Daniel's Bride (19 page)

“Daniel, I’m not here for this. It doesn’t matter right
now.” Suddenly it all seemed so cheap, so inappropriate. The taut lines of his
face made it even more so. So sordid. This had been a monumental mistake.

“I’ll go,” she told him. “I’m sorry for coming in.”

“Take the cheque, Mel.” His command was laced with grief,
anger, and other emotions she couldn't name.

Unease pooled in her stomach, but she reached for the
cheque.

When she had it in her hand, he told her, “Open it.”

She pulled out the cheque, and stared. It was far more than
the agreement stated. Thousands more. “There must be a mistake,” she told him.

Daniel finally rose to his feet. “There is no mistake. My
grandfather died happy in the knowledge there would be more Christies to keep
the family business and line intact. That’s what I wanted, and that’s what I
got.”

“Even though it was a lie.” The cheque was burning an
imprint into her hand. She drew a deep breath and decided to broach the
subject, the one further issue they would need to discuss. Her chest felt heavy
and ached; she pressed on. “We need to talk about the other matter.”

“What other matter?”

No. She shook her head, and tucked the cheque between the
pages of her diary in her bag. “It's nothing. My timing is absurd, I’m sorry. I
really shouldn’t have come in.” She slung her bag over her shoulder. “You’ve
got so much on your mind.”

“No.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Go ahead and tell
me. You’ve come in. Kill two birds with one stone.”

She hesitated before saying, "Okay." She drew a
deep breath. “It’s the matter of the annulment of the marriage.”

His gaze flickered before he strode to look out the window.
After a moment he said, “There’s a problem with the annulment.”

“Sorry?”

“I said there is a problem with the annulment.”

“What does that mean?”

“There’s a problem with the nullification of this marriage.
It turns out, it can’t be nullified.”

She frowned. “That’s impossible. We never… We didn’t…” Her
face flushed as Daniel turned around. The blush had spread up her neck. “The
marriage has remained unconsummated. What could the problem be?”

“I used the wrong word. I shouldn’t have said problem.” His
eyes darkened. “Because there is no problem. There just can’t be an annulment.
We do not qualify under the law.”

"What..." Her voice caught in her throat. “What do
you mean, we don’t qualify?” She was struggling to think straight. “Hugh
specifically said we qualified. Are you telling me…” The only possible
explanation was that they had made love. “Are you telling me we had sex and I can’t
remember?”

He looked straight at her, his eyes burning as if he wished
right there and then they could do just that. Heat rushed through her body.

“Your memory is fine.”

“So what is it then?”

“What Hugh told us when this was first arranged was not entirely
correct.”

Confusion had clearly dulled her brain. What wasn’t she
understanding? "The whole point of the annulment," she told him
deliberately, “was that no one would know. That is why I agreed to it. So that
my mother would never know what I’d done. It would be wiped from the books.”

There was a pause. “Grounds for annulment,” Daniel began in
a low voice, “are if one or both partners were already married at the time,
were married underage and without consent, or were forced into marriage.” He
shrugged. “That’s the law and you were none of those.”

“What am I not getting?” Her mind spun and her legs began to
lose strength. She gripped the table, her fingers trembling. “When did you find
this out? Did the law change, did Hugh get it wrong?”

His face was impassive but there was a look in his eyes,
something very much like guilt, that made her catch her breath. Dread nipped at
her heels. “No.” She swallowed hard on a dry-as-toast throat. “You knew this?
You knew it all along?”

His hesitation said more than words.

“How could you?” Inside, her heart felt like stone. A dead
weight. She had fallen for him, had trusted him. Had believed him.

“I didn’t know straight away. We were both misled. Hugh did
so deliberately but then he told me the truth.”

“Before we were married?” You could have told me.

“Not before the marriage. I found out on our way back from
the wedding during the flight.”

She thought back. Of course. At one point there’d been a
heated discussion between Daniel and Hugh. Daniel’s face had been black as tar
and Hugh had tried to appease him. She’d wondered what had happened.

