Daniel's Bride (6 page)

She eyed him with her professional, non-judgemental,
I’m-here-for-you expression. “Have your brothers been formally assessed? It’s
important you realise that addictions can happen in even the best families, but
equally, that there are excellent facilities and programs that can help.”

As soon as his nostrils flared, she realized she’d got it
wrong.

“Mel, I am not,” he said, “interested in your professional
opinion. That is not why you’re here so you can leave your counselor’s hat behind.”

“Fine,” she said. “Just as long as you understand about the
addictive personality.”

“I understand it.”

“Good.” She’d heard that degree of terseness in his voice
but never at her. Until now. “So what’s this got to do with me?” She couldn’t help
adding, his words still smarting, “Since you don’t appear to want my help.”

“Oh, I want your help.”

“Exactly what kind of help?” She couldn’t think of a single
thing he could possibly want her for.

His jaw tightened as, it seemed, did his whole demeanour.

She sat back in her chair, and waited.

“Mel,” he said finally, as he threw back the last of his
wine.

There was a hesitation and she prompted, as her heart
pounded erratically in her chest, "Yes?"

His eyes narrowed. “Mel. I want you to be my wife.”

Mel went still as the conversation ran round and round in
her head. It made no sense. Surely he hadn’t just said he wanted to – to –
marry her?

“I don’t understand what you mean. Did you just say you
wanted…” She couldn’t bring herself to say the words. “What did you just ask?”

“I said I wanted to marry you. Though that isn’t exactly
correct. I want us to come to an arrangement, for a limited time, with
financial compensation at the end.”

“You and me? Married?” Her voice came out a throaty squeak
and in spite of the fact she was sitting, her legs had developed an alarming
weakness. If the fire alarm sounded, she didn’t think she had a hope in hell of
getting out.

“Married,” she repeated. “Husband and wife.”

His eyebrows drew together as though she were an idiot.
“Yes.” He spoke slowly. “I need a wife. And I think you could be that woman for
the duration of the arrangement.”

“But why?” Her head had cleared now, and she was thinking
straight, thinking logically. “Why do you need to marry someone? And what does
this have to do with your brothers?”

And don’t you know there are any number of women working
for you who would sell their souls to be Mrs Daniel Christie?

“Actually.” She held up her hand. “Don’t answer. Because I
have an answer and it’s 'no'. This is nuts. This is –” She stammered over the
words but couldn’t think of any other adjective because that’s what it was.
Unashamedly, certifiably
nuts
.

He sat back, in his chair, folded his arms across his chest.
“Yeah, Mel, you’re right. This is nuts. Sane people do not do this kind of
thing.” His eyes suddenly glittered with what might have been humor but she
couldn’t be sure. “Unless they’re royal princes from the British royal family.”

His remembrance of the words she’d said that day in the tent
made the shock in her chest ease a little.

He went on, “Let me lay it out for you because I’ve clearly
gone about this the wrong way.” He cleared his throat. “My grandfather is
dying.” He blinked, and went on. “In the past few months he has suffered
disappointments he doesn’t deserve and nothing would make him happier than to
see one of his grandsons married, knowing there will be heirs to the empire to
carry on the Christie name. He is a very conservative man, very traditional.”

She stared at him. He stared back, his dark eyes watching
her closely.

“That’s it?” she said finally.

His mouth curled in acknowledgement.

She processed it some more. “You’re getting married to make
him happy?”

“It’s not uncommon for people to be happy when there is a wedding,
Mel. Marriage is quite a joyful occasion, so I hear. Usually it’s the bride and
groom that are the happiest, granted, but this time it will be my grandfather.”

“This is a marriage of convenience,” she said, to clarify.

“I prefer to call it a business arrangement for a short
duration. Only you, Hugh and I would be privy to the details.”

A business arrangement. This was crazier still. She began to
fold the linen napkin in her lap into shapes. It was madness, and if great
grandfather Christie was conservative, then she was conservative in spades. You
didn’t mess around with emotions. Her mind flicked to her mother. And she
especially wasn’t about to mess with her mother’s feelings. Ellie had enough to
contend with without having to come to grips with her only child getting caught
up in a diabolical scheme like this. And why was she still thinking about this
as if she was even considering it?

