“I could pay the debts for you. ” HELEN BROOKS Title Page CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN Copyright

“I could pay the debts for you. ”

Carlton continued, “And give your father the house. I could pay everything off.”

“I don’t understand,” Katie said weakly.

“I think you do. I want you, Katie. I want you very badly.”

“You’re seriously saying you want to buy me? You want me to be your mistress?”

“No!” The explosion was immediate. “I want to marry you—after which, every debt would be cleared. The grand sacrifice, or a way of escape.... Decision time, little Katie White!”

HELEN BROOKS

lives in Northamptonshire, England, and is married with three children. As she is a committed Christian, busy housewife and mother, her spare time is at a premium but her hobbies include reading and walking her two energetic and very endearing young dogs. Her long-cherished aspiration to write became a reality when she put pen to paper on reaching the age of forty, and sent the result off to Harlequin.

Helen Brooks now concentrates on writing for

Harlequin Presents®, with highly emotional, poignant yet intense books we know you’ll love!

The Marriage Solution

Helen Brooks

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CHAPTER ONE

‘I NEED to speak to David White now.’

Katie raised an eyebrow at the phone as she moved it back an inch or two from her ear before answering the hard male voice in a polite but firm tone. ‘I’m sorry, I’m afraid my father can’t be disturbed at the moment. Can I take—?’

‘The hell he can’t!’ Now the voice was patently insulting with a thread of undeniable steel in its dark depths. ‘Put me through, Miss White.’

‘I can’t do that.’ She had straightened, her slim body held tight and still and her voice cool. ‘I’ve told you, he can’t be disturbed—’

‘He’ll be more than disturbed when I’ve finished with him.’ She flinched visibly even as she wondered what on earth her father had done to make someone so mad. ‘And I’m not asking, Miss White, I’m telling you. Put me through—’

‘No.’ There was a split second of icy silence before she followed through. ‘My father isn’t well; the doctor is with him now.’

‘The doctor?’ She heard him swear under his breath, a particularly explicit oath which would have been quite at place in a rugby club changing-room, before he spoke again in clipped, measured tones that suggested barely controlled rage. ‘Then when he has finished with the doctor I expect a call immediately. Is that clear?’

‘Now look, Mr...?’

‘Reef. Carlton Reef.’

‘Well, I’m sorry, Mr Reef,’ she said stiffly, ‘but I have no intention of bothering my father with mundane business matters today. I presume it is business you wish to discuss with him?’ she added icily.

‘Dead right, Miss White,’ he shot back tightly. ‘And, for your information, the loss of a great deal of money due to your father’s stupidity and crass ineptitude I do not consider mundane. I can be reached in my office for the next hour, after which the matter goes into the hands of my solicitors and I won’t be accepting any calls from that point from either your father or his lackeys. Is that clear enough for you or shall I repeat it?’

‘Mr Reef—’

‘Which daughter are you anyway?’ he interrupted her abruptly. ‘Katie or Jennifer?’

‘Katie.’ She took a deep breath as she leant limply against the wall and prayed that the shaking which had begun in her stomach wouldn’t transfer itself to her voice. This was incredible, monstrous—there had to be a perfectly simple explanation. ‘Mr Reef, I’m sure there’s a mistake here somewhere.’

‘So am I,’ he agreed coldly, ‘and your father is the one who made it. I won’t be made a fool of, Miss White, and I thought your father had the sense to realise that. One hour—doctor or no doctor.’ And the phone went dead.

She remained staring at the receiver in her hand for a good thirty seconds before she recovered sufficiently to replace it and sink down on the nearest seat in the massive wide hall. This would have to happen today, with her father so ill.

The pains that had started in his chest during breakfast as he had read his paper had culminated within minutes in his writhing on the floor in agony, with Katie kneeling at his side as their housekeeper had frantically called the family doctor, who was also Katie’s father’s close friend, and fortunately lived in the same exclusive avenue of large detached houses. He had arrived within two or three minutes, just as the housekeeper, Mrs Jenkins, had taken the call from this Reef man, who had insisted on speaking to one of the family when Mrs Jenkins had told him that her employer wasn’t available.

She had to get back to her father. She took a long, shuddering breath and levered herself off the seat before she hurried back to the breakfast-room, opening the door gingerly as she peered anxiously at him, now seated in an easy-seat to one side of the large bay window. ‘What’s wrong?’ She spoke directly to Dr Lambeth as he turned to face her. ‘Is he all right?’

‘No.’ Her father’s friend’s voice was flat. ‘No, he isn’t, I’m afraid, Katie. I’ve been warning him for months to get checked out but due to his own particular brand of bullheadedness he refused to listen to me. I’m going to call an ambulance.’

‘No way.’ Her father was as white as a sheet and his voice was a mere whisper of its normal, steel-like quality but his face was as determined as ever. ‘If I have to go to that damn hospital, I’ll go in your car, Mark.’

‘You won’t.’ Even as her father spoke Mark Lambeth lifted the extension at his elbow. ‘I’m not being responsible for your having another attack on the way, David, and that’s final. There is equipment in the ambulance that you might need. Now don’t be such a damn fool. If you are too stubborn to think of yourself, think of your daughters, man.’

‘Dad?’ Katie’s eyes were wide as she stared down at the man whom she had always considered as unmovable as the Rock of Gibraltar. Her father was never ill; she couldn’t remember him ever being less than one hundred per cent fit in the whole of her life. In fact, he looked on even the most severe illness as a weakness that was easily banished through sheer self-will, and was scathing with those lesser mortals about him when they couldn’t accomplish what he apparently found easy to do. ‘Dad, what’s wrong?’

‘It’s his heart, Katie.’ Mark Lambeth answered again, and it was in that instant that Katie realised how serious things were. Her father wouldn’t have tolerated being sidestepped in the normal run of things and Mark, old friend that he was, wouldn’t have attempted it. ‘He’s had several warnings and now—’ He stopped abruptly at the look of horror on Katie’s face. ‘Now he will have to come into hospital,’ he finished flatly.

The ambulance was on the doorstep within four minutes and her father totally refused to let anyone but Mark accompany him to the hospital. It hurt, but he had been hurting her all his life and, if Katie hadn’t exactly got used to it, she had learnt how to endure it without letting her feelings show.

She stared for some minutes down the long, wind-swept drive after the ambulance had departed, her thoughts in turmoil, before turning and re-entering the house where Mrs Jenkins was hovering anxiously in the hall. ‘Oh, Katie, I can’t believe it.’ The small woman was nearly crying as she wrung her hands helplessly. ‘Not Mr David.’

‘He’ll be all right, Mrs Jenkins.’ Katie reached out and hugged the woman she had known most of her life and who had been something of a substitute mother since Katie’s own mother had died when she was ten. ‘You know Dad; he’s as strong as an ox.’

‘Yes, he is, isn’t he?’ Mrs Jenkins swallowed deeply and made for the kitchen. ‘I’ll fix us both a strong cup of coffee and then we’d better try to contact Jennifer. Do you know where she is?’

‘On an assignment in Monte Carlo, I think, but the paper will have her number,’ Katie said flatly as Mrs Jenkins’ words reminded her of the telephone call of ten minutes ago. Carlton Reef. She’d have to phone him and explain somehow. He surely wouldn’t expect her father to phone him from the hospital, would he? She recalled the hard, cold male voice and the barely controlled rage evident in every word, and shivered helplessly. But then again...

It took her nearly ten minutes to find his number in her father’s address book on his desk in his study due to the fact that it was under a firm’s name rather than his own. ‘Tone Organisation. Chairman and Managing Director, Carlton Reef,’ she said thoughtfully as she read the scrawly handwriting.

She had been sipping Mrs Jenkins’ scalding hot coffee as she hunted and it had had the effect of stilling the trembling in her limbs and calming her racing heartbeat a little. In spite of her brave words to the housekeeper she was desperately afraid for her father, and the suddenness of it all still made her faintly nauseous as she made the call.

‘Tone Organisation. Can I help you?’ As the uninterested voice of the telephonist came on the line Katie took a deep breath and forced herself to speak quietly and coolly.

‘Can I speak to Mr Reef, please?’ she said politely. ‘He is expecting the call.’

‘I’ll put you through to his secretary.’

A few more seconds elapsed and then a cultured, beautifully modulated female voice spoke silkily. ‘Mr Reef’s office. Can I help you?’

