Married By Christmas

by Carole Mortimer

  Her father looked a little shamefaced, sobering slowly. ‘I’m sorry, Lilli.’ He touched her hand in apology. ‘It was just that—well—’

  ‘He knows I’m right,’ Patrick put in. ‘Although I’m probably the first person brave enough to actually say as much.’

  She had realised the first night she met him that he was very direct, but she hadn’t known it was to the point of rudeness. What on earth had she been thinking of two nights ago, becoming involved with such a man? The trouble was, she hadn’t been thinking at all, had just wanted to hit out and hurt, the way she had been hurt when she saw her father with Geraldine Simms.

  How that had rebounded on her! Spending the night with Patrick had changed nothing—except that the man now seemed to think he was going to marry her! Oh, she had hurt her father, but he was still seeing Geraldine, and now she, it seemed, was stuck with the infuriating Patrick Devlin!

  ‘Although I can quite easily see how it happened, Richard.’ Patrick continued his conversation with her father. ‘Lilli is the sort of woman you want to spoil.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Laughter still gleamed in her father’s eyes. ‘She was incredibly endearing as a little girl.’

  ‘I can imagine.’ Patrick nodded, turning back to Lilli. ‘Make sure you stop me from spoiling our daughters, Lilli, because they’re sure to look like you, and—’

  ‘Daughters!’ She gasped at the plural. ‘How many children do you want?’

  ‘You see, I knew you would come round.’ Patrick grinned at her approvingly. ‘I would like you to be mother to two sons and two daughters.’

  Four children. ‘You said “a couple of heirs” earlier,’ she reminded him.

  He shrugged. ‘Four sounds a much better number. Besides, I’m sure you’ll look even more beautiful when you’re pregnant than you do now, so I’ll—’

  Her father stood up noisily, effectively cutting off the indignant reply he could see Lilli had been about to make. ‘I’ll leave the two of you to continue discussing this,’ he said. ‘And the outcome, as I’ve told you before—’ he turned to Patrick with narrowed eyes ‘—will have no bearing whatsoever on our—business arrangement.’

  ‘Agreed,’ the other man conceded easily. ‘Although, as your son-in-law, I could be more helpful to you...’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Lilli’s father replied slowly, giving Lilli a considering look. ‘As my son-in-law, you’re likely to end up with a knife sticking in your back on your wedding night!’

  Patrick’s mouth twisted humorously. ‘All the more reason for you to encourage the marriage, I would have thought,’ he drawled.

  ‘Ah, but then I would have to explain to Gerry how I let this happen to the older brother she so obviously adores. And, as I know to my cost,’ Richard dramatically added, ‘an angry and upset Gerry is a force to be reckoned with!’

  ‘But you have no personal objections to this marriage?’ Patrick prompted.

  ‘None at all—because it will never happen,’ Lilli’s father returned easily. ‘I know my Lilli.’ He kissed her lightly on the forehead in parting. ‘I’ll see you later, Devlin,’ he said hardly before leaving the room.

  Patrick turned back to Lilli with calm grey eyes. ‘Does he know you?’ he asked. ‘Did he really believe you could go off and spend the night with a man you had only just met?’

  She could too easily recall the pained expression on her father’s face yesterday morning. No, her father hadn’t believed her capable of that. But then, neither had she!

  Her head went back in haughty dismissal. ‘No one has to spend a lifetime paying for the mistake of one night of stupidity any more.’

  ‘Don’t they?’ Patrick said softly, standing up to move round the table to stand at her side. ‘The other night wasn’t stupid, Lilli,’ he told her huskily as he pulled her easily to her feet to stand in front of him. ‘I wouldn’t still have it on my mind if it had been. You were warm and responsive, gave yourself—’

  ‘Stop it!’ she cut in desperately, not wanting to hear about what she couldn’t even remember. Or did she...

  Even as he spoke she had images flitting in and out of her head, of the two of them in bed together, of their bodies entwined, of Patrick’s lips and hands on her body, of her own pleasure in those caresses—

  No! She didn’t want to remember. It had been a mistake, and not one for which she intended paying for the rest of her life.

