By now the city was stretching and yawning, the street stirring into life ready to face a new day.
As they walked along the still almost deserted sidewalk, Sera was very aware of the man by her side. Aware also that her veneer of self-possession was dangerously thin, her defenses as brittle as glass armour.
His sudden reappearance in her life, the knowledge that he had loved her after all and only the most unkind circumstances had deprived them both of the happiness they might have had together, had hit her very hard.
Somehow she had to take a grip on the situation, to forestall any further awkward questions, and keep her defences intact until he left her.
With that in mind, she made an effort to steer the conversation into safer, if no less painful, channels. ‘How long have you been back in New York?’
‘For the last six weeks.’
It gave her a strange, hollow feeling to think that he had been right here on her doorstep, when she had imagined him so far away.
With a kind of wry self-mockery he added, ‘While I’ve been gone I’ve missed the bright lights. Though I love England and I’ve spent a lot of time there, I’ve always regarded New York as home, and this best part of a year has seemed endless.’
Almost a year. So much could happen in a year.
For the first time it occurred to her that he might be in a steady relationship. He was a red-blooded male and, whether in England or the States, there would be no lack of eager females.
He’d only have to look at any woman he fancied with those fascinating eyes, smile that slow, slightly crooked smile…
He might even be married.
In all probability he was.
Without knowing quite why, she felt sure he was the marrying kind, and a man with his looks and charisma would have no difficulty finding a wife…
Though it seemed very dog in the manger, the thought gave her no pleasure.
‘Are you married…or anything?’ As soon as the question was out, she knew she shouldn’t have asked. It betrayed too much. Angry with herself, she felt her colour rise.
‘No, I’m not married. As for the rest…’ he gave her a quizzical glance. ‘…I’m not quite sure what you mean by “or anything”?’
Her colour deepening, she gritted her teeth and said nothing.
‘A live-in lover, perhaps?’ he suggested.
When she remained silent, he queried, ‘Would it bother you if I said I have?’
‘It wouldn’t bother me in the slightest,’ she lied hardily. ‘I don’t care if you have a harem.’
‘Hardly my style,’ he answered lightly. ‘Though I don’t enjoy living like a monk, basically, as my father and my grandfather were before me, I’m a one-woman man.’
If only she could have been that woman.
Biting her lip, she backtracked to ask, ‘Will you be in the States for much longer?’
‘I’m home for good now that my grandfather’s died.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ She knew he had been very fond of the old man.
‘His health had been failing for some time and he knew he had only a matter of months to live. That was the main reason I went over to England, to help him sort out his affairs.’
‘How long has he been dead?’
‘He died in December. I would have come home sooner, but I needed to find a first class man to run the UK business side of things.’
Gladness in her voice, she said, ‘Speaking of business, I gather from the latest financial reports that Sutherlands is doing very well.’
‘I bet Rothwell is pleased,’ Keir remarked sarcastically.
Martin, looking anything but pleased by the news, had failed to hide his chagrin but, unwilling to aggravate old enmities, Sera said steadily, ‘Why shouldn’t he be pleased?’
Keir laughed mirthlessly. ‘Oh, come on! You know he’s always hated my guts. It must really choke him to know I’m finally succeeding.’
‘I think you’re exaggerating.’ Desperate to be fair, she added, ‘After all, Martin did help to finance that big Broadway project that meant so much to you.’
His face set and hard, Keir observed icily, ‘Why pretend? You know quite well that Rothwell withdrew his support.’
Then, seeing Sera’s stricken expression, he asked, ‘You didn’t know?’
Dry-mouthed, she said, ‘No, I didn’t know.’
‘He waited until the last possible minute,’ Keir went on evenly, ‘when he must have felt sure I’d find it impossible to get finance anywhere else.’
Sera had been well aware that there was no love lost between the two men, but she hadn’t realized Martin could be so ruthless and vindictive.
