His Blackmailed Bride

by Sandra Marton

Paige shook her head. ‘No,’ she whispered. ‘I… I could never sell my ring. It… it…’

  ‘Look, you need the money. Let me make a call, and then…’

  ‘You don’t understand.’ Her voice rose. ‘This ring… this ring means more to me than all the money in the world. I… I’ll think of something. I’ll… I’ll…’

  The shop spun away. She saw the old man’s look of surprise, heard herself make a sound that was part moan, part cry, and then she was falling, falling, spinning in a circle of bright light towards a narrowing cone of darkness, and as she fell into it, she heard the old man’s voice telling her she’d be all right, she’d be fine, she’d be…

  The darkness swallowed her.

  Images. Dreams. Faces, shifting in and out. Men in white jackets. A siren, and a swaying ride through darkening streets. Voices and more faces, all taut with concern. Bright light, the prick of a needle, the softness of sheets and blankets, and then a voice, a persistent voice, pleading with her, urging her, trying to lure her from the darkness that still held her. A voice she knew.

  ‘Paige.’

  She tried to answer. But she was so weary. So weary…

  ‘Paige, my love…’

  She stirred restlessly.

  ‘Paige—open your eyes. Look at me, Paige. Look at me.’

  She wanted to. She wanted to lift her eyelids and see who was speaking to her in that hoarse, intense whisper, see who was holding her hand, but there was a comfort in the darkness. It would be so much simpler to stay within its embrace…

  Lips brushed softly over hers. ‘Please, darling. Look at me.’

  Darling. That was what Quinn had called her, but never as if he meant it. He’d never said it this way…

  ‘Paige. Sweet Juliet. My love.’

  Her heart leaped. She knew the voice, the touch, the feel of the lips against hers.

  ‘Quinn?’ Her whisper was hesitant, breathless. It took all the strength she possessed to say his name.

  His hand caught hers, and she felt the warmth of his breath against her face.

  ‘Paige. Thank God.’

  ‘Quinn,’ she sighed, and slowly her lashes lifted from her cheeks.

  Her heart filled with happiness. It was Quinn. He was bent over her, his face only inches away, and when she looked into his eyes she knew that she could live on what she saw there for the rest of her life.

  He cupped her face gently in his hands and brushed his lips against hers. If this was a dream, she hoped never to awaken. She whispered his name again, savouring the taste of it on her tongue.

  ‘Don’t talk,’ he said fiercely. ‘Not until I’m sure you’re all right.’

  She looked past him, seeing for the first time the white walls, the institutional ceiling lights, the impersonal furnishings of a hospital room.

  ‘What happened to me? Where…?’ She struggled upward as he let go of her and stepped back from the bed. ‘Don’t leave me.’ Panic threaded her voice. ‘Quinn…’

  ‘We just want to take a look at you, Mrs Fowler.’ The voice was soft, filled with tones of professional reassurance. It belonged to a woman—a nurse, Paige realised—who smiled as she drew the curtains around the bed. ‘This will only take a minute. Your husband will be just outside.’

  Your husband. The phrase was like a lifeline. Paige caught it to her, clung to it while a white-coated physician bent over her.

  ‘My baby,’ she whispered, and her heart lurched in fear.

  ‘Your baby’s fine,’ he said finally. She heard the door open, and then the curtains were drawn back. ‘You’re a very lucky young woman.’

  ‘And very foolish.’ It was Quinn’s voice, stern and cold. ‘Thank you, Doctor,’ he said, and then they were alone.

  Paige watched him as he walked towards her. His eyes were dark, his mouth narrow. Anger was etched into his face. Her pulse began to race. What a fool she was! Of course, she’d been dreaming. Quinn was here—that was real enough. But one look told her that he couldn’t have whispered tender endearments to her only moments ago or kissed her as if she were precious to him.

  She knew what had happened. She had fainted, and the shop owner had called for an ambulance. The hospital authorities had gone through her bag, found Quinn’s name on the chequebook she no longer used, and called him. As for the rest, none of it had happened. His kisses, his soft words, were things her heart wanted so badly that she’d imagined them. It was like the time she was a little girl and she’d had her appendix out. She’d come out of the anaesthesia slowly, certain her fairy godmother was talking to her. But it had been her mother, urging her to open her eyes and…

  Paige turned her face away. She didn’t want to see the darkness in Quinn’s eyes. It was better to remember the dreams that had been hers as she regained consciousness.

