Taken By The Maverick Millionaire
Anna Cleary
Overheard… Cate Summerfield never meant to eavesdrop. Now she knows too much, the brilliant, powerful Tom Russell must stop her from exposing the details of the most important deal of his career. Overpowered… He’ll keep Cate very close until the deadline passes. Seducing the beautiful, curvy blonde will be no hardship at all! And in way over her head! Cate knows that Tom’s not just a ruthless billionaire – she sees his passionate, sensual, caring side.But can a girl from the wrong side of the tracks ever be more than his convenient mistress?
Cate recognised sudden purpose in Tom Russell’s glinting gaze.
She gathered herself to make a dash for the exit, but too late—for in a couple of strides he was back beside her.
‘Stay put,’ he hissed in her ear, smiling though his white, even teeth were gritted. ‘I’m not finished with you yet.’ He slipped his arm around her and held her close against his hard body.
Her senses plunged into uproar, but she shrank from making a scene and submitted to the disturbing effects of feeling his long muscled thigh pressed against hers.
In a short, nerve-racking while she knew her time had come. As soon as the mourners rose to make their way out, her captor seized the opportunity, amid the confusion, to hustle her away from the goggling stares of his family members, down the aisle, past the crowded vestry, and out through the door to the visitors’ car park.
As they emerged into the sunshine a long, low, black limousine, its darkened windows blank and sinister, drew up alongside them. Visions assailed Cate of being strangled and dumped on some highway.
‘Get in,’ he said, opening the rear door. She hesitated to dive into what looked impossibly like some sultan’s cave, complete with oriental rugs, sumptuous cushioned seats and silken panelling. In the sunlight his cool grey eyes glittered inscrutably against his tan. ‘We need to talk. I have a proposition for you.’
As a child, Anna Cleary loved reading so much that during the midnight hours she was forced to read with a torch under the bedcovers, to lull the suspicions of her sleep-obsessed parents. From an early age she dreamed of writing her own books. She saw herself in a stone cottage by the sea, wearing a velvet smoking jacket and sipping sherry, like Somerset Maugham.
In real life she became a schoolteacher, and her greatest pleasure was teaching children to write beautiful stories.
A little while ago, she and one of her friends made a pact to each write the first chapter of a romance novel in their holidays. From writing her very first line Anna was hooked, and she gave up teaching to become a fulltime writer. She now lives in Queensland, with a deeply sensitive and intelligent cat. She prefers champagne to sherry, and loves music, books, four-legged people, trees, movies and restaurants.
A recent novel by this author:
MY TALL DARK GREEK BOSS
Dear Reader
2008 is a special year for celebrating romance, for it is Mills & Boon’s centenary. To honour the unique place Mills & Boon has occupied in offering fulfilment to readers for a hundred years, I want to share with you a story that encapsulates all the drama and excitement of falling in love, along with the deeper loyalties and true empathy that spring from a sincere and lasting passion.
Recently I attended the funeral of an extremely wealthy and powerful man. While his children kept their grief very private, I was still surprised at the dismissal some people who were not close to the family made of the children’s loss, as though their inheritances should in some way insulate them from bereavement.
Perhaps sometimes it’s hard for us ordinary mortals to imagine someone we see as fabulously wealthy, or a power in the nation, as having the same sensitivities and human emotions we have ourselves. So… I was inspired to dream of a man. Picture him. He’s rich, powerful, and handsomely endowed with all the gifts of the universe—including a searing intelligence and hard male beauty.
There you have Tom Russell. But underneath his stunning exterior. What might it take to penetrate the cold shell that life has formed around his heart?
Now picture a woman. A passionate woman, with a fire in her soul to right the wrongs perpetrated on the world by rich, powerful, gorgeously sexy men with no hearts!
Introducing Cate Summerfield, a vibrant, loving, flesh-and-blood woman like you and me. I hope you enjoy Cate’s story, dear reader, and fall madly in love with that gorgeously sexy millionaire just as she did!
With my very best happy birthday wishes
Anna
TAKEN BY THE MAVERICK MILLIONAIRE
BY
ANNA CLEARY
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
For Beth, the heroine of my heart.
PROLOGUE
TOM RUSSELL stood BY his father’s grave and surveyed the rolling pastures. The morning was fresh with smells of earth and grass. All the way to the boundary fence the grasss prang tall, its lush green enriched by its contrast with the flat brown stubble of the farmer’s on the other side. His private creek, fed by the mighty Hunter, was awash, little waterfalls gurgling down its pebbly path, the willows on its bank glowing with new greenery, soaking their privileged toes.
Horse country. Heartland of the Russell newspaper dynasty. And now it was his.
If he could hang onto it.
He drew the crumpled paper from his jeans pocket and smoothed it out. Though he knew them by heart, the spidery words sprang out to gut him afresh.
My son,
By now you’ll know what I’ve done. I want you to understand, boy, that I did it for you as much as for charity. Sometimes a man needs a shock to see what’s important. The big money’s gone, but you’re a true newspaperman at heart, like your old man, and you can probably save Russell Inc if you want to.
Tom, I lost a woman once myself, and I know what it is to grieve. But I also know that the best way to get over a woman is to find another one. You’ve still got your shares in the company and a little bit of property. Find yourself a nice girl who doesn’t care about money…
As always when he reached that line, Tom crushed the letter in his fist and shoved it back into his pocket. The irony of it.
Another woman.
That was always his father’s solution.
As if there could be a woman to replace Sandra. But he could rebuild his inheritance. He could use what was left to claw it all back. In the meantime, he could trade on his reputation and his finance skills to keep what was left of the corporation ticking over. Marry it off to the highest bidder, if necessary. Keep the cash flowing, pay the salaries… Pay the bequests to his stepsisters.
It could be done. It could.
If he could keep his father’s last act a secret. All he needed were weeks. Just a few more weeks…
CHAPTER ONE
MARCUS RUSSELL was dead. Tom, his brilliant, ruthless son, had taken charge of his empire. On the Friday morning of the memorial service, two weeks after the old media magnate had been buried under a Hunter Valley gum tree, cathedral bells rang out across Sydney Harbour, summoning the rich and powerful to pay their respects.
In the dressing room of his hotel suite, Tom Russell gave his reflection a critical last glance. His charcoal suit was cut with the required elegance, enhancing the athletic power of his well-made frame. Likewise, his ebony shirt of finest Italian fabric, his pearl silk tie and hand-stitched shoes. If his blood pressure was slightly elevated, the tense little beat in his temple was contained. His steel-grey eyes held the usual degree of sardonic assurance, his harsh, tanned face the control.
No one would guess the nightmare he was living.
He held out his hands and accorded them grim approval. Steady as a rock.
With his raven hair cut crisp and close, he was as groomed, sleek and polished as any of the race of high-flying billionaires he belonged to. Used to belong to. And would again.
He clenched his lean hands. If—if he could keep the lid on.
* * *
From her desk at the Sydney Clarion’s newsroom, Cate Summerfield could see the Russell yacht, its flags at half-mast, embarked on a graceful honour lap of Sydney Harbour.
‘Just look at that,’ Cate glowered, narrowing her green eyes. ‘It’s probably worth enough to feed Africa for a decade.’
The schooner bowed to the swell, its white sails billowing against the glittering blue. It had been reported that Tom Russell had outfitted the luxury vessel into a floating hospital, so the waves could lull his dying father to sleep on the days he could find no rest.
It was a far cry from the care Cate could afford for her darling gran. The frail souls at the Autumn Leaves Nursing Home counted themselves lucky even to have beds to rest their aching old bones in. The nurses didn’t even have time to feed the helpless ones. Patients like Gran, who was on the waiting list for heart surgery, had to rely on their relatives to come in and help them eat their evening meals. It was probably that cold reality that had spurred Cate to be unusually terse in the obituary she’d written for the media mogul.
She’d done thorough research, digging through the archives of all the rival news chains—Russell’s own, even the powerful Wests. Conscientious in her attempts to achieve balance, she hadn’t shrunk from quoting some of his harshest critics, including a choice selection of the epithets his enemies had used to flay him. The piece was her best so far, in her modest opinion. Honest, she’d judged it, though Marge on the neighbouring desk had called it ‘biting.’
