Taggart's Woman

by Carole Mortimer

  When they were together like this there was no room in her thoughts or body for anything but Daniel and the magic he created with her senses. Not even the fierceness of his expression could detract from the pleasure they found in each other’s arms, and they reached the very essence of fulfilment together before Daniel collapsed weakly against her.

  The weakness passed quickly, and he was scowling as he drew himself away from her. ‘This is mine,’ he told her savagely, cupping her breast. ‘And if you cease to be my wife before I’m ready for it I’ll divorce you!’ He stood up to begin pulling on his clothes.

  Heather stared up at him, her hair a midnight cascade against the dark carpet, her face flushed, her lips bare of gloss. ‘But you would lose your precious airline then,’ she reminded him hardily.

  ‘I’d probably be the major shareholder,’ he shrugged. ‘But you would lose everything. Is it worth denying me what you really want to give to risk that?’

  She frowned. ‘Why would you risk it?’ Her voice was husky.

  Any hopes she might have had concerning his feelings for her were dashed by his answer.

  ‘I paid a high price for the use of your body.’ He was fully clothed now, not a crease or speck of dust on the immaculately tailored, blue pin-striped suit and light blue shirt to show the intensity of the passion he had just shared with her. ‘I never pay for anything I don’t intend to make full use of!’

  Another leftover hurt from his childhood. But she couldn’t let compassion for his unorthodox upbringing deflect from the fact that he had set out to hurt and humiliate her—and that he had succeeded.

  ‘We both paid the same price, Daniel,’ she bit out. ‘Although perhaps I paid a little more.’

  His eyes narrowed. ‘In what way?’

  ‘You might not want to admit it, Daniel, but we both know I had no other lover before you, that your accusations about Phillip have always been completely unfounded.’

  ‘Maybe that will change now,’ he rasped.

  ‘Maybe it will,’ she taunted.

  Daniel came down on one knee beside her, clasping a handful of her hair. ‘I wouldn’t advise it,’ he grated.

  ‘I don’t believe I asked for your advice.’ She faced him fearlessly.

  ‘Don’t do it, Heather,’ he warned softly. ‘You would regret it.’

  She gave a slow smile. ‘From what several of my friends have told me about Phillip I don’t think I would regret it at all.’

  Daniel’s hand tightened briefly in her hair before flinging it away from him as if she burnt him. ‘The same friends who warned you against marrying me, I have no doubt,’ he snapped.

  Heather had never allowed anyone to say anything against Daniel in her presence, and she wasn’t about to start now, no matter how unhappy he had made her. ‘No doubt,’ she drawled. ‘Shouldn’t you be getting back to work, Daniel?’ she mocked. ‘After all, I think one of us should be there.’

  ‘I should have known you wouldn’t be willing to work,’ he spat out contemptuously. ‘To soil your delicate little hands with real work. You are a Danvers, after all!’

  She nodded coolly. ‘And we’ve always been better at spending money than making it.’

  ‘Your father proved that,’ he scorned.

  ‘But you’re in charge now, Daniel, and I have complete confidence in your ability to run Air International,’ she taunted, laughing softly as he strode furiously out of the room. ‘’Bye, Daniel,’ she called as he slammed out of the house.

  She refused to allow the tears to fall. She wouldn’t give in to the desolation his contempt made her feel.

  CHAPTER NINE

  IT TOOK weeks rather than the days Heather had hoped to get her business even partially off the ground.

  She had plenty of contacts, it was getting people to take her seriously that was the problem. She was Heather Danvers-Taggart, who had no reason to work for a living, and no one seemed to understand why she would want to. Then a friend gave her her first commission, and after that there didn’t seem to be any shortage of people requiring her services.

  Life with Daniel went on as never before. He left for work earlier in the mornings because of the longer drive into London, and he was usually later home for the same reason. His evenings were spent in his study after sharing a meal with her, and it was only when they went to bed that they communicated at all, and that was on a purely physical level. Daniel didn’t ask her about her days, and she didn’t volunteer the information either, and so he never knew that she spent almost every day away from the house doing a job she was growing to love.

