Seduced by the Stranger (Billionaires & Babies, #2)

by Alyssa J. Montgomery

  He moved over to another door. ‘Through here is the ensuite.’

  She nodded, set aside her doubts over the accident and raised another query. ‘Mrs Robbins spoke as if we were planning to live here. Were we?’

  ‘No. It was wishful thinking on her part. We’d agreed to make Herlstone Park our base because that’s where your work is. I planned to set up an office there, and use my helicopter to fly back and forward to London as often as necessary. We decided to keep this home as our London base.’

  She let out a breath. They’d made so many plans together and in one night all those plans had been ripped apart. Poor Max. His world had been torn apart too.

  ‘Want to freshen up before some of Mrs Robbins famous apple slice?’ he asked.

  ‘One of the conditions of pregnancy means I definitely need the bathroom.’

  ‘I’ll wait for you outside in the hallway.’

  He was on his mobile phone when she walked out of her room a short time later. ‘Won’t be long,’ he mouthed. He glanced at his watch. ‘Schedule the meeting for two pm but tell him it’ll be brief.’

  Jenna wandered along looking at the paintings that hung on the walls.

  ‘No, I can’t make a business dinner tonight,’ he told the person on the other end of the phone.

  Jenna swung back to face him. ‘Max!’

  ‘Just a moment,’ he said into the phone.

  ‘I’m feeling really tired. All I want to do tonight is soak in the bath, maybe watch a little television and go to sleep. You should go to your meeting.’ He’d already been an absent CEO for long enough because of her.

  He regarded her thoughtfully. ‘You’re more important than the meeting. I can ask Nick to go.’

  ‘From what you’ve told me, he and Luca have been filling in a lot for you. Really, I would appreciate some time alone tonight to reset my head again and I’m not going to be able to truly relax if I’m eaten up with guilt thinking I’ve made you miss an important meeting.’

  He considered her words then leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers. ‘Mrs Robbins will be here. You won’t be alone.’

  ‘Noooo!’ She giggled a little. ‘I need some quiet time.’

  ‘I’ll make sure she understands.’ He resumed his conversation with the person on the phone. ‘Change of plan. Set up a dinner meeting with Prince Khalid for six-thirty at Renaldo’s. Thanks.’ He disconnected.

  ‘You’re meeting with Crown Prince Khalid of Turastan?’ she asked.

  He nodded as he took her hand and they started walking back down the hallway. ‘He’s in London until tomorrow and wanted to meet over a tender I made on the construction of a new tourist resort in Turastan.’

  ‘It’s a good thing you’re meeting with him. Prince Khalid isn’t particularly easy to impress and I doubt he would’ve been happy if you’d passed on a meeting.’

  ‘Nick would’ve gone in my place.’

  ‘The prince was a brilliant polo player, you know.’ He’d been one of the world’s best before his brother had died and he’d had to leave the polo circuit behind to assume his responsibilities as the new Crown Prince. ‘When I first started experimenting with breeding for polo ponies, he was very interested in the program I had between Criollo horses from Argentina and Thoroughbreds. He bought some of my first ponies.’

  For no apparent reason Max came to a standstill at the top of the staircase.

  ‘Did you like Khalid?’ He watched her closely.

  Gosh. Max was looking at her very intently. Was he jealous?

  ‘Yes, I did. Of course, he was a dreadful flirt and had a reputation as quite a playboy, but I believe his marriage to Queen Sabihah of Rhajia tamed him. Don’t they have a couple of children now?’

  ‘They do.’

  Max seemed suddenly thrilled, his smile radiating happiness.

  Really? He liked children so much he took such pleasure in someone else’s?

  ‘He showed me photos of the kids at our initial meeting and told me he’d almost missed the last birth when he’d been in Santaliana for King Gabriel’s wedding. He also said being a father was fabulous and I should try to ensure I was present when our baby is born.’

  ‘Oh.’ It was the first time Max had mentioned being present at the birth, and although she’d thought he might want to be there, she wasn’t quite sure how to respond at the moment—not certain she wanted to share quite that level of intimacy with him when she still couldn’t quite bring herself to share his bed.

