One Chance at Love

by Carole Mortimer

‘Ellington-James,’ she corrected harshly, her eyes suddenly full of all the unhappy memories.

  Zach settled back on the sofa, pulling her against him, so that her head rested on his shoulder as he caressed her silky hair. ‘I have a solution to that, if you would like to hear it?’

  She could feel his tension beneath her cheek, knowing he wasn’t as relaxed as he would like to appear. She nodded wordlessly, not in the least relaxed herself.

  He let out a shaky breath. ‘How does Dizzy Bennett sound to you?’

  She sat up abruptly, staring down at him, finding only pleading sincerity in his face. She moistened her lips dazedly. Was Zach asking her to marry him? Well, he wasn’t offering to adopt her, she admonished herself! But marriage? Oh, Christi had joked about it during their stay at Castle Haven, but Dizzy had never actually thought it might happen.

  Zach swallowed hard. ‘If you find that idea so distasteful that it leaves you speechless, perhaps you would prefer—’

  ‘I don’t find the idea of being your wife in the least distasteful!’ she burst out in desperate denial. ‘I just—you took me by surprise,’ she admitted in understatement. ‘You don’t know anything about me.’ She shook her head, sure he couldn’t be serious.

  ‘I know that you’re completely loyal to those you care about, that you have compassion and love for a child you didn’t even know—’

  ‘Kate?’ she frowned.

  ‘Kate,’ he nodded. ‘Mrs Scott was most distressed that you had left before she had had time to thank you properly for all the help you gave her with Kate.’

  ‘Oh,’ she grimaced.

  ‘Hmm!’ He gave her a reproving look. ‘So much for Christi the Good Samaritan!’

  ‘She would have done the same thing if she had found out about Kate first,’ Dizzy defended.

  ‘You see,’ Zach said with satisfaction, ‘completely loyal. Maybe she would,’ he conceded as Dizzy still continued to look indignant. ‘But she didn’t know about Kate first, you did, and you did the only thing someone as loving and lovely as you could do: you did everything within your power to make Kate happy again.’

  ‘Anyone would have done the same,’ she said uncomfortably.

  ‘Anyone didn’t, you did.’ He tapped her reprovingly on the nose for her modesty. ‘It’s just part of your nature that you didn’t want any thanks for what you did.’

  ‘Is that all you know about me?’ she frowned.

  He smiled. ‘Isn’t it enough?’ he teased.

  ‘It doesn’t seem an awful lot to base a marriage proposal on.’ She still frowned. ‘Unless you’re just trying to get a Dizzy James illustration free for your next book?’ she added lightly, the fact that everything might, just might, be going to work out after all, beginning to penetrate the misery she had known the last twenty-four hours.

  ‘I never thought of that,’ he said ruefully. ‘Will I? As your husband?’

  ‘No,’ she mocked.

  ‘As your lover?’

  ‘No.’ She began to smile, more and more sure with each passing second that Zach did love her, and began to be filled with a rosy glow of love reciprocated.

  ‘As your husband and your lover?’ he amended hopefully.

  ‘Well …’ She began to weaken. ‘But you don’t have to marry me if you would prefer—well, prefer—’

  ‘I know I don’t have to marry you,’ he chided teasingly. ‘Even I’m not so old and fusty and dusty that I don’t realise you have to indulge in a little more lovemaking than we have so far to produce offspring.’

  Colour heightened Dizzy’s face at his easy use of the way she and Christi had used to describe him before Dizzy had actually met him. ‘Christi told you about those names?’ she grimaced.

  He nodded, his eyes filled with laughter. ‘They were among the few choice ones she chose to call me when she realised I had asked you to leave. And believe me, they were the more polite names she used!’

  Dizzy bit her lip, but she couldn’t completely stop the smile that formed on her lips. ‘Christi is slow to lose her temper, but when she does, watch out!’

  ‘So I discovered,’ he grimaced ruefully. ‘I concluded that any woman capable of language like that was more than able to take care of herself, and her money!’

  Dizzy’s eyes lit up with excitement. ‘You decided to let her have her inheritance, after all?’

