by Joanne Hill
“I prefer to call it a business arrangement for a short duration. Only you, Hugh and I would be privy to the details.”
A business arrangement. This was crazier still. She began to fold the linen napkin in her lap into shapes. It was madness, and if great grandfather Christie was conservative, then she was conservative in spades. You didn’t mess around with emotions. Her mind flicked to her mother. And she especially wasn’t about to mess with her mother’s feelings. Ellie had enough to contend with without having to come to grips with her only child getting caught up in a diabolical scheme like this. And why was she still thinking about this as if she was even considering it?
She shook her head. “No.”
“I respect your decision,” he said.
He seemed remarkably calm considering she’d just rejected him. “Good.”
“I assume you have reasons?”
“One or two.”
“And out of curiosity, they are?”
“Oh, how about…” She put her finger to her lips and pretended to think. “I don’t know you.”
“Google me. Look me up at the Sydney Morning Herald business pages. Go and talk to my staff. I give you free reign of the building – as long as they don’t know why.”
She blinked. “I doubt your staff would be able to tell me anything about you. You’re a stranger to them.”
His gaze narrowed. “That’s ridiculous.”
“I know for a fact that none of your employees, with the exception of Hugh, have ever been to your home.”
“Meaning?”
“A home tells a lot about a person. Maybe you don’t want people going there for particular reasons.”
“Could valuing one’s private time not be a valid reason?”
She tried to ignore that it was a very valid point, but it wasn’t her point. “Maybe,” she began, “there are things there you don’t want people to find out. Things about yourself you’re not comfortable revealing.”
His mouth curled into an attractive smile. “What are you suggesting, Mel? That I’ve got a B&D dungeon in my apartment? A camera set up in my bedroom to tape my illicit affairs? A harem waiting to attend to my every need?”
“Do you?”
Exasperation flashed across his face which gave her some relief.
But even so. She watched him closely. One heard stories of rich boys with devious minds who bribed officials to cover up their debauched behavior. Sean and Everett sounded like candidates.
Yet – not Daniel. Instinctively, she knew that. In the days she’d been at Christie Corp, she’d seen he was honorable and loyal, that he prided honesty on the same level she did. She took a long sip of her wine, and focused back on Daniel. He watched her with raised eyebrows. Oh, yeah, and he was used to getting his own way.
“I don’t know you enough,” she said, “to enter into any relationship with you beyond the employee-employer one. It’s as simple as that.”
His eyes narrowed, and a muscle twitched in his cheek.
“You need time to think about this. I understand.” He picked up his fork, dug into his lasagne, tasted it then began to eat hungrily.
“Eat your meal,” he told her. “Even better, watch me and check my eating habits are up to par.”
He reached for his wine, took a long swallow. He gestured to her glass. “Drink.”
She wasn’t satisfied. “I don’t understand why, of all the women in the world, you’ve asked me, because you don’t know me, either.”
He set his glass down, pulled a roll from the breadbasket. “You tick most of the boxes.”
She bristled. “You had me checked out?”
“Thoroughly.”
“So there’s some sort of pre-nuptial to protect your interests?”
He rubbed his temples. “I’m hardly likely to enter in to an agreement without one.” He exhaled suddenly, and put the bread on his side plate. “Mel. This is a temporary arrangement. Six months max. I know you don’t have a job, you’re looking for a place to live, and this is a solution. You’ll end up with a hefty pay check and you can do whatever the heck you want with it.”
Her mind suddenly got stuck on what he’d said. A hefty pay check. He’d mentioned financial compensation before but that hadn’t meant much because it was the most ludicrous thing she’d ever heard.
She reached for her glass of wine, and took a careful sip. Compensation might make her at least consider this proposition, even though it would be a cold day in hell before she agreed to it.
“What kind of compensation are we talking?”
He pulled a pen from his pocket, wrote a figure on a paper serviette and passed it over the table to her.
She took it, stared, and nearly choked.
