Roses For Sophie (28 page)

Disbelief and denial swirled through her as she tried to fathom how Felix could be so mistaken. It had to be a lie. She'd worked so hard to prove herself worthy. Grandfather knew she was capable of running the company. ‘Grandfather said…' What was it exactly that he'd said?

‘You made Jackson's rise to power possible because all he had to do was marry you.'

‘No.' The word shot out and echoed through her brain. ‘You're lying and trying to cause trouble.'

With a savage movement, Felix picked up an opal paperweight and pelted it against the glass panel of Rigby's bookcase. The glass shattered, and Sophie cringed away from it as shards flew out, her hands automatically flying up to cover her face.

‘Ask Daphne if you don't believe me. When I arrived, she let it slip that Rigby's solicitor had paid him a personal visit here on Friday night. I did some checking and found he'd changed his bloody will. He arranged with Jackson that all he had to do was marry you and the deal was a fait accompli,' he shouted as he banged his fist down hard on the desk. ‘This is your fault, Sophie. You brought the stranger in. You bloody well went and married him, and that was the only condition Grandfather specified!'

The violence in his actions, the rage that was twisting his features, made Sophie jump but still she wouldn't believe him. ‘You're trying to deflect attention away from yourself, Felix. Your fraud will have you in jail, and I will run the company because that's what Grandfather wanted.'

‘God, Sophie! Don't be such a pathetic bitch! Why the hell do you think Jackson married you? You're nothing special — except that you're an heiress. Jackson wanted Carlisle Mining. Rigby must've found out last week that Jackson was buying up shares, and he did a little deal sweetener. Grandfather made no secret that he wanted you married but who in their right mind would marry you? You can't even give a man children, and you're so inept at relationships Rigby had to buy you a husband. He had to sell his lifetime's work to get you one.'

Every sneered word stabbed at Sophie's heart. She felt light-headed and gripped at the chair again as the blood drained away from her extremities and seemed to settle sickly in her stomach.

‘What's going on here?' Logan entered the room, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers.

‘Congratulations, Jackson!' Felix snarled. ‘You managed to delude Sophie into thinking your interest in her was real. Now she knows how Rigby promised to make you Managing Director and sell you his shares if you convinced her to marry you.'

Misery made the waves of nausea rise up and burn her throat. Sophie looked at Logan and waited for his denial. A shutter closed over his features.

‘He's not denying it because it's the truth!' Felix told her on a note of triumph.

‘You insidious little weasel. I should knock your teeth down your throat,' Logan grated as he moved toward Felix.

For a moment, Felix looked genuinely concerned Logan may do just that. ‘You've seen the evidence that proves he's been buying up Carlisle stock. He won't be able to deny the rest once Rigby's will is read.'

Torn between wanting to place her trust in Logan and needing to hear him deny it with a rational explanation and put an end to Felix's gloating, the words scratched out of Sophie's dry throat. ‘Shut him up, Logan. Tell him it's not true.'

Logan met her eyes. The notch in his larynx worked up and down as he swallowed and she felt totally winded when he finally said, ‘Your grandfather made the offer, Sophie. I never had any intention of taking him up on it.'

‘Bullshit!' Felix jeered. ‘You bloody well married her last night at Rigby's instigation, less than twenty-four hours after Rigby changed his will.'

Logan's expression froze. He shook his head and sent her an imploring look. ‘I don't know anything about Rigby changing his will, sweetheart.'

‘You're a bloody liar!' Felix shouted.

Two steps forward, one arm out, and the next second Logan had Felix by the collar and had slammed him hard up against the wall. ‘The lady asked me to shut you up. I —'

‘Stop it! Stop it this instant!' Daphne appeared in the doorway, her eyes red-rimmed and her face red and blotchy. ‘Look at this mess! You should be ashamed of yourself, Felix. Your grandfather hasn't even been buried and you're turning his study upside down.'

