Molly Matthews Meddles in Marriage (2 page)

“Mr. Campbell,” she called. “Mr. Campbell!” Impatiently, she shoved him harder, causing his eyes to ping open. Dark, lazy eyes that she’d gazed into on many an occasion. Dark, lazy eyes that swept over her face now. Her stomach lurched to the bottom of her high heels as his gaze flickered around the unfamiliar surroundings and he pushed himself up on his elbows in the chair.

“Mmm, you smell good,” he commented, as if that weren’t a totally inappropriate thing to be saying.

No apology, no embarrassment, no shame at being caught fast asleep in her office. No nothing.

His eyes widened as his gaze traveled around her body, taking in the cinched waist of her slub silk gray pencil skirt suit, the intricate design of the fascinator tucked into her bright auburn curls before finally landing on the patent stilettos, which showed off a pair of shapely calves to maximum effect.

“Mmm, you look pretty good too.” He nodded sagely, rubbing his eyes as if to check they weren’t deceiving him. “Is this how you usually dress for a day in the office or is this purely for my benefit?”

“I might ask the same of you.” She raised her eyebrows, surveying the crumpled dinner jacket and white dress shirt with the remnants of what looked to be red wine splattered down the front. Disheveled, he still managed to look wickedly louche.

He glanced down at the stains and winced, putting a hand to his temple

“I’ve been to a wedding,” Molly explained, not waiting for his reply. “Two of my clients. Definitely one of the perks of the job.” She smiled. “Anyway, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Campbell. But had you made an appointment, I could have made sure I was here to see you. I’m sorry if you’ve had something of a wait.” Her voice was calm, but she couldn’t ignore the thundering gallop of her heartbeat.

“Don’t worry about it.” He stretched his arms above his head and yawned, looking up at her through sleepy blue eyes. “It was a bit of a heavy night last night and then more of the same this lunchtime. You know what’s it like. I needed a nap.” He grimaced, as if remembering his earlier excesses.

“Really?” Molly laughed, feeling it was the only appropriate response. Other than telling Mr. Campbell exactly what she thought of his boorish behavior and demanding he leave her office immediately, which she might well have done had he been anyone other than who he was. The barefaced cheek of the man!

But she wouldn’t do that to him or to anyone else for that matter because for one, she was far too polite and secondly, she was increasingly intrigued as to what he was actually doing here.

“So,” she said, trying to keep a level of control into her voice, “what can I do for you, Mr. Campbell?”

“Rory, please,” he said warmly. “Molly… Is it okay if I call you Molly?”

She nodded mutely. Her name on his lips was way too seductive.

“Can I be honest with you?”

She nodded some more.

“Well, believe it or not, I need a wife.” A smiled formed at the corner of his full lips. “This is a marriage bureau, right?”

“Yes.”

“Perfect! I am at the right place then. For a minute there, you had me worried. Yep, what I need is a wife. That’s your line of business, isn’t it? I’ve been told you’re just the right woman to help me find one.” He smiled, looking obscenely pleased with himself.

Molly chewed on her lip, counted inwardly from one to ten and then returned a tight smile. She so didn’t need this right now. Okay, so Rory Campbell was a household name. He was the star of a dozen or so romantic comedies, a leading man with good looks and charm in bucketloads who just so happened to be her personal number-one crush and now he was here, in her office, and inexplicably and disappointingly she didn’t feel remotely like falling at his feet. Instead, she felt like throwing him out of her office. She took a deep breath.

“Why?”

A pulse twitched in his cheek.

“Why?”

“Yes, why, Rory, do you need a wife? You said, ‘believe it or not I need a wife’ and to be honest with you, I’m having trouble believing it. It’s not every day that a movie star wanders into my little office, asking for my help.”

Rory’s lazy gaze drifted around the room, taking in the montage of wedding photos on the wall before landing back on Molly.

“For the same reasons, I guess, that any of your other clients would give for wanting to find a partner. It’s the right time for me. I don’t expect any special treatment, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“That’s good, because all my clients receive exactly the same treatment.” She held his gaze, trying to ignore the warming flush currently traveling her body. Leaning forward, she snatched the rolled-up newspaper that was stuffed down the side of his chair. She unfurled the paper and laid it out on the desk in front of them. “So your search for a wife would have nothing to do with this?”