She quickly regrouped, pushed the paper back, ignored that smarmy look on his face, and remembered to breathe. Inside she was a mess. That morning she’d spent far too long looking at a new retirement village that her mother would just love. It was close to the Tasman Sea with a beautiful, peaceful outlook, the facilities were outstanding, the menu read like a four star hotel – and it cost. Boy, did it cost, and as she’d viewed page after page, her heart had sunk lower and lower. She could never afford something like this for Ellie. Even maintaining the cable TV subscription for the footie was looking doubtful.
Mel took a mouthful of penne but it tasted dry and rough, even though it had been prepared by one of Sydney’s top chefs. She set her fork down.
Daniel Christie wanted to marry her and she would get paid for it. She would be able to clear the credit card debt she’d accrued, find a flat closer to Ellie. She wouldn’t be able to afford to move her into a better place just yet, but there were a lot of little things she could do to make Ellie’s life a far, far better one. And Mel owed her mother. Emotion clogged her throat. She owed her mother everything.
Have mercy on my soul, she thought, as she ground out, “How would it work?”
He steepled his fingers. “You’d move in to my apartment, obviously, so to the world we appear to be living as husband and wife. You’d have your own suite. It’s a large apartment on the cliffs overlooking the beach at Bondi. I’d cover all your expenses while you’re my wife and when the time is up, you get a check.”
“And when it’s all over?” she prodded. “What happens then with regard to the marriage?”
“A simple divorce. We file and one year later, you’re a free woman, I’m a free man and it can just be chalked up to Irreconcilable Differences.”
She bit down on her lip. She was a free woman. What would a piece of paper with ‘dissolution of marriage’ stamped on it mean, anyway?
She closed her eyes as her chest tightened. Her mother would be horrified if she found out that Mel had married for money to help her.
But where on earth could she get the kind of money that would provide so much for her mother’s care, not to mention the mounting balance on her credit card while she’d been job hunting. Frustration rose in her chest. And there was the fact that she’d been planning marriage to Max just two months ago. What kind of flaky woman did that make her? Two engagements in one year? Any future boyfriend would run a mile once he became acquainted with that track record.
If it was the reverse, she’d run. Call her a hypocrite but it was true.
She glanced up to see Daniel watching her closely. She cleared her throat. “Couldn’t we just…” She shrugged. “You know. Just get engaged?”
Daniel shook his head. “This needs to be a marriage. A legal marriage.”
“But who would know? Who would check?”
“The media if they get wind of this. I also suspect my grandfather will want to see a legal certificate. He’s developed a tendency to want to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I’d rather leave nothing to chance. And I would rather not lie to him.”
The incredulity of what he’d just said stunned her. This whole thing was a lie. Even if only a handful of people knew it.
His blue-gray eyes never left
her, but there was an added intensity now. As if he was trying to read her mind.
It wouldn’t surprise her if he could. Daniel Christie was unlike any man she’d ever met. He was a man you looked twice at, even entertained a fantasy or two about, but that was as far as it went. He was too male to get close to, and it was nothing to do with what he was, an impossibly wealthy and respected businessman. He could be the foreman on the ranch and he’d still exude it.
“I’m sorry. But the answer has to be no.”
He watched her intently for a minute, then pursed his lips. “There is one other option.”
“Really?”
“Hugh and I were discussing this yesterday. And it appears there is the possible option that the marriage can be.” He coughed. “Annulled.”
Mel froze. “Annulled?”
“It’s effectively wiped from the books so no one need ever know.”
She grabbed the idea like a life line. “What would the criteria be?”
“There are several considerations. If the marriage isn’t consummated, for example. For our purposes the marriage does not have to be.”
Mel’s eyebrows shot up followed by a rapid rise of heat in her body. Look natural, she ordered herself, and she reached for her glass of water. She’d never even considered the sex aspect of it, this whole time. That’s how out of touch with reality this whole charade was becoming.
