by Susan Napier
Perversely, as Chris heated up Joshua cooled down, withdrawing behind a rigid barrier of self-control. ‘I said, back off. This isn’t the time or place.’
Chris threw his hands up, palms out, in a gesture of contemptuous surrender. ‘Sure. Anything you say, bro. After all, you’re the boss. The head of the family. The man who makes all the decisions on behalf of the rest of us—purely for our own good, of course—and takes it for granted that we’ll fall in with his plans—’
‘Don’t, Chris!’ Surprisingly it was Carolyn who put the brake on the runaway tension. Her eyes were sparkling with suspicious moisture, her lower lip trembling. ‘This is supposed to be a party—I want everyone to be happy. Please, please don’t spoil it for me…’
Very effective, thought Regan as she watched both men fold like limp handkerchiefs to dry out the little-girl tears. She wondered if Carolyn practised that look in the mirror, then told herself not to be catty.
‘Maybe Regan and I will just take ourselves outside for a stroll,’ said Chris, grabbing her hand without even glancing at her for permission. ‘Or maybe we’ll take a row across the lake and I’ll show her what the gazebo is like in the moonlight.’
Regan decided that Joshua wasn’t the only one in the Wade family who took things for granted. She knew that whatever was going on, she didn’t want to be involved.
She wriggled her fingers free. ‘Thanks, but I get seasick in small boats.’
There was a tiny, startled silence, engulfed in the swirl of partying around them, then Joshua said smoothly, ‘I’m sure the good doctor can find some medication somewhere so that you won’t vomit on his romantic pretensions.’
Regan seethed. If he thought to push her into Chris’s arms to neutralise the threat she clearly presented, he had another think coming!
‘I prefer not to rely on chemicals to maintain my equilibrium.’
‘You don’t say?’ His eyebrows shot up in taunting disbelief and Regan fought not to blush as she was forcibly reminded of the alcohol that had been flowing in her bloodstream the night that they had spent in bed together, making love for hours on end…
She hadn’t been concerned about her equilibrium then; she had purely revelled in the explosive reaction of their mingled body chemistries. And they hadn’t just made love on the bed…there had been the chair, the floor, the bath: the cold, shiny surface of the big mirror slamming against her back and buttocks, frosted by the heat from her steamy, straining body as he knelt between her legs, so that when he pulled her down to mount him she was faced with a fleeting, graphic imprint of herself fading mistily against the glass…
She lost the battle against the wave of heat that swept through her body, clenching her hands around her glass as she felt her soft nipples peak against the white silk. She just hoped anyone who noticed would put it down to the chill of the punch sliding down her throat.
‘The lake’s as calm as a millpond,’ Chris was protesting. ‘And it only takes a few minutes to get across.’
‘Oh, come on, Chris, leave it alone.’ Carolyn unexpectedly came to Regan’s rescue. ‘Can’t you see she’s trying to let you down politely?’
‘And was succeeding, too, until you stuck your oar in,’ he sniped back.
‘So why aren’t you taking your rejection gracefully?’
‘Because maybe she was just leaving herself open to persuasion. Some women like their men to do the wooing.’
Carolyn stopped leaning on Joshua’s arm and put her hands on her hips. ‘I guess it all depends on what your definition of a man is. I’d say a real man is one who’s willing to respect that a woman is capable of saying exactly what she means,’ she struck back, leading Regan to revise her opinion of her as a total lightweight.
She threw back her head, her long hair shimmering like a veil over her shoulders. ‘It’s not as if you really wanted to row over there, anyway. You were just trying to get at Jay and me…’
Chris’s handsome face darkened at her carelessly provocative stance. ‘Don’t presume to tell me what I was trying to do—’
‘Maybe it’s you two who should step outside,’ murmured Joshua, but they didn’t appear to hear him as they continued their crackling exchange, and he turned to Regan, effectively cutting her off from the other two.