She’d held her breath after she’d filed it, but it had made it past the legal hawks and gone to press. Afterwards people in the newsroom seemed to look at her differently. Steve Wilson, the Clarion’s star reporter and resident heartbreaker, had stopped referring to her as Blondie for at least a day, and Harry, their Chief of Staff, whom she’d never seen show any emotion in two years, had raised his eyebrows and whistled.
Still, even a work of art wouldn’t win her a spot on the front page. That would go to the journalist lucky enough to cover the memorial service.
Cate turned her gaze to the newsroom. Though early, already above the ceaseless background buzz of the television monitors the room was alive with the tapping of keyboards, and the constant ringing of the phones.
‘The sharks are circling.’ Marge winked towards a little cluster of glory chasers gathered around the news desk.
The news journalists were lounging about, swapping languid yarns, but everyone knew what they were after. They were waiting for Harry to announce whom he’d chosen to represent the Clarion at the memorial, salivating for the chance to corner Tom Russell.
Cate’s money was on Steve, who boasted more contacts than Telstra. Even though she’d been engaged to him for a stressful forty-seven days, and knew how clever he was, to her mind Barbara, whose lovely face and sleek hair accompanied a razor-sharp brain, or tough, experienced Toni, who chewed politicians for breakfast, were equally deserving. They all had a special sort of gloss that had nothing to do with conditioning treatments.
She sighed and pushed a long, wavy strand of her pale hair back behind one ear.
If—when—she joined that elite group, she’d write stories that mattered. She’d build up a readership, renegotiate her salary. Make it big with a few stories, earn some respect…
Cate grimaced. Dream on, girl. The Clarion was renowned for its fearless battle against corruption in high places. It had taken down many a politician or dishonest businessman, but she couldn’t take personal credit for any of them. In her two years there, she’d worked on everything except the columns that counted.
On the night their engagement had crashed, among other vicious remarks Steve Wilson had made about what he called her obsessive concern for Gran, he’d sneered that she was too soft to make a top news reporter. Even Marge said she tried too hard to think the best of people.
They couldn’t be more wrong. Underneath Cate’s annoying curls, pale skin and the soft curves bequeathed to her by some Scandinavian ancestor, she was tougher than she looked. Long before Gran’s heart emergency, she’d been dying to rip open the fat underbelly of the privileged rich and expose them with her brave, incisive words.
All she needed was a chance to report on someone living. Dead people, even dead media legends, didn’t generate scoops. Scoops went with live players. And if she was ever to get off Obituaries, a scoop was what she had to have.
She leafed back through her photo file to a rare shot she’d unearthed of Tom Russell. Now, he was alive. At thirty-four, his harsh, sardonic face with his glinting grey eyes, arrogant cheekbones and firm, masculine chin, was stirring in its vitality.
‘Did you manage to dig any dirt on him?’ Marge said, peering over at the image, her lively brown eyes alight with interest.
Cate hesitated. She’d dug up heaps on old Marcus. It had been easy.
As a young woman, Gran had worked for one of his big dailies, before he’d sacked her and some of her colleagues in order to turn his respected newspaper into a trashy tabloid. Everything he’d done since had only reinforced Gran’s anger with him.
Gran had never missed an opportunity to point out the evils of his ways. Even in Cate’s eyes he’d done nothing of value with his wealth, except to indulge his own extravagant tastes and flamboyant lifestyle.
His son, though, was a more elusive target. Tom Russell had spent a number of years in England, running the Russell media enterprises there. Gran had never had much to say about him.
‘I only found what everyone knows,’ she said, handing Marge the photo. ‘You know, about how he came back here to take over a few years ago when the old man first took ill.
The ruthless strategic war he’s waging against Olivia West’s chain—’
‘Not to mention the ruthless strategic war he’s waging against us.’
Cate shrugged. ‘Well, he is a businessman. It’s strange, though. I couldn’t find a thing about his private life, except the tragedy, of course. Nothing at all about girlfriends.’
The truth was that, since the death of Tom Russell’s wife in a car accident in England a couple of years ago, very little of a personal nature was ever reported about him. He was never seen at the big society bashes or charity dos.
‘His wife was somebody famous, wasn’t she? Wasn’t she a scientist?’
Marge nodded. ‘Medical research. Some genetic studies, I think.’
‘Well, she doesn’t sound like the usual trophy wife men like him seem to go for. Are you sure there would be dirt?’ Cate met Marge’s cheerful, cynical gaze. ‘Maybe Tom isn’t over her death.’
‘Oh,’ Marge scoffed, ‘give me a break. She died two years ago, but I’m sure I heard they were separated long before that. Anyway, a man like him knows how to move on. You can’t be that rich without being a villain, one way or another. He’s a man. And a very attractive one.’ She gave the photo a tap. ‘Think of the world he’s been brought up in. He’d have women by the boatload.’ She frowned at Cate. ‘Now, don’t you start going soft on him. I thought you said you’d given up being sucked in by heartless machos.’
‘I have.’ Cate’s gaze was uncontrollably drawn towards the vicinity of the desk. She was over Steve. She really was. It was hard to believe she’d ever had to creep to the ladies’room to cry when he’d flaunted his girlfriends at the Friday after-work pub session, though, humiliatingly, on the rare occasions she was now able to join them, everyone still looked at her to see how she was taking it.
‘I definitely am,’ she assured Marge. ‘But you still have to give people the benefit of the doubt. Just because Tom looks like that…and has that unfortunate background…’
Unmoved by the counsel for the defence, Marge shook her head. ‘Sorry. It doesn’t look good for him.’
Cate frowned. At twenty-five she was hardly naïve,especially after her brief, soul-destroying plunge into lunacy with Steve, and she had to acknowledge the likelihood of Marge’s words. Tom Russell had been brought up by a father whose endless stream of actresses and models must have caused serious pain for his succession of wives.
She studied the photo. Was he as callous as Gran had so often described his old man? Those cool grey eyes roused an unquiet little buzz in her insides. Her gaze shifted to his mouth. A lot could be deduced from a man’s mouth. His had been chiselled in severe lines and was wide and firm, the upper lip straight, the lower one very slightly fuller. There was no softness there, though more than a suggestion of irony. He didn’t need to spike up his hair to make himself look taller.
She turned the photo sideways. Sexy, from all angles.
‘Cate.’
She started. It took a second for it to filter through to her that Harry had come out of his huddle with the news editor, and seemed to be looking her way.
Her? He wanted her?
She pushed her chair back and rose to stroll the length of the newsroom, vaguely conscious of Steve’s, Toni’s and Barbara’s startled gazes whipping around to stare.
At the desk the others looked up to watch and listen while Harry’s sharp eyes appraised her from beneath his bushy brows.
‘Your Russell obit wasn’t all that bad,’ he stated.
She gazed at Harry through a mystified fog. Were there bells ringing somewhere? Then pleasure, sharp and furious, streamed through her to her toes. ‘Oh. Oh, thank you. Thanks, Chief. Thanks very much,’ she stammered, feeling her ears turn pink.
She continued to babble her thanks, but Harry ignored her.
‘See what you can make of the memorial,’ he instructed with laconic calm. ‘The business people, the politicians who’ve been invited, who’s in and who’s out—the tone of it. Above all, watch Tom Russell. Who he talks to, who his friends are. Take Mike with you. They’re not allowing cameras inside the cathedral, but get there early and see who you can catch on the red carpet. There’s a lunch in some undisclosed location. Press are excluded.’
She nodded. A huge, joyous whoop had risen inside her and threatened to burst out, but Harry wasn’t the sort to encourage a hug, so she squashed it down.
‘Oh, and, Cate—security will be tight. Don’t forget your pass. And don’t even think of trying to get to Russell. He’s a dangerous man to cross.’
She nodded with appropriate newsroom nonchalance, and turned to stroll back to her desk. The little cluster of ace reporters fell back silently to allow her through. She permitted herself one glance at Steve Wilson. He was frowning hard, his ginger spikes quivering, his blue eyes narrowed. Pity itmade him look slightly cross-eyed. She should have noticed that sooner.
Everything—the day, the sunshine streaming in through the window, the newsroom—felt suddenly fantastic, as if it was her day. She grabbed some notebooks, pencils and her miniature tape recorder and stuffed them into her handbag. Then she paused a moment to glance down at her dress, beginning to show signs of washing stress. Not quite the thing for a society memorial.
Black. She needed something black.
