Bound by Contract

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘No, he wasn’t,’ she snapped, turning pointedly away from him.

  ‘Then perhaps that was Jonny?’ Gideon either didn’t pick up on the snub or he chose to ignore it.

  And Madison knew which one she thought it was! But he obviously thought both Simon and Jonny were past boyfriends of hers—and after the way he had behaved so far this evening she was not in a mood to put him right!

  She gave him another saccharine smile. ‘No, it wasn’t Jonny, either,’ she told him huskily.

  Gideon’s mouth tightened, his gaze raking over her scathingly. ‘You certainly get around, don’t you?’ he bit out insultingly before turning away.

  Madison gazed with impotent fury at his stony profile for several seconds before turning away herself. She got around! He wasn’t exactly an innocent himself, if the gossip columns were to be believed—if only half the stories of his relationships were true, he had no right to cast aspersions on her own behaviour!

  Besides which, he was wrong about both Simon and Jonny…Jonny was her brother Jonathan. And he and Simon had been friends from schooldays, which was how Madison came to know Simon too.

  Not that she intended telling Gideon any of that; he could think what he liked. The way she felt at the moment, she didn’t ever want to talk to him again!

  Which was going to be impossible when the two of them were out together for the evening…

  However, there was no more opportunity for conversation as the lights went down in the theatre, and Madison’s attention was soon caught and held by the plot unfolding on the screen in front of her. Simon, as usual, was outstanding as the hero, and wholly deserved the acclaim he was given at the end of the movie.

  Now all Madison had to do was find a way of getting out of here, and back to Edgar’s, without giving Gideon the opportunity to insult her enough that she actually ended up hitting him!

  She wished now that she had accepted Simon’s invitation to join him at the party; at least that way she would have been able to get away from Gideon. But she hadn’t, which meant she would have to suffer at least another thirty minutes of Gideon’s overbearing company while the limousine drove her home.

  She stood silently at Gideon’s side, her hand once again gripped firmly in his, as he stopped to talk to several people on their way out, his lack of introduction noticeable to her, as it was to those other people she felt sure. By the time they got outside into the street she was so tense with anger at his deliberate rudeness that her hands were clenched into fists as her sides.

  ‘Mr Byrne,’ the driver of their limousine greeted as he opened the door for them to get in.

  ‘Take Miss McGuire back to Remington’s, Jim,’ Gideon instructed tersely, making no effort to follow Madison into the back of the car.

  ‘Are you not joining us, Mr Byrne?’ the driver enquired politely,

  ‘I feel like walking,’ Gideon replied sharply, bending down to look inside the car where Madison sat on the back seat. ‘Call Claire concerning the details of our travel arrangements on Monday,’ he bit out, before straightening, turning on his heel and walking away.

  Madison was so taken aback at the suddenness of his departure that she could only sit dazedly in the back of the limousine as the driver closed the door behind her then got back in behind the wheel and drove away. But she recovered enough to turn quickly in her seat to look out the back window, just in time to see Gideon before he disappeared from view around the corner of the street.

  Madison slumped back on to the wide leather seat, feeling particularly small and defenceless at this moment. Okay, so she had acknowledged from the beginning that this evening had been business, but it hadn’t ever occurred to her that Gideon wouldn’t even hang around long enough after the première to see her home! So much for wondering how she was going to politely get rid of him once they got to Edgar’s!

  She had just been well and truly dumped!

  ‘Whoever she is, guv, she ain’t worth it—no woman is!’

  Gideon turned wearily to acknowledge with a lift of his hand the call of the Cockney taxi-driver from the open window of his cab as he drove past, his own smile rueful as the man drove on after giving a grin and a wave.

  He’d been standing on the middle of the bridge in relative darkness, looking unseeingly down at the murky water moving beneath him, not even sure how he came to have walked here, when the man had called out to him—and it didn’t need two guesses what conclusion the taxi-driver had drawn from his actions!

