Reece was starting to look really worried now at her continued silence. ‘It will be all right, Diana,’ he told her firmly. ‘I’ll make it all right,’ he promised her. ‘Only now that I’ve proposed and you’ve said yes, for God’s sake don’t ask for time to think it over or I shall really be worried!’
That was exactly what she had been going to do!
She felt as if she were waking after a long nightmare, emerging out of the deep, dark tunnel she had existed in since her father’s death, an unemotional cushion that, while protecting her, had also kept her completely removed from love as well as pain. And Reece Falcon was breaking down all those barriers that had protected her for so long…
God, she had fallen in love with the one man who should have been her enemy—should have been? Was!
How could she love and hate him at the same time? Or was it true that there was a very thin line between love and hate? She had never thought, in her wildest of imaginings, that she would fall in love with Reece Falcon! That possibility hadn’t entered into her plans at all.
What should she do now? She couldn’t marry him—loving him as she did, she would be subjecting herself to a life of misery. But how could she not marry him, loving him as she did? How would she live without him now?
‘Diana, I know we’ve only just met,’ Reece spoke forcefully as he sensed her indecision, his hands tightening painfully on hers. ‘That we’ve done nothing but argue since we did meet,’ he added ruefully. ‘But sometimes an instantaneous attraction can do that. At least——’ he grimaced ‘—I think it can. This has never happened to me before either!’
No, she could see that it hadn’t; she knew that this self-confident, arrogantly assured man had been knocked slightly off-balance ever since they’d first met. But everything was all muddled in her mind now. She had meant, on their wedding day, to present him with who she really was, to make him realise exactly who he was making his wife, who her father was. But she no longer wanted to do that now, not in that way, not in triumph. But Reece was going to find out who her father was anyway as soon as he realised her name wasn’t actually Diana Lamb, and once he knew that he was going to realise, with his intelligence, exactly why she had behaved in the way she had these last weeks. It was all going to rebound on her with sickening repercussions; she was going to be the one destroyed, not him…
* * *
Reece watched her anxiously as the different emotions flickered across her face. And he could see from her expression, as it had been with him, until he had actually proposed and she had accepted, that it had been the last thing she had thought would happen tonight, that she was as shocked by the commitment she had just made as he was that he had asked for it!
Good God, he had thought he would never marry again, that he liked his life the way that it was. Or, at least, he had… This last five weeks, since first meeting Diana, he had come to realise just how empty his life actually was, to know an ache inside himself for something more, for something—he hadn’t known what. Now he knew that hunger was for Diana, wanting her to be his wife.
But at the same time he realised he was older than her, and not just by eighteen years, but also in experience: he had a failed marriage behind him and a son not much younger than she was. He had never realised until this moment just what a bad matrimonial catch he was; he had always thought——But he had never thought of remarrying before, had known after things went so badly wrong with Cathy that there were certain things he couldn’t give to a marriage. But he wanted Diana so badly, so desperately, that he knew he would have to deceive her until after they were married. He had so much else to give her, surely that one thing——
He quickly put the torment from his mind, determined to deal with Diana’s uncertainties once and for all; she would be his!
‘I suggest we arrange the wedding for as soon as possible,’ he told her arrogantly, his gaze challenging as her eyes widened in protest. ‘There’s no reason to wait.’
‘I have work commitments for months ahead,’ she put in huskily.
He hated the idea of his wife ‘strutting her stuff’ for the great general public, as he had so crudely thought it that first night in Paris. But at the same time he realised he was going to have to tread very warily with this young woman; if he pushed her too far she was likely to take flight. Hadn’t she already shown him very effectively how determined she could be? There would be time later—once they were safely married!—to tell her exactly how he felt about her career.
‘Then we’ll work our wedding—and honeymoon——’ God, he felt weak at the knees at the thought of their honeymoon! ‘—around them.’
Diana shook her head. ‘Now that we’ve made the decision, there’s no hurry——’
‘Isn’t there?’ Reece looked at her with brooding intensity.
She looked at him for several seconds, a delicate blush slowly colouring her cheeks. ‘We have to tell Chris about our plans yet,’ she pointed out, moving away.
Reece let her go, stunned by this reminder of his son. Chris! He had completely forgotten, in his own need for Diana, that Chris would have to be told. What the hell was his son going to think of his announcement that he intended marrying the woman he had so disapproved of for him five weeks ago, the woman Chris had thought himself in love with until a short time ago? One thing was for certain: Chris wasn’t going to like it!
Damn whether Chris liked it or not, was Reece’s next thought. It was his life, damn it, and he would do what he damn well liked with it, including marrying someone his son was sure to think wasn’t right for him either!
* * *
Diana could see that Reece had been momentarily nonplussed at the thought of telling Chris the two of them were planning to get married, and also saw, barely seconds later, that arrogance that was such an integral part of Reece take over. And she knew that at that moment Reece didn’t care how Chris felt about the two of them as a couple.
