Книга - Bride for Hire

Bride for Hire
Jessica Hart


For better and for worse!Seth Carrington needed a girlfriend and Daisy needed a ticket to the Caribbean…it seemed like a fair exchange! But having survived Seth's extremely thorough interviewing technique–which included kissing–Daisy began to have her doubts. Seth was high-handed and completely ruthless…except when he smiled; then he was devastatingly attractive.Smile or no, Daisy had to face facts: her job was strictly temporary; she was being paid to act as a decoy for Seth's secret affair with a glamorous woman. The terms of the agreement were crystal-clear–but there was no clause about love!Jessica Hart has a wonderful talent for "building a stunning love story you won't want to see end."–Romantic Times







“I knew you were wrong for the job from the start.” (#u7071f5e5-002b-5d94-933c-a331dfbfb554)About the Author (#u28267339-4817-53a1-a270-fe1cc61591ee)Title Page (#u3ec32b3e-f899-518a-87bf-369f857ce010)CHAPTER ONE (#u7438efa4-176d-5db2-8711-d01e0ce6f322)CHAPTER TWO (#u7e13c222-87b4-59fc-801b-a0e2c1eb6e03)CHAPTER THREE (#ud2149ba3-887b-51e6-88c0-dcbd39a48e00)CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)


“I knew you were wrong for the job from the start.”

Seth continued savagely. “You don’t look right, you don’t dress right, and you’ve absolutely no idea how to behave.”

“B-but what about our agreement?” stammered Daisy.

“Since you haven’t stuck by a word of it, I hardly think that you’re in a position to quote it back to me now,” he pointed out with a cold look. “You’ve been nothing but trouble, and I’m not putting up with you any longer.”

“But you’ve told everyone that you’re in love with me now,” said Daisy desperately.

“I’ll find someone else,” Seth said flatly. “And next time I’ll make sure I get a girl who doesn’t argue!”


Jessica Hart

had a haphazard career before she began writing to finance a degree in history. Her experience ranged from waitress, theater production assistant and Outback cook to newsdesk secretary, expedition PA and English teacher, and she has worked in countries as different as France and Indonesia, Australia and Cameroon. She now lives in the north of England, where her hobbies are limited to eating and drinking and traveling when she can, preferably to places where she’ll find good food or desert or tropical rain.

Look out for Jessica Hart’s next book, BIRTHDAY BRIDE, (#3511)

out in July1998 as part of our special new series

THE BIG EVENT!




Bride for Hire

Jessica Hart







www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


CHAPTER ONE

DID she dare?

Daisy chewed her bottom lip as she looked from the telephone to the letter in her hand. It was short and enigmatic, the bold black scrawl thrusting itself across the page as if the writer was used to expressing himself in a blunter, less elusive style. ‘...your name given to me by a mutual acquaintance...believe you might be interested in a proposition I have in mind...someone of your talents and discretion required for a forthcoming trip to the Caribbean...’ Daisy’s eyes skimmed the letter again, although she knew it by heart, and stopped at that tantalising mention of the Caribbean, just as they had done when she’d first ripped open the envelope—before she had realised that it wasn’t addressed to her at all.

‘I will be in London from May 19,’ the letter had concluded curtly, with the name and telephone number of one of London’s most exclusive hotels. ‘Call me if you are interested.’ It was signed in the same aggressive script: ‘Seth Carrington’.

Daisy looked back at the telephone. She didn’t recognise the name, although it had a vaguely familiar ring to it, but everything about the letter was suspicious—not least the fact that Seth Carrington wrote like a man used to dictating letters and having them typed immaculately for him. Why had he written this one by hand? If she had any sense she would fold up the letter, put it back in its envelope and return it to the sender with a message saying that it had been opened in error.

But being sensible wouldn’t get her to the Caribbean and it wouldn’t help her find Tom. Wiping her palms on her skirt, Daisy reached for the phone.

‘I’d like to speak to Seth Carrington, please,’ she said when she was finally put through to someone who announced herself as Mr Carrington’s personal assistant.

‘May I ask who’s calling?’

Daisy glanced at the top of the letter. ‘Dee Pearce,’ she said, wondering if the other girl could hear the lie.

‘I’m afraid Mr Carrington is unavailable at the moment.’ The voice at the end of the phone was cool with suspicion. ‘Would you care to leave a message?’

Daisy hesitated. What could she say? What would the unknown Dee be likely to say? In the end, she just left her number and rang off, feeling depressed. That the letter with its prospect of the Caribbean had arrived at 4 Lawrence Crescent instead of 4 Lawrence Street had been a mere coincidence, but when she had discovered that Dee Pearce had gone away without leaving a forwarding address Daisy had been sure that fate was taking a hand.

That’s when the idea had first come to her, but it had still taken her all night to work up the courage to telephone Seth Carrington and he might at least have had the decency to be there! Daisy didn’t think she would have the nerve to try again.

The whole idea was madness, anyway, she told herself, slumping down into a chair. It was pretty obvious that whatever Seth Carrington’s interesting proposition was it wasn’t going to be anything her mother would be likely to approve of, and while Daisy was prepared to do almost anything to find Tom at the moment there were limits. She would just have to find some other way to get to the Caribbean to look for him. Seth Carrington would never ring back, anyway.

The phone rang.

Daisy jumped, her heart hammering as she jerked upright. It was her mother, she persuaded herself as she took a deep breath to calm herself. Her mother or Lisa or Robert, but her palm was still slippery as she picked up the receiver.

‘Hello,’ she said warily.

‘This is Seth Carrington.’ It was an American voice. deep and gravelly, with a harsh edge of impatient authority. He sounded just like his writing. ‘Is that Dee Pearce?’

Daisy teetered on the brink of indecision, conscious that this was the point of no return. She could say, No, I’m sorry, I’ve wasted your time; it’s all a mistake. That was the only sensible thing to say, and she had every intention of saying it until she opened her mouth and somehow ‘Yes,’ came out instead.

He had caught the momentary hesitation, though. ‘You don’t sound very sure,’ he commented, and something about the sarcastic tone put Daisy’s back up.

‘Yes, I’m Dee Pearce,’ she lied coldly. ‘You took me by surprise, that’s all.’

‘Easily surprised, aren’t you?’ said Seth Carrington in the same hatefully sardonic voice. ‘You only asked me to ring you five minutes ago. Don’t say you’ve forgotten already?’

‘Of course not,’ said Daisy. Conscious of being forced onto the defensive, she opted for attack. ‘I thought you weren’t supposed to be available at the moment,’ she went on, matching his sarcastic tone. ‘Your secretary certainly gave me the impression that you were far too busy to go anywhere near a phone so, naturally, I wasn’t expecting you to call back right away.’

The brief silence at the other end of the phone indicated that Seth Carrington wasn’t used to being answered back. ‘Maria’s there to filter out unwanted calls,’ he said after a moment. ‘I didn’t tell her about you. I’m sure you’ll agree that the fewer people who know about you the better.’

‘Absolutely,’ agreed Daisy, mystified.

‘And now, since I am extremely busy, perhaps we could get down to business?’ he continued brusquely. ‘I take it Ed has explained the situation to you?’

Ed? Who was Ed? ‘I’ve just had your letter,’ she said cautiously.

Seth swore under his breath. ‘He said he’d ring you before he went back to the States,’ he said, and Daisy breathed a sigh of relief. If Ed knew Dee Pearce it was just as well he was going to be on the other side of the Atlantic.

‘There was a rather vague message on my answering machine,’ she said, rather surprised at her own capacity for invention. ‘Perhaps he couldn’t get hold of me and didn’t want to leave too explicit a message.’

Seth only grunted. ‘I don’t want to explain over the phone. You’d better come up here.’ He was clearly thinking aloud. ‘I may as well take a look at you, anyway.’ There was a sound of impatiently rustled papers. ‘I’ve got a window at four o’clock. Can you make it by then?’

Daisy reflected that she had had more gracious invitations, but this wasn’t the time to object to Seth Carrington’s telephone manner. If this was a job that took her to the Caribbean then surely it was worth putting up with a little rudeness. ‘Yes, I can be there.’

She wasn’t surprised when he refrained from going into raptures of delight. ‘Don’t be late,’ was all he said and then added, just before he put the phone down on her, ‘And be discreet.’