With that unnerving way he had of echoing her thoughts, Keir said grimly, ‘Oh, yes, he did his best to make certain I was finished. He wanted to see Sutherlands go down.’
Unwilling to believe it, she made a gesture of repudiation. ‘Surely he—’
‘It’s no use trying to cover for him. When I taxed him with it, he admitted as much. In fact, he was so sure he’d succeeded that he openly gloated. Regrettably, I lost my temper and knocked him down.’
Sera recalled the time Martin had had a bruised jaw and had been in a foul mood for days but, when she’d asked him what had happened, he’d made the excuse that he’d caught himself on the edge of a door.
Slowly, she said, ‘But he didn’t. Succeed, I mean… Though, if things were as bad as you’ve just told me, how did Sutherlands manage to survive?’
‘I have my grandfather to thank for that. As luck would have it, he’d just sold off part of his holdings and freed up a large amount of capital. He offered me the finance I needed. Now, with the help of the internet, business is booming on both sides of the pond.’
‘I’m so pleased!’ she spoke fiercely, sincerely.
His dark face sardonic, he remarked, ‘Perhaps you should have stuck with me after all. With what I’ve inherited from my grandfather, it’s on the cards that I now have considerably more money than Rothwell…’
As, aware of a strange note in his voice, she looked up at him, he added flatly, ‘That being the case, I want you back.’
Her heart lurched wildly and she caught her breath. Did that mean he still cared about her?
As though she’d asked the question aloud, he answered, ‘Despite being totally disillusioned, I can’t get you out of my mind. You still haunt me… Call it an obsession if you will. Rothwell isn’t the only one entitled to feel that way… And, as far as he’s concerned, I have a fancy to even the score. He bought you. Now I’m in a position to make a higher bid.’
Surely this was some kind of cruel joke? Sera thought dazedly. Taking a deep breath, she said, ‘You can’t be serious!’
‘I assure you I am. You don’t love me, you may not even like me, but you once found money and power were an aphrodisiac, and now I have both. If you finish with Rothwell and come back to me, I’ve enough money to be able to buy you a diamond ring for every finger and provide whatever kind of lifestyle you fancy—in short, give you everything your heart desires.’
She bit her lip savagely. The irony, had he known it, was that he didn’t need to have a penny to give her everything her heart desired. All she’d ever wanted was for him to love her.
And it was plain that he no longer did in spite of his declarations.
This was no lover’s approach. It was hard, cynical, motivated by a desire for revenge. He might want her, but his main aim was undoubtedly to get even with the man who was his enemy and his rival.
When she was sure of her voice, she said, ‘I’m afraid you’re wasting your time. If you were as rich as Croesus it wouldn’t make any difference. I’m not for sale to any man.’
‘Don’t try to tell me you actually love Rothwell?’ he sneered.
‘Very well, I won’t.’ At the end of her tether, she quickened her steps until she was almost running.
Keir kept pace effortlessly. ‘I believe if you really loved him you would have married
him by now.’
‘Believe what you like!’ she snapped.
‘I’m curious to know why you’re not already married. I can’t imagine this long delay was Rothwell’s idea. He was mad about you from the word go. He couldn’t wait to marry you…’
For the first time ever it was a relief to Sera when she reached the Warburton Building—she could never think of it as home—and made her way to the side entrance.
She had pulled open the door and was about to hurry inside, when Keir’s hand on her arm halted her.
‘Aren’t you at least going to say goodbye?’
Head down, she whispered, ‘Goodbye.’ The awful finality of it caught in her throat and stuck there.
His free hand slid beneath her chin and lifted her face to his. For a heart-stopping instant, blue eyes looked into green. Then he bent his dark head and kissed her.
She made a little sound, halfway between a sigh and a sob, while the world and everything in it ceased to exist. His mouth on hers, his arms holding her, were the only things that were real, the only things that mattered.
When he finally released her, dazed and disorientated, her eyes open but unseeing, she staggered.
