by Anna Mara
* * *
Bill came home early that day.
He just had to see her again, to be near her, to talk to her, to kiss her even—if he got lucky. He hadn't thought about anything else.
He walked in the front door and immediately noticed some of the maids and under butlers scurrying across the foyer. As he passed the open doors to the salon, he saw Tilly, the young maid, overturning cushions on the couches.
She was looking for something and he sensed that the whole house was in a frenzy—but over what?
Bill walked into the salon. "Tilly, what's going on?"
Surprised, Tilly stood up and stammered, "Sorry, sir but… I… think you should ask Madam Christina."
Bill's interest perked up even more. Christina? What was she up to now, he thought? "Tilly, I want you to tell me."
The young girl looked down at her shoes. She was nervous.
Bill continued. "Don't worry, I won't say anything about who told me. You can trust me." He gave her one of his radiant, movie star smiles and the girl melted.
"Well, sir… Madam Christina… has lost her engagement ring and the entire staff is looking all over the house for it… sir." She did a quick curtsey and scurried out of the room.
Bill froze. What??!! Christina had lost the ring???
She'd lost the ring…
A smile spread across his sensuous lips as his brain began to calculate at lightning speed. If she couldn't find it, she'd be liable for it—which meant that she'd be in debt to him for a quarter of million dollars—money she didn't have.
That meant that now he could call the shots—and he could make her do what he wanted—which was to marry him, of course. God help him, he wanted her that badly that he was willing to sell a piece of his soul to get her.
Maybe forcing her to marry him would send him to hell but he didn't care. He loved her and he didn't want to lose her. And if he had to play the upper hand he'd just been dealt, he would. He was a desperate man and he would do what he had to in order to keep her.
He knew that Christina didn't love him. And he would keep his love for her to himself. He couldn't stand to have that thrown in his face—and she would, if cornered. So he'd play the bastard and blackmail her into marrying him for the money she owed for the ring.
She would hate him, of course…
And curse him, of course…
But she would marry him.
May God forgive him—because he knew Christina never would.
Chapter 41
Bill knocked on her bedroom door. At the speed of light, a frazzled-looking Christina yanked it open and stared at him.
Bill's eyesight went beyond her shoulder into her room. He could see clothes strewn everywhere and drawers open with their contents spilling out. The place looked like it had been hit by a tornado—and that tornado's name was Christina.
She looked desperate, panicked and frantic. He could see it all in her eyes—and in the way she was keeping her left hand hidden behind her back.
She smiled at him. "You're home early today."
Bill studied her face. She was scared. Good. That's exactly how he wanted her to be if he was going to pull this off. He played it cool. "Were you busy?"
"No… just a little spring cleaning," she laughed to hide her nervousness.
He let his eyes slowly wander again beyond her and into the room. "It looks like you'll need to do a spring cleaning after your spring cleaning," he teased, quirking an enquiring eyebrow at her.
Christina turned her head briefly to look at her room. It was a complete disaster. She'd been so anxious about finding the ring that she'd pulled out clothes, shoes, bedding—everything in an effort to find it.
But she hadn't found it.
And neither had the staff.
And now he'd come home.
She turned back to him with a fake smile on her lips. She needed to get him out of here before he discovered what was really going on. "You know how it is…can't decide what to keep. Was there something you wanted?"
"Now, there's a loaded question," Bill, slyly, retorted.
"Did you need to ask me something?" Christina, innocently, asked. Oh God—he was acting funny—did he know already?
Bill didn't answer but glued his eyes to her face. He took a few slow steps into the room, like a big, powerful animal stalking its prey, and Christina—the prey—took a few steps back. She was still keeping her left hand hidden.
"What are you hiding behind your back?" he asked her in a silky voice.
"Nothing," she quickly responded—too quickly.
"Show me," he demanded, his eyes never leaving her face.
