Romance 0f A Lifetime (Presents Plus)

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘A spoilt little bitch,’ Beth finished with a sigh. ‘That wasn’t my idea. As you would have found if you had ever bothered to ask me what happened!’

  He gave a groan. ‘I’m not proud of my part in this.’

  She looked at him intently. ‘Just what was your part in all this? Just exactly why did you go to Italy?’

  ‘To meet the woman who was so determined to rid herself of a husband she was bored with that she was willing to pay someone to go into court and have their name blackened for her,’ he admitted harshly.

  Beth gasped. ‘And?’

  ‘And instead I met a very beautiful woman with an air of vulnerability about her that made me want to wrap her up and protect her from the world!’ He shook his head. ‘I went to Verona, after discovering that was where you had gone to amuse yourself, with the intention perhaps of intriguing you a little myself, so that you would know what it felt like. Instead I ended up totally bewildered, by the contrast in the things I had been told about you, and the ethereally lovely woman I finally met. It didn’t make sense.’

  ‘And so you thought I was playing games,’ she said bitterly. ‘Repulsing you one minute, seemingly accepting your company the next.’ She could see it all now, just how damning her own behaviour must have appeared in view of what he had been told about her.

  ‘Nothing else seemed to make sense,’ Marcus admitted heavily.

  ‘And now?’ she choked.

  ‘Now I think I had better hear the true facts from you,’ he invited heavily.

  Beth drew in a ragged breath. Marcus had sought her out, deliberately, with the idea of punishing her in some way for her selfish use of his nephew. What form had that punishment been supposed to take? Was she supposed to fall in love with him and then be rejected?

  If so, he had succeeded!

  ‘The truth isn’t only mine to tell,’ she spoke raggedly. ‘There are other people involved, innocent people, who can still be hurt by the truth if it was to become public knowledge.’ She was thinking most of her mother, her poor mother who was still loved by a man who ultimately tried to destroy all those who loved him.

  Marcus looked grim. ‘I’m not the public.’

  ‘Even so—’

  ‘I need to know the truth, Beth,’ he almost pleaded. ‘I need to know that very much.’

  Why? She looked at him searchingly. What possible difference would knowing all the sordid details of her divorce make to him?

  ‘You owe me that much, at least,’ he prompted at her hesitation.

  ‘Owe you?’ she repeated forcefully, her eyes shooting sparks of displeasure at him. ‘I don’t owe you anything! You were the one who sought me out, remember?’

  A nerve pulsed in his jaw. ‘Please tell me the truth,’ he requested softly.

  Her cheeks were flushed. ‘All right, I’ll tell you.’ And she did, leaving nothing out, faltering only when she came to telling him about losing her baby and not being able to ever have any more. ‘So you see,’ she concluded bitterly, ‘I’m not the one who plays games; I leave my father and Martin to do that.’

  Marcus was completely silent and still, as he had been as she told him the details, his face grey now.

  His continued silence unnerved Beth, until she felt at breaking-point, wanting him to go, or stay, to at least do something.

  ‘They did that to you?’ he finally grated.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she confirmed, without bitterness; there was no point in that, not any more.

  ‘Ross too?’ His gaze was compelling.

  Her mouth twisted. ‘For a price, it would seem, yes.’

  ‘But what he said about—an affair—was false?’

  ‘I’ve just told you it was,’ she scorned incredulously. ‘Martin was the first and only man I’ve—known, in that way.’ Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment. This man was the only other man she had ever wanted in that way, and look how misguided that attraction was, even more so than she had originally imagined. ‘Remember, it was the fact that your nephew and I didn’t even know each other this evening that brought you round here in the first place.’

  ‘Right,’ he acknowledged a little shakily, ‘You do realise what this means?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she derided. ‘It means my father and Martin are both despicable.’

  Marcus shook his head. ‘It means much more than that.’

  Beth gave him a puzzled look. ‘It does?’

  ‘Don’t you see, Beth?’ He grasped her by the shoulders. ‘The evidence given in your divorce was false; worse than that, it was fabricated for monetary gain.’

