The Fiance Fix
Carole Mortimer
International bestselling author Carole Mortimer makes a special guest appearance in Harlequin Romance!Joanne Delaney will do anything to protect her beloved daughter from a custody claim–including marrying for :onvenience! Only, she receives two unexpected proposals–one from handsome stranger Nick Mason, and another from wealthy businessman David Banning….
Dear Reader,
We’re constantly striving to bring you the best romance fiction by the most exciting authors…and in Harlequin Romance® we’re especially keen to feature fresh, sparkling, warmly emotional novels. Modern love stories to suit your every mood—poignant, deeply moving stories; lively upbeat romances with sparks flying; or sophisticated, edgy novels with an international flavor.
All our authors are special, and we hope you continue to enjoy each month’s new selection of Harlequin Romance novels. We’re proud to feature international bestselling Harlequin Presents author Carole Mortimer, who makes a special guest appearance in Harlequin Romance this month! Carole has more than 50 million books in print worldwide—her strong characters and dramatic stories keep readers enthralled until the very last page. In The Fiancé Fix, Carole has created a tantalizing feel-good story with a gripping emotional dilemma….
We hope you enjoy this book by Carole Mortimer—and look out for future sparkling stories in Harlequin Romance. If you’d like to share your thoughts and comments with us, do please write to:
Harlequin Romance
Eton House,18-24 Paradise Road
Richmond, Surrey
TW9 1SR, U.K.
Happy reading!
The Editors
Carole Mortimer says, “I was born in England, the youngest of three children—I have two older brothers. I started writing in 1978, and have now written over ninety books for Harlequin.
“I have four sons—Matthew, Joshua, Timothy and Peter—and a bearded collie called Merlyn. I’m in a very happy relationship with Peter senior. We’re best friends as well as lovers, which is probably the best recipe for a successful relationship. We live on the Isle of Man.”
Acclaim for Carole Mortimer:
“Carole Mortimer integrates great character development into a fast-paced story.”
—Romantic Times on The One and Only
“Carole Mortimer does an excellent job of piquing readers with a mysterious plot and multi-faceted characters that blend to perfection.”
—Romantic Times on Fated Attraction
“Carole Mortimer dishes up outstanding reading as she blends dynamic characters, volatile scenes, superb chemistry and a wonderful premise.”
—Romantic Times on Married by Christmas
The Fiancé Fix
Carole Mortimer
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
My Husband,
Peter
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE (#u55895142-3e42-58fc-b955-21a134d4f519)
CHAPTER TWO (#u06520ad2-bbe1-5402-b8b5-30f9d8bba1da)
CHAPTER THREE (#u03561fd8-2c56-519b-ab26-ae2f416d9dd0)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u85907997-80ab-5e55-a075-ff4facc40a1f)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE
‘IS THIS place only for women, or do you do men as well?’
Now, there was a leading question, Joey thought humorously, looking up from the money she had been counting in the till at the end of a long working day.
Wow! The man standing in the doorway might not have a way with words, but his looks more than made up for it: tall and muscular, with a ruggedly handsome face, shaggy dark hair, and come-to-bed eyes the same colour as melted brown chocolate.
Joey paused; now, where had that last thought come from? She was a thirty-year-old single mother with a six-year-old daughter. During the last ten years or so she thought she had heard every chat-up line in the book—she had certainly never been attracted to a man because of the unspoken message in his eyes—the opposite in fact!
She straightened. ‘This is a unisex hair salon, if that’s what you’re asking,’ she answered drily.
His mouth twisted. ‘That’s what I was asking,’ he confirmed wryly. ‘Do you have the time to do something with his?’ He ran a rueful hand through the thickness of his dark, unruly hair.
In fact, the salon had closed at five-thirty, five minutes ago, but Susie, the last assistant to leave, must have forgotten to put the catch down on the door on her way out.
‘Actually, we’re closed—’
‘I’m sorry to have bothered you.’ The man nodded, turning to leave.
‘—but if you’re only wanting a trim…?’ Joey finished with a questioning rise of her blonde brows. It was Lily’s evening for ballet, so Joey didn’t actually have to leave to collect her for another half an hour or so.
‘That’s great!’ The man did such a quick about-face as he strode back into the salon, closing the door behind him as he did so, that Joey took a step backwards.
He certainly wasn’t backward in coming forward! And in the confines of the modern salon, with its black and chrome decor, posters of the latest hairstyles adorning the walls, the man’s sheer size was even more noticeable. Broad shoulders in a checked work shirt, tapered waist, long legs in blue, slightly dusty denims—the man had to be well over six feet tall.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all, Joey worried as she came out from behind the reception desk; despite his size, the man seemed friendly enough, but the two of them were very much alone in here, and even serial killers could probably be charming!
‘Believe me, I’m only interested in having my hair trimmed,’ the man reassured her as he settled himself down in one of the chairs that faced the mirrored wall.
Joey’s face flamed with embarrassment. So much for the cool sophisticate she believed herself to be; one look at her expression, and this man had known exactly what she was thinking!
She took down one of the protective wraps hanging on the rail behind her and draped it around him, effectively trapping his hands beneath its folds; a rose-pink wrap usually set aside for female clients. Two could play at this game!
‘Now, what would you like done?’ she enquired in her most professional voice, looking at his reflection in the mirror, dismissing the realisation of how tiny she looked standing next to him. Only as tall standing as he was sitting down, her shoulder-length blonde hair cut in a shaggy easy-to-manage style, guarded green eyes surrounded by dark lashes as they met his gaze levelly.
He shrugged. ‘As I said, just a trim.’
He had very nice hair, as chocolate-brown as those teasing eyes. If a little dusty, she discovered as she ran her hands professionally through the healthy brown waves.
‘Would you like your hair washed before I cut it?’ she offered lightly.
‘I’ll wash it later when I shower,’ he refused with a grimace. ‘If you don’t mind the fact I’m a little dusty, that is?’ He raised dark brows.
‘Not at all.’ Joey turned away to pick up her comb and scissors, having noticed on closer proximity that he gave off an odour of aftershave, with an underlying masculine smell of sweat usually engendered by physical labour. ‘Are you working on the building site next door?’ she asked conversationally as she began to cut his hair.
He nodded. ‘I really am sorry I’m such a mess,’ he grimaced again. ‘Ordinarily, I would never have come in here straight from work, but—’
‘You have a heavy date tonight?’ Joey guessed teasingly—looking like this, when wouldn’t this man have a ‘heavy date’?
‘Something like that.’ He chuckled softly, a deep, throaty sound that made Joey’s nerve-endings tingle.
Much to her disquiet. Really, this man had just walked in here off the street, was obviously a building labourer, probably a transient worker; the chances were Joey would never see him again after today. Besides, he had a ‘heavy date’ this evening…
‘How are things progressing over there?’ She nodded in the direction of the building site behind the salon.
‘Not bad. This place will be coming down soon too, won’t it?’ he queried lightly.
Joey’s fingers faltered slightly as she shaped the hair over his ears, glad she was bending forward so that he couldn’t see her expression clearly. ‘Soon, yes,’ she confirmed hardly.
She tried not to think about it, despite the fact that her landlord had informed her several weeks ago that he wouldn’t be renewing her lease when it came to an end in two months’ time.
Like everyone else in this block of buildings, he had sold out to the Mason supermarket chain. A supermarket chain rapidly becoming the biggest in the country, and so able to pay her landlord a much larger sum than he would ever receive in rent, even over a hundred-year period! In fact all of the other properties in this particular square were already empty, or in some cases demolished.
