Taming The Notorious Billionaire (HQR Presents)

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘She’s upstairs?’

  ‘Sleeping,’ her cousin nodded. ‘Have you seen Rick again?’ her voice was taut.

  ‘Oh yes,’ she sighed raggedly. ‘I’ve seen him.’

  ‘And?’

  She moistened her lips. ‘Rod Bartlett is coming back to Selchurch,’ she announced firmly. ‘In fact,’ she paused hesitantly as Kathy sank into a chair. ‘He’s already back.’

  Kathy’s hand shook as she nervously fidgeted with her already immaculate hair. ‘I—Rick told you that? Or have you seen him?’ Her eyes widened to haunted brown pools.

  ‘Both,’ she sighed, going over to sit on the floor at her cousin’s feet. ‘Kathy, Rick is Rod Bartlett. He—’

  ‘What do you mean?’ her cousin demanded sharply. ‘I don’t understand. You said this Rick was a reporter, that he came here after a story.’

  ‘Because that’s what he told me,’ she nodded bitterly. ‘He lied to me, was playing some cruel game of his own.’

  ‘You’re sure he is—Of course you’re sure,’ Kathy sighed raggedly at her own stupidity. ‘Rod Bartlett is easily recognisable.’

  ‘Without a beard, yes,’ Keilly acknowledged heavily. ‘And he doesn’t have a beard now. I’m sorry, Kathy, I had no idea who he was.’ That was surely the understatement of the year!

  ‘Had you—told him anything about me?’

  ‘Of course not,’ she said impatiently. ‘Our conversations hardly went as far as reminiscing about the women he knew in the past,’ she snapped. ‘And I’m not likely to have volunteered any information about you, now am I?’

  ‘No,’ Kathy sighed. ‘I’m just so edgy at the moment, I don’t know what I’m saying. Do you know how long he intends staying?’ She looked anxious.

  ‘Indefinitely, he said. But I shouldn’t take too much notice of that,’ she added hastily as her cousin seemed to pale even more. ‘At the time he said it he believed I would be willing to—to share his summer with him.’ She blushed at her cousin’s probing look. ‘Needless to say I’m not,’ she mumbled.

  ‘Keilly—’

  ‘Could I go up and see Heather?’ she asked brightly. ‘She could be awake now.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ Kathy said crossly. ‘I must say, you don’t seem too concerned with the fact that he was making a fool out of you.’

  Her eyes flashed deeply grey. ‘What good would it do me?’ she snapped.

  ‘All the same—’

  ‘Look, let’s forget it, Kathy,’ she sighed. ‘I’ve made sure Mr Bartlett knows exactly what I think of him; I don’t think he’ll be bothering me again,’ she added dully, sure that she was right. Why should a man like him go to the trouble of pursuing someone who obviously wasn’t willing when it was equally as obvious there were hundreds—no, thousands—who were only too willing.

  ‘He can be very persistent,’ Kathy muttered. ‘Why on earth did you get involved with him, Keilly?’ she demanded accusingly, looking flustered again. ‘If he wants you he’ll stay here until he gets you.’

  ‘You make it sound as if I have no say in the matter!’

  ‘I didn’t,’ Kathy mumbled bitterly.

  Contrition at once washed over her; she shouldn’t be indulging in her own unhappiness but thinking of Kathy’s dilemma. If Rod did stay here the chances of him and Kathy meeting were increased tremendously, worse, he could even meet Peter. ‘I’m sorry, love,’ she touched her cousin’s arm consolingly. ‘I wasn’t thinking. But I’m sure Mr Bartlett won’t stay—’

  ‘Mr Bartlett?’ Peter queried lightly as he came into the room, seemingly oblivious to the fact that both women looked stricken by his unexpected appearance. ‘Hello, darling,’ he kissed his wife warmly before kissing Keilly on the cheek. ‘Day off?’

  ‘Er—yes,’ she nodded awkwardly.

  ‘Quite nice weather for January,’ he said with his usual enthusiasm for life, tall and handsome, with short blond hair and laughing blue eyes. It was his warmth and genuine caring for people that made him so popular with his employees and the town people. ‘Was that Rod Bartlett you were talking about?’

  Keilly paled, swallowing hard. ‘Why do you ask?’ she delayed, wondering what had made him think of the celebrated actor.