He took her shoulders and steadied her.
For a brief moment, the pure joy of his kiss lingered, then the world and all its problems came rushing back to overwhelm her.
With a little, incoherent murmur, she turned blindly away.
Keir slipped an arm around her waist and began to walk across the still deserted foyer with her.
Lifting a head that felt too heavy for her slender neck, she asked thickly, ‘What are you doing?’
Dark brows raised in mock surprise, he told her, ‘Walking to the elevator with you.’
‘No, you can’t,’ she protested.
With exaggerated patience, he said, ‘Don’t be silly. Of course I can.’
‘Please don’t,’ she begged. ‘Please just go.’
‘Go where?’
‘Home… Wherever you live.’
‘This is where I live.’
Thinking she’d misheard him, Sera stopped and stared at him.
Dark blue eyes gleaming, he repeated, ‘This is where I live.’
‘It can’t be.’ Then, in bewilderment, she said, ‘I don’t understand.’
Patiently, he said, ‘When I came back to New York I moved in here.’
‘Moved in here?’ she echoed blankly.
‘Now, you’ve got it,’ he said encouragingly.
‘Then why did you kiss me goodbye?’
‘Oh, I didn’t kiss you goodbye. I just kissed you.’
She swallowed. ‘And you really do live here?’
‘I really do.’
Had he moved into the same building on purpose? Or was this some strange coincidence? No, surely not. It was stretching credibility too far to believe that, with all the accommodation available in New York, the move hadn’t been carefully planned.
Unless the whole thing was merely some elaborate leg-pull?
‘Which floor?’ she demanded.
‘I’m living directly above you in the Penthouse.’
‘No, you can’t be…’
She knew that couldn’t be so, because when Martin had left the hospital he had wanted to move into the Penthouse, so he could have a roof garden. But when approached, the elderly tenant, a Mr Cyrus Cornell, had steadfastly refused to move out, despite being offered a very substantial ‘inconvenience’ payment.
‘The penthouse is occupied by a Mr Cornell.’
‘Was occupied by a Mr Cornell,’ Keir corrected her. ‘I particularly wanted the Penthouse,’ he added. ‘So when I discovered that Cornell, who’s recently retired, was looking for a house near the sea, I pulled out all the stops to find him just what he wanted at West Hampton… So, you see, we’re neighbours again.’
Speechless, Sera found herself escorted into the elevator. They had it to themselves, but Keir seemed to fill the space with his height and his breadth and his sheer masculinity.
Finding her breath impeded, she moved as far away from him as the space would allow, and they rode up in silence while she struggled to make sense of what she’d just been told.
What was he up to? What did he hope to gain?
Remembering his ‘I particularly wanted the Penthouse’, she found herself wondering if this moving in a floor above his old rival was symbolic.
Then, more urgently, she wondered what Martin would say when he found out that Keir had succeeded in getting the Penthouse when he’d failed. No doubt he’d be absolutely furious…
When they came to a halt and the doors opened, her head full of confused thoughts, Sera stepped out and was halfway across the carpeted passage before she realized she was on the wrong floor.
As she attempted to turn back, the elevator doors slid shut.
Keir had unlocked the door to the Penthouse and, before she could catch her breath, he threw an arm around her waist and propelled her inside.
Her first impression was of lightness and space, and she soon realized why. The living-room was on the corner of the building, and almost the whole of the outer walls were made of glass.
Several of the panels, which led on to a paved terrace, had been left open, and the early morning air, redolent of sunshine and flowers, was filling the room.
‘Come and have a look at the garden.’
‘No. I—I can’t stop. I really can’t stop.’
But, when she turned to escape, Keir was leaning casually against the door, his broad shoulders against the white and gold panel.
‘I need to get back,’ she cried in a panic.
‘What’s the hurry? You don’t have to go out to work. Let’s have some more coffee. We can drink it on the terrace.’
‘I can’t wait for coffee.’