This man might be slightly dusty, but the salon had been in a similar condition since the first building came down several weeks ago, dust covering every surface no matter how often it was cleaned.
‘Sore point?’ the man in front of her prompted softly.
‘Yes.’ Joey didn’t even attempt to prevaricate; ‘sore’ didn’t begin to describe how she felt over effectively being evicted. ‘I realise you work for Dominic Mason,’ she sighed, ‘but—’
‘The building work for the new supermarket is contracted out to Harding Construction,’ he cut in.
‘Whatever,’ Joey dismissed—what did it matter who built the damned thing? The fact that she was having to find new premises for her business was still causing a major upheaval in her life.
As if she needed another one just now! Lily’s father had crawled out of the woodwork two months ago too. In fact, she had received notification that her lease wouldn’t be renewed and the letter from Lily’s father on the very same day. A black day in her life!
The first, in view of the fact that her lease was coming to an end anyway, it appeared she could do nothing about. The second she had dealt with by way of a very abrupt letter informing Daniel Banning that she had absolutely nothing to say to him, that anything that needed to be said had already been done so. The silence since she had sent that letter had been oppressive.
‘You were saying…?’ her customer prompted curiously. ‘About Dominic Mason,’ he reminded her as Joey looked at his reflection blankly.
Dominic Mason, Joey thought disgustedly. Since his appearance in the supermarket line ten years ago the man had managed to buy out two other prominent chains, expanding to the States and Europe, as well as increasing his own chain in England.
‘The man will only be happy when he owns every supermarket in the world,’ she gritted.
‘A supermarket megalomaniac,’ the man said with knowing humour.
‘Exactly,’ Joey agreed, easily getting into full stride where the subject of Dominic Mason was concerned. ‘Just how much money does one man need?’ she scorned, snipping away at the dark hair. ‘He—’
‘Not too short, if you don’t mind,’ the man put in softly.
‘Sorry.’ She gave him a rueful smile, easing up on the cutting. ‘As you’ve probably guessed, Dominic Mason is not my favourite person.’
‘Hardly surprising, really.’ The man nodded. ‘Has your boss found somewhere else to go yet?’
Boss…?
‘I’m the “Joanne” over the shop front,’ she corrected him. ‘Although everyone calls me Joey,’ she added—for some reason she wasn’t completely sure of. Her friends called her Joey—and this man was far from being that!
‘I hadn’t realised you’re actually the owner,’ he admitted. ‘No wonder you’re p—er—not feeling very happy—’ he amended whatever he had been about to say ‘—with Dominic Mason.’
‘He’ll win in the end, of course,’ she sighed, brushing away the cut hair from the back of his neck. ‘His sort always do. But I don’t intend moving from here until I absolutely have to,’ she added resolutely.
She knew that her salon was probably causing problems to the building of the new Mason supermarket, standing as it did almost in the middle of the construction site! Good—any nuisance value she could give Dominic Mason was worth all the dust she had to contend with every day!
‘I can’t say that I blame you,’ the man acknowledged lightly, standing up once Joey had removed the pink wrap. ‘How much do I owe you?’
‘It’s eight pounds fifty for a trim,’ she related automatically, glancing at the serviceable watch on her wrist; nearly time to pick up Lily and her friend Daisy from ballet; it seemed flowers had been the fashion in girls’ names six years ago!
‘Damn!’ He had reached into his jeans pocket, the hand coming out empty. ‘I remember now. I left my wallet in my other clothes.’ He groaned. ‘A building site isn’t exactly the ideal place to carry money and credit cards.’
Great. Now it turned out the man couldn’t even pay her for the haircut! As for his ‘other clothes’, the dusty jeans and shirt looked as if he had been wearing them for some time. Not that this was the first time something like this had happened to her, but it was usually one of Joey’s regular customers who had simply left their purse at home by mistake.
‘Look, I’m really sorry about this,’ the man apologised, dark colour staining the hardness of his cheeks. ‘Is it OK if I drop the money in first thing in the morning?’
‘Fine,’ Joey answered, sure she wasn’t going to see this man—or the money—the next day.
Not that she was a cynic, exactly; it was just that life had a habit of throwing unexpected curves at her. Being taken in by this man was just one more thing to add to an already lengthy list!
‘You don’t believe me, do you?’ he realised slowly as he studied her with narrowed eyes.
Joey gave him a quick smile. ‘I said it’s fine.’ After all, it had been her own time she had been wasting! Time, she realised after a second glance at her watch, that she no longer had to waste.
‘I hope I haven’t kept you from anything?’ He had obviously seen that second glance at her wristwatch.
‘Not at all,’ she assured him lightly. ‘And please don’t give paying for the haircut another thought.’ She waved a dismissive hand.
‘I’ve said I’ll pay you in the morning, and I will,’ he assured her grimly. ‘I should lock this door after me, if I were you,’ he advised firmly.
Come-to-bed eyes and a caring nature…! Quite an attractive combination.
No way, Joey, she immediately reproved herself. There were enough complications in her life already—finding new premises for her salon, as well as fending off Daniel Banning’s attempts to disrupt the life she had painstakingly built for Lily and herself—without finding herself attracted to a man who had a ‘heavy date’ this evening—and who didn’t even have the money to pay for his haircut!
‘Thanks.’ She followed him over to the door.
He turned in the doorway. ‘I really will be by first thing in the morning to pay you,’ he repeated.
‘Of course you will.’ She nodded, unconvinced.
His mouth tightened at her obvious scepticism. ‘What time do you open?’
‘Nine-thirty. But, as I’ve already said, don’t worry about it—’
‘Oh, but I will,’ he cut in softly. ‘It will probably keep me awake all night,’ he teased, before striding off to get into the dusty pick-up parked outside.
Joey gave a derisive snort as she watched him drive away; he might not get any sleep tonight, but she had a definite feeling it would have more to do with his ‘heavy date’ than it would worrying over the fact that he owed her eight pounds fifty!
‘OK, Daisy, we’re home,’ Joey told her young charge drily. The two young girls seated in the back of the car were talking so much that she was sure neither of them was aware they had reached Daisy’s home.
Joey wouldn’t mind, but the two girls saw each other every day at school, and for a couple of hours afterwards, but as soon as tea and homework were over Lily would be on the telephone to her best friend, talking away as if the two girls hadn’t seen each other for weeks!
Had she ever been like that? Joey wondered ruefully. She didn’t think so. But, for all her faults, her mother had at least been waiting at home for her every day when she came home. Both being children of single mothers, neither Lily or Daisy had that…
‘Thanks.’ Daisy grinned at her before scrambling out of the back of the car.
‘Tell your mother I’ll be here to pick you up at eight-thirty in the morning,’ Joey told her automatically, returning Hilary’s wave as the other woman came out of the house to greet Daisy.
Both on their own, the two women shared the responsibility of their two daughters while they juggled the careers they needed to support them—Joey driving the girls to school in the morning, Hilary picking them up in the afternoons and keeping Lily with her until Joey picked her up after work. The arrangement had worked very well so far.
‘Did you have a good day, Mummy?’ Lily asked interestedly as they drove the extra mile to their own home. She was a tiny replica of Joey—thank goodness Joey could see none of her father in her!
Joey frowned. Until five-thirty it had been like all the other days she had had recently—busy, and dusty. Until she had been taken in by that—But there was no reason to bother Lily with that.
