Unknown (19 page)

'If you come quietly,' he said, 'I won't need to be a bully.'

The lift stopped and he gripped her arm to make sure they went out together.

'I'm waiting here for David,' she said, wrenching free of him.

'The name's not right for you,' Matt replied. 'It would take a Goliath like me to handle a female like you!'

'Brute force
is
the only way you could get me,' she agreed, putting as much contempt as she could in the words.

'I deserve contempt, Caroline. That's why I've come to make my peace with you.'

'You could have chosen a better place—and not when I'm with another man.'

'If I'd rung you, would you have seen me?'

'No,' she lied. 'Never.'

Matt's skin lost its colour, and with it he seemed to lose some of his confidence too, a surprising happening in a man as sure of himself as Matthew Bishop.

Behind them the lift doors opened and David emerged. 'There you are, Caroline!' he exclaimed. 'I thought I'd lost you.'

'You have,' Matt said tersely, but with feeling. 'Sorry about it, but there's no point in not being honest.'

David looked at Caroline. 'Do you want me to go?' He read the answer in her face. 'Don't look so upset,' he said gently. 'I think I always knew I wasn't the one for you.'

'Nor is he,' she said, giving Matt a look of disgust. 'I'll phone you,' she promised David.

He nodded and stepped back into the lift.

'Decent chap,' Matt commented. 'This time the best man isn't going to win!'

'Nor are you. I don't want anything to do with you, Matt.'

'Hear me out first,' he said. 'I beg you.'

'Matthew Bishop begging?' she taunted.

'On my knees if need be.'

More people came out of the lift, pushing them as they surged forward, and Caroline took advantage of the bustle to run towards the Penthouse Suite.

It was crammed full, as was the huge private terrace, which gave a magnificent view over Hyde Park.

'Caroline, how lovely to see you and ... Matt!' Ann's voice rose an octave when she saw the man behind Caroline.

'Forgive me for coming uninvited,' he said with charm, 'but I knew you'd be happy to see me.'

Ann looked from one to the other. 'I'm delighted. Help yourself to some champagne.' She stopped a passing waiter who was bearing a tray of glasses.

'If you'd let go of my arm,' Caroline muttered through gritted teeth, 'I could take a glass.'

'We'll celebrate later,' he said. 'First we must talk.'

Ann grinned. 'I'll leave you to it then.'

She went on her way and Caroline tried to pull free of Matt. 'Do you intend holding me all night?' she asked furiously.

'Nothing would make me happier.'

Not giving her any chance to pull back, he dragged her through the crowded room into the corridor.

'Where are you taking me?' she panted, having to run to keep up with him.

'Somewhere quiet where we can talk. I've booked a room here.'

Fear clutched at her stomach. Was this part of Matt's revenge for the way she had left him? Had he finally discovered how she had duped him during the weeks they had been together?

'Don't look so worried,' he said roughly. 'I'm not going to rape you!' Taking a key from his pocket, he unlocked a door and pushed her into an elegantly furnished bedroom. 'Now sit still and listen to me.'

Shaking, but trying not to let him see it, she moved as far from him as possible and sat down on a silk-upholstered armchair.

Matt was silent for a moment, studying her face and the contours of her body. 'I'm glad you look almost as bloody as I do,' was his opening remark.

She glared at him, seeing that he too had lost weight. From running around with his starlets, she thought, and felt her anger increase.

'Say what you have to, Matt, and then please let me go.'

'That's what I intend. The first part at least, but I hope not the second.' He looked at her anxiously. 'I owe you an apology, Caroline. I've behaved like a fool and I damn nearly ruined both our lives in the process. You are the only woman who has meant anything to me, and I mistrusted you, as I did everyone else. I want to apologise for that.'

'Apology accepted. Now open the door.'

'No. You still hate me—if you didn't you wouldn't look at me with such hard eyes. I don't blame you for it. In your place I'd be the same.'

'Since you understand how I feel ...' she said, rising on shaky legs.

'I won't let you go,' he said flatly. 'I'll never let you go. I want to marry you, damn it!'

'Marry me?' she echoed, and fell back into the chair.

'Yes.' His eyes softened as they moved over her face. 'I love you, Caroline. I didn't realise how much until you left me.'

'You mean you're willing to marry me in order to get me back?'

He frowned slightly, as if puzzling over his answer. 'Even if you were willing to come back without marriage, I'd still want to make you my wife.' He knelt in front of her and clasped her hands tightly in his. 'This is the traditional way, isn't it? I love you,' he said seriously, 'and I want you to marry me.'

'I'm surprised,' she said evenly. 'You haven't acted as if you missed me.'

'Because I was trying to get you out of my mind. But I couldn't. I went from one bed to another, but it was all meaningless. Without love, how else could it be? You taught me that.'

She was silent, and nervousness brought him to his feet,

'You do still love me, don't you, Caroline? Why won't you admit it?'

'My "old friend" wouldn't like it if I did.'

He knew instantly that she was thinking of their last meeting in Marbella.

'What a fool you must have thought me,' he said savagely. 'But I was so tormented by jealousy, I couldn't think straight.'

'So when did you start straightening your corkscrew mind?' she demanded sarcastically.

'I don't know—I'll be honest about that. But bit by bit I started to see how empty my whole life was. Then I began to think about the sort of person you were and why I loved
you
and no one else. Soon after that I realised you'd never marry a man just for security.'

'I'm delighted by your testimonial, Matt. I may ask you to put it in writing for me one day.'

'I'll do it now,' he said quietly. 'My signature on our wedding certificate. My life in your hands.' He leaned over her and caught them, drawing them to his lips. 'You're everything I dreamed of and never hoped to find.'