  ‘Er … Max, Mrs Robbins’ slice is waiting. Shall we keep going downstairs?’ And leave the conversation about the delivery of this baby for another time?

  ‘Jenna, think about what you told me,’ he urged.

  Caught up in the thoughts of him being present at the baby’s delivery, it took her a moment to decipher his meaning. ‘Oh goodness!’ One hand flew to her chest. ‘I remembered Prince Khalid!’

  ‘You also remembered your breeding program.’

  ‘I did!’ It was no wonder he’d beamed at her.

  ‘I’m not glad you remembered Prince Khalid before you remembered me,’ he said in such a way she couldn’t tell whether he was serious or teasing, ‘but you spoke with real ease about the horses as well. Do you remember any more about the breeding at your stud?’

  Frowning hard in concentration, she willed herself to remember more. After several seconds, her shoulders slumped. ‘No.’ It’d come and it’d gone. The random thoughts had flitted through her brain but they didn’t connect to anything else. ‘I can picture Prince Khalid leaning against a rail of a round yard while someone—I don’t know who it was—lunged a horse. I was standing next to Khalid. We were talking.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘I have visions of loading up the polo ponies onto a horse transport truck but …’ Damn it all! She couldn’t even remember what she’d called those ponies. ‘Max, it’s gone. What was the name of those ponies from Australia?’

  ‘Argentina,’ he corrected. ‘Criollo horses.’

  She moaned in frustration. ‘Now I can’t even conjure up what a Criollo horse looks like.’

  ‘Don’t force it, Jen. It’s happening.’

  ‘Bit by bit.’ It wasn’t fast enough and she wasn’t sure whether it was better to be completely in the dark or to have these little snatches of memories. They were part of the picture, but weren’t certain where to take their place in the whole. ‘I’ve got almost thirty years of memories to recall. At this rate it’s going to take forever.’

  He raised a hand and smoothed it over her head. ‘It’s all in here. I wonder if I’d kept talking and hadn’t drawn your attention to the fact you were recounting memories, whether you would’ve been able to access more of them.’

  ‘We’ll have to ask Dr Gerber when we see her tomorrow.’ As frustrating as it was to have the door to her memory open, only to close almost as quickly, it did make Jenna hopeful. ‘I know I don’t remember your home, but I wonder whether simply being in a familiar environment has prompted more memories.’

  ‘If so, going back to Herlstone Park should speed things up.’

  They walked down the stairs side by side, each with their arms around the other’s waist.

  Jenna sniffed the air. ‘I can smell the slice now. Mm. I could probably find my way to the kitchen by following my nose.’

  Her mouth started to water as they entered the kitchen where Mrs Robbins had the tea and slice set out. ‘It smells amazing!’ Jenna told the housekeeper. ‘I didn’t realise I was feeling peckish until I smelled your slice.’

  ‘You’ll be needing to keep your strength up for the babe.’

  Max’s phone rang again. He looked at the screen and said, ‘Damn. I’m going to have to take this in my office and it could take a while.’

  ‘If you’re not back in five minutes, I’ll bring it through to you,’ Mrs Robbins told him.

  He waved his approval as he walked out the door, already with his phone to his ear.

  Jenna took a s
eat and couldn’t resist taking a bite of the warm slice straight away.

  ‘All day, every day this goes on,’ Mrs Robbins said in disapproval. ‘I’ve been with him since he first made his money and bought this home. He still works way too hard. The only time he relaxed and started enjoying life was when you two started dating.’

  ‘I’m pleased I had a positive impact on him.’ Her tongue tip darted to the corner of her mouth to retrieve a crumb. ‘This slice is delicious.’

  ‘You’ve always loved it.’ She wiped her hands on her apron. ‘I’ve never seen him so happy as when you came along. The morning after you first stayed, he was so charged with happiness. He told me you were the girl he’d always loved and planned to marry. You were the first woman he’d ever brought home so, the minute I realised he had company, I knew you were special.’

