by Diana Palmer
“Dick Langley,” she said without hesitation.
“Is he still racing those damned cars?”
“He won the last race,” she protested. “He’s a nice man. Very rich. Great fun.”
“And a dead loss,” he scoffed. He cocked his head. “Why didn’t you call him?”
“Dick?” she hedged.
“Thorpe!”
Her shoulders moved restlessly. “I don’t like looking back.”
“It’s not my place to dictate to you,” he said after a minute. “But if you get pregnant, he has the right to know.”
Her face jerked up, and she paled. “But…!”
“Did you think it wouldn’t show?” he murmured dryly. “You left here a little innocent and came back looking whipped and half alive. It didn’t take much imagination to see how things went. Are you pregnant?”
“I don’t think so,” she said honestly, and with a faint smile. “But I wish I were. Does that shock you?”
“Not at all,” he said, and smiled with genuine fondness. “I’d like a grandchild or two. But it would suit me better if you had a husband first.”
“I could marry Dick.”
“You could marry Thorpe. If he’s as tormented as he sounded, he’d probably say yes if you asked him.”
“He only says yes when he’s seduced,” she grumbled.
He laughed. “So that’s what happened!”
“You always used to say, ‘Go after what you want in the most straightforward way possible,’ didn’t you?” she asked innocently.
“It worked for me,” he agreed, and winked. “How do you think I got your mother to say yes?”
“Dad!”
He turned away, laughing. “It will all work out,” he said with characteristic smugness. “I know that, even if you don’t.”
He left, and she watched him with loving eyes. He knew her so well. It had taken years for them to build this relationship, but she was grateful for it. At least she had someone to run to, someone to talk to. She wondered how it would have been if she hadn’t?
Her hand touched her stomach lightly. She hadn’t thought much about pregnancy. She felt no different. It was too soon to tell, of course, but she hoped. How she hoped! If she couldn’t have Cameron, his child would be almost as wonderful. She leaned back with a tiny smile and daydreamed about how it would be. Then she suddenly remembered that she hadn’t phoned the florist. Well, there would be time to daydream later.
***
All too soon, the night of the party arrived, and Merlyn stood at the top of the staircase, looking down on the elegant guests. She was taking a page out of her mother’s book, wearing a stark white gown that fell gracefully from a strapless bodice. For contrast she had added black high heels and a black fur boa around her bare shoulders. The saucy little hairdo suited the look, although, just this once, she missed the masses of hair that she had once piled into elegant coiffures.
Her eyes scanned the newcomers anxiously. Well, at least Cameron hadn’t shown up yet. Perhaps he wouldn’t come.…
She started slowly down the staircase, poised and graceful, and glad of her choice of gowns when her father looked up and grinned with pride.
She’d just reached the bottom step when the door opened to admit the Radners—Delle and her mother—and Cameron. Cameron was chatting with an acquaintance, and Merlyn’s helpless eyes made a meal of him. He looked broader than ever in his tuxedo, darker and more masculine. His crisp black hair was slightly damp, as if he had been in the rain, and she remembered another rainy night.…
“Why, Miss Forrest,” Charlotte Radner said with a laugh, as if she were shocked to find Merlyn in such grand company, “how unexpected.”
Merlyn’s eyebrows rose with just the right amount of hauteur. “Mrs. Radner,” she said, extending her hand. “We’re delighted that you could join us.”
Charlotte blinked, staring at the outstretched hand. She took it automatically.
“Dad,” Merlyn said deliberately, “this is Charlotte Radner and her daughter, Delle.”
“Charmed,” he returned with a twinkle in his eyes. He lifted Charlotte’s hand to his lips. “Merlyn has mentioned you both.”
Charlotte looked as if she might choke, and Delle gaped.
“But your name is Forrest,” Delle blurted out.
“My full name is Merlyn Forrest Steele,” Merlyn said with quiet poise. “I use my mother’s maiden name in my travels. You’d be amazed at how many people court me just because of my father.”
