Log In
Or create an account ->
Imperial Library
Home
About
News
Upload
Forum
Help
Login/SignUp
Index
CHAPTER ONE ‘CELEBRATING?’ Fergus didn’t even bother to look up from where he sat slumped in a corner of a noisy nightclub, staring down morosely into his champagne glass, totally removed from the loud music that played and the hundreds of chattering people that surrounded him drinking and smoking, and generally enjoying themselves. What a stupid question; did he look as if he were celebrating? ‘Has no one ever told you that you should never drink alone?’ Damn, the woman was still here! Couldn’t she see that alone was exactly what he wanted to be? And how he intended on remaining, he mentally added vehemently. ‘Mind if I join you?’ Of course he minded— Wow…! The woman’s persistence had at least caused him to look up, the angry dismissal that had rapidly been gathering force inside his head coming to a skidding halt. This woman—girl?—was absolutely beautiful! Barely five feet tall, she wore an above-knee-length fitted black dress revealing a slenderness, giving the impression she might
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO FERGUS woke slowly, totally disorientated for several long moments as he moved his head gingerly to look around what he recognised as the comfort of his bedroom, his head feeling as if it were full of cotton wool. How had he got here? Damned if he knew! He glanced at the bedside clock. Nine-thirty. He lay back on the pillows, his eyes once again closed. What day was it? Logan and Darcy’s wedding had been yesterday, he remembered that. So today must be Sunday, he decided. No need to worry about getting up just yet. He didn’t have anywhere else to go, no one to see, and Maud, his housekeeper, always had Sundays off. He usually worked all day on a Sunday, grabbing a sandwich to eat if he felt hungry, so there was really no need for Maud to be here— Then why could he smell coffee? Champagne delusions? Because coffee was what he most felt in need of? As he had hoped, he didn’t have a hangover, but his mouth felt as if it were full of sandpaper. A cup of coffee was very much on t
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE ‘CHLOE…?’ Fergus finally prompted when she hadn’t responded to the question he had asked her several moments ago. Surely it didn’t take this much thought to know whether or not she wanted to have dinner with him! After all, she had been the one to telephone him. Which was something he wanted to discuss with her over the dinner he had just suggested they have together later this week… ‘I’m sorry, Fergus.’ She seemed to snap out of some sort of a daze. ‘What did you say?’ Maybe she was just tired, too? After all, she couldn’t have had much sleep last night, either! ‘I asked if you would like to have dinner with me on Friday evening?’ Much as Fergus would like to have seen her before then—if only to ask her several pertinent questions!—he had his mother staying in town for the rest of the week, plus he assumed that Chloe probably worked during the week, and the start of the weekend would be more convenient for her, too. ‘I would love to. Thank you,’ she accepted warmly. ‘Whe
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR FERGUS once again found himself asking, who was Chloe Fox? She was beautiful, intelligent, had a slightly wicked sense of humour, he was learning, but who was she? ‘Peter,’ she was greeting the other man warmly now as the two shook hands. ‘How lovely to see you. Are Jean and the children all well?’ Fergus shook his head dazedly. Chloe also went to fashionable nightclubs, drove an expensive sports car, was a fashion designer with her own label—and she was on first-name terms with the former Prime Minister and his wife! Peter Ambrose smiled down at her admiringly as he slowly released her hand. Too slowly, in Fergus’s opinion! ‘Jean is with me this evening.’ The other man indicated a table across the room where his wife sat waiting for him. ‘And the “children” are now aged twenty and twenty-two!’ he added wryly. Chloe laughed softly. ‘It’s been a while,’ she acknowledged. ‘Too long,’ Peter Ambrose pressed warmly. ‘I can’t tell you how pleased we are to have Paul back with us
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE ‘EXCUSE the pun, Fergus,’ Chloe said brightly, ‘but you aren’t exactly an open book yourself!’ He knew that. He had never been particularly close to any of the women he had been involved with over the years, let alone fallen in love with any of them. He preferred to keep his inner self to himself, never allowed any of his relationships to become too important in his life. In fact, he had been accused, more than once, of being distant and aloof. But he had never before encountered those very same traits in a woman. And a very young woman, at that. ‘Touché,’ he allowed. ‘Do you think two clams like us are ever going to get to know each other?’ She smiled. ‘As I’ve already said, we might have fun trying.’ They might. Fergus just wished that he could remember their being together last Saturday. It might help if he could remember how Chloe had felt in his arms, how her nakedness had felt next to his. Was she a silent lover, or did she give voice to her pleasure? He presumed he