Daisy was left holding the receiver buzzing in her ear. She put it down slowly, hardly able to believe what she had done. Had that really been her, Daisy Deare—whose most foolhardy adventure to date had been driving through a red light on a deserted street at two in the morning—calmly agreeing to meet a strange man in a hotel to discuss a suspicious-sounding proposition?

For a moment she was tempted not to go, and then she thought of her stepfather, grimly hanging onto life in his hospital bed; of her mother’s haggard face, and the guilt in her eyes whenever she thought about Tom. Daisy knew that her mother was convinced that Tom had left because of her, and they both knew that what Jim Johnson wanted more than anything was to see his son again before he died. If they could find him.

Daisy had been in touch with any of Tom’s friends that she could think of, but only one had had any news of him. Mike had written to Daisy from Florida, saying that he had last seen Tom on his way down to work in the Caribbean and that he would try to find out more. It had been his letter that Daisy had been expecting when she had snatched up the envelope with the American stamp and ripped it open eagerly, to find herself reading Seth Carrington’s enigmatic letter to Dee Pearce.

This was her only chance to get to the Caribbean and find Tom for herself, Daisy reminded herself as she caught the bus into Mayfair. She couldn’t come to that much harm in a famous hotel, surely, with that efficient-sounding secretary sitting just outside the door? She could at least hear what Seth Carrington’s proposition was. If he was just looking for a call-girl she would simply walk away, but his manner on the phone had been too brusque for that. Why bother with a letter or holding out the lure of a trip to the Caribbean if it was simply a question of sex? Surely there must be easier ways to arrange it?

Besides, Daisy reasoned, Seth Carrington hadn’t sounded like a man who would need to buy women. The fresh green branches of May brushed against the top deck of the bus in the King’s Road, but Daisy didn’t even notice. Her dark blue eyes were thoughtful as she gazed unseeingly through the window at the shops and the cars and the crowds, and wondered what Seth Carrington would be like. He hadn’t been exactly charming on the phone, she thought, remembering that deep, hard voice. ‘Ruthless’ was the word that slid insidiously into her mind but Daisy dismissed it, along with the tiny shiver creeping down her spine. He probably just had an unfortunate telephone manner.

There was an expensive hush in the hotel foyer. Daisy felt horribly conspicuous in her long black T-shirt and grey leggings as she waited for the lift up to the penthouse suite. Everyone else looked so sleek and glamorous with that indefinable sheen of wealth. She was passionately grateful that the lift was empty when it arrived. She could study her own wide-eyed reflection in the mirror as she slid silently upwards, and reflected that if Seth Carrington was expecting her to look sleek and glamorous he was in for a disappointment.

Her mop of dark curls looked tangled no matter how firmly she brushed them and, although she was slender, she had a sort of gangly awkwardness that could never in a million years be confused with sleekness. No, she would never be glamorous, Daisy sighed to herself, surveying her heart-shaped face with its merry mouth and innocent blue eyes beneath tilted lashes. She looked young, fresh, even pretty, but definitely not glamorous.

She would never get away with it! In a sudden surge of panic Daisy reached out to press the button to take her back down to the ground floor, but it was too late. The lift doors were whispering open, and a svelte assistant was rising from behind a desk to greet her. In her late thirties, she had a mask-like expression that didn’t quite conceal her surprise at the sight of Daisy in her leggings.

‘Mr Carrington still has a visitor with him,’ she said. ‘He won’t keep you long. Would you like to take a seat?’

What she would really like to do was go home and forget that she had ever seen the name, Seth Carrington. Instead, Daisy perched on the edge of one of the plush sofas and bolstered her confidence with the thought that he had no way of knowing that she wasn’t Dee Pearce and that, even if he had, the worst he could do was tell her to get out.

Suddenly the door on the far side of the room opened with the force of a slap and Daisy’s heart jumped to her throat. Even if she hadn’t heard his voice as he said goodbye to his guest she would have known instantly which of the two men was Seth Carrington. He was dark and very powerfully built, with a harsh face and a quality of almost overwhelming magnetism. Escorting his guest to the lift, he shook his hand and waited until the doors had closed after him before he turned and a steely stare swung round to Daisy, who was still perched nervously on the sofa and feeling completely out of place.

Without quite knowing why, she got to her feet. ‘Hello.’ Her voice came out as a thin squeak, and she cleared her throat in embarrassment.

His brows rose and then snapped together. ‘Dee Pearce?’

Daisy didn’t like the incredulous note in his voice, but she nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said, and his frown deepened. She thought for a moment that he was going to tell her to get out there and then but, after an unnervingly hard look, he strode over and held the door open for her.

‘You’d better come in,’ he said, and then glanced over at his secretary. ‘Hold all calls, Maria.’ He stood back as Daisy passed him, peeking a nervous glance up at his forbidding expression under her lashes. She wished now that she’d run while she’d had the chance.

Seth shut the door behind her and Daisy found herself in a luxuriously appointed living area with several doors leading off it. It was impossible to concentrate on the furnishings, though, with Seth prowling round her like a tiger and looking her up and down with a tiger’s baleful stare. More than ever, Daisy wanted to turn and run but the feeling that he was half expecting her to do just that made her tilt up her chin and stare back at him.

There was a flicker of something that might almost have been appreciation in his eyes, and then he pointed at an armchair. ‘Sit down.’

‘Please,’ Daisy muttered under her breath, but she did as she was told.

Then she wished that she hadn’t. Sunk into the comfort of the chair, she was at an immediate disadvantage when Seth didn’t sit down but towered over her—frowning down at her in a way that made her shift uncomfortably.

‘Is something the matter?’ she asked at last when he still didn’t say anything. He wasn’t a conventionally handsome man, she decided, but there was something darkly, dangerously attractive about him. Daisy wasn’t quite sure where it lay. Everything about him spoke of arrogance and power. His eyes were the cold colour of iron beneath that alarming frown, the angles of his face fierce and unyielding and his mouth utterly ruthless. Too late Daisy realised that she was staring at it, and her stomach contracted in an odd mixture of apprehension and fascination.

‘I was just trying to decide what you were doing here,’ Seth said slowly at last, his American drawl very pronounced. It was odd that a voice so deep could sound so cold.

Daisy tore her eyes away from his face and tried to pull herself together. ‘You asked me to come,’ she said a little uncertainly. ‘Don’t you remember? We are going to discuss your proposition.’

‘I was going to discuss my proposition with Dee Pearce,’ he said flatly. ‘I want to know who you are.’

‘I am Dee,’ said Daisy, but she knew that she was beginning to look hunted.

‘I don’t think so.’ Seth propped himself against a table and folded his arms, surveying Daisy with sardonic grey eyes. ‘Ed described Dee to me as a stunning blonde.’ His cold gaze swept over her dismissively. ‘Even allowing for Ed’s undoubted talent for exaggeration, I wouldn’t have said that description fits you, would you?’

Daisy bit her lip. Why couldn’t Dee Pearce have been dark and ordinary-looking? She wondered if it was worth claiming that she always wore a wig whenever she met Ed, but a glance at Seth’s implacable mouth made her abandon that idea. He was quite capable of telling her that a wig wouldn’t be enough to make her stunning.

‘Probably not,’ she sighed reluctantly, and was astonished to see a gleam of amusement dissolve the coldness in the grey eyes, transforming his expression for a brief, unnerving instant before they shuttered once more.

‘If you’re not Dee Pearce, who are you?’

‘My name’s Daisy Deare,’ she said, and saw his brows lift in inevitable mockery. ‘That’s Deare with an “e”,’ she added with dignity.

‘Well, Daisy Dear-with-an-“e”,’ he said sardonically, ‘perhaps you’d like to explain what you’re doing here under false pretences?’

Daisy was thinking fast. ‘I’m a friend of Dee’s,’ she said. ‘She...she’d already arranged to go away for three months when she got your letter, but she knew how much I wanted to go to the Caribbean so she suggested I come in her place. We...er...we often help each other out.’

‘Do you now?’ Daisy didn’t like the unpleasant note in Seth’s voice. She had a nasty feeling that he hadn’t believed a word. ‘And are you an actress, too, Daisy Deare?’

