The Marriage Proposition

by Sara Craven

  It was beautiful, she thought. And it was for her. She sat holding it, waiting until she heard Nick come out of the bathroom, walk along the passage to the spare room and close the door. And then she got to her feet, her mind made up.

  There were scented candles on the wide ledge round the bath, and he’d lit them. The water was perfumed too, and foaming gently as Paige slid into it. Letting the bubbles drift over her body, she turned her head slightly and looked at the nightdress spread across a chair, feeling the tingle of anticipation—of excitement in her senses.

  She dried herself on a bath sheet and applied body lotion in her favourite scent to her skin. She brushed her hair until it shone, then slipped the gown over her head, and fastened the one tiny silk-covered button at the back of the bodice.

  She studied herself for a moment in the long mirror. It wasn’t overtly sexy. It wasn’t even particularly revealing. But it was beautiful—and right. So right.

  All she needed now was courage—and a little bit of luck.

  A sliver of light showed under Nick’s door. She turned the handle and went in. He was lying propped up on one elbow, reading. His skin looked dramatically dark against the white linen sheets, and she felt a surge of longing for him, potent as an electrical charge.

  His head came up sharply and he stared at her, frowning a little.

  ‘What is it, Paige?’

  ‘I came to show you your present.’ She turned slowly in a circle. ‘And to thank you. It’s the loveliest nightgown I ever possessed. The loveliest gift I ever received, too.’

  ‘I’m glad you like it.’ He sounded far too cool and controlled. ‘I thought…’ He stopped abruptly, and hope rose within her.

  ‘What did you think?’

  He said slowly, ‘I suppose—that every girl has the right to look like a bride—on her wedding night.’

  ‘Is it my wedding night, Nick?’ Her low voice trembled a little. ‘Then why do I have to sleep alone?’

  ‘I explained all that.’

  ‘I know. But I don’t have to accept your explanation.’ She took a step nearer to the bed. ‘You see, I want you near me, and I’m not sure I can be patient either.’

  He groaned. ‘Paige—don’t do this to me. I’ve done nothing but screw up since the first day I saw you. Let me try and do the right thing for once.’

  ‘There’s only one right thing,’ she said. ‘And that’s for us to be together tonight.’

  She knew exactly how she looked. Her hair a gleaming cloud. Her eyes heavy with the desire she no longer had to pretend did not exist. Her mouth still faintly swollen from his kisses. And her skin like a pearl against the drift of chiffon.

  ‘But this bed’s too small,’ she added. ‘We’d be more comfortable in mine. Bring another pillow with you.’

  She turned away and walked to the door. She didn’t look back. To do so would have been a sign of weakness, she told herself. A lapse in confidence.

  Because he would follow her. She was sure of it.

  She went into her own room and stood by the bed. She reached for her pillow and moved it to one side. Making room for him. The hammer of her heart was almost deafening in the stillness.

  Nick came in, wearing his silk robe. He tossed his pillow on to the bed and looked at her searchingly. He said, ‘Am I the first?’

  Faint colour stained her face. ‘Does it matter?’

  ‘You know it does.’ His voice was grave. ‘I want to make it good for you, Paige, and that could mean I need to retain a measure of control. So answer me, please.’

  ‘Yes,’ she said with sudden passion. ‘You’re the first. Of course you are. How could there be anyone else?’

  He bent his head in acknowledgement. ‘I don’t deserve it.’ He paused. ‘Are you absolutely sure about this—because it’s not too late…’

  ‘It’s always been too late.’ She reached behind her and released the button from its clasp. She slid the straps down from her shoulders. The loosened gown whispered its way to the floor, pooling round her feet.

  For a moment she was still in the lamplight, letting his eyes feast on her. Then she turned back the covers and slipped into the bed. She lifted her hands to push back her hair, her rounded breasts tilting deliciously.

  Then she smiled at him. She said, ‘I’ve waited a year, Nick. Isn’t that enough?’

  ‘More than enough,’ he assented huskily. He took off his robe and threw it aside, making no attempt to hide that he was starkly, powerfully aroused.

