uncle Pip, you can’t do that…’
Then Gray’s voice, quietly adamant, said, ‘If you’re going to keep behaving like a fool then I’ll be forced to treat you like one.’
As she stood frozen to the spot, she heard Jason protest, ‘But what the devil could I do? She assured me she was pregnant, and that mother of hers threatened to get hold of you and kick up a fuss.’
‘It’s a pity you didn’t let her,’ Gray said coldly.
‘You said you’d wash your hands of me if I got into any more trouble.’
Gray sighed. ‘That threat was intended as a deterrent; it wasn’t meant to push you into marrying the first designing female that managed to get her claws into you.’
‘I had no intention of marrying her—’
‘Then why get involved?’
‘It just started as a bit of fun,’ Jason said sulkily. ‘I’d been getting nowhere with—’ He broke off abruptly.
‘Rebecca?’ Gray prompted.
Sounding startled, Jason asked, ‘How do you know about Rebecca?’
‘With so much at stake I like to keep a fatherly eye on you, so when I heard a whisper that you were seeing one of the Ferris girls, knowing how impecunious they were, I asked Billings to check.
‘He sent me some nice pictures of you and a woman he named as Rebecca Ferris. Unfortunately, he failed to tell me when you decided to swop sisters.’
‘I was a fool, I know, but I was hellish frustrated, and when Lisa came to my room that night…Well, she’s quite something, and at first she seemed happy to keep things light.
‘I can tell you it was a hell of a shock when she told me she was having a baby—’
‘And you believed her?’
‘Well, it was possible,’ Jason admitted. ‘That first night we had taken a chance…’ Then angrily, ‘Damn it, have you never made a mistake?’
‘Yes, as you well know,’ Gray said shortly. ‘But I managed to learn from it. It’s a pity you didn’t. If you’d refused to marry her—’
‘I might have done, but she wasn’t just any little trollop, she was from a good family, and when she swore she was pregnant—’
‘And was she?’
‘While we were on honeymoon she “discovered” she wasn’t. Though I was furious at the way she’d fooled me, I must admit it was a relief to know there was no baby on the way. I’m not cut out to be a father.
‘I just wish I hadn’t let myself be rushed into marrying the scheming little bitch.’
‘If I’d found out about the wedding sooner I might have prevented it, but by the time Billings tipped me off it was too late. I can’t say I was pleased that you’d gone behind my back.’
‘The last ticking off you gave me you said it was time I settled down and got married.’
‘I meant to a decent girl who loved you rather than your money. Though it wouldn’t be fair to any decent girl to have to put up with your lecherous ways.’
‘Well, you’re no saint!’
‘That’s quite true, but I’ve always stuck with one woman at a time. I suggest you do the same. Try to make something of your marriage.’
‘But if you stop my allowance, how will I manage? What will I do for money?’
‘Work for it. You’ve still got a good job with an excellent salary.’
‘I’ll never be able to manage on that.’
‘Why not? You’ve no mortgage to find. The flat’s paid for, though I took the precaution of keeping it in my name.’
Jason muttered something Rebecca didn’t catch.
‘Admittedly you won’t be able to throw too much money away on other women,’ Gray went on, ‘and your wife will have to curtail her spending. But it should prove to be a salutary lesson. For both of you.
‘After, say, a year, if you’ve no debts and you’re still living together—and you might well be; it wouldn’t be worth her while to divorce you—I’ll be happy to reconsider.
‘If not, I’ll interpret your mother’s will to the letter, and you’ll never gain control of a penny.’
‘Damn you, Uncle Pip, you can’t do this to me. It was my father’s money. I have a right to it.’
‘It was not your father’s money. The fortune came from your mother’s side of the family. Your father was a charming but penniless ne’er-do-well when he married your mother.
‘Though she was astute when it came to business, she was anything but when it came to personal relationships. She was mad about him. It took her a long time to discover that he was spending her money at a rate of knots, and mostly on other women.
‘If he hadn’t been killed when he was, she would have had very little left.
‘That’s why, knowing how like him you were, when she became terminally ill she made a will leaving everything to me, and asked me to do the best I could for you.
‘Which, believe it or not, is what I’ve done for the past eight years and am still trying to do.
‘Now, I suggest you go home to your wife and put her in the picture. If she decides to stay with you, there may yet be hope for you both…’
Wanting to hear no more, Rebecca turned and fled silently up the stairs. She had almost reached the top when Jason came rushing out. Without a glance in her direction he crossed the hall, and a second later the front door slammed behind him.
‘So there you are.’ Gray had followed him into the hall and was standing looking up at her. ‘I was about to come up to see where you’d got to.’
Then, noting her pale face and utter stillness, ‘How much did you overhear?’
‘Most of it, I imagine,’ she answered bitterly.
‘I’m sorry you had to find out that way. I told Jason I wanted to see him in the office tomorrow, but, apparently scared by the message, he decided to call at the house to try and make his peace.’