‘Yes,’ said Daisy firmly. She hadn’t performed in public since a humiliating appearance as a sweet pea in an end-of-term ballet, aged seven, but she was beginning to suspect that Dee Peace didn’t spend that much time on stage either. ‘Only I’m resting at the moment, so I could go to the Caribbean whenever you wanted.’

Seth ignored that hint. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this when I called?’ he asked abruptly.

‘I thought it would be easier to explain face to face. Besides,’ she went on with an ingenuous look, ‘you might not have agreed to see me if I hadn’t said I was Dee.’

‘I wouldn’t,’ Seth told her grimly. ‘I only approached Dee in the first place because Ed assured me she was very discreet, and now I find that she gaily passes on my letter to the first out-of-work actress she comes across who fancies a trip to the Caribbean!’

‘She wouldn’t have told me if she hadn’t known that I was discreet too,’ said Daisy, who was surprising herself with her own facility for lying. ‘Anyway,’ she went on frankly, ‘I don’t know anything to be indiscreet about yet. Your letter was as clear as mud! But it sounded as if you needed someone who was uncommitted and, since Dee couldn’t make it, I’d have thought you’d have been pleased that she arranged for someone suitable to come instead.’

‘I might have been if she had sent someone suitable,’ he snapped. ‘As it is, you’re the exact opposite of what I had in mind. I need someone sophisticated. and glamorous.’ The cold gaze raked disparagingly from her soft, tousled curls down to her grey leggings and the faded yellow canvas shoes she wore with them. ‘You don’t look much more than a schoolgirl!’

‘I’m twenty-three,’ said Daisy, ruffled by that insultingly impersonal scrutiny. ‘And I may not look very glamorous at the moment but that’s because you told me to look discreet, if you remember!’

‘It’s possible to look discreet without looking like Orphan Annie,’ Seth retorted. It was stuffy in the room and he shrugged off his jacket as he straightened, tossing it over the arm of a sofa before prowling round the back of the sofa and over to the window. It was open to the early summer sunshine, and Daisy could hear the traffic grumbling down Park Lane. He stood, looking down at it, for a moment then turned back to Daisy. ‘From what I hear about Dee—if you’re a friend of hers I imagine that those big blue eyes of yours aren’t as innocent as they look, but I doubt that anyone would believe for a minute that I was seriously interested in you.’

Daisy didn’t know whether to feel relieved or offended. ‘Is that what you want?’

‘I need a decoy.’ Seth was unbuttoning his cuffs, loosening his tie and rolling up the sleeves of his pale blue shirt, the relaxed intimacy of his actions at odds with his brisk tone. ‘I may as well tell you what this is about and then you’ll appreciate why you’re not suitable, but you’d better be as discreet as you say you are.’

‘Of course,’ she said, resenting his tone.

‘All right, then.’ He came back and flung himself into a chair opposite her, obviously working out how he could tell her as little as possible. ‘I’m thinking of getting married,’ he began.

Whatever Daisy had been expecting, it wasn’t that. She stared at him, conscious of a quite absurd trace of wistfulness as she wondered what it would be like to marry someone like Seth Carrington; to see that hard face soften with love. Of course she wouldn’t want to. So far he had shown himself to be brusque, arrogant and downright unpleasant. He was the last kind of man she would want to marry. On the other hand, it would be nice to be able to confide all your problems to someone so strong and patently capable of dealing with them... Seth Carrington looked like a man who would guard his own, unlike Robert who was always so infuriatingly understanding about everything.

With a jerk, Daisy recalled herself to the present. ‘Er...congratulations,’ she offered, not at all clear what her own role in all of this was to be.

Seth looked faintly exasperated at her reaction, and she wondered if he suspected her of being sarcastic. ‘I’ve managed to avoid marriage up to now,’ he said repressively, ‘but Astra is a very special lady, and our companies complement each other. Marriage would be an ideal merger in every way.’

Daisy regarded him with puzzled blue eyes. He sounded pretty cool about the whole idea. Anyone would think that the business merger interested him more than his future wife, no matter what he might say about her being a special lady. Then another thought occurred to her and she sat up. It wasn’t exactly a common name...‘Astra?’

‘Astra Bentingger.’

‘Astra Bentingger?’ Daisy’s voice rose to a squeak. Astra Bentingger had inherited one of the largest fortunes in the world at the age of eighteen but, far from being crushed by the responsibility, she had taken her vast business into her own capable hands and made herself even richer. Barely a week went by without her picture appearing in some newspaper or magazine. Clever, effortlessly beautiful, fluent in five languages, known and courted and gossiped about the world over, Astra Bentingger was a name to conjure with. The original Superwoman, thought Daisy glumly, intimidated by the mere idea of her.

She looked at Seth with a touch of awe. If he was contemplating marriage with Astra Bentingger he must be even richer and more powerful than she had thought at first. It was well known that Astra only liked men who played in the same league... ‘But isn’t she—’ Daisy broke off as she remembered where she had last read about Seth’s fiancée. ‘Married to Dimitrios Klissalikos?’ he finished for her, unperturbed. ‘Yes, she is. That’s part of the problem.’

‘I can see that already having a husband might be a bit of a drawback if she’s contemplating marrying you,’ said Daisy.

Seth’s brows drew together at her facetiousness. ‘Naturally, Astra will be obtaining a divorce, but we’re still negotiating a pre-nuptial contract and for the moment we have to be extremely careful that our names aren’t linked at all. That’s where Dee came in. I need to be seen around with someone else to divert attention from my relationship with Astra. For the time being, I’ll only appear to meet her in large parties while the press think I’m involved with someone quite different—someone who’s prepared to act the part of a besotted girlfriend.

‘A friend of mine met Dee when he was over here last year and, when I mentioned the matter to him, he said she’d be ideal. I gather that she’s not much of an actress but she’s apparently stunning enough to be a likely girlfriend and, quite apart from being discreet, has the other undoubted advantage of being prepared to do anything for money.’

Seth paused and looked across at Daisy, who was listening with her wide, dark eyes and clear face. ‘Are you the kind of girl who’d be prepared to do anything for money, Daisy Deare?’

She looked wary. ‘Almost anything,’ she said and, to her consternation, the unsettling amusement chased across his face again, warming his eyes, lightening the fierce lines of his face and lifting the corners of his mouth in a way that made Daisy wonder desperately what he would look like if he really smiled. Astra would know.

‘Very wise,’ he said. ‘You’re obviously the cautious type. No doubt you appreciate now why you wouldn’t be an adequate substitute for the real Dee Pearce?’

Daisy saw her chance of finding Tom in the Caribbean slipping away from her. ‘I don’t see why,’ she said stubbornly. ‘It seems to me that all you want is someone to hang on your arm at a few parties. I could do that. If you’re going to marry Astra Bentingger it’s not as if you would want...you know...’

‘Sex?’ Seth was clearly not a man to waste time on euphemisms. ‘No, if I’d wanted a call-girl I could get one easily enough, but I’m not reduced to buying women yet.’

‘What’s the pre-nuptial contract about, then?’ asked Daisy tartly, irritated by his arrogance.

For a moment she wondered if she had gone too far. Seth’s eyes bored into hers and his mouth tightened ominously but, to her relief, he decided to let her unwise remark pass. ‘What I want is a girl who can put on a convincing performance,’ he said in a gritty voice. ‘I want a girl who can act as if she’s in love with me without getting prudish or involved in messy emotions. A girl who will take the money and disappear discreetly as soon as Astra’s divorce comes through in a couple of months. A girl who looks like the kind of girl I might fall in love with...and I wouldn’t have said that you’d fit into any of those categories.’

Was he being deliberately insulting or was he just naturally rude? ‘I’m only interested in the money,’ said Daisy with a frosty look. ‘I can assure you that I’m not in the least likely to fall in love with you myself, if that’s what you were worrying about.’

‘Why not? If it’s money you’re interested in I ought to be just your type.’

Really, the arrogance of the man was unbelievable! ‘I’ve already got a boyfriend,’ she said coldly, mentally crossing her fingers and thinking of the ever-hopeful Robert. ‘He’s much more my type than you are!’

Seth’s steel eyes had sharpened. ‘What does that mean?’