Charlotte was pale. “Yes, I see,” she managed. “How kind of you to invite us.”
“Darling,” Dick called, laughing, as he moved through the throng with a glass of champagne. He looked handsome in his pale blue tuxedo. “Here you are.” He handed the champagne to her. “Mr. Steele.” He nodded at her father. Then he grinned at the Radners. “How nice to see you again.”
“You remember Dick?” Merlyn asked the women carelessly, smiling up at him. “He’s the heir to the Langley fortune—oil, you know,” she added. “When he isn’t indulging his passion for formula racing cars, he sits in with a band in Gainesville.”
“I always wanted to be a drummer,” he confessed. He held out his hand. “Miss Radner, may I introduce you around?” he asked Delle. “Mrs. Radner?” he added with a pointed glance at Charlotte.
“How lovely,” Delle said in an excited voice.
“You…will excuse us?” Charlotte asked, smiling wanly. She walked off with her daughter and Dick, looking as if she were choking on a watermelon.
“Feel better?” her father asked.
Merlyn shook her head. “Not much. I thought I’d enjoy it. I didn’t.”
“Better get yourself together. Here comes trouble,” he said under his breath.
Cameron was just excusing himself to his acquaintance. He turned to greet Mr. Steele and Merlyn. And the look on his dark face was carefully controlled to show no emotion.
“Ah, Thorpe!” her father said with a beaming smile. He moved forward to take Cameron’s hand. “So glad you could come! This is my daughter, Merlyn. I believe you’ve met?”
“Met is hardly the word,” Cameron returned. His dark eyes narrowed, as though he could control himself no longer. “Do come and have a chat with me, little miss heiress.”
“I have to receive my guests,” she replied stiffly, frightened.
“How would you like to do it hanging over my shoulder?” he asked.
“I’d go, if I were you,” her father advised with an amused glance. “You’d look pretty silly being carried out of here in a fireman’s lift.”
“Some help you are!” she accused.
Her father shrugged. “Don’t blame me. You seduced him.”
Cameron’s eyes flared. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he burst out, glaring at her. “What did you do, come home and brag about your conquest?”
“You’d better keep your voice down, Mr. Thorpe, or Delle will hear you,” she advised, struggling as he grasped her upper arm.
“Cameron?” came a plaintive little voice from behind him. Delle came up, glancing past him at Merlyn.
“What is it, Delle?” he asked as if he couldn’t care less.
“Well, I just wondered if you wanted to come and have some punch,” Delle said helplessly.
“Merlyn and I have things to talk about,” he said shortly.
“What things?”
“Our baby, for one,” he said as he stared into Merlyn’s shocked face.
“Baby!” Delle burst out.
“What baby?” Merlyn asked.
“Oh, I happened to mention that you were pregnant,” Mr. Steele said pleasantly, smiling at Merlyn with superb nonchalance.
“Dad!” she cried, aghast.
He shrugged, lifting his glass of champagne toward Delle. “Would you like to dance, Miss Radner?” he asked with a grin. “I’m pretty light on my feet for an old man.”
And before Delle could say another word, he led her away.
“Aren’t you?” he asked. His eyes wandered over her slowly. “How can you be sure? It hasn’t even been a month.”
She shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, I’m pretty sure.”
“Not positive?”
Her heart was beating like a drum. She could hardly breathe at all. And while she was trying to find words, he moved forward. He pulled her gently into his arms and bent to kiss her full on the mouth.
She protested once, weakly, but the old, sweet hunger filled her again. His lips probed and teased. Finally, she went on tiptoe to kiss him back, letting her mouth open under his. He trembled wildly, and she felt a burst of warmth at her own power.
He lifted his head and looked down at her like a starving man, oblivious to the amused stares of onlookers. “My God, I’ve gone out of my mind trying to find you,” he murmured huskily. “I never should have let you get away. Well, I’ve got you now, and I’m not letting go. I don’t care about the money, I want you!”