As Katie gave her name and a brief explanation to the disembodied voice she felt her stomach tighten in anticipation of what was to come, and it was with a sense of anticlimax that she beard the secretary’s voice speak again a minute or so later. ‘I’m sorry, Miss White, I understand that Mr Reef was expecting your father to call.’ It was said pleasantly enough but with just the faintest condemnation in the soft tones. ‘He really can’t spare the time—’

‘My father has been taken into hospital,’ Katie said tightly as she felt her face begin to burn with impotent anger. ‘I’m fully aware of what Mr Reef was expecting but he’ll have to make do with me, I’m afraid.’

‘Just a moment.’ There were a few more seconds of silence and then the secretary spoke again, her voice faintly embarrassed now. ‘I’m sorry, Miss White, but Mr Reef said he did make it plain to you that it is your father he needs to contact. He doesn’t think there is any point in talking to you.’

‘Now just a darn minute.’ Katie fairly spat the words down the phone. ‘My father has been rushed to hospital with a heart attack and that creep you work for hasn’t even got the decency to talk to me? Whatever he is paying you, it isn’t enough for working for a low-life like him.’

‘Miss White—’

‘Look, this isn’t your fault but I see no purpose in continuing this conversation,’ Katie said stiffly before slamming the phone down so hard that the small table quivered under the force of it.

The pig! The arrogant, cold, supercilious pig! She tried to take a sip of coffee but her hands were shaking so much that she couldn’t lift the cup, which made her still angrier. A combination of shock at her father’s sudden collapse and rage at Carlton Reefs total lack of sympathy brought the tears she had kept at bay so far burning hot into the back of her eyes. She sat for long minutes trembling with the strength of her emotions before she wiped her wet eyes with a resolute hand and dialled the number of the local hospital with her heart in her mouth.

She was put through almost immediately to Mark whose calm, unflappable voice reassured her somewhat. ‘It’s as I expected, Katie,’ the doctor said gently. ‘His heart is struggling a little—I’ve recognised it for some time—but with certain medication or perhaps even an operation he can carry on more or less as normal.’

‘Did he have a heart attack?’ she asked nervously.

‘I won’t lie to you, Katie; you’re over twenty-one and well able to take the rough with the smooth from what I’ve seen of you. Yes, it was a heart attack. He’s all wired up at the moment and the results aren’t too good but they’re far from fatal, so don’t let your imagination run riot. He’s been working too hard of late but you can’t tell him. At sixty he’s no spring chicken.’

‘No...’ She smiled shakily. ‘Can I come and see him?’

‘Leave it for now,’ he said gently. ‘He’d hate you to see him at the moment; you know how he is.’

Yes, she knew how he was, Katie thought painfully as the shaft of agony that whipped through her body made her gasp. If it had been Jennifer here he would have allowed her to see him, but the simple fact was that he didn’t rate his younger daughter at all. She shut her eyes tight and forced her voice to remain normal. ‘But he’s in no danger?’ she asked quietly.

‘Not now.’ Mark’s voice was soothing. ‘I only wish I could have got him in here months ago.’

‘Thank you, Doctor.’ She could feel the tears bubbling to the surface and knew she had to finish the call quickly. ‘I’ll phone later, if I may?’

‘Of course. Goodbye, Katie.’

‘Goodbye, and thank you.’

She sat for long minutes in the overwhelmingly male study before wiping her eyes for the second time, phoning a local taxi firm and checking the address of the Tone Organisation in her father’s smart address book. Somehow, during that telephone call with Dr Lambeth, something that had been forming slowly through the last few years of her life crystallised in her mind.

She was aware that her father treated her with an offhand, almost casual and often slightly caustic tolerance that was totally absent from his dealing with her older sister. Jennifer had chosen a career in the cut-and-thrust, dog-eat-dog world of journalism and was doing wonderfully well. This her father could both understand and respect. Whereas she...

She blinked as she laid the book down on the desk. She had chosen to work with physically handicapped children in a local school after finishing her degree at university, despite better, more up-market job offers. The hours were long, the salary low and the mental and physical exhaustion that were part of the job sometimes seemed too much to bear but the rewards... She straightened her back as she stood up. The rewards as the children under her care learnt to live to their potential were enormous and something that her father would never understand, she thought painfully.

‘Where are you going, Katie—the hospital?’ Mrs Jenkins met her in the hall as the taxi driver rang the bell. Katie’s neat red Fiesta was sitting in the drive but she knew she was in no fit state to drive herself.

‘No.’ She smiled as she answered although it was an effort. ‘Dad doesn’t want any visitors although Dr Lambeth said he isn’t in any danger.’

‘Thank goodness.’ Mrs Jenkins shut her eyes for a moment and then smiled mistily at her. ‘I told you, didn’t I?’

‘Of course you did.’ Katie smiled back at the homely face she had come to love over the years. ‘I have to sort out some business affair of Dad’s—you know, that other phone call? It’s urgent and I can’t really leave it but if anyone should phone you know nothing about it. OK?’

‘Of course, my dear.’ Mrs Jenkins understood her perfectly. ‘Anyone’ meant one person and one person only. ‘I wouldn’t say a word. We just want him to get better, don’t we?’

Their house was situated on the outskirts of London, in a pleasant suburb with gracious tree-lined avenues and large houses in their own immaculate grounds. As the taxi ate up the miles into the capital the general vista changed to miles and miles of identical terraced dwellings, rows of shops broken only by the odd garage and, eventually, blocks of office buildings, neutral and blank in the cool March air.

The taxi stopped at a particularly imposing high-rise monstrosity and she saw the sign, ‘Tone Organisation’, with a little quiver of her nerves. But she wasn’t backing out now. Her father might not think much of her but that didn’t matter. This was something that needed to be done; Carlton Reef had made that plain. It wouldn’t just go away—or, rather, he wouldn’t just go away, she corrected grimly as she stared up at the tall building.

She needed to buy her father some time. She stuck out her small chin aggressively and leant forward to the driver. ‘Could you wait?’ she asked firmly. ‘I shan’t be long.’

‘No problem, miss.’ She received a toothy grin. ‘You’re paying.’

The offices were busy and full but by the time the smart lift had carried her up to the top floor all was hushed opulence and quiet elegance. She found the secretary’s office with no trouble and prepared for battle as she opened the door, but the office was empty, the interconnecting door with the office on the left partly open.

‘I don’t care what it takes.’ She knew that voice, she thought blindly as her stomach dropped into her feet. ‘This is one hell of a mess, Robert, and you do what you can to get us out of it. Get back to me.’ The sound of a receiver being banged down made her flinch but in the next instant the doorway was full of a big male body and a hard square face was staring at her with something akin to amazement in the narrowed eyes. ‘Who the hell are you?’

She realised that she wasn’t dressed in office mode, but the worn denims and thick jumper that she had donned that morning were ideal for her work, as was the no-nonsense hairstyle that held her long honey-blonde hair in a severe French plait at the back of her head. But in this world of pencil-slim skirts and the latest designer suits she was sadly out of place.

She lifted her chin a fraction higher and stared straight into the piercing grey eyes that were watching her so intently. ‘I’m Katie White, Mr Reef, and I want a word with you.’ She was glad her voice didn’t betray her—inside she was a mass of quivering jelly. ‘I have to say you are, without exception, the rudest, most objectionable man I have ever had the misfortune to come into contact with. My father is in Intensive Care at the moment with a heart attack—not that I expect you to be interested in that—and other than wheel the bed down here I had no alternative but to come here myself, as you wouldn’t accept my call.’

‘How did you get past Reception and my secretary?’ he asked grimly, without the flicker of an eyelash.

There was something in the complete lack of response to her tirade that was more daunting than any show of rage but she forced herself not to wilt as she continued to face him. ‘Reception was busy; a party of Japanese businessmen had just arrived,’ she answered shortly. ‘So I just slipped into the lift once I’d found your name and floor on the notice-board. And your secretary—’ she glanced round the large room with her eyebrows raised ‘—is your problem, not mine.’

‘I see.’ He continued to survey her from the doorway and she was forced to acknowledge, albeit silently, that he really was the most formidable man she had seen for a long, long time. He was tall, very tall, with a severe haircut that held his black hair close to his head and accentuated the hard, aggressive male features even more. He could have been any age from thirty to forty—the big lean body was certainly giving nothing away—but the overall air of control and authority suggested that he had learnt plenty in the school of life.

