Married By Christmas Read online

  His mouth quirked as he looked at her, his gaze mocking. ‘And every other day, hmm?’ he said knowingly.

  Lilli calmly met his eyes. ‘It is Christmas,’ she shrugged.

  But despite the numerous invitations she had received during the last few weeks she hadn’t accepted any of them. She hadn’t refused them either, had been too listless to bother with them. In view of what she had learned about Andy, she had no intention of accepting them now either. But Patrick Devlin didn’t need to know that.

  ‘I’m aware of what time of year it is,’ Patrick replied. ‘But I didn’t think you were.’ He looked around at the lack of any Christmas decorations in the room.

  Neither she nor her father had felt like putting up a tree or their usual decorations this year. It would be their first Christmas without her mother, and so far neither of them had the heart for seasonal celebrations.

  Although now that her father was involved with Geraldine Simms he might feel differently about that; the other woman’s home had certainly been highly festooned with decorations at the party two days ago!

  Lilli’s mouth tightened, her eyes glacially green as she looked across at Patrick. ‘We’re still in mourning for my mother,’ she stated flatly. Although she somehow didn’t think her father was any more!

  ‘Caroline.’ Patrick nodded in acknowledgement of Lilli’s mother. ‘I met her several times. Before her illness curtailed her social life. She was a very beautiful woman. You look a lot like her,’ he added softly.

  Pain flickered in the depths of Lilli’s eyes. Somehow it had never occurred to her that this man could have known her mother. Although, as he’d said, until her illness had incapacitated her a year before her death, her mother had been a familiar part of the social scene. Even her illness hadn’t robbed her of her incredible beauty, the two of them often able to fool people into believing they were sisters rather than mother and daughter.

  ‘I really do have to get on now, Patrick.’ She gave a pointed look at her slender gold wristwatch.

  To her chagrin he grinned across at her. ‘Miss Bennett has spoken,’ he taunted.

  Angry colour darkened her cheeks at his continued insistence that she was two people. ‘At least she’s polite!’ she snapped.

  ‘To the point of coldness,’ he acknowledged dryly. ‘Why aren’t you curious to know more about your ex-fiancée, Lilli?’ His eyes were narrowed thoughtfully.

  Because so much made sense now—Andy’s initial reluctance to ask her out, his lack of ardour during their engagement. She didn’t want to dwell on those things, felt humiliated enough already!

  ‘My father will tell me anything I need to know,’ she dismissed quickly.

  Patrick gave a disgusted snort. ‘He doesn’t seem to have told you very much so far!’

  She glared at him. ‘My father is very protective of me.’ She was positive that was the reason her father hadn’t told her about Andy. She had been devastated by her mother’s death, and to have learnt of Andy’s complete betrayal at the same time would have been unbearable. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she was sure Andy had chosen his timing for that very reason...! She had felt hurt before, but what she thought of Andy now wasn’t even repeatable!

  ‘To the point of stupidity, I now realise,’ Patrick countered harshly. ‘You simply have no idea.’

  She swallowed hard at his accusing tone. She was beginning to realise, and she only loved her father all the more for trying to spare her further pain. Although it seemed to have caused him complications he could well have done without, including, she was sure, being at loggerheads with this man.

  ‘The love of a parent for a child is all-forgiving,’ she defended chokily, aware as she said so that it was time this ‘child’ stopped being cocooned and began to be of some help to her father. He had carried this heavy burden on his own for too long.

  Possibly it was the reason he had become involved so quickly with someone so unsuitable as Geraldine Simms...?

  In recent years, with her mother so ill, her father had begun to confide in Lilli instead when it came to business matters, but she realised that for the last few months she had been too engrossed in her own pain to give him the attention he had so obviously needed. Which was why he had turned to someone outside the family for comfort.

  ‘And the love of a child for the parent?’ Patrick prompted softly.

  Lilli gave him a sharp look. This man was too astute; he had guessed she was thinking of her father’s involvement with his sister!