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX ‘HOW is the delectable Chloe?’ Fergus didn’t move a muscle as he sat in the window-seat of Brice’s studio, and yet as he heard the question concerning Chloe a cold steeliness entered a gaze that had already been distantly preoccupied as he stared sightlessly out of the window. ‘Or shouldn’t I ask…?’ Brice amended slowly as he looked over and obviously saw that steeliness. Fergus drew in a sharply ragged breath, glancing over at his cousin as he stood putting the finishing touches to the portrait of Darcy he intended giving the newly married couple as a wedding present when they returned from their honeymoon. Fergus had been here two hours now, sitting in this window-seat as Brice worked, unspeaking, totally absorbed in his own thoughts. And they had been far from pleasant! ‘You shouldn’t ask,’ he confirmed bitterly, turning away to once again stare sightlessly out of the window that faced onto Brice’s brightly sunlit garden. Just what did Chloe think she was doing? Damn it,
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN LAST Saturday night, dinner on Friday, all those things Chloe had known about him, to her they had only been a means to an end. Yes, going to bed with him had only been a means to an end! Maybe in the case of the latter it was his hurt pride that made him feel so angry, but knowing the reason for it didn’t lessen the emotion. Fergus looked across the table at Chloe now with furiously glittering eyes. ‘Tell me, Chloe—I’m curious to know—besides seducing me, exactly what was your plan of action?’ She looked startled. ‘I didn’t—’ ‘Oh, please.’ He held up protesting hands. ‘Being Paul Hamilton’s daughter, you must have had some plan in mind.’ Her cheeks flushed angrily, eyes flashing deeply blue. ‘Don’t talk about my father in that derogatory way!’ Yes, he decided consideringly, he could see the likeness between father and daughter now, the same dark hair, the same deep blue eyes, a certain similarity in the facial structure. Chloe was the daughter of the former Minister Paul
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT FERGUS had guessed, from her glaring look in his direction, that Chloe expected him to refuse the invitation. That, in itself, was enough to make him want to accept! ‘I’ll leave the two of you to discuss it,’ Paul Hamilton told them tactfully as he sensed their indecision. He turned to smile at Fergus. ‘Chloe will bring you through to my study when you’ve finished talking.’ Fergus watched with observing eyes as the older man left the room. Paul Hamilton looked exactly like the numerous photographs Fergus had of him. But those photographs hadn’t been able to project the candidness of his gaze, or the warm pride in his voice as he talked of his beautiful daughter… ‘You have to refuse,’ that beautiful daughter was now telling Fergus in an angry hiss. ‘You couldn’t be so hypocritical as to accept!’ she added disgustedly. The high colour in her cheeks suited her, Fergus decided abstractly, adding to her beauty, and giving depth to the angry blue sparkle of her eyes. He hadn’t
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE ‘I’M NOT the enemy, Chloe,’ Fergus told her grimly, very aware that she certainly regarded him as such. ‘In fact,’ he continued carefully, ‘I would like to talk to you later. Alone. I have a proposal to put to you.’ She gave him a startled look. ‘A what?’ Fergus smiled humourlessly at her obvious shock. ‘Not that sort of proposal, Chloe,’ he corrected. ‘A suggestion. An idea I have that might help both of us,’ he enlarged. Chloe looked scathing now. ‘Why do I have the feeling I’m not going to like this idea?’ ‘Probably because at the moment you don’t particularly like anything about me?’ ‘I wouldn’t have clarified that remark with at the moment,’ she told him flatly, turning to uncooperatively look out of the side window. Fergus couldn’t help but smile at her candidness. Although…come to think of it, what she had said wasn’t that funny, he realised. Did she really not like him at all? In the circumstances, he couldn’t exactly say he blamed her, but that didn’t make the fac
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN CHLOE, Fergus realised in the split second before her hand slowly began to rise from her side, was going to hit him! He reached out and easily grasped the wrist of that threatening hand. ‘I don’t think so, Chloe,’ he warned. She struggled in that grasp, her face suffused with angry colour. ‘You bastard!’ she gasped. ‘You scheming—’ ‘I’m scheming?’ he echoed incredulously. ‘—blackmailing—’ ‘Stop right there, Chloe,’ he bit out harshly, his hand tightening on her wrist. ‘Before you say something we’re both going to regret!’ She glared up at him, breathing hard. ‘I won’t regret it!’ ‘I don’t know what context you’ve put on my idea—although, from your reaction, I can guess!’ he rasped disgustedly. ‘But I am most definitely not suggesting an exchange, my silence about Victoria’s involvement for information on your father and Susan Stirling.’ He was angry himself now. Furiously so. ‘If I were the type of man to want something in exchange for my silence, you can be assured I would