  And all the time Gideon had been standing here, not considering taking his own life, but wringing someone else’s neck!

  Madison McGuire’s!

  She had been nothing but trouble since he’d first met her, almost drowning him at their first meeting, falling asleep in his arms from the effect of jet-lag at their second! And as for this evening…!

  As Claire had pointed out earlier, he hadn’t intended going to this première at all, but after three weeks away in the Isle of Man it had seemed the perfect excuse for him to spend the evening with Madison without it actually appearing as if that was what he wanted to do. And what had happened? Instead of the two of them spending an evening getting to know each other better, as he had planned for them to do, it transpired that Madison was acquainted—well acquainted, it appeared!—with the star of the damned film!

  In fact, Madison was becoming such a thorn under his skin that he was coming to rue the day he’d first set eyes on her!

  But damn it, he groaned inwardly, it seemed he also couldn’t keep his hands off her for any length of time; the curves of her body were driving him crazy, and as for the taste of her lips against his…!

  The taxi-driver was right—no woman was worth this agony of confusion. Gideon had decided long ago—while he was still a child, in fact—that no woman would ever mean enough to him that she turned him from his purpose in life. Enjoy women by all means—their company, their humour, their warmth, their lovemaking—but never, ever become emotionally involved with them. That had been his father’s downfall, and he had no intention of that ever happening to him!

  But Madison, with those emerald eyes he wanted to drown in, that little snub nose with its sprinkling of freckles, that quirky mouth that begged to be kissed, and that body that cried out to be touched, was shaking all his earlier resolves. In fact, he couldn’t seem to think straight when he was around her, and wasn’t even sure what his resolves were any more.

  And as for Simon Cauley kissing her…! The other man was lucky he hadn’t just punched him in the mouth, despite their very public surroundings. And those feelings of violence had almost reached breaking point when Madison had suggested having dinner with the other man tomorrow evening! Almost. Because that too had been his father’s downfall thirty years ago.

  Gideon had only been very young at the time, but he could still remember being told that his father wasn’t going to be living with them any more because he had fallen in love with an actress he was working with, that he and Gideon’s mother were to be divorced because of the affair.

  But it hadn’t finished there. In the months that followed his parents’ separation the newspapers had been full of stories of his father’s rages if anyone should so much as speak about the woman he had fallen in love with. It had affected his career to such an extent that studios had begun to consider he was too much of a publicity risk to employ, and only his staunchest friends, like Edgar and a couple of others, had kept up their friendships with him.

  Within a year, it seemed, John Byrne had fallen from grace so dramatically that he was virtually unemployable, taking solace in drink—and the woman he loved, Gideon presumed!—until one night, drunk and angry, he forgot to turn the car wheel at a sharp bend in the road and went straight off the cliff into oblivion.

  Gideon had decided then and there that he would never drink alcohol, or love a woman in such a way that he couldn’t function without her.

  And he hadn’t.

  He still didn’t!

  Wh
at he felt for Madison wasn’t love; it was something else much more basic. Once he had assuaged that physical desire he had for her, he would move on, as he always had in the past. If he assuaged that physical desire…

  That Madison responded to him he didn’t doubt, but he was also aware that she despised herself for doing so. Besides, also because of his father’s mistakes, Gideon never became involved with actresses he was actually working with. And, while he refused to become involved, men like Simon Cauley and someone called Jonny were stepping in where he wanted to be.

  Hell, he didn’t know what he wanted any more. Except that he wanted Madison McGuire with a hunger that was becoming more intense as the days passed…!

  One thing he did know for certain: he was not about to let Madison go off to dinner tomorrow evening with Simon Cauley. And luckily, with Madison under contract to appear in his film, he was in a position to ensure it didn’t happen…

  He turned away from the river with fresh purpose, his step determined as he turned back towards his apartment, a smile of satisfaction curving his lips. Madison was going to be furious when she discovered he’d stepped in and made it impossible for her to see Simon tomorrow evening as planned, and an angry Madison, with those green eyes flashing, was a sight to behold. He felt a warm surge of desire just at the thought of it!