Daniel leaned closer. His voice softened an edge. “I can see you’re worried about the divorce and I understand that. The alternative of the annulment means that the record goes. No one will ever know Mel Green and Daniel Christie were once husband and wife.”
“I didn’t know you could get an annulment in this day and age. It sounds very Jane Austen.”
“It’s very rare. Apparently.”
“What are the other grounds besides the, you know – consummation ground.” Good grief. She barely knew the man and she was discussing sex with him. Even people who had sex with strangers probably never talked about it. They just went ahead and did it. “Are there others?”
“If I married you under false pretences that would qualify. For example, if I tricked you, made out I was something I wasn’t.”
She grabbed this titbit like a cat hanging out for a piece of fish. “That would work.”
He sighed, and said dispassionately, “No, it wouldn’t. Because we are signing an agreement, albeit a private one, we both know what will be expected from this marriage. That would hardly qualify as a false pretence, Melinda, so a declaration of nullity won’t fly.”
She ran her hands across her face, her mind suddenly heavy with exhaustion. The whole discussion about annulment was pointless anyway. Not only had she been jilted, but she was now incapable of having sex with her own husband – or even worse, incapable of making him want sex with her. Her face suddenly burnt with the heat of it.
“This can be kept quiet,” Daniel told her. “No one needs to know, if that’s what concerns you. And I think it is.”
She breathed in deep. “It is. I’d be very worried about my mother.” She looked into his eyes, and was startled to feel herself being drawn in. What else was lurking behind them? Would he be a devoted husband, an adoring father? It was hard to imagine when he was looking at her in a way that wouldn’t be out of place at an executive meeting in a boardroom.
“Would I be expected to be a corporate wife?” she asked. “To attend functions and host dinners and do whatever it is you people do?”
Daniel arched his eyebrows. “We people don’t do functions. I do not as a rule end up in the gossip pages of the media.”
That was true. She was as voracious a reader of the celebrity pages as anyone and now she thought about it, his name had never appeared there, that she’d been aware of.
“Though,” he admitted, “if something happens to bring this to the attention of people who have nothing better to write about, I’m prepared to ride it out.”
“What about your staff? What about Nora?”
“Nora has never expressed any interest in my personal life.” He scratched his chin. “I have a housekeeper, Patsy, but she has worked for me for five years.” He rapped his fingernails on the table top. “She would be curious, but she is also loyal and I pay her very well. I believe she could be included in the –”
“The deception?”
He inhaled sharply. “The plan.”
She mulled it over some more in her mind. That seemed to be all the bases. But it was still absurd. “Are you sure there aren’t any other reasons why the marriage could be annulled besides the …” Her face heated again, and she focused on a framed photograph of a waterfall on the wall behind him. “Besides having to mention –”
“The sex thing?”
“Yes.” It made her uncomfortable just thinking about it. Not the sex but the fact they were talking about it so dispassionately as if it were just another bodily function like blowing your nose or going to the toilet. Though to a man like Daniel, no doubt it was a meaningless need to be slaked. He had the appearance of a man of great virility. Whereas to a woman like herself, it was a lot more than that.
She folded her arms across her chest and watched him curiously as a thought occurred to her. “You’ll be tarnished with the same brush.”
“The same brush?” His eyes narrowed. “What brush is that exactly?”
“Of…not being able…to consummate…” Her voice trailed off as sweat broke out at the nape of her neck. She was so far out of her league referring to sex with a man who could probably make a woman melt with one entirely chaste kiss.
His mouth curled, his expression bemused. “Trust me, Melinda. That has never been a problem and I can assure you, never will be.”
“For you, sure,” she blurted. “The fact is, you’ve probably…whereas I have never… I mean, I was engaged but even then, we never…that is, I haven’t…ever…”
Heat swamped her face. She pushed herself away from the table, grabbed her bag.
She looked at a place somewhere over his shoulder, where she didn’t have to see what he was thinking, and announced with as much cool as she could muster, “I’m going to the ladies.”