‘Well, Miss White, now you’re here I suggest you come and sit down so we can discuss this thing rationally,’ he said smoothly, after several seconds had passed in complete silence. ‘You’re obviously upset and I would prefer the dirty linen to be kept under wraps, as it were.’

‘I couldn’t care less about your dirty linen,’ she shot back furiously, incensed beyond measure as he shook his dark head lazily, a mocking smile curving the full, sensual lips for a brief moment.

‘I was referring to yours, not mine,’ he said laconically. ‘Or, to be more precise, your father’s.’

‘Now look here—’

‘No, you look here, Miss White.’ Suddenly the relaxed façade was gone and the man standing in front of her was frightening. ‘You force your way into my office unannounced, breathing fire and damnation, when, by rights, it should be me squealing like a stuck pig.’ He eyed her furiously. ‘I’m sorry to hear that your father has had a heart attack, if in fact that is the case,’ he added cynically, ‘but that is absolutely nothing to do with me. The loss of a good deal of money and, more importantly, Miss White, my business credibility is, however, everything to do with him.’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’ She had taken a step backwards without realising it and now, as he stared into the big hazel eyes watching him so fearfully, Carlton Reef forced himself to draw on his considerable store of self-control before he spoke again.

‘Then let me explain it to you. Shall we?’ He indicated his office with a wave of his hand, standing back from the doorway and allowing her to precede him into the room.

‘How much do you know of your father’s business affairs, Miss White?’ he asked her quietly, once she was seated in the chair facing the massive polished desk behind which he sat.

‘Nothing,’ she answered honestly. ‘My father—’ She stopped abruptly. ‘He isn’t the sort of man to talk about business at home,’ she finished flatly. Or, at least, not to her, she amended silently. Never to her.

‘And this heart attack?’ He eyed her expressionlessly. ‘It’s genuine?’

‘Of course it’s genuine,’ she answered in horror. ‘What on earth do you think—?’ She shook her head blindly as words failed her. ‘No one would make something like that up,’ she finished hotly.

‘You’d be surprised,’ he said sardonically. ‘When the chips are down most people would do just about anything.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t.’ She glared at him fiercely. ‘You can ring the hospital if you like and speak to Dr Lambeth, my father’s friend. I presume you would trust a doctor at least?’ she finished scathingly.

‘I trust very few people, Miss White.’ He shifted slightly in the big leather chair, leaning back and surveying her through narrowed grey eyes.

‘Like my father.’ The words were condemning and he recognised them as such.

‘You don’t approve?’ he said mildly. ‘You’re an optimist, Miss White—a very dangerous thing to be in the business world.’

‘Well, as I’m not in the business world I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it,’ she replied carefully. ‘And I wouldn’t describe myself as an optimist anyway; I just think most people verge on kindness given a chance.’

He shut his eyes for a split-second as he shook his dark head slowly, the gesture more eloquent than any words, and then opened them to stare directly into the greeny-brown of hers. ‘What world are you in?’ he asked quietly, his eyes wandering over the pale creamy skin of her face and stopping for an infinitesimal moment on her wide, generous mouth. ‘You do work for a living?’

‘Yes.’ She straightened a little in the chair as she rebelled against the questioning. ‘But I don’t see how that affects why I’m here today, Mr Reef. You said on the phone that my father had lost you some money...?’

‘Lost me some money?’ he repeated sarcastically. ‘Well, that’s one way of putting it, I guess. A little oversimplified but nevertheless... Have you read the morning papers?’ he asked abruptly.

‘The morning—?’ She hesitated at the change of direction. ‘No—no, I haven’t. My father was reading them when he—’ She stopped again. ‘When he collapsed,’ she finished flatly.

‘They nearly had the same effect on me,’ he said drily, and then shook his head at her outraged expression. ‘And I wasn’t belittling your father’s condition, Miss White. Here—’ He thrust a newspaper at her abruptly. ‘Read that.’

She glanced at where he was pointing but the black letters were dancing all over the page as she tried to read them and she looked up after a moment, her eyes enormous in her white face. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t take anything in.’

‘It’s the total collapse of a certain economy that your father assured me was one hundred per cent solid,’ he said coolly. ‘I have invested a vast amount of money at his persuasion and within the last few months, too. I’ve been made to look ridiculous, Miss White, and I can’t say it appeals.’

‘But—’ she stared at him desperately ‘—he wouldn’t have done it on purpose, would he? No one’s perfect.’

‘“No one’s”—?’ He held her eyes for several seconds before shaking his head again. ‘This whole morning is fast beginning to resemble Alice Through the Looking Glass.’

A movement in the outer office caught his eye and he pressed the buzzer on his desk as he glanced towards the door. A second or two later, one beautifully coiffured head appeared round the door. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Reef, I had to...’ The well-bred voice died as the woman glanced in Katie’s direction.

‘Two coffees, please, Jacqueline, and hold all calls,’ Carlton Reef said quietly.

‘Oh, but I can’t—’ Katie glanced at him as he raised enquiring eyebrows. ‘I’ve got a taxi waiting for me in the street. I can‘t—’

‘Pay it off, Jacqueline.’ He settled further into his seat as he raised one hand thoughtfully under his chin. ‘And phone... What hospital is your father in?’ he asked Katie abruptly. She told him quietly as her cheeks burnt scarlet. He thought she was lying; how could he think that? ‘Tell them I want to speak to a Dr Lambeth,’ he instructed his secretary quietly, ‘and do it discreetly, there’s a good girl.’

It was the first time that Katie had been able to examine him without having his piercing grey eyes trained on her and as she looked at him, really looked at him for the first time, she had to admit in a tiny, detached part of her brain that he really was devastatingly good-looking in a hard, macho sort of way.

His skin was dark, with the sort of even tan that suggested a recent holiday somewhere very hot and very expensive, and the dark grey eyes were fringed with short jetblack lashes under heavy dark brows. Big, broad shoulders suggested an impressive body under the beautifully cut suit and she had already seen that he was tall—well over six feet. And he was as hard as iron. She stiffened as the razor-sharp eyes switched back to her. He was the sort of man her father would respect and admire and whom she loathed.

‘Now—’ he didn’t smile as the secretary shut the door without a sound and they were left alone ‘—why exactly did you feel it necessary to come here?’

‘You phoned.’ She stared at him with a mixture of bewilderment and anger. ‘You made it clear that my father would be in some sort of trouble if he didn’t—’

‘He’s in deep trouble already, Miss White, and I’m afraid there is nothing you can do about it.’ There wasn’t a trace of compassion in the deep voice and she knew, as she stared into the implacable, cold features, actual hate for another human being for the first time in her life. ‘I am not sure of my facts yet, so I do not intend to say much more, but from the little I do know about this unfortunate episode it would seem to suggest that your father did not do the homework he was paid to do. Supposition is not an option in the market-place and for this to happen without any prior warning...’ He shrugged eloquently. ‘Something smells.’

‘Are you saying that my father was dishonest?’ she asked hotly. ‘Because if you are—’

The buzzer on his desk interrupted further conversation and, as he took the call his secretary had put through, his face was blank and composed. It was obviously from Dr Lambeth and by the time he replaced the receiver, some minutes later, the dark face was thoughtful, although she had been unable to comprehend anything from his side of the conversation. As he finished the call his secretary knocked quietly and entered with the coffee, her face smooth and expressionless.

‘Thank you, Jacqueline.’ He glanced up once, busying himself with the tray. ‘Can you arrange for the car to be brought to the main entrance in ten minutes, please?’

‘Yes, Mr Reef.’

Something had been said during that phone call, something disturbing and relevant to her, Katie thought suddenly as she stared into the cool poker face opposite. ‘Is my father all right?’ she asked quietly. ‘He isn’t worse?’

‘No.’ He handed her a cup of coffee and gestured towards the milk and sugar. ‘Help yourself.’

‘What did Dr Lambeth say?’ she persisted, the trickle of unease gathering steam by the second. ‘There’s something you’re not telling me, I know it.’

He stared at her for a good fifteen seconds before replying and she knew she was right. There was something—she could read it in the opaque blankness of his eyes. ‘This is really nothing to do with me,’ he said quietly. ‘I feel it would be better if your father’s friend explained in the circumstances, Miss White.’

‘What circumstances?’ She could feel her voice rising but there was nothing she could do about it as sheer undiluted panic gripped her insides. ‘He’s worse? He’s not...’ She stared at him with huge eyes.