On the defensive, Christina became indignant. "How dare you come into my room and…"
In one swift move, like a rattlesnake striking, he grabbed her left arm and yanked her hand up to his face. His eyes glittered with confidence—and Christina realized that the bastard knew! Was he going to make her pay for it? Of course, he was. She may have fallen in love with him but she knew he wasn't in love with her–and $250,000 was alot of money, even to a Havenwood.
Bill watched her panicked thoughts race across her features. He gave her a wicked smile as he powerfully held her left hand up. "Where is it?" he demanded.
Christina was mesmerized by the dangerous look she saw in his eyes but she straightened her spine with courage. "I've misplaced it but it's here somewhere. I'll find it." Her wild eyes glowered at him as she tugged at her hand. He released her and she quickly stepped away from him, enabling her to breathe again.
"Are you sure you’ll find it?" he smoothly asked.
Christina raised her chin in defiance. "Of course; it's here. I know it."
Bill stealthily approached her but this time Christina stood her ground. He wasn't going to intimidate her, no way.
But he was; he was scaring her very badly. And he was acting differently too. Where was the sensitive, thoughtful, tortured soul that she'd had dinner with last night, the one with the sense of humor, the one who'd protected her against his father, who'd cared for her when she'd been sick—the one she'd fallen in love with? Where was that Bill Havenwood?
He'd disappeared and the bastard was back!
Christina watched as a self-assured Bill crossed his arms in front of his chest. "So… what are we going to do about this situation?"
"The staff's looking, I'm looking… there's nothing for you to worry about."
He burst out laughing. "Oh, I know there's nothing for me to worry about."
Christina didn't like the way he was laughing at her. "What do you mean?"
He came closer—into her face. "I mean this. We have a contract and you're responsible for the value of that ring, a quarter of a cool million."
Christina looked him square in the eyes. "You know I don't have that kind of money."
Bill's eyes roamed over her beautiful face. He could smell that intoxicating perfume again. She was standing here, so close to him that he could almost taste her and although he knew she was frightened out of her wits right now, she was acting brave, defiant, and bold. He admired her for that—almost as much as he loved her. He could have relented and told her not to worry—that the ring was insured and she wouldn't have to pay him back but he was a desperate man—and desperate men do desperate things.
He nodded. "Yes, I know."
"So?"
His hand snaked out and she flinched, unsure of his intentions. But all he wanted to do was to gently brush away a strand of her hair that had fallen across her beautiful face. Bill just couldn't stop himself from touching her. He wanted her badly and he was going to have her—no matter what he had to do, no matter what he had to say.
His movements mesmerized Christina. She could feel his whisper soft touch across her cheek as he brushed the hair back behind her ear. He was so close to her that she began to breath faster—and this time it wasn't due to fear. She wanted him badly and she loved him—but he didn't love her. She pulled away from him.
"I gues
s you'll have to take me to court but I'm warning you, you can't get water out of a dry well."
He laughed at that. "Your well's not dry, Christina. In fact, I'm sure you have what it takes to quench my thirst."
The rational part of Cristina didn't like the way he said that—the other half, the part that was on fire for him—did.
She stared him down. "I'm going to find that damn ring if I have to tear this colossal mansion down brick by billionaire brick so you can die of thirst for all I care, Bill Havenwood," she sneered at him.
The bastard had the audacity to laugh at her again. He seemed to actually be enjoying her predicament.
He stopped laughing. "Here's the deal. If by the end of this month when our contract expires, you can't produce the ring, you're going to marry me… for real."
Christina's jaw dropped. "What? I'm not marrying you."
"You will. And when you do, your debt will be cancelled. A wife can't owe her husband money, now can she? After all, what's mine will be yours." He paused. "And what's yours will be mine."
Christina saw the hunger for her reflected in his eyes.
"Why are you doing this?" she croaked out.
"Because I…" he stopped, then gathered his wits about him again. "Because, if I make you my wife, my father won't kick me out of the money and maybe… you won't kick me out of your bed. It's a win-win situation."