Sophie had heard enough. Logan had betrayed her. The air in the room was thick with tension and it suffocated her. She needed to get out so she could breathe. Needing to escape, she fled, brushed past a distraught Daphne and raced up the stairs two at a time to her suite. No way was she stopping or turning back when Logan and Daphne both called out to her.

The yelp of pain from Felix told her that at least one of the men in the study was getting his just desserts. Who was going to punch Logan for her?

The minute she reached her suite, she closed the door and turned the key in the lock, then slumped back against it, trying to block out the sound of angry male voices.

Dear God, she'd been such a fool.

Everything in her recoiled that her impressions of Logan had been so way-off base. She knew he'd been getting something out of their marriage. Naively, she'd thought that for him it'd just been about winning custody of Charlotte. Oh, he'd been so good, pretending to be upfront about that when all the while he'd been buying up shares and doing deals with her grandfather to become Carlisle's Managing Director. Had his need for a wife for the custody case been a smokescreen all along?

Time and again she'd told herself their relationship had nothing to do with her wealth or with the fact that she was Rigby Carlisle's granddaughter because Logan was so wealthy in his own right. A brittle laugh made its way past the tight ball of emotion that had lodged itself in her throat. When was she ever going to learn?

Logan had even managed somehow to convince her grandfather to give him control of the company. That must've been Rigby's back-up plan. Logan must've told Rigby she was having second thoughts about taking control of the company and made her grandfather feel guilty. Logan must have taken advantage of a sick, old man and made him feel as if he was burdening Sophie with his life's work. That was the only thing she could think of that would've made Rigby change his will.

Loathing and sick disillusionment poured from her heart.

As nasty as Felix was, he'd been right when he'd said that she'd let the stranger in. She, with her stupidity and her pathetic need to cling to the hope that she'd find a man who'd love her, had allowed a ruthless playboy billionaire to deceive her grandfather and swindle the entire Carlisle family.

From outside the house, she heard the slam of a car door and then the revving of Felix's Ferrari. He'd pulled the pin on an emotional grenade, thrown it into the fray and now he was driving away from the explosion and leaving her as collateral damage.

Even when she'd walked in on Peter with his lover, she'd never felt so alone and so totally gutted.

Was this finally the lesson she needed to learn to make her grow up and face the fact that she'd never been destined to be anything more to a man than a rich heiress? As much as she hated to admit it, Felix was right when he'd pointed out her inadequacies, because she couldn't even offer a man children. Her dream of being loved had been a complete fantasy, but now it was as shattered as the pane of glass in her grandfather's study.

What made her feel even more stupid was that Logan had told her he'd never love her. Despite that, she'd been so sure that the respect and passion he claimed to feel for her would deepen, and that he'd recognise those feelings as love. Talk about self-delusional. She'd brought this down around her own ears.

The handle of the locked door she was leaning against turned, and she jerked forward and spun around to face it.

‘Sophie!' Logan knocked on the door. ‘Let me in. We need to talk.'

Everything in her told her not to. She could go through to her bathroom, close that door as well and submerge herself in the shower to block out his voice, and to wash his touch from her skin. That would be the easy thing to do, but it would only delay the inevitable.

Logan wouldn't go away.

The horrible truth that lay between them needed to be faced, and she needed to find out the exact terms of Rigby's will.

Grudgingly she moved to turn the key in the lock and grant entry to the enemy she'd unwittingly married. Just before she did, she stiffened her spine and summoned up every bit of anger she had, refusing to be a pathetic little victim.

There was more to being a woman than being able to bear children. She was lovable.

Logan was the callous bastard who'd taken advantage of her and used her vulnerability to his advantage. Sophie refused to be ashamed that she'd believed in his lie that he'd wanted to marry her because of Charlotte. He'd taken advantage of her. His behaviour was on his conscience, and could only hurt her if she let it.

The second the key was turned, she pulled the door open aggressively.

Damn! Damn! Dropping her hand away from the door, she clenched it into a fist at her side. She would not appreciate that broad expanse of naked male flesh. Her body would not react to him in a sexual way. That was all over between them. His powerful male physique would not be her Achilles' heel.

