by Penny Jordan
‘Yes,’ he told her bluntly. ‘But, Kate…’
‘You’ve got half an hour to collect your things together and leave. And just to make sure you do, I’m going to call the police.’
She was actually dialling the number, he realised, and he had no doubts that she meant exactly what she said.
‘Kate, we have to talk,’ he protested, but she wouldn’t look at him, fiercely punching out the numbers into the telephone.
He bent down and tugged swiftly on the connecting flex, disconnecting her.
‘Let me explain.’
‘What?’ Kate demanded fiercely. ‘Why you lied your way into my home…my…trust…my…my bed?’
She couldn’t add ‘my heart’, but it was what was hurting her the most; that and her fear that somehow or other his presence threatened both her and Michael.
‘The deceit was accidental, not calculated. If you cast your mind back, you will remember that you were the one to assume that I had come for the job of Michael’s nanny.’
‘You could have corrected me.’
He acknowledged her comment with a grim frown.
‘I could have, but at the time it seemed an ideal opportunity to have a chance to get closer to Michael, to collect the evidence my solicitor told me I would need to get a court to hand him over into my care.’
He saw her go white, and ached to take her in his arms and tell her how he felt about her, but she was like a terrified cat, ready to attack friend and foe alike in her panic.
‘So I was right,’ she hissed. ‘Michael is what all this is about. Why? Why do you want to take him from me? You had the opportunity to accept your share of responsibility to him when Alan and Jennifer died, but you rejected it. I still have the letter.’
‘My solicitor wrote that without my authority while I was out of the country,’ he told her calmly. ‘And before you say anything, I can prove it.’
‘Just as you can prove that you’d make a far better guardian for him than me? Because you’ve got more money, more power, more everything…I suppose that’s why you went to bed with me, isn’t it?’ she added in a high voice, her whole body shaking with the force of her emotions. ‘So that you could prove to the court how unfit I am morally as well as financially. What did you do, Garrick? Make notes to pass on to your solicitor…record…’
She was working herself up into a state of acute hysteria, and he could hardly blame her. There was only one way to stop it. He walked over to her and yanked her out of her chair, binding her protesting body to his own.
‘Stop it, Kate,’ he reinforced when she tried to claw at him. Her eyes were wild, like those of a hunted animal, her face pale except where her cheekbones were highlighted by patches of hectic colour.
‘You’re wrong. Oh, I admit that when I first came here I was hoping to get enough evidence against you to prove that I was more fit to have guardianship of Michael than you. You see, I’d reached that point in my life where it was beginning to come home to me that I’ve worked myself into the ground for nothing…or rather, for no one…and the thought of an heir, a son…who could be had without the encumbrance of a mother whose role in my life I did not want either outside or inside marriage, was a very alluring prospect indeed!’
He saw her face and smiled grimly.
‘I’m paying you the compliment of being totally honest with you, Kate.’
‘Isn’t it a bit late for that?’ she countered bitterly.
‘I hope not, but only you can know the answer to that question. You’re looking at a man who’s been converted to a view of life he’s never previously wanted to see. I’m a very successful man, Kate, and without being vain or boastful that success has meant that I’ve never been short of female company and admiration, but just as someone working in a sweet factory grows to loathe the very sweetness of the confectionery they make, so I found I was rapidly growing very disenchanted with the female sex. Greedy, grasping…shallow.’ He saw her face and grimaced. ‘Yes. I know how it sounds, but I’m trying to be honest with you. You see, knowing you has opened up a whole new vista to me. I see life and my place in it in a way I never have done before.’
‘You mean you’ve realised that women can be gullible fools, easily convinced by an experienced liar?’
‘No! What I mean is that I believe that Michael needs both of us in his life. No one could love him more than you do, Kate, but you must admit that it’s difficult for you trying to cope with building up a new company and the day-to-day problems of caring for a small child.’
The very reasonableness of his argument struck a fresh chill in her soul. What was he going to do? Offer her money to part with Michael?
‘Kate, we’re both people who’ve made a decision to live our lives alone. Both of us have decided that commitment, permanency…a lifelong partner are not for us. I suggest that we should think again.
‘I’ve learned a lot living here with you. I’ve learned for instance that it’s possible for a man to find a great deal of pleasure in caring for a child…even a small child, and I’ve also now a much clearer insight into how difficult that kind of caring can be…how tying and at times how tiring. I’ve also learned that there are women who are vastly different from those with whom I’ve sometimes shared my life, and I blame myself for the fact that I’ve only just learned this. Call it a self-defensive practice, if you like, but that’s what I believe it was.’
He felt the tension in her body and sensed her desire to break away from him.
‘What I’m trying to say, Kate, is that instead of fighting over who should have Michael, why don’t we join forces and share the pleasure and responsibility of bringing him up?’
‘A week with you and then a week with me, do you mean?’ she demanded brittlely. ‘Turn and turn about.’
‘Not exactly.’ His eyes narrowed as he looked down into her angry face. He could feel the stubborn resistance holding her body taut, and he knew that this was going to be far harder than he had hoped. ‘What I had in mind was something a little better than that. I want to marry you, Kate.’
