Business Arrangement Bride

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Virginia had been distraught when Bill had suddenly announced that he was leaving earlier that year. His decision had coincided with Mary’s unexpected pregnancy, and coming back to York to have the baby had seemed the obvious solution.

Mary had needed somewhere to live and Virginia had needed the company, and in many ways it had worked as planned. Thirty-five was really too old to be living with your mother, and the house was too small for the three of them, but they had been rubbing along all right. Mary had even begun to think that her mother might be ready to move on. She had served Bill with divorce papers only the week before.

‘What did you say?’ she asked Virginia gently.

‘I said I’d meet him tomorrow and we’d talk about it.’

Mary heard the wobble in her mother’s voice and hugged her tight. ‘You want him back, don’t you?’ she said, and Virginia’s eyes filled with tears as she nodded.

‘I know I ought to hate him after he hurt me like that, but I just miss him so much,’ she confessed.

‘Well, you need to talk about what happened, but you’re still married,’ Mary pointed out. ‘If you decide you want him back and he wants to come back, there’s no reason you shouldn’t just get on with being married again.’

‘He can’t come back yet,’ said Virginia, still a bit tearfully. ‘There isn’t any room for him now.’

‘Bea and I will move out. It’s time we were doing that anyway, and you certainly can’t sort things out with us around.’

‘But you can’t afford your own place,’ her mother objected.

‘I’ll work something out,’ said Mary confidently, giving her mother’s shoulders a final squeeze and getting to her feet. ‘Don’t worry about us, Mum. You concentrate on sorting out things with Bill and I’ll find somewhere to live.’

But where? Mary asked herself wearily as she started the long climb up the stairs to her office the next morning.

She liked her attic office in the city centre. Dating from the seventeenth century, the building had higgledy-piggledy rooms, sloping floors and dangerously low beams. It was charming but there were times, like now, when she had Bea on her hip and two bags to carry, that she wished for a few more modern amenities. Like a lift, for instance.

Plodding upwards, Mary made it to the first landing and hoisted Bea higher on to her hip as she pondered her accommodation problem. Her mother was happy for the first time in months, and if she and Bill had some space and some time on their own, Mary was sure that they could work things out.

If only Alan would release her money from the house, there wouldn’t be a problem. As it was, Mary was beginning to wonder if she would ever get her money back. She had put the savings that she had into renting this office and getting the agency off the ground, but the only way that she had been able to afford that was living with her mother. She couldn’t borrow while Alan was being so obstructive, and her income from the agency was sketchy, to say the least.

She had thought it was such a good idea to set up her own business when she moved back to York. It had seemed her best hope of generating an income while still giving her the flexibility to look after Bea herself, but perhaps she would have to think about applying for a job after all.

That wouldn’t solve her immediate problems, though. It would take too long for her mother and Bill and, anyway, she would have to find a job that earned enough to cover childcare costs. What she needed right now was some money to put down as a deposit on a flat and cover the first few months rent until she had some proper income from the agency but, short of robbing a bank, Mary couldn’t think where she was going to get it.

Her thoughts were still circling worriedly as she puffed up the last flight of steps and rounded the landing to stop dead when she saw who was waiting outside her office door.

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘It’s you.’

Her heart had lurched violently at the sight of him, leaving her breathless and a little shaken. Tyler Watts was the last person she had expected to see this morning.

He looked as grim as ever and his massive presence was overwhelming on the cramped landing. Mary was suddenly very conscious of the fact that her skirt was creased, her hair unwashed and she hadn’t even had time to put on any lipstick.

She had overslept after a broken night and had fallen into yesterday’s clothes as she hurried to get Bea ready for the day. Normally her mother would look after her, but Virginia was preoccupied with her coming meeting with Bill. Bea wasn’t sleeping well at the moment and Mary would have been exhausted even if she hadn’t had her own worries to keep her awake long after she had got the baby back to sleep.

She had spent half the night replaying that conversation with Tyler and wishing that she hadn’t lost her temper. His attempt at blackmail had been outrageous, of course, but it wasn’t as if he had been trying to force her into white slavery, was it? All he wanted was a bit of coaching.

