Last Stop Marriage

Cover Page

Excerpt

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Copyright

“Was the urge to hold the baby again irresistible?”

“I told you…”

“She’s so soft and warm and cuddly, so sweetly appealing. Makes your stomach curl, doesn’t it?”

“I…” Jayne floundered. It was true, yet it was true of all baby things—kittens and puppies and chickens. It didn’t mean she was broody for a baby. “It’s only natural to feel caring toward a child this young,” she said defiantly.

“Does your new career make up for the child we could have had, Jayne?” Dan asked, insidiously striking the raw feelings that had erupted through her last night. “The baby we could have shared.”

EMMA DARCY nearly became an actress until her fiancé declared he preferred to attend the theater with her. She became a wife and mother. Later she took up oil painting—unsuccessfully, she remarks. Then she tried architecture, designing the family home in New South Wales, Australia. Next came romance writing—“the hardest and most challenging of all the activities,” she confesses.

Last Stop Marriage

Emma Darcy

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Guy Hallowes whose interest in China inspired our interest

CHAPTER ONE

‘GET Dan Drayton.’

Theplea…theinstruction…thecommand…thumped continuously through the shocked daze in Jayne Winter’s mind as she watched her stricken employer being wheeled away, an oxygen mask clamped over his mouth and nose.

He had told her not to worry about anything else nor to let any other consideration get in the way. Dan Drayton could do the job. Given the critical situation, he would certainly take over and do the job for Monty. All Jayne had to do was contact him, brief him on the problem, and give him whatever assistance he required when he arrived.

Simple.

Except it wasn’t simple.

Far from it.

Dan Drayton was the man she had married in blind passion and left when irreconcilable differences had formed an unbridgeable chasm between them. Monty Castle knew nothing about that part of her life. She had shut the door on it, asserting her independence by adopting her maiden name again before gaining employment as Monty’s personal assistant.

Her estranged husband was the last person in the world she wanted to call on for help. She would rather be dragged over hot coals than admit any need for him whatsoever. As for working with him, being at his beck and call, having to carry out his orders…Jayne quailed at the thought of how Dan might use that situation to bring all sorts of pressure to bear on her.

Perhaps he was tied up in a contract and couldn’t come. Perhaps he was somewhere inaccessible, impossible to reach. He had the soul of a Gypsy, his typically whimsical and eccentric ambition being to visit every country in the world in alphabetical order.

She had felt she was being swept away on a marvellous magic carpet when she had first married Dan. The magic had worn thin when she had found her life reduced to being a camp follower while he went out and blew up mountains or whatever else he was contracted to do as an explosives expert.

Iran had been the end for her, stuck in the American engineers’ ghetto, going quietly mad with frustration. If she moved out of it she had to be covered from head to toe in black, a faceless person, a nothing person. That was how she had felt. She only really existed for Dan as the woman he came home to bed.

He was probably up to L or M by now. He had done China a long time ago so he wouldn’t want to come here anyway. She hadn’t particularly wanted to come to China herself, having done enough travelling with Dan to last her the rest of her life. Yet she now felt that in taking this trip and its accompanying challenges in her stride, she had really come of age as a person who could handle anything.

Dragon Lady…that was what the Chinese called her. It gave her a unique and individual identity and Jayne secretly revelled in it. Dan would undoubtedly put the name down as relating purely to her appearance, which, Jayne conceded, had initially inspired it.

With her willowy height and the cascade of fiery red ringlets that tumbled hectically around her face and shoulders, untameable by any hair-dressing aid, she certainly stood out as unusual amongst the people of China. Her pale skin and vivid blue eyes increased the effect of being some strange, mythical creature, especially to the workers on the project site.

To them she was a subject of curiosity, awe, and a certain fearful respect. Being Monty Castle’s personal assistant gave an aura of power, as well. Dragon Lady had definitely become an apt title for her, especially since she was so closely associated with and trusted by the explosives expert.

