Dreams of Forever: Seduction, Westmoreland StyleSpencer's Forbidden Passion

by Brenda Jackson

  Not knowing what to say, she sank against him instead and he pulled her into his arms and held her. She knew that loving Spencer when he didn’t love her back wouldn’t always be easy. He was a hard man, a man who’d been hurt by love. It would be up to her to go about repairing his heart mainly because she believed in the very essence of her soul that it was a heart worthy of fixing.

  “It’s beautiful, Spencer,” she finally said. “Simply beautiful. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” Then he said, “The rain has stopped. Are you ready to get dressed and go to my place?”

  She looked at him. Her heart was assured that although he didn’t love her, he definitely wanted her. “Yes,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m ready.”

  Chapter 10

  Spencer stood at the window in his bedroom and glanced out. It had been four days since he’d told his mother about his wedding plans and his phone was still ringing. His cousin Delaney had even called him all the way from her home in the Middle East to congratulate him.

  He leaned against the windowsill, thinking the last few days had been sheer bliss. Chardonnay seemed to have accepted the way things would be between them and no longer fought the idea that in less than two weeks they would be getting married.

  And their relationship had definitely improved. They were now an engaged couple and instinctively acted the part. They had begun sharing breakfast and dinner each day, would take walks together in the afternoon while he brought her up-to-date on that day’s work activities, and at night they shared a bed. He no longer had to seduce her to do so. Each night she would come to him automatically, as though she knew her place was beside him in bed, and a part of him felt that it was.

  Last night they had attended a wine-tasting gala in downtown Napa, Taste Napa Downtown. The outfit Chardonnay had worn had been both professional and seductive. and he had felt proud to be the man at her side. When they’d entered the ballroom where the event had been held, heads had turned and more than one person had commented that they made a striking couple.

  On that thought he lowered his head as a deep sensation settled in his gut, one he’d tried ignoring over the past few days. Whenever he was with Chardonnay, whether in bed or out, he felt like a different person, a man on top of the world. A man who was starting to live for the first time. To appreciate the finer things in life. A man who was looking forward to his future.

  A man who was in love.

  His breath paused in his throat. Falling in love was something he never intended to happen to him, but it had. He rubbed his hand over his face, accepting what his heart had been trying to tell him lately, but what he had ignored until now.

  Months ago, if anyone would have suggested that he’d give his heart to any woman, he would have laughed in their face, knowing such a thing wasn’t possible. But he was living proof that it was possible.

  He glanced out the window again when he heard the equipment plowing the earth to cultivate additional land for grapes to be planted in the spring. He was anticipating a good harvest in the coming year and was anticipating becoming a father in that time, as well. But more than anything he wanted to be a good husband to Chardonnay, and he hoped that in time she would get over the circumstances of their marriage and accept the fact they were together and build on that.

  Her grandfather had got out of the hospital a few days ago and Spencer found he was spending time with the older man, as well. Daniel’s health was improving and he’d been extremely happy to come home and discover his plans and dreams for the winery were coming true. To avoid tiring the older man out, the architect Spencer had hired was meeting with Daniel a couple of hours a day to make sure the plans being drawn were exactly the way Chardonnay’s grandfather had envisioned them.

  Spencer turned when he heard his phone ring, interrupting his thoughts. He moved away from the window and walked over to the desk to pick it up. “Yes?”

  “Something interesting has developed that I think you should know about.”

  Spencer arched a brow at the serious sound of his attorney’s voice. “And what is that, Stuart?”

  “Over a million dollars was deposited into the Russell Vineyards bank account this morning.”

  Spencer’s body stiffened as his mind began whirling with questions. He took a breath. “There has to be a mistake.”

  “No mistake, Spence.”

  “Then how did it get there? Who made the deposit?”

  “It was a transfer that I was able to trace from a Korean bank. An international account in the name of BOSS.”

  Spencer lifted a brow. “Boss?”

  “Yes.”

  He stared at the floor as various things ran through his mind. He didn’t want to consider any of them but knew that he had to. “Find out who owns the account and even more importantly, why they would have deposited that money into the Russells’ account.”

  “All right. You don’t think that Chardonnay Russell borrowed the money elsewhere, even though she knew you’d agreed to front the financing for the expansion, do you?”

  He inhaled sharply. That was a possibility he didn’t want to consider. Over the past weeks he had let his guard down and had done something he swore he wouldn’t after what Lynette Marie had done to him, and that was to begin trusting another woman. Not to mention fall in love.

  He had to admit that his mind hadn’t been on a lot lately, other than making love to her. A dark suspicion leaped to life inside of him. Had she used his moment of weakness to keep him occupied so he wouldn’t find out what she was doing behind his back until it was too late?

  “Spence?”

  His attorney’s voice made him aware he hadn’t answered his question. “I’m not sure what’s going on, Stuart, but I want you to find out.”

  “I will and in the meantime, be careful how you handle your business.”

  Spencer knew Stuart’s meaning and as he clicked off the phone a part of him thought that his attorney’s advice may have come a little too late.