‘It means he’s kind and considerate and not so puffed up with his own importance that he thinks every girl he meets is going to fall in love with him!’ The words were out before Daisy could stop herself. Aghast, she cursed her quick temper but after one frozen moment, to her astonishment and intense relief, Seth threw back his head and laughed.

Daisy’s bones felt suddenly weak and she was glad that she was sitting down. Relief, she told herself firmly. Nothing whatsoever to do with the effect of his laugh or the way his cheeks creased when he smiled. Nothing to do with the whiteness of his teeth or the extraordinary way he had changed into someone younger, warmer and more approachable—someone disastrously attractive.

‘You’ve got a nerve, I’ll give you that,’ said Seth, speculation replacing the lingering amusement in his eyes. He got abruptly to his feet. ‘Stand up,’ he ordered.

If anything, Daisy was grateful to see the return of the old arrogance. It helped to remind her that Seth Carrington was not a good man to start finding attractive. Taking a firm hold on herself, she tilted her chin in unconscious hauteur.

He sighed. ‘Stand up, please.’

Daisy stood, relieved to find that her knees would hold her after all. Eyes narrowed, Seth walked round her as if she were a car he was considering buying. At any moment she expected him to ask her mileage or demand to see under her bonnet, and she couldn’t help stiffening under his critical inspection.

‘Maybe you’ve got some potential after all,’ he admitted grudgingly. ‘Properly dressed, we might be able to make something of you. Different from my usual style, of course, but that might be no bad thing.’ He came to a halt in front of her, studying her fine-boned faced with a frown. ‘Why are you so keen to do this?’ he asked brusquely.

Daisy considered telling him the truth, but she didn’t think that Seth Carrington would want to get involved in her family problems. He was the kind of man who only understood one thing. ‘I need the money,’ she said badly. It was true, anyway. She certainly couldn’t afford to get to the Caribbean any other way.

‘Hmm.’ Seth began his unnerving prowl once more. He even moved like a big cat, with that easy but somehow deliberate tread and the sense of a coiled strength which was liable to explode into action at any moment. ‘What about this boyfriend of yours? What’s he going to think when he sees pictures of you out with me?’

‘I’ll explain everything to him, of course. Naturally, once he knows that there’s no question of us sleeping together he’ll understand.’ Privately Daisy thought that Robert would be appalled at the very idea but, in spite of his years of dogged devotion, she had never given him any reason to think that she thought of him as anything other than an old friend.

‘Will he?’ Seth’s expression was saturnine. ‘I wouldn’t let a girl of mine go out with another man, no matter what she told me.’

‘Given that your girl is currently married to another man, I hardly think that puts you in a position to criticise Robert,’ flashed Daisy, and Seth’s eyes narrowed dangerously once more.

‘If you want this job you’re going to have to learn to hold that tongue of yours,’ he said softly. ‘Do you want it?’

Daisy decided that she had said quite enough. She nodded.

‘If it wasn’t for the fact that I haven’t the time to start chasing over London for someone more suitable I’d be tempted to tell you what you and your paragon of a boyfriend could do together,’ he went on in the same menacingly quiet voice. ‘Unfortunately your need and mine seem to coincide, so it looks as if I’m going to have to make the best of a bad job.’ He scowled at the thought and sat on the arm of the sofa. ‘Are you sure you can act?’

She was going to get away with it! He was going to take her to the Caribbean after all! Giddy relief lit up Daisy’s face. ‘Oh, yes,’ she said breezily.

Seth didn’t appear entirely convinced. ‘Well, let’s have an audition, shall we?’

‘An audition?’ Daisy’s grin faltered. ‘What sort of audition?’

‘You haven’t been giving a very good impression of a girl in love so far, have you?’ he pointed out caustically. ‘I want to know if you can convince other people that you’ve only got eyes for me.’

‘What do you want me to do?’ she asked warily.

He shrugged. ‘Pretend there’s someone else in the room. How would you show that you were in love with me?’

‘I probably wouldn’t if there was someone else in the room!’

‘You’re going to have to do better than that, Daisy,’ he snorted. ‘I’m not going to pay you to stand around being all English and repressed. Pretend that you don’t know anyone else is watching if that makes it any easier!’

‘Oh, all right!’ Grumbling, Daisy walked over to where he was still sitting on the arm of the sofa. It was easier without him towering over her, but when she got close to him her nerve failed her. She stopped. Seth folded his arms and looked blandly back at her.

‘Well?’

She was going to have to do something. Daisy edged a little closer and reached out a hand to touch his face. His skin was warm and brown, slightly rough, and her fingers tingled so much at the feel of it that she withdrew her hand sharply.

‘Is that it?’ Seth’s acid question jerked her back to herself and she was conscious of a spurt of anger. He was making this deliberately difficult so that she would give up the whole idea! Well, she wasn’t gong to! She was going to go out to the Caribbean and she was going to find Tom, and if it meant kissing Seth Carrington then that’s what she would do!

With an abrupt movement, Daisy placed herself firmly between his knees and put her hands on Seth’s shoulders. She could feel the strength of his muscles and the warmth of his skin through the fine cotton of his shirt. Propped against the sofa arm as he was, his head was almost on a level with hers. For a long moment blue eyes looked into inscrutable grey and then, before her courage failed her again, she leant slowly forward and touched her lips to the pulse that beat at the angle of his jaw and throat.


CHAPTER TWO

DAISY’S lips were soft against the firmness of Seth’s jaw and she could smell the clean, masculine scent of his skin with its faintly expensive tang of aftershave. Without intending to, Daisy found her mouth lingering against him. There was something irresistibly solid about him—something magnetising, something tantalising—something that made her drift her lips in feather-light kisses below his ear.

Seth’s arms were still folded in front of him and he stayed utterly still beneath her touch, his very lack of response a provocation. Piqued, Daisy began to press slow, enticing kisses along his jaw instead. She had forgotten her intention to withdraw after that first token touch to his throat. She had forgotten that she hardly knew this man; forgotten that what she did know she didn’t like; forgotten everything but the feel of his skin like tempered steel beneath her lips and her determination to make him acknowledge the simmering awareness in her kisses.

Slowly, slowly, she worked her way along his jaw, but it wasn’t until she reached the tantalising corner of his mouth that she felt his lips begin to curl upwards in an equally slow smile. ‘Go on,’ he said, but the steadiness in his voice made Daisy pause. She made as if to withdraw but he had unfolded his arms at last and his hands were at her waist, drawing her back against him, and suddenly it seemed the most natural thing in the world to melt into him and feel his lips part beneath hers.

They fitted against each other perfectly. Somehow she had expected Seth’s mouth to feel as cold and calculating as it looked, but it wasn’t. It was warm, warmer than Daisy would have believed possible as they kissed and then kissed again. A gathering excitement looped around them, tightening its coils around them until the only thing to do was to relax into it and slide her arms from his shoulders around his neck to stop herself being swept away altogether.

She was bewitched, intoxicated by the sweet persuasion of his lips and the unyielding hardness of his body as he held her against him, and when his hands slid beneath her T-shirt to spread possessively over her skin Daisy’s only response was to murmur low in her throat and arch her back into his touch. His fingers were searing, making her gasp as they explored her slenderness and drifted insistently upwards to curve around her breast.

It was that sharp intake of breath at the jolt of electric excitement that broke the kiss. Daisy found herself staring down into unreadable grey eyes, her own dazed and very blue, and then Seth slid his hands back to her waist to put her from him with something which might have been reluctance.

‘That was very good, Daisy Deare,’ he said, his breathing still slightly ragged. ‘That was really very good indeed. It seems that you can act, after all.’

Daisy was so shaken that she could hardly stand. Her legs felt insubstantial, as if she were held up by no more than the frantic flutter of a thousand butterfly wings. She couldn’t believe what she had done. Had that really been she, arching beneath the touch of a perfect stranger; sinking into his kiss; abandoning herself to the shivery thrill of his lips and his hands? Appalled at herself, she swallowed hard and fought to steady her own voice.

‘It’s amazing what you have to do to get a job now, isn’t it?’ It was barely more than a croak but at least she managed to get a whole sentence out, which was a miracle under the circumstances.

