The Marriage Solution

by Helen Brooks

  'I see.' There was a brief pause. 'Did you say anything to him?' he asked quietly, his voice devoid of any expression.

  'No.' She took a deep breath as her heart began to thud so hard that it actually hurt. 'He had other people there.'

  'So he doesn't know yet? Are you going to tell him about…our arrangement?' he asked flatly.

  'No.' The answer was immediate and instinctive. 'That would make everything just as bad. He has to think that you've found something, done something that enables him to keep the house through his own good fortune. We'll have to tell him that we—we've fallen in love,' she added painfully.

  'And you think you can fool him?' Carlton's voice was gentle and for some reason that very fact made her knees tremble. 'You think you can act that well?'

  'We'll have to.' She closed her eyes tight and prayed for calm.

  'I didn't say 'we',' he said slowly. 'I can do my part, but can you do yours?' There was a strong element of doubt in the deep voice.

  'Of course.' She still wasn't sure if he was saying yes or no. 'I can do anything at all if it helps him to get well.'

  'I'm not so sure, Katie.' There was a moment's silence.

  'Unlike nearly every other woman I know, you would not make a good liar.' There was a note in the deep voice she couldn't identify and she would have given anything to see his face at that moment. 'You know I want you and I'll agree to anything you want regarding David but he is not a fool. He's a very astute and intelligent man, and, more than that, he loves you. That makes him particularly perceptive where you're concerned.'

  'Carlton, just because I'm his daughter, it doesn't automatically mean he loves me,' she said with a flat pain that wasn't lost on the man listening to her. 'You don't understand—' She stopped abruptly. There was no way she could tell him how the years had been since her mother had died. She couldn't tell anyone—it was too complicated, too harrowing to put into words. 'Things aren't always black and white,' she continued slowly.

  'No, I know that,' he said blandly.

  'It has to be as I've said.' She paused, searching for a way to make him understand. 'If he thought he'd been bailed out, that in some way he had still failed and lost the house through his own misjudgement, he wouldn't try again,' she finished painfully.

  'And he's not trying now, is he?' Carlton said gently. 'You've noticed that too. He's in danger of giving up.'

  'Then you agree?' she asked carefully, her nerves jumping wildly.

  'Yes.' The answer was immediate. 'I told you, I want you, Katie. I want you very badly.' There was that thickness in his voice again that sent a little shiver flickering down her spine. 'And you're aware of exactly what you're promising?' he asked slowly.

  'Of course.' She couldn't keep the note of indignation out of her voice. She was twenty-three years of age, for goodness' sake, and after several years at university she was well aware of the facts of life, in all their diverse branches, even if she hadn't actually participated herself.

  She remembered the paper-thin walls of her small room on campus and the energetic activities of one of her friends next door, whose morals had matched Jennifer's, and smiled mentally. Carlton would be amazed at what she knew! There had been mornings when she had found it difficult to face Sally without blushing!

  'Shall I come round now?' he asked quietly.

  'What?' For a heart-stopping moment she thought he was demanding his proposed marital rights immediately, and from the note of unforgivable amusement in his voice when he next spoke she knew he had recognised her blunder.

  'Relax, Katie…' His voice was soft and deep and she shut her eyes against its seductiveness. 'I was merely asking if you would like me to come round to iron out the details tonight.'

  'No.' She took a deep breath and prayed for dignity. 'The morning will do.' The morning will more than do, she thought weakly.

  'I'll see you at eleven.'

  As the phone went dead she blinked in surprise, standing with the receiver in her hand for a good half-minute before she replaced it slowly and glanced about the wide, spacious hall.

  Everything looked the same. The beautiful wood panelling still gleamed and shone in the dim light, the expensive water-colours in their gilt frames, which her mother had loved so much, still hung silently in place, and yet everything was irrevocably, frighteningly different She had just promised to marry a man she didn't love and who didn't love her. A marriage of convenience.

  She heard Jennifer's car draw up outside and then the sound of her sister's key in the lock at the same time as Mrs Jenkins appeared from the kitchen at the end of the hall.

