Forgotten Father (21 page)

So why ask her to marry him?

If he actually thought her an amoral courtesan who
bartered herself for ill-gotten gains, then why had he been acting
so sweet to her? Why buy her this ring, its heart-shaped rock now
weighing down her finger and her heart?

Did he actually believe so much bad of her?

Wrestling with a sense of bafflement, Delanie
couldn’t figure out where he’d originally gotten the impression
that she was sleeping with Donovan. With all that she knew of him
now, she guessed that he’d most likely assumed it, not having any
foundation to consider the possibility that she’d simply liked his
grandfather as a person. They’d shared an affinity for this old
place.

But Mitchell believed she had manipulated his
grandfather. It would fit Mitchell’s cold, doubting soul to assume
something so harsh about a woman. She knew Donovan wouldn’t have
lied to his grandson about her, so Mitchell had to have draw his
condemning conclusions himself.

How puzzled he must have been by her behavior these
last few weeks, Delanie thought, a harsh, painful laugh escaping
her. She’d treated him like a stranger because her mind had blocked
him out, too wounded to cope with his loss. His accusations.

Did he even know now about the struggle she’d had
with her memory?

She thought back over the last few weeks. The staff
at The Cedars was like a small town when it came to gossip. Yes, he
must have heard about her accident, must have been told the juicy
news about her amnesia.

There hadn’t seemed much point in keeping it a
secret from her friends and co-workers. Although, she’d shrunk from
confiding in Mitchell himself, which was interesting. Had some
unconscious watchful part of her questioned his sincerity?

Because he was obviously lying to her. This damned
ring and his words about needing her.

Delanie wrenched the ring over her knuckle and flung
it on the bed, the heart-shaped stone catching fire from the
sun.

Okay. So Mitchell didn’t love her—had he actually
ever said that he did? She couldn’t remember if he had, and she
would have remembered that, even as lost in his arms as she’d been
last night.

He didn’t love her. Didn’t trust her enough to be
open about their past interaction when he’d discovered her memory
loss. Wasn’t that proof enough of his perfidy? Proof that his cash
register heart had won out? If he’d really loved her—trusted
her—he’d have talked with her about that long-ago weekend.

Yet, he’d asked her to marry him. Why?

The cozy silence of the cottage ticked silently in
around her.

Jenna.

A cold clutch of fear slammed into Delanie. Her ears
buzzing unpleasantly, she remembered what he’d said last night
about raising her child
as his own.
The bastard. He was
after Jenna. The child he didn’t want to “confuse” by having her
find a strange man in her mother’s bed.

Since he knew about their interlude, he must have
realized Jenna was his child.

What had Connie said? That he’d stopped by the house
yesterday morning and acted funny when he’d met her baby girl?
Connie had said he looked thunderstruck when he’d discovered the
baby was hers. Delanie had thought only that he’d been upset to
discover her motherhood, the existence of a child in her life.

Until this moment, she hadn’t realized what a shock
Jenna must have been to him.

Fighting a wave of nausea, she grappled with the
thought of losing her child. He was rich…and she had the bizarre
history of blocking out intensely emotional periods of her life.
Could he use her amnesia to get custody of Jenna? Take her baby
away from her?

For long minutes, Delanie fought the panic clawing
at her. She couldn’t lose her child. Couldn’t let her baby’s life
be torn apart by a man who couldn’t really love.

Then with a slam of both anger and relief, she
realized why Mitchell had proposed her.

Jenna. He’d asked Delanie to marry him so he could
be in Jenna’s life on a daily basis. He must not be planning to
fight her for custody if he’d asked her to marry him.

What a twisted, calculating man. Still, even though
he didn’t have a heart, there must have been some less chilly part
of himself more concerned with his child than with himself.

What an agony this must be for him. Mistrustful,
quick-to-judge, fearful Mitchell forced to marry a mercenary woman
in order to gain his child without putting her through the ordeal
of a custody fight.

Rolling over, Delanie buried her face in the pillow
he’d used just hours before. Hot tears welled up behind her
eyelids. Mitchell, the poor little twisted rich boy who couldn’t
trust love.

