The Blackmailed Bridegroom
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Whenever that would be…
Paige hadn’t just lost the roof over her head last night. She’d lost her clothes as well. Which was a pity. She’d spent quite a bit putting together a decent work wardrobe to go with her new career direction.
If only she’d dared go back into Jed’s bedroom and get her set of keys before sneaking out of the place. If she had, she’d be able to slip into the building—and the apartment—while Jed was at work.
Paige sighed. She could hardly see herself showing up while Jed was home, and politely asking permission to come up and get the rest of her clothes. Better she cut her losses and just disappeared.
Maybe it was time to head interstate. Maybe up north to Queensland, where there were plenty of holiday resorts, and plenty of jobs going for an attractive girl with a wide range of working experience.
A move to Queensland, however, would require money for her fare and some new clothes. She had some savings, but would need every cent to set herself up in a flat. Bond money and such. Her father would give her money if she asked, Paige knew. He might even resume putting that obscene monthly allowance into her bank account, if she begged.
Frankly, she was tempted. All she had to do was eat humble pie and tell her father he was the greatest.
But then she would have nothing left, would she? No self-respect. No independence. No pride.
She had to find some other way out of the hell-hole she’d dug for herself this time. Maybe she could stay here for a while, and get a job which had a uniform and gradually put together a wardrobe. She supposed she could bear Evelyn and her father for a few weeks. And at least she had one decent interview outfit!
Paige stripped off again and headed for the bathroom. Time to have a long, relaxing bath. Time to pretend she hadn’t totally stuffed up her life once more. Time to transport herself to a world where the man she was with would never dream of raising his hand to her, where the rings on her left hand spoke of love and commitment, and the babies they made together would never know the hurt and unhappiness which had marred her own childhood.
When at her lowest, Paige always kept herself sane by wallowing in just such a fantasy world. So she lay there for ages beneath the lavender-scented bubble bath she’d found in the vanity and conjured up old faces, old dreams, and old desires. Time flew by, and if, eventually, tears rolled down Paige’s cheeks, her soul had still been strangely soothed by her imaginings.
At five to eight that evening, Paige carried her softened and perfumed body slowly down the huge sweeping staircase, crossed the cavernous foyer, with its domed, chandeliered ceiling, and entered the huge living area which led into the smaller and more elegant room where her father always had pre-dinner drinks. He did this for half an hour before every meal, regardless of whether he had visitors or not. Paige never joined him, partly because she didn’t like to drink on an empty stomach, but mainly because she didn’t like to give her father the opportunity to hurt her. When he drank, he developed a sarcastic tongue.
Given that it was a Monday, Paige assumed he would be alone. So when she opened the door which led into the drawing room she was startled to see that wasn’t the case at all.
No…startled did not adequately describe her reaction to the sight of an elegantly attired Antonio, sitting in one of the armchairs which flanked the fireplace, a crystal flute of champagne in his hands. Stunned better described her instant state of mind. Stunned and sickened.
Antonio was the last man in the world she wanted to see again, especially tonight, with the mark of another man’s contempt for her glowering angrily on her cheekbone.
CHAPTER THREE
FOR a few fraught, fragile moments, Paige just stared at Antonio. Hard not to when the sight of him had always made her heart hammer madly against her ribs.
This time was no different, except that her head began whirling angrily at the same time. Why hadn’t Evelyn warned her Antonio would be here for dinner? She must have known he was coming.
The answer was obvious, and cruel.
Because she didn’t want you to be prepared. She wanted you to stumble in here and make a fool of yourself, as you always do in Antonio’s presence.
Paige knew there wasn’t anything that happened around Fortune Hall which Evelyn wasn’t privy to. What the housekeeper didn’t come to know by virtue of her position she found out through slyness and stealth. Over the years, Paige had caught the woman eavesdropping more than once, especially on the telephone. Her omission to mention Antonio’s presence at dinner could only have had a malicious intent, which meant the hateful woman was aware of Paige’s feelings for Antonio.
Pride came to the rescue, as did some hard-won experience. Maybe she was getting used to handling the emotional devastation seeing Antonio always caused her. Or was it that at last she was beginning to grow up?
‘Why, hello, Antonio,’ she said casually as she strolled into the room and over towards the drinks cabinet in the corner. ‘You startled me there for a moment. No one said anything about you being here tonight. You’re looking well,’ she added, somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Well was not a word one would use to describe Antonio. It was far too insipid for his brand of raw physical impact.
Tonight, he was looking exceptionally sexy all in black, his fine woollen suit given a casual look by being teamed with a black crew-necked top rather than his usual shirt and tie. The outfit seemed to intensify his dark colouring and brooding sex appeal, a fact which certainly didn’t escape Paige’s poor, pathetic heart.