A vintage suit she’d bought from Rhapsodie, the boutique down the road from her Kirribilli boarding house, was itching for a new outing. She glanced at her watch. Nearly eight thirty. The service was slated for noon and she and Mike, her photographer, would need to set up at least two hours earlier. Time enough to catch the train home.
She found Mike in the canteen, poring over the racing page. She had a hurried conference with him, and a bare thirty minutes later was running up the stairs of the Lady Musgrave.
Her eighties suit was a stunning fit. The slim skirt fell to just above her knees, while the jacket had big, sewn-in shoulder pads and a severely shaped bodice with a modest, though deep-cut neckline. Extremely flattering to her breasts, although hanging the press pass around her neck rather ruined the effect. She tried clamping the pass to her jacket hem, considered it with a frown, then took it off to worry about later.
The other nineteen occupants she shared the boarding house with had left for work, so she had the bathroom to herself. In the presence of black, her blonde hair had turned to a pleasing silvery ash. With no time to waste, she subdued the mass by tying it in her nape with a black velvet ribbon. Black heels and pearl earrings completed the effect.
Not too much later, dressed to kill in vintage Carla Zampatti, she found Mike at the rear of the cathedral with his camera, leaning his long, lanky bones against a brick wall.
Streets had been cordoned off to control traffic, and the cathedral precinct was quiet, apart from a battalion of security guards prowling the boundaries, mobiles to their ears, and an occasional black-clad cleric hurrying across the grounds. There were a couple of big, expensive cars in the visitors’ car park, but no other sign yet of the rich and famous.
A team of television journalists arrived to set up in the front. Cate exchanged mobile codes with Mike, and went to reconnoitre the cathedral.
A security guard with a shaven head was stationed in the porch. She showed him her press ID, and after a growled warning not to even dream of trying to use her mobile inside if she didn’t want it confiscated, he consulted a list before allowing her to pass. She grinned to herself. Fat chance they had of enforcing that rule.
A reception table had been set inside the door, and she helped herself to a programme, which included a sketchy seating plan. As she’d expected, the pews allocated to the press were at the rear.
The cathedral’s soaring interior was cool and dim. At once the deep hush washed over her, reminding her it was some time since she’d been in a church. Awed by the graceful lines of the architecture, she strolled about, examining the stained glass and reading wall inscriptions.
Two women carrying magnificent flower arrangements bustled in from the transept aisle. Cate paused, drinking in the atmosphere. Even the presence of a couple of security guards lurking behind pillars, keeping a watchful eye on her in case she broke into some anti-Russell guerilla activity, couldn’t dilute the spiritual repose of the place.
A priest attending to something in the chancel looked hard at her as if he knew a red-hot sinner when he saw one, and, shamed, she slipped into a pew. She sent up a small prayer for her grandmother. Perhaps heaven wanted vengeance for the damage she’d caused Gran, because a small nagging need she’d been vaguely conscious of for some time suddenly became compelling.
The priest finished his preparations and hurried away. Cate gazed after him. Down that aisle, she knew, were the vestry and church offices. There had to be a ladies’room. Should she risk it, though? She wasn’t sure the general public were allowed into the inner reaches of the cathedral.
The sound of voices alerted her to the arrival of more guests. She noticed that the security men were both scanning the people crowding the entrance. Taking advantage of the distraction, she rose to her feet. It was now or never.
Hoping she looked like a woman with nothing to hide, she walked coolly down towards the altar, asserting her feminine right to visit the ladies in her dignified gait. No one intercepted her, and when she made a quick turn into the transept aisle, and saw a long, wide hallway stretching ahead, she was grateful to see it devoid of either security or clergy. With her heart hammering at the strange guilt attached to stealing around a church like a thief, she hastened past a couple of unmarked doors, not daring to open them for fear of surprising someone, and turned into the vestry.
A maze of rooms opened from it. There was one with a piano, a robing room lined with alcoves hung with priestly vestments, and a business office adjacent to a small meeting room. In the office the computer was running, as though someone had recently stood up from it and taken a temporary break.
She hesitated, feeling more like a trespasser with every step, then spotted a promising door on the other side of the meeting room. To her relief, it belonged to a tiny washroom, with a small washbasin below a rust-flecked mirror, and a toilet cubicle redolent of disinfectant. To her grateful eyesit looked like heaven.
Afterwards, when she’d washed her hands and tidied some wisps straying from her silvery mane, she opened the door, prepared to exit, then froze. There was movement in the meeting room.
Instinctively she pushed the toilet door to, not quite closing it for fear of alerting the security guard, priest, or whoever, of her presence, while she summoned enough nerve to sashay forth with careless aplomb.
She strained her ears. Had she imagined the sound? Almost at once then the clack of a woman’s heels approached and came to a halt somewhere alarmingly close by.
She nearly dropped dead with fright when a rather throaty, feminine, cigarette-husky voice said, ‘Oh, Tom. Commiserations about your dad. I’m so terribly sorry. I know exactly what you’re going through.’
There was a curt, masculine murmur of response.
Cate closed her eyes and prayed that Tom Russell was not the man outside the door about to discover her breaching his costly security arrangements.
‘And as if it wasn’t enough losing your father, without some of the rubbish being printed about him. Did you see that disgusting obituary in the Clarion?’
Cate stopped breathing.
‘I saw it.’
Though the tone was grim, the deep voice had a dark, liquid quality. Like liquid velvet. Dark, dark brown velvet. Black, even.
‘Where do those jackals get the nerve?’ the female voice went on. ‘All that hogwash about editorial independence. Will you sue?’
Cate’s heart jumped into her throat, then Tom Russell said, ‘Wouldn’t they love that? I hope I have more subtlety. Don’t worry, I’ll deal with Miss What’s-her-name. In my way.’
A chill shivered down Cate’s spine. In his way. What was his way?
He spoke again. ‘Eventually they’ll all work for me. For us. Won’t they, Livvie?’ Cate pricked up her ears, then felt ashamed. She was acting like a voyeur. What she should do now was to walk out there, excuse herself, and make a swift, dignified exit. And she would. Just as soon as she screwed up the courage.
Her heart thundered so loudly she felt sure they must hear it, for the woman’s voice issued through with perfect clarity.
‘That’s why I need to talk to you. It’s about our deal.’
There was urgency in the woman’s tone.
‘This isn’t a good moment, Liv. As you might be able to imagine, I have things on my mind today.’ The response was polite, but Cate detected a sardonic tinge to it.
‘Well, how about this afternoon? After the lunch?’
‘Impossible. I have urgent meetings scheduled that can’t be postponed.’
‘Nothing is more urgent than this,’ the woman hissed. ‘Listen to me, Tom. Everything’s at risk. Malcolm has heard something. He’s playing every card he can to hold up the divorce. Somehow he’s got wind of the merger, so he’s asking for a much bigger slice of the company.’ She paused, then added, ‘My grandfather didn’t build an empire for it to end up being controlled by the likes of him.’ There was a hoarse vehemence to the contralto voice.
Cate’s ears rang with the possibilities. She had a sudden inkling into the woman’s identity. Surely that voice was familiar. With her heart thumping, and careful to make no sound, she moved to the door and risked putting her eye to the crack.
Her gaze lighted on a portion of long leg encased in some dark, expensive fabric, brushing a highly polished black masculine shoe. Next to the shoe rested an elegant black briefcase. Then the man moved further into her view, and her heart lurched in her chest.
It was Tom Russell all right, in the living flesh, negligently leaning his tall frame against an ornately carved piece of church furniture. Though his hands were shoved carelessly into his trouser pockets, there was a coiled tension about him. His black eyebrows were lowered over his cool grey eyes as he scoured his female companion with an alert, intelligent gaze.
Forget what Marge had said about him being attractive. He was so hot he sizzled.
Cate moved her head, trying to see the woman, but she only caught a rear-view glimpse of gleaming copper hair confined at the nape in a sophisticated black snood. It was enough though, she thought with wild excitement. The next words, as abrasive as sandpaper in Tom Russell’s stern, accusing voice, confirmed her suspicion.
‘I thought you understood how crucial secrecy is at this stage, Olivia. Bloody hell, what sort of a businesswoman are you?’
Olivia. The woman was Olivia West.