  She was a little disconcerted when she arrived home at her usual five o’clock one evening, a couple of months into their marriage, to find that Daniel had arrived home shortly after lunch. She ran upstairs to change before facing him in the lounge. Shilton had told her that he had asked where she was, but luckily the elderly man had no idea where she had been all day.

  ‘You’re back early today,’ she ventured lightly. Daniel’s expression, once he had lowered the newspaper he had been reading, was not encouraging.

  ‘Yes,’ he snapped.

  She raised her brows, moving to rearrange an already perfect vase of roses. ‘Anything wrong?’ she lightly tried again.

  ‘Should there be?’ he snapped, narrowed eyes following her every move.

  Heather shrugged. ‘You don’t usually get home in the middle of the day.’

  ‘No.’

  She sighed, holding on to her temper with difficulty. Surprisingly enough, Daniel was still a gentle and considerate lover, although his manner the rest of the time still left a lot to be desired. ‘Why did you come home early, Daniel?’ she asked bluntly.

  ‘Why shouldn’t I?’ he rasped. ‘This is my home.’

  She drew in a deep controlling breath. ‘If you don’t want to talk about it…’ She turned to leave.

  ‘There is nothing to discuss about my coming home early for a change.’ He surged to his feet. ‘But I would be interested to know where you’ve been spending your days lately.’

  Heather froze, turning slowly. ‘Shilton told you I’ve—been out a lot?’

  ‘Not a lot, every day!’ Daniel corrected harshly. ‘Where have you been, Heather?’

  She managed what she hoped was a nonchalant shrug. ‘Just out.’

  ‘Doing what?’ His eyes were steely slits.

  ‘Meeting friends. Shopping—’

  ‘Every day?’ he scorned disbelievingly.

  ‘Why not?’ she retorted coldly. ‘I believe we agreed that spending money is what I do best!’

  Daniel’s mouth was tight. ‘And these friends you’ve been meeting, are they male or female?’

  She relaxed a little as he transferred his attention to that part of her answer. ‘Female—mostly,’ she supplied provocatively.

  ‘And would one of these male friends be Wingate?’

  ‘If Phillip has been guilty of not being at work when he should be, it certainly isn’t because of me,’ she snapped. ‘The last I heard he’d got over his disappointment concerning me.’

  ‘Stella?’ rasped Daniel.

  ‘You would have to ask him about that.’ She evaded condemning the other woman, not sure if the affair had continued all this time or not. If it had it would be a first; Stella’s affairs seemed to be as fleeting as they were meaningless.

  ‘I dismissed him,’ Daniel revealed gratingly.

  Her eyes widened. ‘When?’

  ‘I would have thought you would have known about it,’ he derided.

  ‘I told you, I haven’t seen Phillip for some time,’ she bit out forcefully.

  Daniel shrugged. ‘I asked him to leave several weeks ago; he was happy to go,’ he mocked.

  Heather had had no idea. But then, after that disastrous morning at Air International all those weeks ago she hadn’t been near the place. And she had been so busy launching her business too…

  ‘Why?’ she frowned.

  Daniel’s mouth twisted.
‘Don’t you think he’d given me more than enough reason?’

  She shrugged. ‘That didn’t seem to bother you at the time.’

  ‘It doesn’t bother me now, either,’ he rasped. ‘I just don’t want anyone working at AI who isn’t completely loyal to me and the company.’

  ‘The company must come first,’ she taunted, mimicking a salute.

  ‘Not at all,’ Daniel snapped. ‘It was his comments about my wife that I found unacceptable.’

  Heather’s eyes widened, deep purple, fringed by thick dark lashes. ‘You were defending me?’ It didn’t come as any surprise that Phillip had made derogatory comments about her, he was still very bitter about the end of their relationship, and had made no secret of the fact. Daniel’s reaction to it did surprise her, though.

  ‘You do happen to be my wife,’ he nodded abruptly.

