Not His Wedding! (Silhouette Reissued)

by Suzanne Simms

  “Like out at sea.”

  The suddenly loquacious wheeler-dealer nodded. “Out at sea. Deserted beaches. In the dead of the night.”

  “Did you know that Carlos sent his goons to search Diana’s hotel suite her first night here?”

  “I swear to God, I didn’t. Not until she told me a few minutes ago.”

  “That is very fortunate for you.” Both men seemed to understand how narrow Grimmer’s escape from a well-earned punch in the nose had been. “Did you realize his hired henchmen followed you to Port Manya?”

  Yale was sweating bullets. “No. I guess Carlos found out somehow.”

  “Found out what?” inquired Ross, refusing to let his fish squirm off the hook.

  Grimmer glanced away for a moment. “The other interested parties had also given me a down payment on the coin.”

  “In other words, they each gave you up-front money.”

  “Yes.” Yale seemed to think he had been very clever. “One collector of rare objets d’art from Singapore handed over fifty thousand in cash.” His eyes glittered. “Imagine fifty thousand American dollars in small unmarked bills. There was no way to trace it. No taxes to pay. It was pure profit.”

  Ross leaned back against the mahogany bar and folded his arms across his chest. “In other words, you intended to fleece them all but good.”

  He blew out his breath. “That was the idea.”

  “Dear Lord, Yale!” Diana’s hand flew to her mouth. “How did you expect to get away with a harebrained scheme like that?”

  His eyes were still glittering. “I had several very clever forgeries made. You had the original coin, of course, Diana. I figured I’d keep the down payments, sell the genuine article to the highest bidder and disappear before anyone was the wiser.”

  “You’re not even an honest crook,” she scolded.

  “You’re also a damn stupid one. You’ll be lucky not to get yourself killed,” Ross observed coolly.

  Desperate, he looked from one to the other. “That’s why I have to get the bracelet back.”

  Ross immediately stepped forward and informed him, “Diana wasn’t lying to you. She doesn’t have the bracelet and she doesn’t know where it is. The last time either of us laid eyes on it was in the jungle.”

  Yale sank down onto the nearest chair and buried his head in his hands. “Then I’m a dead man.”

  “Not necessarily,” he said after a moment. “There might be another way.”

  “I can’t imagine what it is,” Yale admitted, lifting his head. He had aged ten years in ten minutes.

  Ross measured out controlled calmness. “You could try being honest for a change. You could give the money back.”

  A burst of dark laughter escaped the man sitting down. “I’ve already spent most of it. And even if I hadn’t, you don’t know what these people are like. They’ll kill you for just trying to double-cross them.”

  “Then I guess you should have thought of that before you double-crossed them.”

  Brown eyes went blank. “There’s no hope for me. I may as well throw myself off the top of the tallest building in Manila.”

  “I’m tempted to let you,” said Ross. “But it might upset Diana. I don’t like having Diana upset. So I’ll tell you what we’re going to do.”

  Yale glanced up. He stared at him for a half a minute and then demanded to know, “Just who the hell are you?”

  The woman beside him jumped in first. “He is a gentleman in the truest sense of the word.”

  “Just a man like any other man,” said Ross. He meant it for her, not Grimmer.

  “A man like no other man,” whispered Diana, gazing up at him with what looked like love shining in her eyes.

  Ross wanted this business settled and done with. He had more important things to see to: like Diana, like his own future.

  He said, “I’ll write down a few words on your behalf to Sergeant Charoon Bok. He’s a good man. He’s been investigating illegal smuggling in the otherwise peaceful waters around his island. Take the morning flight to Port Manya and find Sergeant Bok immediately. Maybe he’ll make a deal with you.”

  “A deal?”

  “Information in exchange for your safety. It’s done all the time.”

  Yale Grimmer eyed him with suspicion. “Why are you doing this for me?”

  “I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for Diana. She’s a warm, loving, tenderhearted, concerned woman. Sometimes to a fault. Frankly I don’t want your life, or death, weighing on her conscience.”

