скачать книгу бесплатно
A Bride For His Convenience
Lindsay Armstrong
For Convenience–Or For Real?Rob Leicester's wealth was matched by his arrogance. Initially Caiti found working for the millionaire Australian resort owner tough. But hostility turned to attraction and virginal Caiti gave Rob everything. She was overjoyed when he proposed that they wed.However, Caiti's joy turned to shame when she discovered that Rob had married her purely for reasons of convenience. Her only option was to leave and build a new life elsewhere. But Rob wasn't about to let her go. As soon as an opportunity arose, he was in Caiti's life again, ready to claim her–but, this time, as his wife for real!
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “So this really was a marriage of convenience?”
“Caiti,” he said roughly, “how ‘convenient’ does it feel when you’re in my arms, in my bed?”
She shot up off the bench. “But would you have asked me to marry you if all this hadn’t happened? Would you have slept with me in the first place if you’d known I was a virgin?”
That nerve flickered in his jaw again. “Probably not but—”
“Then that’s what it is,” she insisted. “You suddenly found yourself lumbered with an ex-virgin and a whole lot of awkward baggage at home—and do you know what?” Her eyes widened as it hit her. “I don’t think you actually want to be in love with me or anyone, Rob Leicester.”
Lindsay Armstrong was born in South Africa but now lives in Australia with her New Zealand-born husband and their five children. They have lived in nearly every state of Australia and have tried their hand at some unusual, for them, occupations, such as farming and horse-training—all grist to the mill for a writer! Lindsay started writing romances when their youngest child began school and she was left feeling at a loose end. She is still doing it and loving it.
A Bride for his Convenience
Lindsay Armstrong
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ONE
FLYING into Cairns on a clear day was like floating into a wonderland.
Caiti Galloway watched, mesmerised, from her window seat as the jet descended over the Coral Sea. Brilliant turquoise and sandy patches studded the deep blue surface of the water where coral reefs rose from the depths like delicately tinted birds’ eggs.
Although it was the gateway to her hometown of Port Douglas, it never failed to fascinate her.
Then they crossed the coastline and the flat patchwork of sugar-cane fields spread beneath them, flanked by darker green mountains that encroached on the city.
But as the wheels of the aeroplane touched down, she closed her eyes. Flying into Cairns might be magical but it was also a region that held many memories for her. Memories of falling in love with a man who wanted her but didn’t love her.
She opened her eyes as the jet roared into reverse and started to slow down, and the woman sitting beside her smiled at her in relief.
There was the usual wait as they taxied to the terminal, the usual awkward scrambling for bags from the overhead lockers, but finally the passengers were released into the tropical humidity of far-north Queensland.
Being May, it wasn’t as humid as it could be in mid-summer, when it was like walking into a warm blanket of air. Caiti had started her journey in much cooler Canberra and now she felt overdressed in jeans and a long-sleeved blouse.
Once in the terminal, she followed the signs to the baggage carousel and at the same time looked about for her cousin, Marion, who was coming to meet her. Marion was the kind of person who always favoured being early rather than late.
Indeed, her cousin was the reason Caiti was back in Cairns. Marion was getting married in a fortnight and Caiti was to be her chief bridesmaid.
There was no sign of her cousin yet and Caiti frowned as she turned her attention to the carousel. Preoccupied with her task, Caiti was unaware of the tall man who, in the act of walking past, had stopped abruptly and was studying her intently.
Rob Leicester would always stand out in a crowd for his height alone but it didn’t stop there. He was dark-haired, broad-shouldered and tanned. Wearing jeans and a khaki shirt, he looked all tough man. If you looked closer, however, and many women did, there was a latent sensuality about him that set them wondering.
Did it come from those slightly moody hazel eyes? A rather hard mouth? His lean, strong hands?
The two girls in their late teens he’d stopped beside were eyeing him with definite awe—as if precisely these thoughts were running through their minds.
Not that he even noticed them as he watched Caiti Galloway retrieve her luggage.