  He joined her, reaching across the bed for her with a hunger that consumed them both.

  Their mouths clung, scalding, scorching. His hands stroked her skin, making her shiver with delight. His fingers encompassed her breasts, caressing her nipples to a fever-pitch of sensitivity.

  She turned restlessly in his arms, offering herself with a frantic completeness, her words echoing his exploration of her, paying homage to his strength and potency, forcing him to groan his pleasure in turn.

  He began to kiss her body, his lips reverent, as if every inch of her skin was precious to him, making her senses leap and sing. Her pulses were going crazy, the blood turning to honey in her veins.

  His hands grazed her flanks, then moved to her thighs, and she gasped at the intimate brush of his fingers, the rush of moist heat his touch engendered.

  He knew so well how to touch—and where, she thought, her mind reeling. He found the tiny peak of secret flesh, teasing it exquisitely, making her writhe and moan until he silenced her gently with his lips.

  A strange, breathless tension was building inside her. She was straining, reaching for something that remained tantalisingly beyond her grasp.

  Nick moved over her—above her—and she felt the heat and strength of him touching her, and sobbed her need and acceptance against his mouth.

  ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’ His voice was hoarse—a stranger’s. It reached her from the far distance.

  But how could it hurt when this was what she craved?

  ‘Anything.’ Her small breathless croak was almost unrecognisable. ‘Anything. Just—don’t stop.’

  Her urgent fingers cupped him, explored and stroked and cherished. Then welcomed him to the warmth of her threshold and beyond.

  He took her slowly, gentling his way with infinite care into her body until his possession was complete, his whole being alert to every tiny nuance of response from her.

  But she was ready—so ready. And when, at last, she held him within her, she moaned her pleasure aloud.

  Her fingers gripped his shoulders and her slender legs clamped around his lean hips as he began to move, slowly at first, then more strongly, drawing her with him into the ancient rhythm of passion. Gasping, she rose and fell on a tide of mounting sensation, all control gone, her body striving blindly for a culmination she could only guess at.

  And when it came at last it overwhelmed her. From one tiny pinpoint of pleasure and release, a thousand ripples, seemed to spread—until her whole body pulsated in an agony of rapture.

  And as she fell, spiralling through some exquisite void, crying out his name, there were tears on her face. And his.

  CHAPTER TEN

  PAIGE lay in Nick’s arms, mindless, boneless, her smile kissing his sweat-slicked shoulder.

  ‘I didn’t know.’ Her voice was small, breathless. ‘I never dreamed…’

  His arm tightened round her. ‘I always did,’ he murmured. ‘From that first moment in the wine bar I realised how it would be.’

  ‘Oh, God.’ A tremor of laughter shook her. ‘Now, I die a thousand deaths each time I remember that.’

  ‘Then don’t. You mustn’t blame fate for the way it brought us together.’ He was silent for a moment. ‘I went after you when you left. I’d been a bastard to you, and it was totally unnecessary—a complete overreaction to being suddenly confronted by the only woman I’d ever want. I was terrified I’d blown the whole thing, particularly as you disappeared.’

  ‘I’ll say I did,’
Paige said devoutly. ‘I just wanted to distance myself completely.’

  ‘But one of the guys I was with knew you,’ Nick went on, dropping a kiss on her hair. ‘He said you were “the Harrington girl” but you weren’t involved in the company—and just as well, because it was in deep trouble and looking for outside investment. But no one would touch them because the board was family only. And who was going to advance that kind of money without a measure of serious control?

  ‘And that, of course, made me think. Quite apart from enabling me to see you again, it seemed to me that Harringtons was worth rescuing. It occurred to me that if I was prepared to restore their good name you might be grateful. Even grateful enough to marry me.’

  He sighed. ‘But I soon realised I was involved in a full-scale financial emergency and there was going to be no time for the kind of leisurely wooing I’d had in mind. Besides, I was terrified that someone else might appear waving a chequebook and your brother would marry you off to him instead.’

  ‘Do you think I’d have agreed?’ Paige was horrified.