Would a few tips on how to make a relationship work have been so hard to do? Mary asked herself. It was only what she would discuss over a bottle of wine with her girlfriends, after all. They were all relationship experts now. And, in return, she could have had an introduction to Steven Halliday and a chance at a contract that would save her agency.

But no, she had had to get all righteous and uppity because he unnerved her. The way he was unnerving her now.

‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded rudely.

Tyler was looking from her to Bea. ‘You’ve got a baby.’

‘My, he’s a quick one.’ Bea got very heavy after three flights of stairs and Mary shifted her to her other hip. ‘We can’t fool him, can we, Bea?’

‘Is she yours?’

‘She is, and before you ask, no, her father’s not around.’

Mary pulled her bag round and fished one-handedly for the key. Having already accused him of being a bully, a blackmailer and being emotionally stunted, it seemed a bit late to try sucking up to him, and she was too tired and fed up with her whole situation to make an effort any more.

‘What do you want?’

‘To see you,’ he said and then looked at his watch. It was half past nine. ‘Do you always start work this late?’ he asked disapprovingly. In Tyler’s world, everyone was at their desks at eight o’clock on the dot, and he was probably at his even earlier.

‘No, not always,’ said Mary, still searching for the key. ‘It’s been one of those mornings.’

Where was that key? She sucked in her breath with frustration. Of course, she hadn’t had time to transfer the contents to a different bag so she was still carrying the one that had broken so inopportunely last night, and the muddle at the bottom was even worse than usual. She had managed to knot the broken strap together, but it hardly made for a professional image.

Still, it was too late for that.

This was hopeless, thought Mary, rummaging fruitlessly. She glanced at Tyler, still waiting for her to open the door. Her unwelcoming greeting didn’t seem to have put him off, but then she guessed he was a man who didn’t go until he had said what he was going to say.

‘Look, would you mind holding her a moment?’ she said, handing Bea over to him before he had a chance to answer. ‘I’ll just find my key.’

Appalled, Tyler found himself holding the baby, his arms extended stiffly so that she dangled from his hands. He stared at her nervously and the baby stared back with round eyes that were exactly the same grey as her mother’s.

‘Ah…here it is.’ Mary produced the key from the depths of her bag and inserted it in the lock. She opened the door on to a room that was surprisingly light as the autumn sunshine poured through the two windows set into the sloping roof, and she waved a hand with a trace of sarcasm. ‘Come into my luxury penthouse,’ she said.

CHAPTER THREE

TYLER was left literally holding the baby as Mary went in. He followed hastily and stood waiting for her to take it back, but instead she went over to the desk and switched on the computer.

‘Er…Mary?’ he said to remind her and she glanced up from her keyboard.

Good God, you’d think the man had never held a baby before! Mary smothered a smile. She had never seen anyone look so awkward with a small child. He was holding Bea at arm’s length and his expression, normally so grim, was distinctly alarmed.

Who would have thought that a baby was all it took to put the ferocious Tyler Watts at a disadvantage? Pity she hadn’t taken Bea with her last night. Things might have been very different.

As Mary watched, the alarm changed to horror as Bea’s little face crumpled and, terrified that she was going to start crying, Tyler jiggled her up and down a bit. To his surprise, the baby paused, as if unsure how to react. For a breathless moment she looked extremely dubious and it was touch and go until, just as Tyler was convinced that she was going to bawl after all, she dissolved into a gummy smile.

Absurdly flattered, Tyler jiggled her up and down some more. Apparently deciding that this was a good game, Bea gurgled triumphantly. ‘Ga!’ she shouted, smiling, and, succumbing to that irresistible baby charm, Tyler smiled back.

Mary froze over her keyboard. She had never seen him smile before and the effect was startling, to say the least, lightening the grim lines of his face and making him look younger and more approachable.

And disturbingly attractive.

Swallowing, Mary straightened. She had wondered what he would look like if he smiled, and now she knew. Amazing what a mere crease of the cheek could do. Watching him smile was making her feel quite…unsettled. She wasn’t sure it wasn’t easier to deal with the grimly formidable Tyler than a Tyler who smiled like that.