‘No, nothing like that.’ He waved his hand at her almost irritably. ‘I’m satisfied that whatever your father did he did out of ignorance, incidentally. Not that that makes the results any different but—’ He stopped abruptly. ‘Why the hell did you have to come here today anyway?’ he growled savagely.

‘Why?’ She glared at him, more angry than she could remember being in her whole life. ‘Because you threatened me, that’s why. You said—’

‘I know what I said.’ He stood up in one sharp movement and walked over to the huge plate-glass window where he stood with his back to her, looking down on the ant-like creatures below in the busy London street. ‘I just didn’t expect you to come here hotfoot like some guardian angel, that’s all.’

‘Well, all that could have been averted if you’d taken my call,’ she said stiffly as her face burned still more. He was a monster, she thought, an absolute monster.

‘Possibly.’ He still didn’t turn round. ‘Well, perhaps the news would be better coming from a stranger, after all. I don’t know. At least you would have some time to prepare yourself.’

‘Mr Reef, you’re frightening me,’ she said in a very small voice and, at that, he did turn, swinging round to see her sitting on the edge of her chair, hands clasped together and face as white as a sheet. ‘Whatever it is—could you just tell me?’ she asked slowly.

‘Your father is bankrupt.’ He had taken a deep breath before he spoke but the smoky grey eyes didn’t leave her face. ‘He’s lost the business, the house, the cars, every penny he owns in this deal. He’s just unburdened himself to Dr Lambeth and asked him to let all interested parties know.’

All interested parties? Somehow that hurt more than anything else could have done. She lived at home, spoke to him every day, shared little moments of his life and he hadn’t even hinted that things were bad. What had she ever done that her own father disliked her so much, trusted her so little? What sort of person did he think she was?

‘Miss White, did you hear me?’ He moved round the desk to stand in front of her, before kneeling and bringing his face into line with hers. ‘He had suspected the worst for days but seeing it in black and white in the newspaper brought the heart attack on, so I understand. The house is mortgaged up to the hilt, there are debts mounting skyhigh—’

‘I understand.’ She stopped him with a tiny wave of her hand as she spoke through stiff lips. ‘And he bore all this alone; he didn’t say a word to anyone.’

‘He’s a businessman, Katie.’ She wasn’t aware that he had spoken her name as her mind struggled to comprehend what he had told her. Their beautiful home that had been in her father’s family for generations... The loss of that alone would kill him, she knew it. ‘He has to make decisions that are sometimes difficult—’

‘He’s my father.’ She raised her head to stare at him, her eyes drowning in the whiteness of her face. ‘He should have been able to talk about it with me. What else are families for if not to share the hard times? If he could have told me, trusted me, he might not be in hospital now connected to a mass of wires and tubes—’

She wasn’t aware that her voice had risen into a shrill shriek, but when the outer door burst open and the secretary rushed in she was conscious of a stinging slap across her face as Carlton Reef pulled her back from hysteria before lifting her body into his arms and signalling for the woman to leave with a sharp movement of his head.

‘It’s all right; shush now, shush...’ He was sitting in the chair she had been occupying with her cradled on his lap as she moaned her anguish out loud, the hopelessness of endless years of trying to win her father’s love and approval culminating in the devastating knowledge that he could have died and she wouldn’t have known why. He hadn’t wanted her, hadn’t reached out, hadn’t needed even a word of comfort from the daughter he seemed to despise so much.

‘Why didn’t he tell me?’ she asked again, her head buried in the folds of his jacket. ‘He should have told me.’

‘He didn’t want to worry you,’ Carlton said comfortingly, somewhere over her head. ‘That’s natural in a father.’

‘No.’ She struggled away from him as she desperately tried to compose herself, suddenly horrified at the position she had put herself in. There was nothing natural about her father but she couldn’t tell this man that—he wouldn’t understand. She had never known her father share the smallest thing with her, never felt a fatherly hug, never had anyone to dry her tears as all her friends had. ‘You wouldn’t understand,’ she said weakly. ‘I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have come. I didn’t know—’

‘Look, sit down and have your coffee.’ He had risen as she had moved away and now took her arm gently, pushing her back down in the seat as he passed a cup to her. ‘Drink that and then I’ll run you home. It’s been a tremendous shock for you.’

‘I don’t want it.’ She stood up again and faced him, her face drawn and pale. ‘And I’ll make my own way home, Mr Reef.’ She felt as if she could die of embarrassment at the ridiculous picture she made. Here she was, in the very centre of the hive that made up London’s busy business world, behaving like some brainless schoolgirl. What on earth was he thinking and why, oh, why, had she come? She must have been mad, quite mad, but she hadn’t been thinking straight. In fact, she hadn’t been thinking at all!

She bit her lower lip hard. She’d made a bad situation well nigh impossible. ‘I’m sorry about all this,’ she said stiffly to the hard, handsome face watching her so intently. ‘I thought that if I came to see you and explained that my father was ill you would be able to wait a few days, that things could be sorted...’ Her voice trailed away at the expression on his face. If cynical mockery could go hand in hand with reluctant sympathy then that was what she was seeing.

‘And instead you found the very roof over your head was threatened,’ he intervened softly. ‘I do understand your predicament, Miss White. I’m not quite such an ogre as you seem to think.’

‘No?’ She faced him square-an now, a combination of shock and crucifyingly painful hurt making her speak her mind in a way she would never have done normally. ‘Well, as you’ve pointed out, our worlds are very different, Mr Reef, and your standards and those of my father are not mine. The lust for power and wealth that masquerades as ambition is not for me.’

‘I see.’ His face had closed against her as she had spoken and now his mouth was grim. ‘But, unless I am very much mistaken, you have enjoyed the benefits of this world that you seem to despise so much for a good many years without your conscience being too troubled?’ His eyebrows rose mockingly. ‘Or perhaps you live in a little wooden hut at the end of your father’s property and indulge in hair-shirts and a monastic form of life?’

‘Of course I don’t.’ Amazingly the confrontation was making her feel better, quelling the panic and fear that had gripped her since he had told her of their changed circumstances as fierce anger at his mockery left no room for any other emotion. ‘And I am grateful to my father for all he’s done for me—my education, our home, all the “benefits” you could no doubt list as well as I could. But—’ she raised her chin and the large, clear hazel eyes that stared into his were steady ‘—I can manage without them without it being the end of the world. I don’t need them in the same way that you do, Mr Reef.’

‘Don’t you indeed?’ His face was dark with an emotion she’d rather not dwell on now, and he crossed his arms as he leant back against the window, almost as though he needed to keep them anchored to his body rather than round her neck, she reflected silently. ‘And how do you know what I need, Miss White? To my knowledge we have never - met before today.’

‘I know your type.’

‘My “type”?’ be barked angrily. ‘My—’ He broke off as he fought visibly for control before taking a deep breath and laughing harshly, the sound grating in the quiet air. ‘You really do take the biscuit! You barge your way in here, flinging insults around as though they were confetti and then accuse me—’

He broke off again and shook his head before turning from her so that his hard features were in profile. ‘You’ve had a bad day and I would guess that it’s going to get worse. Let’s leave it at that, and despite the low opinion you obviously have of me, I would not dream of letting you find your own way home after the news I’ve just given you. The car will be outside now. Shall we?’

He turned and extended his hand to the door. She remained staring at him for one long moment before she moved forward. He was angry, very angry; that much she could see and she really couldn’t take on any more now. It was simpler to accept this favour, however much it grated.

‘Mr Reef?’ His secretary’s voice held a note of panic as he walked with Katie through the outer office, shrugging his big grey overcoat over his shoulders as he did so. ‘You haven’t forgotten the management meeting you called earlier? They’re already assembling in the small boardroom—’

‘Cancel it.’ Her employer turned at the door to fix her with that cool gaze. ’Re-schedule for two this afternoon.’

‘Is there a number where you can be reached?’

‘No—’ he was already shutting the door as he replied to the slightly dazed voice ‘—but I won’t be long.’

‘You don’t have to do this.’ As the silent lift sped swiftly downwards she ventured a glance at him through her eyelashes and then wished she hadn’t. He looked mad—more than mad, she thought weakly, and she hadn’t fully realised just how big and powerful that tall, lean body was until the close confines of the lift had emphasised it so threateningly. And his aftershave was gorgeous...

What was she doing, thinking such things at a time like this? she asked herself faintly, and about a man like him, too—the sort that populated her father’s world in droves and the kind she had always abhorred. She was in shock. She leant limply against the wall of the lift and took a long, silent breath. That was it. That had to be it. Either that or she’d lost it completely.