Cate’s brain buzzed into overdrive. She was onto the scoop of the century. What her editor would give to know this. Russell’s joining with the West Corporation. It would be the merger of the tabloid Titans. This was more than mere front page stuff. This meant headlines.
She had to get out of there and write it. In a sudden brilliant inspiration, she shoved her hand into her bag and connected with the minuscule cassette recorder Gran had given her. Her heart skipped an excited beat. Here was a golden opportunity. She’d be the toast of the newsroom. What reporter could resist? Although—Harry was pretty firm on the ethics of recording people without their knowledge. Her fingers hovered over the button while she waged a war with her conscience. Regretfully, the thought of Harry’s flinty gaze, and his strictures about the journalism code won.
At the same time as the powerful redhead’s response floated through to her she realised, with a sinking feeling, it was too late to announce her presence. Already, she knew too much.
She surrendered to the inevitable and put her eye to the crack again, in time to catch a glimpse of Tom Russell prowling about with his lithe, long-legged stride.
And he was worth watching. Though he seemed tense, it was clear that underneath the sombre black shirt, the pearl grey silk tie, the Armani—the suit could be nothing less—his lean, long bones, muscle and sinew were all working together in a veritable symphony of co-ordination.
Unfazed by his critical tone, Olivia West was launched into a feisty come-back. ‘It could just as easily have been someone from your side who leaked. Anyway, Malcolm doesn’t really know anything for certain, he’s just guessing with that diabolical genius he has for ferreting things out about people. He only wants to hurt me. I need your help with this.’
Tom Russell shot back, ‘I never let domestic arrangements interfere with business. Yours are hardly my concern.’
‘But this does concern you,’ Olivia West retorted. ‘Look at it this way. I won’t go on with our merger until I’m free and clear of Malcolm. And if he manages to hold up the court process for three or more months—and he can if the court believes his claim is worth investigating—our deal will collapse. You know it must.’
Every line of Tom Russell’s big, lean frame was charged with impatience. ‘Well, for pity’s sake, make a deal. Give him enough of what he asks for to make him feel he’s scored something.’
‘I’ve given him enough,’ Olivia said fiercely. ‘I’ve given him everything. He’s taken everything. He’s not getting any more of my company. But that’s not even the reason he’s doing this. It’s not about the money. It’s about you.’
Tom Russell came to a sudden halt, right in Cate’s line of vision.
She stayed glued to the sight, until Olivia West spun in to obstruct the view. Despite the media baroness’s artful makeup, her face was strained. Her glossy red lips were compressed and she held her hands, gloved in slinky black lace, clasped in front of her voluptuous chest.
Cate frowned. Was that much cleavage strictly appropriate for a church service?
Olivia turned her back, spoiling Cate’s view of her. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘I’m sure you know Malcolm has always been insanely jealous of you. Some fool’s informed him of the times we’ve met to negotiate, and he’s had the ridiculous idea that you and I are—together. Perhaps even contemplating marriage.’
Tom Russell stood very still, then said, his voice dangerously soft, ‘Now, how could he possibly get an idea like that?’
Olivia must have felt the sudden scary escalation in the tension, because she attempted to lighten it with a husky laugh. ‘Well, it’s not so outrageous, is it? We’re both attractive people, both high achievers, our backgrounds are similar, we have things in common… Everyone knows how perfect you and Sandra were together. But you’ve been without a wife a long time, Tom. Sooner or later…’ The unmistakable purr in her voice made Cate squirm with discomfort. Was Olivia testing the water in hopes of seducing Tom Russell? Marrying him?
‘My wife is dead.’ The rebuke hung on the air, as stinging as a face slap.
Cate caught her breath in the charged little silence that followed. Tom Russell’s feelings for his wife must still be very raw. Still, she felt a wave of sympathy for Olivia. If he’d spoken like that to her she’d have cringed.
But the glamorous redhead was made of tougher stuff, because she managed a careless laugh. What a remarkable woman, Cate marvelled. To possess such self-control. How fabulous to be able to maintain her poise after such a forbidding rejection.
‘Well, there’s no need to look so stern, Thomas. I’m only reporting what Malcolm has dreamed up in his fevered brain. And because he believes it, he’s looking for ways to hurt us by holding up the divorce.’ She added, her voice as soft, distinct, and every bit as steely as Tom Russell’s, ‘And until my divorce goes through, darling, there will be no merger. And you and I will both lose a lot of money.’
‘Then you must advise him of the truth very quickly, Livvie.’ The icy chill permeated the store-room door with bluetooth penetration.
‘He’s not likely to believe what I tell him, is he? Look, the answer’s simple enough. All you need to do is to show him you have another woman.’
Tom Russell gave an incredulous laugh. ‘What other woman?’
‘Now, now, Tom.’ Sly amusement stole into the low voice. ‘Don’t try to tell me you can’t come up with a woman—like that.’
Tom Russell surveyed her grimly. ‘I think you’ve been reading your own tabloids, Olivia. Forget it.’
‘For goodness’ sake, can’t you follow in your old dad’s footsteps for a week or two and find some nubile little actress to flash around the town? It’s only for a few weeks.’
‘I’m not my old dad,’ Tom Russell said, his voice ominously soft.
There was a small, tense silence, then Olivia West snapped,
‘Think about it.’ She crossed into Cate’s view, stepping up to Tom and boldly placing her hands on his shoulders. In her chic black dress, her curvaceous figure looked formidably seductive. ‘We both have a lot to lose, don’t we, darling? How much do you want your merger?’
With implacable calm Tom Russell detached her and pushed her away. ‘Not enough to deceive some woman. For God’s sake, I’m a businessman, not some tabloid Don Juan.’
‘That’s not what I mean,’ Olivia exploded hoarsely, swinging away from him. ‘Hire a woman. You only need to let Malcolm see you with her a couple of times. Once I get my divorce, you’ll have your merger. And I’m not deceiving Malcolm. For your information it was he who—’ Her voice grew strident with emotion. ‘Look, in a few minutes time this church will be packed with people, and a good number of them will be actresses who work for your television network. Some of them, I’m willing to bet, have already been employed in more ways than one by your old dad. Pick one of them. Offer her money.’
Cate nearly gasped out loud at the audacity of the woman. How would Tom Russell take such a crack about his father? She strained to hear, but the abrupt click of a door closing suggested that Olivia had delivered her parting shot, and stalked off.
Cate sagged with relief. Thank heavens. Now Tom would follow, and she could creep from her hiding place and hightail it back to Mike.
There was the sound of a chair scraping, and the room fell quiet. She moved to the opening in the door to check that the coast was clear, and came up short. To her intense annoyance Tom Russell was still there at the table, frowning over some papers.
Damn the man. She fretted with impatience. People would have started to arrive by now and she’d be missing her chances. She exhaled a frustrated breath, then took a harder look at him. In his unconsciousness of being under scrutiny, the lines in the tanned skin around his eyes and mouth suddenly seemed more deeply etched, as though from tiredness or strain. She felt a stir of sympathy. Perhaps even a Tom Russell could spend sleepless nights grieving. The loss of a parent was no small thing, as she could testify.
She sighed, and, bracing for a wait, closed her eyes and leaned back against the sink.
A shrill jangling broke out at her feet and she nearly jumped out of her skin.
It was her mobile phone.
She stood paralysed for helpless seconds while the ghastly tune went on. Then adrenaline rushed to her rescue and she was overcome by a false, fatalistic calm. She plunged her nerveless hand into her bag, brought the phone up and held it to her ear.
‘All right, Mike,’ she said. Her soft voice crashed into the charged silence. ‘I won’t be long.’
She did the only thing possible. She put the phone away, and, her limbs stiff with embarrassment, jerked the door open and walked out of the ladies’ room, straight into the big, iron-hard frame of Tom Russell.
CHAPTER TWO
TOM’S first impression was of softness. Soft breasts pressed against his chest, soft, firm thighs, a delicious feminine fragrance rising from a tender white neck.
He felt the woman gasp and try to recoil, but his hands swiftly gripped her upper arms. She trembled in his grasp, her white satin flesh alive with a sensual vibrance that instantly communicated itself to him.
His gaze clashed with large sea-green eyes, sparkling up into his in alarmed calculation. Her rosy mouth was full, ripe and passionate. Some crazed part of his brain actually considered the possibility of sinking his teeth into her plump lower lip.
