Just Curious (10 page)

“So you wanted what you couldn't have?” she said with sarcasm.

“Of course. Doesn't everyone?”

Karen was too interested in the story to think about philosophy. “But
you
got her.”

“In a way. About four years ago she came to my office telling me she wanted me to help her with some investments and I—”

“Made a fool of yourself over her and asked her to marry you so you could show the other guys that
you
won.”

“In a word, yes.”

At that, Karen had to laugh. “So the artist saved you, didn't he?”

Mac hesitated before he answered. “Someday I want to know how you wheedled this information out of my mother. Or whomever she told who told
you.”

“Mmmm,”
was all Karen would answer. “So what about all the other women you asked to marry you?”

He paused, staring off into space. “You know, it was really quite odd, but every woman on earth seemed to think that after what happened with Elaine, I was dying to get married. Maybe they thought I wanted to show Elaine that I could get another woman if I wanted one.”

“So they flung themselves on you,” Karen said sarcastically. “You had nothing to do with all those engagement rings and prénuptial agreements.”

He didn't laugh in return, but instead, turned so his face was above hers. “I'm serious. Two weeks ago I would have told you that I'd been in love with Elaine and maybe that I loved each of those beautiful girls I was engaged to. But now I know that I didn't love any of them, because when I'm with you, Karen, I don't have to be who I'm not. You're the first woman who has looked at me as just a man, not one of the rich Taggerts, not as a way to jump-start her own career. You saw
me
and nothing else.”

He kissed her cheek. “I know it's sudden and I know you'll want to take time to think about this, and I'd love to court you, but I want to warn you what I'm after. I mean to marry you.”

Karen's impulse was to throw her arms about his neck and say, “Yes, yes, yes,” but instead she looked away for a moment, as though contemplating whether to marry him or not. When she looked back at him, her eyes were serious. “By courting do you mean candlelight dinners and roses?”

“How about trips to Paris, a cruise down the Nile, and skiing in the Rockies?”

“Perhaps,” she said.

Pulling back, he looked at her speculatively. “How about
I buy you two more buildings in cities of your choice for those baby stores of yours and set you up with a state-of-the-art accounting system?”

“Oh!” she said, startled. “With an instant inventory system?”

“Karen, honey, if you marry me, I'll give you the private code to my own accounting system and you can snoop to your heart's content.”

“You do know how to court a girl, don't you?”

“Mmmm,”
was all he said as he moved his leg on top of hers. “Did you know that twins run in my family?”

“I have seen a bit of evidence of that fact.”

He was kissing her neck as his hand moved downward “I don't know if you know this, but the way twins are made is to make love twice in the same day.”

“Is that so? And here the medical people think it has to do with the way an egg divides.”

“No. The more love, the more kids.”

Turning her hips toward his, she put her arms about his neck. “Let's try for quintuplets.”

“I
knew
there was a reason I loved you,” he murmured before his mouth closed over hers.

“K
AREN!” SAID A WOMAN BEHIND HER, MAKING
K
AREN TURN SO
quickly she dropped her packages. She was in a mall, people bustling about, and it took Karen a moment to recognize Rita, the woman she'd met on that remarkable weekend she'd spent with Mac.

To the consternation of both of them, Karen burst into tears.

With a motherly arm about the younger woman's shoulders, Rita led Karen to a tiled seat surrounding a quietly splashing fountain, then handed her a clean tissue and waited while Karen calmed herself.

“I am so sorry. I have no idea what is wrong with me. I
seem to be bursting into tears constantly. I really am glad to see you. How is everyone? Steve?”

“Fine,” Rita said, smiling. “Everyone is fine. So, when is your baby due?”

For several minutes Karen worked to control her tears. “Is it that obvious?”

“Only to another mother. Now, why don't you tell me what is bothering you. Something wrong between you and Mac? He
is
marrying you, isn't he?”

Karen blew her nose. “Yes, we're to be married in two months in a perfect little ceremony. You're on the guest list.” She looked down at her sodden tissue. “Nothing is wrong. Nothing at all. It's just—”

“Come on, you can tell me.”

“I'm not sure Mac wants to marry me,” she burst out. “I tricked him. I … I seduced him. I wanted a baby so much, and he—” She broke off because Rita was laughing.

“I beg your pardon,” Karen said stiffly, and started to get up. “I did not mean to amuse you with my problems.”

Rita grabbed Karen's arm and pulled her to sit back down. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh; it's just that I've never seen a man pursue a woman as hard as Mac pursued you. Whatever could have made you think he doesn't want to marry you?”