  ‘I told them at the time of the divorce that it wasn’t true,’ she defended. ‘No one, not even my own lawyer, I’m sure, believed me!’

  ‘I believe you,’ Marcus said harshly.

  ‘I could have done with your support then,’ she mocked, ‘not a year later. Now it does little but give me the personal satisfaction of knowing someone else knows exactly what happened!’

  ‘But, Beth, it’s so much more serious than that.’ His hands tightened on her arms. ‘Your father, your ex-husband, my nephew, all lied to attain the divorce. They all broke the law by giving false evidence. I doubt that your divorce is legal!’

  Beth stared up at him in horror before collapsing in his arms in a dead faint.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  FREE.

  Beth was a free woman at last, on her own terms, with no black shadow of lies and deceit looming over her.

  Marcus had proved correct about the divorce, and so Beth had had the pleasure of divorcing Martin instead of the other way round, all three men receiving the displeasure of the court for their previous deceit. Her father and Martin’s subterfuge had become public knowledge, and there could be no doubting that both men had suffered personally for it as well as legally. But they would survive, and, as Beth had known she would, Brenda had stood by Martin.

  Then why didn’t Beth now feel happier with the truth finally out? Why did her life feel so flat and—without direction?

  ‘This is supposed to be a celebration, not a wake, Beth,’ her mother chided teasingly.

  Beth looked at the champagne luncheon before her, a glass of the bubbly liquid itself standing in front of her. None of this seemed to matter either.

  ‘Beth, it’s all over now.’ Her mother squeezed her hand. ‘Your father finally got what he deserved and you’re free of both him and Martin. You can now do exactly what you want with your life.’

  She grimaced her lethargy with that idea. ‘There’s nothing I want to do.’ She sighed.

  ‘Strange,’ her mother murmured. ‘I thought there was something—someone—you very much wanted in your life.’

  Beth gave her a sharp look, turning away again at the speculation in her mother’s eyes. ‘I don’t know what you mean—’

  ‘Darling, the fact that you love Marcus has been blazingly obvious for weeks,’ her mother put in gently.

  ‘To Marcus too?’ she groaned, wondering if that was the reason he had left them so suddenly today once the court case was over.

  For weeks he had been there, a quiet but constant support, and then today, when it was all over, he had made his excuses and left without saying whether or not she would be seeing him again.

  His duty over? His responsibility as Ross’s uncle—Ross having been one of the men to cause her pain—over and done with? She admitted that over the weeks, although there had been nothing said or done, she had begun to hope he might care for her and wasn’t just correcting a wrong that had been helped in its success by his ward.

  But he had left them earlier, refusing to join them for lunch, despite Beth’s invitation for him to do so.

  ‘No,’ her mother answered her question. ‘The two of you have been hiding your feelings from each other very successfully.’

  Beth moistened her lips, her heart leaping with excitement. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Marcus loves you,’ her mother said matter-of-factly.

  ‘No! H
e—’

  ‘Yes, Beth,’ her mother insisted. ‘Why else do you suppose he was so supportive?’

  ‘He felt responsible for Ross’s part in it.’ She shrugged.

  ‘That responsibility was dispatched by providing you with one of the most competent lawyers in the country. I’m having dinner with James tonight, by the way,’ she added coyly.

  ‘Really?’ Beth smiled. She had liked James Hawthorn from the first, a tall distinguished-looking man in his early fifties.

  ‘Really,’ her mother cajoled. ‘I may even get around to divorcing your father one of these days.’

  Her mother must like James very much to be considering that! Beth was glad. If anyone deserved love and happiness in her life then her mother did.

  ‘Let’s get back to you and Marcus,’ her mother said firmly, not about to be distracted any further.

  ‘There is no Marcus and me,’ Beth dismissed.

  ‘But there could be.’

  ‘I don’t—’

  ‘Marcus is just being honourable, I’m sure,’ her mother insisted. ‘The last eighteen months have been hell for you, not least because of his nephew’s part in it. How can Marcus now turn around and tell you how he feels about you? The poor man is in a very awkward position.’