‘Coffee?’ she asked in a bright voice and, reminded of her presence, Tyler stopped smiling abruptly. He flushed slightly, embarrassed at having been caught out playing with the baby.

‘Thank you,’ he said curtly, reverting to type.

Mary went over to fill up the kettle and tried not to feel put out that he would smile at Bea but not at her. She knew that he could do it now, so there was no excuse.

While the kettle boiled, she spread a rug on the floor and retrieved Bea from Tyler at last. The brush of their hands as he passed the baby back made her nerves leap alarmingly and she busied herself settling Bea on the rug and finding some toys for her to play with, and willing the heightened colour in her cheeks to fade.

‘Sit down,’ she said to Tyler, but without meeting his eye. ‘I won’t be a minute.’

Tyler nodded, but chose to walk around the room instead. It was very simply decorated in cream and the furniture she had chosen was simple and unfussy. Clearly a start-up operation, he thought.

He made himself think about the likely overheads of a business this size and not about the warm feeling Bea’s smiles had given him, or the way Mary’s top shifted over her curves as she stretched up to retrieve some coffee filters from the cupboard. Picking up a calendar from her desk, he pretended to study it, but he was very aware of Mary moving around, rinsing mugs, bending to find milk in the little fridge or chatting playfully to the baby, who was banging happily on the floor with a bright plastic ring.

The presence of the baby had thrown him, Tyler decided. He hadn’t been expecting her or how warm and heavy she would feel between his hands. Mary Thomas seemed to have a very odd idea about how to conduct business. He just needed a few minutes while she was making the coffee to collect himself and remember what he was doing here.

Mary studied him out of the corner of her eye as she waited for the coffee to drip through the filters. Tyler was probably used to freshly ground coffee, but that was too bad. He was lucky that he was getting coffee at all after last night!

What was he doing here anyway? She had been dismayed to see him, but what if there was a chance that she could somehow make up for the mistakes of last night? It seemed too good to be true, but why else would he be here?

She mustn’t mess this up if she got another chance, Mary told herself sternly. With her mother so anxious to get back together with Bill, now was not the time to be taking high-minded stands on jobs. If she were to earn enough to get her and Bea somewhere to live, she would need to take anything she could get.

Tyler came back when the coffee was ready and took one of the easy chairs Mary used for interviewing. She would have preferred to sit behind her desk where she would feel more in control, but Bea might protest if she lost sight of her and, anyway, she reminded herself, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of suspecting that he made her feel nervous.

So she sat opposite him and picked up her mug of coffee. ‘What can I do for you?’ she asked him.

Tyler was glad that he could get straight to the point. ‘I want to offer you a deal,’ he said.

‘We discussed your idea of a deal last night,’ Mary reminded him, cautious about getting her hopes up yet.

‘I’m making a new offer.’

‘Oh? Some new form of blackmail, perhaps?’ she couldn’t resist saying.

Tyler’s eyes narrowed but he restrained his temper. Only the tic in his jaw indicated how difficult that was.

‘No,’ he said evenly. ‘I’m prepared to offer you the recruitment contract for all junior staff in the York office if you will agree to give me some relationship coaching.’

Mary considered what he’d said. ‘That’s the same blackmail as before,’ she pointed out.

‘No, it isn’t. Last night I said that I wouldn’t give you the contract if you didn’t agree. That was a threat. Now I’m saying that I’ll give it to you if you do. That’s an incentive. It’s quite different.’

He paused. ‘I’ll also give you a lump sum—let’s say ten thousand pounds—when I embark on a successful relationship, and if your advice leads to an engagement soon after that there’ll be a further bonus.’

Mary stared at him, hardly able to believe what she was hearing. Ten thousand pounds! Plus the income from that lucrative contract! Moving its headquarters back to York would make Watts Holdings one of the biggest employers in the city. The company was expanding dramatically and most of the new jobs would be at junior level. This would make her agency, she thought excitedly. She might not even have to rent. If she could get Tyler hooked up with someone nice, she could think about buying a small place for her and Bea.

