The Blackmailed Bridegroom

by Miranda Lee

  Not like Madam Muck, who’d been born with everything. Looks. Money. Sex appeal.

  But none of that was going to bring the bitch any happiness. Oh, what pleasure she would savour at the look in those big blue eyes once Paige knew the truth! It would be almost as good as the day she’d come home from boarding school and found out that mongrel dog was dead.

  Evelyn wasn’t concerned for her own fate after she’d dropped her bombshell. She was getting tired of being at the beck and call of people she despised. She’d squirrelled away a nice little nest-egg over the years she’d been at Fortune Hall. She didn’t need Conrad and his money any more.

  Oh, yes…her day would come. And when it did, her satisfaction would last for a long, long time.

  Evelyn’s presence in the room woke Paige with a jolt, her eyes flying open to find the woman glaring down at her with so much hatred a shudder of terror ran all through Paige.

  ‘Oh!’ she cried out, before she could gather herself. But once she did Paige hid her involuntary reaction behind a covering smile, pushing her hair casually back from her face as she propped herself up on one elbow.

  ‘You startled me, Evelyn,’ she said, determined never to give the other woman the satisfaction of seeing her rattled.

  Paige was taken aback by the speed the housekeeper masked her true feelings as well, the hard gleam in her gaze giving way to a bland expression.

  ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Just following orders about your meals. I knocked, but you didn’t answer.’

  Paige doubted the other woman had knocked at all. ‘I could just have easily come downstairs and made my own breakfast,’ she pointed out politely. ‘You know I don’t expect to be waited on like this.’

  Evelyn’s pale, thin lips tightened. ‘But I don’t take my orders from you, dear, do I? Your father’s the boss of Fortune Hall. And he told me you were to be made to eat up.’

  Her pinched lips unexpectedly loosened into the travesty of a smile. ‘Can’t have you getting too skinny and unappealing, can we? Italian men actually like women with a bit of meat on their bones, you know,’ she added as she turned and walked from the room, this time banging the door shut after her.

  Paige just lay there for a moment, trying to get a grip on her galloping heart. That crack about Italian men had been pointed and nasty, but she couldn’t really know anything. The woman was just trying to get a rise out of her. And to make her feel lousy and unattractive.

  But she refused to rise to the bait.

  She might have lost of a couple of pounds these last few days out of stress, but she felt confident she wasn’t too skinny. Antonio certainly hadn’t found anything unattractive in her body last night.

  Sighing, Paige lay back and thought of Antonio, her beautiful, handsome Antonio. She hoped and prayed he wasn’t playing her for a fool, like Jed had.

  There again, he was nothing like Jed, was he? Except superficially. Ironically, it was his superficial likenesses to Antonio which had attracted her to Jed in the first place. Jed too was tall and darkly good-looking. He was sophisticated and successful, intelligent and charming.

  But, when all was said and done, he didn’t have Antonio’s depth. Or his honesty. Or his sense of honour.

  Paige frowned. Those last two thoughts were at total odds with her doubts about Antonio, weren’t they? If he were so honest and honourable, then he would not lie to get her into bed with him, would he? To be fair, she had no evidence that he had ever lied to any woman in his life, not even the ones he’d bedded and swiftly abandoned. If he said he was now interested in commitment, then he probably was, wasn’t he? If he claimed he’d always been attracted to her, then he had!

  A huge smile blossomed on Paige’s face. What a silly girl she was, worrying about Antonio’s intentions. Antonio wasn’t a creep. Or a conman. He was a gentleman through and through.

  Maybe he wasn’t in love with her…yet. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t open to the experience.

  Optimism burst through her like a thousand firecrackers and she sat up. She would make him fall in love with her. She would show him that life with her by his side would be so wonderful he would wonder how he’d coped without her. By the time those ten days were up, she was going to have him begging her to stay with him. He might even ask her to marry him!