  In fact, Gideon’s smile turned to a grin of anticipation, his step almost jaunty, as he continued his walk home across the park.

  So engrossed was he in his own machiavellian thoughts that he didn’t see the man before he stepped out of the darkness of the bushes in front of him, or the bottle he held in his hand before it was raised.

  But he did feel the blow as the bottle landed on the side of his head, groaning in protest as he felt his legs give way, before he sank into a dark abyss of nothingness.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘—GETTING out of this damned place!’ Madison could hear Gideon announcing arrogantly as she walked down the hospital corridor.

  It had taken her almost twenty minutes to get through the hospital security to see him in the first place, and almost another ten minutes to walk along the corridors to the private wing of the hospital where Gideon had apparently been taken after his admission the night before. But by the sound of it he didn’t intend being a patient very much longer!

  He was standing by the bed pulling on his shirt when Madison let herself into the room she had been told was his. A harassed Claire was standing a little away from him as she obviously tried to talk him out of leaving. From the little Madison knew of Gideon, the other woman might as well save her breath; if he had made up his mind to leave, then that was what he would do.

  As he had after the film première the evening before…

  It was unbelievable to think that he had actually been mugged after walking away from her so abruptly. At least, Madison had found it unbelievable when told about it earlier, although the gauze square stuck to his right temple seemed to claim otherwise…

  His eyes narrowed angrily as he saw her. ‘What the hell do you want?’ he roared rudely, pulling a jacket on over his shirt, not the dinner suit from last night, but more casual clothes Claire must have brought in with her. ‘Come to see how the mighty have fallen?’ he added disgustedly.

  Madison wasn’t in the least disturbed by his obvious displeasure in seeing her here; after last night, she would have been surprised if he had behaved any other way!

  She shook her head, smiling slightly. ‘I don’t see anyone particularly mighty,’ she drawled dismissively. ‘But from what I understand you did fall…?’ She looked at him with brows raised.

  His eyes glittered dangerously at her obvious mockery, telling Madison just how much he was hating this! Gideon gave the impression of being completely sufficient unto himself, needing nothing and no one, and to have been attacked in the way he had been, in darkness, by a faceless person, must have really got to him.

  He turned accusingly to Claire. ‘I suppose you told her I was in here?’

  ‘Not guilty,’ Claire assured him with complete honesty, her usual unruffled self—in spite of Gideon’s obvious decision to leave before he had actually been discharged by the doctor.

  ‘Actually, it was Uncle Edgar,’ Madison informed him mildly. ‘He—’

  ‘Does the whole damn world know that I was mugged last night?’ Gideon cut in savagely, wincing slightly as the angry contortions of his face obviously caused some discomfort to the injury at his temple.

  ‘I doubt the whole world is interested,’ Madison assured him mockingly. ‘But Uncle Edgar obviously knows about it, or he wouldn’t have been able to tell me,’ she reasoned logically.

  Gideon shot her a look of intense dislike. ‘Well, now that you’re here, don’t just stand there; you can carry my bag for me!’ He strode forcefully from the room without waiting to see whether or not she complied with his order.

  Because an order it most certainly was. And Madison was well aware of why he had issued it; Gideon felt a distinct disadvantage at this particular moment, in these circumstances, and the only way he knew how to deal with it was to be as bloody-minded as possible to those close enough to be in the firing line. And at the moment she was a fresh target!

  Claire shook her head as she gazed after him. “‘Please, Madison. Thank you, Madison”,’ she murmured ruefully. ‘I’m really sorry about this.’ She turned to Madison with genuine regret. ‘Perhaps it would have been better if you hadn’t come, after all.’

