Sommersgate House (22 page)

“I heard what
your mother said,” Julia told him, summoning up all her courage to
confront him. His head came up and he looked at her, his face
betraying nothing.

“I know you
did.”

“If you want
me to go, I’ll go. I’ll be happy to go. I just want to take the
kids with me. All you have to do is sign over custody –”

“No,” he said
flatly and Julia tensed.

“Douglas, I
know neither you nor your mother have any interest in the children
and both my mother and I will be able to give them a happy, healthy
upbringing in Indiana. We can somehow circumvent the will that says
they have to be raised at Sommersgate.”

“I said,
no.”

It was her
turn to shake with fury.

“Why?” Julia
asked on a cry. “Why when you obviously don’t care? When you’re
more interested in games than your nieces and nephew? When your
mother can’t stand the sight of me?”

“Because it’s
what Tamsin wanted,” Douglas answered.

“Tamsin
wouldn’t have wanted this!” Julia retorted angrily.

For some
reason, he smiled. It wasn’t a grin but an all-out, white-flash of
teeth against tanned, handsome face smile. Just as quickly as a
snap, his fury was gone and he was smiling at her. It was unnerving
and it only proved to heighten of her own temper.

“Do you want
to tell me what’s going on?” she demanded hotly.

She thought
he’d refuse but instead he said, “Yes, Julia, I’d very much like to
tell you what’s going on.”

But then he
said no more.

And she wasn’t
sure she wanted to hear what he had to say at all.

She stared at
him and he stared back.

“Well?” she
snapped, sick to death of his staring contests and curious beyond
what she knew was healthy.

“This is
what’s going on,” he stated and started back across the room toward
her.

When he was
halfway to her, she put her hand up. “I… I’d like you to stay where
you are,” she stammered and he slowed his determined gait but he
did not stop.

“I told
Monique that she could either live with you cordially or move
out.”

This was so
shocking, Julia gasped. He kept moving toward her but she no longer
cared.

“You did?” she
asked in disbelief.

He didn’t
affirm but moved relentlessly forward and didn’t stop until her
still raised arm with its upturned hand hit the hard wall of his
chest.

“She won’t
trouble you anymore and if she does, you’re to phone me immediately
and I’ll deal with it.”

Julia
swallowed and nodded, too afraid to say a word, his eyes were so
dark indigo, they appeared black.

At that
moment, she almost felt sorry for Monique.

Almost.

“I… uh, thank
you,” she finally broke the silence.

“Don’t thank
me, I’m not through yet.”

She nodded
again, stupidly, the heat of his body seeping through her hand.

“As for
Tamsin’s wishes, I intend to carry them out to the letter. There
was a reason she wanted you here, you and your delectable body and
your enticing perfume and your legs that go on forever.” She was
stunned by his words and could barely process them before he went
on. “My sister was a romantic and she cared for us both. She had
very specific intentions for this little arrangement she created
and I’ve no doubt she talked Gavin around to her way of
thinking.”

He was
exerting pressure on her hand and she was finding she needed more
and more of her strength to keep him at arm’s length.

“What… what
way of thinking was that?” Julia spluttered, thinking, from his
words, that he’d gone mad, utterly and completely insane.

What he said
next proved she was right.

“She wanted me
to marry you and I’m going to do it.”

Julia’s entire
body froze.

Then she
shouted, “
What?
”

Her arm failed
and Douglas took advantage. He moved the rest of the way and she
retreated until she felt the heel of her foot hit the wall. She was
caught and he moved close.

“It’s the
perfect solution to this mess,” he informed her calmly. It
registered that he’d referred to her as a “mess” and her eyes
flashed but before she could say a word, he continued. “You’ll have
the protection of my name and thus status over my mother, the
children will have a stable family unit, you’ll have freedom to
live and work in this country as long as you please and –”

“Why?” she
cried, the word filled with anger and confusion.

“Why?” he
asked calmly, as if he asked women he barely knew to marry him
every day.

“
Yes,
why?
I don’t
love you, you don’t love me. What if you found someone else and you
and I were married, what would you do then?”

“I wouldn’t.
You wouldn’t. I’ll have my solicitors draw up a contract. We’d stay
married while the children are underage. When Ruby is old enough to
leave the house and doesn’t need our guardianship anymore, you can
decide to move on if you wish. I’ll be certain throughout our
marriage that you have a generous allowance and when, or if, you
left, I would give you healthy settlement. So healthy, you wouldn’t
need a pension. In the meantime, you can work, if you like, and
–”

She
could just
move on?

“Marriage?”
she whispered, her eyes narrowed. “Have you lost your mind?”

He shook his
head and she stared at him in disbelief, casting around for
anything that would get this crazy scheme out of his head.

“So what do
you do when you…” she stopped, flustered, then started again, “need
to see to your needs? Or when I do for that matter? You just ignore
my lovers and I ignore yours?”

“There’ll be
no lovers,” he announced implacably, almost forcefully, his hands
furthering the point by coming to grip her upper arms firmly.

“
A
platonic marriage of convenience with no release?” She couldn’t
believe they were having this conversation. She couldn’t
believe
he
of all people
was making this suggestion. He was a known womaniser, even a
celebrated one.

“I never said
the marriage would be platonic, Julia.”

At that, she
jumped away with a surprised yelp and slammed against the wall.

Trapped, she
could do nothing but stare at him in astonishment.

“
You’re
saying you want to marry me,
marry me.
As in a real, full-blown, consummated union of the
souls?”

“There’ll be a
union but I cannot guarantee it’ll be of souls,” he replied and she
gaped at him open-mouthed.

Then she
snapped her mouth shut.

“No,” she
shook her head, unable to cope with this latest announcement, “no
way, no.”

“May I ask
why?” he queried calmly.