  ‘There was never any doubt about it, Dizzy,’ he said gently. ‘I told you that yesterday. I had no idea of the interpretation Christi had put on my invitation to come and stay for a few weeks. If I had, I would have disabused her of that conclusion right away. Michael and Diana merely wanted Christi and me to remain close, not to have me test her, like some Victorian uncle.’

  ‘I bet Christi is pleased.’ Dizzy settled back against his shoulder.

  ‘Not so that you would notice the last time we spoke,’ he admitted ruefully. ‘She made it perfectly clear that, if I was too stupid to do anything about my love for you, then she washed her hands of me until I did something about getting you back. This “charade” was supposed to do that, at the same time as showing you I was hiding something, too.’

  It thrilled her to hear him talking so naturally about loving her. She wished she could admit the emotion as easily.

  ‘That’s sounds a bit strong for Christi,’ she frowned at her friend’s vehemence.

  He gave a rueful sigh. ‘I had just told her that I thought I was too old for you, too fusty and dusty, and that maybe you saw me as a father figure, as you didn’t seem to be all that close to your own father,’ he admitted reluctantly.

  ‘You what?’ Dizzy moved to glare down at him. ‘How dare you—’

  ‘Please,’ he held up his hands defensively, wincing dramatically, ‘Christi has already made it plain what you would think of that conclusion.’

  ‘I should hope so,’ she said indignantly. ‘Did I kiss you as if I considered you a father figure, did I want you as if I felt that way? Honestly, Zach—is that why you’ve had your hair styled differently and been out and bought a new suit?’ she frowned suspiciously.

  He gave a rueful smile. ‘I didn’t think it would do any harm to smarten myself up a bit. I haven’t bothered—’

  ‘Of course it’s done some harm,’ she scolded. ‘I’m probably going to have to beat all the other women off you now that the tailoring of that suit reveals the obvious masculinity of my Greek god! That was my name for you after I saw you swimming naked in the lake that day,’ she revealed awkwardly.

  ‘I’m flattered,’ Zach grinned, sobering abruptly as he realised what else she had said. ‘Does that mean you’re going to marry me?’ he prompted eagerly.

  She swallowed hard. ‘I may not be very good at being a wife—’

  ‘You’ll be perfect for me,’ he said with certainty. ‘And just think of the fact that you’ll have exclusive rights to all the Claudia Laurence covers from now on,’ he tempted.

  ‘Are you really Claudia Laurence?’ She looked at him quizzically, unable to envisage him writing those steamy historicals that were so famous worldwide.

  Zach gave her a gently reproving look. ‘Are you really avoiding giving me an answer?’

  Dizzy drew in a ragged breath, her hand moving shakily to the hardness of his cheek. ‘Only for the moment,’ she admitted. ‘Until I’ve had a chance to get used to the idea of your loving me.’ She gave him a pleading look.

  Love blazed out of his eyes before he bent his head to kiss the palm of her hand. ‘I’ll always love you, Dizzy,’ he told her gruffly. ‘You’re the sort of woman a man meets only once in a lifetime, utterly unique. I knew it the moment I first looked at you.’

  Just as she had experienced attraction for the first time when she looked at him, had known instinctively that Zach was her one chance at love. She had no doubts that her love for him would ever change, or that she would always want him in a way she had never even dreamt of wanting any other man. It was having him love her in the same way that was so hard to become
accustomed to. There were still so many misunderstandings between Zach and herself, and yet now that he was over his own pained humiliation of yesterday she didn’t doubt that he loved her unquestioningly. No one had ever loved her like this before; the love of Christi and her other friends was a different sort of love altogether.

  ‘I’m in no rush,’ Zach comforted as he saw her bewilderment. ‘As long as you don’t move further away from me than you are right now while you make your decision,’ he added ruefully.

  Dizzy gave a shaky laugh. ‘I promise!’ She snuggled down against him.

  ‘Then, to answer your question,’ he said briskly, ‘yes, I really am Claudia Laurence.’ He sounded a little embarrassed at having to make the admission.

  Dizzy frowned, remembering what he had said about Christi reminding him that everyone had secrets they would rather weren’t made public. Could this be the answer to the obscure statement Christi had once made about ‘knowing’ something about her uncle that he wouldn’t be too pleased about if he realised she knew? She had a feeling it was.