  ‘Yes,’ she answered unhesitating. She didn’t like her father’s involvement with Geraldine Simms, but after what she had just learnt of her father’s recent worries she was no longer going to give him a hard time over it. She would just have to be around to help pick up the pieces when Geraldine tired of playing with him!

  Patrick was still watching her closely. ‘Do you like children, Lilli?’

  She met his gaze defensively. ‘Yes—did you think I wouldn’t?’ She and Andy had discussed the idea of having—

  She and Andy...! How ridiculous the idea of them having children seemed now!

  Patrick shrugged. ‘You didn’t seem too keen earlier when I mentioned having four—’

  ‘I like children, would dearly like some of my own,’ Lilli interrupted firmly. ‘I just don’t intend for them to be yours!’

  He looked totally unconcerned by her vehemence. ‘But think of the social coup you will have made by getting me to the altar,’ he mocked. ‘I’ve made no secret of my contempt for the institution of marriage!’

  As Sally had clearly told her last night. Certainly, walking off with the much coveted prize of Patrick Devlin as a husband would more than compensate for the humiliation of having had a fiancé who had left her for another man! But once all the excitement had died down she was the one who would be married to this man, and was a lifetime of his torment really worth that? At this moment in time, she didn’t think so!

  ‘Thank you for the offer—but no,’ she said crisply.

  He looked at her with assessing eyes. ‘It won’t be open for ever, you know,’ he said.

  She gave a wry smile. ‘I never thought that it would.’ She was still dazed he had asked her at all!

  His mouth twisted mockingly. ‘But the answer is still no?’

  ‘Most definitely,’ she agreed forcefully.

  ‘For now,’ he said.

  Lilli looked at him suspiciously. She was still reeling from the shock of Andy’s betrayal, couldn’t even think straight yet. But she did know she didn’t want to marry this man.

  ‘I really do have things to do, Patrick,’ she told him again firmly, wishing he would just leave now so that she could think.

  He studied her for several seconds, and then he gave a brief nod. ‘I have no doubts our paths will cross again,’ he murmured huskily.

  She didn’t know how he could be so sure. They hadn’t met at all in the previous five years. Admittedly, Patrick seemed to have lived in America for most of that time, but he had no doubt been in London on several occasions during those years, if only to see his sister, and Lilli had managed to avoid ever meeting him. The only connection she could see between them now was the business he had with her father, and her father’s relationship with his sister.

  ‘Maybe,’ she returned enigmatically.

  He grinned again. ‘But not if you can manage to avoid it!’ he guessed.

  ‘We’ve managed never to meet socially before, so perhaps it would be better if we left it that way,’ she told him coolly.

  ‘For whom?’ he drawled. ‘Having met you, Lilli, I’m in no hurry to lose you again.’

  Was he never going to leave? She did have things to do—and going to see her father was top of that list. She intended speaking to him before his meeting with Patrick later this afternoon...

  ‘And please don’t say I’ve never had you to lose,’ Patrick went on mockingly. ‘You may have chosen to have a convenient memory lapse about the other ni
ght, but, believe me, I remember all of it!’ he assured her.

  She clearly, to her intense mortification, remembered waking up to the sound of him singing happily in the shower yesterday morning; he certainly hadn’t sounded like a man dissatisfied with his night! But she hadn’t ‘chosen’ to forget anything; she just didn’t, apart from that brief memory flash earlier, remember what had happened between them that first night.

  ‘I’m sure you do,’ she dismissed briskly. ‘But at the same time I doubt you ask every woman you go to bed with to marry you!’

  He raised dark brows. ‘In the last five years since my divorce?’ he said thoughtfully. ‘I think so—yes...’ He nodded.

  Lilli stared at him. Oh, Sally had said he didn’t get involved, but—But Patrick couldn’t really be saying she was the first woman he had been to bed with since his divorce. Could he...?

  Patrick smiled at her stunned expression. ‘It isn’t exactly a secret, Lilli. Sanchia taught me never to trust anyone. Especially a woman,’ he added hardly. ‘And I never have,’ he ground out harshly.

  She drew in a sharp breath. ‘I’m a woman,’ she told him shakily.