Common sense told him this was no mere blonde. Ridiculous words like ‘spy’and ‘industrial espionage’jostled in his brain. Her parted lips made a tiny, anxious tremor and he felt a grim, cynical triumph.
Well might she be anxious. Stirred against his will, he demanded harshly, ‘What the bloody hell are you doing in here?’
Cate’s brain blurred into sensory overload. Steel-grey eyes, glittering with suspicion, scoured her face. She had a dizzy awareness of the faint, clean scents of soap and sandalwood, of fine, expensive fabrics brushing her skin. But underneath those outer trappings of masculine sophistication her feminine sensors picked up the heady, high-voltage buzz of pure essence of man.
For whole seconds her lungs forgot to work, until she forced some action. ‘I was just—I was—’ She took a deep breath and said in a more assertive voice, though it might have skipped into a slightly higher register, ‘Would you let me go, please?’
He tightened his grip for an instant, as if to demonstrate how completely he had her in his power, then abruptly released her. While she made an emphatic point of rubbing her arms, he whipped a wafer-thin phone from inside the jacket of his superbly tailored charcoal suit.
‘Explain yourself while I call Security,’ he commanded, flicking it open. He perused the dial, no mercy in the set of his chiselled mouth and jaw. She grappled with a million excuses, but one clash with the icy blaze of his grey eyes through their black lashes told her all of them would fail.
The vision of herself being escorted from the cathedral between beefy security men, in the glare of a thousand cameras, was unthinkable. How would she explain to Harry? She’d be the laughing stock of the newsroom.
She lifted her chin, and prepared to surrender the truth.
‘I was—visiting the Ladies,’ she said with an attempt at airiness, though she could feel a slight flush colour her cheeks. Privately, it was mortifying. Of all the people in the world to have to explain to…
His eyes made a slow, thorough, entirely masculine survey of her down to her ankles, then back, lingering an insolent moment on her mouth. ‘Do you seriously expect me to believe that?’
She stared at him in incredulity. ‘Well…’ A saving surge of anger brought the words flying to her tongue. ‘Why shouldn’t you believe it? People are innocent until proven guilty in this country, you know.’ She drew herself up to her full five-six. ‘And now I have to go. There are things I need to do.’ She made a brusque attempt to sweep past him, but his lean bronzed hand shot out and closed once more around her arm.
‘Not so fast.’ He moved very close to her, and again she felt that swamping effect on her senses. ‘Don’t try to play the innocent, Goldilocks. You’ve been lurking in there like a common thief, spying on a private conversation. Either explain yourself properly, or you will find yourself in court pretty bloody quick.’
There was something so insulting about being called a name in that deep, cultured voice. Allowances needed to be made, she supposed, for a man coping with the loss of his father, but did he have to be so offensive? Certainly, neither her shoes nor her suit were brand new, but they were far from common.
‘I wasn’t listening to your conversation.’ In a determined effort she twisted from his grasp and retreated a strategic step. ‘I had important things on my mind.’
He snarled a contemptuous expletive not at all appropriate for a church, and added, ‘Don’t make the mistake of assuming you’re dealing with a fool, darling.’
The air fairly crackled with masculine aggression. Who knew what he might do? For all she knew, he might have minders who rubbed people out, like the mob.
To get herself off the hook, she warmed to her innocence theme, ignoring his sceptical gaze raking her from head to toe as if she were some despicable form of alien low-life. Amazing how, in the living, breathing flesh, that stern, tightly compressed mouth could still be so sensuous and expressive.
‘I hardly heard a thing,’ she continued, earnest in her effort to allay his fears. ‘You can’t hear much at all in that room when the door’s closed.’
‘Rubbish. I heard your voice very, very distinctly.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Look, I was here first, remember? I didn’t know you were coming in for your romantic rendezvous, did I? I’m not a mind-reader. I came in to find the Ladies, and you chose to use this room, too. Maybe I should have let you know I was there, but I thought you and your—girlfriend would be less embarrassed if I just said nothing and tiptoed away.’
He took a moment to digest this, and his gaze became less hostile, though more guarded, as if he’d seen the force of her argument but didn’t want to show it. It occurred to her that underneath his big, powerful, macho-male-in-command act, he actually seemed quite worried. She wondered if the merger had a lot more riding on it than he’d been willing to show Olivia West.
His eyes flickered over her. ‘What’s your name?’
Her heart sank. Lying was tempting, especially considering her summation of Marcus Russell as a vampire whose fangs had been battened to the national throat, but she thought of the guard in the porch and discarded it. ‘It’s Cate,’ she muttered. She forced herself to meet his eyes. ‘Summerfield.’
‘Summerfield.’ His brow creased, as if with the effort of recollection, and he slipped the phone back into his pocket.
That little action reminded her of something that had been nagging at her. He hadn’t made the call to Security. No minders had been summoned. Why?
The answer came to her in a dazzling flash. Because it would be a risk. Of course!
He was afraid that if he did, she would blab his secret to the world.
For a fabulous, golden moment she tasted the heady nectar of power. How the tables were turned. Goldilocks held Tom Russell in the palm of her little hand. Just wait—wait until he found out where she worked.
He’d relaxed a little, and now he started strolling about, pausing at times to fire questions and grill her with his hard gaze, although she couldn’t help noticing now how often his eyes lighted on her legs, or drifted to her hair.
Her own blood sparked up in response. She reminded herself that he was a rich, spoiled parasite devising criminal new ways to soak up the country’s wealth, but even at his iciest, his tall, dark sexiness impacted on her with undeniable power.
‘So who are you?’ he shot at her in his deep voice. ‘Are you an actress? A friend of one of my stepsisters? What do you do? More to the point, why are you here?’
She fluttered her lashes. ‘Oh, that.’ She allowed the moment to lengthen, the better to savour it.
Though a cowardly part of her cringed in terror at the risk she was about to take, another part fairly tingled with anticipation. She could feel his wolfish grey eyes follow her every move, and somehow the knowledge incited in her a dangerous desire to tease him.
With pleasurable deliberation, she pulled the ribbon from her hair, shook out the pale mass until it frothed in a blonde cascade down her back, then smoothed it all down with her hands.
Against every fibre of his will, Tom’s concentration wavered as the line of her profile and tender white neck impinged on his vision. His brain, locked down and blinkered against temptresses since the solemn vows of his wedding, flooded with images of shapely mermaids and bare ripe breasts. The thought came to him that she should be sunning herself on some rock. Naked, and smelling of the sea.
Conscious of his riveted attention, Cate swathed her hair back into her nape, casting him a glance as she retied the ribbon. ‘You invited me.’ She made a graceful, self-correcting gesture. ‘That is to say—my employer was invited to send a representative.’
‘Your employer…’ His thick black brows edged together and he flicked a frowning look over her. Then she saw the grim comprehension dawn in his eyes. He slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. ‘Bloody hell. I should have realised. You’ve got paparazzi written all over you.’ Underneath the derision, she detected something very close to dismay in his voice.
In one heart-stopping stride he was across the room to where she stood. ‘Here, give me that.’ He snatched the bag from her shoulder, and her alarmed internal organs all dropped back into their niches. ‘Which rag do you write for?’ he growled, making a ruthless search of the compartments. He found her phone and coolly slid it into his jacket pocket, then his lip curled in triumph as he pounced on her cassette recorder.
‘No, I don’t work for you,’ she rejoined, watching with some pleasure as his lean, smooth fingers rewound the tape and played it back without finding a whisper of illegal conversation. ‘I’m not guilty of churning out any of that cheap Russell trash, thank you. I write for a quality paper. The Clarion.’
He gave a snort of cynical laughter. ‘Quality? The Clarion?’ He put the recorder back in her purse and took out her pass. ‘What’s your excuse for not wearing this? I’d sack you for that alone if you worked for me.’
‘It spoiled the line of my jacket.’
‘What?’ His lip curled with such incredulous contempt that she was spurred to anger herself. A man like him would never know the challenges a woman faced fitting in with the society crowd.
He thrust the bag back at her. ‘Let me impress on you, Miss Summerfield,’ he said, enunciating each syllable with punishing precision, ‘anything you did happen to hear is completely off the record. Don’t even think of trying to use it.’ He towered over her in such an intimidating stance that it took all her nerve to hold his gaze. ‘Though you did say, didn’t you,’ he added, his eyes narrowing, ‘you didn’t hear anything?’ He scoured her face. ‘How true is that?’