  Well—she squared her shoulders as she prepared to tell them her news—this was where the acting began and it had better be the performance of her life. If she couldn't convince them she would never convince her father and too much depended on her for her to fail.

  Carlton arrived dead on eleven the next morning and, init was Jennifer who got to the door first, opening it with a dramatic flourish and smiling up at him with as much charm as she could muster, considering she was green with envy.

  'Have I got the scoop of the year or what?' She slanted her eyes at him with more than a faint touch of malice in their fight blue depths. 'I take it I can print the news Katie told me last night?' she added smilingly. 'Especially as you are going to be my brother-in-law.'

  'I thought you'd be pleased.' Carlton's voice was very dry.

  'Oh, I am, I am.' She watched him carefully, her eyes speculative. 'Mind you, I think you're marrying the wrong sister.'

  'Is that so?' He smiled down at the slightly feline face in front of him, recognising the social repartee and a little amused by it, but as he opened his mouth to say more Katie walked down the stairs, and when Jennifer saw the look in his eyes as he gazed at her sister she accepted defeat.

  'My, my, my, so it's really true…' she drawled softly as Katie reached the bottom of the stairs, and as Carlton sent her a swift glance from narrowed eyes she smiled again, her face even more cat-like. 'Wedding-bells and orange blossom even? I have to admit I did wonder if anything untoward was going on last night when Katie told me you were going to get married.'

  'Once the reporter, always the reporter, Jennifer?' Carlton asked as Katie joined them. 'Sony to disappoint your fertile imagination but this is just a case of good old-fashioned romance, isn't it, sweetheart?' As he bent to take Katie's lips in a swift but possessive kiss she didn't have to act the immediate response her body made to the intoxicating smell and feel of him.

  'Love at first sight?' Jennifer asked softly, her eyes tight on Carlton's face as he drew Katie to his side, his arm round her waist. 'Just like all the best stories?' she added cynically.

  'For me, most certainly.' He smiled lazily as he held Jennifer's gaze. 'Katie took a few days longer but I convinced her she couldn't live without me in the end.'

  'Lucky old Katie.' Jennifer smiled sweetly but the pale blue eyes remained as hard as glass. 'Who would have guessed? It looks like Dad's little bit of misfortune was destiny, after all.'

  'And that's not as bad as it could have been.' Katie entered the conversation for the first time, treading warily. Her sister was too cute by half and the years of being a reporter had honed her natural sense of shrewd cunning to rapier-sharpness. It was clear that she was suspicious of this whirlwind romance, although Carlton's easy, assured handling of the affair this morning had mellowed the edge of hard scepticism in the slanted blue eyes.

  'Storm in a teacup,' Carlton agreed smoothly. 'Now, if you'll excuse us, Jennifer, I've got a few things to discuss with my new fiancée.'

  'Oh, don't mind me.' Jennifer looked distinctly put out as Carlton turned from her with a dry smile. 'I'm just part of the furniture.'

  'I'm taking you out to lunch.' As the dark grey eyes rested fully on her face Katie felt her senses leap helplessly.

  'Can we leave now?' he asked softly, his voice warm on her overwrought nerves.

  'I'll get my coat.' Anything to escape Jennifer
's hawklike stare! she thought hurriedly.

  As they drove away Katie was aware of Jennifer's face at the window and raised a hand in farewell which was ignored. 'Your sister doesn't approve of me?' Carlton had noticed the little by-play with some amusement, a cynical smile curving the hard sensual mouth.

  'Oh, she approves of you all right,' Katie answered candidly. 'It's me she doesn't think much of. She thinks she'd make a far better Mrs Reef than I.'

  'And what do you think?' he asked her softly.

  'I think she's right,' Katie answered honestly, after a moment of hesitation. Well, he had asked, and that was exactly what she did think, after all.

  'That devastating honesty.' He glanced at her briefly and she saw that although his mouth was smiling his eyes were cold. 'I shall have to remember only to ask you questions I might like the answers to. I don't know how much of this my ego can take.'

