His voice sounded raspy when he finally spoke. “It’s got nothing to do with forgiveness, Kim. I behaved like a total bastard. You did the only thing you could. Family comes first. Always.”
Rachel’s parting words to him suddenly echoed in the back of his mind. Through Blake the Blackstones were his family, too, which put him in an untenable position if he was going to go through with his takeover. Was he prepared to risk it all for revenge?
“Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me.” Kim leaned forward and brushed his cheek with her lips. “Jake mentioned you guys have a meeting this morning. With Rachel gone, did you want me to keep an eye on Blake for you until you’re all done?”
Matt took a glance at his watch. “Yes, if you don’t mind. I’d better get on if I’m going to be on time.”
As he went to go back to his room and grab his jacket he felt in his pocket the envelope that Rachel had given him. He pulled it out and slid open the flap. His heart shuddered in his chest as he unfolded the sheet of paper and skimmed its contents.
It was here; he had it all in his hands. Finally he had the leverage to fulfil his plans to avenge his father. His hand shook slightly as his gaze fixed on Rachel’s neat signature on the Transferor line. He sank slowly onto the bed as the immensity of what she’d done bloomed in his mind.
His recent words to Kim—family comes first—tormented him. His promise to his father—the man who’d adopted him, brought him up, taught him everything he’d ever hoped to learn about the jewellery industry and more—could now be realised. Surely his vow to this man came first beyond all other commitments.
But what of Blake? What of his right to be a part of his extended family in every sense of the word? Matt would be carving an uncrossable line in the sand if he continued with his plans.
He wondered what had been going through Rachel’s mind when she’d signed the transfer form, whether she’d believed in her heart that he would utilise it. He’d treated her badly this morning, spurned her love, when deep down inside he craved it beyond all else. More than revenge, more than the satisfaction of gaining control of all that Blackstone Diamonds symbolised to the Hammond family.
He wanted to be the man she’d fallen in love with again. He wanted her love and he wanted her to accept his love in return.
“Matt? Here, you can take my car if you want.” Kim stood in the doorway, proferring the keys to the silver Porsche Carerra Ric had given her for her birthday. “I know she’s probably not on a par with your McLaren but treat her gently, won’t you?”
“Yeah, sure, thanks.” Matt stood up and took the keys, letting the paper fall to the floor at his feet. “I promise I’ll take good care of it.”
“Here, you dropped this.” Kim bent down to pick the form up, her face paling dramatically as she saw what the paper was. She pressed a hand to her stomach.
“It’s not what you think,” Matt hastened to assure her.
“Well, it looks like a sizable share transfer. What the heck else am I supposed to think? You say family comes first and that you’ve forgiven me but you’re still going ahead with it, aren’t you? How could you, Matt? After everything you just said?”
Matt took the sheet from her, tore it in two, then slowly crumpled the transfer form in his hand, fisting it into a ball of wadded paper before dropping it on the bed.
“No. I’m not going ahead with it. Not now. Enough’s enough. I meant what I said, Kim. Family does come first. Both our families. I can see that now. And, since it’s up to me, I’m going to work with Jake to find a solution to all this. It’s not going to be easy but we’ll get there. We have to.”
He grabbed his jacket from its hanger. Jake Vance was expecting him, but he wouldn’t be expecting what Matt proposed discussing. Not in a million years.
Thirteen
Rachel hung up the phone and gave her mother a wan smile. It had been a delightful surprise to find her mother back home when she’d arrived from her flight at midday. They’d spent the afternoon catching up and had shared a quiet dinner together here in the kitchen. It would be their last meal together for some time, Rachel realised with a pang. As soon as it was time for her agency to open in London she’d make her call.
“Looks like they’ll be happy to have me back at the agency, Mum. They have a long-term contract waiting for me. I probably won’t be able to come home again for some time.”
“Are you sure you’re doing the right thing, love?” her mother asked as she wiped her hands on a towel before coming over and giving her daughter a much-needed hug.
“It’s the only thing I can do. I can’t stay here any longer. Not feeling the way I do.”
Her mother nodded sadly. “It’s a crying shame. The silly man doesn’t know when he’s on to a good thing. Speaking of which, that sounds like them home now.”
Rachel flung her mother a stricken look. “I don’t want to talk to him, Mum. Can you make my apologies? I’ll head back to my apartment and finish packing.”
She was off and out the back door just as she heard the front door swing open and her mother’s voice filter down the hall in a greeting to Matt and Blake as they came inside.
Back at her apartment the air was chilled. There was little she needed to pack. All of her clothing she’d already separated out into seasons and had packed only what she’d need when she arrived back in London’s latest heat wave. Her mother would mail on to her the rest of her things over the next few weeks.
She flipped on the television set so she wouldn’t feel quite so alone, although the sound would do little to ease the pain in her heart. It was the late-night news announcer’s next words that made her stop halfway through making a cup of coffee and turn the sound up.
“And in breaking news, from Sydney, rumours abound of an upcoming merger between Australia’s largest diamond retailer, Blackstone Diamonds and New Zealand’s House of Hammond. Sources at Blackstone have reported of a meeting between the CEOs of both companies earlier today.”