She rifled through the pages of the Daily Record until she reached the center double-paged spread she’d seen earlier in the day. It showed a selection of photos of Rory in varying degrees of dubious behavior, most of which seemed to involve him stumbling out of top London nightspots and canoodling with different blonde women in the back of taxis.

“What? No! That crap just goes with the territory.” He waved a dismissive hand. “Why would that have anything to do with me wanting to find a wife?”

“I don’t know. A PR stunt? Damage limitation? I’m only asking the question.”

“It has absolutely nothing to do with me wanting a wife. I admit my public image has taken a bit of a battering in recent weeks, but they’ll be on somebody else’s back next month. It’s the nature of the business. The fact is I want a wife. I was led to believe that you’re the best marriage broker in London, but if you don’t think you’re up to the job, then you only have to say. There are plenty of other companies I could use.”

“I’m not saying that.” Irritation prickled on her skin. “I just need to be absolutely sure you’re here for the right reasons and you’re absolutely committed to finding a partner. Otherwise we’d be wasting each other’s time.”

“I have better things to do with my time than wasting yours.” His eyes flickered with displeasure. “What more can I say? I’m absolutely committed to finding a wife. Now are you able to help me or do I need to take my business elsewhere?”

This was going to be so much harder than he thought. Not only was his head shooting with sharp pains every time he made any kind of movement, but Miss Molly whatever-her-name-was was shooting him dagger-like glares from her scary crossed-arm stance.

“Forgive me, Rory, but you’ll understand why I’m slightly skeptical as to why you would feel the need to use my services. After all, you don’t seem to be short of female company.” She indicated to the paper on the table. “Most of my girlfriends are in love with you. You…”

“They are?” he interjected, a lazy smile crossing his lips.

“Yes. So they tell me.” She shrugged, looking as though she found it hard to believe herself. “According to the papers, you’re London’s most eligible bachelor. I’m sure there must be a long queue of young women only too willing to become Mrs. Campbell.”

“You think? You really shouldn’t believe everything you read in the papers.” He smiled wryly at the truth of her words, his gaze flitting back to the paper. Admittedly, he wasn’t short of female attention, but that wasn’t what this was about.

“Come on, Molly, give me a break. The only women I meet are people in the business, usually actresses or models. I don’t want a showbiz marriage. I know from bitter experience how disastrous they can be.” He ran his hand through mussed-up hair. “My life is pretty hectic right now. I never get to stay in one place too long. Meeting someone outside of the business is almost impossible for me.”

Molly listened intently.

He sat back in the chair, clasping his hands together and resting his thumbs on his chin as he observed her thoughtfully. Actresses, models, it-girls. If they were on the London scene, it was a pretty safe bet Rory had met them and bedded them probably, even if he’d be hard pushed to remember the names of more than half a dozen.

“That’s why I need your help, Molly. I’m at that stage in my life where I’m ready to settle down, to make a commitment. I want to have kids too, a happy family life. I look upon it in the same way as I look upon my career. You can’t just hang around hoping that you’ll be picked up for the next big role. You have to make things happen. I reckon it’s the same for my personal life. If I don’t put some time and effort into finding my other half, it might never happen.”

He looked at her imploringly. It sounded convincing enough, he just hoped Molly thought so too. His agent had been applying the pressure. If he didn’t clean up his act and soon, then the work would dry up completely. His latest two movies had been huge box office hits, but the offers for work had stalled. If he wanted to build on his success, make his name in America, then he needed to clean up his image. Keep off the booze, stay away from nightclubs and keep well away from pneumatic blondes who were only too keen to sell their stories of Rory’s prowess in the bedroom. He cringed, thinking of that last conversation with his agent.