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN THE ringing doorbell was not a welcome interruption to Fergus’s solitary dinner. Not that he was particularly enjoying the wonderful steak and kidney pudding Maud had prepared for him; he hadn’t tasted a single mouthful he had eaten so far. He simply wasn’t in the mood for company. It had not been a good weekend after his unsatisfactory parting from Chloe on Friday evening, and the week itself was getting progressively worse. He groaned as the doorbell rang again, knowing that with his car still parked in the driveway rather than put away in the garage, as it should be, it must be obvious to the caller that he was definitely at home. In any other circumstances, he would have been thrilled to find Chloe standing on the doorstep, but, with the information he had so recently obtained, she was the very last person he wanted to see! Not that she didn’t look absolutely lovely, because she did, the simply designed black dress she wore a perfect foil for her long dark hair and c
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE ‘YOU know, laddie, as I see it there are two solutions to your problem.’ Fergus looked irritatedly across at his grandfather as the two of them enjoyed a pre-lunch whisky at Fergus’s home, his grandfather having travelled down to London the previous day on one of his monthly visits. At least…his grandfather was obviously enjoying his whisky; Fergus hadn’t enjoyed anything in over a week now. ‘Problem?’ he frowned. His grandfather nodded, a distinguished-looking man of almost eighty, his face unlined, his body still slimly fit, only the whiteness of his hair, and the wisdom in his gaze, an indication of his age. ‘You can either marry the lassie, Fergus, or forget about her. And, if you don’t mind my saying so, you don’t seem to be having too much luck doing the latter!’ Fergus frowned across at the elderly man. ‘What lass—er, girl?’ he said finally. Guardedly… His grandfather sighed. ‘As you know, I had dinner with Brice last night—’ ‘And my dear cousin told you about Chl
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN ‘WELL, laddie, it seems to me you’ve got yourself into a merry old tangle,’ Fergus’s grandfather pronounced. The two of them were lingering over brandies after their meal. A meal Fergus had neither eaten nor enjoyed. ‘I can assure you, there’s nothing merry about it,’ Fergus answered dully. He had returned to the house, eventually, more out of consideration for his grandfather than a real wish to be here. Over lunch the elderly man had dragged the whole sorry story from him. Fergus couldn’t say he wasn’t glad to share it with someone, but his grandfather’s condemnation was all he needed on top of his own feelings of guilt. ‘And you say Chloe has no idea of the truth?’ His grandfather looked serious. ‘None,’ Fergus confirmed heavily. ‘And before you say it—I have no intention of telling her what really happened, either!’ He looked at his grandfather unblinkingly. ‘I made a promise to Paul Hamilton over a week ago that the truth would go no further than the four walls of
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN FERGUS tightened his grip on Chloe’s hand as he sensed she was about to remove it. This situation had arisen so quickly it had spiralled out of his control. If he could do nothing else for Chloe, he could at least be here for her. Even if she didn’t want him to be! ‘David?’ Penny pressed her husband again, her expression full of tenderness, but at the same time resigned. Fergus couldn’t help wishing it hadn’t come to this, and he shot his grandfather a reproving look, knowing that in this case Hugh had been the catalyst to this situation. He had obviously decided to take matters into his own hands this afternoon, the visit to Logan just a ruse—and, dearly as Fergus had always loved and admired his grandfather, at this particular moment he felt like strangling him! Paul Hamilton stood up. ‘I really don’t want you to do this, Penny.’ He crossed to his eldest daughter’s side. ‘There’s really no need, darling,’ he assured her as he took her in his arms. Penny gazed at him
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN ‘OH, FERGUS, isn’t this just wonderful?’ Chloe exclaimed happily at his side. ‘I’m so happy I want to cry,’ she added emotionally. ‘Hormones, my love,’ Fergus drawled indulgently, although he knew it wasn’t just Chloe’s two-month pregnancy that made her so weepy; today really was a wonderful day for them all. But especially for Chloe’s father. Yesterday he and his political party had achieved a landslide victory in the general election, and today Peter Ambrose had asked Paul to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. The party had started a couple of hours ago at the home of Chloe’s parents, and looked like going on well into the evening and night, all the family here, including Fergus’s, and many other people from the world of business and politics. He and Chloe had been married for six months now, had returned from Chloe’s successful Paris show only last month, and Fergus knew they had been the happiest six months of his life. Now, with Chloe’s pregnancy confirmed only this m
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
← Prev
Back
Next →
← Prev
Back
Next →