She hadn’t changed. Still the same long, blue-black hair that had always reminded him of rough silk and fish-plaited today. The same smooth, golden skin—his fingers tingled as if he were touching her body. Still slender and essentially chic even in jeans, a plain white blouse and hiking boots.
How did she do it? he found himself wondering. Was it the little touches like the way her collar was turned up? Or the unusual leather belt that emphasised her narrow waist? She could even turn hiking boots into a fashion statement.
She pulled a bag off the carousel and turned fully towards him. Rob found himself holding his breath, wondering at what he would see in her long-lashed lavender-blue eyes when she recognised him.
It took a few moments as people moved about then the space between them cleared and she was looking straight at him, and, heaven help him, he thought grimly, her reaction couldn’t have been more satisfactory.
Her eyes widened incredulously, she went paper pale then a rush of colour charged into her cheeks. She dropped her bag and her breasts, which he happened to have an intimate knowledge of, heaved beneath the white cotton of her blouse.
So, eighteen months apart hasn’t lessened the impact I always used to have on you, Ms Galloway, was his immediate reaction as he moved forward smoothly and retrieved her bag.
‘Caiti,’ he murmured, ‘this is a surprise. Have you decided to come back to me?’
Caiti swallowed several times and put her hand to her heart. ‘R-Rob,’ she stammered. ‘What are you doing here? I was expecting my cousin, Marion…’ She ran out of words and the flood of colour left her cheeks so that she was unnaturally pale again.
‘You need a drink.’ He took her elbow and began to steer her towards the bar.
‘No… I mean…’ she started to protest.
He said quietly, ‘Don’t be silly. You look as if you might faint.’
He found them a table in a secluded corner behind a potted palm and settled her in a chair then walked over the colourful carpet to the bar to order.
Caiti watched him with a hand to her throat and the utmost turmoil in her heart. Eighteen long months ago she’d run away from Rob Leicester because she’d fallen deeply in love with him, only to discover that she’d completely misread his feelings for her. It had been an agonising realisation and had plunged her into despair and desolation.
How could she have allowed herself to be swept off her feet so completely by this man? she’d asked herself repeatedly. Why was it only in hindsight that she could identify all the little signs along the way that had pointed to a man who wanted her but had no intention of allowing himself to fall in love with her?
By the greatest effort of will she’d pulled herself out of the chasm and put it all behind her. She’d even accepted Marion’s invitation to come back to Cairns to be her bridesmaid, but now, as she stared across at Rob Leicester, her stunned reaction told her that she’d put nothing behind her.
All she’d done was paper over it in the most flimsy way because one glimpse of him had sent her reeling.
He turned towards their table with two glasses but someone tapped him on the arm, a man in his fifties. Rob put the glasses back on the bar to shake his hand and greet him. They chatted for a few moments and the other man said something to make Rob laugh—and Caiti caught her breath.
There were times when you couldn’t doubt Rob Leicester was a tough, complicated man. There were other times, if you knew him well enough or thought you did, when he had a laid-back side to him that had enchanted her. Seeing him laugh, even only briefly, brought that side of him back to her in the most treacherous manner.
Her pulses started to hammer as her memories of him making love to her came flooding back in the most disturbing and intimate way. A tide of heat ran through her and the barren months were swept away as if he were actually kissing and caressing her body and she was writhing beneath the sweet torment of it.
He put two glasses of brandy on the table and pulled out his chair.
‘W-who was that?’ she asked disjointedly, anything to cover her disarray.
‘A friend of my father’s. Here,’ he pushed a glass towards her, ‘you certainly look as if you could do with it.’
She sipped some brandy gratefully, and coughed—it was neat, and made her eyes water but it helped.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I guess it was a bit of a shock, running into you like that.’ She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
He sat back and studied her. ‘I would have thought this part of the world would be a place to avoid if you didn’t want to run into me, Caiti.’
‘I’m only here for Marion’s wedding.’ She paused and thought back swiftly. ‘I don’t know if I told you about my cousin, Marion? She was overseas with her boyfriend on an extended working holiday when we…when we—’
‘You mentioned her in passing, that’s all.’
