Lee Wilkinson - The Marriage Takeover

Lang took her hand as he continued, “So what’s your answer? Are you going to marry me?”

Cassandra snatched her hand away. “I don’t understand why you want to marry me…. And don’t mention sex….”

Blue eyes laughing, he said, “I wouldn’t dare.”

“I’m sure there are dozens of women who would be prepared to keep you happy in bed.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’re right. But I don’t want a succession of bed partners. I want a wife.”

LEE WILKINSON lives with her husband in a three-hundred-year-old stone cottage in a village in Derbyshire, England. Most winters they get cut off by snow! Both enjoy traveling, and previously joined forces with their daughter and son-in-law, spending a year going around the world “on a shoestring” while their son looked after Kelly, their much-loved German shepherd dog. Lee’s hobbies are reading and gardening and holding impromptu barbecues for her long-suffering family and friends.

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CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

LANG DALTON’S silver-grey, chauffeur-driven limousine had been waiting for them at San Francisco International Airport. Ensconced in the purring luxury, Cassandra Vallance sighed and glanced at the dark-haired, good-looking man by her side.

In response to the apprehension in that glance, Alan Brent took the hand that was wearing his diamond cluster, and patted it with a there-there gesture that was meant to calm and comfort.

Safely cut off from the driver by a glass partition, he said, ‘I know this weekend was sprung on us, but try to relax, darling. Lang Dalton may be a multi-millionaire and the Great I Am, but there’s really nothing to worry about.’

‘I know so little about him. Has he a wife?’

‘Yes, he married a woman the media once described as “America’s most beautiful socialite”. I gather she comes from one of California’s top families, the kind who hobnob with film stars and presidents.’

‘Have they been married long?’

‘About a couple of years.’

‘Does he know we’re getting married?’

‘Yes. I told him myself. Though I probably didn’t need to. He seems au fait with everything that goes on. Where he gets all his information is a mystery.’

‘How well do you know him?’

‘Although I’ve been working for him for over four years, I’ve only met him once,’ Alan told her. ‘That was about eighteen months ago when he came over to England.’

‘What’s he like?’ The question came in a rush. Until now, for some odd, unaccountable reason, she had been loath to ask.

‘Hard, autocratic, ruthless, a bit of a cold fish, just as his reputation suggests. Not the kind of man to get on the wrong side of.

‘Most people seem to be a bit in awe of him. There was a story going around that even his own PA was afraid of him…

‘But, on the plus side, he’s known to have firm principles, to care for the environment, and to be both honest and scrupulously fair, even generous.’

Seeing she still looked far from happy, Alan added, ‘So what if he is something of a despot? He can’t eat us.’

‘That’s what I keep telling myself, but my instincts won’t buy it. I feel…’

She came to a halt and glanced away, unable to tell him exactly what she did feel. Coming from a woman who was regarded as being intelligent, efficient and level-headed, it would sound ridiculous to say, ‘I have a kind of foreboding. A premonition that something disastrous is going to happen and my life will never be the same again.’

His eyes resting on her lovely profile, Alan pressed, ‘How do you feel?’

‘Threatened,’ she confessed.

‘Oh, come on!’ He laughed, unable to understand her fears. ‘Lang Dalton isn’t an absolute ogre… And it’s not like you to be so melodramatic.’

‘I don’t know what’s come over me,’ she admitted. ‘But I can’t get it out of my head that nothing’s going to go right.’

His brown eyes growing impatient, Alan urged, ‘Think positive. All you have to do is take care not to get on the wrong side of him…’

She bit her lip, knowing quite well this feeling of being threatened wasn’t rational, but unable to dismiss it.

‘Look at it this way: in the unlikely event of you incurring his dislike or disapproval, the worst he can do is dispense with your services. I’d hate to part with you, you’re the best PA I’ve ever had, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

‘Now for goodness’ sake stop worrying and enjoy the chance to see something of California. The Big Sur is one of the most scenic stretches of coastline anywhere in the world, and when we head south we’ll have an ideal opportunity to see it from the air.’

When she said nothing, Alan added, ‘We’re really very lucky. This kind of social get-together is unprecedented. Usually Dalton keeps his business affairs and his private life totally separate.’

‘Which makes me wonder what prompted this particular invitation,’ she remarked uneasily.

Knowing they hadn’t been so much invited as summoned, Alan shrugged. ‘Presumably it’s a new policy.’

‘I still can’t understand why he insisted that I should accompany you.’

‘Perhaps it was a question of numbers. We’ll be joining a kind of small house party, I gather. And he didn’t exactly insist…’

But Lang Dalton had ordered arbitrarily, ‘I want you to come over to San Francisco for a long weekend and bring Miss Vallance with you.’

Alan sighed inwardly. Knowing that Cassandra had always wanted to travel, he’d presumed she would be pleased. Only as they’d reached their destination had he realized that, for some reason he still couldn’t fathom, she felt quite the opposite.

‘Look, darling, I’m sorry you’re so averse to the whole thing, but it would have been difficult to refuse…’

With his entire future depending on not crossing Lang Dalton, it would have been suicidal, and Cassandra knew it.

She was proud of Alan who, at only twenty-five, was head of Finance at the London offices of Dalton International, and had a brilliant career predicted for him.

‘And it’s only for four days,’ he added, no longer trying to hide his exasperation.

‘Yes, I know. I’m sorry. I’m behaving like a perfect idiot.’ She smiled, a smile that lit her green eyes and brought her heart-shaped face to glowing life. ‘Please forget all I’ve said and let’s make the most of the weekend.’

‘That’s my girl.’

As he finished speaking, the limousine drew up outside the twin towers of the glass and concrete building that housed Dalton International.