The Ruthless Marriage Proposal

by Miranda Lee

  ‘You love him.’

  ‘Maybe I don’t. Maybe it’s just what you felt for Barbra.’

  ‘You don’t believe that, Emily. And neither do I. I know you. You love this man. And he loves you, if I’m not badly mistaken.’

  Emily stared at her father across the kitchen table. ‘How can you say that?’

  ‘Emily, no man proposes marriage to their housekeeper just to stop her from leaving, no matter how good she is at her job.’

  Emily shook her head. ‘You don’t understand. Sebastian does things differently from most men. He doesn’t follow conventional standards. Trust me when I say he doesn’t love me. What he loves is a peaceful, well run home, with no hassles. I created that for him. That’s why he proposed. To keep the status quo. If he got a convenient bed-partner thrown into the bargain, then so much the better.’

  ‘Maybe that was true, to begin with,’ her father conceded. ‘But something changed along the line, probably down in that hotel in Wollongong. Because that didn’t sound like a very peaceful episode you had with him earlier tonight. Hell, girl, you called him a liar, screamed at him and slapped his face. Yet he still wants you. Trust me. That’s love.’

  Emily opened her mouth, then closed it again. ‘You really think so?’

  ‘I really think so,’ her father replied firmly. ‘So yes, Emily, you have been a fool. But not in the way you think. You started being a fool the moment you walked away without doing what your Sebastian asked you to do. Calm down and talk things over.’

  ‘But he…he had sex with that disgusting woman! Less than a week ago!’

  ‘So what.’

  ‘So what?’

  ‘Yes, so what. Clearly, he was disgusted with himself afterwards. Tell me, daughter, did he stand by you when that woman showed up?’

  ‘Yes…’

  ‘Did he look at her like he wanted to screw her right then and there?’

  ‘No…’

  ‘Did he show her the door in no uncertain terms?’

  ‘Yes, but…’

  ‘But nothing. The man deserves a medal for exemplary conduct under difficult conditions. And what did you do? You threw his ring into a swimming pool.’

  ‘Well, I…I…’

  ‘Look, do you or do you not love this man?’

  ‘I’ve just spent the last hour telling you that I do!’

  ‘Good. Now, I have one other thing to clear up in your female mind. You said he made love to you in the garage yesterday, is that right?’

  Emily flushed at the memory of their hot encounter against his car. ‘Yes. And he made love to her in the garage too!’

  ‘No, he didn’t. He had sex with her in the garage. You, he made love to. How old did you say Sebastian was?’

  ‘Forty.’

  ‘Forty,’ her father repeated drily. ‘For heaven’s sake, Emily, a man of his age and wealth will have had any number of women. I doubt this Lana is the first female he’s had in a garage. Or on a stupid dining table. One of the reasons you fell in love with him in the first place is because he’s an experienced man of the world. I know you, Emily. You like successful men. You like it that they know what meal to order and what wine to drink. And how to make love properly. Even when you were a teenager your boyfriends were always several years older than you. They all dressed well and drove flashy cars.’

  Emily had to agree. ‘Yes, they did, didn’t they?’

  ‘You will enjoy being the wife of a billionaire. Especially one who loves you.’

  ‘You really think he does?’

  ‘I do. But what I think doesn’t matter. What do you think?’

  ‘I think I would be very foolish to believe that without further evidence. But I also think I should go back and find out for myself.’

  ‘What a sensible girl.’

  ‘Besides, something else has just occurred to me.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘When we did it in the garage yesterday, we…um…didn’t use any protection.’

  Her father frowned. ‘You mean you might be pregnant?’

  ‘It’s possible.’

  ‘Then you very definitely need to go back and talk to him.’

  ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Only just after ten-thirty. Hunter’s Hill is no more than a twenty-minute drive at this time of night. Why don’t you go back before you can find another reason why you shouldn’t?’

  Emily grimaced. ‘The moment I show up, he’s going to think he’s won.’

  ‘Somehow I doubt that. You have no idea how formidable you can be, Emily, when you really lose your temper.’

  She sighed, then rose to her feet. ‘Maybe he won’t want me any more. I did hit him. Once. Then pushed him. And he hates that kind of thing.’

  ‘He’ll still want you. I’d put my money on it. Now, off you go.’

  She smiled. ‘Thank you, Dad. I do love you too, you know. I always have.’

  ‘You’ve no idea how relieved I am to hear that, Emily,’ he said with a catch in his voice. ‘I’ve missed you terribly.’

  She drew back and looked deep into his eyes, only then realising how much their estrangement had hurt him. She’d been trying to punish him, of course. But enough was enough.

  ‘It was wrong of me to cut you out of my life like that,’ she said with true regret.

  ‘I was the one who was wrong. I can’t tell you how glad I am that your mother never knew. She…she didn’t, did she?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Thank God.’

