The Inconvenient Bride

“Of course not!”

“Then maybe you're a chicken.”

Her eyes flashed. “I'm never a chicken!”

“No?” Dominic challenged softly. “Then prove it.”

For a long moment she didn't move. Then something changed. The corners of her mouth turned up in a smile that set his heart pounding. And quite deliberately Sierra reached out and snagged his tie from where he'd tossed it on the chair.

She ran it through her fingers as she stepped forward to meet him. And his heart slammed against his chest as she whispered, “How nice of you to remember I had a use for this.”

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

“Y
OUR
father on line one.”

They were the words Dominic Wolfe least wanted to hear.

He sighed and shut his eyes. It had already been a hellish morning.

He liked a brisk walk to his office. The mile trek downtown from his Fifth Avenue apartment was ordinarily exactly what he needed to compose his thoughts, run over his mental list of to-do's and psyche himself up to tackle the day.

Today he'd got drenched halfway there. The “early morning shower” predicted by the weather service had become an eight a.m. cloudburst instead. And by the time Dominic had decided it was more than a sprinkle, taxis had become nonexistent.

He'd arrived, damp and annoyed, to a message that the president of the company with whom he was negotiating a buyout had chosen this moment to rethink his options. While he was trying to sort that out, a supplier in Japan sent a fax saying the shipment would be delayed. His secretary, Shyla, was morning sick, pale and wan and gasping, although trying to mask it with ruthless efficiency.

And Marjorie—the woman he'd been quite sure would never want more from him than his presence in her bed—had just banged the receiver in his ear after delivering an ultimatum: if he wanted to see the inside of her bedroom again, she expected an engagement ring.

And now the old man was on line one?

Dominic did
not
want to talk to the old man.

“Did you hear me, Dominic?” His secretary, Shyla, in
terpreted his silence for distraction, not reluctance. “He said it was urgent.”

It was always urgent now that his father was no longer running things.

Douglas Wolfe had far too much time on his hands since he'd retired. He'd gone merrily off to Florida eighteen months ago, telling Dominic he intended to catch up on his reading, fishing and all the other things his years at the top of corporate America had never permitted him to do.

Shuffleboard, Dominic had thought. He'd expected his father to fish and read, to play games and eat Egg McMuffins with his friends.

Instead the old man had spent his every waking moment researching new strategies for the company he was no longer running and attempting to assure its future. That meant he was determined to find the woman who would tempt Dominic to leave bachelorhood behind.

It wasn't going to happen.

Dominic had told him that. They'd been over it a hundred times. More.

Douglas had tried his hand at matchmaking once before. He'd found Dominic a fiancée a dozen years ago. Carin had been absolutely perfect. Young, sweet, gorgeous, and the daughter of one of Wolfe Enterprises' biggest suppliers. Dominic had been young, handsome, ambitious, and naive. He'd thought marriages like that worked out.

He'd never expected Carin to jilt him.

But she had. He'd been left standing at their Bahamas hideaway with a ring, a red face and two hundred intrigued wedding guests, but no bride.

He sure as hell wasn't letting the old man have another shot.

For a dozen years, Douglas had lain low, had let Dominic revel in easy bachelordom. But retirement had apparently pricked his need to meddle again. For the past eighteen
months, he'd showed up with a woman every month for Dominic to “look over.”

Dominic had assumed it was biological—some sort of urge to become a grandfather that hit men when they turned sixty-five. Thus he'd expected the old man to let up when his youngest brother Rhys had, just this past Christmas, inadvertently provided their father with twins.

But it hadn't mattered. It was May now, and in the past five months Douglas had appeared with one woman after another—each as precise and tailored and businesslike as Dominic himself.

They wouldn't have sex, they'd have mergers, he'd told the old man after the last one. There was no way on earth he would ever consider someone like that!

“Well, what do you want?” Douglas had sputtered.

“To be left alone,” Dominic growled and banged down the phone.

He had been for the past three weeks. He'd hoped his father had got the message at last. Now the old man was on line one.

Dominic punched the button and barked into the phone. “What?”

“And a lovely fine morning to you, too,” his father's cheerful voice boomed in his ear.