  ‘Does Christi know?’ she asked lightly.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Zach grimaced. ‘Apparently she came looking for me in my study one day, and saw some papers I had left lying about on my desk. Also, there was the evidence of my parents’ names. Claudia, and Laurence,’ he supplied as Dizzy looked at him questioningly. ‘Well, how else was I supposed to come up with a pseudonym for a writer of “hot historicals”?’ he defended at Dizzy’s grin.

  ‘It sounds perfectly logical to me,’ she teased.

  He sighed. ‘I started out writing them because I needed the money—you may have noticed that buying and keeping up a castle doesn’t come cheap,’ he added self-derisively.

  She nodded. ‘Christi and I wondered about it several times.’

  ‘No doubt, with the sort of opinion you two young ladies had of me, you decided I’d robbed a bank or something!’ he said disgustedly.

  ‘Nothing as shocking as that,’ she teased.

  ‘No,’ he drawled heavily. ‘That would probably have been a little too exciting for the fusty, dusty professor.’

  Dizzy put a silencing finger over his lips. ‘I only thought of you in that way until I had met you; then I found you very exciting!’

  His eyes gleamed. ‘Have you had long enough to think yet?’ he leered.

  They were both making a game out of it now, both knowing that she had already made her decision, that she wouldn’t be talking to him this way if she hadn’t.

  ‘Not quite,’ she dismissed haughtily. She shook her head. ‘No wonder Christi was so eager to help me get ready earlier to come over here; she knew exactly who she was sending me off to meet when she arranged the appointment and dropped me off in a taxi downstairs.’ She chuckled indulgently. ‘She was at my studio when my agent rang,’ she explained at Zach’s puzzlement. ‘She took over the conversation with him once it became obvious I was still too upset about yesterday to even attempt to talk to him.’

  ‘Oh, darling—’

  ‘It’s already forgotten,’ she quickly reassured at his anguished groan, not meaning to remind him of that unhappy time.

  ‘It isn’t,’ he said grimly. ‘But I swear I’ll never mistrust you again.’

  Dizzy chuckled to ease the tension. ‘Some of the answers to the questions you’re going to ask are going to take some believing,’ she warned.

  ‘I believe them already,’ he promised instantly.

  She laughed softly. ‘Don’t be too hasty! As Christi is always reminding me, the illegal gambling one is a little difficult to accept—and she was the one who persuaded the police not to charge me!’

  ‘Illegal—’

  ‘I warned you,’ she teased at his astounded expression.

  ‘Yes, but—’ He drew in a deeply controlling breath. ‘If you say there’s a perfectly logical explanation for it, then I believe you.’

  ‘Oh, I didn’t say it was logical.’ Dizzy shook her head, her eyes shining like twin emeralds. ‘Only that I had an explanation.’

  Zach closed his eyes, and he was under control again when he reopened them. ‘Just tell me one thing,’ he said calmly. ‘Is that the only occasion Christi stopped you being locked up in prison?’

  The laughter deepened in her eyes. ‘Yes, that is the only time,’ she confirmed, bursting into unrestrained laughter as Zach obviously had difficulty restraining himself from asking any more questions. ‘At the time, I had it in mind to forget about a career where I could use my artistic talent, and Christi knew this reporter—’

  ‘—who just happened to be covering a story about illegal gambling,’ Zach finished drily.

  ‘There, now that wasn’t so difficult, was it?’ She had difficulty holding her laughter in check.

  Zach muttered under his breath for several seconds, before looking at her reprovingly. ‘I won’t bother to point out how serious it could have been.’

  She sobered. ‘No. Are you ready to hear about Henry yet? Or has Christi already told you about him?’ It was highly likely that she had, during her own explanations.

  ‘I told you,’ he grimaced. ‘All Christi did was tell me what an idiot I was for having let you go out of my life.’

  ‘She didn’t explain away any of the half-truths and lies she told you?’ Dizzy gasped.

  He shrugged. ‘I already knew you were closer than sisters, that you couldn’t be destitute, considering who your parents are. Besides, Christi refused to explain herself, claiming that if I was stupid enough to let you go then I was also stupid enough to hang on to her money no matter what she said to vindicate herself.’

  ‘And you’re still going to let her have her money?’ Dizzy gasped with incredulous laughter.