Maybe it was the excess of testosterone in the air, but somehow her feminine spirit seemed creatively inspired.
‘Nearly true,’ she assured him, hoisting her bag to her shoulder. She gazed at him with smiling innocence. ‘Unless you count that bit about the merger. But don’t you worry. I don’t know much at all about share prices and the Stock Exchange.’
It was like kerosene to the bonfire. He hissed in a long searing breath, and stood stock still. Then he began to advance on her, his grey eyes glinting through the screen of his black lashes. ‘What else?’ he murmured, his deep, rich voice smooth with menace. ‘What else did you hear?’
Her heart revved up to an insane degree, but there was a crazy exhilaration in taunting him that drove her on. She gave a breezy little shrug and neatly eluded his grasp, sashaying over to the table to take a look at his notes.
‘Nothing else,’ she threw over her shoulder. ‘Oh, except the part about Ms West’s divorce. Something about deceiving the courts so she can rip off her husband in the division of property, et cetera. It was all really too complicated for me to take in.’ She shuffled through the pages and slanted him a mocking glance. ‘And then there was that bit about how you have to hire a woman.’ She gave an amused laugh.
He stared at her for seconds, his eyes narrowed in calculation, then strolled across and tweaked the pages from her grasp. In a visible change of tack, he perched casually on the edge of the table, quite close to where she stood.
Too close for comfort.
‘Now, how does a female body,’ he drawled, cool amusement in his deep, dark voice as he made a slow, appreciative appraisal of her from head to toe, ‘so clearly designed for an angel, come to house such a teasing little devil?’
In spite of herself her blood heat rose. She told herself she was impervious to flattery. Her body wasn’t like an angel’s, unless it was a fallen angel that had consumed one chocolate too many. She made an effort to keep her voice under control. ‘I’m—just doing my job.’
‘Now, now, Cate.’ His mouth edged up in a smile. It gleamed in his grey gaze and lit his harsh, sardonic face with such warmth, it was impossible to believe she’d not seen at once how handsome he was. ‘You know you can’t write a word of it. Think of your code of ethics. Wasn’t it the Clarion who invented it?’
He was all suave reason and charm. She knew he was turning on the seduction, but it worked. All the air was sucked from her lungs and her heart started an erratic thumping.
‘The code, yes,’ she agreed, breathless. ‘We do, we do—adhere to it. Religiously. Although if something’s in the national interest—I’m sure Harry would think that a merger between Russell’s and the West Corporation—’
‘Won’t happen if you publish it.’ He still smiled, but the warmth vanished. ‘Olivia will pull out. Then I’ll sue you for a billion and take your Clarion to the cleaners.’
The cold menace in the words helped her to pull herself together. She fished in her bag for a notebook. ‘That sounds like a threat, Mr Russell.’ She challenged him with her eyes. ‘Hang on, I’ll just write it down.’
Danger flashed in his grey irises like a lightning strike. ‘Take care, sweetheart. This is not the day to be playing games with someone who can ruin you.’ He gestured at her accusingly. ‘Consider your position. Here you are, caught red-handed, listening in on a conversation in which some highly sensitive information is being discussed. You’ve deliberately concealed your press pass—’
She gave a deep sigh. ‘I explained that.’ Resigning herself, she capitulated, feeling in her bag for the pass, then lifting up the edge of her jacket while she clamped it on. ‘See? Ruins it.’
His eyes were fastened to her waist. He must have only seen the merest fragment of bare skin over her ribs before she dropped the hem back, but his pupils dilated and she saw his heavy black lashes give an almost imperceptible flicker. He raised his darkened gaze to hers.
Somehow she couldn’t look away. The air tautened and she felt her mouth dry. She pulled the pass off and patted down the hem several unneccessary times, conscious of her heart’s sudden mad racketing.
A priest’s dark figure loomed in the doorway, and they both started. A gang of small, fresh-faced boys crowding in behind him told her that the choir had arrived. She became fully conscious then of something she’d had at the edge of her awareness for some time, but had been too intensely absorbed in Tom Russell to notice.
The organ was playing, and there was a growing swell of voices.
The church was filling up.
‘I’d—I’d better go,’ she said, making an abrupt move towards the door, looking for a way through the milling boys. ‘I don’t want to miss my spot in the church.’
‘No, you don’t.’ Tom Russell sprang to his feet and caught her elbow. ‘I’m not letting you out of my sight.’
Visions of Mike, outside, fuming, assailed her. ‘But—I have to do my job—’
His hand closed around her wrist in a deceptively light grip. ‘Until I decide what to do with you, sweetheart,’ he said softly,
‘you’re with me.’
CHAPTER THREE
IT FELT surreal, walking into the main chapel with Tom Russell. All over the church heads swivelled their way, and there was an added buzz to the murmurs of the congregation. Everywhere she looked, she met the interested stares of celebrities and socialites, business high-fliers and politicians, plenty of whom had tasted dust, courtesy of the Sydney Clarion.
She had the unnerving sensation that she was in the maw of the enemy. A small crowd surged to greet Tom, but she couldn’t help noticing that, despite their sombre murmurs of sympathy, their curious glances kept shifting sideways to scrutinise her.
Perhaps their interest mightn’t have been as avid if he hadn’t been keeping such a firm hold on her arm. A stylish older woman, who looked vaguely familiar, rushed up to engulf him in an emotional embrace and he was forced to relax his grip. Cate saw her opportunity, and tried to slip away, only to feel a ruthless hand grasp hers and draw her back. Despite her sudden shock, or because of it, his hard palm in sudden connection with hers sent her blood coursing in giddy confusion.
The woman appeared to be one of Marcus Russell’s exwives. ‘Who’s your friend, Thomas?’ she demanded, leaning forward to peer closely at Cate once her effusions had run out. ‘Introduce me.’
Tom Russell’s caustic gaze clashed with Cate’s. ‘No one you want to know.’
The woman looked taken aback, then, when his attention was diverted by the next well-wisher, whispered to Cate, ‘Don’t take any notice of him, dear. This is a difficult day for him.’
Of course. It must be, Cate thought with some remorse. How could she have taken such pleasure in taunting him?
The service was surprisingly simple and austere. Though the chapel was packed to the rafters with celebrities, there was none of the razzmatazz Sydney had come to associate with Marcus Russell. Someone had chosen the most exquisite, spiritually moving music in the repertoire. If music could waft Marcus’s poor old soul to heaven, Cate reflected, then J. S. Bach and Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ should do it.
She gave up trying to escape to Mike, and allowed herself to be jammed into the front pew beside Tom Russell and a gaggle of expensively dressed stepsisters and their mothers, who all stared at her with surprise and curiosity. Some of the glances at her suit made her wonder if she’d left the price tag showing. She crossed her ankles under the seat, hoping to spare her shoes from their merciless scrutiny. She prayed when the others prayed, and sang the Twenty-third Psalm along with everyone else.
A stream of dignitaries, including the Prime Minister, stood up to honour the memory of Marcus Russell, but after a tedious while she tuned down to listen with half an ear, and started to plan her story for tomorrow’s issue. Her absent, wandering gaze drifted down to the burnished leather shoe resting next to hers, and she surfaced from her reverie with a small start of surprise. Why hadn’t she noticed before?
Between Tom Russell’s trouser hem and his expensive loafer was an expanse of bare, tanned skin.
He’d forgotten his socks.
A strange sensation flooded her, of sympathy and amusement mingled with some poignant, melty feeling. How unexpectedly human it made him. She was overwhelmed with a need to turn and look at him, to touch one of the beautiful lean hands resting on his Armani-clad knee. Possible words of comfort welled up on her tongue, but she forced herself to keep gazing straight ahead, and had to be satisfied with drinking in the magnetism of his masculine aura, and luxuriating in the warm contact of his arm and shoulder.
When he rose to take the lectern, the coughs and shuffles of the congregation ceased, and the church fell silent. The air pulsed with anticipation. She held her breath for him, wondering how nervous he was.
If he was it didn’t show. Like a man born to rule, he rose to the occasion and spoke with dignity and authority, taking only an occasional glance at his notes. His voice resonated through the church like the darker tones of a cello.
It gave her a perfect opportunity to study the classic bone structure of his lean, harsh face. He was so tall and masterful, so sincere and grief-stricken and restrained, she felt moved. How he must have loved that dreadful old man.