‘When Frank pointed you out from across the room and ordered Carolyn to introduce us he suggested I get to know you—since you’re apparently going to be spending some of your time in the site office at Palm Cove while I’m familiarising myself with the operation there.’ Regan’s hands went clammy with dismay as he continued smoothly, ‘So, tell me…how does a university drop-out with no qualifications keep herself such a cushy job in the legal department of a company than runs such a lean, mean operation?’
‘I didn’t sleep my way there, if that’s what you’re implying!’ she flared.
‘Trading favours? But you do it so well…’ he taunted, lifting a hand to rub his jaw.
Regan caught her breath as the gold and jade winked mockingly in the light.
‘What’s the matter?’ He tilted his strong wrist, looking down at it in mock surprise. ‘Ahh, you’re admiring my cufflinks—attractive, aren’t they? And, as far as my investigations show, definitely a one-off.’
The hair rose on the back of Regan’s neck. Investigations?
‘Also unique is the fact that they were given to me by a woman,’ he murmured. ‘Except for my sisters, women rarely give me gifts, and never expensive jewellery. As a wealthy man it’s considered my prerogative to give rather than to receive.’
Had he no shame?
‘How you can have the gall to wear them around Carolyn, I don’t know,’ she whispered raggedly.
He shrugged, seemingly unconcerned at their proximity to his fiancée. ‘But then you don’t know me at all, do you? I didn’t keep my family together against all the odds, and fight off the wolves that almost tore my father’s corporation to pieces by being sweet-natured, mild and forgiving. As it happens, I was running late tonight and in a hurry to dress. I just scooped up the first things that came to hand…’
In spite of his logic she still didn’t entirely believe him. ‘You knew I might be here tonight,’ she accused him.
His cynical eyes hooded. ‘Let’s say I thought it too much of a coincidence that you should be sneaking around the property, spying on me, if you didn’t intend to make some kind of contact.’
Shades of Ryan and his James Bond!
‘I wasn’t spying on you. I was just taking an innocent stroll in the gardens! If you think I was pleased to see you, you must be crazy!’ she choked.
His mouth thinned. ‘If it was so innocent why did you run? That’s the second time you’ve disappeared on me, but now that I know who and what you are, you won’t find it so easy to elude me in future. I’m sure Frank will prove even more informative if I flatter him about his charming protégée. A distant relative, I think he said…?’
‘Yes, and when you marry Carolyn that means you and I will also be relations,’ she pointed out with sweet relish.
But he turned even that point against her. ‘You and I have already established our relations. You obviously think that entitles you to special consideration.’
‘Do I?’ Regan fenced, uncertain of his meaning.
He flicked at finger at her glass. ‘You’re running on empty again. Shall we revisit the bar together?’ He cupped her elbow in his hand and turned his sleek head. ‘Regan and I are going to get another drink. Shall I get you a glass of something, Carolyn?’
‘Preferably water or punch,’ Chris tacked on sharply.
Carolyn paused to give him a fierce look before she tossed Joshua a glittering smile. ‘I’d rather have a glass of champagne.’
‘That is so typical! Go ahead, then. Put your own selfish desires first, just as you always do—’
‘I think you really should have something non-alcoholic,’ interrupted Joshua, with a gentleness that sent tingles up and down Regan’s spine.
On this subject at least the two men seemed united in their opinion. She looked curiously at Carolyn, wondering if that high-strung air indicated an addictive personality.
‘Oh, all right,’ she was saying, with a pretty pout in his direction. ‘If you say I should, Jay Darling…’
‘No need to overdo it,’ sniped Chris, and they were off again, arguing the point.
The clamp on Regan’s elbow tightened and she found herself thrust reluctantly into motion.
‘But I don’t want anything else to drink,’ she protested, dragging her steps as he manoeuvred through the crowd.
‘You can keep me company.’
She tried to look back over her shoulder. ‘Aren’t you afraid to leave them alone together without someone to play referee—they might kill each other or something?’
A whimsical smile touched his lips. ‘Or something.’