  ‘How was I to know? Our preliminary encounters hadn’t been exactly promising. And I’d already discovered you were devoted to your father. Maybe you’d have preferred any alternative to me.’ He grimaced. ‘I decided the best plan was a pre-emptive strike. So I offered the only kind of deal I thought you might just accept.’

  ‘And if I hadn’t?’

  ‘Then I’d have reverted to Plan B—the flowers, the phone calls, the champagne dinners. I kept remembering the chemistry there’d been between us for that first minute in the wine bar. The way I couldn’t believe my luck when you walked towards me. I told myself that somehow I’d find that spark again.’

  ‘You were very sure of yourself.’ Paige bit his shoulder gently.

  ‘Not at all,’ he denied instantly. ‘I rushed you into the wedding because I was so scared that you’d take fright and pull out of the whole thing.’ He shook his head. ‘I wanted you desperately, but you seemed encased in ice whenever I was around. And I’d put myself in this trap by promising that it was going to be a business relationship only. It wasn’t until I broke all the rules and kissed you that I thought there might be hope.’

  Paige lifted herself on to an elbow and looked down at him, smoothing the damp dark hair back from his forehead.

  ‘Taking me on honeymoon was hardly within the terms of the contract either,’ she pointed out.

  ‘No, but when Grandmère offered the house it seemed a chance for us to spend some time together without outside interference, as well as convince any snoopers that it was a real marriage. I thought—If I can just get her on my side, that will be a start.’

  ‘And getting me into that enormous bed?’ Her brows lifted quizzically.

  He grinned lazily up at her. ‘That,’ he said, ‘would have been a bonus.’

  She was silent for a moment. Then she said with difficulty, ‘Then why did you walk away that night? When you must have known I wanted you, too?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said quietly. ‘I knew—and it was the worst kind of hell. Because I realised that seducing you—persuading you to enjoy sex with me—was only a small part of what I really wanted. Watching you play with that baby on the beach was like a revelation. It made me understand that only a complete relationship, with all that implied, would do for me.

  ‘But there was no guarantee you felt the same. You needed me at that moment because you were scared of the dark, but you might have felt very differently in daylight. And I couldn’t handle a one-night stand—not with my lady, the woman I loved.’

  ‘Why didn’t you say something…?’

  ‘In case I didn’t get the answer I wanted.’ His mouth twisted wryly. ‘So I chickened out, and regretted it ever after. I was over the moon when you took the PR job with Harringtons,’ he added wryly. ‘Because I thought it meant I’d see you on a regular basis—start making amends.’ He shook his head. ‘But how wrong I was. I realised at once you were deliberately avoiding me, and I felt like a leper. I told myself that it was hopeless. That it might even be better to let you have the divorce and then ask if we could start again somehow. But when I saw you on St Antoine with Brad Coulter I knew there was no way I was going to let you go.’

  Paige bit her lip. ‘You weren’t on your own either that night.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I was with Alain Froyat’s daughter, a very young, hideously spoiled rich bitch who’d decided to use me to make her boyfriend jealous. And as Alain’s a client I could hardly give Michelle the tongue-lashing she so richly deserved.’

  Paige’s lips quivered into a smile. ‘Did it work with the boyfriend? Because it certainly did for me.’ She paused, choosing her words carefully. ‘But then I’d had plenty of time to be jealous. You’d hardly been leading the life of a hermit while we were apart.’

  ‘I certainly put on a good act,’ Nick agreed. ‘Enough to keep the gossip columns ticking over.’

  ‘Was that all it was?’ she queried unhappily. ‘Gossip?’

  ‘I lead a high-profile life, my love. You didn’t want to be with me, and I wasn’t going to wear my heart on my sleeve. So I was seen with a lot of women. But when the evening ended I went home alone. I always hoped that one day, by some miracle, I’d win you over, and I wasn’t going to let anyone or anything jeopardise that.’

  ‘I could hardly pick up a paper without seeing some picture of you with another girl.’ Paige bit her lip. ‘I told myself I didn’t care, and that it would just make the divorce easier, but underneath I was hurting so badly. I used to wake up in the night crying, glad I couldn’t remember my dreams.’