  ‘Undoubtedly so,’ he agreed, touching her lightly on one creamy cheek. ‘But I don’t have to trust you to marry you. As I’ve already said, our marriage would be a business arrangement.’

  She moved abruptly back from that caressing hand. ‘No doubt with a suitable pre-nuptial agreement,’ she derided scornfully.

  He met her gaze steadily. ‘That sort of agreement is only relevant if you intend divorcing each other at some later date. I have no wish to go through another divorce. The next time I marry it will be for life.’

  She couldn’t break her gaze away from his! She wanted to. Desperately wanted to. But she felt as if she was drowning in the depths of those dark grey eyes. And she knew he meant every word he said...!

  She tilted her head back, flicking her plait back over her shoulder. ‘No love, no divorce; is that the way it works?’ she challenged, wishing she sounded a little more forceful. But she was seriously shaken by the determination of his gaze.

  ‘Exactly.’

  Lilli shook her head. ‘I find that very sad, Patrick.’ She frowned. ‘Marriage should be for love.’

  ‘Always?’

  ‘Always,’ she echoed firmly.

  His mouth twisted. ‘You can still say that, after the experience you’ve just gone through? With your parents’ marriage as another shining example of marital bliss?’ He shook his head. ‘There’s scepticism, and then there’s stupidity, Lilli, and I’m very much afraid that you—’

  ‘That is enough!’ she cried, eyes as hard as emeralds now. ‘Leave my parents out of this discussion. You know nothing about them or their marriage. All you know is that my father is now involved with your sister. But it won’t last.’ Her lips pursed disdainfully. ‘Your sister’s affairs never do.’

  ‘And your father’s affairs?’ he taunted.

  ‘My father doesn’t have affairs!’ Her cheeks were hot with indignation, her hands clenched angrily at her sides. ‘Your sister has just caught him on the rebound from my mother’s death. He wouldn’t have looked at her twice while my mother was alive!’ she added heatedly.

  Patrick looked at her pityingly. ‘Is everything this black and white for you, Lilli? No shades of grey at all?’

  ‘My father brought me up never to accept less than the best,’ she told him with passion. ‘And so far I never have...!’

  Patrick looked at her wordlessly for several long seconds, and then he slowly shook his head. ‘And I hope—sincerely hope, Lilli—that you never do,’ he murmured. ‘And I mean that, Lilli. I really do.’

  Somehow she believed him. ‘Thank you,’ she accepted.

  His mouth quirked. ‘Now go away?’

  She gave a rueful smile. ‘Yes.’

  He laughed softly. ‘I’ve enjoyed knowing you, Lilli. It’s certainly never been boring. See me to the door?’ he prompted throatily.

  She had intended doing that anyway; as he had already said, she had been brought up to be a good hostess, and telling a guest to find his own way out, no matter who he was, was not polite! Besides, after trying to get him to leave for the last twenty minutes, she wanted to make sure he had actually gone!

  ‘Certainly,’ she agreed.

  Patrick chuckled as the two of them walked down the hallway to the door, grinning as Lilli turned to him questioningly. ‘You’re very refreshing, Lilli; as far as I’m aware, you’re the first woman who couldn’t wait for me to go!’ he explained self-derisively.

  Not such a perfect hostess, after all! ‘I—’

  ‘Have things to do,’ he finished for her. ‘So you’ve already said.’

  ‘Several times,’ she reminded him playfully, relieved they had at last reached the door.

  Patrick turned to her. ‘Don’t say goodbye, Lilli,’ he murmured as she would have spoken. ‘You may wish it were, but we both know it isn’t.’

  She knew no such thing! There was absolutely no reason—

  There was no time for further thought as Patrick bent down and kissed her!

  And it wasn’t a light kiss either, as he pulled her easily into his arms and moulded her body against his.

  Lilli felt as if she was drowning, couldn’t breathe, was aware of nothing but the possession of this man. And it was complete possession, of the mind, body, and senses.

  She could only look up at him with dazed green eyes as he released her as suddenly as he had kissed her.

  ‘No matter what you think to the contrary, neither of us can say goodbye to that, Lilli,’ he told her gruffly in parting, the door closing softly behind him as he finally left.