“Not lovely here. It's raining like hell.” Dominic scowled out the floor-to-ceiling windows of his office onto the gray damp dismal world beyond.

“I'll tell Evelyn to pack my umbrella and rubber boots.”

“Pack—? Why?” Dominic sat up straight, his fingers strangling his Mont Blanc pen.

His earlier vague sense of foreboding was presently slamming him right between the eyes. Why should his father's housekeeper be packing Douglas's umbrella and rubber boots, unless—

“I'm having dinner with Tommy Hargrove this evening. Been talking to him about maybe coming on board. So
Viveca and I are catching the noon flight to New York and—”

“Whoa. Stop. Tommy Hargrove is not coming on board.”

If they'd been through this once, they'd been through it a thousand times. Tommy Hargrove's small company might once have been a possible acquisition. It was no longer. “Wolfe Enterprises isn't in the market for a small outdated communications firm. And who the hell is Viveca?”

“Tommy and I are old friends.” Douglas ignored the last question, going on smoothly, “We go back a long way, since before you were in diapers, young man.”

Whenever Dominic became “young man” it meant Douglas was meddling again.

“And,” his father went on, “it is not a foregone conclusion that Tommy's company isn't just what we need.”

“Yes,” Dominic said, his voice pure steel. “It is.”

“We'll see,” Douglas said enigmatically.

“We won't—”

“It is possible,” Douglas went on as if Dominic hadn't begun to speak, “that I could agree with you. If you and Viveca…”

Dominic slammed his pen down on the solid teak desk.

“Haven't I spoken of Viveca?” Douglas was all mild innocence.

“No,” Dominic said through his teeth.

“Ah. Well, she's why I called actually,” Douglas said with determined good cheer. “Lovely girl. Stunning, really. Pauline Moore's daughter. You remember Pauline. Miss America pageant. Mensa. Phi Beta Kappa. Ran into Pauline and her daughter at the club on Monday. Pauline introduced us. Wondered if I didn't have a son about her age. Of course she meant Rhys. Viveca's much younger than you. Gorgeous girl. Long blond hair. Brilliant. Witty. Charming. Did I tell you she's getting a Ph.D. in art history. She—” Douglas was gearing up for a long discussion of Viveca Moore's best qualities.

“Cut to the chase,” Dominic said wearily.

“Marry her,” Douglas said flatly.

“What!”

“You heard me. Get married. To her. You need to get married. To have children. To carry on the line. Marry Viveca,” Douglas said, “and I'll tell Tommy we've taken another direction.”

“I'll tell Tommy we've taken another direction and I won't have to marry her.”

There was a second's silence. “Then I'll tell the board I don't support you.”

It was as if all of Manhattan had ground to a halt. For one long moment there wasn't a sound, beyond the pounding of his own blood in Dominic's ears.

And then he said with a calmness he didn't begin to feel, “Is that a threat?”

“Of course it's not a threat,” Douglas blustered. “It's a damn promise, boy. You're not getting any younger. You're thirty-six years old! You should have got over that nonsense with Carol—”

“Carin.”

“Carol, Carin—whatever her name was—years ago! It's like riding a horse, lad! If you fall off you don't run away and lick your wounds, you damned well get back on again.”

“Marry the next woman down the pike, you mean?” Dominic was amazed his voice sounded so mild. He felt like the top of his head was about to come off.

“Of course not. Not just any woman! But there's plenty of damn fine gals around. You've had a dozen years to find one and you haven't done it!”

“Maybe I don't want to.”

“Nonsense!” Douglas didn't even consider that. “You need to. For the business if not for yourself. People trust a married man. He seems responsible, reliable. They've given you the benefit of the doubt for years. But you're walking
the edge now. Besides,” Douglas changed his tack, “you've got the makings of a fine family man. A fine father.”

“Like you?” Dominic's voice was scathing, but his father didn't even notice.

“Chip off the old block,” Douglas agreed without missing a beat. “That's why I know you'll like Viveca.”

“I don't want—”

“You don't know what you want anymore! I bring you a redhead, you want a blonde. I bring you a homemaker, you want a Ph.D. I bring you a—”

“I want you to stop bringing me women!”