‘It was fine, darling,’ she responded lightly. ‘How about you?’
Her daughter’s face was screwed up when Joey glanced at her in the driving mirror. ‘I’ve brought my spelling test home for Friday.’
Joey held back a smile; the trouble with schoolwork was that it got in the way of Lily’s social life!
‘I’m sure we’ll cope,’ she promised, straight-faced. ‘Now, what do you fancy for tea today?’
‘Pasta and chicken nuggets,’ her daughter answered predictably—she very rarely willingly ate anything else.
Joey smiled indulgently. ‘I think we’ll put a few peas with that, don’t you?’ she teased—Lily’s aversion to vegetables was universal in children her age.
‘If you have to,’ her daughter allowed grudgingly. ‘I—Oh, look, Mummy, there’s a car parked outside our house,’ she said excitedly.
Joey frowned as she looked at the blue car parked at the roadside; visitors were few and far between to the tiny end-terrace house the two shared in a quiet residential part of town. Between work and caring for Lily, with all that entailed, there was very little time for a social life of her own.
‘Perhaps they’re visiting next door,’ she dismissed, parking her own car behind the blue one before getting out and opening the back door for Lily, deliberately not paying too much attention to the parked car. Just because they rarely received visitors that was no reason to stare at the car as if it were a vehicle from outer space!
Her daughter felt no such inhibitions, openly ogling the car as she held on to Joey’s hand and they walked to their front door. ‘There’s a man sitting inside, Mummy,’ she told Joey in a stage whisper.
Joey winced at the loudness of her daughter’s voice, sure the ‘man sitting inside’ the car must have heard her. After all, the car engine was switched off, and it was a warm evening, so the man probably had the window down too.
She unlocked their front door before pushing it open. ‘Come on, Lily’ she encouraged as her daughter still hung back curiously.
‘He’s getting out of the car, Mummy,’ Lily informed her even as she pulled on the sleeve of the light jacket Joey wore over a pink T-shirt and black trousers.
Joey could see that for herself, her gaze narrowing against the evening sunshine as she watched the man slowly unfolding his long length from inside the car.
Tall and blond, with a smoothly handsome face dominated by a pair of analytical blue eyes that raked over her in cool assessment, before moving down to stare openly at Lily. Joey felt as if she had had all the breath kicked out of her as she instantly recognised him.
Lily’s father.
The ominous feeling that had dogged her for the weeks following her terse letter in reply to his own came back in full force.
Because Joey knew, as she put a protective arm about Lily and pulled her daughter close against her, there could be only one reason why Daniel had come here…
CHAPTER TWO
‘GO INSIDE and hang up your school blazer, Lily,’ Joey told her daughter shakily. ‘I’ll join you in a few minutes.’
‘But, Mummy—’
‘Go inside, Lily!’ she snapped, before drawing in a deep controlling breath, forcing herself to smile reassuringly as her daughter’s bottom lip wobbled precariously at her unexpected terseness. ‘I’ll be in shortly,’ she assured her lightly. ‘Go and put a video on for a while,’ she encouraged, knowing this unexpected treat after school would soothe Lily’s ruffled feelings; usually television and videos were banned until the weekend.
‘Great!’ Lily enthused, before rushing into the house without a backward glance, their unexpected visitor already forgotten.
At least, by Lily…
Joey tensed once her daughter was safely inside the house, her shoulders straightening as she raised her head to look across at the man who had created this scene.
She narrowed her gaze, her expression one of puzzlement as she looked at him fully. ‘You aren’t Daniel,’ she realised slowly.
Oh, this man was very like Lily’s father—both men tall and blond, both having those cool, calculating blue eyes—but this man was older than the thirty-two Daniel would now be, was probably aged in his late thirties or early forties. But the likeness between the two men was enough for Joey not to feel entirely reassured by this fact…
‘My name is David Banning.’ The man spoke with a hard American drawl. ‘I’m Daniel’s brother.’
Daniel’s brother…Joey hadn’t even known he had a brother. Although she had no reason to doubt this man’s word. Besides, the likeness was unmistakable.
‘Daniel didn’t have the nerve to show his face here himself, then?’ she scorned.
The blue gaze became even more icy, the hard mouth tightening into a thin line. ‘That would have been rather difficult, in the circumstances,’ David Banning rasped harshly. ‘Daniel died four months ago!’
Joey could only stare uncomprehendingly at David Banning after he made this blunt announcement, unable to take in what he had just said, swallowing hard, swaying slightly, knowing a sudden feeling of light-headedness.
Daniel was dead…?
But how—? What…?
She shook her head as a sudden thought occurred to her. ‘He can’t be,’ she denied weakly. ‘I…He wrote to me. Just two months ago—’
‘That was me,’ David Banning interrupted.
D. Banning. The letter she had received had been signed ‘D. Banning’. This man, Daniel’s brother, was D. Banning too…
She had thought the signature on the letter a little formal, given the circumstances, but, as Daniel hadn’t been seen since the moment he was informed of Lily’s birth, Joey had decided he really was the stranger he obviously preferred to be.
But the letter hadn’t been from Daniel at all. Because he had already been dead two months when the letter was sent…
‘How did he die?’ she breathed huskily.
His brother shrugged dismissively. ‘The same way he lived—recklessly,’ he said harshly. ‘He was driving a high-speed motorboat—too fast—when it flipped over and sank. We recovered his body three days later,’ he added.
Joey thought back to the fun-loving, irresponsible man she had known seven years ago. Yes, she could see Daniel enjoying the power of going along on the water at high speed, could almost hear that huskily triumphant laugh of his as he challenged the sea gods.
And lost…
‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured dazedly.
‘Are you?’ his brother questioned sceptically. ‘I think the two of us need to talk, don’t you?’ he added hardly.
Joey stiffened defensively. She didn’t like the sound of that at all. This man had already told her all that she needed to know—hadn’t he…?
‘As you can see, I’m rather busy at the moment.’ She nodded vaguely in the direction of the house, the sound of the video playing inside audible in the quiet of early evening.
‘As I can see,’ David Banning echoed softly, moving around the car to stand only feet away from her, his light suit obviously expensively tailored, as was the white silk shirt and grey tie he wore beneath it. ‘She’s very like Daniel,’ he murmured huskily.
Joey recoiled at the claim. ‘She is called Lily,’ she snapped coldly. ‘And she is absolutely nothing like Daniel. Thank God!’
‘Just so,’ David Banning acknowledged with a mocking inclination of his head. ‘But I still say we need to talk—Josey, isn’t it?’ he drawled knowingly.
‘Joey,’ she corrected abruptly, desperately trying to take all of this in.
Just how much did this man know of what had happened seven years ago? And exactly what did he want to do about it?
‘Joey,’ he repeated with a hard smile. ‘I realise all this has probably been—a shock for you,’ he drawled. ‘I also accept that you’re tied up with…Lily at the moment, and that our conversation would be better taking place where she can’t be a witness to it.’ He frowned thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps you could meet me later this evening and we could go somewhere quiet and have dinner together—’
‘No!’ she cut in harshly. ‘No,’ she repeated more calmly as he looked at her with raised brows. ‘It isn’t possible to organise a babysitter at such short notice. Besides—’
‘Besides, you don’t want to have dinner with me later,’ David Banning finished. ‘I’ve come over from the States for the sole purpose of talking to you, Joey—’
‘My name is Delaney,’ she cut in forcefully. ‘Miss Delaney,’ she added pointedly. ‘I don’t know you well enough for you to call me Joey.’
