It was probably the result of sharing such close quarters, but it disturbed her all the same. She wasn’t ready for a repeat of her experience with Joshua, and already Slade loomed far too large in her thoughts. He stirred a bewildering variety of responses in her. She couldn’t be starting to care for him, could she? No! She’d had more than enough of unrequited love.
His expression was bleak as he set the phone down. He had released his grip on her arm and now he raked long fingers through his hair.
‘What is it?’ she asked, bracing herself for more bad news.
‘That was my housekeeper, Ellen. My adopted daughter, Katie, heard about us on TV in Hobart and she’s broken-hearted. After losing her parents in the car crash, she’s convinced she’s lost me too, to you.’
CHAPTER FIVE
‘DIDN’T you explain that it’s all a terrible misunderstanding?’
‘I might have done if her uncle hadn’t called Katie moments after the broadcast. Katie thinks she’s the only one who didn’t know.’
Eden’s hand went to her mouth. ‘Poor little girl. She must feel terrible.’
‘You should have thought of her when you talked out of turn to Dana.’
With a whimper of distress, she tore herself away from him and went to the railing, staring blindly at the endless expanse of golden beach. When she turned, keeping the railing protectively at her back, her eyes streamed tears of anger and frustration but she dashed them away with the back of her hand. ‘Knowing what you think of my honesty, I don’t expect you to believe me, but I didn’t betray your confidence.’
His expression was cold and unrelenting. ‘Then how did Dana get hold of the information?’
‘Someone else introduced me as your wife at lunch,’ she said in a low voice, unwilling to identify Bob. He didn’t know the damage he was doing.
Slade quickly made the connection. ‘Bob?’ When she nodded he slammed a fist into the palm of his hand. ‘Damn, I should never have left him alone during the break.’
‘He’s rather large to bind and gag,’ she said shakily.
The faintest trace of amusement dispelled the bleakness in his expression. ‘You have a point. Not that it changes the basic problem.’
‘Surely Katie will understand when you can explain it to her face to face?’
His frown deepened. ‘Ordinarily, I would. But Katie isn’t an ordinary nine-year-old. She’s only now getting on to an even keel emotionally after losing both her parents. I’m all she has in the world.’
‘I can see why this news hit her so hard,’ Eden observed. She spread her hands in a gesture of futility. ‘I’d do anything to put things back the way they were before all this happened.’
His dark lashes lowered over feral eyes. ‘Would you, Eden?’
At the raw challenge in his voice, the fine hairs on the back of her neck lifted. ‘Of course I would. Half of Australia now believes I’m your wife. How am I going to explain that I’m not?’
‘Perhaps you won’t have to.’
Her wide eyes reflected her shock as she saw where he was leading. ‘No! You can’t mean us to continue this... this farce indefinitely? I can’t, I won’t. It’s utter madness.’
Utter madness to have considered an alliance with him in the first place, even for a worthwhile cause, far less think of extending it beyond their agreement. Yet she saw from his determined look that it was what he had in mind.
He prowled closer, his movements more panther-like than ever. Involuntarily, she shrank from the hand he raised to her cheek. ‘Why not? I don’t believe you dislike me as much as you want me to think. The truth is too transparent in your response. Even now, as you shrink away, your eyes invite me closer.’
‘Some men don’t know how to take no for an answer,’ she flung at him. How she hated him for his perception. Around him, she felt impossibly vulnerable, and he knew it. With his callous attitude towards marriage, how long would it be before he took all she could give, leaving nothing behind?
‘It would be an ideal marriage,’ he went on as if she hadn’t interrupted. ‘Through me, you’d have that fast track to the top which is so dear to your heart, while I’d get a reprieve from hordes of matchmaking hostesses.’
Doubtless being free to continue his bachelor lifestyle without hindrance, she thought sourly. ‘Aren’t you forgetting Katie?’ she queried.
His eyes glinted. ‘Katie would be gaining something she badly needs—a mother. Think of it, Eden. Katie could be the child you’re unable to have for yourself. Instead of losing a father, she gains two loving parents.’