‘Oh. Well.’ She flicked him a brief glance. ‘We used to be very close—she actually came to live with us when her parents died—but she’s been overseas for ages. Now they’re back, she and Derek, and they’re getting married in a fortnight. I’m going to be a bridesmaid.’
‘I know.’
Caiti blinked. ‘What? I mean, how could you—?’
‘I know you’re going to be her bridesmaid.’
‘How on earth…?’ She broke off and stared at him.
His lips twisted. ‘I, for my sins, am the best man.’
‘You…know…Derek Handy?’ Her eyes were huge. ‘You know my cousin Marion?’
‘I have yet to meet Marion but I was at boarding-school with Derek for years.’
Caiti reached for her glass and took a solid sip of brandy. It went down like firewater again but this time it paralysed her vocal cords and she could only open and shut her mouth several times.
Rob Leicester looked amused. ‘You don’t feel I make good best-man material?’
‘No,’ she got out at last. ‘Well, I have no idea.’
‘Or,’ he gazed at her narrowly and continued softly but lethally, ‘you’re wondering how the hell this could have happened to you?’
Caiti breathed raggedly and could only be honest. ‘Yes.’
As he watched her, Rob Leicester was presented with a vivid mental picture of the last time he’d had her in his arms. Even in the short space of their relationship he’d discovered that you never knew quite what to expect from her, but one thing had never changed. Her slim, golden body, and all that gorgeous black hair. But it was her stunning lavender eyes, whether they were laughing at him or dreamy and content, that had tantalised him almost unbearably.
‘So you didn’t come back to Cairns to look me up at the same time?’ he suggested with an undertone of harshness.
‘Rob,’ she gestured, ‘perhaps, but only after the wedding.’
‘How thoughtful of you,’ he drawled.
She closed her eyes then her lashes flew up. ‘You said—for your sins, you were Derek’s best man. What did you mean?’
He shrugged. ‘As it happens, I don’t particularly see myself as good best-man material and I would have found some way of dodging it if it hadn’t been for Derek mentioning who the chief bridesmaid was—you.’
If only Marion had told me, she thought anguishedly. If only I’d thought to ask who the best man was! But how would that have helped? I could never have refused to be Marion’s bridesmaid…
‘As a matter of interest, where have you been over the last eighteen months, Caiti?’ he queried. ‘I spent a small fortune trying to find you, even going so far as to make enquiries in New Caledonia.’
Caiti flinched. Her French mother came from New Caledonia and, not long before she’d met Rob, her parents had separated unexpectedly, her mother returning to her home country. She’d been deeply disturbed by their separation; she adored both her parents. It had often occurred to her that because of it, she’d been much more vulnerable to being swept off her feet by Rob…
‘Uh—my mother reverted to her maiden name,’ she said, and avoided the rest of the question. ‘How is your brother, Steve?’
‘He’s fine now but it was a long convalescence.’
‘So…so you’re back at Camp Ondine?’
He nodded. ‘I’ve just flown in from Cooktown.’
‘Rob—’
‘Caiti,’ he interrupted, ‘let’s not beat about the bush or indulge in any further mindless pleasantries.’ The look he tossed her was laced with pitiless irony. ‘You married me then ran away two days later. Shouldn’t we be discussing that?’
She put a hand to her mouth. ‘You know why.’
‘I—’ But he broke off as a call came over the loudspeaker system for Miss Caitlin Galloway to proceed to the information desk.
‘That must be a message from Marion,’ Caiti said. ‘She must have been held up.’
He got up. ‘I’ll go.’
Two minutes later he was back and he handed her a slip of paper. On it was printed the news that Marion had been involved in a minor traffic accident—she was not hurt, but couldn’t leave the scene until the police arrived; and would Caiti please take a taxi from the airport to Marion’s home…the key was in the same place.
‘Look,’ she let the paper flutter to the table, ‘Marion has no idea, I haven’t seen her in two years…’ She broke off abruptly, then, ‘Does Derek know?’
‘No,’ he said slowly. ‘I thought I’d await your wisdom on the subject.’