She hadn’t known the man at the salon earlier well enough, either, came the unbidden thought, and yet she had invited him to use the familiarity! In retrospect, the fact that he owed her eight pounds fifty for a haircut was nothing when put into perspective with the damage this other man could wreak in her life!
‘Miss Delaney,’ David Banning mused mockingly. ‘It’s Irish, isn’t it?’
‘So what if it is?’ she challenged defensively.
‘No reason.’ He shrugged. ‘Let’s make it tomorrow evening, then,’ he continued hardly, his tone brooking no argument to what wasn’t even meant to sound like a suggestion.
Joey was aware that she had been outside talking to him on the pavement for over ten minutes already, and Lily wouldn’t remain enthralled in her video for long if Joey failed to appear. But she didn’t want to meet this man tomorrow evening!
‘I’m staying at the Grosvenor Hotel.’ He named the best hotel in town—although it was obvious from his tone that it didn’t come up to his usual standards.
Joey knew from Daniel that the Bannings were a very prominent banking family in New York, and that they lived up to that lifestyle one hundred per cent; obviously the little town in which Joey had chosen to make her home, with its three-star hotel, didn’t quite meet those standards!
‘That’s nice for you,’ she returned sarcastically.
David Banning’s mouth tightened at her obvious scorn. ‘I was suggesting that we meet there tomorrow evening for dinner,’ he rasped.
He hadn’t been ‘suggesting’ anything—it had been in the nature of an order! But the Grosvenor wasn’t a place Joey knew well, and the chances were that no one there would know her, either…Besides, she doubted this man would go away until he had spoken to her.
‘Very well,’ she accepted abruptly. ‘I’ll meet you there at eight o’clock tomorrow evening.’ She was sure the neighbour’s teenage daughter, who usually babysat for her on the rare occasions she went out, would be only too pleased to earn some extra money. ‘Now, if that’s all…?’ she added pointedly.
‘For the moment.’ He gave an abrupt inclination of his head.
‘Who was that man, Mummy?’ Lily turned to ask curiously when Joey entered the sitting-room a few minutes later.
‘Just a salesman trying to sell me something,’ Joey dismissed tersely; Lily had never known her father—she certainly didn’t need to know that the man outside was his brother! ‘Tea will be ready in fifteen minutes,’ she added lightly, before escaping to the kitchen.
Once there she took some time to gather her scattered thoughts together. The D. Banning who had written to her had been Daniel’s brother David, not Daniel himself. And now he had travelled all the way from America for the sole purpose of talking to her. There could be only one subject he wanted to discuss with her—Lily!
Well. Joey straightened decisively. He could say whatever it was he wanted to say, and then leave. Neither she nor Lily needed anything from him.
‘There’s a man in the salon asking to see you, Joey,’ Hilary told her lightly as she came out back into the tiny room Joey occasionally used as an office.
Joey instantly paled. David Banning! He hadn’t waited for dinner this evening, after all. Why hadn’t he? What had happened that he needed to see her so early this morning? It would be too much to hope that he had come to inform her he had to return urgently to the States!
‘Thanks, Hilary.’ She gave her assistant and friend a shaky smile as she reluctantly stood up.
The two women had met a year ago, when Hilary came to the salon for a job, and within weeks of working together the two women had worked out their system—Hilary finished work at the salon at three-fifteen every weekday, so that she could go to the school to collect Lily and Daisy, and cared for Lily at her home until Joey finished at the salon for the day. It was a system that worked well for both women.
‘He’s rather gorgeous,’ Hilary murmured admiringly.
Joey had barely noticed David Banning’s good looks the evening before, but, yes, she supposed he was rather handsome. If you liked cold self-confidence that bordered on arrogance, that was. Joey didn’t—had been completely cured of that romantic image seven years ago when Daniel, also arrogantly confident, had walked out on them!
‘Perhaps,’ she answered noncommittally, moving around her desk to follow Hilary out into the salon, bracing herself for this second meeting with Daniel’s brother.
Her eyes widened with surprise as she saw the man waiting there. Not David Banning, after all, but the man from the previous evening who hadn’t been able to pay for his haircut!
He looked slightly less disreputable today, the shirt and denims looking relatively clean, at least.
‘You weren’t expecting me,’ he said slowly as he took in Joey’s surprised expression.
No, she hadn’t been, had been sure she’d been taken for a ride the evening before. But she was relieved to see that it was him rather than the man she had been expecting!
‘I told you I would be in this morning to pay for my haircut,’ he reminded her mockingly, handing her a ten-pound note.
Joey gave a shaky smile. ‘That’s very kind of you.’ She nodded, taking the money and putting it in the till.
The unexpected honesty had also gone some way to restoring her faith in human nature. Now, if she could just make David Banning go back to America without making any waves in her own or Lily’s lives…!
‘Keep the change,’ the man told her dismissively as she would have given him one pound fifty back. ‘We’ll call it interest paid, if you like,’ he added wryly.
‘The last I heard interest wasn’t as high as almost twenty per cent.’ Joey smiled wanly.
The man returned the smile. ‘Bad debts come slightly higher than normal—Hey, are you OK?’ He looked at her closely. ‘You look ill,’ he added, his brown eyes narrowing consideringly on the paleness of her face.
Joey was instantly on the defensive. She had spent a terrible evening after putting Lily to bed, worrying about David Banning’s visit here, and an even worse night as sleep evaded her, going over and over in her mind what Daniel’s brother could possibly want from her. Ultimately she had arrived at answers that were completely unacceptable to her.
She knew she looked awful, despite the make-up she had applied earlier in an effort to hide her sleepless night. But she couldn’t exactly say she appreciated this man commenting on the fact!
‘Of course I’m OK,’ she snapped irritably.
‘You don’t look it,’ the man persisted, making no effort to leave, despite the fact that he had now paid his ‘bad debt’.
Joey was aware of the fact that they were receiving curious looks. With the salon very busy at this time of the morning, staff and clients alike seemed more than a little interested in the conversation taking place between Joey and this ruggedly handsome man. And Hilary kept shooting them interested looks, even as she permed an elderly lady’s hair.
‘I really am fine, Mr—er—I’m fine,’ she repeated firmly as she realised she didn’t even know the man’s name.
‘Nick,’ he told her tersely. ‘And you aren’t fine,’ he refuted gently, taking a hold of her arm and turning her back in the direction of the tiny office she had just come from.
‘Really, Mr—Nick,’ she began indignantly. ‘You can’t just come in here and—’
‘And what?’ he prompted, releasing her once they were in the privacy of her office, the door firmly closed behind them. ‘Show a little concern for someone who, obviously tired from a day’s work last night, looks as if she had been run over by a steamroller?’
‘Thanks!’ Joey muttered drily, moving to sit behind the desk. She would feel better with a little distance between the two of them; her arm still tingled from where his fingers had held her!
‘Run over by a steamroller’. Was that really how she looked? Probably, she conceded—it was how she felt too!
‘Well?’ Nick faced her across the desk, arms folded stubbornly across the width of his chest.
Joey gave a dazed shake of her head. ‘I don’t even know you—’
‘What do you want to know?’ he rasped, dark eyes narrowed speculatively. ‘I’m thirty-five. Single. Financially independent—believe it or not,’ he added smiling wryly. ‘And I’m not leaving here until I find out what happened to the spiky, self-confident woman I met here last night!’