  He stopped beside the bed and stared down at her. ‘Look at me,’ he demanded.

  She turned to him slowly. ‘I… I’m sorry they bothered you,’ she said. ‘I guess I should have disposed of anything with your name on it, but…’

  He put his hands on his hips. ‘Have you been in London all these weeks?’

  Paige nodded. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Here,’ he said, ‘in the same damned city as me.’

  She nodded again. ‘I didn’t ask them to contact you.’

  ‘Why in hell didn’t you go back to the States?’

  ‘I…’ She swallowed. ‘I just didn’t.’

  One dark eyebrow rose. ‘I asked you a question.’

  Because I couldn’t leave you. ‘I don’t know,’ she whispered.

  ‘You don’t know.’ His voice was flat.

  Paige closed her eyes. ‘Does it really matter? I… I’ve decided to go home now. I…’

  She heard the hiss of his breath. ‘You’re damned right you’re going home. Now. Just as soon as you’re dressed.’

  He was so angry! Tears slipped from beneath her lashes and she wiped her hand across her eyes.

  ‘… I don’t have the money for a plane ticket, Quinn. I can’t afford…’

  ‘Come on.’ Her eyes opened as she felt his arm slide around her shoulders.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she asked, even though the answer was obvious. He was sitting her up, drawing back the covers, fumbling at the tie of the ill-fitting hospital gown draped over her. ‘Quinn…’

  She put her hands to the neck of the gown, but he pushed them away. ‘What does it look like?’ His voice was rough. ‘I’m helping you dress.’

  Paige shook her head. ‘No,’ she whispered as he slid the gown off her shoulders. ‘Quinn, don’t. I don’t need any help. I…’

  The gown fell to her waist. ‘Yes, you do, damn you,’ he growled. ‘Now, stop arguing and…’

  She looked up as his words died away. His eyes swept across her, to her throat, to her breasts, and then his gaze returned to her face.

  ‘Paige,’ he whispered. His hand touched the curve of her breast and she closed her eyes.

  ‘Don’t,’ she said sharply.

  ‘Paige,’ he said again, ‘listen to me.’

  She shook her head and pushed his hand from her. ‘No,’ she said. What was he trying to do? Was he trying to prove his mastery of her body? But they both knew about that; it was what had brought them down this dark pathway in the first place. ‘The nurse can help me. Not you.’

  Blood darkened his face. ‘I’m still your husband,’ he growled. ‘Now, lift your arms.’

  ‘Quinn, please…’

  His eyes blazed into hers. ‘Do as I say, Paige.’

  She closed her eyes as he eased something silky over her head. He drew it down her body and his hands brushed over her skin.

  ‘Quinn, I beg you…’

  The words caught in her throat. The last time she’d said that to him, the plea had come back to haunt her with a pain she would never be able to erase. She would never beg him for anything again, she told herself, and she sat still while he stripped away the gown and dressed her, not in the inexpensive
clothing she’d worn, but in the soft silks and cashmeres he’d bought her the day after their wedding. His hands trembled as they touched her. She trembled, too; it was impossible not to feel the heat of his fingers on her flesh. His eyes caught hers, and she flushed and looked away.

  ‘Does it hurt that much to feel my hands on you, Juliet?’

  She stared at him. ‘Does it… Does it hurt?’

  Quinn clasped her shoulders. ‘Yes. When I touch you… Do you hate me so much?’

  A sob rose in her throat. ‘Hate you?’ Paige caught her bottom lip between her teeth. ‘Oh, Quinn…’

  No. No more. Don’t say anything, don’t tell him anything, don’t add to the anguish and the humiliation you’ll have to live with for the rest of your life…

  His hands pressed into her. ‘Sweet, sweet Juliet,’ he murmured. ‘My Juliet…’

  ‘Don’t!’ It was a cry torn from her heart, and all the pain of the past months was caught within it. ‘Don’t,’ she said again, and the whisper hung between them. ‘Please, Quinn, if… if you ever thought anything good of me, if there was so much as a moment between us that mattered to you, let go of me.’