Though touched by his words, she was determined not to give in to him. There was a great deal more he still had to confess.

'Caroline,
please.'
He pulled her into his arms and she went, unresisting, accepting that he was too strong for her to fight. 'Say you love me. Say it!'

Her trembling body answered for her, but when he went to kiss her, she turned her head away sharply.

'No, Matt. I do love you—I can't deny it—but I'll never marry you.'

She expected him to argue; to shout and storm around the room, even to make violent love to her. Instead he released her and stepped back, his mouth moving as if he were in pain.

'Very well. If that's the way you feel... I can understand it, but I won't accept it. I'll start courting you properly, a real old-fashioned wooing—flowers and chocolates and weekends with your uncle and aunt. Everything straight and above board, the way you deserve.'

Caroline was almost too amazed to speak, and forcibly had to restrain herself from rushing into his arms. But he had still not told her the total truth about his behaviour, and until he did, she would remain unbending.

'I can't stop you from trying, Matt.' She went to the door. 'But you won't succeed.'

'I'm a fighter.'

She turned the handle.

'Caroline!' His voice was urgent. 'There's something else I have to say. Something else you should know.'

Her heart started to beat faster and she remained by the door.

'I don't know how to begin,' he muttered, and took an angry pace around the room. 'Until I met you I believed every woman had her price. But you were different. You played hard to get and to my amazement there was nothing I could do to break down your resistance. That made me all the more determined to have you. Marriage never entered my head, as you know, and since I knew you wouldn't accept money to live with me, I had to be devious.' He paused and ran his tongue over his lips, as if it were an effort to talk. 'When Mark told me Tom was in money trouble, I suddenly saw a way of getting you. I told Mark I'd give him the money to settle Tom's debts, providing he could get you to accept my proposal, and I made sure Mark gave Tom the impression it was going to be a proposal of marriage—although I was careful not to include that word on the contract you signed.' Matt gave her an anguished look. 'That's the sort of bastard I am.'

Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. 'Why didn't you tell me all this before when I walked out on you?'

'I was too angry. When you repaid Mark, I thought you'd got the money from another man.'

'I did,' she said. 'An advertising executive.'

'I wish you'd told me.'

'I wanted to hurt you. And you were so quick to believe the worst of me.'

'I'd got into the habit of believing the worst of women,' he said. 'I've been in hell since we parted.' He moved towards her, then stopped. 'You probably despise me even more now than you did before. But I had to tell you the whole truth. I didn't want to begin again with you unless it could be a totally open relationship. I'll let you simmer down a bit before I start knocking at the door again.'

'I've known for a long while that you were behind Mark's offer,' she said bluntly.

'What?
Who told you?'

Briefly she explained about Tom returning to the yacht for his watch, and overhearing Matt talking to Mark.

'From then on,' she concluded, 'I vowed to make you pay for your behaviour—and I don't mean with money, Matt, but with wounded pride. I played you for a fool. I got drunk deliberately on that first night, and I took sleeping pills to make sure I collapsed.'

'Deliberately?'
he repeated.

'Yes. And I deliberately added chervil to the coq au vin because I knew you were allergic to it.'

'I suppose you also deliberately fell on the bar of soap and gave yourself a slipped disc?'

'I didn't slip my disc—luckily. But I did step on to the soap with my eyes wide open.'

Matt glared at her in fury, then a gleam appeared in his eyes and his shoulders began to move, slightly at first, but gaining momentum until he was shaking with laughter. Caroline watched him, then she too began to laugh, collapsing on the bed in a paroxysm of near-hysteria.

Only as Matt's arms came round her did her laughter cease. He was beside her on the bed, his thighs heavy on hers as he pressed her down.

'I deserved every single thing you did,' he muttered against her cheek. 'It looks as if I've met my match in you!'

She raised a hand and stroked the side of his face. 'I'm glad you know the truth. The only part I regret was giving you that chervil. I'd no idea you would have such a horrible reaction.'

'So you had a conscience about it, eh? I'm glad to hear it.' His mouth hovered inches above hers. 'Do you forgive me about Mark? That's much more important for me to know.'

'I forgave you the very instant you told me about it. That's all I was waiting for, Matt—for you to tell me the truth.'

'I see.' He gave a deep sigh and relaxed upon her. 'So I can start wooing today?'

'Providing you finish it by the end of the week,' she said demurely. 'I don't think I can hold out longer than that.'

'I'm damn sure I can't,' he said fervently. 'Tell me, my little wretch, what's Plan Four going to be?'

'Surrender,' she said promptly, and deftly twisted from under him to stand by the side of the bed.

He half-turned and lay on his back, watching her from beneath mocking brows. 'Tell me, Caroline, do you love me as much as I love you?'

The question surprised her. 'I can only answer for myself, Matt. I love you with all my heart. I won't say any more. I'll let the years show you,'

'Show me now.' With slow gestures he undid his jacket and loosened his tie. 'Prove it by letting me make love to you.'

Warmth flooded through her body. She wanted to resist him, yet she did not want him to think she did not trust him to marry her. She
did
trust him. Eyes lowered, she slipped off her shoes and crept on to the bed again.

'Yes, Matt,' she whispered, 'I will.'

'Thank you, my darling, but the answer is no.' Smoothly he swung off the bed and caught her up with him, hugging her in a rib-breaking embrace. 'Definitely no,' he repeated. 'I have no intention of letting you take advantage of me like that! Before you get me on a bed again, sweet Caroline, you'll have to make an honest man of me!'

Laughing, she gave him her lips. 'Whenever you say, Matt, whenever you say.'