  Diana took the opportunity to thread her fingers through his. She gave his hand an appreciative squeeze. “Darling, do you have my engagement ring?”

  “Ooops, I nearly forgot.” Ross dug into his pocket and took out the diamond. He gazed down into her eyes. “What do you want me to do with it?”

  “Give it to him.”

  “Are you certain?”

  “One hundred percent.”

  “You could trade it in on a whole lot of fancy baubles. Or a few hundred pairs of combat boots.”

  They both laughed, and it was obvious that Yale Grimmer had no idea why they thought it was so funny.

  “I don’t need fancy baubles. I have a good sturdy pair of combat boots. Besides, I believe it is customary for the woman to return the ring when she officially breaks off her engagement to a man.”

  “Whatever you say.” Ross unceremoniously tossed the ring into Grimmer’s lap. He just managed to catch it.

  Diana added, “Besides, I think you’re going to need a good lawyer, Yale. And they don’t come cheap.”

  “What I really need is that damn bracelet,” he muttered, without so much as a thank-you for the ring.

  Ross had had enough. In fact, he’d had more than enough to last him a lifetime. He picked Yale Grimmer up out of the chair, grasped him firmly by the elbow and escorted him to the door of the hotel suite. “What you really need is to get out of here before I change my mind about beating you to within an inch of your life.”

  Yale turned white as a ghost.

  “Say goodbye, Diana.”

  “Goodbye, Yale,” she dutifully called out to her exfiancé.

  Sticking out his hand, palm up, Ross demanded of the other man, “Give me the key you have to this room. You won’t be needing it anymore. I’ll return it to the hotel for you.”

  Grimmer silently handed him the key.

  Ross called over his shoulder, “Just walking Yale to the elevator, sweetheart. I’ll be back in a minute and we’ll order dinner.”

  “Hurry back.”

  On the way to the elevator, Yale Grimmer tried to get in one more dig. “Diana’s expensive. Like I said, you won’t be able to afford to pay her clothes bill for even one month.”

  Sometimes a man had to use whatever weapons were at his disposal. Ross figured this was one of those times.

  As he hurried the small-time crook along the corridor, he ground through his teeth, “I don’t believe it will be as much of a problem as you seem to think.”

  Yale snorted. “Do you have any idea how much Diana Winsted pays for a pair of shoes alone?”

  “I have a pretty good idea.”

  “How could you possibly manage to keep her in the style she has always been accustomed to?”

  “I’ll manage.”

  That brought a nasty retort. “Where would you get money like that?”

  Ross arched one well-done brow. “Have you ever heard of the St. Clairs of Phoenix and Palm Springs?”

  “Hell, yes, who hasn’t? They must own half of Arizona.”

  “The son owns a healthy chunk of California and Hawaii, too, as a matter of fact.”

  Grimmer was green with envy. “The bastard must be rolling in it.”

  “He is.” The elevator gave a soft ping, the doors slid open and Ross shoved Grimmer inside. He reached around the corner and pressed his finger on the button for a moment. “I don’t believe Diana has ever mentioned my full name.”

  “I don�
�t believe she has.”

  There was a moment of anticipation. “It’s Ross Matthew St. Clair.”

  “You’re that St. Clair?”

  He grinned. “Guilty as charged. I just wanted you to rest easy knowing I can keep Diana in clothes.”

  As the elevator doors closed, Yale Grimmer was standing there, eyes wide, mouth half-open, muttering to himself, “Son of a bitch.”

  Fifteen

  “Did Yale get on his way all right?” inquired Diana, glancing up from the room service menu she was studying.

  Ross closed the door of the hotel suite behind him and said, “As far as I know. I walked the man to the elevator. Even pushed ‘L’ for lobby for him.”

  “I don’t know what I ever saw in Yale Grimmer,” she admitted with a sigh. “I thought he was such an outstanding, upright and honest member of the human race. Here he turns out to be a world-class rat and a world-class liar.”