  Mrs Robbins chatted on for over five minutes making Jenna a little uncomfortable at times about what she revealed. Then the housekeeper looked at the kitchen clock and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. ‘I’m going to have to take his tea and slice into him. Once he buries himself in work at that desk of his he hardly remembers to come up for air.’

  ‘I’ll take it to him,’ Jenna offered.

  ‘Thank you.’ She explained how Jenna could find her way to Max’s study.

  The door to his office was open and Max was looking through a folder of paperwork as she entered with the tea cup and plate of slice.

  ‘Ah. I’m not sure which is going to revive me more—the tea or the sight of you standing there with it.’

  ‘Oh, you’re smooth.’

  He held his hands up in front of him. ‘It’s true.’

  She set the cup and plate down on his desk and looked around at Max’s office space. It was uncluttered, modern and … Jenna’s jaw gaped open and she drew in an audible breath as she stared at the wall behind him. ‘My God, you kept it!’

  Max swung around to follow her gaze. ‘Of course I kept it.’

  Emotion welled and dizzying memories made Jenna light-headed. ‘You weren’t even supposed to see it. You definitely weren’t supposed to keep it!’ Yet, happiness fizzed through her bloodstream with the potency of expensive champagne.

  ‘Rubbish,’ he admonished gently. ‘Of course I had to keep it when it was from you.’

  ‘But …’ She stepped around the desk and walked forward. Then, she raised her fingertips to trace the pencilled sketch through the glass of the frame. The paper still held all the crinkles from where she’d scrunched it up and discarded it for the failure it was. ‘No wonder you laughed and told me I’d never been able to draw when I told you about how I’d tried to sketch some fashion designs. Oh dear, this is really so God-awful.’

  ‘It isn’t.’ He stood up. His arms circled her and he lowered his head so his chin rested on her shoulder as he regarded the framed sketch with her. ‘It was a beautiful gift from your heart. I treasured it then and loved that you put so much effort into it for me. I still treasure it.’

  ‘I can’t believe you’ve kept it all these years.’ Her gaze was focused on the lines, but they blurred. The mental image replacing the sketch was a very clear memory. ‘You were turning fourteen. I wanted to do something special for your birthday.’

  ‘Mm-hm.’

  ‘I’d started feeling something more than friendship for you by then.’

  He lifted his head from her shoulder and used his fingers to tuck some stray strands of her hair back behind her ear. ‘I shared those sentiments—my feelings had deepened too—even though both of us were careful to keep them well hidden so we didn’t cross over the boundaries of friendship and spoil what we had.’

  She closed her eyes and let the memories take shape. ‘You used to look after Gypsy.’

  ‘I did. I took extra care of her because I knew she was your favourite horse.’

  Opening her eyes, she half turned in the circle of his arms so she could look at him. ‘Oh, Max, I remember Gypsy. I remember this drawing.’

  His arms tightened around her and he kissed her cheek.

  The sketch behind the glass was her attempt to capture Max as he brushed Gypsy. She remembered she’d spent the entire morning down by the stream trying to get on paper what she saw in her mind’s eye. Time after time she tried to get it right, screwing up one attempt after another and stuffing each failure into her knapsack. She became increasingly upset she couldn’t draw the boy and the horse she so loved and ended up scrunching the last attempt. She’d hurled it down towards the bank of the stream and burst into tears.

  It was then Max had found her.

  ‘Jen? What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing.’ She sniffed before she burst out angrily, ‘Nothing except that I’m so darned useless and I can’t draw for peanuts.’

  He altered direction and went to pick up her last rejected attempt.

  ‘No!’ She sprung up from her spot under the tree and tried to grab it away from him but he held it up high. ‘No! Don’t look, Max Bennett. Don’t you dare look!’

  He shook her off easily and unfurled the paper. ‘Oh.’ He started to laugh before he caught himself and turned it into a cough.

  ‘You louse.’ She kicked him in the shins.

  ‘Ow!’

  Her skin crawled with mortification and she hated Max at that moment. ‘It serves you right. I told you not to look. Give it back to me right now!’

  ‘You don’t want it. You threw it away,’ he argued.

  Her hands went to her hips. ‘Doesn’t mean you have any right to it.’