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ANTONIO had barely brought the Jag to a halt outside the high security wall which hid Fortune Hall from the main road when Paige came running through a side gate, dressed in blue jeans and a black jacket, a large colourful sports bag clutched in her right hand and a roomy black handbag slung over her left shoulder.

  His stomach tightened at the glorious sight of her long fair hair flying out behind her, glowing in the morning sun. Her lovely face looked young and fresh and free of make-up. But that was possibly an illusion, since the bruise on her cheek was almost invisible—no doubt the result of some clever concealer.

  Still, she looked about sixteen, the image enhanced by the white shirt beneath the black jacket, a garment not dissimilar to the school blouse she’d been wearing the first day he’d seen her, getting off that train at Central.

  Even then, Antonio recalled wryly, he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her. Nothing had changed, it seemed. The desires she evoked in him were just as dark, and just as distracting. What was it about her which could disarm him so, and deflect him from the mission at hand? Why did she make him feel so guilty all the time when all he was doing was giving her what she said she wanted? Great sex. And commitment.

  Hell, he’d already changed his mind about divorcing her later on. Now that was real commitment, wasn’t it? And if she wanted to have children, well, that was all right by him too. What more could she ask of a husband? 115

  Antonio supposed the guilt came from that four-letter word which simply wasn’t going to come into the equation.

  Love.

  He didn’t love her, and be damned if he was going to tell her he did!

  Plastering a welcoming smile on his face, he opened the car door and began to climb out.

  Oh, God, he was just so gorgeous, Paige thought as Antonio climbed out from behind the wheel and walked round the front of the car, smiling at her.

  Antonio didn’t smile a lot. He wasn’t that type of man. But when he did, and his almost forbidding seriousness was momentarily lightened, he looked even more handsome, if that were possible.

  ‘I’ll take that,’ he said, and reached for her bag.

  Paige mumbled a thank-you and did her best not to ogle.

  For he was wearing jeans. She’d never seen him in jeans before. Never seen him looking so…accessible.

  Up top, he was wearing a casual blue T-shirt beneath an equally casual navy jacket, the kind with a band around the hips and a zipper up the front. The zipper was undone and the sides flapped open as he walked, showing the broad muscles in his chest and the hip-hugging style of the jeans. His still damp hair looked extra black and glossy in the sunlight, and not slicked back as severely as usual. It looked as if he’d run an impatient hand through it instead of combing it properly. There were kinks and waves all over the place, which made her want to run her hands through it as well.

  ‘This is pretty heavy,’ Antonio commented as he slung her bag into the boot. ‘I told you you wouldn’t need much.’

  She flushed a little at the thought of some of the things she’d brought with her. That gold lamé dress was there, as well as that provocative little pink bikini she’d been wearing the day she’d thrown herself at Antonio. It had anchoring ties on the hips and between the breasts. With Antonio admitting his fascination for undoing ties on her, one could imagine what would happen if she dared wear it.

  Paige had spent a couple of breathless hours last night fantasising over that little scenario!

  ‘Oh, you know what girls are like,’ she tossed back as they both climbed in the car and belted up. ‘They can never make up their minds about what to wear, or what to pack. Or anything, really,’ sh
e added in a rather silly fashion.

  When Antonio threw her a sharp glance, she knew she’d said the wrong thing. Lord, she must have sounded like some empty-headed twit!

  ‘I hope you don’t change your mind about being with me when we’re miles up the river,’ he said drily, and started up the engine.

  Paige took a deep breath and set about redeeming herself. ‘I won’t, Antonio,’ she said, in a far more serious tone, her eyes seeking out his and holding them. ‘You have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again. And being with you again…’

  His eyes warmed at her words. ‘If you’ve been feeling anything like I’ve been feeling, my darling Paige,’ he said wryly, ‘then I would say I do have a very good idea.’ His head swung back to the road and the car accelerated away from the kerb.