“But…” She thought fast. “Something could have been done.”
Her voice was low, in spite of the anger coursing through her body. “You could
have ripped up the papers. The celebrant was there on the plane, he had all the
documents with him. We could have landed back in Sydney and no one would ever
have known.”

Impatience flashed in his eyes. “And you could have looked
up legislation on the internet and learnt the truth.”

He had to be kidding. She raised her arms helplessly. “Why
would I? Why would I even consider that you would lie to me?” Adrenaline pulsed
through her body and she had to get out before she exploded. “It goes to show
what a fool I am.” Her eyes were blurry and she blinked the tears away. Damn
it, she would not cry in front of him. She would not do that. “What a fool I am
believing it was all going to end up the way we agreed.”

“Mel…”

Tears burnt at the back of her eyes and her throat ached.
She should have known it was too good to be true. The shopping, the trip to the
Gold Coast…

You stupid, stupid fool, she cursed herself.

She took one last look at him, and this time, she didn’t see
Daniel, grieving for the loss of his grandfather, but she saw Daniel, a man who
would do anything to get his own way. A man who had made a fool of her, as Max
had done, as her own father had done for not wanting anything to do with Mel or
Ellie. Contempt filled her.

Contempt at him for doing this. At herself for believing.

He grabbed her arm, his fingers gripping her hard. “You are
not leaving. We need to talk.”

"Talk? Really?" She starred at him defiantly, her
heart shattering. “Can you take it back, can you make this an annulment?”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Can’t they say you tricked me?” She was clutching at
straws. “Wasn’t that one of the grounds for an annulment, if one person is
tricked into marriage by the other?”

“No, because at the time of the marriage, we both believed
the same thing. Mel, listen-"

She shrugged his hand off hers with a violence she had no
idea she possessed.

She made for the door and this time she stopped as she
turned back to look.

For a moment she saw a different Daniel yet again. A Daniel
who looked as if he wished he could take it all back but had no clue how to do
it.

Well, you shouldn’t have made the mistake in the first
place, she thought furiously. You should not have lied. You could have asked if
I’d go ahead with the marriage. You made a fool out of me.

Inside, she had gone ice cold, and she let the door shut
behind her as she walked away.

The fury battling Mel was so intense she knew there was no
way she could handle sitting alongside commuters on the ride home. She took one
look at the crowds on the busy Sydney street, one look at a blue-black sky
threatening to burst, and took a cab. Anger rippled through her as the car
drove through the city streets. Anger directed squarely at Daniel, and anger at
herself that she had gone so willingly in to this in the first place.

By the time she arrived at the apartment building, rain had
drenched the streets, and she dashed to the foyer in time to avoid a soaking.

Inside the apartment she stopped at Barnaby’s basket, at the
patchwork quilt with strands of his hair shed over it. She swallowed down on
sadness. Why couldn’t he just be there, looking up at her? Why couldn’t the
past day have all been one horrible mistake?

Because all you wanted was to give Ellie a better life,
and to get some of that crippling guilt off your back.

It was her own fault.

Not for the stroke.

But for the way Ellie’s life had changed the moment she’d
found out she was having a baby. She could have found romance with a loving
man, could have kept her relationship with her family intact. Instead, she had
given birth to a baby she had never planned on, with no support from her
family, and no support from the father who wanted nothing to do with her and
his child. No financial support, no emotional support.
Nothing
. And Mel
had not been the greatest kid when she'd been young, had not made Ellie's life
an easy one, even though she was trying to make up for it now.

A cold shudder stripped away any residue of warmth she’d
been feeling.

Mel went to the bathroom, splashed water on her face and
stared at her reflection in the mirror. She was pale, ghostly pale. Inside her
the ice seemed to expand. She looked quickly away as she dried her hands on a
towel.