  “I suppose we all stretch the truth now and then,” reasoned Ross as he roamed around the sitting room. “And there is always lying by omission.”

  Diana wasn’t sure what he was getting at, but she refused to face it on an empty stomach. “What are you in the mood for?” she said, perusing the selections for dinner.

  “I’m in the mood for love,” he sang softly and slightly off-key. It was very endearing.

  Her arched brows rose high. “You promised we were going to stay in tonight to eat and to talk, in that order.”

  His expression was one of mild sheepishness. “I did, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, you did.”

  He showed his white teeth in a sardonic smile. “I wonder whatever possessed me to make such a foolish promise.”

  Diana held up her forefinger. “One, because we’re both hungry.” She raised a second finger. “Two, because we need to have a serious talk.”

  “You’re right on both counts, of course,” acknowledged Ross. “Why don’t you go ahead and order dinner? Surprise me.”

  “All right.”

  He made himself comfortable in a corner of the sofa. “And include a bottle of champagne.”

  “Are we celebrating?”

  “I certainly hope we will be,” came in a determined voice.

  Dinner had been eaten and enjoyed, the dirty dishes cleared away by a polite, uniformed waiter. A bottle of champagne was chilling in a silver bucket at one end of the sofa. There were two crystal glasses filled and sitting on a tray on the coffee table. The lamps were turned low. There was music softly playing somewhere in the background, and the lights of the city were visible through the large picture window in front of them.

  It was the perfect romantic setting.

  So why were she and Ross suddenly feeling so awkward and uncomfortable with each other?

  Diana decided to break the ice. “Who wants to go first?”

  Ross stretched his arm out along the back of the cushions and placed a hand lightly on her shoulder. “Why don’t we take turns?”

  “Every other one?”

  “Something like that.” There was a moment of silence. “You can start.”

  She was willing. “All right. Why did you lie to Yale about the gold charm bracelet?”

  Ross frowned. “I didn’t think he deserved to get it back after what he did to you.”

  “You were very upset about him using me as a courier, weren’t you?” she inquired carefully.

  There was an uncompromising hardness about both his features and his manner as Ross confessed to her, “I don’t think anything has ever made me angrier.”

  “Not in your entire life?”

  “Not in my entire life. I would loathe any man who would use a woman, any man who would put a woman’s life in jeopardy. The fact that Grimmer did it to you only made it ten times worse. A thousand times worse.” He took a deep breath and expelled it. “When I was a teenager, maybe even a little younger, my parents drummed one thing into me.”

  “What was that?”

  “ ‘Let your conscience be your guide, Ross. Especially when it comes to girls and women.’ ”

  Her throat was suddenly full. “And you’ve never forgotten what they said.”

  “And I have never forgotten.”

  “I think I’d like your parents.”

  “I think they’d be crazy about you,” he murmured.

  “Now it’s your turn,” Diana reminded him.

  “Hold out your hand,” instructed Ross.

  She did as she was told.

  He dug into his shirt pocket, brought out the gold charm bracelet and dropped it into her palm.

  She fingered the charms until she came to the coin. “It was never my favorite, but a quarter of a million dollars…”

  “It’s a lot of money.”

  “Yes, I suppose it is.”

  “What are you going to do with it?”

  She frowned. “Do with it?”

  “The bracelet, and the coin, belong to you.”

  But the bracelet, its monetary worth and the man who had given it to her as a birthday present were no longer of any value to her. She would never wear it again.

  Diana held the bracelet out toward Ross. “I don’t want it. I liked it better when it was just another charm bracelet. You take it.”

  “Me?”

  She placed the jewelry in his hands and closed his fingers around the cold metal. “I want you to have it.”

  “Why?” he asked softly.

  She hesitated, then came right out and told him. “I think you are a unique human being, Ross St. Clair. I meant every word when I said you can be anything you want to be.” Tears welled in the back of her eyes. “I know you don’t have a lot of money. Maybe you can sell the coin and start all over again, create a whole new life for yourself.”