  ‘Now, don’t chat to me till we get through the city, there’s a good girl,’ he added as he eased out into the line of cars. ‘I’m not used to driving in morning traffic and I don’t want anything to happen to stop us getting where we’re going today. I’m already distracted enough by having you sit next to me. If you say things like you’ve just said, and look at me like you’ve just done, I’ll run up the back of a truck in no time.’

  Paige did as she was bid, hugging his flattering words to herself during the next twenty minutes, wallowing in the excitement and anticipation of the ten days ahead. Antonio bypassed the city centre and whizzed across the harbour via the tunnel, zooming up the other side with no time-consuming hold-ups.

  Antonio was the first to speak, while the car was idling at a set of red lights around Chatswood.

  ‘Did your father say anything to you yesterday?’

  ‘About us, you mean?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘No. I didn’t see him at all. He was gone by the time I got up in the morning, and he went out for dinner last night. This morning, I avoided going downstairs till he was gone. But I sent a fax to his office just before I snuck out to meet you.’ No way had she been going to give Evelyn any letter to hand to her father. Paige didn’t trust her not to steam it open.

  The infernal woman had hovered all yesterday, clearly trying to work out what was going on. When she’d briefly gone out to do some shopping mid-morning, Paige had raced downstairs to her father’s study, looked up Antonio’s home number and given Antonio a short ring, telling him not to call her at home and ask for her, in case Evelyn answered the phone and recognised his voice. She was pleased Antonio hadn’t thought her paranoid.

  ‘What did you say in the fax?’ he asked.

  ‘That I was going away up the coast with a friend for ten days. That I would be coming back home afterwards, but only till I find a new place to live.’ Going to Queensland was now out of the question. She would want to be in Sydney whenever Antonio was in town.

  He shot her a sharp look. ‘Is that really your plan?’

  ‘Well…yes. You must know by now I can’t stand living at home for long.’ It was a bit too optimistic to think Antonio would ask her to accompany him back to Europe after only ten days.

  ‘I see,’ was all he said, and fell silent. The lights turned green and he drove on, a little more slowly than before, as though his mind was elsewhere and working overtime.

  Paige wondered what he was thinking, then decided to find out. ‘Don’t you want me to?’ she asked.

  ‘That depends,’ he said brusquely.

  ‘On what?’

  ‘On what kind of people you move in with, I guess. According to your father, you have a habit of always choosing male flatmates who invariably end up sharing your bedroom. On one occasion he was horrified to learn you were flatting with two men, and both boasted they knew you intimately.’

  Paige laughed. She couldn’t help it.

  Antonio threw her a truly scandalised look, and Paige reluctantly decided it was time to clear the air where her past history with men were concerned. She didn’t give a damn what her father thought of her. He could hardly stand in judgement of her sexual behaviour with all the mistresses he had stashed around the world.

  But she didn’t want Antonio believing she’d jumped into bed with every man she’d lived with, despite her having done nothing to dissuade him from this erroneous belief the other night.

  But the situation had changed from that, hadn’t it?

  ‘I presume you’re talking about Paul and Les?’ she said.

  ‘Don’t recognise the names,’ Antonio said stiffly. ‘But if they’re the two men you enjoyed a ménage a` trois with, then, yes, I mean Paul and Les.’

  Paige sighed. If she’d known her father was going to discuss his private investigator’s findings in detail with Antonio, she’d never have let the creep get the wrong idea in the first place. But at the time she’d been so annoyed with her father she hadn’t cared what he thought.

  Clearly, Antonio carried a lot of misconceptions about her. She could only hope she could rectify some of them.

  ‘Paul and Les were gay,’ she said firmly. ‘All my male flatmates over the past few years have been gay, Antonio. Gay men, I eventually learnt from hard-won experience, are nicer friends than girls, and safer than heterosexual males. If you must know, the only man I’ve actually lived with since leaving home is Brad. Till Jed, of course. I was going to live with him, but you know what happened there.’

  She could feel his eyes upon her, disbelief and shock in his gaze.

  ‘Better watch the road,’ she advised drily when they began to drift towards the next lane, where a white taxi carrying two worried-looking passengers was coming alongside.

