Jennifer Taylor - Playing at Love

He nodded agreement, but made no attempt to free her. ‘If you mean that you’ve accepted that it’s pointless to keep on with that little pretence of innocence, then that’s correct. However, there are other matters we need to discuss right now, Louise, namely our rather abrupt engagement.’

She froze, her eyes locked on the darkness of his skin against the pale creamy tan of her own before they lifted to meet his. ‘Pardon?’

‘I think you heard me all right.’

‘Oh, I heard, it’s just the understanding I’m having difficulty with.’ She twisted her arm, but achieved little apart from bruising her flesh. Anger rose hot and swift as it rode on the wake of the pain, and she glared at him. ‘Watch my lips, Mister Lord, then perhaps you will understand what I am saying: we are not engaged! I don’t know what sort of a game you were playing just now and I don’t really care. Now let me go.’

‘Not yet. Not until you understand what I am saying.’ He pushed her back so that she sat down abruptly on the bed, towering in front of her as he glared down into her furious face. ‘I have told Carling Hutton that we are engaged, and that is what I intend her to believe. I am in the middle of negotiations to buy this chain of hotels from Carling’s father, and I don’t intend for anything to disrupt that! Unfortunately, though, Carling has been getting ideas that she and I would make the perfect couple, ideas that her father would be only too delighted to go along with. Carling is the apple of his eyes; what she wants she gets, and pity help the man who crosses her. I want these hotels to add to the others I own, and I intend to have them, but I don’t intend to pay the ultimate price by marrying Carling. That’s where you come in.’

‘Me? You really imagine that I would agree to go along with this deception?’ She laughed harshly, watching the way his face tightened and his pale. eyes turned to silver ice. ‘No way, Mr Lord. I don’t care what you do, but there is no way on God’s green earth that I can be persuaded to act as your fiancée.’

‘You think not?’ He stepped closer, his eyes meeting hers and holding. ‘Not even to save yourself from the embarrassment of being thrown out of this hotel?’

‘Thrown out?’ She shot to her feet, pushing past him to stand against the wall as though she needed its solid support.

‘Mmm, could be a bit of a problem, I imagine, especially if I contact a few other hotels and warn them of the circumstances surrounding your abrupt departure from here.’

‘I...I... That’s ridiculous! I don’t care who you are, but you can’t do that! I won’t let you blackmail me into going along with your stupid plan!’ Was that really her voice sounding so shrill? Louise bit her lip as she tried to hang on to the last of her composure. Back at the hospital her control was legendary; she’d never been known even to raise her voice, let alone have hysterics, as seemed likely now. But back at the hospital there hadn’t been Wyatt Lord as provocation!

‘Oh, but I can. I can do everything I threaten, Louise. Have no doubt of that. Apart from the fact that I own several chains of hotels in this town and throughout Florida, I also have interests in quite a few others. If I made it known that you are unwelcome, then you wouldn’t find another room. Then of course there is always the possibility that the manager here might consider it his duty to inform the police about your activities.’ He smiled faintly as he watched her. ‘There has been a campaign recently to clean up this town by the vice squad, so I don’t imagine they would look kindly upon what you’ve been doing.’

He spoke quietly, the words dropping almost gently into the stunned silence, yet the ripples they caused seemed like tidal waves.

‘I haven’t been doing anything! And I can get the man you referred to up here this minute to vouch for that!’

‘I’m sure you can. He would be only too happy to corroborate any story you came up with rather than admit the truth in front of his wife, isn’t that right? But you and I both know what the truth is, and unless you agree then the manager is going to hear it too.’ He picked up the phone, watching her closely. ‘I wonder what people will make of this back home in England?’ He paused deliberately. ‘You must have friends and possibly family there, Louise. A story like this is bound to hit the papers on both sides of the Atlantic, especially if you are deported, which most probably will happen.’

Deported? She closed her eyes, a mental picture of her parents springing to life. Her father had just applied for the headship of the local high school, while her mother had recently taken over the chair of the local Women’s Circle. Then there was her brother, Paul, just starting out as a solicitor, not to mention her sister, Helen, just finishing her year’s residency at the same hospital where Louise worked. She was innocent as the day, but the mud would stick to all of them!

She was so angry that she could barely speak. ‘You would really do that? No, don’t bother. I can see you would. You are the most despicable man I’ve ever met, and I wish to heaven that I’d left you here to suffer by yourself last night!’

‘But you didn’t, did you? And why not? Because you thought there might be something in it for you? All right, then, Louise, I’d hate to disappoint you, so let me make you an offer. Lawrence Hutton has invited me to stay at his house in the Bahamas—on Paradise Island, to be precise. You will accompany me as my fiancée. That should effectively put paid to any ideas about my marrying into the family, yet guarantee that I get what I want.’

‘And what do I get out of all this?’ She smoothed the lace at the cuff of her robe, feeling anger churning inside her. It was hard to believe that anyone could be as coldly ruthless as Wyatt Lord was. She didn’t doubt that he would carry out his threat, but if he thought she’d go along with him then he was in for a shock!

He set the phone back down with a satisfied smile that made her itch to reach out and slap his arrogant face, but she stopped herself. ‘I’m glad you’re being sensible about this. I thought you would once I had time to convince you that you could turn this to your advantage. In return for your help I shall sign an undertaking to let this whole matter drop, plus I’m willing to pay you a generous fee as compensation for not being able to reap the benefits of all your recent hard work. Understand?’

Oh, she did. She understood it all quite clearly, from A to Z, with every letter filled in along the way! What she should do now was laugh in his face and tell him to do his worst, challenge him to carry out all his miserable threats. So how was it that she opened her mouth and heard with a sense of total disbelief herself saying softly, ‘How much?’ That was something she still couldn’t understand properly even hours later!

CHAPTER THREE

THE ground fell away as the plane took to the skies. Louise held her breath, only releasing it as the plane gained its correct altitude and started to level off. She’d never flown in anything smaller than a 747 before, so this was a whole new experience, one she wasn’t sure she liked.

She glanced sideways at Wyatt Lord, who was piloting the small Cessna, watching the way his hands moved confidently on the controls. It was obvious that he was as confident about flying as he appeared to be about everything else he did, and gradually she began to relax, although that did little to ease the knots in her stomach. She must have been mad to agree to this, stark, raving mad!

She looked away, shading her eyes against the glare from the vivid blue sky as she tried again to work out why she’d done such a crazy thing as to agree to this trip. Had it been merely those threats he’d uttered, threats that had made her feel more recklessly angry than she’d felt before in her life? She still wasn’t one hundred per cent certain, but suddenly all Carol’s dire warnings came rushing back to haunt her, and she had to bite her lip to stern the tiny moan.