It came as a shock. Affection for his only child was the one thing she’d never heard Marcus Russell accused of. She knew a stab of discomfort to wonder how much the unshrinking honesty of her obituary had added to Tom’s pain.
‘My father may not have been universally admired,’ he said, controlling the emotion in his voice, ‘but he was a generous benefactor to many charities. Those who knew him well knew that he was not “a mere leech, fat on the profits of greed”.’
The familiar words, read with grim distaste, jolted through Cate. Murmurs of sympathetic outrage rippled around the congregation.
She sank down in her seat. What if they knew the perpetrator of those words was here in their very midst?
From his commanding position at the lectern, Tom spoke to the sea of familiar faces before him without seeing a single one. Conscious this had to be the performance of his life, he measured his comments with care, searingly conscious of their irony. If people only guessed how generous his father had been to charity.
The question that had tortured fourteen sleepless nights tormented him afresh. Why had Marcus done it? How could a man of his experience have believed a desperate financial shortfall would change his son’s life for the better? Did he really believe a disaster could erase a man’s grief?
Something of the depths of his dismay must have leaked into his voice, because the hushed atmosphere suddenly seemed charged with dynamite.
‘In fact,’ he read on, frowning in the effort to concentrate on the task at hand, ‘far from “squandering his squalid profits on sordid pleasure”, throughout his life my father was a notable phil—’
A sudden connection pinged in his brain and with a little choke he broke off. The notes blurred, while in his mind’s eye, in perfect clarity, a name focused.
Cate Summerfield.
The people, the church, the rigorously composed thread of his address receded. He raised his eyes from the page.
Cate Summerfield, obituary writer, stared back at him from her pew, frozen in guilty acknowledgement. Her mermaid’s eyes were wide in alarm, her lips tight-pressed.
In the throbbing silence, the emotional tension ratcheted up to screeching pitch and sobs broke out, but Tom was hardly aware of them. For speechless seconds he grappled with the sheer enormity of it. The nerve of this dizzy little blonde to have shown her face, even to have set foot in the church. But to have eavesdropped on a negotiation that gave her the actual power to ruin him…
For a heart-struck instant he stared into an abyss. If the corporation went under thousands would lose their livelihoods. The Russell name would echo down the years as a byword of shame.
Conscious of a faint, unwonted moisture on his upper lip,
he had to grip the lectern tight to restrain himself from loosening his collar. But he wasn’t his father’s son for nothing. With an almost superhuman effort, he summoned his formidable powers of recovery and cut the unnecessary emotion to make a lightning situation assessment.
Damage control needed to be neat and complete. He must find something to offer her. Some way to zip her saucy mouth with its infuriating smile. He thought of a bribe and discarded it. How the Clarion would gloat. Although if there was something she wanted, something out of her reach…
What could he offer her? The answer boomeranged back at once. What else would she want, but what they all did? She was a reporter, after all.
Beyond that, he seethed, she was a woman. And in that crystalline instant he knew exactly how he could do it.
Cowering in her pew, Cate recognised sudden purpose in Tom Russell’s glinting gaze. She gathered herself to make a dash for the exit, but too late, for with an eloquent gesture that provoked a wave of sobs around the cathedral, he handed over the lectern to the officiating archbishop, and in a couple of strides was back beside her.
‘Stay put,’ he hissed in her ear, smiling, though his white, even teeth were gritted. ‘I’m not finished with you yet.’ He slipped his arm around her and held her close against his hard body, as though she were some stricken family member in need of support. Her senses plunged into uproar, but she shrank from making a scene, and submitted to the disturbing effects of feeling his long muscled thigh pressed against hers.
In a short, nerve-racking while the service came to an end, and she knew her time had come. As soon as the mourners rose to make their way out, her captor seized the opportunity, amid the confusion, to hustle her away from the goggling stares of his family members, down the aisle past the crowded vestry, and out through the door to the visitor’s car park.
As they emerged into the sunshine a long, low black limousine, its darkened windows blank and sinister, drew up alongside them. Visions assailed Cate of being strangled and dumped on some highway.
‘Get in,’ he said, opening the rear door. And when she hesitated to dive into what looked impossibly like some sultan’s cave, complete with oriental rugs, sumptuous cushioned seats and silken panelling—‘Please.’ In the sunlight his cool grey eyes glittered inscrutably against his tan. ‘We need to talk. I have a proposition for you.’
Please on his brusque tongue was unexpected enough to be reassuring. After a moment she bowed her head in acquiescence, climbed in and slid as best she could to the far side of the deeply cushioned divan-seat. With a few curt instructions to the driver, Tom Russell joined her, and closed the glass barrier.
His elegantly clad knee was only centimetres from hers. She moistened her lips, overly conscious of his high-octane masculinity in the opulent space. She crossed her legs, then uncrossed them when she saw his gaze flicker down to them.
‘Alone at last,’ he drawled.
‘I had no idea limos were furnished like this,’ she said nervously.
‘This was my father’s car.’ His lip curled. ‘His most recent mistress had a taste for the exotic.’
To her alarm the engine purred into life and the car moved towards the street-exit. ‘I thought you said you just wanted us to talk?’
‘Aren’t we talking?’ He lounged back to survey her with a considering gaze, his black lashes half lowered.
She wished she didn’t have to be so aware of him, and tried not to notice the relaxed idleness of his long limbs and smooth, tanned hands. ‘Shouldn’t you be with your guests now? I mean, as they—as they leave the church, don’t you want to be there in the front porch to shake hands with everyone?’
‘No, I don’t.’
They’d left the cathedral yard and were now weaving their way through traffic. Where to? she thought with panic. Some execution site?
She took the risk of meeting his sardonic gaze. ‘But isn’t there some sort of a—gathering or something? I mean, don’t you have refreshments, or a luncheon party, or—or—’ The limo took a turn towards the eastern suburbs. She struggled to think of some compelling reason for them to turn back. ‘Don’t you have things you want to say to your guests,’ she tried in desperation, ‘to thank them? You know, for their concern, and their good wishes?’
A tinge of amusement crossed his face. ‘Those self-indulgent sink-holes of the nation’s wealth? No, I’m more interested in the things I want to say to you. But now you remind me…’ He pressed something in the pleated silk wall and a door slid open, revealing an elegant little cabinet containing decanters and glasses. He selected a crystal balloon glass and poured a drop into it of pure liquid amber. ‘Cognac?’
To be honest, she wasn’t very good with alcohol. It had a tendency to go straight to her head. But when was the last time she’d been in a travelling pasha’s den with a billionaire? She accepted the balloon with as casual a nod as if she drank the stuff every day of the week, and stole a glance into its depths. Fire glowed in it, and it seemed to be alive with a strange, electric beauty. She inhaled, and the intoxicating aroma rose to fill her head.
She risked a tiny sip. It melted into her lips, and suffused her mouth and throat with a seductive, tingling warmth that irradiated her entire being like the rays of the sun on a winter’s morn.
Her eyes watered with the effort of trying not to cough, but she still had to, anyway.
He waited for her to recover, an amused quirk disturbing the stern line of his chiselled mouth. ‘I want to make a deal with you.’
‘What sort of a deal?’ Though warmed by the cognac, she reminded herself to be cautious. She said hoarsely, ‘I hope you know nothing will tempt me to compromise my journalistic standards.’
He broke into a laugh. It lit his eyes and made them crinkle up at the corners. ‘What standards?’ Then he caught her glance and his face grew solemn. ‘I would never try to tempt you from your standards, Cate. But I can give you something you want, and you can give me something I need.’
‘Really? What’s that?’ The cognac, or maybe his deep laugh, had melted into her bloodstream and infused her voice with a husky quality she could have done without.
He made a gesture with one bronzed hand. ‘You want your story. I’m prepared to give it to you. First break, even ahead of my own newspapers. Full disclosure of the merger. Interview—photographs—everything.’
Excitement surged to her head. Full disclosure would give her a far more meaningful scoop than a few lines that were light on details, but heavy on hints and guesses. And an actual interview with him! It would take her right up there with Steve and Barbara. She could get Gran into a private hospital and…
She roused herself from her fantasies, and caught him studying her face. His eyes were veiled, but his sexy mouth had edged into a very slight smile, like a wolf with a tasty little goose in its sights. It stirred her misgivings. ‘What’s the catch?’