Still scarcely able to believe it, she said, ‘So you’re Uncle Pip.’
‘Yes.’
Even then she had half expected him to deny it.
‘If you’re Philip Lome, why are you calling yourself Graydon Gallagher?’
‘My full name is Philip Lome Graydon Gallagher. But because I wanted some degree of anonymity, the ability to go out and about without being “recognised”, I’ve always used Philip Lorne as a business name.
‘It was one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. Come on down and I’ll put you in the picture.’
With a feeling of utter despair, she shook her head. ‘I’m going home.’
‘If you still want to leave when you’ve heard what I have to say, I won’t stop you. But first you’re going to listen to me.’
When she just looked at him, her face set, he asked, ‘What’s it to be? Are you coming down? Or do I have to fetch you?’
She didn’t doubt he meant every word, and rather than be ignominiously fetched she forced her unwilling feet to carry her down the stairs again.
When he would have put a hand at her waist, she flinched away from him. His jaw tightened and, his hand dropping to his side, he led the way back into the den.
It was a comfortable, homely room carpeted in Turkey red and li
ned with bookshelves. There was a desk with a swivel chair, a coffee-table and a suite in soft, natural leather. A log fire burnt cheerfully in the grate.
‘Sit down,’ Gray said shortly.
‘I’d rather stand.’
He dropped into a chair, and, pulling her onto his lap, held her there despite her attempts to rise.
When, realising she was wasting her time, she stopped struggling, he said calmly, ‘That’s better.’
Sitting stiff and straight, her face averted, she demanded, ‘Are you sure your wife won’t walk in?’
Unruffled he said, ‘Quite sure. To the best of my knowledge my ex-wife is married to an Australian businessman and living in Sydney.
‘But I’d better start at the beginning. When I was born my mother was past middle age, and I already had a sixteen-year-old sister, named Anne.
‘I was just a few months old when my parents were killed in a car crash and, as they hadn’t altered their will to include me, Anne inherited everything.
‘That didn’t matter in the slightest as there was plenty of money in the family, but even so, she felt it wasn’t fair.
‘After the accident we came to live in this house with our paternal grandparents. They always called me Graydon, which was my grandfather’s name. Only my sister ever called me Pip.
‘Anne was twenty-two when she fell in love with, and married, Charles Beaumont.
‘Beaumont, who was good-looking and charming and belonged to the peerage, hadn’t a penny. That wouldn’t have mattered at all, but unfortunately he turned out to be a wastrel and a womaniser.
‘They moved into a house a few doors up from this one, and Jason was born two years later. Which made me an uncle at the tender age of eight.
‘Realising that Jason was of the same mould as her late husband, when Anne found she was dying she named me as his legal guardian and gave me control of her money. I was twenty-three, to Jason’s fifteen.
‘Even then he was hardly ever out of trouble, and when he was barely seventeen he was expelled from boarding-school for having an affair with one of the teachers’ wives.
‘Rona and I had only been married a few weeks when he came to live with us. He brought a swift end to a marriage that was already doomed.
‘She was very much like Lisa, beautiful, sexy, unscrupulous and from a good, but impoverished, family. Having set her sights on what she wanted, which was a rich husband, she lost no time in going to bed with me.
‘She’d certainly got what it takes, and for a while I was on cloud nine. Then she told me she was pregnant, and if her mother found out she would make her have an abortion.
‘We were married in the local register office as soon as it could be arranged. The day was cold and wet and the surroundings unappealing. But if the wedding was joyless, the honeymoon was even worse.
‘Thinking to surprise her, I’d chosen to get away from it all in a villa in Tuscany. Rona hated everything about it—the isolation, the climate, the food—and couldn’t wait to get back to London.
‘Because she didn’t want to live in the house my grandparents had left me, I’d bought a flat in Mayfair, and Jason came to stay with us there while I tried to find another school that would take him.
‘One evening I’d arranged to work late at the office and then go on to a business dinner. At the very last minute my client rang to say he couldn’t make it, so rather than have dinner alone I decided to go home.
‘I got there to find the flat empty. As I was on my way to the kitchen to get a bite to eat, I noticed my study door was ajar and my small wall safe was standing open. When I checked, my grandmother’s ruby ring was missing.
‘Apart from being worth a great deal of money, it was a family heirloom. My intention had always been to give it to my wife, but something had held me back, and I’d bought her a diamond solitaire instead.
‘I was about to call the police when I heard a sound from the master bedroom. Thinking the intruder might still be on the premises, I crept over and threw open the door.
‘For days on end Rona had refused to let me touch her, saying she felt sick. Now she and Jason were in bed together, stark naked, and not only was my wife making the running, but she was also wearing my grandmother’s ring.
‘I lost my temper and hauled her out of bed. She’d obviously been drinking heavily; she was unsteady on her feet and she stank of gin. I called her a thief and a slut, and threatened to put her over my knee.