  'I didn't mean—' She stopped abruptly. 'Well, you know women find you attractive, don't you?' she said uncomfortably. 'And Jennifer—'

  'What about you?' he interrupted her coolly at the same time as he pulled off the main road on to the verge and cut the engine almost in one movement. 'How do you find me?'

  She stared at him warily. She hadn't seen him in this mood before. The cold, ruthless, austere Carlton Reef of the business world was gone but in his place was someone… Someone she wasn't sure how to react to. His eyes were still veiled, giving very little away, his face cool and slightly mocking, but there was something… She swallowed silently as fire trickled down to her nerve-endings.

  'Katie—' He stopped as though searching for the right words as she gazed at him. 'We're entering into this thing for our own reasons; you know mine and I know yours.'

  He paused and glanced away out of the window, his eyes remote. 'And I'm aware that I'm not your ideal man, so don't worry that I shall expect any protestations of undying love, either now or in the future.' The dark eyes swung back to her for a second but she couldn't read anything in their cool greyness. 'But if I've misread the signals, if you don't find me even physically attractive…well, human sacrifices were never my scene.' He eyed her as her cheeks burnt scarlet.

  What on earth did he expect her to say? She could feel her face growing hotter and hotter. 'I do.' When the ensuing silence got too much to bear she forced the words out. 'Find you physically attractive, that is.' Too much for comfort, she added silently.

  'Well, that's a start.' He raised her chin with one finger so that her eyes met his. 'Isn't it?' he asked softly.

  'Yes.' She was amazed and horrified at what the light contact of his skin against hers was doing to her and even more so at the dizzy confusion his words had produced. She knew he was marrying her simply because he had decided, in a cold, logical, emotionless way, that it was time for him to have children, and she fitted the requirements he had laid down for his future wife. He wanted her physically, and he had bought her when the opportunity had arisen. She wanted to close her eyes against the knowledge but it was there, hot and vibrant, in her soul.

  So it was imperative that she keep her own space, that she didn't let any little part of the real her become vulnerable or exposed. He didn't love her; he had never pretended that there was any chance of that now or in the future; he had been totally honest.

  But she wasn't a man. And now she did shut her eyes for a fleeting moment She didn't have his cool, logical, predatory approach to life and love, and already she wasn't sure how she was beginning to feel about him. It wasn't just his looks, impressive though they were—it was him. There was a magnetism, a fascinating aura about the man that was dangerously compelling and although she knew it would be sheer emotional suicide to fall for him—

  'Katie?' He interrupted her racing thoughts by reaching into his pocket and extracting a small, and obviously old, dark velvet box. 'I'd like you to wear this.'

  'What is it?' She lifted the tiny lid carefully and then stared astounded at the exquisite antique ring that the box held 'Carlton…' Her eyes shot to his face. 'It's the most beautiful ring I've ever seen.'

  'It was my mother's, and her mother's before her.' He took the ring out of its snug setting and reached for her left hand. 'May I?' There was a thickness in his voice, a husky warmth that turned her insides to melted jelly, and as she obediently held out her hand he slipped the ring on to her third finger and held her eyes with his own before leaning forward and drawing her into his arms.

  His mouth was caressing, arousing, bringing an immediate hot, aching response from her that frightened her half to death. What was this power he seemed to have over her? she asked herself, panic-stricken, but as his hands moved over the small of her back, warm and knowledgeable, she ceased to think and just let herself feel.

  The kiss was hot and sweet and full of a subtle awareness of her own needs that made it devastatingly irresistible. Not that she wanted to resist. She had never felt like this before, never known it was possible to feel like this.

  As his lips moved to the pure line of her throat she felt herself shudder, but she was helpless under his caress, no more able to hide her response to his lovemaking than fly.

  There was passionate heat in his mouth now as he bit sensuously at her lower lip before plundering the sweetness of her inner mouth. His hands moved from her back to cup her breasts through the soft wool of her sweater, his thumbs stroking their tips, which hardened and swelled at his touch, and when she heard the soft moan that hung trembling in the air for an instant she didn't realise for a full ten seconds that it was her voice.