“You really have no idea what you're talking about. If you knew the truth about what went on between us, you'd know that this will be more of a business arrangement than a real marriage. Everything was my idea and—”

“Karen, forgive me, but you're the one who doesn't know what you're talking about. Did you know that there were only to be six bridesmaids in the wedding? Mac called Steve in a panic, said he'd met the love of his life and he had to have an excuse to spend the weekend with her. The addition of another bridesmaid to the wedding was
his
idea. He paid triple price for a custom-made dress in your size, then paid for a tux for a friend of his so there'd be a seventh groomsman.”

Karen stared at Rita. “Love of his life? But he told me just after he met me about his problem with finding someone to fit the dress.”

“Steve and Catherine have plenty of friends, they didn't need one of Mac's girlfriends. Certainly not when his girlfriends changed as often as Mac's did.”

Karen shook her head. “But I don't understand. I don't think he'd even seen me before the night of the Christmas party. What made him make up such a story? Why would he want to? I don't understand.”

Rita smiled. “There's a saying in the Taggert family, ‘Marry the one who can tell the twins apart.'”

Karen's face showed no understanding.

“In Mac's office, there is a photo of a man holding a string of fish, isn't there?”

Karen searched her memory, then remembered that night when she'd been snooping in Mac's office and picked up the photo from the shelf, then dropped it when Mac's voice startled her. “Yes, I remember the picture. It's one of his brothers, isn't it? I remember saying that I'd never seen the man before.”

Rita smiled knowingly. “That was a photo of Mac's twin, a man who looks exactly like Mac.”

“He doesn't look anything like him! Mac is
much
better looking than that man. He—” She stopped, then looked away from Rita's laughter, taking a moment to compose herself, then looked back. “He made up the whole bridesmaid story?” she asked softly.

“Completely. He offered to pay for the entire wedding if Steve would allow you to be in the ceremony. And he gave Steve free use of his precious speedboat for six months in return for putting both of you in the same bedroom. Those earrings Mac gave you came from the family vault, an heirloom, something given only to wives. Not girlfriends, wives. And I happen to know that twice that weekend he called home and told his family in detail about you, telling them how intelligent and beautiful you were and that he was doing everything he could to make you love him.”

Rita gave Karen's hand a squeeze. “You must have noticed how tongue-tied Mac was around you. We were all laughing because he was so afraid of saying the wrong thing that often he wouldn't say anything. He told Steve that he kept pretending to ignore you because he'd been told by a
man in the office that you ran from any man who showed the least interest in you.”

“He told his sisters-in-law about the store I wanted to open,” she said softly.

“Dear, if he wasn't with you, he was talking about you.”

“But I thought he asked me to marry him because …” She broke off, looking into Rita's eyes. “Because I asked for something from him.”

“I have never seen a man fall as hard in love with a woman at first sight as he fell for you. He said you picked up a photo in his office, he looked into your eyes, and he fell in love with you in that single moment.”

“Why didn't he tell
me?”
Karen said.

“You mean Mac hasn't told you that he loves you?” Rita asked in horror.

“Yes, he has, many times, but I …” Karen stood. She wasn't going to say out loud that she hadn't believed him, that she couldn't believe that a man like McAllister Taggert could …

“I have to go,” Karen said abruptly. “I have to—Oh, Rita, thank you,” she said, then as Rita stood, she hugged her enthusiastically. “Thank you more than you could possibly know. You have made me the happiest woman on earth. I have to go and tell Mac that … that …”

Rita laughed. “Go! What are you waiting for? Go!”

But Karen was already gone.

JUDE DEVERAUX is the author of twenty-one
New York Times
bestsellers. She began writing in 1976 and to date there are more than 30 million copies of her books in print. Her marvelous novels include
Sweetbriar, Twin of Ice, Twin of Fire,
and the magnificent James River trilogy:
Counterfeit Lady, Lost Lady, and River Lady.
In
The Velvet Promise, Highland Velvet, Velvet Song, and Velvet Angel,
Jude Deveraux created the unforgettable Montgomery family, who fought for love and honor from Scotland's fierce Highlands to the royal courts of medieval England. With
The Maiden, The Taming, The Conquest,
and
The Heiress,
she returned to the medieval setting she immortalized so lovingly in the Velvet saga, while
The Duchess
features the Montgomerys in late nineteenth-century Scotland. In
Wishes, The Temptress, The Raider, The Princess, The Awakening, A Knight in Shining Armor, Mountain Laurel, Eternity, Sweet Liar
and
The Invitation,
she brought the proud Montgomery heritage to a new land, America. In
Remembrance
and
Legend
she returns to the time-travel theme of her beloved
A Knight in Shining Armor.
All of these captivating Jude Deveraux romances are available from Pocket Books.

Pocket Star Books

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1995 by Deveraux, Inc.

Previously published in 2001 in
A Gift of Love and Simple Gifts: Four Heartwarming Christmas Stories

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First Pocket Star Books ebook edition November 2012

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ISBN 978-1-4767-1463-9 (eBook)