  ‘Of course I do. This is supposed—’ he broke off and rephrased more tactfully, ‘This is a picture of me brushing Gypsy down, isn’t it?’

  ‘No, it isn’t. It’s a … a … It’s nothing.’

  ‘Jenna Victoria Rose, don’t you tell me fibs.’ Goading her, he turned the drawing sideways as he frowned at it, then turned it upside down before he finally turned it the right way again. ‘I can see it’s a … horse.’

  ‘Give it back,’ she grated out and jumped up again to try to snatch it from his fingertips. It was a useless action because he was way taller. She knew her attempts made her look silly and made him even more determined to keep her from getting it back.

  ‘No.’ He smoothed the paper between his hands then folded it and put it in the pocket of his shirt. ‘Finders keepers.’

  ‘I hate you, Max Bennett,’ she screamed at him before she scooped up her drawing pad and pencil, stuffed them in her knapsack and ran off in a huff.

  The next day he presented her with a bouquet of wild yellow Tormentils and some Bluebells that he’d picked himself. To sweeten the deal, he’d also bought her one of her favourite chocolate bars.

  All had been forgiven because she’d hated being out of sorts with her best friend. She’d fallen asleep absolutely miserable after fighting with him.

  ‘Max, I remember doing this drawing. I remember our fight.’ She shook her head. ‘God, I was so frustrated I couldn’t draw and I took it out on you. I was furious with you because you picked this up when I was too embarrassed to let you look at it.’ She’d never imagined for a second he’d kept it.

  ‘I never told you, but initially I started out deliberately trying to get under your skin by refusing to give it to you,’ he confessed.

  ‘Oh, you got under my skin alright, you hateful boy. I still remember how you looked at it from all angles as if you were trying to figure out what I’d drawn.’

  He laughed. ‘I guess I was a hateful boy. After you ran off, I thought about how much effort you’d put into it and I guessed you were probably trying to draw it for me for my birthday. I felt really sorry I’d provoked you, but I was also determined I wasn’t going to give the picture up. It meant too much to me.’

  His words touched her deeply. She was looking at the proof of how much it’d meant to him.

  He’d kept it all this time.

  He’d even had the dreadful thing framed!

  Jenna reached up t
o touch his strong jaw. ‘I spent most of that night tossing and crying because I’d told you I hated you when really I … I cared for you. You were my best friend.’

  ‘Your eyes were all puffy when I came to apologise the next morning and I’d never known such guilt. I felt like a real bully.’

  ‘Good!’ she huffed. But then, she looked up at him and retracted her statement. ‘You were never a bully, Max. A dreadful tease at times, but never a bully.’

  ‘You realise it’s happened again? Your memory’s returning.’

  She smiled and nodded. ‘That’s the most vivid memory I’ve had.’ She’d relived the frustration, rage, mortification and even emotional upheaval of having fought with Max.

  ‘More memories are bound to follow, sweetheart.’

  ‘I hope so.’ She loved his faith that everything would work out. After today’s recollections of both Prince Khalid and the sketch, she was more positive than she had been.

  ‘I have to go into my main office block in Canary Wharf.’

  She searched her memory banks but if anybody had asked where his office was she probably would’ve guessed it was somewhere around Westminster.

  ‘Are you sure you’re going to be okay here with Mrs Robbins if I hang around for the business dinner?’

  Jenna couldn’t help but yawn. ‘I think I’ll be out like a light for my little midday nanna nap very soon.’

  Max kissed her again. ‘Take care of yourself and our baby.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘We’ll drive to Herlstone Park tomorrow.’

  As she lowered her head to his chest, she wanted to ask him if they could stay here for a few days. She wasn’t sure she was ready to make the trip to her family home yet. She bit back the request and dismissed the thought that came from the shadows of her mind—the impulse that she shouldn’t return home.

  It was a ridiculous notion.

  What possible reason could there be for her not to return home?

  Besides, Max would be with her. It would be fine.

  Chapter 11

  The drive from London to Newmarket was under an hour and a half, and Max’s Bentley was so comfortable Jenna drifted off to sleep almost as soon as they were out of the London traffic.