Anger shot through Christina. It was suddenly all so clear. This was the real Bill Havenwood. Here was the bastard who'd pulled that prank on her in high school, the one who'd threatened her under the bleachers that day, the one who'd blackmailed her into helping him scam his father—and now he was blackmailing her again.
And the Bill Havenwood that she loved?
He didn't exist.
Her love for him had been based on a lie—an image of him that she'd created in her mind. She'd almost forgotten her golden rule—with men, what you see is what you get; and she saw a bastard.
How stupid had she been to think herself in love with this creep. Thank God she hadn't done anything about it. Thank God she hadn't said anything to him. And thank God she hadn't slept with him. He was a user and he was using her to further his own ends. It was all about what he wanted—and he didn't give a damn about her.
The war was back on.
Christina threw him a dirty look. "Just because you'd make me marry you, doesn't mean I'd let you touch me."
"Maybe not but my odds improve."
He smirked at her then, that goddamned Havenwood smirk she remembered from high school. Oh, what a fool she'd been to imagine that he'd changed.
"I wouldn't bet on it," she threw back at him.
Bill inched closer and whispered in her ear. "We'll see… Mrs. Havenwood."
Christina pulled away from him. "I'm not marrying you."
He smiled that confident, cocky smile of his. "You will. And one more thing? Your lover? He's history. You're never to see him again. You'll be my wife and I don't share."
"What about you and your lover? Stephie is it?" How dare he forbid her to see her so-called lover when he had that slut on the side!
"I don't know who you've been talking to but I've told you before, she and I were over before I met you. So you see, I'm all yours."
He planted a swift kiss on her lips and before Christina had a chance to push him away, he'd already stepped back.
Disgusted, she wiped his kiss off her lips with the back of her left hand—the one with the missing bauble.
He gave her a devilish grin. "Find your ring and you're free. Otherwise, you're mine. You can go back to tearing the house apart now."
Angry, Christina rounded on him. "Get out of my bedroom," she seethed.
Bill was cool. He knew he'd won. "Ahhh… now is that anyway for a wife to talk to her husband?"
"I'm not your wife."
"You will be." He gave her a confident grin and with that, he turned and walked towards the door.
"Oh, Mr. Havenwood?" He turned back to her. "You said last night that you and your father were two different peas in the same Havenwood pod. You were wrong. You're just like him."
It was the first time since he'd walked in here that Bill's eyes glittered with anger. It was a parting shot from her—and it was a good one.
"That's about the worst thing you could have said to me," he spit out at her.
"But true," she threw back at him.
With one last withering look at her, he walked out.
And Christina went back to tearing her bedroom apart. The ring just had to be here—it just had to.
* * *
Bill was coming down the stairs when he saw Geoffrey, one of the under butlers, scurrying across the foyer.
"Geoffrey, has the ring been found yet?" Bill called out to him.
Geoffrey stopped his march. "Not to my knowledge, sir."
"Tell the staff that if it's found, I want it brought to me, not to Christina, is that understood?"
"Yes, sir. To you." The under butler nodded and left to spread the news.
Bill was going to stack the deck in his favor and if that meant playing dirty, so be it. If that ring was found, she was out of here but if it wasn't, she was his. And he wanted her—anyway he could get her even if that meant he had to play the part of a bastard.
It disgusted him that playing a bastard came so easily to him. Maybe she was right and he was more like his old man than he cared to admit. Maybe the manipulating, conniving Havenwood blood did course through his veins after all.
He smiled to himself. But he would bet he was the first Havenwood in their whole sordid line of cutthroat, thieving ancestors, who was actually thrilled about losing a quarter of a million dollars.
Chapter 42
It was 8 a.m. Saturday morning, the day of the engagement party. Everything had been set—the tents, flowers, champagne; and the festivities were to take place on the mansion grounds that evening. Everyone was excited—everyone except the bride-to-be.