This possible antagonism between father and son had been something she had thought might happen when she had first decided it was time the Falcon family were shaken out of their smug complacency, for them to know the same earth-shattering despair that she had known at the age of nine. But as she got to know Chris, to realise how the break-up of his parents’ marriage had affected him—also at the age of nine, coincidentally—she had come to realise that Chris was as blameless in all this as she had been. And now she had fallen in love with Reece too. Much as she loved her father, she was a dismal failure when it actually came to any sort of revenge for his death!
And Chris, she knew, was going to be totally confused at the announcement Reece intended making to him!
Although, thinking back to those speculative looks Chris had given them when they had left the party together earlier this evening, she didn’t think he would be altogether surprised at there being some sort of relationship between the two of them. But marriage? Diana was sure that thought had never even crossed his mind. He would be horrified at the thought of having her as his stepmother!
‘I’ll tell him,’ Reece bit out determinedly. ‘Nothing is going to stand in the way of our getting married, Diana,’ he added firmly.
She could see that it wasn’t. And she had what she wanted now, what she had schemed for since first being introduced to Chris all those weeks ago. And it was a hollow victory, totally meaningless, because on the day she became Reece’s wife she would lose everything that now mattered to her—Reece himself…
And no amount of persuasion on her part could get him to change his mind about the speed with which he wanted them to be married. From the moment she had agreed to marry him she found herself on the receiving end of his single-minded determination. Not that she had ever doubted that determination; it was just that marrying her was now the object of it, and he swept everything out of his path, every objection she could think of to such a hasty wedding—including the suggestion she made that people would think she was pregnant, something he grimly assured her they would know
wasn’t true when no baby put in an appearance!—as if it were of no consequence at all. One of the first things he did the next day, after whisking her out first thing in the morning to buy her a diamond engagement ring that sparkled so brightly it threatened to dazzle her every time she looked at it, was to invite Chris over to dinner at his apartment that evening. And Diana didn’t doubt it was so that he could tell Chris about their wedding plans in private!
Reece’s apartment itself was an eye-opener for Diana. She was used to staying in first-class hotels all over the world, and accepted their opulence as part of her job, but when it came to her own home she opted for comfort rather than elegance or style, and Reece’s London apartment home was more lavish than any hotel suite she had ever stayed in, all chrome and glass furniture and leather seating, the walls adorned with original paintings by artists she usually had to go to a gallery to see! And he had told her in passing that he had similar homes to this one in New York, Hong Kong, and a villa in the Bahamas!
He had made no mention of Chalford…
But Diana knew he still owned the house, that it stood cared for but empty in its rural Kent setting. She had been back only once to look at it since she’d reached adulthood, had spoken briefly to the gardener there, who had told her it was owned by a chap in London called Reece Falcon, but he never used it.
The memories that seeing the house again had evoked had discouraged her from ever repeating the visit…
But even living in that grandeur herself until she was nine hadn’t prepared her for Reece’s style of living, and she found herself constantly on the move from one painting to another as she realised exactly what it was and who it was by. It was more than a little unnerving. And her efforts to persuade herself that the paintings and other expensive trappings of Reece’s life didn’t matter, because of the way he had acquired them, no longer worked, because her love for him made her doubt her own convictions that he was really as selfishly manipulative as she had believed all these years. She knew he had to be, because of what had happened to her father, but, at the same time, how could she love the monster she had blown Reece up in her mind to be since she was nine years old…?
‘It’s selfish, I know,’ Reece murmured softly as he came up behind her with the drinks he had just poured for them both. ‘I keep all the beautiful things I own from the covetous gaze of the general public.’ His mouth twisted.
Diana had turned slowly, from the painting of a young child in a field of wild daffodils, to look at him. ‘Does that include women?’ she challenged softly, having missed none of his tight-lipped frustration yesterday when she had told him she intended carrying on with her career after they were married. She didn’t doubt, feeling as he did now, that he would be quite happy to lock her up in one of his luxury homes and throw away the key! After the fiasco any wedding between them promised to be he might still feel that way, but she doubted he would want to be locked in there with her!
* * *
Reece scowled his irritation at her astuteness, handing her the glass of orange juice she had asked for, as he thought quickly how best to answer her without causing an argument. He was still far from sure of her, despite having his engagement ring on her finger, and Diana was an intelligent woman—she would see through any prevarication on his part in answer to her question.
‘I travel all over the world on business,’ he began slowly. ‘The last thing I want is you jetting off to New York while I’m flying to Hong Kong!’
She gave a faint smile. ‘But just think of the reunions, Reece,’ she gently mocked.
He had thought of little else but making love to this woman almost since the first moment he had looked at her, but now that he knew of her innocence he was determined to wait—no matter how much it physically pained him to do so!—until after they were married. With Diana he wanted everything to be perfect, everything they did together to be the first time for them.
‘I have,’ he acknowledged gruffly. ‘And they wouldn’t be enough for me.’ He shook his head. ‘Diana, I want you with me——’ The slender length of her fingers against his lips silenced him, and he looked at her with impatient eyes.
‘I happen to like my career, Reece,’ she told him firmly. ‘Enjoy it. Worked hard to get where I am today. It simply wouldn’t be enough for me to sit about waiting in one luxurious hotel after another waiting for you to spare me a few minutes of your precious time between business meetings——’
‘It wouldn’t be like that!’ he protested.