He had it all worked out, she thought bleakly. Katie was an unfair weapon. She would love to be a mother to the child she’d glimpsed in his photograph. But the price was too high. ‘You can’t make me marry you,’ she whispered.
His breath was a soft wind against her cheek. ‘I’ve never had to force myself on any woman. I think you want it too, but you’re too stubborn to admit it.’
Her indrawn breath matched the movement of his head as his lips found hers. A low groan escaped her throat as she acknowledged the truth. She did want him, wanted much more if she was brutally honest. How could she dislike him so thoroughly, yet glory in his touch? It didn’t make any sense.
The railing pressed into her, bending her backwards as he trailed kisses along the plunging neckline of her dress until his tongue tantalised the cleft between her breasts, which felt hot and swollen. The peaks were so sensitised that the faint friction of her bra made her want to cry out.
Her fingers twined in his hair as his scalding body pressed against her. ‘Say it, Eden,’ he urged. ‘Tell me no and it will end here. You have only to say the word.’
‘I...’ Words refused to force themselves past the lump engorging her throat. She knew she should say it. He was proposing a coldly logical arrangement which had nothing to do with love. Yet she couldn’t make herself end it. His touch set her senses reeling in a way she had never experienced before.
The thought of sharing the future with him spun through her mind like a golden fantasy, a dream she had believed was forever beyond her reach. With Slade, she could have his companionship, even if not his love. And his daughter, Katie, would be the child she dared not have.
‘I can see that the benefits are starting to dawn on you,’ he said, stepping away from her. Flattening both hands against the railing, he stared out to sea.
‘I wasn’t thinking of any benefits, at least not in a material sense,’ she denied. ‘It doesn’t have to be entirely cold and logical, does it?’
Telling herself that she was foolish to expect more than he was prepared to give, she held her breath all the same as she waited for his answer.
‘Logic is more enduring than love, at least in my experience,’ he stated grimly.
A pang shot through her. How terrible to have to live with such a cynical view of the world. ‘All marriages don’t end like your parents’ and your sister’s,’ she reminded him.
‘Tell that to your father,’ he retorted, then relented as he caught sight of the pain contorting her face. ‘I had no right to say that; I’m sorry.’
‘But it is true,’ she acknowledged with difficulty. Then she sighed. ‘Perhaps your way is better.’
‘Then say you’ll marry me. We could be good for each other, Eden. This trip has shown me that it can work.’
He was only proposing marriage for his daughter’s sake and to simplify his own life, she thought dully. But the tantalising vision of herself as his wife, being a mother to a poor orphaned child who had already captured Eden’s heart in her photo-graph... the prospect tugged at her emotions. There was really only one answer she could give.
‘Yes,’ she whispered.
‘Excellent.’ He sounded like a man who had just concluded a particularly satisfying business deal. All at once, the enormity of what she had just agreed to threatened to overwhelm her and she swayed.
His arm came around her, steadying her. ‘Are you all right?’<
br />
With his arm tight around her, she was more than all right. His strength flowed into her, overcoming all doubts. ‘I’m fine, just a bit overcome,’ she assured him.
The concern in his expression warmed her. ‘It’s understandable, in the circumstances. Do you feel up to discussing some of the details?’
‘Yes, of course.’ There was no point in putting it off. ‘I imagine, for Katie’s sake, the ceremony should take place as soon as possible,’ she assumed.
He nodded. ‘Since the world thinks we’re already married, it can’t be too soon. Keeping it out of the media will be easier here than in Tasmania, so I’ll fly Katie and Ellen to the Sunshine Coast as soon as the conference is over.’
‘How will you explain a wedding ceremony to Katie, when she thinks we’re already married?’ she asked, bemused by his rapid-fire decision-making. No wonder he was so successful in the business world.
‘It’s a good question. Do you have any ideas?’
It was a logical enough question but she couldn’t help wondering if he asked it because he thought she was more experienced in deception, given the fiasco over her job application. It seemed as if that one mistake was going to haunt her for a long time to come.