  And then he moved away, settling back in his own seat almost lazily as she struggled to come to terms with how he could make her feel with seemingly very little effort.

  'I thought we'd drop in at the hospital on our way to lunch.'

  'What?' She gazed at him for a moment as though he were talking in a foreign language and then forced herself to respond normally as she pulled her coat around her, the engagement ring heavy and alien on her hand. 'Oh, yes, fine,' she agreed dully.

  'It can only hasten David's recovery to know everything's under control,' Carlton said evenly, his voice cool and contained, and for a moment she could have hit him for his impassive countenance. How dared he sit there so cool and relaxed when she was a shivering wreck? she asked herself angrily. And everything was far from being under control. Light-years away in fact. 'Do you feel up to it?'

  'Up to it?' She felt a flood of pride and burning humiliation at his quiet words. He thought his lovemaking was so wonderful that she would collapse at his feet, did he? That it would render her incapable of talking to her father? 'Of course I feel up to it,' she said with an icy coolness that made his eyes narrow. 'I'd rather get it over and done with as soon as possible. I've never lied to my father about anything before.'

  'And now you've got to convince him that you're madly in love with a guy you don't even like,' Carlton drawled mockingly, his eyes tight on her profile as she smoothed her hair into place with the help of the small make-up mirror in her bag. If she had been looking at him she would have seen a tenseness to his mouth that belied the easy voice, but she wasn't, and his tone fired her temper still more.

  'Exactly.' She turned her head to look out of her side-window, allowing the silky fall of her honey-blonde hair to shield her face from his gaze. 'But needs must.' He might have women falling at his feet from every direction but she was blowed if she was going to add to their number, she thought silently.

  'Quite.' He started the engine without another word and as they drove in absolute silence along the icy roads, heaped on either side with banks of snow that the snow-ploughs had cleared, she stared blindly out of the window at the white world outside until her gaze was drawn to the ring again.

  It was beautiful, she thought miserably. Exquisitely so. The centre was a large diamond that flashed with breathtaking majesty over a circle of tiny rubies and pearls that surrounded it and in between each stone the gold was worked in lacy folds that enhanced the clearness of
the jewels. And it had been his mother's, and his grandmother's… Perhaps she shouldn't have accepted it in the circumstances, she thought suddenly. An ordinary ring, just a token, would have done.

  'Carlton…' She didn't know quite how to put it but she had better say something. 'This ring.'

  'Yes?' His tone wasn't exactly forthcoming but she glanced at the hard profile and took a deep breath.

  'If you would prefer to keep it I wouldn't mind. I'd be quite happy with something less expensive, even a dress-ring if you'd rather—'

  As the car slammed off the road and on to the verge for the second time in ten minutes her stomach turned at the look on his face. He was angry, furiously angry, but what had she said?

  'Let's get one thing absolutely clear here and now, Katie,' he said tightly, each word punched into the air with such force that she shrank from them. 'This is going to be a real marriage and as my wife you will be expected to wear the Reef ring. There will also be much more expected of you, not least from me, I might add.' He glared at her angrily. 'When I make a deal I stick to it and I expect those I'm dealing with to do the same.'

  'I know that.' After the first moment of shocked surprise she had straightened proudly, her eyes flashing.

  'Good.' He glared at her a moment longer and then ran a hand through his hair in a gesture of utter exasperation. 'Oh, hell, I don't want to frighten you—'

  'You don't,' she lied promptly, two spots of colour burning in an otherwise pale face. 'I just wondered if you'd felt that you had to offer me your mother's ring, that's all—if you felt obliged—'

  'Katie…' Her name was a sigh, but in the next instant his voice held that mocking, caustic note that she had heard before. 'No, I don't feel I 'have' to do anything,' he said slowly as he flicked the ignition again. 'When you get to know me better you'll understand I never do anything I don't want to.'