Seth’s cool gaze rested for a moment on the huge blue eyes before dropping to her mouth which was still burning from his touch. ‘I think I can say that you’ve passed your audition with flying colours—if you still want the job, that is?’

She wasn’t going to go through that to give up the job now! Daisy’s chin lifted a fraction. ‘Yes.’ Her voice wasn’t quite steady yet, but with every moment she was getting a better grip on herself. ‘Why else would I have kissed you?’

‘Why, indeed?’ Seth got up from the sofa, his grey eyes sardonic. ‘I just hope poor old Robert is as understanding as you say he is. Does he know just how well you “act”, Daisy?’

‘Does Astra Bentingger know how thoroughly you audition?’

Seth’s expression was flinty as he took Daisy’s chin in one strong brown hand. ‘I’ve warned you before about that tongue of yours, Daisy,’ he said and, although she met his eyes bravely, inwardly Daisy quailed at his tone. ‘Do you want to learn what I’m like when I’m pushed too far?’

One look into his eyes was enough to give her the answer to that. Daisy moistened her lips. ‘No.’

‘In that case. I suggest that you learn to keep your tongue firmly between your teeth.’ He released her face and Daisy stepped back, resisting the urge to rub her chin where he had held her. It was impossible to imagine that only minutes ago she had twined her arms around this formidable man’s neck and quivered with excitement at his kisses. ‘Astra is none of your business,’ Seth went on coldly. ‘As far as I’m concerned, you’re going to be working for me just like any other employee. That means you get paid to do as you’re told, not to be smart. Is that understood?’

‘Perfectly.’

He gave her a hard look then moved away, suddenly brisk. ‘All right, let’s get down to business. The deal is that you agree to act as my girlfriend until Astra’s divorce comes through or until such time as I decide that there’s no need to keep up the pretence any longer. It means you’ll have to spend at least the next few weeks with me, but in return I’m prepared to pay you a considerable sum of money—in cash—to ensure your discretion.’

Daisy’s jaw dropped when Seth told her just how much he would pay her. ‘Is that acceptable?’ he asked, turning to frown at her gaping expression.

Acceptable? Daisy had never even contemplated having such a large sum of money before! It would at least take the immediate burden of financial worries off her mother’s shoulders, she calculated quickly. ‘I think so,’ she said, pursing up her lips and trying to look as if she discussed sums like that every day of the week. ‘That sounds fine.’

‘You’ll get paid at the end,’ Seth warned her, ‘when you’ve shown me that you can behave.’

Daisy was still trembling inside from the effect of his kiss, but she managed to move away quite coolly. ‘We will go to the Caribbean?’

‘Yes, I’ve invited a number of guests to my island as a cover for meeting Astra there.’

‘Your island?’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Is there a problem?’

‘I thought you might have a house there,’ said Daisy. ‘I didn’t think you’d have a whole island!’

One of those unsettling gleams of amusement sprang to the grey eyes. ‘It’s only a small island, if that makes you feel any better.’

‘Does that mean we’ll be stuck out on our own, or will we be able to get to the other islands?’ Daisy asked anxiously, and his brows lifted.

‘Being “stuck out on our own” is generally the idea behind having your own island,’ he pointed out with some acidity. ‘But if you’re desperate for crowds we can take the seaplane or one of the boats. Where did you want to go?’

Mike had recommended that Daisy started looking in the Windward Islands, but it had only been one of the places Tom had mentioned. ‘I was just wondering,’ she said vaguely. She had no idea how she was going to start looking for Tom, but there was no point in worrying about it until she got there. Anyway, with the kind of money Seth was offering, she would be able to afford to travel around if necessary, Daisy reminded herself buoyantly. ‘When are we going?’ she asked Seth, who glanced at her suspiciously.

‘You seem very keen to get to the Caribbean, Daisy.’

‘I’ve always wanted to go there, that’s all.’ For some reason, Daisy was reluctant to tell Seth about Tom and her stepfather’s illness. He was too ruthless, too calculating—the kind of man who would be impatient of sentiment and messy emotions—and if he thought that Daisy’s mind wasn’t going to be entirely on the job she knew that he would have no compunction in calling off the whole deal. There would be no point in appealing to Seth’s better nature. Daisy doubted very much that he even had one.

Look at the chilly way he was approaching his marriage with Astra Bentingger, and any man who could kiss like that and remain totally unmoved had to be utterly heartless. No, better by far to let him think that she was an impoverished actress, desperate for a palm-fringed beach.

‘Well, if you’re planning on island-hopping you’re going to have to wait until I’ve finished with you,’ said Seth, unwittingly demonstrating his overbearing image. ‘I’m not having you jaunting off when I need you on hand to look suitably adoring.’

‘How long do you think that’ll be?’

‘A month? Six weeks? Maybe longer.’ He quirked a sardonic eyebrow at her. ‘Think Robert will be able to manage without you that long?’

‘I expect so,’ said Daisy with a frosty look. She didn’t like the sneer in Seth’s voice whenever he mentioned Robert. Robert might not be very exciting, but at least he had a kind heart.

‘He’d better start getting used to it right away,’ said Seth callously. ‘I’ve got a number of social engagements over the next couple of weeks and, if we’re going to establish you as my girlfriend, we may as well start tonight. I’ll take you out to dinner.’

He walked over to the door, as if to indicate that the interview was now over, while Daisy eyed him resentfully. She had been planning to visit Jim in hospital that evening. The brusque way Seth gave orders and arrogantly assumed that everyone else would fall in with them without question riled her. She stayed stubbornly where she was.

‘What if I’ve got other plans for this evening?’

‘Cancel them,’ said Seth with insulting indifference and opened the door. ‘If you give Maria your address I’ll come and pick you up at eight o’clock.’

Daisy tried to imagine Seth turning up at her front door. He would look completely alien in their quiet south London street and, quite apart from anything else, it wouldn’t take him long to work out that her address was too close to Dee Pearce’s for coincidence. “There’s no need for you to collect me,’ she said quickly. ‘I’ll come here.’

‘What’s the matter, Daisy?’ mocked Seth. ‘Don’t you want Robert to meet your new boss?’

‘I’d rather keep my private life entirely separate,’ said Daisy, trying—and failing—to sound quelling. Seth certainly didn’t appear noticeably quelled.

‘Just make sure you’re looking a bit smarter than you do now,’ was all he said, and nodded unmistakably at the door. ‘Now beat it,’ he said. ‘I’ve got work to do.’

Daisy bridled at his dismissal all the way home. He was insufferably rude, infuriatingly overbearing, unbelievably arrogant! There she was—prepared to humiliate herself by pretending to actually like the man and he carried on as if he was doing her a favour! Simmering, Daisy glowered out of the window of the bus. She wished she could have told Seth what he could do with his pretence but the thought of Jim, lying in hospital longing for a reconciliation with his son, had held her tongue at the crucial moment and she had had to content herself with stalking past him without a word of farewell.

The next few weeks were not going to be easy, Daisy acknowledged gloomily to herself. There was nothing easy about Seth Carrington. She could picture him with unnerving clarity, as if his image were scorched into her brain—the dark, forbidding lines of his face, the hardness of his eyes, the disturbing set of his mouth.

Daisy shifted uneasily in her seat and the colour. surged into her cheeks at the memory of how that mouth had felt against hers. What had possessed her to kiss him like that—to let herself be kissed like that? Why couldn’t she have stepped coolly away from him after a token peck on the cheek? That’s all it would have taken. Instead, she had taken him at his word and kissed him like a lover, and now she couldn’t forget the touch and the taste and the feel of him. It was as if she could still breathe in his scent; still feel the tantalising roughness of his skin beneath her lips.

Somehow, when she had been with Seth, the fact that she had been able to argue with and kiss a perfect stranger within a few minutes of meeting him had seemed perfectly natural, but now that she was away from the overwhelming magnetism of his presence the memory of her odd behaviour struck Daisy with the force of a blow and she sat, appalled, as she realised what she had done. She must have been mad!

Her mother seemed to agree when Daisy gave her a very edited version of her afternoon’s activities. ‘You went under completely false pretences to see a man you’ve never met before in your life and agreed to spend the next few weeks posing as his girlfriend?’ she summarised incredulously. ‘Daisy, what were you thinking of?’