  He smiled at her. “I already intend to do that. But I don’t want the coin, Diana.”

  “You don’t?”

  “No, sweetheart, I don’t. But I have an idea what we can do with it.”

  He had her rapt attention now.

  “What?”

  She watched as he got a faraway look in his eyes. Oh, those eyes that were neither green, nor brown, nor blue, but a rare and wonderful combination of all three!

  His voice was deep and rich; it wove a spell around her. “I know of a small, isolated island in the Celebes Sea. The people are poor, but hardworking. There is no school. Just a dusty main street with a few ramshackle buildings and a funny run-down hotel.”

  “Hotel Paraiso. Hotel Paradise.”

  Ross continued, “We could sell the coin and give the money to Port Manya. They could build their school-house and afford to hire a teacher.”

  “Pablo could learn to read.”

  “And all the other island children, too.”

  It was an inspired idea. “Yes,” breathed Diana. “It’s the least we can do under the circumstances.”

  “Under the circumstances?”

  She suddenly lost her nerve. What if she were mistaken? What if Ross didn’t feel the same way about her as she felt about him? What if she had misread his intentions? What if their passion for each other began and ended with pure physical attraction?

  Dear God, what if he didn’t love her?

  There were worse things than looking a fool. There were worse things than being rejected. There were worse things than telling a man you loved him and finding out he didn’t love you in return.

  What was worse?

  Playing it safe. Being afraid. Keeping your mouth shut, sometimes. Never knowing passion. Never kissing Ross again. Allowing him to walk out of her life without telling him how much she adored him, wanted him, desired him, loved him.

  Diana took a deep breath, steeled herself for whatever lay ahead, turned to Ross and declared in an impassioned voice, “It’s the least I can do under the circumstances because it was on Port Manya that I fell in love.”

  He seemed to stop breathing. “Fell in love?” It was as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly.

&nbs
p; It was all there in her eyes if he cared to look. “It was on Port Manya that I fell in love with you.”

  Ross framed her face with his hands. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

  “How? How in the hell do you know?” His voice didn’t sound quite like him.

  She reached up and, with a feather-light caress, touched his brow, his cheek, his lips, his jaw, with her fingertips. “It was very simple, really. I tried to imagine my life without you. I couldn’t.”

  Something seemed to break loose inside Ross. He brought her face firmly up to his and muttered against her mouth, “I love you so much I don’t even care if we’re right or wrong for each other. I don’t give a damn if we’re good or if we’re bad together. I can’t live my life another minute if I don’t know for certain you’ll be in it.”

  “I will be. I promise,” she vowed, her voice shaking with emotion.

  He drew her into his arms, pulled her across the sofa and onto his lap, held her so close it was as if he never intended to let her go. “Say it again. Please, say it again, Diana. I want the words. I need the words. I’ve waited for so bloody long to hear them.”

  She gazed into his eyes, his beautiful eyes, and said, her voice breaking, “I love you, Ross. I’ll always love you.”

  He held her to him fiercely. “I love you, Diana. I love you with all my heart and my soul and my body,” he pledged.

  “I will love you for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, for as long as we live,” she murmured, reciting part of the traditional wedding vows.

  He held her gaze. “You honestly don’t care if I’m poor?”

  “I honestly don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me. Only you matter. Only you, Ross.”

  Diana could feel him watching her. “Then you wouldn’t care if I were rich?”

  “No—” she laughed “—but you aren’t.”

  His expression was deadly serious. “But I am.”

  “You are what, darling?” she murmured, far more interested in kissing him than in continuing their conversation.

  “Rich.”

  “Oh, well,” she said, dismissing the subject. “Nobody’s perfect.”

  Ross laughed and seemed to finally agree with her that they had talked enough for one night. He slipped his hand inside her wrapper and found her breast, and Diana shivered with delicious anticipation.