He had ignored her hesitant voice as though he hadn’t heard it but now the cold grey eyes pierced her, the expression in them anything but friendly. ‘You aren’t going to faint on me, are you,’ he asked grimly, ‘on top of everything else?’

‘No, I’m not.’ The adrenalin that sent fierce colour into her cheeks and an angry sparkle into her eyes also brought her jerking off the lift wall to stand rigid and stiff as they reached the ground floor. ‘I’ve never fainted in my life.’

‘Quite a formidable lady.’ The thread of laughter in the mocking voice was unforgivable in the circumstances, and sheer anger kept her head up and her back straight as they walked through the reception area.

Out of the corner of her eye she was aware of one or two interested but veiled glances in their direction, but just keeping up with his large strides was more than enough to contend with for the moment. She had absolutely no intention of following in his wake like a whipped puppy, she thought tightly as they reached the massive automatic doors together. He was the epitome of the arrogant, dominant male but the Tarzan-Jane concept of male and female had never appealed less than at this moment.

The icy March wind was carrying chips of sleet on its breath as they left the hothouse warmth of the big building and she pulled her knee-length anorak more tightly round her as a big dark blue Mercedes purred to a halt in front of them, complete with chauffeur in matching uniform.

‘In you get.’ He opened the door for her and then followed her into the immaculate interior in one movement. ‘Your address?’ She gave it in a small voice that tried to be cool and assured but was merely... small.

‘Are you going to the hospital?’ They had travelled some minutes in complete silence but she had never been more aware of another human being in her life.

‘Later perhaps.’ Why couldn’t he have been old and bald? she asked herself as she turned her head to meet his gaze. A sympathetic uncle-figure who would have met her halfway? ‘My father doesn’t—‘ She corrected herself quickly. ‘The doctor thought it better to keep him quiet for the moment.’

‘Right.’ The intuitive grey eyes had narrowed at the slip but he made no comment, his face bland, and he turned to look out of the window into the grey world outside as the big car moved swiftly through the mid-morning traffic.

The journey home was accomplished in about half the time the taxi had taken earlier and as they drew into the smart pebbled drive she found herself looking, as though for the first time, at the house she had been born in. Mellow, honey-coloured stone, leaded windows and a massive thatched roof stared impassively back; the huge oak tree that stood in the middle of the bowling-green-smooth lawn at the front of the house was as yet bare and naked against the winter sky.

‘You have a beautiful home.’ She jumped visibly as he spoke, and dragged her eyes away from the sight that had suddenly become so poignant with a tremendous effort.

‘Not for much longer, it would seem,’ she said flatly as she held out one small, slim hand for him to shake. ‘Thank you for bringing me home, Mr Reef. No doubt my father’s solicitors will be hearing from yours in due course.’

‘No doubt.’ He hesitated for the merest second and then, instead of giving the handshake she had expected, leant forward and brushed her lips with his own. As she leapt backwards like a scalded cat he climbed out of the car and offered his hand, his eyebrows raised in a distinctly sardonic tilt. ‘Allow me.’

She gave him her hand reluctantly—a fact which the dark eyebrows took full note of—and slid out of the car with as much dignity as she could muster, considering her cheeks were glowing bright red and her mouth was burning from the brief contact with his.

‘Goodbye,’ she said again, a little breathlessly this time, as she stepped backwards a few paces from his large bulk and edged towards the house.

‘Goodbye.’ He didn’t smile or move and after a split-second of indecision she turned and ran up the steps to the front door, her only desire being to get into the safety of the house.

Mrs Jenkins must have heard the car because even as she fumbled in her bag for her key the door opened and she almost fell into the hall in her eagerness to get inside. ‘Katie?’ Mrs Jenkins peered out into the drive before slowly shutting the door and hurrying to her side. ‘Who was that man?’ she asked worriedly. ‘And why was he looking at the house like that?’

‘Like what?’ Katie asked weakly, the relief at being home overwhelming. She didn’t know why but during the last few seconds in the car she had felt undeniably threatened—tenifyingly so.

‘Like...’ Mrs Jenkins’ voice faded away as she shook her grey head bewilderedly. ‘I don’t rightly know, but it wasn’t normal.’

‘He’s not a normal man, Mrs Jenkins,’ Katie said unsteadily just as the phone began to ring. It was the first of many calls that day from her father’s colleagues and business contacts who were already beginning to demand their pound of flesh.

CHAPTER TWO

‘KATIE?’ Her sister’s voice was more irritated than concerned when they finally managed to contact her in her hotel in Monte Carlo later that afternoon. ‘What’s all this about Dad being taken ill? He’s never been ill in his life.’

‘Well, he is now,’ Katie said quietly, carefully keeping any trace of emotion out of her voice.

Jennifer was a duplicate of their father temperamentwise, scorning any show of sentiment or warmth, single-minded when it came to her career as a top reporter for one of the national tabloids, and utterly ruthless when it came to having her own way. At twenty-eight, she was five years older than Katie and well able to afford a luxurious flat in the heart of London, her own expensive sports car and a wardrobe of up-to-the-minute clothes that she changed like her nail varnish.

‘It’s his heart.’

‘His heart?’ Her sister’s voice was scornful. ‘I didn’t know he had one!’

‘Jennifer!’ Katie’s voice expressed her outrage.

Jennifer and her father had always held a mutual respect for each other’s inexorable character while recognising that they were too alike to get on if they saw much of each other. The sort of comment that Jennifer had just made was exactly the type her father would have given if the situation had been reversed, and neither would have taken umbrage, but just now... Just now she couldn’t take it, Katie thought painfully.

Despite his wishes, she had been to see her father after lunch, stopping for just a minute or two and driving away shocked beyond measure at the change which had been wrought in him in just a few hours. He had been in a semidoze, never really waking, and to see his strong, lean and powerful body still and lifeless under the clinical hospital sheets had hurt more than she would have thought possible.

‘I’m sorry, Katie.’ Jennifer’s voice was impatient, which made the apology null and void. ‘How is he, then?’

‘Hard to say.’ She wasn’t going to make this easy for her, Katie thought with an uncharacteristic flare of anger—besides which, it was true. ‘He had a heart attack this morning but then, just before I got there this afternoon, he had another one. Lambeth said he’ll be OK once they get the medication balanced but, as in most things medical, nothing is for certain.’

‘Oh.’ She could tell the news wasn’t to her sister’s liking. ‘Well, I’ve nearly finished here so I suppose I could fly in in the next day or two,’ Jennifer said reluctantly.

‘There’s something else.’ Katie took a deep breath in preparation for the explosion. ‘Dad’s bankrupt.’

‘What?’Now she really had her attention, Katie thought grimly. ‘What do you mean “bankrupt”? You’re kidding me.’

‘I’d hardly joke at a time like this,’ Katie said quietly. ‘He’s mortgaged the house, the business and even the weekend cottage he bought for Mum originally, and there is an absolute mountain of debts. The cars, his boat, everything will have to go. I saw the solicitor this afternoon after I left the hospital.’

‘Oh, brilliant, just brilliant.’ Her sister’s voice was scathing. ‘What happened to the Midas touch he was always so proud of, then?’

‘Well, I think he’s paid for the loss of it, don’t you?’ Katie ground out through clenched teeth as she strove to keep her temper. ‘It was the knowledge of how bad things were that brought on the heart attack.’

‘Well, there’s no room in my flat for anyone else,’ Jennifer said quickly, after a moment’s pause. ‘I’ve got someone living in at the moment.’

‘What’s his name?’ Katie asked tightly. Her sister was the original liberated woman, taking a new man into her life and her bed every few months and then kicking him out when she got bored, which was usually fairly quickly.

‘Donald,’ Jennifer drawled dispassionately. ‘Hell, Katie, Dad’ll hate the humiliation of bankruptcy, won’t he? Not to mention losing the house. He really is a fool—’

‘Don’t you dare say that when you see him, Jen,’ Katie hissed furiously. ‘Not in words or one of those expressions you do so well. I’ll murder you if you do.’

‘Keep your hair on.’ Her sister’s voice was more amused than offended. ‘Why you care so much about him I’ll never know. You’ll never learn, will you, Katie? You’re just like Mum. Well, I’ve got to go, sweetie. I’ll phone tomorrow and tell you what flight I’ll be on. OK?’