  ‘You don’t know how he feels about me—’

  ‘I know that he had fulfilled his obligation to you by initiating the sorting out of the legal tangle his nephew had helped get you into by providing James to help you. He didn’t have to continue visiting you, spending time with you, coming with you today. He’s a busy man in his own right, and yet he’s spent weeks—’

  ‘All right, Mummy,’ Beth ruefully silenced her. ‘You have me convinced that Marcus overstepped the lines of obligation. But that doesn’t mean—’

  ‘Why do you think the whole thing was so important to him?’ her mother demanded impatiently.

  ‘His nephew—’

  ‘Oh, damn his nephew!’

  ‘Mummy!’ She frowned at her mother’s vehemence.

  ‘Darling, men like Marcus do not involve themselves in what is, after all, a family matter.’

  ‘Marcus does; that was why he followed me out to Italy in the first place,’ she said stubbornly.

  ‘Oh, stop being so pig-headed, Beth,’ her mother rebuked impatiently. ‘It isn’t going to do you any harm to go and thank the man personally—’

  ‘I’ve already thanked him!’

  ‘Will you stop interrupting me?’ Her mother sighed irritably. ‘When did you get to be so stubborn and—’

  ‘Pig-headed, I know,’ Beth laughed softly. ‘I just don’t think—’

  ‘For once in your life don’t stop to think,’ her mother instructed. ‘Follow your intuition and go and see Marcus. You have nothing to lose—’

  ‘And possibly everything to gain,’ Beth finished thoughtfully. ‘Maybe I could just go and—’

  ‘Go.’ Her mother took her untouched glass of champagne out of her hand. ‘Now. I’ll see to the bill.’

  Beth shook her head ruefully. ‘Try looking in the mirror some time if you want to see where I get my stubborn pig-headedness from.’ She stood up as Katherine pulled a face at her. ‘I’ll see you later.’

  ‘Don’t hurry back,’ her mother called after her.

  It was fine saying she was going to see Marcus, something else to actually do it. Oh, she knew where he lived now when he was in London, had been to his apartment several times during the last few weeks—purely on business matters, of course.

  Beth didn’t give herself time to change her mind, to hesitate, going straight from the restaurant to Marcus’s home, smiling confidently at the doorman, knowing that within seconds of her stepping into the lift Marcus would know of her imminent arrival, via a discreet telephone call made to his apartment.

  She didn’t even know what she was going to say to him, had no idea—

  The apartment door was flung open before she could even ring the bell, and she found herself pulled roughly into Marcus’s arms, pressed against his hard chest, breathing in a smell that was a pleasure to her senses, part Marcus and part the aftershave he wore.

  ‘I was just on my way to join you at the restaurant after all.’ His chest rumbled as he spoke huskily. ‘I got back to my apartment and just sat here wondering when I would be able to see you again. Beth, the idea of never seeing you again was slowly killing me,’ he breathed deeply into her hair. ‘I can’t believe you’re here!’

  He did love her; her mother had been right!

  ‘Marcus.’ Her hands came up to cup either side of his face. ‘I think we may both have been being very stupid these last few months. I love you; I have done since Venice.’

  Fire burned in his eyes. ‘I think I fell in love with you when I saw your tears in Verona,’ he admitted gruffly. ‘I had expected to see a hard, brittle woman; what I found was a delicate butterfly who looked as if life itself were hurting her—’

  ‘I was horrible to you that first night—’

  ‘I deserved it; my only defence is that I thought I was dealing with a totally different type of woman entirely. And that’s no excuse! Beth, I—’

  ‘Marcus, let’s get out of this hallway.’ She looked about them self-consciously. ‘We really can’t make love out here!’ she teased shyly.

  He looked about them dazedly, as if he had been momentarily unaware of their surroundings, grimacing ruefully as they went inside, although he sobered suddenly. ‘We aren’t going to make love at all,’ he told her softly. ‘If you really do love me—’

  ‘I’ve been in love with you for weeks.’ She smiled indulgently at his lack of confidence. ‘You only had to give me an indication of how you felt and we could have been together long before now.’