Her body suffered the shock of it…the awful pain and despair of being given so much and so little.
‘Because of Michael?’ she asked him bitterly. ‘No, I’m sorry, Garrick. You may be enjoying a different vision of how you see your life progressing, but I’m afraid I don’t share it. I want a career, not marriage.’
She broke free of him and walked over to the window, keeping her back to him. She didn’t want him to look into her face and see how much she was suffering. She had to convince him that she couldn’t marry him. To be married to the man she loved simply for the sake of a child in whom they both had an interest… No, that was something she could not and would not endure. She had her pride.
‘I see.’
How silky and menacing his voice sounded.
‘A career, you say. Doing what, Kate? Working for someone else? Because that’s what’s going to happen, isn’t it? You barely have enough funds to keep your business going another two months. You badly need new contracts. You…’
‘You’ve had my business investigated? How dare you? What were you trying to prove? That I’m financially incompetent? Well, I can soon change that… All it takes is one phone call to James. Of course, I’ll have to sleep with him to get his business, but what does that matter now? I…’
‘God, Kate, no!’ Garrick interrupted her explosively. ‘Turn your back on me if you must…hate me even, if you want to…but please don’t sell yourself to someone like Cameron. It would destroy you. If the company is so very important to you, I’ll give you some business. I’ve already…’
‘Thanks, but no thanks. What is it, Garrick…guilty conscience perhaps? I’ve gone to bed with you, therefore I have to be paid off, just like your other women?’ Kate demanded recklessly.
‘Is that what you really think?’ His mouth twisted. ‘I suppose there is a certain kind of rough justice that you should. Listen to me, Kate, because whatever else yo
u may or may not choose to believe about me, this much is true. I didn’t want to make love to you last night. I knew it would only add to my burden of deceit.’
Kate went ashen.
‘There’s no need to remind me that I was the one to proposition you, Garrick,’ she said proudly. ‘But…’
‘For God’s sake woman, will you allow me to finish just one sentence? I didn’t want to make love to you because I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, not with all that you didn’t know about me, but I couldn’t stop myself… I’ve spent too many nights lying awake, aching for you, to be strong-willed enough to deny my need.’
He reached for her and wordlessly she let him take hold of her. Holding her, he traced the trembling outline of her mouth with his thumb, brushing the soft curves tenderly.
‘Is this because you hate me?’ he asked her softly, undermining her defences. ‘I love you, Kate. I didn’t mean to…I certainly didn’t want to, but I do, and although you may think it arrogantly male of me, I think you love me too. No woman could make love the way you did last night and not care. I fully intended to tell you the truth today, I promise you…and to ask you to be my wife, and not because of Michael.
‘The first time I walked into this house, all I could think of was how convenient it would be to have a child without the inconvenience of its mother. Michael himself meant nothing to me, I admit it. But you changed all that. I love Michael. I can’t deny it, but that’s not why I’m asking you to marry me.’
‘I’m a career woman,’ Kate protested huskily. ‘I wouldn’t make you a good wife, Garrick. Not the kind of wife a successful man like you needs to run his home and bring up his family.’
‘Wrong,’ he told her forcefully. ‘You’re exactly the kind of wife I need. The only woman I could ever want as my partner through life. And marriage to me doesn’t mean you must abandon your career, Kate. In fact, I wouldn’t want you to. It may not be easy at times for either of us, but with luck…with sheer hard work…and most of all with love…we can make it.’
‘Can we?’ Kate sighed, no longer able to resist him.
‘Let me prove it to you.’
She quivered wildly as his mouth touched hers, unable to deny herself the bliss of holding him, of touching him, of letting his mouth convince her of all that he had already said.
A career…a husband…a family. It sounded too good to be true.
As though he knew what she was thinking, as he released her, Garrick said huskily, ‘I can’t promise you that you’ll have it all, as they say in the books. No one does! To imagine that they do is a fallacy. Compromises will have to be made, but I think that any amount of compromising is worth while if it makes it possible for us to be together. I want you as my wife, Kate. I want that more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. We go together, you and I. I know you need and want your career, and I don’t want to stop you having those things. Marry me and I’ll prove it to you.’
She looked at him and he added rawly, ‘I’m not going to beg you to trust me, Kate.’
‘You don’t have to,’ she told him softly.
He was strong, this man of hers; strong enough to allow her to be her own person, to accept that she could not devote her life to living in his shadow. As he had said, it wouldn’t be easy, but somehow they would find a way to make it possible, feasible, viable. After all, they had the strongest bond there was. Their love.
* * *
‘So!’
Kate picked up her telephone and punched out the number of Garrick’s private line.
‘Are you free for dinner with me tonight?’ she asked him once she had heard the familiar tones of his voice.
‘In what capacity?’ he teased her. ‘As my wife…or as the director of my PR agency?’
‘Neither,’ Kate told him with a smile. ‘And don’t bother asking any more questions. It’s a surprise.’
As she put down the receiver she grinned delightedly to herself. In fact, it was two surprises, and she intended to save the best until last.