He didn’t seem very worried. Stupid to think that anyone would be allowed to steal anything from this man.
That was why it was imperative that Regan get access to the Palm Cove advertising accounts before his auditors did. Bad enough that Michael had stolen from his employer through a fictitious printing company, but Regan had no desire to be tarred with the same dishonest brush if she was discovered trying to repay the money he had embezzled all those months ago.
She had believed Cindy when the other woman had sobbed that she hadn’t known about the thefts. Cindy had willingly helped him cheat on his wife but she hadn’t known—or evidently been bright enough to ask—how he had managed to finance his dual lifestyle. She had been horrified when, a few weeks ago, she had stumbled on the evidence of his activities, along with a stash of money, hidden in her garage. Afraid of the consequences to herself and her son if she went to the police, she had flung herself on the mercy of Michael’s ‘clever’ wife, who knew the ins and outs of the law and surely wouldn’t want to endure a public scandal, or condemn her husband’s natural child to grow up in poverty, under the shadow of his father’s crime…?
The child that should have been Regan’s…
She was sick with shame at the way that Michael had abused Sir Frank’s personal and professional trust. He would never have been in a position to do either if Regan hadn’t introduced the two men. Sir Frank put great stock in his reputation for integrity and honest dealing, and she knew what a deleterious effect the belated discovery of embezzlement would have on his pride, not to mention his pocket, if it was uncovered by a close audit during the sale of his company. Determined that would never happen, Regan had used the information on the hidden disk to tot up the exact amount of Michael’s theft and worked out a way to pay it back, hopefully without anyone ever knowing it had been gone. It had taken all the cash that Cindy had found, plus every spare cent that Regan could rake up from the sale of her former home and possessions, to get enough to square the accounts. All she needed now was the time and opportunity to put her plan into action.
‘This isn’t the bar!’ she said, suddenly realising that Joshua had opened a door and was dragging her into an empty room.
A lamp shone on the desk, and twin pendant lights hanging from the high ceiling revealed the button-backed leather chairs and walls of bookshelves of the library.
She spun around as Joshua backed against the door, closing it with a definitive click. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘I thought you might like a little more privacy for this discussion.’
‘Then you thought wrong! We have nothing more to discuss.’
‘On the contrary. We have a great deal to settle.’ He folded his arms across his chest. ‘First up, you can stop flirting with my brother.’
Her jaw dropped. ‘I was not flirting!’
‘I can read body language as well as the next man…you were leaning into him as he talked, giving him a close-up of those sultry little smiles and big violet eyes—’
‘We were having a conversation. It was difficult to hear him over the music. Anyway, I didn’t know he was your brother—’
‘Ignorance is no defence in law, as you should know better than most. Stay away from Chris. Second: how much?’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘How much were you going to demand from me to keep your mouth shut?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about! You’re being deliberately insulting—’
‘And you’re being deliberately obtuse. It won’t work. You’re a very bright lady, as Frank was at such pains to point out to me. Keen to make the most of your abilities. An eager opportunist. So…how much?’
Her slender bosom heaved. ‘You think I’m here to blackmail you?’
His eyes flickered down to the rippling white silk and back up to her blazing eyes. ‘It’s a reasonable assumption. You found out who I was—who I’m engaged to—and figured that you were in a perfect position to threaten to disrupt my wedding plans unless I agreed to pay you soothing amounts of cash.’
That was the height of irony, considering what she had come up here to do, but she couldn’t help the guilty blush that stained her throat and cheeks as she launched on the offensive.
‘What a very active imagination you must have!’ she scoffed. ‘I suppose you think that I somehow pushed Hazel down that hill in order to get myself invited up here…’
He tilted his head against the door, exposing the scars above his Nehru collar. ‘You know exactly how imaginative I can be, Eve,’ he drawled in a rusty voice that scratched at her frayed nerves. ‘But, no, I don’t think you were behind Hazel’s accident. As I said, you’re an opportunist—you take an existing situation and turn it to your advantage.’