  ‘I couldn’t have been that close to you and not made love to you.’ His eyes were dark with desire.

  ‘You wouldn’t have had to be.’ She caressed the hardness of his cheek with gentle fingertips.

  ‘Beth, I love you, and I don’t intend making love to you until after we’re married … What is it?’ He frowned darkly as she moved abruptly away from him. ‘Beth?’ He looked strained.

  She moistened her lips. ‘I can’t marry you, Marcus—’

  ‘I realise your experience with Bradshaw must have put you off marriage,’ he grated. ‘But it won’t be like that between us.’

  ‘I know it won’t,’ she assured him shakily, knowing without a doubt that it wouldn’t, her faith in him unshakeable, her response to him undeniable. God, how she wished she could say yes, but she knew she couldn’t. ‘But I can’t marry anyone.’

  ‘I’m not asking you to marry anyone, I’m asking that you marry me.’ Marcus still frowned, looking like a man who had been dealt a blow.

  ‘Marcus, I can’t—’

  ‘Why?’

  She swallowed hard at the harshly asked question. ‘I told you I lost the baby; that I can’t have any more children—’

  ‘And you think that bothers me?’ He turned her roughly to face him, his hand beneath her chin as he forced her to look at him. ‘I want you, not any children we may or may not have from our marriage. Who’s to say I can give you children—?’

  ‘You could be tested—’

  ‘Would you feel any differently about me if I were; if we found I couldn’t give you children? Would it stop your loving me?’ he demanded.

  Her cheeks were flushed. ‘No. But—’

  ‘But nothing, Beth. I want to marry you; nothing less will do. If we decide we would like children then we can always think about adopting them—’

  ‘Your Italian grandmother would turn over in her grave at having you marry someone who can’t give you children,’ Beth said harshly.

  ‘There are already enough grandchildren in the family; I have no inclination to add to their number. All I want is you, Beth.’ He held her arms as he looked down at her. ‘For a lifetime. I’ve never had children, so I won’t miss them if you decide adoption isn’t for us,
but if you go out of my life for a reason so unfounded, on any level, then my life will be flat and—’

  ‘Without direction,’ she finished knowingly. ‘Oh, Marcus, I do need you,’ she groaned, tears brimming in her eyes. ‘I have a feeling I always will!’

  He gathered her close in his arms, kissing her gently, savouring the caresses, controlling the situation for both of them.

  ‘I love you very much, Beth,’ he finally murmured huskily.

  ‘And I love you,’ she answered unhesitantly.

  And it was all that mattered, all that would ever matter.

  Love. And Marcus. A lifetime romance.

  * * * * *

  Now, read on for a tantalizing excerpt of USA Today bestselling author

  Sharon’s Kendrick’s latest book,

  SECRETS OF A BILLIONAIRE’S MISTRESS

  One Night With Consequences

  When one night…leads to pregnancy!

  Waitress Darcy Denton isn’t Renzo Sabatini’s type. But unworldly Darcy becomes addicted to their passionate nights. And then she discovers she’s pregnant! Darcy dare not tell Renzo. But it’s only a matter of months before he claims what’s his…

  Read on to get a glimpse of

  SECRETS OF A BILLIONAIRE’S MISTRESS

  CHAPTER ONE

  RENZO SABATINI WAS unbuttoning his shirt when the doorbell rang. He felt the beat of expectation. The familiar tug of heat to his groin. He was half tempted to pull the shirt from his shoulders so Darcy could slide her fingers over his skin, closely followed by those inventive lips of hers. The soft lick of her tongue could help him forget what lay ahead. He thought about Tuscany and the closing of a chapter. About the way some memories could still be raw even when so many years had passed and maybe that was why he never really stopped to think about them.

  But why concentrate on darkness when Darcy was all sunshine and light? And why rush at sex when they had the whole night ahead—a smorgasbord of sensuality which he could enjoy at his leisure with his latest and most unexpected lover? A woman who demanded nothing other than that he satisfy her—something which was easy since he had only to touch her pale skin to grow so hard that it hurt. His mouth dried. Four months in and he was as bewitched by her as he had been from the start.