  Antonio swore, but kept his eyes glued ahead after that. His knuckles, however, went white on the wheel and his shoulders bunched up. His straight black brows bunched up as well.

  ‘Are you saying you encouraged your flatmates to lie to Lew about your relationships with them?’ he growled.

  ‘Well…yes,’ she confessed. ‘Sort of. I…er…always warned them Lew would be around, and told them to say whatever he wanted to hear. Paul and Les particularly enjoyed themselves, I think, pretending to be my live-in studs. Of course, they were very macho-looking guys—as are a lot of gay men. I often used them as cover when a guy was bothering me.’

  Her explanation didn’t entirely satisfy Antonio, judging by the lingering scowl on his face. ‘So when you told me you always liked to live with your boyfriends you lied as well?’

  ‘Actually…no, I didn’t.’

  ‘That doesn’t make sense, Paige,’ he said irritably. ‘Not if by boyfriend you mean lover as well.’

  ‘Yes, that’s what I mean.’

  ‘Oh, for pity’s sake,’ he exploded, the car shifting ground dangerously again when he lanced her with a savage look. ‘You can’t expect me to believe you’ve only slept with two men in your whole life, especially when one of those two was a oncer!’

  ‘No,’ she said coolly, her heart sinking at this open display of disdain and disbelief. ‘I’ve actually slept with three. You’re forgetting yourself, Antonio.’

  He swore. Violently. Then fell silent once more.

  ‘Don’t you believe me?’ she challenged into the highly charged atmosphere.

  He shook his head frustratedly, then sighed a resigned sigh. ‘I suppose I must, because I can’t find a single, solitary reason for you to lie.’

  ‘So why look for one?’

  He stared grimly at the road ahead for a few seconds before nodding up and down. ‘Very well,’ he decided aloud, and much to her relief. ‘I won’t!’

  He glanced over at her, black eyes narrowed and thoughtful. ‘You’re a wicked little devil, do you know that? Fancy letting your father believe you lived with all those men. You worried the life out of him. Not to mention me…’

  As much as she was pleased by his accepting her word, she couldn’t believe that last statement! ‘Oh, come now, Antonio, you never worried about me. Not really.’

  ‘I was worried sick when you first ran away from home.’

&nb
sp; Paige could not have been more stunned.

  ‘I felt so lousy for hurting you the way I did. And for saying such thoughtlessly cruel things. When Lew found you, and Conrad sent me to bring you home, I happily went, hoping to have the opportunity to apologise and make things right. Admittedly, when I saw you weren’t exactly suffering from a broken heart, my worries evaporated somewhat. Which reminds me. What happened between you and Brad? You never did tell anyone when you finally came home.’

  ‘Nothing happened. We were very happy together.’

  ‘So why did you leave him?’

  ‘I didn’t. He died.’

  ‘Good God! How?’

  ‘He had a surfing accident. Broke his neck.’

  ‘And you didn’t tell any of us? Not your father? Or me?’

  ‘I didn’t think either of you would care.’

  ‘I see…’ He threw her a puzzled look. ‘And is that why you didn’t become involved with anyone else for such a long time? Because you’d lost the love of your life?’

  Paige opened her mouth to tell him the whole truth, but then closed it again. She sensed it was way too soon to tell Antonio something that heavy. He might run a mile under the burden of her unrequited love for him. Best keep things light.

  ‘You could put it like that,’ she said instead. ‘But I’m well and truly over Brad’s death now.’

  ‘If you say so…’ He sounded unconvinced.

  ‘I say so,’ she said, then smiled over at him.

  His returning smile was slow in coming, but warm when it arrived. ‘You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?’

  ‘I hope so.’

  ‘Why do you say that?’

  ‘Because I wouldn’t want to bore you. I have a feeling you’re a man who’s easily bored. Especially with a woman.’

  ‘Is that so? And on what do you base that assumption?’

  ‘On the passing parade of women in your life so far.’