‘Goodbye, Jennifer.’ Katie replaced the phone jerkily and strove for control. She should be hardened to it by now—she should, but her sister’s total lack of emotion about anything but her precious job seemed to get harder to take as she grew older. And the casual reference to their mother... Katie could still remember the day she had died—the bleak, total despair and sense of loss that had never really dimmed through the years. She had learnt to live with the ache but had never really got over her mother’s sudden death in a car accident when she was ten. They had been kindred spirits, totally different to look at but twin personalities and, in dark moments, Katie would still have given anything she possessed to gaze upon her face one more time and hug her tight.

It hadn’t helped that her father and Jennifer had seemed almost unaffected either, although Katie had often thought, with her father at least, that it had been a way of coping with grief, to shut it in and refuse to acknowledge that it was there. But perhaps that was wishful thinking? She shook her head. Maybe Jennifer was right after all—she’d never learn, the eternal optimist always wanting to see the best in people. The thought brought the image of Carlton Reef into sudden focus before her eyes and she heard his scornful and derisive voice as though he were in the room with her.

‘Right, enough is enough.’ She rose determinedly from the chair. Tomorrow she would go into school, throw herself into the work there and face all the other mountains in her life when the time came. There was nothing she could do or say that would avert the catastrophe that had befallen them—it was far too late for that—but she was going to need to be strong for her father and herself.

How he would face the shame and humiliation she just didn’t know; he was a fiercely proud man with unshakeable principles and this house in itself meant far more to him than mere collateral. Why on earth had he mortgaged it? She caught herself abruptly. No, recriminations were no good now; she needed to concentrate on the positive.

Over the next few days that resolution was to be sorely tested. News of the disaster travelled quickly in the business world and when she returned home from the school, often exhausted, the phone never seemed to stop ringing. Some of the callers were openly curious, digging for news, others faintly gloating that they themselves weren’t in such dire straits; one or two were sympathetic and concerned and several verged on the abusive. The latter were mainly creditors who were doubting whether they would ever get paid.

Jennifer had called as promised, the day after her father’s collapse, to say that the paper had contacted her shouting for a first-class reporter in France for a few days and would Katie mind terribly if she just did that little job before she came home? Katie had replied that her sister must decide her own priorities and Jennifer had finished the call quickly, saying that she had to run as the plane to France was going to be a tight one to catch.

Altogether, as Katie made her way to the hospital on Friday night for her regular evening visit, four days after her father’s collapse, she felt tired in mind and body and sick to her soul. Her father hadn’t improved as Dr Lambeth had hoped. Indeed, he seemed faintly worse each day, as though the will to live was ebbing away, and, forcing a bright smile on her face as she walked into the small sideward, she dreaded what she would find.

‘Hello again.’ The deep, cool voice hit her at the same moment that her numbed gaze took in the dark, lean body lazily seated at her father’s side.

‘You?’ She barely glanced at her parent, all her energy concentrated on the hard, handsome face watching her so intently. What was he doing here? The answer was obvious—he’ d come to badger a sick man. How dared he? How dared he?

‘Not the most charming of greetings but it will have to do, I suppose.’ And the creep was laughing at her. ‘How are you, Katie?’ he asked softly as he rose and offered her his chair.

‘I think you ought to leave, Mr Reef.’ She forced her voice to remain low but her eyes, daggers of steel aimed directly at his, spoke volumes. ‘My father is a sick man and I won’t have him upset.’

‘Katie!’

She ignored her father’s horrified exclamation and continued to look at the tanned face in front of her, which had lost its mocking amusement as though by magic. ‘Did you hear me?’ she asked tightly.

‘I’m not here to upset your father, Katie,’ Carlton said coldly, ‘although you seem to be doing a pretty good job of that yourself at the moment. Now would you please sit down and stop making a spectacle of yourself?’ he finished coolly.

‘Katie, for crying out loud...’ Her father’s agitated tones brought her eyes to his face for the first time and he nodded at the chair violently, his eyes lethal ‘Sit down, girl,’ he barked angrily, more himself than he had been in days. ‘Carlton is here purely as a friend, nothing more.’

‘Really?’ The word carried all the mistrust she felt for the man and her father shut his eyes for a moment in exasperation, shaking his head silently.

‘Sit’ It was an order and she sat, but as Carlton moved another chair near the bed and stretched out his long legs to within an inch of hers it was all she could do to restrain the impulse to jerk away. She managed it—just. ‘I’m sorry, Cadton.’ David White waved his hand at her as he spoke. ‘She isn’t normally this way but my illness seems to have brought out the lioness-defending-her-cub mentality.’

‘Not altogether a bad thing.’ Carlton smiled back but, as the dark grey eyes moved to her, the smoky depths were as hard as iron. ‘But the exterior doesn’t quite prepare one for the fire and brimstone underneath.’

‘Her mother was the same.’ She glanced at him, utterly astounded as he spoke. She had never in all her life heard him compare her to his wife and it was still more amazing that his tone held a faint touch of embarrassed pride. ‘She was sweetness personified, but if anyone threatened her family all hell was let loose. She was one special woman—’

He broke off, clearly horrified at having said so much, and there was a brief moment of charged silence before Carlton stepped into the breach. Katie was staring at her father open-mouthed, quite stunned. If a choir of heavenly angels had suddenly appeared in the room she couldn’t have been more surprised.

Carlton glanced at Katie whose astounded countenance spoke for itself and then at David who was staring determinedly out of the window, his face ruddy with embarrassment, before shifting slightly in his seat and speaking in a cool, matter-of-fact voice that defused the awkward atmosphere.

‘There are some papers in your father’s study at home that might be important. Katie, and he’d like me to have a look through them in case there’s a way out of this mess. Perhaps we could leave together and I could pick them up on the way home?’

‘I’m in my own car,’ she answered automatically as she dragged her eyes away from her father’s stiff face with tremendous effort and turned to Carlton.

‘No problem.’ He smiled easily. ‘I’ll follow you home in mine. I’d really rather look at them as soon as possible. If anything’s going to be done it’s got to be quick.’

‘You think there’s a chance?’ Katie asked quietly as she looked fully into the smoky grey eyes, receiving a slight jolt as the full power of the piercing gaze held hers.

‘Possibly.’ She couldn’t read a thing from his face—it was a study in neutrality. ‘From what David tells me, he was ill-advised himself and someone has certainly reaped a vast profit from this little deal. Now, whether it was actually illegal or not is another question and one that needs answering before the dust settles.’

‘I see.’ She didn’t want him to come to her house; she didn’t want anything at all to do with him, but in the face of what he was suggesting she had no choice but to smile, albeit painfully, and incline her head. ‘Well, of course, if my father thinks you should investigate further—’

‘I do.’ David cut into the conversation sharply, his voice more alive than it had been for the last four days and certainly more full of energy than she had expected when she’d walked into the room that evening. ‘Bankruptcy—’ He stopped abruptly. ‘I’ve never owed anyone a penny in my life,’ he continued gruffly, ‘and it doesn’t sit well, Katie, dammit! If there’s a chance—’

‘If there is I’ll find it.’ Carlton’s voice was smooth as he spoke but there was some inflexion, just something she couldn’t put a name to, that made Katie stare at him hard. He was so cold this man, so in control. She didn’t trust him; she didn’t trust him an inch, and she was suddenly more sure than ever that there was an ulterior motive governing what appeared to be a straightforward request.

‘Dad, these papers...’ She hesitated and searched for a way of disguising the question she had to ask. ‘Are there any you’d prefer to keep confidential? I could bring them all in here tomorrow and let you sort through them with Mr Reef if that would be more helpful. You must know what you’re looking for, after all, and he might miss—’

‘No, no. Let Carlton take anything he needs, Katie,’ David said briskly. ‘He probably knows what he’s looking for better than I do.’

She didn’t doubt it, Katie thought grimly, and that was exactly what was bothering her. She stared helplessly at her father, willing him to read her mind and know what she was thinking but he just smiled back at her before turning to Carlton with an easy gesture of thanks. ‘Anything you can do would be appreciated, Carlton.’

Anything he could do? She felt a little shiver of premonition as her father spoke. He had never made a mistake before in the business world that was his lifeblood; it seemed very strange that now, suddenly, he had made one, and one of such gigantic proportions that it would leave them totally destitute. Exactly what part had Carlton Reef played in all this? she wondered suspiciously. And why this offer of help now, after the rage of a few days ago?