She was standing outside the door to Jenny's apartment, in tears. She knocked tentatively. A sleepy Jenny opened the door and was shocked to see her friend there.
"Chrissy, what are you doing here so early?" she asked.
With watery eyes, Christina sobbed, "Jenny… I'm in trouble."
Jenny gasped as she yanked her friend into the apartment before closing the door. "Oh my God, you're pregnant with Bill Havenwood's baby! I knew it! I knew this was going to happen!" she declared, as she pushed a despondent Christina into a kitchen chair.
"No, not that kind of trouble! Why does everyone think I'm pregnant?" Exasperated, Christina threw her hands in the air.
"Then what?"
Tears started falling down Christina's cheeks again. "I think I'm going to have to marry him… for real."
"What?"
Christina nodded. "I… lost the ring."
Jenny gasped. "The one that was worth…?" She glanced down at her friend's bare left hand.
Christina nodded. "And the bastard found out and he's saying that if I can't find it, I have to pay him back but I don't have that kind of money and he says he's going to sue me unless I marry him."
"You don't remember what you did with it?"
Christina shook her head 'no'. "And everybody's been looking but nobody's found it. I can't marry him, Jenny, I just can't." She buried her face in her hands.
"So, Havenwood wants to marry you?" Jenny handed her friend a tissue as Christina nodded 'yes'. "Did he say why?"
"Sex and money."
Jenny gasped. "What?"
"He said his father wouldn't kick him out of the money if he married me and… he wants me."
"Really?" Grinning, Jenny sat back in her chair. "So, Havenwood is in love with you, go figure."
Frustrated, Christina stood up and began to pace the small kitchen. "I said sex, Jenny, not love. He wants to have sex with me because I'm a challenge to him, that's all."
"Are you sure? Men don't usually marry…"
"Ye
s, I'm sure! God, don't read more into this than that."
Jenny's eyes narrowed on Christina. "And do you want to have sex with him?"
Christina was indignant. "How can you ask me that?"
"From the look on your face, very easily." Jenny kept her eagle eyes trained on her friend. "Are you going to answer me?"
With an exasperated moan, Christina began to shout, "Yes. Yes, I want to have sex with Bill Havenwood. I've been wanting to have sex with him since the first day I met him again. He's hot and he's gorgeous and every time he pierces me with those beautiful green eyes of his, I want to rip his clothes off and feel him moving inside me. I want to know what sounds he makes when he comes and what his naked body feels like plastered on top of mine, and mine on top of his. There, I said it! Are you happy now?" Defeated, Christina plopped down into her chair.
Jenny shook her head from side to side. She knew this was going to happen. "Are you in love with him," she asked softly.
Christina looked away as she whispered, "Yes, but he doesn't love me."
Jenny wasn't so sure. From what Christina had told her about how he'd been acting around her, she suspected Havenwood might have stronger feelings for her friend than she cared to admit.
"Maybe he does," Jenny pushed.
"Jenny, no!" Christina shouted the words. "Besides, I'm in love with a Bill Havenwood that doesn't exist. I thought he'd changed… with the AA and everything but he hasn't. He's still the same rat bastard he was in high school only now he's a sober rat bastard and I refuse to love that creep."
Jenny sighed, "Okay. I'll help you out of this mess."
Thrilled, Christina hugged her friend. "Thank you, Jenny. I knew I could count on you."
Jenny smiled. "Here's what you do. You can't find the ring so you tell him you have no choice but to marry him. That'll lower his defenses. Then you have to put your revenge plan back into action and find something to hold over his head."
"But Jenny, I've tried and there's nothing."
"Listen to me. Is there anything… a name, some tidbit of information you've come across that I can check out for you at the office?"
Christina's eyes opened wide. "Yes." She rifled through her purse and pulled out the paper with the 1625 Shelley Ave address on it. She showed it to Jenny. "I found this in his jacket pocket. It's just an old abandoned warehouse. Can you find out who owns it and if it has any connections with Fido Foods or Samco Oil?"