‘I’ve seen careers ruined on less than this. You’re the man of the moment, I appreciate that, but you think you’re invincible. And you’re not. There are already rumblings that you’re a wild card, too much of a liability. Much more of this behavior and people won’t want to be associated with you, Rory. Don’t throw it all away. Keep your nose clean and don’t do anything that’s going to get you plastered over the press. It’s my reputation on the line here too. Just lie low for a few months. Find yourself a decent woman, someone discreet and low-maintenance. It’s about time you settled down. And it won’t do any harm to your career either.’

Molly pulled out a folder from the drawer of her desk and scribbled some notes onto a pad.

“I could help you, if you’re serious about finding a partner. You’ll have to assure me though that you’re fully committed to the process. There is quite an extensive registration procedure. There are a number of forms and psychometric tests I use to get know my clients. I also like to spend some time with them personally, getting to appreciate their values, their ambitions, what makes them tick. I believe that’s why I’m so successful in my matchmaking. I really like to get a good understanding of what it is my clients are looking for in their ideal partner. Does that sound like something you’d be willing to undertake?”

She made it sound as though he was signing up for the priesthood, not a dating agency. He nodded sagely, belying the complete lack of faith he had in this whole process. Left to his own devices, though, he knew he would be in the same situation months down the line. If he didn’t make a concerted effort to find a wife and settle down, his partying lifestyle would drag him further into the gutter.

“Absolutely.” So what if it meant living like a monk for the next six months. “Whatever it takes to find my soul mate.”
And hang on to my career,
although he elected to keep that thought to himself. “I’m prepared to do it. I’m totally in your hands.”

Confronted with the images of himself in the paper, he knew he had to rein in the partying lifestyle. At twenty he could get away with drinking himself into oblivion seven nights a week. At thirty it was beginning to look pathetically dangerous. If he wasn’t careful, he might end up like his mother.

He sighed, looking across at Molly, thinking it wouldn’t be a great hardship to relinquish control to the small, curvy redhead. She wasn’t his usual type. If he’d passed her in a nightclub or bar, he probably wouldn’t have noticed her, but up close, her natural charms were all too apparent. Her skin, pale and dusted with freckles, lent her a vulnerability offset by the tumble of red curls piled high on her head and warm brown eyes that flashed with defiance. More distracting was her body. All soft curves and tantalizing glimpses of flesh that he found hard to drag his eyes away from. There wasn’t a jutting hipbone or a sunken cheekbone in sight. Definitely not his usual type. He found himself wondering what it might be like to run his hands over the undulating contours of her body, to feel the softness of her skin. The thought brought a smile to his face.

“What are you smiling at?” she asked.

He coughed and blinked away the distracting thoughts.

“I was just thinking, this is a first for me. You’re the first marriage broker I’ve ever met.”

“And you’re the first film star I’ve met,” she said, challenging his gaze. Her mouth twisted in a smile and Rory noticed a color fanning her cheeks. “Can I get you a coffee?” she asked. “Then we can make a start on these forms.”

She stood, a waft of something light and seductive and floral reaching Rory’s nose, his gaze instinctively traveling around her body before settling on her shapely calves. Eyes up, he chided himself, as he nodded his agreement to her offer.

Molly forced herself to concentrate on the job in hand. Her feet throbbed, her skin prickled with heat beneath the tight-fitting suit and her head swam from all the champagne. That and the distraction of having Rory Campbell stretched out in the chair opposite her made it almost impossible to make sense of the pesky boxes in front of her.

She found it hard to stop her eyes from assessing Rory, her mouth from gaping open. Everything about him was reassuringly familiar, his sparkly eyes, his wide distinctive jawline and the amused set to his mouth, which made him look as though he was permanently pleased with himself. It was like looking at a much-adored, if wayward, boyfriend. Not that she had much experience of those, at least not the much-adored type, but her imagination was vivid. At the moment, she was struggling to rein it in. It was all she could do to stop herself from leaning over, ruffling his hair and running the back of her hand down his face.

Finally, she put her pen down, clearing her throat.

“Thank you, Rory. I’ll review these forms and then what I’d like to do is to have a follow-up meeting, in a day or two, to chat over anything that’s come to light here and to discuss how we move forward. Is that okay with you?”