‘I was thinking the same of you, actually,’ he returned silkily. ‘Considering…’
She laughed, sliding a mocking glance over her shoulder at him. ‘You mean for someone who’s boyfriend has just beaten her up?’ Paige had found over the last few years that being mealy-mouthed and defensive around Fortune Hall only brought more looks and lectures on the way she was living her life. Better to face any sticky situation head-on, with a suitably defiant fac¸ade.
‘Paige, for pity’s sake!’ her father protested.
‘Pity, Father?’ she scoffed as she swept the bottle of champagne from the ice bucket and poured herself a glass. Suddenly, drinking on an empty stomach was not only desirable but imperative!
‘Now that’s a word I’ve not heard often in this house,’ she muttered, and turned back round, the crystal flute cupped firmly in her hands, her knuckles white in the effort to stop them from shaking. ‘So what have you been drinking to with this very expensive champagne? I can’t imagine its your health. You’ll both still be taking the television world by storm when I’m six foot under.’
Her gaze swept over the two men, who stared back at her with perfect poker faces, telling her nothing, and everything. ‘Oh, I see,’ she said drily. ‘It’s a secret, is it? Something to do with business. Something silly little girls like me couldn’t possibly understand, or shouldn’t know.’
Paige was surprised to see her spiked sarcasm brought a wry smile to Antonio’s beautifully shaped mouth. ‘Not at all,’ he said. ‘I’m sure your father wouldn’t mind your knowing.’
Did Antonio see the warning glance her father shot him? If he did, he ignored it.
‘We’re celebrating a forthcoming and hopefully desirable merger,’ he went on smoothly, his black eyes glittering with some secret amusement. Or was it suppressed anger? One could never quite tell with Antonio. ‘Unfortunately, negotiations are at too early and too delicate a stage to supply you with more details right now.’
‘How delightfully vague!’ she exclaimed, rolling her eyes at him. She should have known Antonio wouldn’t cross her father. He knew what side his bread was buttered on.
Not that Antonio was easily cast in the role of flunkey. He was far too strong-willed and opinionated to be a mindless yes-man. She’d heard him disagree with her father more than once when it came to business.
But she was still piqued that he felt he could play with words around her. It was so patronising. And so like the treatment she’d always received around Fortune Hall. If she’d been born a boy she would have been drawn into their world of negotiations and deals, not excluded, then cynically condescended to!
Her eyes flashed as she lifted her glass in a mock toast. ‘To the forthcoming and hopefully…what kind of merger did you say it was, Antonio?’
‘Desirable,’ he said quietly, and that inscrutable black gaze of his ran slowly over her from head to toe.
Paige’s heart tripped, then stopped altogether when those eyes began to travel back up her body even more slowly, lingering on the swells and dips of her female form, leaving them burning in his wake. He inspected her mouth for what felt like an interminable length of time, forcing her lips to fall apart and drag in some much needed air for her starving lungs.
Now his eyes lifted to hers, holding them in a hard and merciless gaze which was as blatantly sexual as it was chillingly cold.
She quivered. All over. Inside and out.
It was the most erotic thing which had ever happened to her.
Her heart began to race, an uncomfortable heat suffusing her skin.
Paige did the only thing she could think of to survive the moment. She quaffed back the chilled champagne she was holding. The whole lot.
Unfortunately, her ragged breathing sent some down the wrong way and she began to choke.
Antonio was beside her in a flash, slapping her firmly between the shoulders. The champagne came flying back up and sprayed out from her mouth, most of it falling to the carpet but some dribbling down her front.
‘Try to breathe slowly and evenly,’ Antonio advised, once she’d stopped choking to death.
She tried, but it was almost impossible with him standing so close to her, then perfectly impossible when Antonio drew a snow-white handkerchief from his trouser pocket and started wiping down her top where the champagne had stained it, stroking the handkerchief down over the swell of her right breast, working his way closer and closer to her hardening nipple. As he drew dangerously close she felt her flesh tighten even further in anticipation of his touch, craving the contact, practically begging for it.
Paige sucked in sharply when the handkerchief finally slid over the tautened peak, her head spinning wildly. He did it again. Then again.
Confusion flung her eyes wide to search his. Was he being deliberately cruel? Did he have any idea what he was doing to her? She dared not believe this was real, but when their eyes met Paige was stunned to see he was as enthralled as she was by what he was doing.
The handkerchief came to rest over the traitorous peak, hiding it from sight. ‘Do you want to go upstairs and change?’ he asked her in a low, thickened voice.
‘I…I don’t have anything to change into,’ came her shaky reply, and Antonio frowned.
‘There’s no time to change,’ Conrad snapped irritably, from where he’d risen and was moving towards the now open dining room door. ‘Dinner’s ready to be served.’
‘Why don’t you have anything to change into?’ Antonio asked in a disconcertingly gentle tone as he led her still shaken self to her place at the table. ‘Or don’t you want to tell me?’