  ‘But you were, Lilli,’ Patrick told her, suddenly very close. ‘And you did.’

  He was too close! She could smell his aftershave, see black specks amongst the grey in his irises, feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek, knew—

  His mouth, as it claimed hers, was warm and gently caressing, his arms enfolding her against the hardness of his body, moulding her to each sinewed curve, deepening the kiss, desire and wanting suddenly taking over.

  Lilli felt the same need, her body responding instinctively to the caress of his hands down her spine, shivers of delight coursing through her body, her mouth opening to the intimacy of his kiss, a feeling of hard possession sweeping over her.

  It was the force of that feeling that made her at last struggle to be free of his arms. Yes, she responded to him. Yes, she could feel the heat in her body for him, for the need of him. But she didn’t want to be possessed, by him or any other man. Especially not by Patrick Devlin!

  Patrick felt her struggles and at once released her, his eyes dark with his own emotions as he looked at her. ‘It would work between us, Lilli,’ he whispered. ‘What further proof do you want?’

  Heated colour warmed her cheeks. ‘Physically we—’

  ‘Match completely,’ he completed for her.

  Lilli looked at him. ‘We have a certain response to each other,’ she allowed. ‘But when you came here yesterday afternoon you believed I had spent the night with you for devious reasons of my own—reasons I’m still not fully sure of. Although I do know they involve my father, in some way.’ She frowned. ‘Last night when we met, your attitude towards me had changed yet again. For some reason you announced you wanted to marry me!’ She shook her head, not acknowledging for the moment the fact that she had needed to see him again, anyway. His arrogant announcement about marrying her had made null and void any intention she might have had of asking him for the truth about his business dealings with her father. She would rather never know the truth about that than have to be nice to this man! ‘You’re inconsistent, as well as—’

  ‘Not in the least, Lilli,’ he interrupted smoothly, his eyes coolly grey once more. ‘The things you just spoke of are the very reasons why I’ve realised you will make me an excellent wife.’

  She became very still. ‘I don’t see how...’

  ‘I’m under no illusions where you’re concerned, Lilli,’ he explained. ‘I even respect the fact that you tried to help your father—’

  ‘By—as you think—going to bed with you!’ Her eyes glittered deeply green at the accusation.

  He shrugged. ‘By whatever means were at your disposal,’ he countered. ‘It shows loyalty to your father. And loyalty, if not love, is something to be admired in a wife. My wife,’ he added softly.

  That word again! She was not going to be his wife, no matter what warped logic he might have used to come to that decision. ‘That’s no guarantee I would be loyal to you,’ she pointed out spiritedly. ‘Why should I be? You’re arrogant, domineering—’

  ‘So are you,’ he mocked in reply.

  ‘And you seem to have some sort of hold over my father that no one will explain to me!’ The last was said almost questioningly.

  Patrick’s mouth tightened. ‘I agree with your father. business is business. Haven’t I just explained that these two things are completely separate?’

  ‘You don’t “explain” things, Patrick,’ she sighed. ‘You simply make statements, and expect them to happen!’

  He grinned. ‘I think that’s the first time you’ve called me Patrick. Plenty of other things, to my
face, and otherwise, I suspect.’ His grin widened to a smile. ‘But never Patrick before.’

  ‘It’s your name. But you can be assured I’ll never call you husband!’ she said vehemently.

  He seemed unconcerned. ‘Never say never, Lilli. Stranger things have happened. I always said I would never marry again, but you see how wrong I was,’ he reasoned patiently.

  This man was so exasperating; she was going to scream in a minute! No wonder her father was having problems conducting business with him; he didn’t listen to what anyone else had to say. About anything!

  She gave an impatient shake of her head. ‘Wasn’t your first experience at marriage bad enough?’ she challenged—and then wished she hadn’t as his face darkened ominously. It was obviously still a sensitive subject... And it was also the reason he had no intention of marrying for love... She couldn’t help wondering what the beautiful Sanchia had been like as a person, to have created such bitterness in a man as self-assured as Patrick...