As she turned to the dark figure at her side she realised, with a sudden surge of panic, that if her father had been unable to pick up the waves she was attempting to send him Carlton Reef had had no such problem. The grey eyes were chips of stone in an otherwise expressionless face, the mouth a taut, sardonic line of enquiry.

‘I have a photocopier in my study at home, Miss White,’ he said coolly, the use of her surname a distinct put-down. ‘Would you like to accompany me there tonight so you can keep the originals in your possession?’ It was a definite challenge and one, in view of her father’s comments, that he didn’t expect her to take up.

She stared at him for a few moments, her natural politeness and gentleness warring with the feeling that possessed her where this man was concerned. ‘Yes, I would,’ she said quietly, hearing David’s exasperated indrawn breath with a resigned sense of the inevitable. He would disapprove of her actions in dealing with Carlton Reef in the same way he disapproved of everything but she wouldn’t have been able to sleep tonight if she hadn’t followed through on her instinct.

She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the astute, intelligent mind ticking away behind those hard grey eyes was several paces in front of theirs. Quite what he bad in view she wasn’t sure, but if she had had to answer the old ‘friend or foe?’ question there would have been no hesitation. Carlton Reef was no friend of theirs.

For the rest of the visit Katie sat quietly listening to the two men talk. Carlton didn’t broach the business difficulties again, concentrating on light, witty conversation that kept David amused without him having to make any effort himself.

Carlton Reef was a formidable adversary, she thought silently as the minutes sped by. She had never met a man who generated such an air of easy authority, who seemed so totally sure of himself. And she was forced to recognise, after nearly an hour had passed, that, in spite of her distrust and dislike for the man, there was something compellingly attractive about him that was both fascinating and frightening.

She remembered the feel of being in his arms and that light kiss as he had left her a few days before and shivered in spite of the over-hot room. This was ridiculous, she told herself sternly. She needed to keep all her wits razor-sharp around him and thoughts of this nature were definitely out of order.

The smoky eyes turned to her as the round, clinical clock on the wall ticked to seven o‘clock. ‘Would you like a few minutes alone with your father, Katie?’ he asked quietly. She noticed that he hadn’t asked David and surmised that he had gleaned enough about their relationship to know what her father’s reply would have been.

‘Thank you.’ She smiled stiffly. ‘I won’t be long.’

‘There’s really no need...’ The older man’s protest was lost as Carlton rose and leant across the bed to shake him by the hand, making his goodbyes as he did so.

‘It’ll probably take a few days to sift through the correspondence, David,’ he said easily as he walked to the door after replacing the chair near then wall, ‘but if there’s anything I’ll call you immediately after the solicitors have checked it out OK?’

‘Fine, fine.’ Her father was beaming as the door closed and for a moment, as Katie glanced at him, she knew a dart of intense irritation. ‘What’s the matter?’ As his eyes switched to her face she tried to relax her features but it was too late. ‘You don’t like him, do you? Why?’ he asked disapprovingly.

‘I don’t know him,’ she prevaricated quickly.

‘He tells me you went to see him on the day I was brought in here,’ he said quietly, ‘after he’d phoned the house. That took some guts, Katie, but why didn’t you tell me?’

‘There was no need.’ She forced a bright smile to her face as she wondered where the conversation was leading.

‘Katie...’ Her father hesitated and then leant back against the pillows, his face more drawn now that Carlton’s stimulating company had left. ‘The situation can’t get worse than it is, now can it? If there’s the faintest chance he can pull it round, even if it means we’re left with the house and nothing else, it’s worth a try. I got greedy, girl...’

She stared at him in absolute amazement for the second time in an hour, aware that they were having the first real conversation of their lives.

‘I’d always planned to leave the house to you, you know. Jennifer would have been looked after with an equal financial payment but I’ve always seen my grandchildren being raised in the old home, somehow. I know that’s what your mother would have liked. She was always so upset she hadn’t produced a son to carry on the White name that she didn’t realise all I wanted was her—’

He stopped abruptly and there was a moment of deep silence before he continued. ‘I don’t know why I mortgaged the house—it was a crazy thing to do—but I thought I was going to make a killing.’ He smiled grimly. ‘And there was a killing all right.’

‘Don’t think about it now, Dad.’ She stood up quickly; the expression on his face was too painful to watch. ‘You’ve got to concentrate on getting better.’

‘I didn’t want to before Carlton came today,’ he said thoughtfully, his expression introspective, ‘but if there is a chance...’ He looked up, his face touchingly hopeful. ‘You do see we have to take it?’

‘Of course.’ She bent to kiss him goodbye and he turned his cheek to her as normal, the gesture as aloof as always. On the rare occasions in the past when she had gathered her courage and tried to hug or kiss him the response had always been the same—this formal offering of his cheek for a brief caress. ‘Goodnight, Dad,’ she said quietly, her voice bleak. Nothing had altered, not really. No wonder he liked Carlton so much. They were two of a kind—cold, reserved men who gave nothing of themselves and wanted no one.

Carlton was waiting for her just down the corridor, deep in conversation with one of the doctors. ‘Katie?’ He looked up as she carefully closed the door, and beckoned her to them. ‘There’s a chance that your father might be allowed home some time next week.’

‘I understand you have a live-in housekeeper, Miss White,’ the young doctor said quietly. ‘So he would have someone with him at all times?’

‘Yes.’ She stared at him anxiously. ‘You think he might have another attack?’

‘We hope not.’ She received the standard reassuring smile. ‘But obviously he will take some time to recover from this one, you do understand that?’

‘Of course.’

‘And rest and quiet are essential,’ he continued briskly. ‘So, we’ll think again after the weekend and give you a day or so’s warning before he comes home.’

‘Thank you.’ As Carlton took her arm the doctor smiled and left them, to enter the main ward on their right.

‘Encouraging news?’ Carlton said softly as they walked towards the lift, his fingers burning her flesh as she strove to remain calm and cool. She was vitally aware of him, his touch, the timbre of his voice, and she allowed her head to fall slightly forward so that the thick, silky fall of her hair hid her face from his gaze.

‘I suppose so.’ There were several other people in the lift and she relaxed slightly as it sped to the ground floor, but once in the corridor leading to the car park she voiced what was on her mind. ‘But I’m hardly going to be able to keep him quiet and calm with the house being sold over our heads and everything else that’s going to happen.’

‘Is there anywhere he could go while the worst of it takes place?’ Carlton asked slowly. ‘I understand your sister has a flat in London. Would she—?’

‘No, she wouldn’t,’ Katie cut in flatly. ‘The current boyfriend is in residence and, anyway, Jennifer is the last person to have her lifestyle interrupted in any way. She’d make my father miserable.’ She shrugged. ‘I’ll think of something and perhaps, if you’re successful, it won’t be necessary anyway.’

‘Right.’ Again there was something, a slight inflexion in the bland voice, that made her glance at him sharply as they left the hospital.

‘You meant what you said?’ she persisted carefully as they walked down the path leading to the car park, a few thin flakes of wispy snow blowing in the icy wind. ‘About trying to help?’

‘Of course.’ He stopped at the end of the path and turned to face her, his eyes veiled. ‘It’s in my own interest after all, isn’t it? I do stand to lose as well by this deal, you know.’

‘Some money, perhaps.’ He seemed to tower over her as she looked up into his face, her honey-blonde hair blowing in silky tendrils over the satin-smooth skin of her face and her eyes huge in the dim light. ‘But my father loses everything.’

‘So do you.’ His voice was very deep as his eyes followed the soft line of her mouth. ‘But that has hardly occurred to you, has it?’ There was a faint note of bewilderment in his voice but she was thinking about her father’s face in those few minutes she had had alone with him and didn’t notice.

‘I have my work.’ She looked up at him gravely. ‘And I can find us a small flat somewhere but it will take time. How long—?’ She paused and then continued painfully. ‘How long do these sorts of things take to happen?’

‘Not long,’ Carlton said expressionlessly. ‘David has to declare himself bankrupt first and then things move fairly swiftly, I understand.’

‘It’ll kill him.’ She looked over the cold, dark car park bleakly, her face desolate, and missed the sudden tightening of his mouth at her distress. ‘Well...’ she turned to him again and indicated her car some yards away ‘...that’s my car, so if you want to follow...?’