A merger? Rachel sat down before her shaking legs gave out on her altogether. How could the news have it so wrong? They should be reporting of the takeover, not a merger.
Her doorbell sounded, driving her back to her feet. She opened the door, still in shock at what she’d heard, but the sense of surprise swirling through her was nothing compared with the disbelief that slammed into her when she saw Matt standing on her doorstep.
“Can I come in?” Without waiting for her answer, he nudged her out of the way and closed the door behind him.
“What are you doing here, Matt? What’s going on?”
He flicked a glance at the news bulletin on the TV set. “I see you’ve seen the news. I’d hoped I could beat them to it. But first things first,” he rumbled, reaching for her.
Rachel’s heart skittered in her chest as his strong arms pulled her to him. Her hands fluttered to his chest, and a question hovered on her lips but was instantly forgotten in the heat of his kiss. Matt’s lips were firm and insistent as he teased and coaxed hers open, his warm hands sliding around her back and drawing her even closer to him. Tears sprang to her eyes. How dare he do this to her again. One night, he’d said, one night only, and now here he was tearing her heart apart all over again.
But try as she might, she couldn’t push him away, couldn’t stem the flood of desire that poured through her body and galvanised her hands into action. They stroked him through the sweater he wore, burrowed underneath it to touch the searing heat of his skin. He shuddered at her touch, then mirrored her actions, sliding his hands under her knit top, skimming her waist, her rib cage, higher.
“Where’s the bedroom in this place?” he demanded, suddenly sweeping her off her feet.
He didn’t wait for her answer, instead making his way down the small passageway. Every cell in Rachel’s body wanted to accept his lovemaking, but every part of her brain shrieked “No!” She couldn’t make love with him and survive to walk away again. It had taken every last ounce of her stre
ngth to leave him in Sydney this morning.
Matt laid her down on her bedcovers and went to lie next to her. As he reached for her, Rachel spun away and rose on shaking legs.
“No.”
“Come on, Rachel. You know you want this. We both do.”
“Of course I want you, Matt.” She backed up until she hit the wall behind her. She put out one hand in protest as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed to sit up. “That’s just the problem. I’ve always wanted you—and it’s never been enough for you. Never been right. We had last night, and it was beautiful. But that’s where it ends with us. I can’t love you like that again and then leave. I’m not like that.”
“Then stay.”
He rose off the bed and crossed the short distance between them, planting one hand on either side of the wall behind her, effectively trapping her where she stood. The scent of his cologne wove around her, and she inhaled deeply, committing the delicious fragrance to memory. Something to take out and treasure at a later date, when she could remember this time with him without it scoring lines across her heart.
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Stay. Please,” he growled, and lifted one hand from the wall to cup her chin and force her to look up into his clear grey gaze.
“Don’t you understand anything I’ve said to you? I can’t stay with you, Matt. You don’t need me anymore. Blake is happy now since you’ve started to spend more time with him again. The night he spent with Kim in Sydney is proof positive of that. No. I’ve done all I can.”
“And me, Rachel? How about me?”
“You know you don’t need me. You’ve said as much all along. I’m not such a sucker for punishment that I’m prepared to be available for you whenever you want me and be shoved aside when you’ve had enough.”
“And if I said I needed you?”
When she went to shake her head, he held her face between both his palms.
“I mean it, Rachel. I need you. I’m begging you to stay. I love you. Curse me for all kinds of fool for denying it for so long if you like, but don’t deny me this. I can’t imagine a future without you beside me, sharing my life, my heart, my bed.” He bent his head and kissed her softly, sweetly, on lips parted with shock at his words.
“No, I can’t,” she whispered against his lips. “Not when you’re so hell-bent on destruction. Not when you harbour so much anger. It’d destroy us both in the end.”
“It’s all right now. I changed my mind.”
Rachel pushed him away from her. “What? Just like that? After all this time?”
“I finally listened to you. You were right. The Blackstones are my family as much as they are Blake’s. It was time for the hatred and feuding to end. Conquering Blackstone Diamonds meant nothing to me anymore once I realised how truthful your words were. When I looked at myself I didn’t like the man I’d become any more than you did. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to be the man you fell in love with. I want you to let me love you the way you deserve to be loved, by a man who deserves to love you.”
Rachel sank down onto the bed. Words failed her. Matt sat beside her, taking her hand and lifting it to his lips before pressing it over his heart.
“I’ve fought my feelings for you for far too long. That night when we first made love, I knew I should have held back. Hell, you were only seventeen. But I wanted you so very much. I thought one taste would be enough, but afterwards, when you thought we could continue with a relationship, all I could think of was how I’d shamed you and my family. I’d betrayed a trust that both our families had in me when I escorted you to the dance that night. I’d betrayed your innocence.”
Beneath her fingers Rachel felt the steady beat of Matt’s heart.
“Matt, I wanted you to take me. I wanted to be your girlfriend and more.”