  He grinned. ‘It was almost like being back twenty years ago with my brother. He was very slow to boil, too, but when he did he let you have it with both barrels! Besides, it’s Christi’s money, not mine, and besides trying to put one over on her not-so-fusty uncle she seems a very sensible person. She has you for a best friend, doesn’t she?’ he said, as if that settled the whole matter.

  ‘Oh, Zach!’ Dizzy threw her arms around his neck, tears streaming down her face as she kissed him with all the love she had inside her.

  Zach returned the kiss with a hunger of his own, tasting her again and again, both of them lost in the wonder of their love, oblivious to the gentle knock on the door.

  The man who opened the door stared unabashedly at Dizzy James in the arms of his star author. ‘I know I said you could have my office for as long as you like,’ David Kendrick drawled, when it seemed they weren’t even going to come up for air. ‘But I do have a publishing company to run,’ he mocked as they both turned to him in astonishment, as if they had both completely forgotten they were in his office on a sunny afternoon in summer.

  As indeed they had. Dizzy looked shyly at Zach’s ruffled appearance, his tie slightly off-centre from where her hands had been inside his unbuttoned shirt, and knew that her own face must be flushed, and her hair in wild disarray.

  ‘Thanks, David.’ Zach was the one to collect himself first, deftly rebuttoning his shirt. ‘But I haven’t had an answer to my proposal yet,’ he added ruefully.

  The other man grinned at him. ‘Of course you have.’

  Zach turned to her with eyes full of tenderness. ‘I have?’

  Her smile couldn’t have been any wider if she had tried, dazzling both the men in the room. ‘You have,’ she glowed.

  ‘I’d like to be best man,’ David drawled as he moved to sit behind his desk.

  ‘And Christi wants to be our bridesmaid,’ Dizzy told Zach with a breathless laugh, hardly able to believe this was really happening.

  ‘Then that seems to be settled, then.’ His arm about her shoulders held her tightly to his side, and his face was full of pride as he looked down at her.

  ‘Not quite,’ she grimaced. ‘I still haven’t told you who Henry is.’

  ‘You can tell me on the way to you
r studio,’ he decided firmly. ‘Maybe I can also be one of the privileged few who know what DC stands for,’ he added teasingly.

  ‘Oh, that’s easy—’ David broke off as they both turned to him, Dizzy with a silencing frown, Zach with open curiosity. ‘It’s on her contracts,’ he shrugged lamely.

  ‘Talking of contracts, David—’ Zach spoke authoritatively, effectively ending the subject of Dizzy’s names, knowing she would rather they were alone when they were revealed.

  ‘I know.’ David put up defensive hands. ‘You want your money as soon as possible so that you can put heating into your castle. I suppose that’s only reasonable when you intend taking your bride back there,’ he teased. ‘Or do you intend generating your own heat?’

  Zach’s gaze was frankly sensual as he gazed down at Dizzy. ‘Oh, I think we’ll get by for a while,’ he murmured throatily.

  Dizzy put her arm through the crook of his. ‘More than a while,’ she breathed huskily.

  ‘Get out of here, before you set fire to my office!’ David complained, grinning widely as they left the room, having eyes only for each other.

  Dizzy went with Zach unhesitantly, knowing she could trust him implicitly with her future—and her past.

  Zach held her tightly against his side as they walked to the lift. ‘I’ve just remembered something else I learnt about you in the few days I’ve known you,’ he murmured against her ear as the lift doors opened smoothly in front of them.

  Dizzy looked up at him with glowing eyes. ‘Oh, yes?’

  ‘Yes.’ He turned her into his arms, moulding her body against his, a move perfectly in keeping with her Greek god. ‘I learnt—’ His lips moved against her earlobe. ‘I learnt,’ he began again, ‘that you excite me beyond thinking. There hasn’t been a moment go by when I haven’t wanted to make love to you. And I know I’m going to feel that way for the rest of my life,’ he told her deeply, his gaze holding hers as he told her of his love.

  Dizzy flung her arms about his neck. ‘I love you!’ she groaned emotionally as the lift doors closed behind them to quietly whisk them down to the ground floor.

  Her ecstatic statement was followed by a very satisfactory silence, and then the soft murmur of voices, and then Zach’s, ‘Henry’s a what?’, followed by Dizzy’s giggles of pure happiness.