  * * *

  A few hours later, Spencer snapped closed his luggage and moved away from the bed. Stuart hadn’t returned his call. That meant the information they wanted was hard to get, which was usually the case involving international accounts. Why would anyone place that much money into the Russells’ account unless someone had negotiated a deal elsewhere? And since Chardonnay was the one handling the family’s business, he could only assume it had been her.

  Doubt and suspicions he didn’t want to feel were eating at him, and he couldn’t forget the moment he’d received the coroner’s report on Lynette Marie. Betrayal of the worst kind had wretched his insides and as much as he was trying not to let it happen, he was beginning to feel the same way now.

  He walked over to the window and looked out at the hills and valleys. Disgust and anger ate at him. Although the circumstances were different, the results were the same. He had allowed another woman to betray him. And this time the pain cut deeper because he loved her.

  From the beginning she had alluded that in the end, he would regret ever coming up with the idea for the two of them to marry. He had merely brushed her comment aside as insignificant. But Chardonnay Russell had played him for a fool. She had weaved her deceitful web around him, first in the physical sense and then in an emotional sense. Each and every time they’d made love it had weakened him, had turned him into putty in her hands to the extent that all he’d thought about over the past week—besides marrying her—was pleasing her, making her happy, trying to show her that a lifetime with him wouldn’t be so damn awful.

  And all the time he’d been working hard doing that, she had been undermining him, setting him up for failure and intentionally messing with his heart.

  He turned away from the window when he heard the sound of the key turning in the lock downstairs. It woul
d be Chardonnay. Before she’d left his bed early that morning she’d agreed to return a little before noon to give him a tour of the section of the winery he hadn’t yet seen, and to introduce him to all the employees.

  He turned back to the window when he heard her footsteps coming up the stairs. Anger consumed him to a degree he hadn’t thought possible and it would have definitely been to her benefit if he could have left and returned to Sausalito without seeing her. In his present state of mind, he would have preferred it.

  He turned when she opened the door and when his gaze touched hers he felt a hardening deep in his chest. At the same time a sensation of pain surrounded his heart.

  “I told you I would be back,” she said, smiling and stepping into the room, closing the door behind her.

  When he didn’t say anything but just stared at her, her gaze shifted to the bed where she saw his packed luggage. He watched as her smile faded. “You have to go away on business?”

  He inhaled deeply, not in the mood to play her games, although she evidently assumed he was gullible enough to do so. He moved away from the window and went to stand before her. “Yes, I’m leaving but it’s not on business. I’m leaving for good and won’t be coming back.”

  She shook her head as if she hadn’t heard him correctly. “But what about the wedding?”

  His heart hardened even more when he said, “There won’t be a wedding. You would be the last woman I’d marry.”

  If her reaction was anything to go by, it seemed that his words had immediately knocked the breath out of her body, sent an invisible slap across her face. She placed a hand over her heart and her eyes widened in shocked disbelief. “Why? I don’t understand. What happened?”

  Her pretense angered him even more. “Let’s cut the bull, Chardonnay, shall we? How long did you think it would be before I found out?”

  A confused look appeared on her face. “Found out what?”

  Spencer shook his head and laughed, not believing she had the nerve to ask him that. Even now she was standing in front of him with a puzzled expression, as if she had no clue what he was talking about, but he knew otherwise.

  “I have to hand it to you. You are one hell of an actress. What did you do to get the money, Chardonnay? Are you sleeping with him like you’re sleeping with me?” He watched color drain from her face. Guilt, he thought.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said in a low, strained voice, shaking her head as if to deny his words.

  “Don’t you?” he said angrily, his tone bitter. “You want me to believe you have no idea who deposited a million dollars into the winery account this morning?”

  “What! A million dollars? You’re wrong. There must be a mistake.”

  He chuckled. “Oh, yes, there’s a mistake all right, and it was made the day I set eyes on you.”

  “No, Spencer, listen to me. There has to be a mistake.” She reached out as if to make a plea and he grabbed her wrist firmly in his hand and hauled her tightly against his chest.

  His stony gaze met hers. “You played me for a fool, Chardonnay. You never intended to marry me and have my children. You had a plan B all along, didn’t you?”

  “No, that’s not true. How could you think I could be so dishonest and calculating? How could—”

  “Enough! I don’t want to hear anything you have to say.” He released her hand and moved around her and grabbed his luggage off the bed. He headed for the door, paused and then swung around to look at her again. “Tell your grandfather that I will continue to pay those men to clear the additional twenty acres like I promised him I would. I will also take care of any and all expenses associated with any surgery he might have, because deep down I don’t believe he knew just what kind of games you were playing, just what a deceitful person you are. And,” he said, pausing briefly, “if you’re already pregnant with my child then rest assured you haven’t seen the last of me. And if you aren’t, then I hope to God I never see you again.”

  He turned around and without looking back again, he left.

  * * *

  “Donnay! What’s wrong?” Ruth shot to her feet the moment Donnay entered the house.