  ‘Well I heard he was in town—’

  ‘You did?’ Kathy squeaked.

  Peter smiled, mistaking his wife’s distress for awed disbelief. ‘Mrs Groves mentioned it when I called in at the shop a few minutes ago, she’s sure he was in there this morning,’ he sounded a little sceptical.

  ‘He probably was,’ Keilly said dully, aware that the gossip and speculation as to the reason the actor was in town had already started; it could only get worse!

  ‘Really?’ Peter asked interestedly. ‘You mean he really is in Selchurch?’

  She glanced at Kathy, knowing by her pale face and drawn features that this was all a little too much for her, that she could crack under the strain at any moment. ‘He’s staying at the hotel,’ she revealed reluctantly, all the time keeping a watchful eye on her cousin. ‘He arrived yesterday.’

  ‘Oh dear,’ Peter’s brows rose in sympathy. ‘Isn’t that a little embarrassing for you?’

  She knew he was referring to the letter she had written to the magazine, the incident had been as much of a nine-day-wonder here as it had in the rest of the country. ‘A little,’ she admitted stiffly. ‘Although Mr Bartlett doesn’t seem concerned by it, in fact he finds it quite amusing,’ she added hardly.

  ‘That’s good.’ Peter nodded his approval of the other man’s behaviour. ‘I wonder if he might be persuaded to do something at the Easter Fěte,’ he murmured thoughtfully. ‘He could be a big drawing attraction—’

  ‘Really, Peter,’ Kathy’s voice was brittle with sarcasm, her eyes overbright as she held on to her control with effort. ‘The man is here on holiday.’

  Her husband looked slightly puzzled by her vehemence. ‘I know that, darling. I just thought—’

  ‘I can’t understand what all the fuss is about,’ she dismissed tautly. ‘He may be famous, but he’s only a man, for all that. You’ve always told me it’s a person’s deeds that count, Peter,’ her voice was becoming shrill.

  ‘Yes. But—’

  ‘Well surely Mr Bartlett’s exploits over the years far from indicate any interest in doing charity work?’ she taunted hardly. ‘I’m taking it for granted that we couldn’t pay him anything.’

  Keilly could see Peter’s dismay with Kathy’s unusual behaviour, and rushed to her cousin’s aid. ‘Why don’t you and I go up and see how Heather is, Peter, and Kathy can make us all a nice cup of tea?’ The last was added as a way of giving Kathy time alone to collect her shattered thoughts together. Luckily her cousin took it!

  ‘That sounds like a good idea,’ Kathy said with feigned brightness. ‘Perhaps Mrs Scott has made some of your favourite biscuits too, darling. Five minutes,’ she warned lightly as they went up the stairs.

  Keilly could sense the puzzlement in the sensitive man at her side, although Peter said nothing as they went upstairs, was teasing and loving to his young daughter as she obviously still felt a little feverish. But Keilly wasn’t deceived by Peter’s mild manner, he was too much of a man attuned to people’s emotions not to know of his wife’s tension.

  ‘Keilly,’ his hand on her arm stopped their progress down the stairs once they left Heather’s room. ‘Do you have any idea what’s troubling Kathy?’ he sounded worried.

  She chewed on her inner lip. ‘Maybe it’s just the winter blues,’ she dismissed. ‘It always seems to last so long.’

  ‘Maybe that’s it.’ But he didn’t sound convinced. ‘Are the two of you going shopping today? That usually helps cheer Kathy up,’ he said indulgently.

  Both of them knew of Kathy’s enthusiasm and weakness for shopping, Keilly laughing too. ‘I’ll suggest it to her,’ she nodded.

  ‘I wish you would,’ he squeezed her arm. gratefully. ‘It might help cheer her up.’

  She doubted tha
t, but she made the suggestion anyway, persuading Kathy that going out was better than staying in. And with Heather asleep once again, and the housekeeper in close attendance, it was difficult for her to refuse. But Kathy tried.

  ‘You heard Peter,’ she said moodily. “The damned man is wandering around the town. What if we run into him?’

  ‘What if we do?’ she soothed, not exactly welcoming the idea herself, not after the way they had parted earlier.

  ‘He could recognise me!’

  ‘After ten years?’ she scoffed. ‘Is that likely?’

  ‘You tell me,’ Kathy’s voice was shrill again. ‘Have I changed much in those years?’