She shook her head. “No.”

“I respect your decision,” he said.

He seemed remarkably calm considering she’d just rejected
him. “Good.”

“I assume you have reasons?”

“One or two.”

“And out of curiosity, they are?”

“Oh, how about…” She put her finger to her lips and
pretended to think. “I don’t know you.”

“Google me. Look me up at the Sydney Morning Herald business
pages. Go and talk to my staff. I give you free reign of the building – as long
as they don’t know why.”

She blinked. “I doubt your staff would be able to tell me
anything about you. You’re a stranger to them.”

His gaze narrowed. “That’s ridiculous.”

“I know for a fact that none of your employees, with the
exception of Hugh, have ever been to your home.”

“Meaning?”

“A home tells a lot about a person. Maybe you don’t want
people going there for particular reasons.”

“Could valuing one’s private time not be a valid reason?”

She tried to ignore that it was a very valid point, but it
wasn’t her point. “Maybe,” she began, “there are things there you don’t want
people to find out. Things about yourself you’re not comfortable revealing.”

His mouth curled into an attractive smile. “What are you
suggesting, Mel? That I’ve got a B&D dungeon in my apartment? A camera set
up in my bedroom to tape my illicit affairs? A harem waiting to attend to my
every need?”

“Do you?”

Exasperation flashed across his face which gave her some relief.

But even so. She watched him closely. One heard stories of
rich boys with devious minds who bribed officials to cover up their debauched
behavior. Sean and Everett sounded like candidates.

Yet – not Daniel. Instinctively, she knew that. In the days
she’d been at Christie Corp, she’d seen he was honorable and loyal, that he
prided honesty on the same level she did. She took a long sip of her wine, and
focused back on Daniel. He watched her with raised eyebrows. Oh, yeah, and he
was used to getting his own way.

“I don’t know you enough,” she said, “to enter into any
relationship with you beyond the employee-employer one. It’s as simple as
that.”

His eyes narrowed, and a muscle twitched in his cheek.

“You need time to think about this. I understand.” He picked
up his fork, dug into his lasagne, tasted it then began to eat hungrily.

“Eat your meal,” he told her. “Even better, watch me and
check my eating habits are up to par.”

He reached for his wine, took a long swallow. He gestured to
her glass. “Drink.”

She wasn’t satisfied. “I don’t understand why, of all the
women in the world, you’ve asked me, because you don’t know me, either.”

He set his glass down, pulled a roll from the breadbasket.
“You tick most of the boxes.”

She bristled. “You had me checked out?”

“Thoroughly.”

“So there’s some sort of pre-nuptial to protect your
interests?”

He rubbed his temples. “I’m hardly likely to enter in to an
agreement without one.” He exhaled suddenly, and put the bread on his side
plate. “Mel. This is a temporary arrangement. Six months max. I know you don’t
have a job, you’re looking for a place to live, and this is a solution. You’ll
end up with a hefty pay check and you can do whatever the heck you want with
it.”

Her mind suddenly got stuck on what he’d said. A hefty pay
check. He’d mentioned financial compensation before but that hadn’t meant much
because it was the most ludicrous thing she’d ever heard.

She reached for her glass of wine, and took a careful sip.
Compensation might make her at least consider this proposition, even though it
would be a cold day in hell before she agreed to it.

“What kind of compensation are we talking?”

He pulled a pen from his pocket, wrote a figure on a paper
serviette and passed it over the table to her.

She took it, stared, and nearly choked.

She quickly regrouped, pushed the paper back, ignored that
smarmy look on his face, and remembered to breathe. Inside she was a mess. That
morning she’d spent far too long looking at a new retirement village that her
mother would just love. It was close to the Tasman Sea with a beautiful,
peaceful outlook, the facilities were outstanding, the menu read like a four
star hotel – and it cost. Boy, did it cost, and as she’d viewed page after
page, her heart had sunk lower and lower. She could never afford something like
this for Ellie. Even maintaining the cable TV subscription for the footie was
looking doubtful.