“I will.”

“When?”

“After tonight. After you meet Viveca. You won't want another woman after Viveca! She's everything you want. A blonde. A homemaker
with
a Ph.D.! And—”

“And if I don't marry her you're going to go to the board with a vote of no confidence,” Dominic said through his teeth.

There was a split second's hesitation. Then Douglas said, “You're damn right.”

Dominic understood that split second. It was the point-of-no-return. It was the jumping off spot. The last chance to turn back.

Douglas hadn't turned back.

“Viveca and I will be in the city this evening,” he said firmly. “Join us—and Tommy—for dinner at Le Sabre's. At eight.”

“I've got—”

“At eight, Dominic.”

The phone crashed down in his ear.

Dominic stared at it. Then he set it slowly back in its cradle. He tilted back in his chair and shoved it round so that he sat staring at the rain coursing down his window on the world. He drummed his fingers lightly on the arms of his chair and considered his options.

He supposed idly that he should have spiked his father's guns before now. He should have put his foot down years ago, should have said, “Back off,” both in terms of the company and in terms of his life.

He hadn't because he'd spent his life admiring his father. He'd admired the old man's determination, his tenacity, his fierce, indomitable will. He'd grown up wanting to be just like him.

He'd dug in and endured the “from the ground up” apprenticeship that his father had deemed necessary for taking over the business. He'd got his hands dirty. He'd worked days and nights, holidays and weekends. He'd done everything that was ever asked of him—and he'd done it well.

A dozen years ago he'd even let the old man pick his bride because he understood why his father wanted ties between his company and Carin's family's. It had been good business sense, and he'd liked Carin—what he knew of her. He'd been sure he would have made a good husband.

It was Carin who had run. Not him.

And when she had, leaving him hurt and humiliated beyond belief, still Dominic had believed in the theory behind his father's actions.

Even now—God help him—he believed Douglas was right. In business married men did seem more trustworthy. More predictable. Less like loners or loose cannons. Some of the CEOs in other corporations he'd done business with recently had implied as much. They'd suggested that he bring his wife to various functions and had lifted a brow just a little when he'd said he didn't have one.

He imagined his father was right, too, that this Viveca, whoever she was, would be the consummate corporate wife. Blonde. Brilliant. Bloodless. Charming. Capable. Clever. The perfect accessory for a CEO to wear on his arm.

Dominic shut his eyes for a minute and saw the future. Saw himself and the bloodless blonde his father had chosen for him.

He opened his eyes and stared out the window at the streaming rain.

It was warm inside, cold out there. The windows were fogging up, reminding him of other foggy windows, of a night out of time—of steam and sex and a woman who wasn't bloodless at all.

And he felt his body harden now at the mere memory of her—and of that night.

For the past three months he'd been doing his damnedest to forget.

He'd been trying since February to pretend it never happened, Then, because he couldn't manage that, he'd tried to convince himself that it would never happen again.

He didn't believe it ever could.

Sex like they'd had that night was a once in a lifetime thing. It had to be. He'd certainly never had it before—or since.

It certainly hadn't happened with Marjorie.

What if—

He tried not to pursue that thought. He couldn't help himself.

What if it hadn't been a fluke? What if they could do it again? And again?

His mouth went dry. His palms got damp. A very unprofessional, unbusinesslike reaction was taking place in his fine worsted charcoal wool trousers. He tugged at his grey-and-burgundy striped tie. It was the same tie…the one she had…

He sucked air.

Then he shoved himself out of his chair, stalked across the room and flung open the door to the outer office.

Shyla held out the phone to him. “Dominic, Mr. Shiguru on line two and Ms. Beecher has been on hold—”

“Not now.” He didn't even break stride as he grabbed his raincoat and headed for the door.

“Dominic! Where are you going?”

“To get a wife.”

 

Sierra should have known it was going to be one of those days.

The moment she opened her eyes to see the rain pounding down the tulips in the window box on her fire escape, she should have closed them again and pulled the covers over her head.

Instead she'd pasted on one of her eternal-optimist smiles and told herself how good the rain was for the flowers. She refused to think how bad it was for hair.