Joey stared up at him frustratedly, his sheer size making her very aware of just how small this office really was. ‘Nothing happened to me,’ she dismissed impatiently.
‘Liar,’ he murmured reprovingly.
She frowned. ‘I do not appreciate being called a liar,’ she snapped.
He shrugged unconcernedly. ‘Then stop being one,’ he advised lightly.
Joey drew in a sharp breath. ‘Don’t you have work to go to?’ she told him pointedly; after all, it was almost ten o’clock.
‘Eventually.’ He nodded. ‘I’m still waiting, Joey,’ he reminded her softly several minutes later, the silence between them stretched weightily.
She swallowed hard, totally overwhelmed by this man’s persistence. Ordinarily she would have just insisted he leave, but her sleepless night, her worry over David Banning’s presence in England, meant that her defences weren’t as firmly in place as they usually were. In fact, she felt quite tearful.
She didn’t just feel tearful, Joey realised as the tears began to fall hotly down her cheeks!
‘I thought so.’ Nick nodded, moving quickly round the desk to pull her up into his arms. ‘Poor baby,’ he murmured softly against her hair as he cradled her against the hard warmth of his chest.
‘I’m hardly that,’ she choked tearfully, devastated by her emotional breakdown. Maybe if Nick hadn’t been so kind to her… ‘This is ridiculous,’ she decided self-disgustedly, pushing away from him. ‘I’m ridiculous,’ she muttered, smoothing back the silkiness of her hair; it was preferable to meeting the concern in those dark brown eyes.
‘It’s nothing to feel ashamed of,’ Nick rebuked gently. ‘We all cry sometimes.’
Most people cried sometimes, Joey inwardly conceded. Although somehow she doubted that David Banning ever did; there was a hard steeliness about him that made him a more formidable force than his brother had ever been. Daniel had just ignored or laughed off anything he found unacceptable in his silver-spoon life. Things like having a daughter…
‘I’m not ashamed,’ she returned, back under control now. ‘But, as you can see, the salon is rather busy this morning—’
‘Have lunch with me?’ Nick cut in determinedly.
Joey almost laughed at the incongruity of the suggestion; lunch with a building labourer, and dinner with a powerful American banker. Could the two men be any more different? Although she knew which one she preferred!
‘Haven’t you missed enough work already for one day?’ she reasoned. ‘Even though you don’t work for Dominic Mason, I’m sure your boss can’t be this understanding!’
Nick shrugged unconcernedly. ‘I do more than my fair share of work,’ he dismissed. ‘Lunch, Joey,’ he said again. ‘You look as if you need a break from here. And something to eat might do you some good too,’ he added grimly.
It probably would; she had been too upset to do more than drink a cup of coffee before leaving the house this morning. But did she want to have lunch with this man? A man whose touch she could still feel, minutes later, tingling up the length of her arm…?
One look at his determinedly set face told her that she really didn’t have a lot of choice about it, that Nick wouldn’t leave here until he had her agreement to meet him for lunch.
She sighed heavily. ‘There’s a sandwich bar just down the road. I’ll meet you in there at one o’clock.’
‘A sandwich bar,’ he repeated drily. ‘Can’t we do better than that?’
They probably could. But, like her, he probably had a pretty tight budget—especially after his ‘heavy date’ the evening before! Besides, the way she felt at the moment, she wouldn’t do justice to more than a sandwich.
‘I only have an hour for lunch; a sandwich will be fine,’ she insisted.
‘Non-negotiable, hmm,’ he realised knowingly.
‘Non-negotiable.’ Joey agreed with a brief smile.
‘Then it will have to do.’ Nick nodded. ‘One o’clock. Don’t be late, or I’ll come looking for you,’ he warned in parting.
Joey stared after him, wondering how on earth she had got herself into this situation. One minute the man had been a written-off bad debt, and the next she found herself with a date to meet him for lunch!
She had thought yesterday was a bad day, but this one didn’t look as if it was going to be any better!
CHAPTER THREE
‘COME on, Joey, choose a sandwich,’ Nick encouraged smilingly as she continued to study the menu, despite the hovering waitress. ‘The government doesn’t take this long to make a decision!’
The problem was, she didn’t feel like eating anything. As the morning had progressed the hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach had deepened—and it had nothing to do with hunger. Being forced into meeting this man for lunch was guaranteed not to improve that hollowness.
After Nick had gone this morning she had spent at least ten minutes remonstrating with herself for being badgered into having lunch with him at all—although she didn’t doubt for a moment that he would carry out his threat to ‘come looking for her’ if she didn’t turn up. His presence at the salon this morning had already created enough speculation, without adding to it.
She closed the menu. ‘Just cheese on brown bread. Oh, and a cappuccino,’ she told the waitress with a smile.
‘It took you ten minutes to decide that?’ Nick teased once they were alone again.
Joey didn’t know how he had spent the intervening three hours, but he looked just as clean and tidy now as he had at ten o’clock this morning. Not that it mattered to her what he had been doing, she hastily told herself. Except she was starting to become intrigued in spite of herself, was totally aware of everything about Nick…
Which, in the circumstances, was ridiculous. She already had enough to contend with without having to deal with Nick as well. It was amazing, really; there hadn’t been a man even on the most distant horizon for over two years, and just when she least needed the complication Nick decided to force his way into her life. Next time a man asked to have his hair cut after hours she would just say the salon was closed and have done with it!
‘Is it because you’re having to close the salon?’ Nick prompted gently.
Joey stopped pleating the tablecloth between agitated fingers, looking up at him. ‘Sorry?’
‘You’re frowning again,’ he explained lightly. ‘I wondered if your obvious lack of sleep last night was due to worry over relocating your salon?’
She grimaced. ‘Amongst other things.’
Although, in all honesty, she hadn’t given the problem of the salon another thought after David Banning’s visit the evening before. Closing down and relocating the salon paled into insignificance when compared with trying to guess the reason David Banning had come all the way from America to see her. Or, rather, not her; he had obviously come to see Lily. Which was even more worrying.
‘Other things?’ Nick prompted softly.
Joey gave the slightest beginnings of a smile. ‘You’re very astute.’
‘For a rough and ready building worker,’ he added drily.
She gasped. ‘I didn’t say that—’
‘You didn’t have to.’ He grinned. ‘It was there in the surprised tone of your voice.’
‘Sorry.’ She gave an awkward shrug, totally disarmed by the effect his grin was having on her. In any other circumstances—But, no, she must concentrate on the problem at hand, not create more for herself.
‘So tell me what “other things”,’ Nick encouraged huskily. ‘I can keep a secret. Honest,’ he added persuasively.
‘Most men can,’ Joey acknowledged drily. ‘It’s the one thing they’re really good at!’
‘Ouch!’ Nick winced at her scathing tone. ‘I gather from that remark that you’ve met more than your fair share of male chauvinist pigs? Or is that term out of fashion now?’ he added derisively.
She smiled. ‘I believe we just refer to them all as selfish bastards nowadays.’
He raised dark brows. ‘Not very flattering to their mothers.’
Joey instantly sobered. ‘No,’ she acknowledged hardly, inwardly wondering whether, when the baby was born, if it had been a boy instead of a girl Daniel would have taken more interest than he had. After all, a boy would have been the Banning heir…
But it was no good wallowing in such conjecture; the baby had been her beautiful, totally adorable Lily, and now Daniel himself was dead, anyway. Without ever having seen his daughter…
She drew in a ragged breath, deliberately meeting the warmth of the enquiring brown gaze across the table from her own. ‘I’m a single mother,’ she stated flatly.