He actually seemed to mean it. Of course, she’d thought Adam meant it, too. She glanced dazedly past him and saw people starting to whisper among themselves.
“Cameron…”
“That’s how you said my name in bed,” he recalled, bending to rest his forehead on hers. “I’ve relived that night over and over again. Come on, let’s go somewhere and talk.”
“You don’t want to talk,” she accused, moving away from contact with his long, hard body.
“Of course I do. Eventually.”
“Then you can do it in a crowd,” she said in a huff, going to sit on the staircase. “I’m not going to go off and be alone with you.”
“I’ll let you seduce me again,” he coaxed, dropping down beside her.
She flushed and avoided his hot stare. “How are your mother and Amanda?”
“Missing you. Amanda’s moped around like an orphan. Mother senses that something happened, but she’s been too busy finishing the book to ask. That’s why she isn’t with me,” he added, smiling. “I didn’t tell her who the Steeles were.”
“Would you have come to find me, if you’d known?” she murmured.
“Yes,” he said. He reached out and touched her hair lightly. “I’ve had little more than memories and dreams to sustain me these past weeks,” he said tautly. “The reality of you is shattering. Did you miss me?”
“No,” she said curtly, looking away. He was Adam all over again, wanting her for what she had, for what she was. Her eyes closed.
He sighed heavily. “I even know what you’re thinking,” he said quietly. “I suppose it will take time.”
“What will?”
“Convincing you to marry me,” he said carelessly.
She looked at him, her green eyes wide. “No!”
“Yes.” He lifted her slender hand to his mouth and kissed the palm slowly, softly, looking into her eyes. “You’re in love with me, Merlyn. You said so.” He sighed roughly. “I’ll never get over that as long as I live. I was too shocked to save myself. I let you lead me off like a lamb going to slaughter.”
Her face flamed, and she tried to jerk her hand away, but he wouldn’t release it. “Some lamb!” she whispered, glancing around to make sure no one was within hearing.
“Merlyn,” he said gently, “I’ve never before let a woman do to me what you did. I suppose it was misplaced pride or masculine arrogance…but I always had to be the dominant partner. It was, in a sense, my first time, too.”
That pleased her. But the eyes that searched his face were still wary, worried, uncertain.
“I’ll woo you, little heiress,” he said, “if that’s what you want. All of it. Candy, flowers, I’ll even serenade you.”
“That will be the day,” she ground out.
“You don’t think I can?” he murmured, smiling slowly. “Ah, but I’ve changed, Merlyn. I’ve become uninhibited.”
She swallowed hard and tried to avoid his eyes. They were sensual, and the warmth of his big body and its spicy scent were beginning to weaken her.
“I don’t want to marry you,” she said under her breath.
“We can’t let our baby be born illegitimate,” he murmured, smiling at her.
“I’m not pregnant!” she burst out.
Beside the staircase, several couples stopped talking and stared at them, aghast.
“Yes, you are!” he said, deliberately raising his voice. “And it’s my baby! Why won’t you marry me and give it a name?”
Her face went blood red. “Cameron!”
He stood up slowly, towering over her, his eyes dancing with dark mischief. “Imagine, a well brought up young lady like you refusing to marry the father of her child!”
She got to her feet so quickly she almost fell.
He caught her, holding her gently. “There, now, darling, you have to be careful,” he taunted. “We wouldn’t want you to hurt the baby.”
She tried to speak, but he swung her up into his powerful arms and carried her gently the two steps to the bottom.
“I’d carry you the other way,” he murmured wickedly, “but I can’t risk dropping you.”
“I’ll get even with you if…” she sputtered.
He smothered the words under his warm, rough mouth, and there were louder murmurs and a few isolated chuckles as he knocked every single protest out of her mind.