  Lilli didn’t move, could hear the thunder of her own blood as it rushed around her body. She had been out with men before Andy, quite a few of them, but none of them, including Andy, had evoked the response that Patrick did. It was incredible. Unbelievable. Dangerous...! How could she respond to a man she didn’t even like very much? For there was no denying the force of electricity that filled the air whenever they were together.

  Well, despite what Patrick might have claimed to the contrary, she intended them not to be together again.

  ‘Lilli...?’ Her father stood up uncertainly from behind his desk, his eyes searching as he moved to kiss her lightly on the cheek in greeting. ‘I didn’t expect to see you again until this evening.’ He looked at her a little warily, Lilli thought.

  Which wasn’t surprising, considering what she had learnt from Patrick earlier. Her father had carried that knowledge around with him for months now, and, on closer inspection, he looked grey with worry. Until today Lilli had put his gauntness down to the loss of her mother, but she now realised it was so much more than that. But she had no intention of letting him worry alone any longer.

  She had been lucky when she’d arrived at his office a few minutes ago, his secretary able to happily inform her he was alone, and could see her immediately. Her father didn’t look quite so pleased to see her!

  Lilli looked at him with wide, unblinking eyes. ‘Exactly how much money did Andy take?’ she said evenly. ‘And what are you doing about it?’

  Her father staggered, as if she had actually hit him, sitting back down in the leather chair behind his desk, his face white now, eyes as green as her own gleaming brightly.

  Her own legs felt slightly shaky, she had to admit, knowing from her father’s reaction to those two simple questions that Patrick had told her the truth about Andy’s disappearance. And, having told her the truth about the money, he no doubt had also told her the truth about whom Andy had gone away with...!

  ‘Oh, Daddy!’ She moved around the desk to hug him. ‘You should have told me,’ she said emotionally.

  ‘No prizes for guessing exactly who did,’ he muttered bitterly.

  She moved back slightly to look down at him, her own eyes glittering with unshed tears. ‘It’s irrelevant who did the telling, Daddy. And to give Patrick h
is due,’ she added grudgingly, ‘he didn’t realise I didn’t already know.’

  Her father’s smile came out as more of a grimace. ‘Did he survive the telling unbruised?’

  Her mouth twisted at the memory of their conversation. ‘Physically, yes. Verbally—probably not.’ She shrugged. ‘But I’m really not interested in Patrick Devlin’s feelings just now; he isn’t important.’

  ‘I’m afraid he is, Lilli,’ her father sighed. ‘Very much so, in fact.’

  She moved to sit on the edge of his desk. ‘Tell me,’ she invited.

  It wasn’t very pretty in the telling, and for the main part her father avoided meeting her gaze. It was more or less as Lilli had worked out in her own mind; Andy had used her father’s preoccupation with his wife’s illness to embezzle money from the company.

  ‘How much?’ she prompted softly.

  ‘A lot—’

  ‘How much Daddy?’ she said forcefully.

  He swallowed hard. ‘Several million—’

  ‘Several million!’ Lilli repeated incredulously. ‘Oh, my God...!’ she groaned—this was so much worse than she had thought. Her eyes widened. ‘That’s why Patrick is involved in this, isn’t it?’ she realised weakly.

  Her father scowled darkly. ‘He had no right telling you that part,’ he rasped harshly.

  ‘He didn’t,’ she assured him shakily. ‘I’m not completely stupid, Daddy; I can add two and two together and come up with the correct answer of four. Andy stole money from you, Patrick is a banker, you are now having difficult business discussions with Patrick; it isn’t hard to work out that the two things are connected!’

  ‘I wish to God they weren’t!’ Her father stood up abruptly, his expression grim. ‘The money that Andy took was made through transactions at Cleveley Bank. It had been put in a separate account, ready to pay a loan we took out just over a year ago when we expanded into Australia. The loan was due for repayment two months ago. But when I accessed the account before that I found all the funds had been redirected out of the country,’ he recalled heavily, even the memory of it, Lilli could see, bringing him out in a cold sweat.