She had also earned it in her own right, Jayne assured herself. She had proved herself capable of carrying out any task that Monty had tossed at her with meticulous competence and efficiency. Handing her the responsibility of getting Dan Drayton was par for the course.

If only it was anyone else but Dan!

Jayne released a long, feeling sigh. It was no use hoping for Monty to make a speedy recovery. The forces of nature did not wait upon anyone’s state of health. This was an emergency situation. The threat of a disastrous mudflow had to be stopped and that required an explosives expert who could move mountains. Monty had chosen Dan Drayton and he expected her to get him. She had to do it.

Her turbulent train of thought was abruptly interrupted by the arrival of Lin Zhiyong and his usual entourage. She had called him herself, requesting the best available modern, medical attention for Monty. As the highest ranking official, responsible for the successful completion of the new city of Denjing, Lin Zhiyong was well known to her. He was critically interested in Monty’s protection plan.

Jayne didn’t have to be told this was not a sympathy call. As the team of Chinese engineers who had been assigned to the project filed into Monty’s office after Lin Zhiyong, she was well aware that she occupied the hot seat that Monty’s collapse had created. These men wanted answers. They wanted direction and they wanted certainty in that direction. As Monty’s personal assistant, it was up to her to fill the hole he had left.

Instinctively she stood tall, taking full advantage of her height as she greeted the much smaller dignitary and thanked him for his assistance in procuring fast, professional help for Monty.

Lin Zhiyong was well in his seventies. He invariably wore a Mao suit, apparently scorning the modern trend toward Western-styled clothes. Jayne suspected he was not comfortable about inviting in Western technology, either, but he was less comfortable with failure.

After a brief exchange of courtesies, he came to the purpose of his visit. ‘It is most regrettable,’ he stated without the slightest crack in his essentially enigmatic demeanor, ‘but it would appear that Mr. Castle will not be capable of fulfilling his contract with our government in the time allotted.’

A broken contract meant Monty would take a huge loss, not only in personal investment but in reputation. Jayne knew she had to reply with confidence and authority.

‘On the contrary, Mr. Castle will deliver on his contract,’ she asserted. ‘While he may not be able to do so personally, another expert in his field will take over and see Mr. Castle’s plans to completion. Castle Constructions will finish the project on schedule.’

Lin Zhiyong stared at her with flat, black eyes, his timeless Chinese face as expressionless as the Buddhas in the old temples.

Conscious of the many onlookers in the office gauging her response to Lin Zhiyong’s supposition, Jayne deliberately evoked the Dragon Lady image by keeping her shoulders straight, maintaining her full height, her head tilted as though she was about to emit fire from her nostrils, blue eyes ablaze with conviction.

The elderly official, however, was not about to be diverted from pursuing his point. He was too accustomed to a position of power over others to be overly impressed by a twenty-seven-year-old foreign woman, no matter how remarkable she was.

‘May I inquire who it is you propose to call in?’ he asked in a mild, silky tone.

It flashed through Jayne’s mind that to hesitate was to show weakness. She had no choice. Any prevarication would be a terrible disservice to Monty.

‘Dan Drayton,’ she replied, not letting any hint of uncertainty show as she answered for her employer. ‘He is recognised as one of the foremost explosives experts in the world. If you wish to check his credentials…’

‘I am aware of his credentials, Miss Winter, as I am also aware he is presently occupied in Africa. It was the reason for our choosing your employer instead of Mr. Drayton in the first place.’

Africa! Was he in Liberia, Libya, or had he moved on to Morocco or Mozambique? Jayne couldn’t think of any other countries whose name started with L or M in Africa. Dan might still be working through K. Kenya leapt to mind. Whatever the location, the more important question was, with what and whom was Dan occupied? If she literally couldn’t get him…

‘You do appreciate,’ Lin Zhiyong went on, ‘that time is an important factor in the contract.’