  ‘Paige…’

  She shook her head wildly. ‘Just… just get out of here and leave me alone. I wish they hadn’t sent for you. I…’

  ‘Max called me.’

  She raised her tear-swollen eyes to his. ‘Max?’

  Quinn nodded. ‘The jeweller.’ A quick smile came and went on his mouth. ‘Sweet Juliet,’ he said, stroking the hair back from her temples. ‘Of all the jewellers in London, you went to the one who was bound to recognise that ring.’

  Paige shook her head. ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Max is the man who sold it to me.’ He laughed softly at the look of surprise that flashed across her face. ‘I bought it from him on impulse a couple of years ago. I was walking past his shop and I saw it in the window. It was the strangest damned thing—I don’t like wearing jewellery, yet I knew I had to have that ring. There was something in the ruby’s heart that drew me, a fire that burned with a heat like none I’d ever felt before—until I met you.’

  His hands cupped her face and he looked into her eyes. His voice was so soft, it was a caress. What was he trying to do? Paige knew what he thought of her. He’d told her, often enough.

  ‘Stop it,’ she said. ‘You have no right…’

  ‘Max says you refused to sell him the ring. Why?’

  ‘Quinn, please—why are you doing this? Why…’

  He touched his lips to her temple. ‘Why wouldn’t you sell it to him, Paige?’

  Pride darkened her eyes. ‘He didn’t offer enough,’ she said. ‘I knew the ring was worth more.’

  His eyes fixed on hers. ‘Max says you told him the ring meant more to you than all the money in the world.’

  Tears trembled on her lashes. ‘Please stop,’ she whispered. ‘Please…’

  His mouth dropped to hers and he kissed her again. ‘Tell me the truth, Paige. Why didn’t you sell it?’

  ‘Because it was all I had left of you.’ She waited for the sound of his laughter, and when it didn’t come, she inhaled shakily. ‘All right, you’ve had your fun. Now let go of me.’

  He put his hand on her abdomen. ‘It wasn’t all you had,’ he said softly. ‘You have our child growing beneath your heart.’

  Her pulse raced. He knew. He knew. She waited for him to say something more, to warp his words with cruelty, but he was silent. Finally, she nodded.

  ‘Yes,’ she whispered.

  Quinn frowned. ‘But you weren’t going to tell me about it.’

  Her chin lifted. ‘No.’

  His brows drew together. ‘I see. You were going to go on living God knows where…’

  ‘I have a perfectly nice room off Earl’s Court.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I can imagine. It probably goes with the way you look.’

  Paige’s eyes darkened. ‘There’s nothing wrong with the way I look.’

  ‘The hell there isn’t! You’re too pale. Too thin. Too…’ His arms tightened around her. ‘Too beautiful,’ he said, and he bent his head and kissed her.

  She tried to pull away from him, but his arms held her fast. His mouth was hard and insistent, demanding response from hers. And then his kiss became gentler, filled with tenderness, until finally he was kissing her as he had the night they met, as he’d kissed her the night he’d made love to her. Everything she’d ever prayed he would tell her seemed to be contained in the kiss. She moaned softly as he gathered her closer to him, and her lips parted beneath his. If only he loved her. If only he cared.

  But he didn’t. He hated her. He thought she’d trapped his brother into marriage for the Fowler money and to protect her father. He thought she was a thief and a schemer and a tramp…

  It took all the strength she had to twist free of him. ‘Damn you,’ she whispered. ‘Damn you to hell, Quinn Fowler!’

  ‘That’s where I’ve been since you left me.’

  She turned her head away so he wouldn’t see the pain in her eyes. ‘Do you hate me so much? You’ve already humiliated me enough. You…’

  ‘I love you.’ Her heart tumbled against her ribs as he whispered the simple words she’d waited so long to hear. ‘I love you,’ he said again. ‘Do you hear me, Paige?’ His hands clasped her shoulders and he looked into her eyes. ‘I’ve always loved you, even when I tried to deny it to myself.’

  Tears glistened on her lashes. ‘Don’t play with me, Quinn,’ she whispered. ‘I… I couldn’t stand it. I… I love you too much.’