‘Ah,’ Nick murmured with a slow nod of his head.
As if he finally had the answer to all his questions, Joey thought bad-temperedly. Which was ridiculous. Dozens of women brought children up on their own these days. For many reasons.
‘Ah, nothing,’ Joey snapped, leaning back slightly so that the waitress could place their sandwiches and drinks down in front of them. ‘Being a single mother has its problems,’ she conceded. ‘But it also has its benefits,’ she added determinedly.
‘Such as?’ Nick prompted interestedly, before taking a hungry bite of the club sandwich he had ordered for himself.
‘Such as no negative input from an uninterested father!’ she bit out with feeling.
Daniel had dealt with the responsibility of having Lily as his daughter with as little trouble to himself as possible: namely he’d paid a set amount of money into a bank account each month.
An amount that had continued to be paid in the four months since he had died, Joey realised slowly. On David Banning’s instructions…? If so, why? Daniel’s death four months ago had surely completely nullified any responsibility the Banning family might, or might not, feel towards Lily?
‘You’re frowning again, Joey,’ Nick probed softly.
She drew in a ragged breath, at the same time shaking her head in self-derision. It was simply no good tormenting herself with all these thoughts and questions; no doubt she would have the answer to all of them this evening. When she had dinner with David Banning. It was the waiting that was killing her.
‘Just ignore me,’ she told Nick ruefully, before biting into her own sandwich.
‘Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that,’ Nick told her huskily, his gaze suddenly very intense. ‘You intrigue me, Joey,’ he added softly.
She stiffened, looking across at him with clear green eyes. ‘I wouldn’t waste your time, if I were you; I’ve just told you all that there is to know about me,’ she bit out dismissively.
‘It’s my time to waste.’ He shrugged. ‘And so far it hasn’t been wasted,’ he assured her.
Joey found herself mesmerised by the warmth in those deep brown eyes, by the sensual nature implied by that fuller lower lip; she didn’t doubt for a moment that Nick would be a caring as well as passionate lover—
Lover? Now she really had gone too far!
She put her half-eaten sandwich back down on the plate. ‘I have to go—’
‘No, you don’t,’ Nick cut in assuredly. ‘I checked in the appointment book earlier while I was waiting in the salon to talk to you; your next appointment—for a perm, I believe,’ he added drily, ‘isn’t until two-thirty.’
He had checked earlier?
Did that mean he had intended inviting her out to lunch all the time? Why else would he have checked the appointment book…?
‘Look, Nick, I think you might have misunderstood the situation,’ she began hardly.
‘Let me see,’ he murmured thoughtfully. ‘You agreed to cut my hair last night because you had a little time to kill before going home. You didn’t believe for one moment that I would return this morning with the money to pay for it, and were obviously surprised when I did,’ he continued determinedly as Joey would have spoken. ‘You’re a single mother. You don’t have a lot of time for—or faith in—men. Understandably,’ he accepted. ‘Have I “misunderstood” anything so far?’ He raised mocking brows.
Joey closed her mouth, looking at him with narrowed eyes. No, he seemed to have got the gist of circumstances so far. ‘You missed out the fact that I’m not interested in a relationship at the moment,’ she finally told him firmly.
‘Or at any time in the near future, if I’ve read the signs correctly,’ Nick acknowledged good-humouredly.
Joey glared at him frustratedly. If he had read those signs, what was he doing here?
More to the point, what was she doing here…?
She knew the answer to that only too well; Nick had read the signs, he had just chosen to ignore them. And he had decided to make her ignore them too.
But not any more. ‘Exactly,’ she told him determinedly, bending to pick her bag up from the floor. ‘Now, if you will excuse me—’ She broke off as Nick reached out and took a firm grasp of her arm, looking first at his hand against the paleness of her skin, and then across at the man himself. ‘Would you please let me go?’ she demanded evenly.
‘In a minute.’ He nodded abruptly, making no attempt to set her free. ‘Joey, don’t let one bad experience sour the rest of your life,’ he told her huskily.
‘One bad experience?’ she returned mockingly.
‘However many there have been,’ he dismissed impatiently.
Joey wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that! ‘Actually, personally, there’s only been the one,’ she conceded grudgingly. ‘But I’ve seen dozens of other terrible relationships to know it’s a lottery out there, and that the man usually has the advantage.’ She shook her head. ‘I used to say that if I ever “came back” I wanted to be a man. But then I gave it a little more thought—and realised that by the time that happened the women would probably be in charge!’ She grinned at the thought.
‘I think you would get on well with my sister,’ Nick said, finally releasing her. ‘She is of similar sentiments,’ he explained ruefully as Joey sank back down into her chair.
‘You have a sister?’ Joey asked interestedly. And not just because it would turn the conversation away from her for a while; she was interested in this man in spite of herself!
Nick gave a grin. ‘And a mother and father,’ he admitted sardonically. ‘In fact, I went up to London and had dinner with them all last night,’ he added drily, brows arched over teasing brown eyes as he saw Joey’s look of surprise. ‘Not the “heavy date” you had in mind?’ he taunted lightly.
Not exactly, no, she inwardly acknowledged. ‘Tell me about them,’ she invited softly, relaxing back in her seat now that Nick no longer had that grip on her arm. But, as before, her skin tingled where he had touched her…
‘Not a lot to tell, really.’ He shrugged. ‘My father is something in the City; my mother is the perfect wife and mother. My sister is two years older than me, editor on a newspaper, divorced—and intending to stay that way,’ he revealed drily.
Joey gave a rueful smile. ‘There’s a lot of it about!’
‘Unfortunately, yes,’ Nick agreed heavily. ‘It’s a bit tough on us men when all you women have decided that marriage and motherhood aren’t for you,’ he explained wryly.
Her mouth twisted. ‘I’ve usually found it’s the other way round—marriage and fatherhood aren’t for you!’ she explained as he raised his brows questioningly.
He shrugged. ‘Speaking personally—’
‘I really do have to go, Nick,’ she cut in firmly—she didn’t want to know how he ‘personally’ felt about the subject. Or any subject, for that matter. In fact, the conversation had become altogether too personal for two people who had only met briefly the previous evening! ‘I have some shopping to do before my two-thirty appointment,’ she added, at the same time taking some money from her bag to pay for her lunch.
‘Don’t,’ Nick warned softly as she would have put the money on the table. ‘I think I can manage to pay for a sandwich you haven’t eaten,’ he added mockingly at her questioning look.
No doubt he could, but it was a fact that most men expected you to pay your own way, even for a sandwich! ‘Thank you,’ she accepted, putting the money back in her bag.
Nick chuckled softly. ‘Very graciously done, Joey. Even if it did almost kill you!’ he added, still laughing.
Joey returned his smile. ‘It was that obvious, was it?’
‘I don’t know what sort of men you’ve met in the past, Joey—’ Nick shook his head ruefully ‘—but when I take you out I’ll do the paying.’
When he…? But this was a one-off—wasn’t it…?
‘Don’t look so worried, Joey.’ Nick reached out and lightly touched her hand as it rested on the table. ‘I only want to invite you to have dinner with me this evening.’
The intensity of his gaze easily held hers, and Joey found that her breathing suddenly seemed laboured, her hand once again tingling where he touched her.