‘She threw the ring in my face, and said if I laid as much as a finger on her she’d take me to court.
‘It wasn’t the threat that stopped me, but the knowledge that she was pregnant.
‘When I said as much, she called me a poor sucker and laughed in my face. She said only a fool would have fallen for that old trick.
‘I spent the night in my study, and in the morning I told her to pack her bags and get out.
‘Having sobered up, she tried to talk me round, but I was through. Still she proved difficult to get rid of, and in the end, because I didn’t want to involve Jason, or have my dirty linen washed in public, I was forced to pay her off.’
After a moment he stroked a finger down Rebecca’s cheek and asked, ‘Have you listened to a word I’ve been saying?’
‘Yes.’ And it explained so much.
She turned her head to look at him, her golden eyes brimming with tears.
‘Don’t cry, little one.’ He smiled at her with such tenderness that the tears spilt over.
‘I’m sorry…’ she whispered.
‘For what?’
‘That you’ve never found someone to love.’
‘Oh, but I have. One day I walked into an old summer house and there was the woman of my dreams.’
‘What?’ She looked at him dazedly.
‘The only problem is, she won’t have me. I’ve tried to lure her with the promise of a manor house but…’
‘You really would buy Elmslee?’
‘The deed is done. It’s signed, sealed and settled. As soon as I knew you wanted it, I contacted my agent and offered him a substantial bonus if he could push the sale through quickly.’
A thought struck her, and she said, ‘I see now what you meant when you said Lisa should have set her cap at the organ-grinder.’
‘Don’t change the subject, woman.’ He stroked a finger down her cheek caressingly. ‘Now I’ve gone to all that trouble, won’t you change your mind and agree to marry me?’
She shook her head. ‘If I do, you’ll believe it’s only to get Elmslee.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong. I’ll believe you love me. And even if you keep saying no, I’ll still believe you love me. You do, don’t you?’
‘Yes. But what makes you so sure?’
‘When I asked you before and you said no, I watched your face. You’re not a very good liar.
‘Added to that, Mrs Sheldon thinks so, and she’s never wrong.’
‘Mrs Sheldon?’
‘She’s fey,’ he said, as though that explained everything. ‘When I mentioned I was bringing home the woman I loved and wanted to marry, she asked, “Does she love you?”
‘I told her I very much hoped so.
‘She said, “I’ll know for certain when I’ve seen the two of you together.”
‘When she’d shown you to your room, she came back and said very primly, “You’ll be pleased to know I’ve put Miss Ferris in the Rose Room.”’
When Rebecca looked blank, he added with a grin, ‘The Rose Room is next to mine, and has a connecting door.’
Later that night as they lay in each other’s arms, Gray said, ‘You’ll never know how jealous I was of Jason, and when Scrivener kissed you I could cheerfully have broken his neck.’
She shuddered. ‘Don’t remind me; it was horrible.’ Lifting her face, she added, ‘You’d better kiss me to take the memory away.’
‘There’s nothing I’d like better,’ he said with satisfaction, ‘especially when you think what a kiss can lead to.�
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It did, and it was heavenly. Secure now in his love, she hit the heights and heard the angels singing, before floating gently back to earth.
Drawing her against him and cradling her head on his shoulder, he asked, ‘How soon will you marry me?’
‘Tomorrow.’
‘Can’t be too soon for me. But it might take a bit longer to arrange. You see, this time I want a proper wedding. I’d like us to be married in church with all the trimmings, and go on a romantic honeymoon.’
‘I didn’t think you believed in romance.’
‘I’ve changed my mind…Then when we get back…’ He stopped and asked seriously, ‘Do you care where you live?’
‘I don’t care at all so long as you’re there.’
That earned her a kiss. ‘Well, we could spread ourselves a little. There’s this place, I’m fairly certain you’ll like New York, and we could go back to Napa from time to time.’
‘It’s going to be wonderful,’ she said dreamily.
‘And of course there’s Elmslee, it’ll be ideal for our children, and to retire to when we get old.’
She nestled even closer. ‘It sounds like one of those fairy tales that end, “And they lived happily ever after.”’
He kissed her again, and said contentedly, ‘I’m quite sure we will.’
He has wealth and power…and
now he wants her!
Her Tycoon Lover
Three glitzy, contemporary romances from
three favourite Mills & Boon authors!
In March 2010 Mills & Boon bring you two classic collections, each featuring three favourite romances by our bestselling authors
HER TYCOON LOVER
On the Tycoon’s Terms by Sandra Field
Her Tycoon Protector
by Amanda Browning
One Night with the Tycoon
by Lee Wilkinson
HER PREGNANCY SUPRISE
His Pregnancy Bargain by Kim Lawrence
The Pregnancy Secret by Maggie Cox
Their Pregnancy Bombshell
by Barbara McMahon
Don’t miss Lee Wilkinson’s exciting new novel,
Claiming His Wedding Night, available this