  If anything her cousin was more beautiful than she had been then, but that was beside the point now. Keilly gave an impatient sigh. ‘Whether or not you’ve changed doesn’t matter, if he should decide to stay you can’t hide at The Hall all the time he’s here; Peter would think that decidedly odd!’

  It took a little persuading but Kathy finally saw the wisdom of her words, although she spent all of the time they were out looking about them as if she were being hunted.

  ‘Peter’s worried about you,’ Keilly warned when they returned from the shops. ‘He’ll be even more worried if you continue to act like this.’ Kathy hadn’t stopped pacing since they got back.

  ‘How can you possibly understand how I feel?’ Kathy’s eyes flashed angrily. ‘One indiscretion in my past, and it could ruin the rest of my life!’

  She hid the pain her cousin’s thoughtless words had inflicted, knowing that Kathy had forgotten the indiscretion in the past that had ruined her life!

  But she was no more enamoured of seeing Rod Bartlett again than her cousin was, she knew that she had made a fool of herself over him in a way she had sworn would never happen to her. She hoped Rod Bartlett had found his cruelty worth it.

  She didn’t know what her feelings were when she got back to the hotel to find he had booked out of the hotel that afternoon!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE promise to attend the bazaar had been made at the same time she had offered to help Kathy arrange it all, and although she didn’t feel in the least like attending she accompanied her aunt on Saturday afternoon, leaving her uncle in charge of the more or less empty hotel. Now that Rod had left so abruptly their only remaining guests were a young married couple who had eyes and ears only for each other. Keilly thought the couple were on their honeymoon, although they were trying to keep it low-key.

  About Rod’s departure she tried not to dwell too much. She had known his declaration of needing her had been a well-used line, but nevertheless it was more than a little galling—so much more than that!—that he hadn’t even tried to stay around another day or so to try and persuade her to change her mind about an affair with him. Not that she would ever have agreed, but he could have tried, damn him!

  For Kathy’s sake she felt glad he had left, for her own—she was torn in two about her feelings for him. As Rick Richards he had been the only man ever to understand her affinity with the elements, as Rod Bartlett he had once hurt Kathy beyond measure, and made a fool out of her too. If only she didn’t have so much trouble reconciling herself to the fact that the two men were one person.

  Her aunt had no such reservation. ‘What a surprise, Mr Richards being Rod Bartlett all the time,’ she had remarked over breakfast.

  ‘Yes,’ Keilly answered abruptly, a sleepless night leaving her feeling heavy eyed and listless, not in the least like attending what promised to be a noisy bazaar.

  Her aunt gave her a sympathetic look. ‘It must have been embarrassing for you, darling, and once you had met him. you seemed to like him so much,’ she gave Keilly a probing look.

  ‘Yes,’ she acknowledged again, her buttered toast suddenly having the consistency of soggy cardboard. ‘But he’s gone now, so we can forget he was ever here.’ She could hardly wait to tell Kathy of his departure.

  ‘Hm,’ her aunt agreed, although she didn’t look convinced as to Keilly’s genuine relief.

  The bazaar was well under way by the time they arrived, although they could see no sign of Kathy. Not that this was so surprising, Kathy was usually in the thick of it at this sort of occasion, as head of the committee she was expected to be.

  ‘Grandma, Grandma!’ Heather suddenly appeared out of the crowd, dancing up and down in her excitement. ‘Come and look at the lovely cakes.’

  ‘I take it you’re feeling better,’ Keilly teased her.

  The little girl gave an impish grin, taking hold of each of one of their hands. ‘Much,’ she nodded. ‘Will you come and look at the cakes?’ she prompted again.

  ‘I’ll join you in a moment,’ Keilly promised. ‘I just have to find Mummy. Do you know where she is?’

  ‘Making tea,’ the little girl supplied.

  ‘I’ll see you both later.’ She started to make her way over to the kitchen, which took a lot longer than it should have done, friends and acquaintances she hadn’t seen for some time stopping her for a chat.

  She smiled her excuses to one of the women who helped out at the hotel during the summer months, turning sharply to bump into the man standing directly behind her. ‘I’m sorry! I—’ the smile of apology froze on her lips as she looked up into teasing blue eyes. ‘Rod…!’ she gasped, knowing she had paled. ‘I thought you had left.’