Mel took a mouthful of penne but it tasted dry and rough,
even though it had been prepared by one of Sydney’s top chefs. She set her fork
down.

Daniel Christie wanted to marry her and she would get paid
for it. She would be able to clear the credit card debt she’d accrued, find a
flat closer to Ellie. She wouldn’t be able to afford to move her into a better
place just yet, but there were a lot of little things she could do to make
Ellie’s life a far, far better one. And Mel owed her mother. Emotion clogged
her throat. She owed her mother everything.

Have mercy on my soul, she thought, as she ground out, “How
would it work?”

He steepled his fingers. “You’d move in to my apartment,
obviously, so to the world we appear to be living as husband and wife. You’d
have your own suite. It’s a large apartment on the cliffs overlooking the beach
at Bondi. I’d cover all your expenses while you’re my wife and when the time is
up, you get a check.”

“And when it’s all over?” she prodded. “What happens then
with regard to the marriage?”

“A simple divorce. We file and one year later, you’re a free
woman, I’m a free man and it can just be chalked up to Irreconcilable
Differences.”

She bit down on her lip. She was a free woman. What would a
piece of paper with ‘dissolution of marriage’ stamped on it mean, anyway?

She closed her eyes as her chest tightened. Her mother would
be horrified if she found out that Mel had married for money to help her.

But where on earth could she get the kind of money that
would provide so much for her mother’s care, not to mention the mounting
balance on her credit card while she’d been job hunting. Frustration rose in
her chest. And there was the fact that she’d been planning marriage to Max just
two months ago. What kind of flaky woman did that make her? Two engagements in
one year? Any future boyfriend would run a mile once he became acquainted with
that track record.

If it was the reverse, she’d run. Call her a hypocrite but
it was true.

She glanced up to see Daniel watching her closely. She
cleared her throat. “Couldn’t we just…” She shrugged. “You know. Just get
engaged?”

Daniel shook his head. “This needs to be a marriage. A legal
marriage.”

“But who would know? Who would check?”

“The media if they get wind of this. I also suspect my
grandfather will want to see a legal certificate. He’s developed a tendency to
want to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I’d rather leave
nothing to chance. And I would rather not lie to him.”

The incredulity of what he’d just said stunned her. This
whole thing was a lie. Even if only a handful of people knew it.

His blue-gray eyes never left her, but there was an added
intensity now. As if he was trying to read her mind.

It wouldn’t surprise her if he could. Daniel Christie was
unlike any man she’d ever met. He was a man you looked twice at, even
entertained a fantasy or two about, but that was as far as it went. He was too
male to get close to, and it was nothing to do with what he was, an impossibly
wealthy and respected businessman. He could be the foreman on the ranch and
he’d still exude
it
.

“I’m sorry. But the answer has to be no.”

He watched her intently for a minute, then pursed his lips.
“There is one other option.”

“Really?”

“Hugh and I were discussing this yesterday. And it appears
there is the possible option that the marriage can be.” He coughed. “Annulled.”

Mel froze. “Annulled?”

“It’s effectively wiped from the books so no one need ever
know.”

She grabbed the idea like a life line. “What would the
criteria be?”

“There are several considerations. If the marriage isn’t
consummated, for example. For our purposes the marriage does not have to be.”

Mel’s eyebrows shot up followed by a rapid rise of heat in
her body. Look natural, she ordered herself, and she reached for her glass of
water. She’d never even considered the sex aspect of it, this whole time. That’s
how out of touch with reality this whole charade was becoming.

Daniel leaned closer. His voice softened an edge. “I can see
you’re worried about the divorce and I understand that. The alternative of the
annulment means that the record goes. No one will ever know Mel Green and
Daniel Christie were once husband and wife.”

“I didn’t know you could get an annulment in this day and
age. It sounds very Jane Austen.”