The softness of his tone did not veil the implacable intent in his words. There would be no extension of the deadlines to be met. Penalty clauses would be actioned.

Jayne had a few seconds of intense trepidation. Was it better to put damage control in place now? Were Monty’s instructions a straw he was grasping at in a moment of great crisis, a straw that could prove more costly in the end? Or was she looking for a way out of having any personal contact with Dan?

One thing she wasn’t, was a coward!

‘I believe Mr. Drayton will oblige Mr. Castle in this matter. He will come,’ she declared, trusting that Monty knew more than she did about Dan’s present professional life. ‘He will come,’ she repeated with decisive assurance.

‘You cannot know that,’ Lin Zhiyong replied, unmoved from his sceptical viewpoint.

‘I do know it,’ Jayne retorted, stonewalling as hardily as General Jackson.

‘How?’

The knowing challenge warned Jayne he was aware that she had not yet communicated the news of Monty’s collapse to anyone outside China. The necessity to save face left her with no other option but to reveal a personal connection.

‘Because Dan Drayton promised me I only had to call him for anything, and he would supply it.’

She had never put that promise to the test. She didn’t doubt Dan had meant it at the time. He had wanted to show himself generous in their parting. Whether he would hold to it now after two years of silence from her was highly doubtful, but Lin Zhiyong couldn’t know that.

She sensed a subtle change of attitude in the man confronting her, a flicker of recognition in his eyes acknowledging a different kind of power to his, a power that was essentially female. Dragon Lady could breathe fire into a man. The fire of desire.

The irony of it twisted Jayne’s heart. That had been true between her and Dan throughout most of their marriage, but Dan wouldn’t come to Monty’s aid, if he came at all, because he still wanted her. Their desire for each other had wilted into insubstantial smoke under the deadening effect of other needs.

Nevertheless, she saw no reason to disillusion Lin Zhiyong’s typically male deduction. It gave her the breathing space she needed.

‘Today is the eighth day of the eighth lunar month,’ Lin Zhiyong stated portentously. ‘On the fifteenth day, when the moon is full, the people in this province celebrate Zhongqiu Jie, the Mid-Autumn Festival. I shall be hosting a party that evening. You and Mr. Drayton are cordially invited to my home, Miss Winter.’

In other words, Dan Drayton had better be here by then, or else!

Jayne mouthed all the correct, courteous words of acceptance and appreciation for both herself and Dan. Lin Zhiyong departed, satisfied he had gracefully applied the time pressure that would keep Monty Castle’s project on schedule or prove it was impossible. It also allowed him to save face and retain his position of influence and power in the government hierarchical system that was so important to the Chinese.

The office emptied of visitors and Jayne shut the door after them, briefly leaning against it and closing her eyes, fiercely hoping she had not just set herself up for an ignominious fall.

She had to get Dan for Monty. It was a professional call, not a personal one. She hoped Dan was of a mind to let private bygones be bygones. She was simply doing her job, following her boss’s instructions. She would state the problem, pass on Monty’s request, and keep everything on a business basis.

A sense of pride stirred. It would be good for her if Dan did accept the proposition. It was the ideal opportunity to prove she had become her own person, self-determining and strong enough not to be affected by Dan or the memory of their all-consuming relationship. That was another life.

She pushed herself into action, making herself a pot of tea and stacking a plate with Chinese sugar biscuits before settling at Monty’s desk. Somehow she now had to activate the plan she had just promised. She steeled herself to the task and picked up the telephone.

CHAPTER TWO

DESPITE the time differential between the countries, various communication problems with officialdom, and a lot of persuasive effort on her part, Jayne tracked Dan Drayton to an apartment in Casablanca.

The long hours of tension, of holding herself together until her goal was reached, resulted in a sense of light-headedness when she heard the receiver of his telephone lifted from its cradle.

‘Mmmh?’

