Wanted

by Diana Fraser

  She licked her suddenly dry lips, unable to draw her gaze away from his. “I…” She couldn’t say the words. She hadn’t rehearsed them, she’d forgotten how perceptive he was, and how determined.

  “Go on,” he gentled. He tilted his head quizzically to one side. “What could happen to make you realize you want a child? Did a friend have a baby?”

  She shook her head.

  “It couldn’t be the ticking clock… you are still too young. So not the presence of a baby, not the passing of time. What else could make you want something so much, that you’d risk the humiliation of me declining? This need for a child must be strong.”

  She nodded.

  “Tell me.” He stroked her hand gently and she remembered how he used to do that when they were courting. When the slightest touch would stir desires she’d never even imagined.

  For the first time she suddenly thought that maybe, just maybe, he’d understand. That she could tell him and he’d think no worse of her, and that everything would be okay. And suddenly she wanted that more than anything. She opened her mouth to speak but he narrowed his eyes.

  “You’re afraid. You’re afraid of my response.” The gentle touch on her hand turned into a tight grip. “What the hell happened to you, Taina?”

  And in that instant she knew she couldn’t tell him. It would only make everything so much worse than it already was.

  She pulled her hand away from his and walked away. “You’re imagining things, Daidan. I simply want a child. As you say, it’s natural in a woman. You’re my husband, and this is my home. A year away and I realize I want to be in my home.” She shrugged. “All quite natural.”

  “You expect me to welcome you back with open arms because on a whim you have decided you want a baby. What happens when you grow bored with the baby?”

  “That won’t happen.”

  She must have conveyed her seriousness to him because he nodded slowly.

  “So, what’s your answer?”

  “My answer? That depends.”

  “Stop playing games, Daidan.”

  “You accuse me of playing games?”

  She grunted with frustration and put on her coat. “I’m going. I’ve obviously wasted my time.” She picked up her bag and was half-way to the door before he spoke.

  “I didn’t say I wasn’t interested in your proposal.”

  She stopped dead in her tracks and turned back to him. “I thought disapproval and anger probably indicated that.”

  He walked slowly over to her. “Then you thought wrong.” He picked up a scarf she’d accidentally left on the sofa and hooked it around her neck, his hands dragging down each side of the soft cashmere. “You want to bargain? Then I will. But not your way. You can have the child you want. You can return to your life in Finland, to the family home.”

  She tensed as she waited for him to finish. “Go on.”

  He smiled briefly. “Most people would have thought that was it. But you know me too well.”

  “I’ve tried hard to forget, but it’s proved more difficult than I imagined. I guess when someone uses you with such ease, when someone tricks you into a marriage, all for their own gain, then it’s hard to forget.”

  His face hardened. “You believe what you want to believe. You always have and no doubt you always will.” He paced away from her as if he couldn’t bear to be near her. “As I said you can have the property and land your parents left you, and you can have the child you apparently desire so much. But, in return, I want you to work.”

  “Work? Doing what? Typing your letters?”

  “I want you to work in your family jewelry business—in Kielo. In the ten years since your mother died, the company has lost its edge. I’m re-launching it with a new team of designers as a showcase for our diamonds. You trained as a designer and simply being a Mustonen will help our marketing.”

  “It was so useful that I never changed my name after we married. No doubt another part of the agreement between you and my father about which I knew nothing.”

  “Yes, it is useful,” he said, deliberately ignoring her sarcasm. “It’s a prestigious name in Finland, a name that will help the company’s branding as a reliable family firm. A firm in which you will work.”

  She shook her head. “You are joking, aren’t you? What do I know about the business? My design training was for show only. I’ve never used it. My father brought me up to marry and breed. I’ve done the former, now I’m here to begin a family. That’s the only role I’ve been raised for.”

  “I want you to work on the public launch of the diamond company,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “The advertising agency says the company needs someone to represent the company brand… someone like you. Someone beautiful, someone well-connected, someone to be the face of the company. You do this for me, for our company, and you can have your child.”

  “And I suppose you still want one hundred percent ownership of the mine?”

  “No. No, I don’t. We’ll continue to own it jointly and it’ll be inherited by our children. Because, Taina, if you have a child by me we will remain together.”

  “Just one big happy family.”

  Again he ignored her sarcasm. “I don’t see why not. And if we’re not”—he shrugged—“we will at least appear to be, for the sake of the children. I suggest you accept my offer, Taina. Because there will be no other.”

  It was as she’d imagined—at least some form of family life, as her parents had given her. What she hadn’t imagined was his declining 100% ownership of the mine. Was he trying to show he regretted what had happened? She also hadn’t imagined becoming involved with her mother’s company. That would be harder for her than Daidan thought—and not for the reasons she’d given. But she had no choice but to accept his offer. The heartache remained. She guessed it always would. But she had to try to ease it, try to heal, to begin again.

  She nodded. He held out his hand and she took it, closing her eyes briefly as his large warm hand engulfed her slender one.

  “Do you agree?”

  “I agree.”