What was it about this man that caused her to react in this way? Oh, he was very attractive, ruggedly so, and he could also be extremely charming; that smile could melt even the most hardened of hearts. But even so…
‘Don’t say no, Joey,’ he urged tensely.
She gave a regretful smile. ‘I’m afraid I have to. ‘I—I already have a date for this evening,’ she revealed reluctantly. Her arranged meeting with David Banning this evening couldn’t exactly be described as a date, but she didn’t know how else to explain it; saying she had to meet the American uncle of her daughter would be revealing too much.
‘I see.’ Nick abruptly released her hand as he sat back in his chair, his gaze narrowed on her speculatively now.
‘I doubt it.’ Joey shook her head. ‘Would you rather I had said I was washing my hair this evening?’ she added impatiently as he continued to look at her in that insulting way.
He shook his head. ‘So much for all those brave words on the worthlessness of men!’ he scorned.
Her cheeks became flushed. ‘I don’t believe I actually said that!’ she defended heatedly. ‘Besides…’ she broke off, biting her bottom lip.
There was no way she could explain about David Banning without totally letting her defences down. And she had needed those the last seven years. Needed them still!
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she dismissed briskly as she stood up. ‘Thank you for lunch,’ she added challengingly.
Nick nodded. ‘You’re welcome,’ he returned tightly.
Leaving Joey with no choice but to walk out of the sandwich bar with as much dignity as she could muster. Which was quite a lot, really. She had needed her pride the last seven years, too!
Another potential romance blown, she accepted ruefully to herself as she wandered around the supermarket picking up something for Lily’s tea—not a Mason’s supermarket; she refused, as a matter of principle, to use that particular chain of supermarkets!
It was a pity, really, that she and Nick had parted so badly, because she quite liked him—actually, more than liked him. There was a physical awareness between the two of them that was impossible to deny. Although there was no guarantee that it would ever have been any more than that, she argued with herself. Even if she had wanted it to be. Which she probably didn’t…
Probably? Get a grip, Joey, she admonished herself. Nick was thirty-five, still single, so what did that tell her about him?
That he just hadn’t found the right woman?
Romantic nonsense. The sort of thing she had believed in when she was sixteen years old. Real life wasn’t like that. If you were lucky you managed to find someone to share your life with that you were reasonably compatible with; if you were less lucky you managed to live with those differences in uneasy harmony. There simply wasn’t a ‘right’ man or woman in the world for everyone. Mr Right did not exist!
So decided, Joey put Nick firmly from her mind, paid for her purchases and returned to work. She had the much more pressing problem of David Banning to deal with this evening…
She dressed with care for her evening out; a simple black dress that reached her knees, teamed with an emerald-green short jacket that matched the colour of her eyes. It was formal enough for dinner, almost businesslike, in fact. Which was exactly the impression she wanted to give David Banning this evening.
Even from her brief meeting with Daniel’s brother the previous evening, Joey knew he was going to be a formidable adversary. Because adversary he most certainly was. When it came to Lily, anyone, or anything, that threatened the even tenure of her carefree young life came under the heading of enemy as far as Joey was concerned. And she had a definite feeling that was exactly what David Banning intended…
‘Miss Delaney,’ he greeted, standing up smoothly as Joey joined him in the lounge of the hotel at exactly eight o’clock. ‘You’re looking very nice,’ he added evenly.
And God, how it hurt him to say that, Joey observed derisively as she sank down into the chair opposite the one where he was now resuming his own seat. It made her wonder exactly what he had expected the mother of his brother’s child to be like. Hard? Grasping? Calculating? She wasn’t any of those things. Although he would find she could be as fierce as a lioness guarding her cub if anyone threatened Lily!
‘So do you,’ she returned drily.
His clothes might be a little over-the-top for this particular hotel, but there was no denying that David Banning did the tailored evening suit and white silk shirt justice, emphasising his broad shoulders, tapered waist and long legs. The black leather shoes looked as if they might be handmade too. And why not? The Banning family were one of the most wealthy in New York.
‘The niceties over, I suggest we go in to dinner.’ He stood up, looking down at her coolly with those icy blue eyes.
Joey stood up too, a humourless smile curving her lips as she accepted the short duration of those ‘niceties’; this evening was going to be every bit as awful as she had known it would be.
Although the last thing she had expected to see, as she preceded David Banning into the hotel dining-room, was Nick seated across the room at a corner table!
CHAPTER FOUR
WHAT was Nick doing here? was Joey’s first panicked thought as she sat down abruptly in the chair the waiter held back for her. The chair, while not having its back towards Nick, was sideways on, meaning she could glance across at him if she wanted to.
And Nick could glance up from the papers he appeared to be studying, and see her, too!
Nick looked different tonight, the casual working shirts and denims replaced with a cream shirt and formal trousers. In fact, Joey decided after a brief glance at him from beneath lowered lashes, Nick no longer looked like the approachable workman she had known.
What was he doing, dining at this hotel? And alone, by the look of it; Nick was already on to the main course of his meal, with no sign of a second place ever having been set at the table.
She had assumed that Nick, being part of the construction company working on the new supermarket, would be staying somewhere locally. But she certainly hadn’t thought of it being this particular hotel! They must pay building workers higher rates than she had imagined!
‘Miss Delaney? Or may I call you Joey now?’
She turned sharply back to David Banning, blinking rapidly as she tried to gather her scattered thoughts together; seeing Nick in this unexpected way had totally unnerved her! ‘Of course,’ she ceded distractedly, frowning across at her dining companion.
David Banning looked at her quizzically. ‘The menu, Joey,’ he prompted. The waiter standing at her side was waiting to hand it to her.
‘Oh. Thank you.’ She gave the young waiter a brief smile as she took the menu into her shaking hands.
Shaking because of Nick’s presence here, she easily acknowledged as she stared sightlessly at the menu open in front of her. Goodness knows, this meeting with Daniel’s brother was going to be difficult enough, without the sword of Damocles hanging over her as she waited for Nick to see her here—with the man who was supposedly her ‘date’ for the evening!
What would Nick do when he finally spotted her—if he spotted her!—seated across the dining-room with the other man? Would he just get up at the end of his own meal and leave the dining-room, too annoyed to speak to her? Or would he come over and say hello?
Until she had told Nick of her prearranged date for this evening she would have said the latter, but his cool reaction to the fact that she was going out with another man made her hope he would do the former. She really didn’t feel up to dealing with Nick this evening as well as David Banning!
‘Is there something wrong, Joey?’
She looked up to find David Banning looking at her once again with those narrowed blue eyes. As if she were a particularly nasty bug he was studying under a microscope!
Joey closed the menu with a snap. ‘You arrived out of the blue last night, informed me that Daniel is dead, and then claimed that the two of us need to talk—of course there’s something wrong!’ she bit out caustically.
‘Touché,’ he acknowledged drily, slowly closing his own menu to give her his full attention. ‘How did you and Daniel meet?’
She stiffened at this frontal attack; the ‘niceties’ definitely were over! ‘At university,’ she supplied, as abruptly.
Blond brows rose in surprise. ‘At Oxford?’
Joey’s mouth twisted derisively. ‘Awful, isn’t it? The class of person they let in there nowadays if they think they will fit in and they have the right qualifications!’
‘Obviously,’ David Banning drawled cuttingly. ‘Did you know who Daniel was when you met him?’
Joey drew in a sharp breath; obviously this was going to be a ‘gloves off’ evening. Well, two could play at that game! ‘He introduced himself as Daniel Banning,’ she returned scathingly. ‘I saw no reason to think he might be lying.’