  ‘Now, get along with you. And listen to what the man has to say this time. Really listen and don’t judge.’

  ‘I will, Dad. Look, I probably won’t be back tonight,’ she added quickly. ‘But I’ll call you tomorrow. I promise.’

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  ‘MUSTN’T call her mobile number yet,’ Sebastian muttered into his brandy balloon as the grandfather clock in the hallway chimed eleven. ‘Must be patient.’

  Damn, but that was a noisy clock when there was no one else in the house.

  ‘You know what they say about people who drink alone.’

  Sebastian shot to his feet at the sound of Emily’s voice, the brandy swirling in the bottom of the glass as he spun round.

  She was standing in the double doorway which led out into the hallway, something in her eyes preventing him from hoping this was going to be an instantly happy reunion.

  ‘I didn’t hear you drive up,’ he said, sitting back down in the armchair again with a sigh.

  ‘The clock was chiming.’

  ‘Aah…’

  ‘I’ve calmed down.’

  She looked too calm in his opinion. But very beautiful. He loved her new hair. And that gorgeous blue dress. What he would not give to have taken her to dinner tonight and had a lovely romantic evening. Instead, he’d had to contend with Lana showing up and his life being turned upside down.

  ‘I’ve come back to talk,’ she said. ‘Like you suggested.’

  All of a sudden, he no longer wanted to talk to her. Which was perverse. Maybe it was all the brandy he’d drunk. Or maybe it was that wariness in her eyes.

  Whatever, he just wanted to go back into his cave.

  ‘I think I’ve said all I have to say, Emily,’ he told her in a weary voice, then took another sip of brandy. ‘I can’t make you believe that I love you.’

  ‘Just tell me when? When did you decide you loved me?’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Yes, when?’

  Women! Why did they have to scrutinise and analyse everything? Why couldn’t she just accept his word for it? It would be so much easier.

  ‘Tonight.’

  ‘When tonight? When you found you needed a reason to stop me from leaving?’

  Sebastian shot her a frustrated look. ‘You really do have trust issues where men are concerned, don’t you? It was when I walked into my bedroom and saw the distress in your eyes. I took one look at that bitch, Lana, and I wanted to kill her with my bare hands. Which is so no
t me it isn’t funny. I despise violence of any kind. But when a man loves a woman, his protective instinct becomes very fierce. Or so I’ve gathered.’

  ‘What do you mean, so you’ve gathered?’

  Sebastian shrugged. ‘I thought falling in love wasn’t something I was capable of. I’ve never fallen in love before.’

  ‘If you didn’t love Lana, then why did you run after her and have sex with her?’

  ‘My stupid male ego ran after her. And my stupid male body had sex with her. For a few seconds, Emily. That’s all. Once I realised what I was doing, and what kind of creature I was doing it with, I stopped. Afterwards, I couldn’t get away from her fast enough, or back to Australia fast enough. That’s why I caught an earlier flight. Because all I wanted was to get home to you. When I read your resignation letter, Emily, I felt a million times worse than when Lana left me. Her, I could do without. But not you, Emily. I discovered I could not do without you.’

  No one could doubt the bleakness in his eyes or the sincerity of his words. Maybe her father was right. Maybe he did love her after all.

  ‘Why did you think you weren’t capable of falling in love?’ Emily asked.

  He looked hard at her, his eyes grim. ‘You really want to know?’

  ‘Yes, of course.’ Why did he think she’d come back, if not to understand him?

  ‘Your father was unfaithful to your mother,’ he said. ‘My father murdered my mother.’

  ‘What?’ Emily exclaimed, feeling both shocked and bewildered. ‘I thought you said your parents died in a car accident.’

  ‘It was put down as a car accident. But it was murder. I was in the car. I know what happened.’

  Emily shook her head in absolute horror.

  ‘They were arguing at the time,’ Sebastian went on, his voice tight with contained emotion. ‘They always argued when they didn’t have any money to buy pot. When drug addicts are off the weed, they have an anger management problem. Usually, their anger was directed at me. This time, however, I was out of reach, huddled in the back seat of the car. Anyway, Mum said something to Dad about his being a loser and a dole bludger and he went berserk. Called her every name in the book. Told her she was a useless f—mother who couldn’t even look after one miserable kid. Which was true. I used to go to school without any lunch and dressed in dirty clothes.’

  Emily grimaced, nausea swirling in her stomach. What kind of mother treated her child like that?

  Sebastian’s eyes reflected the effort it was taking for him to tell her the truth. ‘Finally, Dad said he’d show her who the loser in this family was and he drove the car straight at a telegraph pole. Mum was killed outright. Dad died in hospital a few days later. I got out without a scratch.’

  Oh, no, you didn’t, Emily thought, her heart contracting as she stared into his suddenly dead eyes. You were left with lots of scratches. Inside.