The money he protected so fiercely had robbed him of
his heart.

CHAPTER TEN

At least, now she knew why Mitchell’s values were
warped, Delanie thought bitterly as she got out of bed.

If she’d learned anything in the last few weeks,
she’d discovered that Mitchell had grown up believing women
couldn’t be trusted. Not where money was involved. And he had so
damned much money that it was always involved in every aspect of
every romantic liaison.

His own mother had sold him for a million
dollars.

Delanie could have kicked herself. She’d made a
complete mess of this, made a terrible mistake that first night by
taking him into her arms. Yes, they fit together.
Clicked.
His too serious outlook and her tendency for flippancy balanced
each other in a weird way. Even though he maddened her with his
closed mind, he grounded her too, made her feel secure.

But she hadn’t really known him the first time
they’d made love. And not knowing him had left her unable to give
him what he needed. Wasn’t that what love was supposed to be about?
Doing what was best for the loved one?

She never should have slept with him that first
night, never should have act so rashly on her immediate sense of
connection with him. These last few months, she’d had the chance to
really come to know him as a person. It was as if her amnesia had
given her the opportunity to connect with him the way she should
have the first time.

The bizarre working of her memory seemed almost to
be trying for a “do-over” with Mitchell, a time to make up for her
mistakes. Only life didn’t really work like that.

He hadn’t forgotten their first encounter. Far from
it. If anything, he had to be more firmly convicted of her
guilt.

He deserved to be beaten within an inch of his life
for mistrusting her so. In a tangled mix of emotion, she both loved
him and hated him. Still, she saw her own mistakes clearly.

Mitchell had needed to know her a long time before
they came together intimately, needed to come to see the person she
was, unclouded by passion. That was the only way he’d have learned
to trust her, if he was even capable of doing so.

But she’d foolishly followed her own impulses. Her
own sense of immediate connection. How flawed it had been.

In listening to her emotion, to her complete
intuition that this man was perfect for her, she’d done things that
led to their both being hurt.

And Jenna, sweet, golden-haired Jenna without a
father all these months.

Hearing her daughter’s voice babbling down the hall,
Delanie reached for her robe. The movement brought her gaze down to
the ring on the quilt, the lovely, heart-shaped diamond. Large, but
not obscene, it twinkled in the sunlight like a living thing.

Sadness and bitterness welled up inside her.

Tugging on the robe, she went down the short hall.
In Jenna’s sunny bedroom, she found the baby standing in her bed,
vocalizing with a broad smile on her face.

“Good morning, sweetie,” she said, lifting her
daughter for a hug. As always, the warm, wiggly body brought her
comfort. The situation couldn’t be as bad as it seemed, not as long
as she had her daughter.

If Mitchell was willing to marry her in order to
live with his baby, he must at least care a little for their child.
And could he marry her, if he really believed so badly of her?

Unless, he was after something else. They were
sleeping together already, so it wasn’t sex he was after. Too, a
man like Mitchell didn’t have trouble finding bed partners.

So what else could he be after?

Delanie placed the baby on her changing table and
lifted a hand to smack herself on the forehead.

The Cedars.

If Mitchell married her and took on the role of
Jenna’s stepfather, perhaps had another child with her, he’d be
able to make sure the resort stayed in his family.

As business strategies went, she had to give him
credit, Delanie thought bitterly. But just because she’d stupidly
fallen in love with the guy, didn’t keep her from wanting to smack
him.

She wasn’t sure how to sort out the tangle, but one
thing was perfectly clear. She couldn’t marry Mitchell. Not even
for Jenna.

She couldn’t let him be convinced that love and
money were always linked and he would be convinced of that fact, if
she gave into her stupid heart’s longing and married him.

Somehow, she had to find the strength to refuse the
proposal of the only man she’d ever loved.