  “Tomorrow morning. My office.”

  He turned away and went back to his stance in front of the fire, just as he’d been when she first entered.

  She walked away, out the door, and along the jetty to the boat. She didn’t look back this time. Shivering under her coat, she narrowed her eyes against the dancing lights of Helsinki. Coming ever nearer. Her future. And with it, the child she so desperately wanted. Something to stem the heartache that throbbed continually, deep down, never easing. Time hadn’t done it. She hoped a child would do it—fill this aching void.

  But it wouldn’t be easy because Daidan had been correct. She wasn’t telling him everything. And if she still cared for him, even a little bit, it would have to stay that way. Because her secret had the potential to destroy his whole world. And she couldn’t do that to him.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Daidan swept walked into his office suite in the 1930s modernist office building and immediately turned to his assistant. “Where is she?” It was always his first thought on waking and his last before he went to sleep. He doubted he’d ever lose that sense of insecurity. At least now he could ask the question and receive an accurate answer.

  “I gave her the corner desk, sir.”

  He strode over to the internal window and looked across the open-plan space to where Taina sat. He grunted softly. She looked more at home here than he ever would, despite what he felt. She fitted the building with its clean white lines and beautiful detailing. While he? He might have turned the companies around, made them more profitable than Taina’s father ever dreamed of, but with his dark looks and dislike of socializing he’d always be a foreigner.

  “What’s she doing?”

  His assistant looked suitably inscrutable although Daidan realized Aarne must be wondering what the hell was going on. But it didn’t matter—he paid him enough not to gossip.

  “She asked for some Board m
eeting documents which I took to her.”

  “Hm.” Daidan turned away from the sight of her back—flawlessly clothed in the arctic white she favored. She looked as coolly beautiful as always with her blond hair, slender figure, and exquisite clothes. “What kind of Board papers?”

  “Everything from the mining reports to Kielo’s accounts.”

  “And has she visited Kielo’s premises—The Warehouse—as I’d instructed?”

  “No, sir.”

  Daidan grunted. “And does she know about the interview in an hour?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Make sure she’s prepped for it.”

  As his assistant went out into the main office, Daidan sat, turned his laptop to face him and began scrolling through his messages. There were emails about the upcoming launch, about the mine, about everything except the one thing he suddenly realized he was looking for—a message from her. He pushed the laptop away and sighed. They hadn’t exchanged two words since their meeting on the island the day before. He’d had a breakfast meeting and hadn’t been here to see her arrive. He wondered if he’d pushed her too hard. But it was for her own good. It was time she realized just how capable and talented she was. So he was going to do to her what his father had done to him when he refused to learn to swim—throw her in the deep end. It would do her good, it would do the company good—he glanced at her as she wrinkled her lovely brow in concentration—and it would give him the pleasure of working with her. Because like it or not, he loved her and always would. He rose, irritated by the thought, and called his assistant over once more.

  After an hour of barking instructions at the poor assistant, Daidan felt a little better. At least he’d been able to distract himself from the thoughts that had haunted him all night long.

  But suddenly they were interrupted—not by a knock on the door, not by the sound of the phone or someone speaking, but by the drift of her perfume across the room. She’d always worn it and he looked up instinctively as he took a deep breath of her fragrance.

  Framed by the pale wood of the door surround, she stood poised and cool, not a strand of her short blond hair out of place. He dragged his gaze away from her eyes that stung him with their distance, and dismissed his assistant with a brisk wave of the hand. “What are you doing here? I understand you didn’t go to The Warehouse to meet the designers.”

  She walked across the room and he was unable to take his eyes off her lithe, elegant figure. She’d used to be unaware of the effect she had on men, but he could see from her increased assurance that she was now aware of her movements, even if she didn’t accentuate them. Somehow it made the pain just a little bit sharper.

  “I thought I’d update myself on some admin here, first. I’ve been looking through your ideas for the midsummer launch on the island. And the guest list.”

  “Does it meet with your approval?”

  “Yes.”

  He waited but she didn’t elaborate. “Good. And I hear you’ve been looking through some financial papers.”

  “Yes. It turns out my father’s instinct about you was correct. Mine, possibly not, but how you’ve turned both companies around in a year is nothing short of miraculous.”

  “Miracles? Instinct? No, Taina. Your father knew I was the best person to head the company because of my experience working in the Australian diamond industry and my postgrad research.”

  “And you’ve made the company your own, just as you always wanted.”

  “It’s what I’ve worked for my whole adult life. And I always get what I want in the end.”

  She cocked her head to one side. “Is that right?”

  “Absolutely.” He steepled his fingers. “Including a continued working relationship with the Aussies which will be extremely profitable for both of us. As I said, I’m the best in the field. That’s why Amelia and Mark still want to work with us.”

  “And yet their names don’t appear on the guest list.”

  “They’re not coming. We decided it would be better if we weren’t seen to be working too closely together. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason.”

  “Anyway, you need to focus on tweaking the new designs. This launch is too important to mess up. The designs have to be the best. There can be nothing else in the world to match them, nothing else like them. The team has been doing a good job, but there’s something subtle lacking.”