‘Fine.’ He stood still for a brief moment, observing her quietly before striding over to the Mercedes, lost in the night shadows at the far side of the car park. She unlocked her door and slid into the car, starting the engine and turning on her lights as she waited for him to join her. The snow was falling a little more heavily now, big, flat flakes beginning to outnumber the tiny, thread-like ones of a few minutes ago. She normally found the sight entrancing but tonight her heart was too heavy for the normal elation.

As the powerful headlights of the Mercedes drew up behind her she pulled carefully out of the dark car park, the icy conditions and the fact that Carlton was just behind her making her unusually nervous. Stop it, Katie, she told herself sternly. You’re a big girl now and you’ve been driving for years.

It didn’t help.

The journey home through a world fast becoming a winter wonderland was uneventful and as she drew into the winding drive, grateful for the scrunchy pebbles under the car’s wheels instead of the black ice she had encountered more than once on the main roads, her heart plummeted right into her boots. ‘Jennifer.’

She pulled up at the side of her sister’s expensive sports car and glanced back to where Carlton had just entered the drive. What was her sister going to make of all this? And, more importantly in the circumstances, what was Carlton going to make of her sister?

She wondered, for a split-second, if she had time to dash into the house and warn Jennifer to be on her best behaviour or at least be civil, but as Carlton unfolded his long body from the front of the car and slammed the door shut she resigned herself to the fact that it was too late.

She was fumbling with her key when he reached her side, and he gestured behind her to the car as the door swung open. ‘That’s my sister’s car,’ she said hurriedly as the warm, scented air from the hall reached out a welcome. ‘She must have just arrived.’

‘Better late than never,’ Carlton murmured sardonically as he followed her into the house. ‘Or perhaps in your sister’s case that old cliché doesn’t apply?’ he added wickedly.

She didn’t have time to reply. As they entered the house both Jennifer and Mrs Jenkins appeared from the drawing-room, the former cucumber-cool and as regal as ever and the latter clearly flustered.

‘Darling...’ Jennifer’s beautiful almond-shaped blue eyes rested briefly on her sister before transferring to Carlton’s hard, dark face, whereupon they brightened considerably. ‘We’ve only just arrived, Katie,’ she continued as she remained looking at Carlton, ‘so there was no time to visit father tonight.’

‘The visiting doesn’t end till ten,’ Katie said automatically, stiffening as another figure sauntered lazily out of the drawing-room.

‘Oh, this is Donald,’ Jennifer said in an aside over her shoulder. ‘And this is...?’ She held Carlton’s impassive glance for a long moment before turning briefly to Katie. ‘Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend, sweetie?’

‘I...’ Katie found herself at a loss for words and tried desperately to pull herself together. Why on earth had Jennifer brought her current lover here now of all times? she thought helplessly. It had to be the worst possible timing.

Donald had come to a halt just behind her sister, resting a casual hand on her shoulder as he glanced nonchalantly in Katie’s direction.

‘You must be the little sister?’ he drawled with a confidence that grated on Katie’s nerves like barbed wire. ‘Been holding the fort for Jennifer, then?’ he added patronisingly.

‘She’s been doing a lot more than that.’ Carlton’s voice was crisp and clear and both Jennifer and her swain stiffened at the tone. ‘And today has been a hard day like all the other ones before it, so might I suggest that we indulge in further niceties over a cup of coffee in the drawing-room?’ The last part of the sentence he directed at Mrs Jenkins with a warm smile that had been totally absent when he had looked at Jennifer and Donald, and the small woman nodded quickly, her eyes grateful at his mastery of the situation.

‘You go and sit down, my dear,’ Mrs Jenkins said quickly as she glanced at Katie’s drawn face. ‘I’ll bring it through in a minute.’

‘Thank you, Mrs Jenkins.’ Katie didn’t know whether to be pleased or angry at Carlton’s control over them all but it was simpler to be neither. ‘I do feel exhausted tonight.’

‘Poor darling.’ Jennifer’s voice was full of sweetness as they all walked through into the drawing-room but the hard blue eyes had difficulty in leaving Carlton’s face for more than a few moments. She turned as Katie sank down into an easy-chair by the fire and held out her hand to Carlton, her eyes frankly appraising. ‘I don’t think we’ve met,’ she said directly.

‘I’m sure we haven’t.’ The mockery was back in Carlton’s voice and his eyes were cool as they looked into the beautiful face in front of him. At twenty-eight, Jennifer was in the full bloom of her beauty and she knew it. There was no similarity between the two sisters except in the colour of their hair, but whereas Katie’s was soft and wavy Jennifer’s was cut into a sleek, expensive bob that framed the lovely heart-shaped face in which the clear, vivid blue eyes with their faintly oriental slant gave her a feline attractiveness that was infinitely seductive. ‘I’m Carlton Reef,’ he continued coolly. ‘A friend of your father.’

‘A business colleague,’ Katie added from her armchair. ‘Carlton has offered to look through Dad’s papers and see if there is any way out of the mess we’re in. He was involved in a considerable loss himself.’

‘Oh, dear.’ Jennifer reluctantly withdrew her hand as Carlton let go of hers. ‘Not too bad, I hope?’ she asked sweetly.

‘I’ll survive.’ He glanced across at Donald who had been watching the little exchange with a faint frown on his good-looking face. ‘You drove Jennifer down?’ he asked pointedly.

‘Not exactly.’ Donald stiffened even as his eyes flickered beneath Carlton’s icy gaze.

‘Donald’s a close friend of mine,’ Jennifer said easily. ‘Aren’t you, darling? We thought it would be fun to have a few days out of the city together as I had to come down here anyway.’

‘Fun?’ Katie came back into the conversation with a vengeance as she saw red. ‘You are supposed to be down here to see Dad, or had you forgotten?’ she asked furiously. ‘I hardly think “fun” comes into it!’

‘Oh, don’t be an old grouch,’ Jennifer said with a total lack of heat, which told Katie that she had other fish to fry, and, as she watched her sister eat Carlton with her eyes, she had a good idea of what they might be. ‘Donald can always take my car and disappear back to the flat, can’t you, darling?’ She glanced across at him and continued without waiting for an answer, ‘And I’ll stay here to help you, Katie.’

And pigs might fly, Katie thought balefully. She knew exactly what Jennifer had in mind—she had seen that predatory gleam in her sister’s eyes before with more than one man. And she also knew the reason for the quick turn-about regarding Donald’s visit. He would cramp her style if she were to indulge in a full-scale man-bunt.

‘How sisterly.’ Carlton’s voice was bland, but as Jennifer’s eyes returned to his face she saw the cynical mockery evident in every hard line and her mouth curved in a seductive little pout. This was the sort of man she both understood and appreciated.

‘You don’t mind going back tomorrow morning, do you, darling?’ Jennifer turned to Donald with a languid wave of a limp hand. ‘Perhaps it would be better with Father so ill.’

Donald obviously did mind, very much, but just as obviously he wasn’t going to voice his protest with Carlton’s piercing grey eyes trained on his face. He shrugged once, with a shake of his blond head, and said nothing but the pale blue eyes were malevolent.

As Mrs Jenkins bustled in with the coffee-tray the conversation came to a halt for a few moments, but once the housekeeper had left and everyone was seated Jennifer spoke directly to Carlton, her eyes curious. ‘What exactly do you do, Mr Reef?’ she asked sweetly.

“‘Exactly”?’ He was openly mocking her but she didn’t seem to mind, Katie thought in amazement. She had never seen anyone treat her beautiful sister like this before; normally the boot was very definitely on the other foot. ‘Well, “exactly” might take too long to explain,’ he said easily, ‘but among other interests I own the Tone Organisation. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?’ he continued lightly as Jennifer’s slanted eyes opened as wide as they could. ‘I knew I recognised the name,’ she breathed softly. ‘I just knew it. You never told me,’ she added accusingly to Katie who was watching the little by-play with some bewilderment.

‘Told you what?’ Katie asked in surprise.

‘That you’d got the Carlton Reef down here,’ her sister said breathlessly. ‘I’ve been trying to fix up an interview with you for ages, you know,’ she added as she turned the full hundred-watt smile in Carlton’s direction. ‘The paper has been doing a series on millionaires of the nineties. Perhaps you’ve read it?’ she asked hopefully.

‘I think not’ Carlton’s voice was very dry.

‘Oh.’ Jennifer wasn’t one to let a small put-down affect her. ‘Well, your publicity department wasn’t at all helpful,’ she added with a faint touch of provocative helplessness. ‘And it would mean so much to get a scoop at the moment.’

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