  ‘But—’

  ‘When I was a child I had no answer to the comments made about my mother and the men who visited her,’ he explained coldly. ‘And believe me, there were plenty of comments made! But I’m married to Heather Danvers, a woman with an impeccable reputation and bloodline,’ he scorned. ‘Of course I defended you!’

  She had always known that who she was had made marrying her a sweeter pill to swallow, and that was partly why she had never told Daniel that Max hadn’t really been her father. The other part, of course, was that she would never be able to tell Daniel half the truth, and admitting the extent of her father’s hatred for her was something she found hard to do.

  ‘Thank you,’ she replied coolly. ‘Even if that does make me feel more like a brood mare than a woman.’

  Daniel’s eyes narrowed on the slender length of her body. ‘You aren’t—?’

  ‘No,’ she dismissed harshly.

  ‘No doubt you’ve had time to reconsider having my children and are taking the necessary steps to prevent them.’ His mouth twisted with bitterness.

  Her eyes flashed. ‘No, I’m not taking the “necessary steps” to prevent a pregnancy! My God, you may not like other people making comments about your wife, but you certainly have no compunction in throwing every insult at me yourself!’

  ‘Heather—’

  ‘I want a child. It will be someone of my own to love,’ she added harshly. ‘Someone who will love me for myself, and not judge me because my name was Danvers or because I’m not what people expect me to be!’ She was breathing hard in her agitation. Why couldn’t her father, and now Daniel, accept her for what she was, and have loved her in spite of it?

  ‘Heather, I didn’t mean—’

  ‘Of course that’s what you meant.’ She blinked back the tears that wouldn’t be denied. ‘You think I’m as shallow as all those other people who can’t see you’re better than any of them! Well, I can see, Daniel. I can understand the single-minded determination inside you that made you the successful man you are today. I know exactly how hard you must have worked to overcome the background you must often have felt would suffocate you. Well, the wealth and success are yours now, Daniel, but you’re still making everyone else pay for the fact that your mother supported the two of you in the only way she could. Your mother wasn’t a whore, Daniel,’ she told him heatedly. ‘If she was, there are thousands of other woman, married and unmarried, who are just like her!’

  He stood very still. ‘It’s difficult to trust anyone when you’ve known taunts and condescension most of your life.’

  She could have wept for the desolation of the admission, for the fact that he had been able to admit it at all. ‘I know that,’ she soothed. ‘I do know that,’ she insisted firmly. ‘But I have no wish to hurt you, Daniel, I just want our marriage to be a success. That’s all! We were forced into this marriage by circumstances, but wouldn’t it serve my father right if we could be happy together?’

  He gave the ghost of a smile at her vehemence. ‘It would—but I doubt if it’s possible.’

  She sighed heavily, her shoulders drooping dejectedly. Well, she had tried. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go and lie down for a while; I have a headache.’ And a heartache that would never go away!

  He put out a hand towards her. ‘Heather, I—’ He broke off abruptly, shaking his head as he turned away.

  She was used to people turning away from her, the man she had thought was her father had done it all of her life, and her marriage to Daniel had been doomed to failure, she had always known that. Then why did she suddenly feel so alone?

  She had wanted this marriage to work in spite of its bad beginning, she just hadn’t known how to overcome Daniel’s mistrust of the softer emotions, and because of that, she had allowed herself to become exactly the type of woman he despised. Who was she trying to fool? Daniel despised all women!

  She quickly pulled on a robe over her nakedness as a knock sounded on the bedroom door, smiling at Shilton as he hesitated in the doorway.

  ‘Mr Taggart told me you have a headache,’ he said awkwardly. ‘I took the liberty of bringing up a cup of your usual hot chocolate.’

  Her smile was rueful as she invited him in. ‘Just like old times, isn’t it?’ she sighed, remembering other headaches she had ‘developed’ just to escape from her father’s barbs.

  The elderly man gave her a frowning look. ‘I hope not, Miss Heather.’ He used her old form of address in his distress.