  Donnay had been hoping her mother had left to go to the winery’s gift shop that she supervised and wouldn’t see her this way. She hurriedly wiped the tears from her eyes as she moved toward the stairs. None of what Spencer had accused her of made sense. How could he have thought she had deceived him? Although she had called the bank and they had confirmed the million-dollar deposit, she had no idea who had done it, or why.

  “Donnay?”

  She met her mother’s worried gaze and said in a low, shaky voice, “I’m fine, Mom.”

  “Then why are you crying?”

  It took Donnay a while to compose herself before saying, “Spencer has called off the wedding. He thinks I’ve deceived him.”

  Ruth looked stunned. “Deceived him? Why would he think that?”

  Donnay tried to still her shaking hands as she wiped another tear from her eye. She was angry and upset. “He thinks I never intended to marry him because I was getting the money I needed to save the winery from someone else. He even suggested I was sleeping with someone else to get it.”

  “How could he suggest something so despicable?”

  “Because someone deposited a million dollars into the winery bank account and I—”

  Donnay stopped talking upon her mother’s sharp intake of breath. She studied her mother’s features. Ruth Russell was flushing guiltily. Something wasn’t right and Donnay played her hunch by asking, “Mom, do you know where that money came from? I checked with the bank and it’s actually there.”

  Ruth stared back at her daughter and slowly nodded. “Yes, I know where it came from. He said he was going to do it but I asked him not to, because I believed that everything with you and Spence would work out just fine.”

  Donnay was having a hard time keeping up with what her mother was saying. She placed a hand on her arm. “He? Who is he, Mom?”

  Ruth drew in a ragged breath and then she said, “Your father.”

  * * *

  Stunned, Donnay could only stare at her mother. Her mind tried denying what her ears had just heard. There had to be a mistake. But something pushed her to ask for clarification purposes. “My father?”

  “Yes. I told him about the outlandish proposal Spencer had made to you and Chad said that he—”

  “Whoa. Back up a minute, Mom. I’m trying to follow you here but I’m having a hard time. Are you saying you’ve seen my father? Actually talked to him?”

  Ruth nodded again. “Yes, he called a few weeks ago and said he was in the area and wanted to see me.”

  “In the area?”

  “Yes. He was in San Francisco on business and decided to rent a car and come to the valley. He wasn’t sure if I was still living here, or if over the years I had married and moved away.”

  Donnay inhaled. “I guess you got around to telling him about me,” she said quietly.

  Ruth nodded. “Yes. At first he wasn’t happy about having a daughter he’d never known about, was cheated out of knowing. But then I explained to him how those letters came back. I’d even kept them and showed them to him so he’d know that I had tried contacting him.”

  “So,” Donnay said slowly, “what has he been doing all these years? Is he married? Does he have any other children?”

  Ruth shook her head. “He’s a widower. His wife of fifteen years died five years ago and they never had any children. He retired from the army and went into business for himself, some sort of international electronic corporation that has done well over the years. And now that he knows about you, he wants to meet you, Chardonnay.”

  Ruth smiled slightly. “You should have seen him that first night after I told him about you. He was r
eady to come here and claim you immediately, but I convinced him to wait until I felt the time was right. Besides, he and I needed to talk, to find out what has been happening in our lives over the years. When I told him about the winery’s problems, and how you were willing to sacrifice your happiness to marry a man you didn’t love just to save the winery, he offered to pay off the debt. He said he would put the money into our account as soon as it could be transferred. I asked him not to, but like you he’s stubborn and has this protective instinct and he did it anyway. I’m sorry if doing so has caused friction between you and Spencer.”

  Donnay shook her head after hearing her mother’s explanation. “It doesn’t matter. Our marriage would have been doomed from the start, Mom. This shows just how little he trusted me, and a marriage not based on faith and trust is no marriage at all. I could have survived without love but I have to know that Spencer has faith in me and trusts me. Without it, a relationship couldn’t last.”

  A small smile touched her lips as the picture became clear in her mind. “So, is my father the old friend you’ve been spending a lot of time with lately?”

  Ruth actually blushed. “Yes, and he is very anxious to meet you.”

  “And I’m anxious to meet him, as well.” Donnay turned to go up the stairs then, but Ruth’s voice held her back.

  “He loves you, you know.”

  “Who, Mom?”

  “Spencer.”

  Donnay chuckled to hold back fresh tears. “No, he never loved me, Mom. Our marriage was going to be a business deal. I told you that.”

  “Yes, but I have my own eyes, Donnay. That might have been his intent but it didn’t last. That night he came for dinner, he couldn’t keep his eyes off you. You might not have noticed but your grandmother and I certainly did. Spencer Westmoreland loves you.”

  Donnay glanced down at her left hand. She had removed her engagement ring and she held it, clenched tightly in her fist. She then looked back up at her mother. “No, Mom, he doesn’t love me, but you know what’s really sad and probably pathetic? I fell in love with him and was actually looking forward to being his wife and the mother of his children.”