Daniel found himself frozen to the spot as Mel disappeared around the corner to the ladies restoom, the only thing left in her wake the scent of her perfume – and the meaning behind her words. He quickly reached for his wine, drained the glass in one smooth swallow and filled the glass from the bottle. His hand shook, and wine sloshed on the cloth.
He’d misinterpreted what she’d said. Surely. He grabbed his napkin and dabbed at the red stain. She was twenty six years old for goodness sake.
She had just admitted she was a virgin. Admitted that she had never made love, not even with her fiance.
His phone rang, he reached for it and checked the screen. Hugh.
“Have you asked her yet?” Hugh demanded.
Daniel glanced broodingly across to the rest room area. “I did. And the idea of getting a divorce did not go down well.” He breathed in deep. “Deep down, Mel is as conservative as they come. She appears to have a great deal of respect for marriage.” Especially, he thought drily, if she was saving herself for it.
Hugh cursed blatantly down the line. Then he paused. “Did you happen to mention the, aaah –”
He appeared to be having trouble saying the word. “The annulment?” Daniel said for him. “Yes. I did.”
“Good.” Hugh hesitated, coughed. “And?”
“It held even less appeal. The idea that not only was she jilted by her fiancé, but that she would effectively be “annulled” because of non-consummation was a no go.” Dryly, he added, “Which doesn’t surprise me. Considering she as good as admitted she’s a virgin.”
More expletives flew from Hugh’s mouth. When he had himself under control, he said, “You may be right about her inclination to conservatism, but I had lunch with her yesterday and I’m telling you, she won’t admit it, but that girl craves security.”
; “You got all that from what she didn’t say?”
“I read between the lines. I could read Joss like a book.”
“That comes from being married to the same woman for over forty years.” Daniel kept an eye on the entrance to the rest rooms. “It doesn’t come from an hour over lunch.”
He ran his hands over his face in an effort to ease the tension sitting permanently under his skin. “Hugh, whatever happens, we can’t mention a thing of this to Grandfather.”
“Noted,” agreed Hugh. “His health is declining far too rapidly. I saw him this morning. He’s finding it a strain to even brush Barnaby.”
Daniel narrowed his gaze at nothing. “That damned dog has to be doing more harm than good.”
“Try getting Barnaby away from your grandfather. It’ll never happen.”
A waitress came, took his plate, her gaze lingering a moment on him. He gave a non-committal smile and focused on the rest room area where he expected Mel to return from any second. “I’ll be in touch when I know more.”
He disconnected the call, and slotted the phone into his pocket.
Frustration welled inside him. Mel Green would be Mrs Daniel Christie. If he had to offer more money, he would do it, because he of all people understood the value of it. He’d spent his life knowing people who craved money, who loved it with an obsession, and if enough was offered, would do anything for it. With some people, though, it might take some persuasion, but everyone had a price. You just had to name it.
If Mel didn’t agree, yes, he could still find himself a bride in twenty-four hours from the mix of ex-girlfriends who would have given up their virginity like a shot for the role. But he wasn’t about to subject himself to six months of hell with women who possessed sexual allure but whose self-obsession or need for affirmation would drive him crazy. Sadly, those were the women he had tended to date.
He frowned and reached for his glass of wine.
His mother had been of that ilk. For a moment a picture of her flashed in his mind. Black hair, darker eyes, a beautiful, fashionable woman who had begun life as a catwalk model and believed she had found the answer marrying Duncan Christie, the handsome heir to the Christie fortune. Now, she was a shadowy figure, a memory of childhood, the mother who had left suddenly and never came back. At the time, he hadn’t understood that. It had been years before his father had told him the truth, that she had accepted money to leave her boys and had chosen not to see them again. His gut clenched as he thought of Everett and Sean. They’d been babies when their mother had deserted them. As much as he held them responsible for their own actions now, for the decisions they’d made and continued to make, they had suffered extreme loss because of their mother. They had needed someone to love them, not the housekeeper and the nannies but a real mother and their scarred father had never had the heart to try and find one for them.