  ‘And what do you know of my first marriage?’ he said softly—too softly. ‘You would have been thirteen when I married, and sixteen when I divorced—in neither case old enough to be part of that scene.’

  Lilli raised her eyebrows. ‘You obviously continue to have gossip value, because people are still talking about it!’

  ‘Indeed?’ Patrick’s voice became frostier. ‘And what are these “people” saying about my marriage?’

  She looked at him warily; obviously, despite his comment last night about the social gossips, he didn’t like the thought that his own life might have been under discussion. ‘Only that it didn’t work out,’ she answered evasively.

  He met her gaze compellingly. ‘And?’

  ‘What else is there to say?’ she said quickly, feeling decidedly uncomfortable now. She wished she had never mentioned his marriage! But she wouldn’t have done so if he hadn’t come out with that ridiculous statement about marrying her... ‘A failed marriage, for whatever reason, is surely a good enough reason not to repeat the experience?’

  Patrick gave an assenting nod of his head. ‘As is a failed engagement,’ he rejoined pointedly.

  Lilli felt the heat of resentment in her cheeks. ‘Now that isn’t open for discussion,’ she said sharply.

  ‘Why not?’ he taunted. “The man was a fool. Given the same choices he was, I would have opted for the money and you. Although, for my own sake, I’m glad that he didn’t.’

  Lilli stared at him in frozen fascination. What was he talking about? She and Andy had been engaged for six months when he decided he no longer wanted to marry her, and that in the circumstances he couldn’t continue to work for her father, either. It had been a terrible blow at the time, happening, as it did, at the same time as her mother’s death. But she had got on with her life, hadn’t even seen Andy since the day he broke their engagement. In fact, she had no idea where he was now. And she wasn’t interested, either.

  Although the comments Patrick had just made about him were rather curious...

  ‘Would you?’ she said. ‘But then, you’re rich in your own right.’

  ‘True,’ Patrick conceded dryly. ‘Now isn’t that a better prospect in a husband than a man who’s only interested in embezzling money from your father so that he can go off with his male lover?’

  Lilli’s stare became even more fixed. He was talking about Andy. She knew he was.

  Could what he said possibly be true? Had Andy stolen money from her father? Before leaving with another man...?

  Andy had joined the company as her father’s assistant two years ago, a tall blond Adonis, with a charm to match—a charm Lilli, having become disenchanted with the ‘let’s go to bed’ attitude of the men in her social set, had found very refreshing.

  She had enjoyed his company too, often finding excuses to visit her father at his office, on the off chance she might bump into Andy there. More often than not, she had, although it had been a few months before he’d so much as invited her to join him for lunch. Over that lunch Lilli had found he was not only incredibly handsome, but also very intelligent, enjoying the verbal challenge of him as well as the physical one.

  Looking back, she supposed she had done most of the chasing, but she’d realised it must be awkward for him as she was the boss’s daughter. She had followed up that initial lunch with an invitation of her own, so that she might return the hospitality, suggesting the two of them go out to dinner this time. Again Andy had been fun, a witty conversationalist, and again he had behaved like the perfect gentleman when it came time for them to part.

  Lilli had been persistent in her interest in him, and after that they’d had dinner together often. That her father approved of the relationship she hadn’t doubted; in fact, he’d seemed deeply relieved she was spending so much time with his assistant and less time with her group of friends who seemed to do nothing but party.

  Lilli had been thrilled when Andy had asked her to marry him, and if she had been a little disappointed in his continued lack of ardour after their engagement she had accepted that it was out of respect for her, and could ultimately only bode well for their future marriage.

  But now Patrick seemed to be saying something else completely, was implying that Andy’s lack of physical interest in her hadn’t stemmed from respect for her at all, but from the fact that his sexual inclinations lay elsewhere!

  He also seemed to be saying that Andy’s engagement to her had enabled him to steal from her father’s company...