Only this morning she and Camilla had agreed the final details of the deal that would make them equal partners in the new PR company they intended to form. With Camilla as her partner, both of them would be able to afford to split the responsibilities of running the business. It was rather like job-sharing with a difference, Kate chuckled, and she was also going to be the first to benefit from the new partnership because in eight months time, just in time for their first wedding anniversary, she would be presenting Garrick with their second child. A brother or sister for Michael.
Was it only just over six months ago that Garrick had cautioned her against expecting to ‘have it all’? She smiled again. Her life came as close to perfection as it was possible to come.
The M4 motorway made it possible for them both to commute daily to their offices from the pretty Queen Anne house they had bought just outside Bath.
Michael had settled down well with his new nanny, an older woman who seemed to know just how to deal with children; and he had also taken to his adoptive grandparents in the shape of Garrick’s mother and father.
Kate herself was getting to spend more time with him than she ever had before, since she had been able to promote Sara to office manager, and now there was the new partnership with Camilla and their mutual agreement that they would take it in turns to work from home, using the advanced computer technology Kate’s recent success had made it possible for her to buy.
Garrick had helped her there, giving her as much of his many companies’ PR work as she could handle. And it wasn’t nepotism, he had been quick to assure her. He had been impressed with the presentation she had prepared for James, and he continued to be impressed with the work she did for him.
‘The results speak for themselves,’ he had told her when she had demurred that other members of his main board might not look too kindly of him giving so much PR work to his wife and a company that was still only just getting established.
But she had proved herself now, and the success of the campaign she had introduced for Garrick’s companies had drawn other businesses to her. She and Camilla had agreed that they would keep the business small enough for them both to handle, because, as she had discovered these last six months, there was more to life than mere material achievement, much…much more. And she hugged to herself the knowledge of the pleasure Garrick would take in learning that they were to have a child.
Having it all? Maybe not from the viewpoint of the woman she had once been, whose career had been everything to her, but these last six months had taught her that, if she had to lose everything else, so long as she still retained Garrick’s love she would have all that she could ever want.
She glanced at her watch. Another five hours before she met Garrick for dinner. She couldn’t wait to see his face when she told him their news.
* * * * *
Now, read on for a tantalizing excerpt of USA Today bestselling author
Dani Collins’s new release,
XENAKIS’S CONVENIENT BRIDE
The second book in The Secret Billionaires trilogy!
Stavros Xenakis refuses to marry—until deliciously tempting Calli proves that a wife is exactly what he needs! Stavros’s proposal gives Calli the chance to find her stolen son. But she doesn’t expect life as Mrs. Xenakis to be quite so satisfying…
Read on to get a glimpse of
XENAKIS’S CONVENIENT BRIDE
PROLOGUE
STAVROS XENAKIS THREW his twenty-thousand-euro chips into the pot, less satisfied than he usually was postchallenge, but it had nothing to do with his fellow players or his lackluster hand.
His longtime friend Sebastien Atkinson had arranged his usual après-adrenaline festivities. It had wound down to the four of them, as it often did. Many turned out for these extreme sports events, but only Antonio Di Marcello and Alejandro Salazar had the same deep pockets Stavros and Sebastien did. Or the stones to bet at this level simply to stretch out a mellow evening.
Stavros wasn’t the snob his grandfather was, but he didn’t consider many his equal. These men were it and he enjoyed their company for that reason. Tonight was no exception. They were still high on today’s exercise of cheating death, sipping 1946 Macallan while trading good-natured insults.
So why was he twitching with edginess?
He mentally reviewed today’s paraski that had had him carving a steep line down a ski slope to a cliff’s edge before rocketing into thin air, lifted by his chute for a thousand feet, guiding his path above a ridge, then hitting the lower slope for another run of hard turns before taking to the air again.
It had been as physically demanding as any challenge that had come before and was probably their most daredevil yet. Throughout most of it, he’d been completely in the moment—his version of meditating.
He had expected today to erase the frustration that had been dogging him, but it hadn’t. He might have set it aside for a few hours, but this niggling irritation was back to grate at him.
Sebastien eyed him across the table, no doubt trying to determine if he was bluffing.
“How’s your wife?” Stavros asked, more as a deflection, but also trying to divine how Sebastien could be happily married.
“Better company than you. Why are you so surly tonight?”
Was it obvious? He grimaced. “I haven’t won yet.” He was among friends so he admitted the rest. “And my grandfather is threatening to disinherit me if I don’t marry soon. I’d tell him to go to hell, but…”
“Your mother,” Alejandro said.
“Exactly.” They all knew his situation. He played ball with his grandfather for the sake of his mother and sisters. He couldn’t walk away from his own inheritance when it would cost them theirs.
But “settle down?” His grandfather had been trying to fit Stavros into a box from the time he was twelve. Lately it had become a push toward picket fences. Demands he produce an heir and a spare.
Stavros couldn’t buy into any of that so, yet again, he was in a power struggle with the old man. He usually got around being whipped down a particular path, but he hadn’t yet found his alternate route. It chewed and chewed at him, especially when his grandfather was holding control of the family’s pharmaceutical conglomerate hostage.