Had she done it, or hadn’t she? ‘Am I speaking to Dan Drayton?’ she asked, her voice almost cracking under the pressure of her need to know.

‘Mmmh…’

It was a lazy, disinterested sound, but definitely not negative. Maybe she had woken him from a nap. An afternoon siesta was common in Mediterranean countries such as Morocco. Jayne took a deep breath, trying to calm the quickened tempo of her heartbeat. This was a terribly important business call. She had to get it right.

‘Dan…’ She hesitated. How would he react to her name? Irrelevant, she decided. ‘Dan, it’s Jayne. Jayne Winter. Your ex-wife.’

Ex-wife wasn’t technically correct since neither of them had bothered getting an official divorce, but it was factually correct. Jayne didn’t think Dan would quibble about it.

There was a long, disconcerting silence before he answered. Then to disconcert her even further, he spoke in his soft, sensual voice. ‘I remember. What can I do for you, Jayne?’

It brought back memories that pierced the shield she’d put around her heart. So many times he had said those words, wanting her to be content with him, not seeing or understanding her need to find some self-fulfilment. They never stayed in one place long enough for her to settle to anything productive and interesting.

But that was over for her. She had to take control of this call, forget the past. ‘I work for Monty Castle. I’m his personal assistant. He asked me to call you on his behalf.’

Another silence. Jayne hoped Dan was taking in that this was purely business, nothing personal at all. She heard some indistinct sounds that suggested someone else was with him, but she was totally unprepared for what came next.

‘It’s okay, Baby,’ Dan murmured. ‘Nothing to get disturbed about. This is the Jayne who was with me long before you came along. Here now, you can listen, too.’

The soothing, sexy drawl had a mind-shattering effect. The indulgent tone conjured up a baby-doll woman curled up to him, their heads sharing the same pillow. Jayne couldn’t bear to dwell on what other level of intimacy they were sharing.

It didn’t help at all to tell herself it was only natural for Dan to have found some other woman, or any number of them, to ease his sexual needs. She didn’t want to hear the evidence of it. She remembered all too well how voracious his need for her had been when they were first married.

And for him to have told this current woman about her, about their marriage, felt like the worst kind of betrayal. What they had shared was private. Couldn’t he have left it that way? As she had?

‘So what’s the problem, Jayne?’

She gritted her teeth and forced her mind back on to business. ‘We’re in China,’ she blurted out, defensively emphasising the distance between them.

‘Fascinating country.’

‘Mr. Castle was called in as a consultant on the new Denjing city project.’

‘I know.’

Had the two men discussed it? Perhaps Dan had recommended Monty after he himself had turned the contract down. Was that why Monty had chosen Dan to replace him?

‘The construction could be threatened by a mudflow,’ she hurried on.

‘Nasty things, mudflows.’

‘The threat has to be diverted,’ Jayne explained, struggling to get her thoughts focused on the main issue.

‘The right explosives in the right place. Simple.’

If only it was! Jayne took a deep breath, savagely berating herself for feeling so unreasonably…distracted…at discovering Dan was occupied with a woman on a level that was certainly not strictly business.

‘A few big booms. That’s what you like best, isn’t it, Baby?’ he went on, evoking a spluttering that sounded like a smothered giggle.

Jayne was not amused. Monty could be in danger of having another stroke, a fatal one, while Dan Drayton was playing stupid games with his Baby. Although to be fair, he couldn’t know how tasteless this conversation was until she told him.

‘Monty Castle had a stroke a few hours ago,’ she stated bluntly.

Another silence. A sobered silence, Jayne hoped, fiercely clamping down on the stupid churning stirred by Baby’s intrusive presence. Dan was entitled to do whatever he wanted. She had claimed the same right. It was just that it was…demeaning to be replaced by some brainless bimbo.

‘How bad?’ came the serious question, his voice deeper, sharper, driving her wandering mind back to the horror of Monty’s grey face and stricken body. She desperately hoped the effects of the stroke would not last long. Monty was only in his fifties and one of the most vital people she had ever met.