‘I was thinking of Jim,’ said Daisy, crouching down beside her mother’s chair. ‘I know it sounds unusual, Mum, but it’s just a job. He’s not interested in me at all.’

‘So he says!’

‘He wants to marry someone else—that’s the whole point,’ said Daisy patiently. ‘Really, he couldn’t have made it clearer that I’m not his type and he’s definitely not mine!’ Treacherously her mind veered to that terrible kiss before she managed to wrench it firmly away. ‘It’s a business arrangement, that’s all, and it’s the only chance I’ve got to get to the Caribbean and look for Tom. Think what it would mean to Jim if I could persuade him to come home?’

Ellen Johnson twisted her hands together in her lap. ‘If only you could! But Tom never accepted me. I’m sure that’s why he left. He wouldn’t want to come back, knowing that I was here.’

‘He might have resented you at first, but you weren’t the reason he and Jim argued,’ said Daisy stoutly, as she had said so many times before. ‘They were both too stubborn to give in and admit that they needed each other. I’m sure Tom would come back at once if he knew how ill Jim was. That’s why I’ve got to track him down somehow. I know things are busy in the flower shop at the moment, but Lisa can cope if you just keep an eye on things.’

‘But what if this girl Dee Pearce turns up?’ worried Ellen, still unconvinced by Daisy’s breezy assurance that she had found herself a job that would take her to the Caribbean. ‘She might tell this man that you’re not friends at all, and then what will he think?’

‘She won’t turn up,’ Daisy assured her confidently. ‘I told you, Mum. As soon as I realised that the letter wasn’t addressed to me at all I took it round to her house to explain why I’d opened it. I rang the bell, but a neighbour told me that Dee had gone away. That’s why the whole thing just seemed like fate.’

‘You took a terrible risk,’ her mother reproached her.

‘If it had been some sort of shady deal I’d have just walked out,’ she pointed out, more confident now than she had been when the idea had first occurred to her. ‘As it is, it’s a perfectly straightforward job. It shouldn’t be too hard to hang around and look dumb at a few parties, and in return Seth Carrington will take me out to the Caribbean and give me enough money to find Tom. Easy.’ Daisy had forgotten her doubts on the bus and was bent on convincing her mother that she had found the perfect solution.

‘Seth Carrington?’ Ellen looked at her daughter with new foreboding. ‘Not the Seth Carrington?’

‘I’d hate to think that there were two of him,’ said Daisy wryly. ‘Why?’

‘I was just reading about him on my way to the hospital,’ said Ellen, getting up to look through the evening newspaper and fold back a page at last to show Daisy an article. ‘He doesn’t sound like the kind of man you want to get involved with.’

She handed the paper to Daisy, who glanced through the article. The first section reported Seth’s arrival in London, reviewing the ruthlessness of his reputation and the phenomenal success of his vast business empire. The second was headed ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELORS and made much of the way Seth managed to combine financial success with a jet-setting lifestyle. It contained a whole list of beautiful women who had tried and failed to secure a permanent place in his life. Daisy’s lips tightened as she read it.

Still determinedly unmarried at thirty-eight, Seth Carrington had obviously made a career of not committing himself. Right at the end there was some gossipy speculation about his relationship with Astra Bentingger (‘currently the fourth Mrs Klissalikos’); perhaps they hadn’t been as discreet as Seth had claimed.

Daisy lowered the paper with a sinking feeling at the pit of her stomach, but she refused to be intimidated. She wasn’t going to give up her plan at this stage. ‘I’m not going to get involved with him,’ she told her mother with a not entirely convincing air of confidence. ‘I’m going to look for Tom. Seth Carrington is merely incidental.’

In spite of her brave words, Daisy couldn’t help feeling more than a little nervous as she took the lift back up to the penthouse suite. Was it only that afternoon that she had stood right there and wondered what Seth Carrington would be like? In a few short minutes he had impressed himself on her consciousness so utterly that it was impossible now to remember a time when his forbidding features hadn’t dominated her thoughts.

Daisy tugged at the neckline of her dress and pulled a face at the mirror. She had done her best to look smart, but no amount of brushing could make her curls lie neatly and her make-up was limited to lipstick and an inexpert stroke of blusher. Somehow she didn’t think that Seth Carrington was going to be very impressed.

He wasn’t. ‘Is that the best you could do?’ he greeted her, opening the door of the suite himself. He was formally dressed in an immaculate dinner jacket and bow-tie, and looked so unnervingly, unfairly attractive that Daisy felt quite weak at the knees.

She quelled the feeling sternly. ‘Good evening,’ she said brightly. ‘Yes, I’m fine, thank you. Yes, I would like to come in.’

Seth scowled, but stood back to let her into the suite. Maria had gone—no doubt with relief, thought Daisy sourly. Spending a whole day putting up with Seth Carrington’s rudeness would be enough to try anybody. ‘I thought I told you to wear something smart?’ he accused her, shutting the door with a snap.

‘What’s wrong with my dress?’ said Daisy, a little offended. She had expected him to criticise her face, but she had blown her meagre savings on this dress in last summer’s end-of-season sales where it had been reduced from some exorbitant price. Everyone had said it had been worth it, though. The dusky blue colour with its pattern of tiny stars suited her dark hair and pale skin, and Daisy had always felt rather good in it... until now.

‘It looks as if you’ve picked it up off some bargain rail,’ said Seth dismissively, and her lips tightened.

‘Are you always this charming?’

‘I can’t afford to waste my time tiptoeing around your finer feelings,’ he said irritably.

‘I can’t imagine you tiptoeing around anyone’s feelings,’ grumbled Daisy, finding it easier to squabble than to notice how devastatingly attractive Seth looked in his dinner jacket. She avoided looking at the sofa where they had kissed, but it kept catching annoyingly at the corner of her eye. ‘I’ve never met anyone so inconsiderate.’

Seth looked nettled. ‘I’m perfectly considerate when I need to be but, as I keep having to remind you, you’re here to do a job.’

‘Yes, and I might find it easier if you weren’t quite so unpleasant!’

It was obvious that Seth Carrington wasn’t used to being answered back. He glowered at Daisy for a moment and then gave a short, exasperated sigh, not entirely unmixed with amusement. ‘Are you always this argumentative?’

‘Only when provoked,’ said Daisy, assuming a demure expression that didn’t fool Seth for a minute.

‘Look, I’m merely trying to point out that you don’t exactly fit my image.’ He eyed her moodily. ‘It’s not just that the dress looks cheap. It’s a good girl’s dress—makes you look too unsophisticated. It’s well known that my taste is for women with a little more glamour. We’ll just have to get you some decent clothes tomorrow.’

Daisy’s mind went back to the article her mother had shown her. Seth’s name had been linked with any number of famous women, and it had to be said that none of them would have been described as good girls. ‘Why can’t we convince them that you’ve changed your image and fallen for a nice girl for a change?’

‘That’s not very likely, is it?’ said Seth with one of his disparaging looks, and Daisy folded her arms huffily.

‘You could pretend.’

‘I’m paying you to do the pretending, not me,’ he pointed out brutally. ‘And if you’re going to do it effectively you’re going to have to dress the part.’ He turned away to pick up the phone. ‘I’d better cancel our reservation.’

‘My dress isn’t that bad, is it?’ asked Daisy in dismay.

‘It is for what I had in mind,’ said Seth as he punched out a number. ‘I had intended to take you somewhere where we’d be noticed, but I’m not being photographed with you looking like a schoolgirl.’ He waited while the phone rang at the other end. ‘We’ll go somewhere quiet instead tonight.’

Daisy was secretly relieved as the lift slid silently back down to the ground floor. She wasn’t sure that she was quite ready to start acting out her role in front of the paparazzi just yet. A sleek black car was waiting outside the hotel entrance and at Seth’s appearance a uniformed chauffeur sprang into action, holding open the door for Daisy who sank wide-eyed back into the luxurious seat.

‘I’ve never been in a car like this before,’ she confided to Seth after he had given the chauffeur his instructions.

The glance he gave was half puzzled, half amused. ‘Don’t tell me that air of innocence is real after all?’