“Remember what we did in the closet that night?” he whispered, his mouth poised just above hers. “I’d like to do it with you right now. I’d like to feel your breasts.…”
“Don’t,” she moaned, hiding her face in his throat.
He laughed softly. “Marry me, Merlyn.”
“No. You only want me for what I have,” she said coldly.
“That’s a fact,” he whispered, brushing his mouth over her eyelids until they closed. “I want you for your mind, and your heart, and for this body that makes me ache every time I touch it.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she groaned.
He met her eyes and looked into them quietly. “I won’t take no for an answer. You could be pregnant. We did nothing to prevent it.”
Her lips trembled as he slowly put her down on her feet. She looked up at him stubbornly.
“Well, if there is a baby, it’s mine,” she said.
“Ours,” he corrected, with a slow grin.
She stomped her foot. “Cameron!”
He caught her hand and tugged at it. “Come have some punch and calm down. It isn’t good for you to get upset, in your condition.”
She started to speak and then gave up when she saw the amused glances they were getting. Her jaw clenched. So it was war, was it? Well, he’d better have an arsenal, because he had a fight on his hands. She wasn’t going to be his plaything and his purse, all at once. No, sir!
Chapter Eleven
“How could you do that to me?” she asked her father later, as the party was just beginning to wind down.
He grinned at her, with a wry glance toward Cameron, who’d hardly left her side all evening. “Just playing cupid, darling,” he said. “I like him. He’ll do me for a son-in-law.”
“I thought we’d agreed that you were through playing matchmaker,” she said archly.
His eyebrows rose. “I had nothing to do with it,” he reminded her.
Her eyes narrowed. “Really? Just how much did you know about Cameron before you helped me find that job with his mother?”
He looked briefly uncomfortable. “Well, actually, I had met him once or twice,” he confided. “And I knew he was unmarried. But he was your exact opposite, darling.”
“So he was,” she agreed, not quite convinced. She sighed angrily. “I’m not going to marry him.”
“Oh, of course not,” he agreed. He lifted a silvery eyebrow. “Just a matter of curiosity, how do you plan to stop him?”
“By saying no,” she said.
“It won’t work.”
“And I’m not pregnant!”
Both eyebrows went up. “The certainty of youth,” he murmured dryly. “You didn’t eat breakfast this morning.”
She flushed. “I wasn’t hungry!”
“I thought the smell of the bacon put you off?”
“Dad!” she groaned.
“A banker will be a nice addition to my board of directors,” he continued, unabashed. “And we can schedule the christening to coincide with the annual report.…”
“Will you listen?”
“…not to mention the wedding.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Let’s see, it had better be soon. Next week, I think. I’ll speak to Cameron.”
She stopped in the middle of the floor. “I will not marry him,” she said, carefully enunciating every word.
“Don’t be silly, of course you will.” He smiled at her and beckoned to his future son-in-law.
She hated that smile. She always had. The last time she’d seen it was when she decided to drop out of college.
“She’s all yours, son,” her father told Cameron, handing her over with a flourish. “There are too many available ladies around tonight for me to spend the entire evening with my own daughter. Lovely though she is,” he added with a mocking bow, and strode away.
“A man after my own heart,” Cameron murmured with a smile as he led her to the dance floor. “He’ll be a good grandfather.”
“I am not pregnant. I am not marrying you.”
“Come upstairs and let’s lie down and discuss it,” he said with a twinkle in his dark eyes.
“I was drunk!”
He took her in his arms and moved slowly to the romantic music of a waltz. “No, you were in love. So was I. I tried to do the right thing, but once you pulled off that gown…” The smile faded, and his eyes grew dark and fiery. The big arm that was holding her contracted slowly, softly crushing her breasts against his jacket. “Merlyn, without clothes, you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
She flushed and dropped her eyes to his chest. “Stop that.”
“Did I please you?” he asked quietly. He tilted her face up. “Did I, darling?”
“You know very well that you did,” she groaned, hiding her face against him. “Cam…”