  But it explained so much about this man she loved. His need to succeed. His love of nice things. Even his asking her to marry him—a woman he believed was calm and capable. Nothing like his own neglectful and abusive mother.

  ‘And then you went to live with your grandmother,’ she said gently.

  ‘What? Yes. Yes, that’s right.’

  ‘Oh, Sebastian, I’m so sorry.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For everything. No child should have to go through something like that.’

  ‘No,’ he agreed. ‘And no child of mine will. Not that I’ll have children now.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I have no intention of having children outside of marriage. And the only woman I’ve ever loved won’t marry me. You threw my ring in the pool.’

  ‘What if I’m already pregnant?’

  He blinked at her. ‘How? Oh, you mean that episode in the garage yesterday. You’d have to be very unlucky to conceive on that one occasion.’

  ‘Or lucky,’ she said. ‘Depending on how you look at it.’

  His eyes narrowed, his fingers tightening around the brandy balloon. ‘And how would you look at it, Emily?’

  She crossed the room to kneel down on the carpet by his feet, resting her hands and face against his knees. ‘I would love to have your child, Sebastian,’ she said softly. ‘I do believe you love me. And I really want to marry you.’

  Sebastian’s hand shook as he put down his brandy, then tipped her chin up with his fingertips. ‘You really mean that? You’re not just saying it because you might be pregnant?’

  ‘I would never just say something like that, Sebastian. I love you very much. I’ve loved you for quite some time.’

  His eyes shimmered as they searched hers. ‘How long is quite some time?’

  ‘I realised my true feelings after Lana left you. But I didn’t think I had a chance with you, so I decided to leave.’

  ‘Why didn’t you just say yes straight away when I proposed?’

  ‘Because I wanted you to love me, not just marry me.’

  ‘Then why did you throw my ring in the pool tonight after I told you I loved you?’

  ‘Because I’m a fool.’

  Sebastian groaned as he reached down and lifted her up into his lap. He didn’t kiss her, just held her tight, his lips in her hair.

  ‘You made me almost despair tonight,’ he confessed huskily.

  Emily was struggling not to weep. ‘I’m sorry,’ she choked out.

  ‘Don’t ever leave me again.’

  ‘I won’t.’

  ‘I’ll sell this house if it makes you unhappy.’

  Emily pulled back and shook her head. ‘No. You were right, I love this house. We’ll just redo the master bedroom. Oh, and replace the dining table.’

  ‘The dining table! What’s wrong with the dining table?’

  Emily bit her bottom lip. ‘Um…Lana said you had sex with her on it.’

  ‘I what? That’s a bald-faced lie!’

  ‘You didn’t?’

  ‘Never!’ Sebastian denied heatedly.

  Emily smiled up at him. ‘I’m so glad. I really like that table. Now, there’s something I have to go and get,’ she said as she scrambled off his lap. ‘Something I left behind.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Stay here,’ she commanded. ‘Don’t move. I won’t be more than ten seconds.’

  She was gone a full minute. Sebastian was about to get up and follow her when he heard a noise behind him. He turned and she was standing there, naked and dripping wet.

  ‘My God, Emily,’ he gasped, lurching to his feet.

  ‘I had to get my ring,’ she explained as she came forward. ‘I knew you’d have left it in the pool.’

  He smiled as he pulled her shivering body into his arms. ‘Well, it wasn’t much good to me without you.’

  His hands moved up and down her back, his lower body hard up against hers, his instant arousal pressing into the soft swell of her stomach.

  ‘I think it’s time we continued with our baby-making project,’ he said, scooping her up into his arms and carrying her, not towards the stairs but out to the pool. ‘How’s the water?’ he asked as he lowered her to her feet, then began stripping.

  ‘Lovely and warm, once you’re in.’

  They jumped in together at the deep end, kissing under the water before they surfaced.

  ‘What do you think would have happened if you’d let me join you in here last Friday night?’ Sebastian asked as she wound her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Emily replied. ‘What do you think would have happened?’

  ‘This,’ he growled.

  Emily gasped as Sebastian entered her.

  ‘Then this,’ he added, cupping her buttocks with his hands and beginning to move her back and forth against him.

  Her lips parted on a sigh, her eyes growing heavy with pleasure.

  ‘Tell me you love me,’ he commanded.

  ‘I love you,’ she said and smiled at him.

  He smiled back. ‘You were so right, m
y darling. Sex with love is much better than without. We’re going to be so happy, you and I. And we’re going to be the best parents in the whole wide world.’

  They married beside the pool two months later, their first child—a daughter—arriving seven months after the happy event. They called her Amanda, which meant ‘worthy to be loved’.

  Emily’s father never remarried. He became a close friend of Sebastian’s, a devoted grandfather and an even better doctor.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-0195-2

  THE RUTHLESS MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

  First North American Publication 2007.

  Copyright © 2007 by Miranda Lee.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  www.eHarlequin.com