Daisy regretted her impulsive remark. She could still remember the look on his face as he had released her. ‘Perhaps you can act after all,’ he had said. The last thing she wanted was for him to think that she wasn’t quite the actress she claimed to be! ‘I don’t usually travel in such style, that’s all,’ she said, trying to assume a world-weary air, but she wasn’t sure whether Seth was quite convinced. He continued to watch her with a speculative expression until they reached the restaurant.

Any hopes Daisy might have had about popping round the corner to a cheap and cheery Italian were dashed when the car drew up outside one of the most expensive restaurants in London, but at least they were shown to a secluded table and the atmosphere was dark and intimate and positively reeking with discretion. There would be no flashing cameras here.

She opened her menu with enthusiasm. ‘I’m starving,’ she said, momentarily forgetting her world-weary role. ‘I didn’t have time for lunch.’ Glancing across at Seth, she found him watching her with an oddly arrested look in his eyes and she lowered the menu guiltily. ‘Oh, dear, I suppose it’s not very sophisticated to be interested in food?’

Seth gave one of his sudden, heart-shaking smiles. ‘I won’t tell,’ he promised. ‘It’ll be a refreshing change to have a meal with a woman who doesn’t just push salad around her plate all evening.’

Trusting that to mean that she would be allowed a pudding as well, Daisy ordered the most substantial starter she could find and then dithered happily over a choice of main course until Seth grew impatient and ordered for her.

‘She’ll have the lamb,’ he said to the waiter, who had been standing there with his pencil patiently poised for some time.

‘I was just going to order the poussin,’ hissed Daisy indignantly as the waiter removed the menus with admirably concealed relief.

‘I thought you were hungry?’ he retorted. ‘If I hadn’t made the decision for you we’d have been here all night.’

Daisy contented herself with muttering under her breath and buttering her roll with a certain lavish defiance.

‘Talking of “all night”,’ Seth went on, leaning casually back in his chair, ‘you’d better move into my suite tomorrow.’

Daisy’s head jerked up, knife poised in mid-butter. ‘Move in?’ she echoed in dismay. ‘Why?’

‘It’s not for that rather nice body of yours which you keep so cleverly concealed beneath those shapeless clothes,’ he said with a dryness that sent the colour rushing to her cheeks.

Grateful for the dim light, Daisy reapplied herself to her roll and forced down the treacherous memory of his hands curving around her breasts and sliding down her spine, warm against her skin. ‘I don’t see why I have to move in with you.’

‘Because, Daisy, word will soon get around if I’m seen putting you chastely into a taxi every night and, while you and I may know that we’re not going to fall into bed as soon as we get in, we want everyone else to think that we can’t keep our hands off each other, don’t we?’

‘I don’t see how anyone’s going to know whether we sleep together or not,’ grumbled Daisy, who wished that she couldn’t imagine the prospect in quite such unnerving detail and was desperately trying to disguise her perturbation with bolshiness. ‘Why can’t I just sneak out the back way?’

‘Someone would be bound to see you and the next thing we’d know there’d be a snippet in the gossip columns, speculating about just how close our relationship was.’

‘But who cares what we do?’ cried Daisy. ‘Who on earth is going to be interested in what time I go home?’

Seth shrugged. ‘You’d be surprised. I’m afraid it’s one of the drawbacks of fame. People seem to think that as soon as you acquire money or influence you forfeit your right to privacy. It’s something you’re just going to have to get used to over the next few weeks. If no one was interested in me or Astra there wouldn’t be any need for you to be here at all, so you can thank the gossip columns for your job...and your job is living with me for the moment.’

‘Will...?’ She hesitated, cleared her throat and tried to sound unconcerned. ‘We won’t have to share a bed as well, will we?’

‘No.’ Seth’s eyes gleamed with ironic understanding. ‘There’s another room in the suite. Maria’s been using it, but she’s going to stay with friends so she won’t need it. She’ll come in during the day, but I’ll need you to be there, too, so you might as well stay.’

‘What do you need me for?’ Marginally reassured by the promise of a room to herself, Daisy had just taken a bite of her roll and her voice was rather indistinct.

‘In case people turn up.’ The wine waiter was presenting the bottle for Seth’s inspection, and he tasted the wine before giving a cursory nod and turning back to Daisy. ‘I’ve got a number of business meetings scheduled, but other people tend to drop by for one reason or another and that means you being there to prove that I can’t bear not to have you at my side.’

‘I can’t sit around all day just on the off chance that someone’s going to drop by,’ she protested. ‘I’ll go potty without anything to do.’

Seth watched the waiter pour the wine into her glass. ‘I’d have thought you’d be used to that.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Daisy indignantly. Most days she hardly got a chance to sit down at all!

‘Being an out-of-work actress,’ he explained, raising an eyebrow at her expression. ‘I’ve always imagined that meant sitting by the phone, waiting for the call to stardom.’

She had forgotten that she was meant to be an actress. ‘That’s the advantage of an answering machine,’ she said. Really, she was getting quite good at lying! ‘It means I can keep busy.’

‘Doing what?’ Or can I guess from that very talented performance you gave this afternoon?’

Daisy shot him a hostile look. She didn’t want to be reminded about that particular performance. ‘Actually, I work in a flower shop,’ she said coldly, deciding that it was best to keep as close to the truth as possible. ‘When I haven’t got a part, that is,’ she added, just to remind him of her acting credentials.

‘I don’t suppose you earn much in a flower shop?’ said Seth, who could have bought a whole chain of flower shops without even noticing a blip in his bank balance.

She sighed, thinking of the last difficult year when business had fallen off and the bills had mounted. ‘No.’

‘I’d have thought a girl with your interest in money would have jumped at the chance of being paid to sit around,’ he said in his caustic voice. ‘It’s not as if it’s going to be hard work. There’s a television and a health club and, if the worst comes to the worst, you can always read a book.’

‘I suppose so,’ said Daisy without enthusiasm.

A silence fell. Running her finger around the rim of her glass, Daisy studied the deep golden colour of the wine. She wished that she could stop noticing Seth’s hands; wished her eyes would stop following the line of his jaw back to the place below his ear where she had first kissed him. He was drinking his wine, but she could feel his uncomfortably acute gaze on her face and had the sudden, horrible certainty that he knew exactly what she was thinking.

‘Have you told Astra about us?’ she asked awkwardly. It was the first thing that came into her head as she searched desperately for something to say, but as soon as the words came out she could hear the implied intimacy in that ‘us’. ‘I mean, have you told her about me?’

Seth’s expression was curiously shuttered. ‘Yes.’

‘What did she say?’

‘She was pleased, of course.’

‘Oh.’ Daisy felt unaccountably put out. ‘Did you tell her that I wasn’t Dee Pearce?’

‘I said that I’d come to an agreement with you instead of Dee,’ said Seth. ‘I didn’t go into details.’

‘Didn’t she want to know what I was like?’ If she had been in love with Seth Carrington she would want to know exactly who he was going to be spending so much time with, Daisy reflected. Perhaps Astra Bentingger knew that she didn’t have to worry.

‘I told her that you didn’t really look right for the part,’ said Seth, sounding so bored that Daisy was nettled.

‘Did you tell her how I convinced you to give me the part anyway?’ she asked sourly, hoping to embarrass him, but she might have known that it was impossible to do that.

Seth merely looked across the table at her, his grey eyes inscrutable. ‘I told her that you were a better actress than you looked,’ he said. ‘I also said that I thought it extremely likely that you’d drive me round the bend but that, having got so far, I’d just have to put up with you.’


CHAPTER THREE

THE disgruntled silence—at least on Daisy’s side of the table—was broken by the waiter, arriving with exquisitely presented plates.

Daisy was glad of the excuse to concentrate on her food. She found that she didn’t like the idea of Seth coolly discussing her with Astra. Have to put up with her, indeed! No wonder Astra was pleased if he had talked about her like that! Even a superwoman might have a few qualms at the idea of her man pretending to be in love with another girl, but it must have been pretty obvious that Daisy could not even be considered a rival.

Her lobster salad with asparagus was delicious but it might as well have been ashes in Daisy’s mouth until she pulled herself together. She didn’t care what Seth and Astra thought about her. She only wanted to find Tom, and it would be a lot easier if she remembered more often that she was simply here as part of the job.