‘It’ll be ready,’ he said imperturbably. ‘I always leave the machine on for when I get back.’
As though to prove his words, the appetizing aroma of fresh coffee wafted in.
Shaking her head, she protested, ‘But it’s almost seven-thirty.’
‘I’m sure Rothwell won’t mind breakfasting alone for once.’
But he would mind. And if he knew who she was with, he’d go through the roof.
‘Please, Keir…’ Reduced to begging, she saw by his expression that he was enjoying holding the whip hand.
Shaking his head a little, he made a mocking gesture indicating that she should precede him.
Only too aware of how useless it was to resist, she made her way out on to the paved terrace, her steps leaden, her emotions in a turmoil.
CHAPTER FIVE
OUTSIDE, beneath a roofed area, there was a selection of practical-looking outdoor furniture, and a built-in bar with a coffee machine.
Encroaching a little onto the terrace was a garden bright with flowers and shrubs and, beyond the stone balustrade, a wonderful view over Central Park to Upper West Side.
Keir indicated a pair of loungers with a small glass-topped table between them and, sitting down reluctantly, she watched him pour two cups of coffee.
He handed her one and, as though making a point, sat down between her and the only escape route.
‘Why are you doing this?’ she cried in a sudden burst of anger. ‘What is it you want?’
His smile wolfish, he said, ‘You know quite well what I want, Sera.’
She put her untasted coffee down with a rattle. ‘Revenge, presumably.’
‘Revenge, certainly. But there’s something I want a great deal more. You in my bed. It’s been a long time. And, as I said before, I don’t particularly enjoy living like a monk.’
‘There are plenty of women.’
‘It happens to be you I want.’
‘I’ve already told you, I’m not for sale to any man.’
‘Then, if money won’t do the trick, I’ll have to think of some other way to get you.’
‘You’re wasting your time,’ she told him thickly.
So
mething about the way she spoke warned him that she meant it and, for an instant, he looked disconcerted.
Then a shutter came down, leaving his hard-boned face guarded, unreadable. With a slight shrug of those broad shoulders, he said, ‘We’ll see, shall we? In the meantime, suppose we finish our conversation?’
‘As far as I’m concerned there’s nothing more to be said.’
‘Oh, but there’s a great deal. For instance, there are a lot of things you’ve carefully avoided telling me, and I’d like to know why.’
A little breeze blew a stray tendril of black silky hair across her cheek and she tucked it behind her ear before saying warily, ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Earlier I asked why you and Rothwell weren’t already married…’ Watching her like a hawk, Keir hazarded, ‘Could it be that he’s in a wheelchair?’
For a second or two Sera remained frozen, before exclaiming jerkily, ‘So you know!’ Then, with a kind of helpless exasperation, she said, ‘Why did you ask all those questions if you already knew how things were?’
‘I wanted to hear your version.’
When she said nothing, he went on, ‘Oddly enough, I hadn’t heard about the accident until fairly recently. It came as something of a shock. I don’t relish having to fight a man in a wheelchair…’
Watching her transparent face, he smiled grimly. ‘And don’t get the idea it’s because I feel sorry for him.’
‘Then, what…?’
‘If you think about it, you’ll see it gives him an almost insurmountable advantage.’
Though it seemed to turn all her ideas topsy-turvy, on reflection, she could see that Keir was right. Martin’s condition was a weapon he’d already used to the full.
Biting her lip, she backtracked. ‘But if you already knew everything, why—?’
‘Ah, but I didn’t. There’s still quite a lot I don’t know, and you seemed oddly reluctant to tell me anything…’
When she sat still and silent, he pursued, ‘I understand it was a road accident?’
Faced with the prospect of talking about the thing that weighed so heavily on her mind, she lost colour and began to shiver.
Seeing that Keir was watching her intently, she made a great effort to pull herself together and her voice, as dispassionate as she could make it, answered, ‘Yes, it was.’
The Determined Husband Page 7