‘Ah, the catch.’ He straightened up a little, as if to gain more leverage in the contest. ‘The catch is that you must wait for three weeks to publish. If you can’t promise that, I’ll spill the story this afternoon and the merger will collapse.’ He gave her a moment to digest, his eyes intent on her face, then added softly, ‘And then you’ll have nothing to report.’
She frowned. Three weeks was an eternity in publishing. Could she trust him to keep his word? A man with his cool, uncompromising mouth was unlikely to be a slimy liar like Steve. And if she took into account his stunning eyes and that appealing little cleft in his chin—
She fought down a warm tidal surge in her blood. Really she must not focus on his physical attributes. She had to remember he was a shark in the ocean of world affairs, and she needed to keep her head. An unnerving thought struck her. The one thing he did have going for him was the genuine affectio with which he’d talked about his father.
What if he was setting her up to take some sort of revenge for her cutting obituary?
She gave the cognac a wary sip. ‘You must realise that I have to report on the memorial today. You’re not asking me to falsify the truth, are you?’
A muscle tightened in his jaw. ‘I’m asking you to do the ethical thing and limit your report to strictly what was on the record. When my merger goes through you can write what you like.’
He was lounging back on the seat, his long limbs lazily disposed, but despite his casual posture she sensed a waiting stillness in him, as though a lot hung on her acceptance. Again she wondered just how important this merger was to Russell Inc. Was the corporate giant in trouble?
Sad creature that she was, she considered drawing out his suspense, taking her time to agree so as to postpone the moment when he dropped her from the enchanted limo and she plummeted back into ordinary life. A man with such a low opinion of her integrity deserved to be tortured a little.
She sighed. Lucky for him she was cursed with a conscience.
‘Oh, all right,’ she said, leaning back against the cushions.
She could feel his smouldering gaze scorch her from her hair all the way down to her toes. It was flattering to command such a furnace-blast of attention.
‘As well,’ he added in an offhand tone, ‘today you act as my girlfriend. ‘
‘What?’ She sat bolt upright. Shocked at first into a laugh, she stared at him then for incredulous seconds. ‘Are you serious? Do you think anyone would believe that? I know my friends would be amazed, not to mention the newsroom. I mean—don’t get me wrong, but anyone who knows me knows that you’re absolutely the last person on earth I’d ever dream of—’
She broke off in time to realise his lean, harsh face had stiffened. ‘I’m relieved to hear it,’ he said drily, ‘since the feeling is mutual. In fact, your total unsuitability is one of your greatest assets. People will expect me to dump you in five minutes, and I will.’
‘Oh.’ She cast him a glance through her lashes. It was a revelation to discover that a tall, dark sexy super-supremo could be so sensitive. But with his temper, it seemed prudent to humour him a little. ‘Well, if I agreed, what exactly would you expect me to do?’
He shrugged, and gave his cognac a bored swirl. ‘Just walk into the luncheon with me. Hang around. Act—like a girlfriend.’ He sounded so offhand, it hardly seemed like much of a request. ‘You aren’t committed to anyone, are you?’ His eyes fell on her ringless hands.
Committed. Deep down inside her something lurched. Even after more than a year words like that could still throw her.
It was hard to fall from prospective bride straight back into bright, chirpy single. Perhaps because she still saw Steve at work. She knew, though, it probably wasn’t fair to blame him altogether. A young man like him—of course he’d been daunted. He came from a big family and had no concept of how close she and Gran were. Then when Gran had changed overnight from her clever, funny and invincible self and turned into a frail elderly lady, he’d been jealous of the time Cate had had to spend with her.
As always she tried to thrust away thoughts of the scene with Steve the night Gran had been admitted to hospital for tests. His casual words across the hospital bed, devastating for her, near fatal for Gran.
Her own whispered responses, so defensive and emotional.
Gran had been out of it, so they’d thought, but not far enough out.
Her mind shied away from the choking guilt and fear she’d felt when Gran had clutched at her hand and gone into seizure. Why, oh, why hadn’t she put an end to the scene at once? She should never have allowed Steve anywhere near Gran.
He’d apologised later. Grovelled, in fact. Promised the earth if she’d take him back. Even Gran had urged her to relent. But she never would. A strong, instinctive part of her had known that if a man truly loved a woman, he cared for the people she loved.
She clenched her cognac glass. She’d learned from the love experience. A man expected a woman to devote herself exclusively to him. Give up her own interests. Spend all her weekends at the football, or her evenings watching sport on television, or playing pool with his beer-swilling friends. Until Gran had had her heart bypass and was safe and well, there could be no new love for Cate Summerfield, even if she did ever want to chance that stony road again.
‘Well?’
Tom Russell’s voice roused her, his black brows bristling with impatience.
‘No, no,’ she assured him. ‘Not—currently.’
What was she hiding? Tom wondered, scanning her face with a cynical gaze. ‘You don’t sound very sure.’
‘Of course I’m sure,’ she snapped.
‘Ah. Then you’ll do it.’ He raised his glass to his lips and his lashes flickered down.
Cate eyed the determined line of his handsome jaw, and wondered how many people in his life had ever given him opposition.
She wrinkled her brow. ‘I suppose I could do it, so long as it doesn’t get out. I’m not sure how my grandmother or the people at work would take it.’
There was a second of stunned silence, then he gave a sharp little laugh. ‘Are you saying you’d be ashamed to—be with me?’
‘Not ashamed, exactly.’ His face was picture of bemusement, and she felt some remorse. Naturally he saw himself as a highly desirable property. With people like Olivia West throwing themselves at him from all directions, it was only to be expected. ‘It’s not you, so much as—’ She made a vague gesture and mumbled, ‘You know. What you represent.’
Struggling to find his way through shifting mists of unreality, Tom scoured her face for signs of teasing. But her big sea-green eyes held only earnestness, and, goddammit, he realised with a deep inner shock, something that looked like pity. When had he, Tom Russell, ever inspired pity?
He stared at her for long seconds with narrowed eyes. ‘Then we’d better make sure your family and friends never find out. I would hate to embarrass you.’
Cate bit her lip, aware of having been less than tactful. ‘It’s not just a case of embarrassment. It’s whether my friends would believe I could be seduced—even temporarily by your—’ she waved her glass ‘—your wealth, and all that. And that brings me to—something else I need to get straight.’ She took another swallow to bolster her courage, and her voice deepened. ‘I hope you mean this purely as a business arrangement, and you’re not hoping to whizz me off afterwards to some sleazy downtown hotel room.’
A muscle twitched in his lean, smooth-shaven cheek, and his eyes glittered with a dangerous intensity. After a second he said, ‘I’m asking you because, rightly or wrongly, you were on the spot, and I may as well make the most of a bloody annoying situation. As for whether I could seduce you with my wealth…or that I might be planning some afternoon…’ He shook his head while he wrestled with the disgraceful concept. Then he tossed off the rest of his cognac and gazed at her with derisive amusement. ‘I need someone to act the part. And that’s all you’ll be required to do, sweetheart. Act.’
‘Well, if you’re sure. So long as it’s only acting. And as long as you honour your part of the deal and don’t leak the story without me.’
He hissed in an incredulous breath. ‘For some reason,’ he exclaimed when he could find the words, ‘the people I do business with believe they can trust my word.’
She arched her brows. ‘Maybe they’re birds of a similar feather.’
Tom experienced a further shock. What did she think he was—some shoddy used-car salesman? What had he ever done to this woman to earn such distrust? A blistering retort rose to his tongue, but he managed to control it, realising it was far more likely to be the things his father was reputed to have done.
‘Look,’ he said, with an attempt at smoothness, ‘we’ll just have to trust each other, won’t we? I’ll be trusting you to act convincingly enough to persuade Devlin—’
‘Is that Olivia’s husband?’
‘That’s correct—Malcolm Devlin—that we’re together. Do you think you can do it?’
Cate sank back into the plush luxury. Could she? It would be a huge risk, a leap into the unknown, but it would give her a fabulous inside view of a society party. She might even get a feature article out of it, once the embargo was lifted. Although…
She let her gaze flicker over his lean, tall sexiness. She would need to take care. He was so damnably attractive, he might talk her into anything.
She gave a shrug. ‘I suppose I could give it a go. ‘
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