She glanced across at Seth, who was quite unbothered by her sulky silence. It was easier to look at him when his eyes were on his plate and, as if for the first time, she noted the lines starring the corners of his eyes and the dark hair which was already beginning to show a few strands of grey at the temples. Her gaze was just following the flat, angular planes of his cheeks and the arrogant line of his nose down to his mouth when he looked up unexpectedly and caught her watching him. Daisy’s heart gave an odd little somersault as she met that steely, skewering gaze, bumping back into place so abruptly that it left her slightly breathless.

‘I...I suppose I should know something about you,’ she stammered, not quite sure why she felt the need to explain herself. ‘A real girlfriend would know more about you than the fact that you’re American and stinking rich.’

‘What more do you need to know?’ asked Seth sardonically.

‘Well...about your family?’ Daisy suggested. ‘Where you live, what you do...that kind of thing.’

‘I never talk about my family,’ he said flatly. ‘No one will expect you to know anything about them.’

Daisy was longing to ask whether Astra knew, but there was a grim finality in Seth’s tone that warned her to steer well clear of the subject. ‘What about where you live, then?’ she asked instead. ‘Or is that a state secret too?’

‘I’ve got several places,’ he said indifferently. ‘Manhattan, Malibu, Cape Cod, a skiing lodge in Utah...and Cutlass Cay in the Caribbean.’

‘But which one’s home?’

She could have sworn that Seth had never even considered the question before. He looked momentarily taken aback, then shrugged. ‘Wherever I am, I guess.’

‘How sad,’ she said without thinking, and Seth’s brows rose arrogantly.

‘Most people wouldn’t describe having four luxurious houses to choose from as being a particularly sad situation,’ he said stiffly, looking down his nose.

Daisy thought of the unpretentious house in Battersea where she had grown up. Its wallpaper was faded now, its rooms a little shabby and a little cluttered, but it was warm and comfortable and familiar. ‘I just think it’s sad not to have a place to call home,’ she said, her dark blue eyes serious. ‘Somewhere you know you belong—with people you love and who love you.’

‘I don’t believe in love.’ said Seth with something of a sneer, and Daisy looked at him curiously.

‘If you think that why are you getting married?’

He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he frowned down into his glass, swirling the wine around as he thought. ‘Astra and I will make a good team,’ he said at last. ‘She’s a beautiful woman with a first-class business brain; we’ll be partners as much as anything else. And we understand each other. Astra isn’t sentimental; any more than I am. Neither of us can afford to be.’

‘It’s an odd thing not to be able to afford when you can afford absolutely everything else,’ said Daisy. Seth glanced at her sharply, but she didn’t notice. She was crumbling her roll absently with her knife and wondering how someone whose kiss was so warm could be content with such a joyless life. There was something chilling about his rejection of family, and even marriage with Astra seemed to be approached from a businesslike point of view. Daisy had always scoffed at people who claimed that they wouldn’t like to be rich, but she was beginning to change her mind.

‘What about you?’ Seth interrupted her thoughts abruptly. His voice was harsh, almost as if the question were forced out of him.

Daisy looked up from her roll, surprised. ‘Me?’

‘I might need to show some awareness of your life before I met you,’ he said, but it sounded oddly like an excuse.

‘But no one’s going to be interested in me!’ she protested. She couldn’t imagine anyone even noticing her next to Seth.

‘You never know,’ he said slowly. ‘If you were dressed properly you could be quite taking.’

The possibility of being ‘quite taking’ didn’t compare well with being described as beautiful with a first-class business brain, Daisy reflected, piqued. ‘I’d have thought that, as far as most people were concerned, the only interesting thing about me is that I’m going to be with you,’ she said rather grumpily.

‘Perhaps,’ Seth agreed, ‘but it’s always best to be prepared. So, go on. Tell me about yourself.’

‘Well...’ Daisy hesitated, knowing that her life would seem irredeemably dull to Seth but determined not to make any apologies for it. She wasn’t the one who looked bleak whenever families were mentioned, after all. ‘My father died when I was small, but my mother married again a few years ago and my stepfather’s wonderful.’ Her voice wobbled a bit when she thought about Jim, who had been so kind to her and brought her mother so much happiness. She had to find Tom for him. ‘We’re a very close family,’ she went on more steadily, ‘but I can’t exactly say that my life has been packed with excitement.’

‘Is that why you became an actress?’

‘What?’ Daisy’s eyes slid away as she remembered. ‘Oh...yes,’ she said hurriedly. ‘Yes, I think I hoped I’d find...oh, I don’t know...something different. I love my home and my family but sometimes it’s all a bit too safe.’ She stopped, aware that she was giving too much away. It was true, though. She loved creating beautiful displays of flowers but there were times when she longed to escape from the humdrum problems of the shop in Battersea. That was why she had broken with Robert, who was so meticulous and kind but who couldn’t understand that she wanted more out of life before she settled down to marriage. Then Jim had fallen ill, and she hadn’t thought about excitement for a while.

And now here she was, having dinner with one of the most eligible men in the world who was going to take her off to his own Caribbean island.

Seth had been watching her face. ‘So now you’re just waiting for a starring role?’

Daisy thought of beautiful, businesslike Astra who was the star of this particular play. She was only the understudy.

‘Sort of,’ she said with an unconsciously wistful sigh, and there was a tiny moment of silence as they looked at each other.

‘Daisy,’ Seth began suddenly, but he never finished what he was about to say. A couple had crossed the room towards them, and the man was clapping Seth on the shoulder.

‘Seth Carrington! What are you doing here?’

Hardly knowing whether to be relieved or peculiarly disappointed at the interruption, Daisy looked up as well and her eyes widened as she recognised James Gifford-Gould. With his vast inherited fortune and playboy lifestyle, James was so rarely out of the gossip columns that he was almost familiar. A languid blonde with a cat-like smile hung on his arm and offered her cheek for Seth to kiss as he got to his feet and returned their greetings.

‘This is Daisy,’ he said, and coolly introduced James and the blonde whose name was Eva.

‘Hello,’ said Daisy, hoping that she sounded equally composed.

Eva barely nodded. Her eyes had already flickered over Daisy and rested for one disintegrating moment on her dress before quite obviously dismissing her as without interest. James was the sort of man who mentally undressed every female he met, and his eyes lingered rather longer.

‘Hel-lo,’ he said, his gaze continuing to rove over her. ‘You look much too sweet to be with a ruthless type like Seth. ‘I didn’t think they still made girls like you.’ He glanced knowingly at Seth. ‘Not your usual style, Seth! Where did you find her?’ he joked. ‘I’d like one too!’

To Daisy’s surprise, Seth was looking boot-faced. ‘I’m afraid I got the only one,’ he said curtly, ‘and I’m keeping her.’

‘I quite understand, dear fellow,’ said James with a wink. ‘I’d feel exactly the same.’

Eva was beginning to look petulant. ‘Come on, James,’ she said, tugging at him, and after a last practised smile at Daisy he allowed himself to be dragged off.

Seth sat down again, scowling. ‘That man’s the worst gossip in London!’

‘Isn’t that what you wanted?’ said Daisy, puzzled. ‘I thought people were supposed to start gossiping about us?’

‘Not the way James Gifford-Gould is going to gossip,’ said Seth obscurely. He glanced away to where James and Eva were being seated at a table. It was on the other side of the room, but had a clear view of where Seth and Daisy sat. ‘Now they’ll be watching us all evening,’ he grumbled. ‘I’ll have to act as if I was jealous of the way he looked at you.’

‘I thought you were already doing that,’ said Daisy with some tartness. She was completely confused about what Seth wanted now!

Seth’s expression froze for a moment. ‘Why would I be jealous?’ he demanded in a glacial voice.

‘I can’t imagine,’ she said frankly, ‘but you were giving a pretty good impression of it just now!’

‘I was no—’ Seth shut his mouth firmly and controlled his temper with an effort. ‘Look, we’re supposed to be acting like lovers, not arguing. Gifford-Gould won’t miss anything!’ Reaching across the table, he put his hand over hers and forced a smile. ‘It’ll be easier if we talk like lovers too. What do lovers talk about?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ said Daisy stiffly. She was excruciatingly aware of his hand. It was warm and strong and she could almost swear that the lines in his palm were tingling into her skin.





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