  Heather gave him a quizzical look. Shilton had been an unobtrusive part of her life for as long as she could remember, a quietly thoughtful man who seemed able to anticipate her needs often before she realised them herself. Maybe because he was always there, so unassuming, she had never realised how much he must have known of the happenings in her father’s house all these years. Max had been so careful, while he was alive, to hide his real feelings towards her from his friends that neither of them had realised Shilton—and probably the other household staff, too—knew exactly how he had felt about her. And, as Shilton had been with her father long before he married her mother, the elderly man might even know the true facts behind her birth.

  ‘It isn’t,’ she gently reassured him, knowing he was genuinely fond of her. ‘This headache is very real.’ Her gaze moved past him as she saw Daniel standing in the doorway.

  Shilton turned to look at him, too, quietly excusing himself.

  Daniel strode into the room. ‘What was all that about?’

  Heather shrugged, turning away. ‘Shilton was just concerned about me.’

  ‘Meaning I’m not?’ he rasped.

  She sighed, too weary for another battle. ‘I didn’t mean that at all. You—’

  ‘I’m sorry.’ He put up his hands defensively, giving a self-disgusted shake of his head. ‘I came up here to apologise, not start another argument with you.’ His mouth quirked as her eyes widened. ‘Yes, I do know how to apologise,’ he mocked lightly. ‘And at the moment I have so much to apologise for I don’t know where to start!’

  ‘Daniel—’

  ‘Are you still interested in why I came home early today?’ He raised dark brows.

  She became suddenly still. ‘Of course I am,’ she nodded tensely.

  He shrugged. ‘We can’t go on like this. We’ll end up hating each other.’

  ‘I thought you already did hate me.’

  Pain clouded his eyes. ‘Of course I don’t hate you, damn it! Do I make love to you as if I hate you? Do I—’

  ‘Daniel,’ she cut in softly.

  ‘Sorry,’ he muttered. ‘But it was a damned stupid thing to say,’ he rasped. ‘I like you. I certainly admire your spirit in standing up to me the way that you do,’ he added ruefully.

  ‘I’m glad you realise it takes courage,’ she said drily.

  His mouth quirked. ‘I know what a bastard I can be, no one better—because I’m just as hard on myself as I am on everyone else.’

  ‘Harder,’ Heather put in softly.

  ‘Maybe,’ he acknowledged abruptly, running a hand through the thickness of his hair. ‘But I came home early today to see if we coul
dn’t at least talk out some of the problems we have in our marriage, starting with an explanation of why I wanted you to work with me at AI.’

  ‘I know your reason for that—’

  ‘No, you don’t,’ he snapped impatiently. ‘You’re a very intelligent woman—sometimes,’ he added pointedly. ‘You showed me how interested you were in AI, you were furious with me when I dealt with that bomb scare alone. I thought you might actually like to take an active part in your own company!’

  ‘That’s why you just dumped me in that office and disappeared—’

  ‘I didn’t dump you anywhere,’ he rasped. ‘An emergency came up that I had to deal with, but I was coming back to spend the day with you in your office. By the time I returned you had already left, leaving me a message about having to organise the delivery of some furniture!’

  ‘You certainly hadn’t given the impression you would welcome my presence at Air International.’ Heather defended her actions; what else could she have thought?

  ‘We had become close in those first days after our marriage, closer than I’ve ever been to anyone else,’ he revealed grimly. ‘I wanted to share the excitement of running AI with you!’

  ‘Well, how was I supposed to know that?’ Her eyes flashed.

  ‘Because it—Hell, we’re arguing again.’ Daniel sighed his impatience. ‘Will you give the idea some thought now?’ he asked evenly. ‘We can work together to build it even better and bigger than it already is.’ His eyes glowed with the challenge.

  Heather knew the full significance of the offer, knew that Daniel had always preferred to walk through life alone. If only he had explained all this two months ago! ‘I’m afraid it’s too late for that—’

  ‘My God, one thing I never thought about you was that you would bear a grudge for every imagined slight,’ he scowled.