Suddenly, she did want to tell him. Suddenly, he wasn’t the disapproving, remote, unattainable man he’d become over the years. He was more like that other Antonio Scarlatti, the one who’d kindly met her train that day, and started her obsession with him.
Was one of her futile dreams in danger of coming true? Had Antonio finally seen her tonight as a grownup woman, and not a silly little girl?
‘Later,’ she whispered to him when he pulled her seat out for her.
His breath was warm against her ear as he scooped her chair under her. ‘I’ll look forward to it,’ he murmured, and she quivered helplessly.
Dinner was agony. And ecstasy. One minute she would be smiling and sparkling at him, then doubts would besiege her and she’d fall worriedly silent. Why now? she agonised. Why tonight? Did her father have anything to do with this? Had he ordered Antonio to be nice to her?
No, no, that couldn’t be it, she decided at long last. If Antonio’s ambitions lay in that direction, he would not have waited this long to pursue her. No, he was genuinely attracted to her tonight. She could feel it. There was a predatory glitter in his eyes, eyes which didn’t stop looking at her. Paige knew what it was like to be the object of a man’s sexual interest, and she could feel Antonio’s desire hitting her in waves.
He wanted to make love to her.
The thought was breathtaking. And compellingly exciting.
It was only a sexual thing, of course. Paige was not naive enough to think anything else. Antonio was a man of the world, a confirmed bachelor type whose commitment was to the company. His bed-partners were transitory, and replaceable, like her father’s. According to the staff at Fortune Hall, Antonio hadn’t brought the same woman to dinner, or a party there, in all the years of his employ. If Paige let him seduce her, he would promise her nothing but passing pleasures, followed by the ultimate in pains.
But, oh…those passing pleasures…
Paige could barely begin to imagine them.
The ultimate in pains, however, she could imagine.
She groaned a silent groan. She’d have to be crazy to set herself up for that!
‘Paige!’ her father snapped. ‘Evelyn’s asking you if you want some dessert. What’s the matter with you tonight, girl? One minute chattering away sixty to the dozen, the next off in some dream world!’
Her blue eyes cleared to see the hated housekeeper smirking at her from her position at her father’s shoulder.
‘No dessert, thank you,’ Paige said stiffly, while she struggled to suppress the overwhelmingly negative feelings the woman always evoked in her.
‘You’re not becoming anorexic again, are you?’ her father demanded, exasperation in his voice.
‘I was never anorexic!’ she defended hotly. ‘I have no idea where you ever got such an idea,’ she finished, whilst looking daggers at Evelyn.
The housekeeper’s beady eyes didn’t move an inch.
‘Then prove it by having some apple crumble!’ her father insisted. ‘Bring Paige a large helping, Evelyn. With plenty of cream.’
A helpless fury flooded Paige as the housekeeper swanned off with a triumphant expression on her face. If Antonio hadn’t been at the table she would have left the room. Instead, she was stuck there, feeling belittled and foolish. She could not bear to look over at Antonio, afraid to see his earlier attraction for her had faded because she was being treated like a difficult and wayward child.
‘The reason Paige probably turned dessert down, Conrad,’ Antonio said, and Paige’s eyes snapped up to stare across the table at him, ‘is because she promised to have supper with me later. I should have said no to dessert as well.’
Paige was as amazed as her father by this announcement. She’d only agreed to talk to Antonio later. Nothing more. But she wasn’t about to say anything. Not now.
‘You and Paige are having supper together?’ her father challenged. ‘Tonight?’
Antonio didn’t look at all concerned by his employer’s tone of disapproval. ‘I trust you have no objection to that?’ he returned, an icy counter-challenge in his voice.
Paige was mesmerised by the exchange.
‘No, no, I suppose not. It’s just that…well…I’m surprised, that’s all.’
No more than herself, Paige thought dazedly.
‘You only flew into town this morning,’ her father went on a little testily. ‘I would have thought you’d be too tired to go out.’
‘I slept on the plane,’ Antonio explained coolly. ‘I’m only home for two weeks, as you know. Terrible to waste my holiday sleeping it away, don’t you think? There are much better ways to spend one’s leisure time. What say you, Paige? Should we make our escape now, before Evelyn returns and force-feeds us both?’
Paige didn’t need any encouragement. She was on her feet in a flash. Too late, however. Evelyn was already coming into the room, carrying a tray of desserts towards the table.
Paige hesitated. Not so Antonio, who strode around the table towards her.
‘Our apologies, Evelyn,’ he said smoothly as he took Paige’s elbow and steered her towards the doorway. ‘Paige and I are going out and haven’t time for dessert right now.’
Paige expected the woman to look put out. Instead, she smiled oh, so sweetly at them both as they passed. ‘That’s quite all right, Antonio. Dessert will keep. It’s nice to see you and Paige are friends at long last.’
Paige’s mouth dropped open at Evelyn’s hypocrisy. There was no level to which that woman would not stoop!
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