  ‘Oh, Juliet!’ His arms closed around her and he pressed her to his heart. ‘I fell in love with you the first minute I saw you, in a ballroom full of hobgoblins. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know your name or anything about you. My heart told me all I needed to know.’ He drew in his breath and let it out slowly. ‘And then I learned who you were.’

  ‘That I was Alan’s fiancée,’ she said unhappily. ‘Quinn, I tried to explain. Alan knew I didn’t love him. I let him talk me into our engagement. He said… he said we’d be happy, and I wanted to believe him. I never knew about my father and the money… He’s sick,’ she said in a rush. ‘He’s obsessed with winning…’

  He pressed his lips to the top of her head. ‘Hush, sweetheart. I know everything. I spoke with Alan. And with your father.’ His arms tightened around her. ‘He made a clean breast of things to your mother, Paige. She’s convinced him to join a therapy group. They’re sure they can help him.’

  Paige shook her head. ‘I don’t understand. When did you talk to them?’

  He sighed. ‘The day after you left me. I flew to the States looking for you.’

  ‘You did?’

  Quinn nodded. ‘Yes, darling. I found out I’d made a terrible mistake. You see, the day I went to Edinburgh, I phoned home to talk to you. Norah answered; she told me…’

  ‘She told you my father had been to see me.’

  Quinn shook his head. ‘She told me she’d found you in the arms of a tall, fair-haired man. I… I thought it was Jack Ward.’

  Everything began to fall into place. ‘You mean, you thought that terrible man and I…? Oh, God!’

  His laughter was bitter. ‘Exactly. I put two and two together and came up with five. I think my conscience was almost grateful for the chance.’

  Paige leaned back against his encircling arms and looked into his eyes. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said softly.

  There was pain in Quinn’s smile. ‘I was filled with guilt,’ he said. ‘You were right when you said I wanted you for myself. It was one thing to take you from my brother to protect him, but it was quite another to admit to myself that I’d fallen in love with you. I couldn’t face the truth, Paige.’ He kissed the tip of her nose. ‘That was why I didn’t want to talk about the way I’d forced you to marry me.’

  ‘Oh, Quinn, we should have trusted our feelings. I… I never came alive until I met you…’

&nbs
p; His arms tightened around her. ‘I’d never known a night like the one we shared, Juliet,’ he whispered. ‘When I woke up with you in my arms, I knew I had to get away and sort out my feelings. I didn’t know what to believe. Were you the woman I’d learned to love, or were you the woman I’d accused you of being? Could I live with the knowledge that I’d have taken you from my brother, no matter what the circumstances?’ He laughed softly. ‘I wasn’t gone half a day when I knew that none of the questions mattered. I loved you now, no matter what had happened in the past. It was our future that counted. I phoned home to tell you that.’

  Paige closed her eyes. ‘And Norah told you I’d been with a man. But… how did you learn the truth?’

  He shrugged. ‘I went looking for Ward. I wanted to kill him—but it turned out he and his wife had left the city early that morning. I realised he couldn’t have been the man who’d come to the house.’ He sighed. ‘I began to search for you; I traced you to Claridge’s and then to the airport—and your trail vanished. But I thought surely you’d flown back to the States—so I did, too.’

  ‘Looking for me,’ Paige said softly.

  ‘Yes. That’s when your father told me everything, and Alan flew home for the weekend.’ He laughed. ‘Would you believe he’s courting a dark-eyed senorita?’

  Paige smiled. ‘I’m happy for him.’

  Quinn nodded. ‘Yes, but all I could think of was you.’ He touched his lips to her throat. ‘I’ve been going insane, darling, loving you, wanting you, worrying about what might have happened to you…’

  Paige put her arms around his neck. ‘I never left London,’ she said. ‘I loved you too much to put an ocean between us.’

  ‘Juliet,’ he murmured, ‘sweet, beautiful Juliet.’ She lifted her face to his. Quinn’s kiss left her breathless, and then he put her from him gently. ‘Are you sure that’s all right for the baby?’

  Paige smiled. ‘I don’t think love can ever hurt a baby.’

  There was a discreet knock and the door swung open. ‘Doctor says Mrs Fowler can leave any time now,’ the nurse said pleasantly. ‘He says if you need anything…’

  Quinn smiled at Paige as he gathered her into his arms and rose to his feet. ‘Do we need anything, my love?’