“But I couldn’t give that to you. Not then. Not when you still had your whole life ahead of you. You hadn’t been to university, travelled, done any of the things you’d always talked about. If you’d stayed you would have come to resent me in the end. And I would’ve resented you, too. I had big dreams for my future, and they didn’t involve a steady girlfriend at the time. I know it sounds selfish but you have to understand where I’m coming from. Mum and Dad never hid the truth about my birth parents from me. My birth mother was only seventeen when she had me, my birth father a few years older. I couldn’t bear it if we’d allowed history to repeat itself.”
“But, Matt, even if we’d had a baby we’d have had the support of our parents,” Rachel protested.
“You don’t understand. I couldn’t do that to Katherine and Oliver. Not after all they’d been through. Not after all the support and love they’d given me all my life. I just didn’t have room in my life to be the person you needed then. We were on different paths. Mine was to support my father in his endeavour to keep House of Hammond strong and growing and to take back what he’d always felt had been taken from him by Howard Blackstone. You deserved better than that.”
“And what happened to that path, Matt? What are you doing with Blackstone now?”
Matt smiled, a genuine smile that lifted the intensity from his eyes and lightened his face. “We’re doing what we should have done years ago. We’re merging the companies together. It won’t happen overnight, obviously. It’ll take years of planning and hard work, but it’ll be good work and it’ll mean that the old hatred can die a natural death, leaving the way clear for Blake and the rest of his generation to keep the peace between us.”
“Are you sure that’s what you really want?” Rachel couldn’t believe her ears—couldn’t believe that after decades of anger and accusations between the families it was all coming to an end. A happy end.
“I’m certain. It’s time to look forward, to put the past in the past where it belongs. People make mistakes, horrible mistakes, and I’m not immune from that. But you’ve shown me that nothing built in anger can survive. It takes genuine love and commitment to make things last. The kind of love and commitment you’ve offered me and that I was too stupid to accept.” He cupped the back of her head, tilting her head so she faced him eye to eye. “I want to accept that now, Rachel. I want to accept everything you’ve so generously and selflessly given me. And I want to give it back to you in return.
“I let the failure of my marriage smother my true feelings towards you. I let it make me believe that I couldn’t succeed in the kind of relationship you deserve. But I was wrong. My marriage failed for myriad reasons but I know I will never fail you, if you’ll only give me a chance to show you how much I love you. I need you to keep me human, to remind me daily of what’s important in my life. You, Blake, my family—all my family.
“Will you marry me, Rachel Kincaid? Do me the utmost honour of being my wife?”
Tears streaked down Rachel’s cheeks. She could barely draw breath, her heart had swollen so huge in her chest as she finally heard the words she’d always waited to hear.
“I love you with everything there is inside me, Matt. Of course I’ll marry you. You’re all I’ve ever wanted or ever will want.”
She reached up to kiss him, to show him in every possible way how much his words meant to her and how heartfelt were her own.
When Matt broke the kiss, he put his hands on her shoulders, pushing her back gently. “Will you wear this?”
He reached inside his jeans pocket and drew out a platinum-set pearl and diamond ring. The pearl and pink diamond were of equal size, set side by side with a semicircle of four smaller pink diamonds on each side to ring the two together. Rachel gasped as she held out her hand for him to put it on her ring finger.
“It’s a toi et moi ring. You—” he pointed to the iridescent pink pearl “—and me.” He lightly touched the pink diamond. “Your gentleness and beauty to balance and soften the hardness of my heart. If you don’t like it I’ll make you something else.”
“No, it’s perfect. I love it, Matt. I love you.”
Their
clothes disappeared as they sought each other to affirm their love. When finally, on a joyful sigh, their bodies cleaved together again, it was with a sense of rightness and purpose that overrode past sorrows and disappointments, replacing them with a hope for the future that was as strong and bright as the many facets of a brilliant-cut diamond reflecting the light of a new dawn.
Epilogue
“You look beautiful, Rachel.” Kim’s smile belied the tears in her voice.
“Absolutely stunning,” agreed Danielle, who together with Kim had helped Rachel prepare for the wedding.
Rachel stood in front of the cheval mirror, her eyes sparkling in disbelief at the reflection that faced her. She felt beautiful in the strapless sweetheart-neckline gown that hugged her torso before cascading to the floor in a cloud of tulle and organza. She hadn’t wanted traditional white, instead opting for a fabric that shimmered with the faintest shade of pink through the layers, much like the pearl in the ring Matt had put on her finger only two weeks ago.
Two weeks. She had to pinch herself to even believe it was true. She felt like Cinderella about to go to the ball to meet her fairy-tale prince—except today was real. So very real.
She smiled at Kim’s reflection as Kim adjusted the short veil pinned to her hair with clasps decorated with pink diamonds—Kim and Ric’s wedding gift to her.
Kim gave her a quick hug. “I’m glad he finally saw sense and didn’t let you go.”
“I know. I’m so lucky,” Rachel replied, her throat constricting on the words as she remembered how close she was to leaving Matt for good.
“You’re lucky? More like the other way around.” Kim laughed softly. “But either way, I couldn’t be happier. He’s the old Matt again. It’s great to have him back.”
A knock at the door made the women turn. Butterflies did double loops in Rachel’s stomach. Was it already time?
Jealousy & a Jewelled Proposition Page 13