“
Because
it… is…
insane,
” Julia
enunciated her words carefully then she demanded, “Step
back.”

“No,” he
replied and her panic rose. “You’ll have a good life, I promise you
that,” he vowed softly, changing tactics, his voice was now
coaxing. “Anything you want, you’ll have. Command of this house,
control of the children. We’ll offer all of this to William as my
heir or we could make our own –”

“Children?”
she asked, her voice a high-pitched squeak.

“If you wish,”
he replied as if it mattered less to him than… her mind raced but
she couldn’t think what mattered to him at all.

“This is nuts,
insane, crazy. Absolutely beyond –”

“I’m not
insane, Julia. I’m a busy man who has assumed a terrible
responsibility I’d rather not have. Not because I don’t care about
those children but because my responsibility for them means my
sister is dead.”

That shut
Julia up and she stared at him in wonder. It was the first time
he’d ever spoken of it with any emotion. His dark eyes were darker,
if that could be possible, and blazing.

“God,” she
breathed, “you’re doing this for Tamsin.”

“Not just for
Tamsin, no.”

“Then why?”
she asked, incredulous and curious at the same time.

“Because I
need a wife and because you’ll make a good one.”

She
stared at him in open-faced shock at
that
unlikely pronouncement.

Then she
gathered control of herself and declared, “I’ve tried marriage
before and I’m here to tell you that I am
not
good at it.”

“You were
fine, it was the bastard you chose who wasn’t good at it,” he
informed her like he was their long-term marriage counsellor and
could make such a judgement.

She
tried another tactic. “Okay, then I don’t
want
to be good at it. I don’t
want
to be married to you or… or anyone!”

He leaned in,
put his hand up on the wall at the side of her head and when he
spoke his voice was low and smooth. “Then I’ll have to persuade you
to change your mind.”

She knew
exactly what he meant.

Again, she
narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you dare!”

“Do you think
I can’t?”

“Of course you
can’t,” she scoffed.

Mistake.

Big, big
mistake.

Because it was
then, Douglas kissed her. Pressing his body full against hers and
with nowhere to run, no way to get away, she was forced to
endure.

And
she
had
to
endure. She had to
prove she was immune to him. She had to prove that the morning in
the dining room was a fluke.

But the heat
shimmered through his body to hers, her breasts were pressed
against his hard chest, his mouth was teasing, tempting.

Dear Lord.

Julia managed
to keep her mouth resolutely shut and tried to think of things that
were very unsexy. She thought of the doodle art he patronised for
the gallery and that was a good start. Pleased with herself, she
stiffened her body in resistance.

Douglas,
unfortunately, was not deterred. His arms, which had slid around
her, pulled her from the wall and moulded her to him, breasts
against chest; soft, yielding hips against hard, straining ones.
One arm held her firmly about the waist while the other hand slid
down, softly, gently, over her bottom.

His hand
at her bottom felt good. Oh God.
Too
good.

As tingles
shot across her skin, she thought harder about the doodles then her
mind flashed to him handing her a glass of champagne. Then to him
sitting in the Bentley and talking about her perfume. Then to him
holding her face gently in his hands and stroking her jaw and
bottom lip while she told her tale of woe last night. Her resolve
quickly flagged as the tingles matured to delicious tremors.

She groaned in
despair, low in her throat, and pressed her hands against his
chest, pushing him away while his teeth nibbled at her lips in an
illicit and enticing way, his one wayward hand had moved up her
side and was now stroking, slowly, achingly slowly, against the
side of her breast.

“Stop it!” she
finally cried, turning her face away but he didn’t stop. He was
relentless. His mouth trailed down her cheek to her neck.

This was big
mistake number two. The skin of Julia’s neck was sensitive. As he
dragged his lips, whisper-soft, along her neck to nip at her
earlobe she felt shivers shoot through her body. Her breasts
swelled against her will, straining against his chest and she
wriggled against him to get away from his mouth. Her stomach was
melting, her legs were going weak and his heat was penetrating her
body everywhere it touched.

“Kiss me,” he
urged in her ear, his deep voice like velvet and a fresh shudder
tore through her.

“No,” she
denied, her breath coming fast.

“Kiss me once
and I’ll leave you alone,” he promised, his head coming up to look
at her.

She felt a
flash of hope. “Now and forever, no more talk about marriage, no
more of these… episodes?” She pressed him verbally as she pushed
against his chest.

He grinned,
then rubbed his lips back and forth against her firmly closed ones
and she longed to stop that intimate caress by pressing her lips to
his.

“No,” he
finally stopped his torture to reply against her mouth.

She dug deep
into the last reserves of her strength. “Then no, I won’t kiss you,
now or –”

His hand,
which had been stroking the side of her breast quickly lowered,
going under her denim shirt, under her thermal t-shirt and up her
belly.

“What are
you…?” she breathed against his mouth, trying to sound in control
but everywhere he touched sent a path a fire, her muscles
contracting as his hand caressed its way from her belly upwards,
the whole time he watched her face, his eyes heavy-lidded.

“Please
don’t,” she begged on a whisper, not caring how weak she sounded
because she knew she couldn’t endure much more.

This was
Douglas, handsome, compelling Douglas and she’d had a crush on him
since the moment she laid eyes on him.

Not to
mention, it had been a long time for her, a dry spell, an enormous
dry spell and it was like not eating for months and then being
shown to a five-star, gourmet banquet. Douglas, so close, pressed
against her, his hand working wonders, was the banquet and she,
unfortunately, felt like gorging herself.

His hand
cupped her breast over her bra, his thumb rubbing against her
nipple and Julia instantly melted. She closed her eyes and moaned
low in her throat, the workings of his thumb shooting dizzying
shafts of pleasure from her nipple downward through her belly
straight between her legs.