******

Mitchell traversed the hall leading to Donovan’s
office. Not four hours ago, he’d crawled out of Delanie’s warm bed
and snuck away from her cottage, determined to protect his infant
daughter from the kind of sordid display so many children lived
with daily. His Jenna wouldn’t wake up to find a strange man in
mommy’s bed.

Soon he’d have a right to be there, waking up every
morning in the middle of a family.

Just now as he was finishing his breakfast in his
suite, he’d received a message from Delanie, asking him to meet her
in Donovan’s lair.

He smiled, satisfaction pervading his body. He
couldn’t think of her warm, sleep-kissed face without wanting to
take her into his arms. Even though he knew her basic nature, he
still felt himself drawn to her warmth. He was a fool.

Pausing at the door of his grandfather’s office, he
congratulated himself on his plan. In one step, he’d gained daily
access to his child and secured her mother’s cooperation on a
prenuptial agreement that he would make sure settled The Cedar’s
ownership on Jenna. In addition, he’d bought himself a wife whose
slightest smile drove his passion into the explosive range. For
better or worse, he’d make love to her every night. She might not
really love him, might not be capable of seeing past the dollar
signs, but he’d do his damnedest to make the marriage work.

Going into the office, he spotted Delanie there,
seated in the chair behind his grandfather’s massive rosewood
desk.

“
Good morning,” he said, his gaze
lingering on her.

She sat behind the desk, her sleek red-gold hair
framing her beautiful face, her slender curves discreet in a dress
of some kind of rust-colored fabric. Despite the surprisingly
serious expression on her face, she looked as sexy and desirable as
usual.

“Good morning, Mitchell.” The generous curve of her
mouth settled into a straight line, still soft, but unsmiling. His
gazed dropped to the desk top where Delanie held a small black
velvet jeweler’s box, her fingers fidgeting over the soft
fabric.

A streak of cold bolted through him, settling in his
gut with a thump.

He shut the door behind him. What could be the
matter? Was she planning to up the ante now after he’d spent
another glorious night in her arms? Would she demand he make her a
financial settlement? Maybe refuse to sign the prenup despite her
earlier agreement to do so?

He’d thought she agreed too quickly. Now that she
had him by the throat, she was changing the game?

“You look serious this morning,” he said, keeping
his tone light.

“I am.” She cleared her throat, the muscles of her
neck working. “I—I can’t marry you.”

Mitchell sat down in the chair facing the desk, not
even blinking at her announcement. It was just the initial salvo in
what he knew would be a long game of move and counter-move. He’d
done this a thousand times in the way of business.

Despite his experience with the process, he’d never
much liked negotiation. Now, he discovered he hated it.

“You can’t marry me?” He reached across the desk and
covered her fidgeting hands with one of his own.

She swallowed hard, pulling away from his touch.
“No.”

Controlling his urge to demand what the hell she was
up to, he took a moment to calm his hammering pulse.

“
I could point out that we’re
perfectly suited lovers, but that isn’t the problem, is it?” he
said softly. “Tell me the obstacles to our marriage and let me find
a way to make them disappear.”

Delanie looked at him for a long moment, something
like sadness in her green eyes. Slowly, she drew her hands farther
away from his, leaving the ring box on the desk between them.

“
Mitchell,” she said, very
deliberately, “I remember everything now. My memory came back
completely this morning when I woke up.”

Consternation flashed through him at her words,
quickly followed by anger. So this was the way they were going to
play the game. He’d have expected something better of her than this
first-she-doesn’t-remember, now-she-does game.

Letting his irritation get the better of him, he
feigned ignorance himself, saying in a puzzled tone. “You remember
everything?”

A sorrowful smile quirked her lips. “Yes. Everything
that happened between us eighteen months ago.”

He stared at her, allowing some of the grimness he
felt to seep into his expression.

Her laugh was short. “Don’t try and convince me that
you’re
disassociating now. You know exactly what I’m talking
about.”

His brain raced through the possible scenarios as he
mentally swore at the beautiful woman across the desk. Over and
over, she’d played him like a sucker, always tempting and elusive,
giving him just a taste of what he wanted before yanking on the
line to set the hook in his mouth.