‘We could tell Katie that we’re having a second wedding ceremony to give her the chance to attend,’ she thought aloud. ‘Lots of people are married in civil ceremonies, then affirm their vows elsewhere later on.’
He leaned forward, his gaze roving over the spectacular view. After several tense moments, he looked sideways at her. ‘It’s a sensible solution and is bound to satisfy Katie. But will it be enough for you?’
‘I’m not sure what you mean.’
‘My sister, Julie, believed that a wedding day is the most important day of a woman’s life. Will you be happy with a quiet ceremony attended only by Katie, Ellen and my mother?’
Since it wasn’t a real commitment, it shouldn’t matter but she was oddly touched by his unexpected consideration. ‘It will be fine,’ she assured him. ‘I’m glad your mother will be able to attend.’
‘It’s a shame you have no relatives to invite.’ On her employment application form, the one responsible for this whole mess, she had left the space for next of kin blank.
Her vision blurred. Her mother couldn’t have made the journey to the Sunshine Coast in any case, and there was no one else she cared to ask. Perhaps she should tell him about her mother, while there was still time to change their plans. The thought that he might want to change them once he knew made the words stall in her throat and the moment passed.
‘Then it’s settled,’ he said. ‘We’ll be married the day after the delegates fly home.’
It was less than a week away, she counted, fighting a surge of panic. Was she doing the right thing, commending her future to this man, knowing how he felt about love? Yet wasn’t it for the best? With her genetic inheritance, she couldn’t expect real love. This way, by the time she knew her fate, the marriage would have served its purpose. Katie wouldn’t need them any more and Slade probably wouldn’t need her. It was a surprisingly painful thought, but one she might as well accept.
‘There is one more thing,’ he said, startling her out of her reverie.
Apprehensively she turned large eyes to him. ‘What is it?’
‘As your husband, I will require complete fidelity.’
‘But the same doesn’t apply to you?’
His jaw tightened on clenched teeth. ‘You shall have mine as long as you remain faithful to me.’
Shock-waves eddied through her. ‘It sounds as if you intend our marriage to be a real one.’ The observation came out as tremulously as she felt.
‘It will be real,’ he said silkily, the promise in his tone turning her bones to water. ‘Did you doubt it?’
‘But I... we... it’s for Katie’s sake, surely?’ she stammered. The very thought of sharing the physical side of marriage with him painted vivid mental images, exploding through her mind.
What would it be like to be the total focus of his desire, to invite his possession and to possess him in turn with the silken bonds of shared passion? It was so much more than she had bargained for when she’d agreed to marry him that a retraction hovered on her lips. At the same time, she was conscious of a rising sense of excitement which stayed her tongue.
‘This has nothing to do with Katie,’ he countered, ‘and everything to do with what we feel and want. I don’t doubt that you want me as much as I want you, even if it can’t lead to children,’ he finished, his voice a low murmur, redolent with erotic potential.
Her limbs felt weak and it was as well she had the railing to support her. Gradually anger rose in her. ‘This is perfect for you, isn’t it? You get a mother for your adopted child, and a marriage which doesn’t cramp your style one bit. Right down to sex on demand.’
His husky laugh caught her by surprise, inflaming her anger even further. ‘I don’t think I’ll have to do much demanding, my dear. I rather think that will be your role.’
‘Go to...’ She stopped herself in time, recalling his belief that she would lead the way. ‘I’ll never ask you to make love to me, so don’t hold your breath.’
He shook his head sadly. ‘Such a waste of passion. Shouldn’t you save it for our wedding night?’
If she didn’t kill him beforehand, she thought savagely. It was an unlikely thought for a bride to have, less than a week before the ceremony. But then everything about this marriage was unlikely, especially her acceptance.
‘I’m so glad you married my son. I’d given him up as a lost cause,’ Marian Benedict commented as they shared coffee at the poolside restaurant a few days later.