  She raised an elegant eyebrow and desire ignited from nowhere. It was the first thing that he had noticed about her. That cool elegance, that aloofness, that raised eyebrow instead of words. It had got him every time and apparently it still did.

  “Here.” He pushed the laptop closer toward her. “These are the pieces we have so far.”

  She brought the laptop even closer and frowned as she focused on the images. He watched her eyes move from one piece to another. Then she looked up at him. “They’re good, very good even, but there’s something missing.”

  “Go on.”

  “They need a central piece to bring the designs into focus, to make them Kielo designs.”

  He nodded.

  “But we have the necklace your grandfather had made—the original Kielo piece. We can use that as the focal point for the collection.”

  She looked away suddenly, through the wide expanse of sheer floor to ceiling glass windows to the central city and the harbor, dotted with islands, beyond. But before he could ask her what the matter was she’d turned back.

  “Anyway, this interview. Aarne tells me it’s with Vogue?”

  “Yes, the editor will be here any minute.”

  “Milla, the editor-in-chief? Impressive. And… don’t tell me, you want us to appear the perfect loving couple.”

  He stared at her impassively, hating her sarcastic tone. Hating the fact that she didn’t love him and was at no pains to hide it. “No. Not loving. I don’t wish you to appear anything other than you are.”

  “That just leaves ‘perfect’ then?”

  “Yes. Perfect and a couple, representing the glamorous image capable of persuading people to buy our diamonds and our jewelry.”

  “Easy.” She glanced out the window as two cars drew up. “Looks like she’s arrived. Tell me, Daidan, what were you going to do if I didn’t return? Without me, how were you going to brand the campaign?”

  He leaned against the desk. “I’d considered selling the jewelry arm and concentrating on mining diamonds.”

  She shrugged. “I’m surprised you didn’t. Why is that?”

  He hesitated. He’d often thought about it, but was unwilling to sever the final connection with Taina. “It made commercial sense to hold on to it in the short term. And besides, I hired a model to become the face of the company.” Taina narrowed her eyes, hiding her thoughts. He smiled. “Yes, she had everything… except the family connection. That was the clincher. Pedigree makes such a difference.” He couldn’t resist the small jibe.

  “You hired a model?”

  “Yes. She’s beautiful. And a very easy person to work with.”

  “I’m sure,” she ground out, and he smiled at her irritation. “You’ve been connected with just about every eligible, and not eligible, woman in Finland… and overseas.”

  He smiled. Let her think what she liked. It didn’t suit his purposes yet for her to know the truth—that there hadn’t been any other woman for him since he’d met her.

  “I’ve paid the model off. We don’t need her now because we have you, instead.”

  “Only if you keep your end of the bargain.”

  “Of course. Tonight suit you?” For the first time he saw her blanch. “Come on, you didn’t think I’d submit to the indignity of providing you with a vial of sperm, did you?”

  She shook her head.

  “And yet… you hadn’t pictured us sleeping together? Tell me, habibti, how exactly did you imagine I’d father our child?”

  She licked her lips and it did things to him that it really shouldn’t have.

  “I’d t
hought…”

  He sat back and crossed his arms. “Yes?”

  She looked up at him with those big violet eyes. “I’d thought that—” She cleared her throat. “No, I remembered the times we were together… they were easy, we always….”

  “Wanted each other?” he prompted. “And you think that hasn’t changed?”

  “Has it?”

  He opened his mouth to spit out a retort, but no words came. He’d never lied to Taina about anything—maybe he should have—and he wasn’t about to start now. “No, it hasn’t. When I look at you, I want to…” He paused. “Let’s just say I don’t foresee any difficulty. If our past coupling has been anything to go by, I’m sure creating a child won’t be too onerous for either of us.”

  “Not too onerous,” she repeated. “Good. And the timing works.” She shot him a brief, tight smile, designed to hide her thoughts. “So… shall I come to the island or your apartment?” Her voice had suddenly taken on a husky note.

  “I only go the island on the occasional weekend. My apartment is convenient for work. Come to my apartment. I’ll have someone pick up your things from the hotel. Yes, come there. Tonight. I’d like that.” The words slipped out before he could stop them.

  “You would?”

  “Why do you sound so surprised?”

  “It’s just that…”

  “We’ve come to an arrangement. And that arrangement can hardly be acted upon if you continue to live in a hotel. Besides, we have to keep up the happy front, don’t we?”

  At that moment the door opened and the editor from Vogue entered and they both turned to her as one and smiled. The games had begun.

  “So…” Milla, the sharp-eyed editor, looked from Daidan, to Taina and then lingeringly back to Daidan again. “The re-launch of Kielo diamonds.” She clicked on the digital recorder, crossed her legs and leaned toward him. “Tell me about it.”

  Taina glanced at Daidan. “What would you like to know, Milla?”

  “So much, Daidan…” she murmured. “So much. But I’ll begin with the company. My research shows it goes back to your grandfather, Taina?”