She checked the answer phone in case a message had been left
about Barnaby. There were dozens of messages but they were all for Daniel, all
about Sir Arthur. She ran her hands up and down her arms to get rid of the icy
feeing but it only seemed to make her colder.

Regardless, she knew what she had to do.

Mel strode purposefully to her suite, took her suitcase from
the wardrobe, pulled open drawers and began to pack. There was no point
staying. She’d work it all out once she was in her car, driving away, driving
off to heaven knows where.

She folded and packed, then stopped. Footsteps thundered on
the floorboards, and before she had time to think, Daniel stormed in to her
room, his presence seeming to suck the air out of it, out of her.

He came to a halt in front of her, his eyes as dark and
intense as they had ever been.

“Do not,” he ground out, “ever,
ever
, run out on me
like that again.”

Shock at his anger made her suddenly calm. She took a
sweater in her hand, folded it neatly, then threw it in the case. “What did you
expect? That I would stay a moment longer and listen to your excuses?”

“I would expect you to think about it and understand why I
did it.”

“Oh, I understand why you did it.” Anger rose again, rose so
sharply in her chest she could barely contain it. “I understand perfectly.” She
turned away. Why had she fallen in love with this man? Why, why, why when she
had known that nothing good would,
could
, possibly happen?

Lightening cracked outside, the sudden flash of light making
her jump. Seconds later, thunder rolled across the apartment and damp seeped in
through the open windows, mixing with the warmth of the room.

Suddenly Daniel's hands were on her shoulders, and he spun
her round, his fingers digging through her shirt in to her skin.

She stared up into his face, at the anger that set his mouth
in a grim line and the tightness to his jaw, but at something altogether
different in his eyes that made her heart begin to pound.

She tried to look away but couldn't drag her gaze away from
his face.

Because she wanted him to kiss her
. She wanted him to
kiss the air from her lungs, to make her forget, to make her feel wanted. To
soothe this longing that only he could soothe. Her gaze dropped to his mouth
and an intense awareness of him rocked her.

His hand slipped from her shoulder to her nape, cupped her
and pulled her closer and she didn't even bother to pretend that she didn't
like that he did that. He swore under his breath, bent his mouth to her, and
his lips touched hers. In a flash, her insides began to melt. He brushed his
lips once, then again over her mouth and her body shuddered in reponse.

She wanted this.
She wanted him
.

She wanted to forget about everything that had happened,
forget about the world outside of the apartment and have this moment with him
because it was as if the past few months had all been leading up to this.

He pulled back, his eyes gleaming with desire, and he cupped
her chin, the touch sending her head spinning. She slid her arms round his neck
and leaned in to him. His lips touched hers again, and in a dizzying flash, it
all ceased to matter as he kissed her and she clung to him. It was meant to be.

Everything they had avoided snowballed to consume her. The
feel of his mouth on her was unlike anything she had ever felt and for the
briefest, tiniest second she thought of Max and how he had made her feel, then
just as quickly shut him out. There was no comparison. He and Daniel were
incomparable.

He tugged at her shirt, and she helped him until their
clothes were on the floor and, both naked, he pulled her down with him on to
her bed.

He kissed her, tasted her, and she felt him tremble beneath
her touch as she explored his body, so tanned and sleek and beautifully
muscled.

Then suddenly he pulled back, his eyes a gleam of
frustration.

"What is it?" she breathed.

"This. It's going too fast."

"No. No." Her body was burning with such intense
longing, she could barely speak. "It's not going fast enough."

“Are you sure?” His voice was a hoarse whisper.

She wound her arms around his neck. “I’m sure,” she
murmured.

He paused a moment longer, and time seemed to slow.
Lightening cracked again, and he pulled her close, kissing her mouth, her body,
and a passion so fierce simmered and boiled until she didn’t believe she could
stand it any longer.

The rain continued to fall, but eased off with their
lovemaking, leaving the scent of damp throughout the room. It mingled with the
musk of Daniel’s body, and Mel breathed it in, her body exhausted and
exhilarated.