  ‘And missed all the fun?’ Madison grinned, shaking her own head as she bent down to pick up the bag that contained Gideon’s evening clothes. ‘Now that I know Gideon isn’t seriously injured—and his temper assures me of that only too well!—I wouldn’t have missed this for the world!’

  And she wouldn’t have. She’d found herself strangely concerned a short time ago when Edgar had told her what had happened to Gideon after he’d left her last night. Strangely, because after the way he had walked off, without even saying goodnight to her, she hadn’t particularly cared what happened to him!

  But seeing him now, as arrogant and obnoxious as ever, she felt completely reassured as to his complete recovery from whatever injuries he had suffered. Although she had a feeling it was his pride that had taken the biggest blow…

  Claire chuckled softly. ‘He is rather like a bear with a sore head, isn’t he?’

  ‘A Gideon with a sore head—which is worse!’ she corrected her laughingly. ‘Come on, let’s go and see how far he got; it was like trying to get into Fort Knox to get in, so it must be even more difficult to get out!’

  They caught up with Gideon at the reception to the private wing, in the process of signing his own discharge papers, the nurse giving the two of them a pitying look over the top of his bent head, as if to say, How do you put up with this man all the time?

  To Madison’s relief, she didn’t have to, and she knew that Claire took absolutely no notice of Gideon’s mercurial moods, that the other woman was more than capable of taking care of herself in any of their verbal exchanges.

  He pushed the papers back towards the nurse, straightening to shoot the two waiting women an impatient glance before striding out of the hospital. Again without waiting to see if they followed him.

  ‘I guess my date this evening was just cancelled,’ Claire muttered to Madison as they strolled outside, looking down ruefully at the black dress and red jacket she was obviously wearing in preparation for going on to that date after visiting Gideon.

  ‘Not at all,’ Madison assured her lightly as she watched Gideon signal a taxi from the waiting rank. ‘Gideon is only in need of a verbal punch-bag for the next couple of hours; he can damn well make do with me!’ She didn’t see why he should be allowed to ruin the other woman’s plans for the evening just because he’d chosen to discharge himself from hospital.

  Claire grimaced at this suggestion. ‘That doesn’t seem very fair to you,’ she said hesitantly.

  Madison squeezed her arm reassurin
gly. ‘Believe me, I can handle it.’

  Claire looked skeptical. ‘He can get worse than this, you know.’ She pulled another face.

  Madison laughed softly. ‘I’m not sure I would recognise him any other way! Look, don’t worry about it.’ She gave the other woman’s arm another comforting squeeze. ‘Get in another taxi.’ She indicated several empty ones waiting for fares. ‘Go off and enjoy your evening. And leave Gideon to me,’ she added determinedly, giving Gideon a narrow-eyed look where he had got into the back of the taxi.

  ‘Thanks,’ Claire grinned at her. ‘You’ll get your reward one day!’ She hurried off to get into another of the taxis.

  Madison took her time joining Gideon, putting his bag in the boot of the car before getting in beside him, although she was aware all the time of the fact that he had watched Claire drive off in another vehicle…

  ‘You drew the short straw, did you?’ he demanded, turning to look at her accusingly in the relative darkness.

  She shrugged, settling back in the seat as the car pulled away. ‘Claire has a date.’

  ‘Unless I’m mistaken, so do you,’ he bit out coldly.

  And he was very rarely mistaken! But in this case he was, by several hours. Simon had telephoned her, as planned, but after considering the fact of her early start for the Isle of Man in the morning Madison had thought it better if they had lunch together rather than dinner; a late night tonight would not be conducive to traveling with Gideon early tomorrow!

  At the time she’d had no idea Gideon was in hospital, or that several hours later she would be visiting him there!

  ‘With Simon Cauley,’ Gideon added derisively when Madison’s answer wasn’t immediately forthcoming.

  ‘The film was good last night, wasn’t it?’ she said admiringly.

  He nodded tersely. ‘More than good,’ he acknowledged economically. ‘But I’m sure Cauley doesn’t need us to tell him that!’