‘Oh, yes,’ she nodded with gentle assurance, her golden hair falling forward over her bare shoulders and down over her breasts in the dark green strapless gown she wore that clung revealingly to the slender curves of her body to just above her knee. ‘It would be exactly like that.’
‘No, damn it, it wouldn’t!’ He took the glass out of her hand and put both drinks down on the coffee-table beside them. ‘I wouldn’t let it. I want to be with you, Diana, not stuck in some boardroom or office somewhere——Don’t laugh at me, damn you!’ He scowled darkly as she chuckled softly, shaking her head indulgently.
She still smiled at him. ‘Are we having our first engaged-couple argument, Reece?’ she taunted softly.
Good God, so they were! And he knew exactly why. It might be part of Diana’s attraction for him that she was her own person, completely independent in everything she did and said—and yet it was also damned frustrating!
He felt himself smile back at her ruefully. ‘The first of many, no doubt!’ he grimaced self-derisively.
She sobered suddenly, her eyes shadowed to almost as dark a green as her dress now. ‘I don’t like arguments, Reece,’ she told him gruffly.
‘But think of the making up, Diana,’ he encouraged as his head slowly lowered to hers. ‘Just thinking about it arouses me!’
Just thinking about it aroused her too—but it also threw her into a complete panic! She didn’t have a will of her own once Reece took her in his arms. As she didn’t now!
His lips moved sensually against hers, the tip of his tongue erotically outlining the softness of her mouth, flicking across the evenness of her teeth, promising much but remaining tantalising elusive.
With a low groan of capitulation Diana relaxed completely against him, her arms moving up about his neck to pull his head to her, increasing the pressure of his lips, the hardness of his body moulded against hers now.
‘When no one answered the doorbell I decided to let myself in with my key,’ drawled a rueful but familiar voice. ‘Sorry if I’m interrupting something,’ Chris added drily. ‘But I thought it was tonight I was invited to dinner——My God… Diana!’ he gasped dazedly as she sprang hastily away from his father and he realised just who Reece had been kissing. ‘I thought—I didn’t know——Diana…?’ He gave her a pained frown of disbelief before turning to his father. ‘Dad?’ he snapped as indignation began to take the place of surprise.
He was demanding an explanation, from one of them, and Diana couldn’t exactly blame him for feeling the way he did at finding her here with Reece. She hadn’t realised he had a key to his father’s apartment, although Chris had told her he’d lived here with his father until just over a year ago, so it wasn’t surprising he still had the key. If only they had heard him ring the doorbell! But it was too late for ‘if onlys’ now; Chris had to realise there was something between his father and her now, and he had found out the worst possible way.
But Reece looked unshaken by Chris’s unexpected appearance in this way, his arm moving comfortingly about her bare shoulders as he moved to stand beside her in a gesture that looked protective. ‘Chris, I would like you to meet——’
‘I know who she is, for God’s sake!’ Chris scowled darkly.
‘—my fiancée,’ Reece finished smoothly, as if there had been no interruption, his silver gaze challenging on his son’s stunned face. ‘Your future stepmother.’
Diana felt sorry for Chris at that moment. His anger had initially been replaced by confus
ion at the announcement, and now he looked dismayed. And she couldn’t blame him for feeling that way, when he had thought himself in love with her until a short time ago. She wished she could reassure him, tell him that she would never have that place in his life, but she was trying so hard herself not to think what would happen on her wedding day when Reece found he was marrying Divinia Lambeth!
She looked at Chris with knowing sympathy. ‘Chris, I——’
‘Get used to the idea, Chris,’ his father rasped harshly. ‘The wedding is to be next month.’
That was news to her! As far as she was aware they hadn’t decided on a wedding date yet. But Reece had, she realised as she looked at him with widely questioning eyes, frowning as it sank in that he had deliberately chosen this way to make the announcement, so putting her in a position where she couldn’t deny it without Chris becoming aware of some disharmony between them concerning their wedding date. She should have guessed that Reece had accepted it too calmly when she had told him the wedding couldn’t take place until her work commitments slackened off. Now that she thought about it, he had never said that he did accept it!
Chris looked taken aback at the speed with which things were happening too. ‘I didn’t even know the two of you——Why?’ He frowned suspiciously.
She felt Reece tense beside her, knowing he was furiously angry at the question and the way it had been put so pointedly. She gave him a knowing look; this was exactly what she had told him would happen if they married so quickly.
‘Because I want Diana as my wife,’ he told Chris icily. ‘As soon as possible. I would marry her tomorrow if it could be arranged,’ he announced arrogantly, challenge in every line of his tautly held body.
Chris had recovered slightly from his shock now, and there was a sneer to his lips as he met that challenge. ‘I’m surprised it isn’t, if that’s what you’ve decided you want! My God——’ He shook his head disgustedly. ‘No wonder you were so determined I wasn’t going to marry her; you had seen her by that time and decided you wanted Divine for yourself!’
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