And all she had to do in return was to teach Tyler a bit about how to keep a woman happy in a relationship. It wasn’t what she had imagined herself doing, but it wasn’t as if he was asking her to do anything immoral or unethical, was it? You could even say that there was something admirable about a man like Tyler putting so much effort into making a relationship a success.

‘You must want this coaching very badly,’ she said slowly, still hardly daring to believe that there wasn’t a catch somewhere.

‘I do.’

‘But why do you want me? You could easily find someone with much better and more appropriate qualifications.’

Why did he want her? Tyler had been asking himself that all night. Because she was there, he had decided in the end. Because she seemed to know about coaching. Julia’s words had been rankling and coming across Mary had seemed like the perfect opportunity to solve a nagging problem. Tyler wasn’t a man who had reached the top by not grasping an opportunity when it came along.

Because he had decided that Mary was the coach he wanted, and he always got what he wanted.

Or it might have been because he hadn’t been able to get her face out of his mind. He had kept hearing the scorn in her voice, remembering the directness of her grey gaze, and the way her eyes had danced when she had had the temerity to laugh at him.

‘Because you’re not afraid of me,’ he told her in the end.

‘I wouldn’t be too sure about that,’ muttered Mary.

‘And I don’t want to talk about feelings,’ he went on, practically spitting out the word. ‘I just want practical advice and you seem like someone who could give me that. Plus, you’re available and have experience of coaching.’

‘I don’t have experience of the kind of coaching you mean,’ Mary felt she should remind him. ‘Not professional experience, anyway. I think most women my age get pretty expert at helping friends through relationship crises, but we tend to do it over a bottle of wine!’

She spoke lightly, but Tyler pounced on her comment. ‘Exactly!’ he said. ‘And you’re exactly the kind of woman I’m looking for. Well, not you, obviously,’ he said quickly as Mary’s brows shot up. ‘But a woman like you. A bit younger, ideally, but professional and…you know, intelligent…classy,’ he tried to explain.

Mary looked down at her crumpled skirt and top, which still showed traces of where Bea had gugged up some milk that morning, and boggled privately. She had never been called classy before.

‘You said yourself that you talk to your friends about all that emotional stuff, and that means you’d know what women like that want from a man,’ Tyler went on. ‘At the same time, there’s no risk of getting personally involved with you.’

‘Why not?’ asked Mary.

Tyler scowled, thrown by the directness of the question. ‘Well, because you’re not…you’re not…’ Damn it, she knew what he meant!

‘Not attractive enough for you?’ she suggested sweetly.

‘Yes…I mean, no, you’re very…’ He hated being made to stumble and stutter and look a fool like this. ‘Look, you’re just not my type, OK? Just as I’m sure I’m not yours.’

‘Quite,’ said Mary, who was rather enjoying his discomfiture. It made up a little for being told that he found her completely unattractive. Not that she cared, of course, but still, a girl had her feelings.

‘Besides, you’ve got a baby,’ he said, indicating Bea, who was thoughtfully sucking the leg of a stuffed elephant.

‘Does that mean I can never have another relationship?’ she asked innocently. ‘I’m a single mother, yes, but I might be on the lookout for a father figure for Bea.’

She was only teasing, but a wary look sprang into Tyler’s eyes. ‘I’m not looking to take on another man’s child,’ he warned. ‘I want my own family, not someone else’s.’

‘Well, that’s us rejected, Bea.’ Mary heaved a soulful sigh. ‘It looks like it’s going to be just the two of us.’

At the sound of her name, Bea took the elephant out of her mouth and beamed at her mother. Her smile was so sweet that Mary’s throat tightened with such a powerful rush of love that she felt almost giddy. Reaching down, she smoothed the baby’s hair with a tender smile.

When she glanced up once more, she saw Tyler watching them with a strange expression. ‘It’s OK,’ she said patiently. ‘I was just joking!’

‘The condition of the deal is that our relationship is strictly a business one,’ he said gruffly, more disconcerted than he wanted to admit by the sight of Mary leaning down to her baby. For a moment there, she had looked almost beautiful, her face soft and suffused with love and, when she’d looked up, the grey eyes had still been shining.