‘I don’t know,’ she answered, her concern for him uppermost as she explained further. ‘He was still conscious and talking when he was taken to the hospital, but he’d lost control of his left side. He asked me to contact you. He said you’d take over the consultancy for him and fulfil the contract.’

There! It was all said now. How Dan reacted and responded was entirely up to him. She had done her part. Although a niggle of conscience told her she could do more. And should do more if more was needed to get Dan here. It was not only for Monty’s sake. Lin Zhiyong had to be satisfied, as well.

‘Give me your location and the name of the hospital.’

She complied with the demands, bridling at the thought that Dan intended to check the facts she had given him before making a decision. His next statement stunned her.

‘I’ll get there as soon as possible.’

For a moment, Jayne couldn’t take it in. Dan was coming. Just like that. Just as Monty said he would. The assurance should have lifted a huge burden off her shoulders but it didn’t. She felt the pressure of her mettle being tested, and Dan wasn’t even here yet. It took an enormous effort of willpower to rise above the uneasy prospect of coming face-to-face with him again and concentrate on the more immediate problems to be resolved.

‘How soon will that be?’ She was amazed at how matter-of-fact she sounded.

‘Mmmh…a little tricky. I was about to close a deal with Sheikh Omar El Talik, whom I don’t care to offend.’

He could offer Baby as a candidate for the sheikh’s harem, Jayne thought, then silently castigated herself for the shockingly sexist idea. She excused herself on the grounds that she needed Dan Drayton without any other ties. Monty needed him, she swiftly corrected, frowning over her muddled thinking. The faster Dan could come and go, the better.

‘We should be there within a week,’ came the considered estimate.

That made things easier. Lin Zhiyong’s seven-day limit could be met. ‘That’s great! Thank you.’

She quickly explained the concerns of the Chinese official and passed on the invitation to the festival party, privately congratulating herself on coming to grips with the situation with growing aplomb.

‘We’ll be there,’ Dan Drayton assured her decisively.

The repetition of we finally sank in. ‘Are you bringing someone with you?’

‘Baby goes everywhere with me. Wouldn’t dream of leaving you with anyone else, would I, cuddlepie?’

Another bubbly splutter.

It was sickening. A ghastly vision leapt into Jayne’s mind; a simpering nymphet clinging onto Dan’s arm as he surveyed the mudflow problem with a bevy of intense Chinese engineers.

‘There isn’t going to be much time for entertainment once you’re here on the job,’ she warned, her mouth tightening, her stomach tightening at the thought of him turning up at Lin Zhiyong’s party with another woman. How on earth would she save face in those circumstances?

‘Don’t worry about Baby. I’ll look after her. Just book us a room in the best hotel there is in Xi’an.’

‘It isn’t five star international,’ she said tartly. Surely Dan couldn’t be serious about a woman he called Baby.

‘I don’t expect Baby will notice. A roof over her head, food to eat, me to love her…’

A bed was probably the only requirement, Jayne thought waspishly. ‘Could you please send a confirming fax of your agreement to take over from Mr. Castle? It will prevent any problems from developing here.’

‘Give me your fax number.’

She did so, trying to quell her irritation that he would not be as single-minded as she in completing the project for Monty. If Baby caused complications or delays…Jayne shook her head. She had no choice but to accept the situation and do what she could to circumvent any distractions from getting the project completed on schedule.

‘Which way will you be coming in?’ she asked. ‘From Tokyo or Hong Kong?’

‘On Dragon Air from Hong Kong.’

‘I’ll have someone waiting for you at Hong Kong airport with the necessary visas, letters, et cetera for entry.’

‘Thank you, Jayne.’

Her skin prickled at the sensual caress in his voice. She had forgotten how he could evoke responses like that simply with an expressive change of tone. It was something she would have to guard against.