  His strong hands came up to steady her, drawing her to one side of the full room. ‘Only the hotel,’ he told her huskily. ‘I have no intention of leaving Selchurch without you.’

  Keilly flushed, looking about them self-consciously, aware that his identity had started to become obvious to others in the room, an interested silence beginning to fall in their immediate vicinity. ‘And I never intend to leave,’ she turned back to him with angry eyes.

  ‘Selchurch is a nice little town, with even nicer people,’ he added pointedly. ‘But you can’t stay here for the rest of your life.’

  ‘Why not, plenty of other people do,’ she returned tightly.

  ‘Not you, Keilly,’ he said confidently.

  ‘I seem to remember your telling me I belonged here,’ she scorned. ‘Or was that just part of your routine?’

  His eyes hardened at the taunt, his jaw tightening. ‘You do belong to the sea, with all its moods,’ he bit out. ‘But this is far from the only sea in the world. You’ve met the challenge here, Keilly, it’s time to move on.’

  ‘With you?’

  Rod drew in a controlling breath at her derision. ‘Yes,’ he finally answered.

  ‘No, thank you,’ she looked at him with narrowed eyes. ‘And if you’re no longer staying at the hotel where are you living?’

  He looked as if he would prefer to pursue the subject of her leaving Selchurch with him some more, but the stubborn set to her jaw told him it would do no good at the moment. ‘I’m renting a cottage outside the town. The hotel was very comfortable, but I need a little more privacy than it can provide. Especially with the Easter season coming up.’

  Keilly gave him a sharp look; Easter was weeks away! ‘Won’t you be gone by then? The Oscars—’

  ‘Are after Easter,’ he seemed pleased she had remembered. ‘I’m not leaving without you, Keilly,’ he repeated firmly.

  Her mouth twisted. ‘I can guarantee that you will.’

  ‘Not without a fight,’ he met her challenge.

  They had been talking in hushed voices during the exchange, although Keilly knew the fact that they were talking at all was still causing a lot of speculation; she had no intention of adding to that speculation by openly arguing with him.

  ‘You’ll get your fight,’ she warned vehemently.

  ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to—’ she broke off with something like panic. As she had turned to leave she had caught the waving hand of acknowledgement from across the room, Kathy even now weaving her way through the crowd towards them, ignorant as to the identity of Keilly’s companion, she felt sure!

  Kathy had wondered if she
had changed over the last ten years, now Keilly found herself wondering if Rod had. The lines of cynicism and experience about his eyes couldn’t have been present in the twenty-one-year-old man, and she doubted his body had been quite so masculinely filled out either. The style of his hair would have been longer too then, and although it grew darkly over his collar now she knew it must have been much longer ten years ago. Kathy certainly hadn’t recognised him on sight anyway!

  ‘Keilly, I—’ Kathy’s shocked blue eyes widened in horror as she finally reached them, all colour leaving her face as she stared at Rod Bartlett.

  Keilly was watching for his reaction, and for a brief moment she saw something like puzzled recognition flicker in his eyes before it was replaced by polite interest. In that moment she knew he had no idea who Kathy was. She was elated for her cousin’s sake, disappointed that he really was the type of man who slept with a woman and just as easily forgot her.

  She suddenly realised that if anyone were to save this situation it would have to be her, Rod was unaware that there was a situation, and Kathy was too shocked to do anything more than gape at the man she had dreaded meeting again.

  ‘Kathy,’ she put her arm through her cousin’s, effectively making them a team against the man who looked at them with questioning eyes. ‘This is Rod Bartlett,’ she introduced brightly, her hand on Kathy’s arm urging her to relax a little. ‘Mr Bartlett, this is Mrs Kathy Carmichael, a very good friend of mine.’

  Kathy looked at her sharply for her mode of introduction, and with a silent pleading in her eyes Keilly willed her cousin to understand what she was trying to hide. She squeezed her arm in an effort to make her realise she was omitting the fact that they were cousins, that Kathy’s name had once been Grant too.

  ‘Er—Hello, Mr Bartlett,’ Kathy at last managed to speak. ‘You’ll have to forgive me,’ she managed to sound rueful. ‘I had heard you were in Selchurch, but it’s a little overwhelming to actually meet you. How do you like being back?’ She held out her hand politely.

  Keilly was so proud of her in that moment that she could almost have hugged her right there and then. Rod may be the actor but Kathy was giving a wonderful performance!