Like everyone else, Slade’s mother believed they were already married, the forthcoming ceremony being a formality for Katie’s sake. Eden hated deceiving the older woman, whom she already liked, but there was no alternative. In any case, it would soon be the truth.
Talking about her son was one of Marian’s favourite diversions, her prospective daughter-in-law had discovered. As the veteran of three marriages herself, she had left Eden at a loss as to what to call her. ‘Call me Marian, my dear, even Slade does,’ she urged when they were introduced. ‘I reverted to Benedict for his sake but he doesn’t appreciate it. I should jolly well have hyphenated all three married names and made him use them.’
Marian was a warm, forceful woman and it wasn’t hard to see where her son got his domineering behaviour from. Already today his mother had dragged Eden to every boutique on the coast in search of the perfect wedding outfit. It was all Eden could do to steer Marian away from the traditional white wedding gowns which drew her like a magnet. Considering the nature of Slade’s proposal, it would be a travesty.
Marian had misinterpreted her reluctance. ‘White doesn’t mean what it used to, my dear. I wore white at my last wedding and nobody was affronted. Be thankful you and Slade have a normal, healthy relationship. If he’s anything like his father, he’ll be quite a handful.’
Colour flooded Eden’s cheeks. She wasn’t used to mothers speaking about their sons this way, but then she had never met anyone quite like Marian Benedict. ‘Why did you and Slade’s father separate?’ she felt emboldened to ask.
Marian swept a crocodile-patterned jacquard dress off a rack and held it up for Eden’s inspection. ‘He was too preoccupied with business to have time for his family. The only time I really saw him was in bed.’
Slade’s mother thought Eden was already well acquainted with the sexual side of married life, she realised uncomfortably. ‘Maybe that’s why Slade tries to keep a balance between work and home life,’ she observed.
‘He’s only a one-woman man,’ Marian confided, leaning close to Eden. ‘Which is more than I could say for his father.’
Eden’s paleness betrayed her shock. ‘I’m sorry to hear it.’
‘So was I, but men will be men—at least, some of them will.’ She laughed self-deprecatingly. ‘I wasn’t supposed to know about
his womanising, although I’m sure Slade did. Even as a teenager, he went to great lengths to protect me from the truth.’
‘He must love you a great deal.’ Eden’s mind whirled. How much had Slade inherited from his father? He had insisted on her fidelity but would his own end with protecting her from the truth, as he had done with his mother?
‘He does, but not as much as he loves you,’ Marian said with a smile. ‘I’ve seen how he looks at you when you’re unaware of it. The fact that you actually got him as far as the altar speaks for itself.’
It did, but not in a language which Marian would understand. Despite her many marriages, she was a romantic at heart, Eden was discovering. She would be appalled that Slade was marrying Eden for his own convenience, not out of love at all.
When Eden shook her head, Marian replaced the taupe dress on the rack and took out another. This time, Eden couldn’t withhold a gasp of delight. ‘It’s gorgeous.’
The dress was a luminous silk chemise in palest rose trimmed with iridescent sequins and tiny seed beads. The sleeves and hem were fringed with leaves tipped with sequins. ‘You don’t think it’s too much, do you?’ she asked Marian anxiously.
‘Definitely not. It will be my wedding gift to you,’ she insisted. ‘Try it on, quickly.’
The dress fitted perfectly, as Eden knew instinctively that it would. The slim lines hugged her trim figure and the woven silk lining whispered against her skin. A tiny matching cloche nestled against her hair, the sequins reflecting the lights the tropical sun had bleached into her tresses.
‘You look breathtaking, my dear. We’ll take it,’ she said to the bemused designer, before Eden could utter a word.
‘You really shouldn’t have,’ she told Marian on the drive back to the hotel, their hire car piled high with packages. Katie was due to arrive that afternoon in the company of Slade’s housekeeper, Ellen. For the little girl, they had chosen a romantic ruffled gauze blouse and skirt in a complementary rose-pink. The blouse had a jewel neckline and three-quarter sleeves with ruffled cuffs, while the skirt was full and edged in tiers of ruffles. For a child, it was a dream outfit.
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