‘Well, I’m sorry to disappoint your paranoid fantasies, but I had no idea who you were until a few minutes ago,’ she gritted. ‘And now that I do know it makes not one iota of difference to me. I have no interest in you either as Adam or as Joshua Wade.’
To her fury, he grinned. ‘You were interested in me every which way that night in the apartment…’
‘I treat all my one-night stands like that!’
‘That must make for an extremely exhausting social life…and an extremely expensive one.’ He unfolded his arms to lightly adjust his cufflinks, one after the other, watching her pupils contract nervously. ‘You left a gift on my pillow but you didn’t take mine to you. Was it your intention to make me feel like a toyboy?’
She felt a wicked surge of angry satisfaction and sleeked her hair back behind her ears like a fastidious little cat. ‘Oh, dear, how demeaning for you,’ she sympathised.
His eyes slitted. ‘Actually, I found the thought rather…stimulating.’ He pushed off the door and came softly towards her. ‘Didn’t you like the bracelet? I know you looked at it while I was in the shower.’
If it was a guess then her expression as she backed away from him on unsteady legs would have been all he needed to confirm its accuracy. Her brief burst of triumph dwindled to renewed panic as he continued.
‘Because that’s my problem with all this, you see. What you did doesn’t quite jell with the image of you as a greedy, blackmailing opportunist, does it?’ He prowled around the desk after her. ‘You had those lovely baubles within your grasp and you deliberately let them slip through your fingers. Why, instead of waiting to accept your due reward, did you creep out and leave me to wake up alone? Apart from anything else, it’s extremely bad manners.’
Regan backed into a swivel chair and nearly fell over. ‘I’m sorry if I offended your sense of etiquette.’
‘I don’t think so. I think it was some kind of planned strategy on your part.’ He steadied the swinging chair with his hands as she retreated behind it. ‘After all, you didn’t conjure those cufflinks out of thin air.’
‘Will you stop stalking me?’ she shrilled, almost at the end of her tether.
He was relentless. ‘If you’ll tell me exactly what’s going on?’
‘Nothing’s going on,’ she denied hectically. ‘This is all just an unfortunate coincidence
.’ She glanced towards the door.
‘Don’t bother. You wouldn’t make it,’ he warned her.
Her hip bumped the corner of the desk and she winced, rubbing at her bruised thigh. ‘How dare you harass me like this? If you don’t open that door people are going to wonder what we’re doing in here—’
‘No one saw us come in, and given the crowd out there I doubt if we’ll be missed.’
‘Even by Carolyn?’ She drew herself up to her full height, deciding the only remaining defence was attack. ‘It’s not as if you’re in any position to criticise my motives. What about your behaviour? You wouldn’t have any reason to fear blackmail if you didn’t know you’d done something utterly reprehensible.’ A mist of red covered her vision as she got to the crux of her inner anger. ‘You virtually bounced out of bed with me to rush up here and propose to her!’
His grey eyes went dark. ‘I owed Carolyn no sexual fidelity on the night that you and I slept together,’ he said grimly.
‘Don’t play with semantics!’ she cried. ‘What about emotional fidelity? You must have been intending to ask her—’
His mouth twisted. ‘Actually, no. I had not in the least thought of getting married again when I drove up here that day…’
Her feet suddenly felt nailed to the spot. ‘Again? You’ve been married before?’
‘I’m thirty-six. It would be more surprising if I hadn’t had a previous serious relationship, wouldn’t it?’ he queried, taking advantage of her stunned expression to move closer.
This new facet of him threw all her previous assumptions into disarray. ‘What did you do? Dump her when you discovered she’d married you purely for your money?’ she said, using deliberate cruelty to distance herself from the odd feeling of melancholy that invaded her bones.
The twist of his mouth turned into a cold smile. ‘Actually, yes. And it was worth every cent it took to pay her off!’
She swallowed. On top of all the other blows Chris had mentioned, Joshua had taken a king-hit to his pride—if not his heart.
‘That must have been difficult for you?’