  Admittedly, as her father’s future son-in-law, Andy had been given more responsibility in the company, and as Lilli’s mother’s illness had deteriorated Andy had been left more and more in charge of things while her father spent time at home.

  Had Andy used that trust in him to take the opportunity to steal from Bennett Hotels?

  As she looked at Patrick, the certainty in his gaze, that contemptuous twist to his lips, she knew that was exactly what Andy had done. He had used her to cheat her father...!

  The blackness was only on the outer edge of her consciousness at first, and then it seemed to fill her whole being. Darkness. No light. Her legs buckled beneath her as she crumpled to the carpeted floor.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  LILLIE couldn’t focus properly when she opened her eyes, but she did know enough to realise she was no longer on the floor of the dining-room, that someone—and that someone had to be Patrick Devlin!—had carried her through to the adjoining sitting-room and had laid her on the sofa there.

  ‘My God, woman,’ he rasped from nearby. ‘Don’t ever give me a scare like that again!’

  He sounded angry—but then, he sounded like that a lot of the time!

  What had she—? Why—?

  Their conversation suddenly came flooding back in a sickening rush. Andy. Her father. The money...!

  She moved to sit up, only to find herself pushed firmly back down once more.

  ‘You aren’t moving until I’m sure you aren’t going to fall down again!’ Patrick ordered as he bent over her, scowling darkly.

  His expression alone was enough to make her want to shut her eyes and black out the world again, but even as she wished for that to happen she knew that the terrible truth would still be there when she was conscious again.

  ‘Who else knows?’ Her voice was barely audible. ‘About Andy, I mean. The money. And—and the other man.’ Her fiancé hadn’t just walked out on her, which she had thought was bad enough—he had actually gone with another man!

  Had the friends she’d spent the last two evenings with known about that? Had they all been laughing, or pitying her, behind her back? Had they all known that Andy’s only reason for being with her at all was so that he had easier access to the Bennett funds? She didn’t want to face any of them ever again if that were the case!

  ‘I believe your father has managed to keep all of it in the family.’ Patrick’s mouth twisted wryly as he moved away from her. ‘Besides, I’m more interested in the fact that you obviously didn’t kno
w. Not until I just told you. Did you?’

  She drew in a shaky breath, sitting up, feeling at too much of a disadvantage lying supine on the sofa. She was at too much of a disadvantage with this man already! ‘Obviously not,’ she managed coolly. ‘Who told you about—about Andy?’

  ‘Gerry,’ he said quietly. ‘Yesterday. In an effort to warn me off you.’

  ‘Which obviously didn’t work,’ Lilli returned, their conversation giving her the time she needed to collect her thoughts together—and God knew they had fragmented after Patrick’s earlier revelation.

  ‘Obviously not.’ Patrick grinned. ‘You didn’t seem exactly heartbroken to me about the loss of your fiancé—even before you knew the truth about him!’

  Too much had happened at that time for her to dwell on Andy’s sudden disappearance from her life. Since her mother’s death she had got through every day as it arrived; there had been no time to cry for her broken engagement. And now that she knew the truth she felt more like punching Andy on the nose than crying for him! How dared he used her in that way? How dared he abuse her father’s trust in him?

  She stood up, smoothing her pencil-slim black skirt down over her thighs, straightening her emerald-green cashmere sweater, before moving to stand before the mirror over the fireplace, tidying the wispy tendrils of her hair back into the neat plait that hung down her spine.

  She could sense Patrick watching her as she smoothed her hair, could have seen his reflection in the mirror if she had chosen to turn her head slightly—but she didn’t.

  He and his sister were not ‘family’, even if her father was involved in an affair with Geraldine, even if Patrick did keep insisting he was going to marry her—and she hated the fact that her father seemed to have confided all of this to his mistress. She hated Geraldine Simms more than she had before because her father had confided in the other woman about Andy’s betrayal and yet he hadn’t told her!

  Because now Patrick Devlin knew about it too...

  ‘I’m afraid I’m busy for lunch today, Patrick.’ She turned back to him casually.