‘Get your things and get out.' Each of her words was clipped.

‘No.' The word was strong and adamant, but his tension and uncertainty were palpable. ‘You need to give me a chance to put things into perspective.'

‘Whose perspective? Yours?'

‘Rigby did offer to recommend me for the role of Managing Director of the company, but only because he was worried that you were intent on assuming the role more out of duty than out of desire.'

‘When, Logan? When did he make this offer?'

‘Yesterday afternoon as we toured the winery.' He tunnelled his fingers through his hair.

‘You put that idea into his head.'

‘No.'

‘I don't believe you.' She crossed her arms across her chest. ‘I'd only just finished telling you about my own doubts. You took them and ran off to Rigby to suit your own purposes.'

He grasped her shoulders. ‘I did nothing of the sort. It was your grandfather who had reservations about you in that role. It wasn't that he didn't think you were capable of it, it was just that he thought you should have more out of life than safeguarding the future of the company he'd built up.'

‘Enter Logan, knight-in-shining-armour, ready to charge in on his white steed and save the damsel in distress.' She pulled away from his touch. ‘How noble of you to offer to step in and save the day.'

Every line of his body was tense. ‘I told him I didn't want the position. I told him to speak to you and find out what you wanted.'

‘But by then, you'd already convinced him you'd be the better person for the job, right?' God, she'd been so stupid and left herself so vulnerable.

‘No.' Logan looked like he wanted to smash the hell out of something or someone. ‘Please listen to me, Sophie.'

She walked away from him, sat down on a chair and looked at her watch. ‘Five minutes, tops, then you're out of here and there'll be no coming back.'

He didn't waste a second. ‘He made the offer for me to become MD on Saturday afternoon. It was the first time he'd mentioned it and I refused.'

Saturday? Logan must be lying. Felix said the will had been changed on Friday night.

‘I also turned down Rigby's offer to allow me to buy his company shares once we were married.'

‘Why would you turn his offer down when you'd already started buying shares? Did Grandfather know about that?'

Logan sat down on the chair adjacent to hers. A fleeting shadow appeared in his expression and she saw him swallow. Clinically detached, safe now in her block of ice, she noted his body's guilty reaction.

‘He did.' His shoulders rounded. ‘Buying those shares was a huge mistake. I admit that I couldn't see beyond my need to marry you. My initial thought was to buy the shares up and if necessary to mount a take-over bid for Carlisle Mining so that I'd put you in a position where you'd agree to become my wife rather than losing your grandfather's company.'

Her eyes widened in horror. ‘You thought you'd blackmail me into marriage?'

‘It was a rash, stupid idea and I realised it almost as soon as I'd put the decision into motion.' He raised both of his hands to cover his face momentarily. ‘I'm more sorry than I can express, Sophie. I was going to talk to you about all of this.'

‘When?'

‘This morning. I'd already decided to gift the shares I had bought to you as a wedding present. I was going to tell you about the offer Rigby had made, but then I got the phone call about Charlotte.'

‘How convenient. You married me first!' The words tasted bitter on her tongue.

‘I had no idea he had our wedding ceremony planned, and I had no knowledge that he'd changed his will until Felix just announced that. In fact, we don't even know yet whether what Felix has told us really is the truth.'

Sophie looked at him and felt…nothing. Even anger had deserted her. Now she just felt hollow.

‘I'm telling you the truth.' His tone implored her to believe him.

She expelled a breath of disbelief. ‘I don't believe you. You're a successful businessman, Logan. You always know exactly what you're doing.'

‘In business, maybe, but obviously not in my personal life.'

‘Huh!' She gritted her teeth together so tight her jaw started to hurt.

‘I changed my mind about the take-over bid. I wanted you to marry me because you wanted to, not because you'd been forced into it.'

‘Of course you did. Was that part of your agreement with my grandfather as well?' she asked in a venomous tone. ‘Was there a little clause written in to make sure there was no undue force applied, or was it a gentleman's agreement over a glass of cognac and a cigar?'