  ‘I would never have guessed. When I talked to you on the beach that night your indifference was like a brick wall,’ he said ruefully. ‘But then I wasn’t thinking particularly straight. Jake Allenby, who was riding shotgun on Harringtons for me, was sending me daily doses of information that I didn’t want to hear. There was cheating going on all through the organisation—and the biggest cheat of all, it seemed, was my marriage.

  ‘I decided there and then that was all going to change,’ he added with a touch of grimness. ‘That you’d been getting away with it in every way for too long and I was going to put a stop to it. When we were stranded by the hurricane I finally had the chance to be alone with you—talk things out. But I still couldn’t get near you.’ He paused. ‘Until the power went off. And then you were suddenly vulnerable again, like that night in France—and as much out of my reach for all the same reasons.’

  He looked up at her, his face grave. ‘Why are you afraid of the dark, Paige? I’ve always wondered.’

  ‘It’s just a stupid thing.’ She bit her lip. ‘Someone told me when I was little that monsters hid in your room, in the cupboards and under the beds, and after that I always had a nightlight. Then my mother went down with appendicitis, and I was sent to stay with a schoolfriend’s family. They had a nanny who didn’t believe in indulging children with bedroom lights, and she took it away with her. I woke up and found myself in a strange room—and suddenly the monsters were right there with me. I started screaming and couldn’t stop.

  ‘I think my friend’s parents decided I was unbalanced,’ she added ruefully. ‘They were kind at the time, but I was never asked to stay with Belinda again, and the following term she found another best friend. I always thought I’d grow out of it, but I never have.’

  He stroked her cheek with a gentle hand. ‘Don’t be so sure of that. I’m here now.’ He paused. ‘And I don’t need to ask who scared you in the first place. Your bloody brother has a lot to answer for.’

  ‘All younger sisters get teased. It’s an occupational hazard.’ She shrugged a bare shoulder. ‘He wasn’t to know I was such a wimp.’

  ‘I don’t think he knows much about you at all.’ The dark eyes narrowed slightly. ‘Was he aware that you were using the company as a neighbourhood cashpoint, for instance?’

  Paige’s throat tightened suddenly. Oh, God, she thought. How ea
sily being happy had made her forget the financial mess that Toby had created for her. But she couldn’t let herself forget. Nick might be prepared to forgive her, but her brother was a different matter entirely.

  I can never let him find out, she thought with a pang.

  And surely taking the blame for Toby’s sins was a small price to pay for the bright promise of the future.

  She didn’t look at him. ‘He—never mentioned it.’ She hesitated. ‘I’m sorry. So sorry for everything.’ She drew a breath. ‘I—I can’t believe you still want to be with me.’

  ‘As much as I need to go on breathing.’ He pulled her down to him and kissed her, his lips moving on hers with infinite tenderness. ‘But you understand there’ll have to be changes.’

  ‘Does anyone else know why I’m leaving Harringtons?’ she asked haltingly.

  ‘Only Jake,’ he said. ‘And he works strictly for me.’

  ‘In a way, it will be a relief.’ That at least was the truth. ‘I never really wanted the job.’

  ‘Next you’ll be telling me it was all a subconscious desire to be fired,’ Nick said drily.

  ‘Or a devious way of attracting your attention?’ she mused.

  ‘You always had that,’ he said. ‘You weren’t the only one who found it hard to sleep at night.’ He turned to glance at her little bedside clock. ‘But now, my love, maybe we should do exactly that.’

  ‘You think so?’ She allowed her hand to stray delicately, but with provocation. ‘I had other plans.’

  Nick firmly captured her fingers. ‘Behave. You’re still a bit too new to all this, and fragile, for a repeat performance.’

  Paige moved closer, moving her hips sensuously against his.

  ‘Are you quite sure about that?’ she whispered, her smile catlike as she experienced his immediate and involuntary reaction.

  Groaning, Nick tipped up her face and kissed her hungrily.

  ‘Then don’t say you weren’t warned,’ he muttered against her lips. ‘Because this is only the beginning.