David Banning’s face darkened ominously. ‘I—’ he broke off abruptly as the waiter arrived with the bottle of wine he had ordered, clearly displeased at the interruption even as he tasted the white wine.
Joey breathed an inward sigh of relief at the same interruption. This was turning out worse than she had even imagined it would. Obviously David Banning believed she had been nothing but a gold-digger seven years ago!
Cold, arrogant, pompous…
‘What would you like to eat, Joey?’ he prompted impatiently, the hovering waiter now obviously waiting to take their order.
Get a grip, Joey, she firmly instructed herself as she gave her order for the soup, followed by Dover sole and a salad; she didn’t particularly care what she ate, doubted she was going to taste any of it anyway—the bile rising in her throat at David Banning’s condescending scorn would make that impossible!
Well, she refused to be cowed by his attitude. She was thirty years old, for goodness’ sake, owned and ran her own business, had been a mother for six years…
But then, that was this man’s problem, wasn’t it—because she was mother to his brother Daniel’s child…?
‘Could we just get one thing straight before we go any further with this conversation?’ she told David Banning coldly once they were alone again. ‘I made no claim on Daniel while he was alive,’ she continued at David Banning’s reserved nod of acquiescence. ‘And I have no intention—’
‘I wouldn’t call a five-hundred-pound cheque every month, paid into a bank account in your name, making “no claim”,’ he cut in raspingly.
The colour flooded and then drained from Joey’s face, leaving her eyes large and accusing. ‘I haven’t touched a penny of that money,’ she told him from between stiff lips. ‘The account you’re speaking of is in trust for Lily.’
David Banning raised rueful brows. ‘Indeed?’
‘Indeed,’ she snapped furiously, eyes flashing deeply green.
It had been Daniel’s one acknowledgement of the child he had left behind in England when he returned to America at the end of his time at Oxford.
In the circumstances, Joey had been tempted to tell him where he could put his money, but then common sense had kicked in; the money was nothing to do with her, was for Lily’s future. Joey hadn’t felt she was in a position to make that particular decision for Lily. And so she had reluctantly agreed to have the money paid into an account for Lily’s future. A fact David Banning was now twisting around to his own mercenary way of looking at things…
‘I can show you the account book, if you would like to see it,’ she continued harshly. ‘You will find every penny Daniel ever sent—plus interest—is still in there!’ It was Lily’s money, the very least that Daniel could do for the daughter he had abandoned.
A grudging look of respect briefly crossed David Banning’s arrogant features—only to be quickly replaced by his own brand of scathing mockery. ‘That won’t be necessary,’ he drawled.
Because, Joey knew, the money Daniel had given towards Lily’s future was nothing but chicken-feed to the Banning family! They were an all-powerful, all-rich banking family in New York, and had been for generations. Whereas the Delaneys had emigrated to England from Ireland only eight years ago, had worked, and worked hard, for everything they had ever had.
‘I must say,’ David Banning drawled lightly as he picked up his spoon to begin eating the soup that had just been delivered to their table, ‘that you aren’t at all what I was expecting of the woman who mothered Daniel’s child.’ He gave her a speculative glance.
‘Oh?’ Joey guardedly returned that gaze.
‘Hmm.’ David Banning nodded slowly. ‘It came as something of a shock to me when I went through Daniel’s things after his death and found the paperwork for the standing order of five hundred pounds to be paid to one Miss J. Delaney every month over the last six years or so—’
‘The account is only in my name because Lily was a baby when the payments began,’ she cut in sharply. ‘If you would let me show you the account details you will see it states quite clearly that it is in trust for Lily—’
‘I’ve already told you I don’t want to see the account details.’ David Banning dismissed the suggestion with a bored wave of one elegant hand. ‘But, as you can probably imagine, at the time of discovery any number of explanations for those cash payments flashed through my mind.’
‘I’m sure they did,’ Joey acknowledged disdainfully, easily able to imagine what some of those explanations might have been. ‘How did you discover the truth?’ She frowned.
That question had been bothering her since David Banning arrived outside her home the previous evening. She had known Daniel when they lived at Oxford, but she and Lily now lived hundreds of miles away from there. Deliberately so. Obviously Lily’s money was now paid into a local branch of the bank, but that still didn’t explain how this man had found out who Lily—and she!—actually were.
Blue eyes met hers unblinkingly. ‘Amongst Daniel’s belongings I also found some letters. Love letters. From “Josey”. At least, I thought it was Josey,’ he corrected drily. ‘You really should learn to write in a neater hand, Joey,’ he drawled pointedly.
Her mouth twisted in the paleness of her face. ‘I’ll try to bear your advice in mind,’ she dismissed. ‘OK, so you found…the letters. That still doesn’t tell me how you learnt of Lily’s existence. Or, indeed, exactly who she is.’ She looked steadily at David Banning.
He shrugged those broad shoulders beneath his tailored jacket. ‘I hired a private detective—’
‘You did what?’ Joey gasped incredulously, what little colour there was in her face immediately draining away, huge green eyes dominating the whiteness of her face now.
Just the thought of some faceless, nameless third party digging into the details of her life—without her even being aware of it—gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
‘How dare you?’ she continued angrily, shaking with indignation.
David Banning shrugged again. ‘In view of the fact that I live in America—’
‘And your time is precious!’ Joey put in scathingly.
‘—it was the easiest, and most efficient way of finding out exactly what I wanted to know,’ he continued as if she hadn’t interrupted.
‘It was an infringement of my privacy, is what it was!’ Joey corrected furiously.
‘Perhaps,’ he allowed drily. ‘I—’
‘There’s no “perhaps” about it.’ Her voice shook with anger, her hands tightly clenched into fists beneath the table.
‘I do wish you would calm down, Joey,’ David Banning told her in a bored voice.
‘I’ll just bet you do.’ She glared across the table at him, her thoughts racing. Exactly what had this damned private detective found out about her? ‘But I have to tell you that I deeply resent having some seedy private detective sifting through the contents of my life—’
‘You watch too much television, Joey,’ he put in disparagingly. ‘The man was quite respectable, I can assure you.’
For respectable Joey instantly read discreet. It really wouldn’t do to have the sort of information David Banning had uncovered made public knowledge. How would the Banning family ever be able to lift their heads in New York society again if Lily’s existence as Daniel’s illegitimate child became public knowledge?
David Banning’s gaze was steely now. ‘All the man actually turned up was that you run a hairdressing salon. That your private life is non-existent. Obviously he found out your home address,’ he revealed mockingly. ‘And that you share that home with your six-year-old daughter Lily. In view of those cash payments Daniel paid for the last six years or so,’ he continued with distaste, ‘it didn’t need an Einstein to work out that Lily was the reason for those payments—that she had to be Daniel’s daughter.’
‘Lily is my daughter,’ Joey corrected harshly. ‘Daniel’s so-called payments were just to ease his damned conscience.’
She wished now that she had let her pride win in that situation. Then she would never have been presented with this other—more threatening?—situation.
‘What exactly is it that you want, Mr Banning?’ she asked guardedly, green gaze hard on the arrogant features across the table.
This man might look like Daniel, but she had quickly learnt that the similarity was only skin-deep. David Banning was hard and shrewd, things Daniel had never been, and Joey also guessed that he could be completely ruthless if the situation necessitated it.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/carole-mortimer/the-fiance-fix/) на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.