Marriage at His Convenience

With the benefit of hindsight Amber had come to realise that Lucas had been right about Spiro. She should never have given him the money, because within a week of the gallery opening Tim and Spiro had split up. Spiro had been having an affair with the artist of ‘Body Parts’.

Tim had returned to England, and back to his home in Northumbria. Six months later he had received a brief note, not from Spiro, but from a New York clinic telling him to get himself tested. Spiro had been HIV positive, as had been the artist lover who had somehow forgotten to mention the fact!

Restlessly Amber swivelled around in her chair, and stared out of the plate-glass window of her office, not really seeing what was beyond. She felt guilty and half blamed herself for Spiro’s illness. If she hadn’t given him the money, he would not have gone to New York, and it might never have happened.

Tim was a successful wildlife artist living and working from his home in the north and perfectly healthy. He had told her over and over again, it was not her fault Spiro had done what he had. Tim firmly believed Amber and himself had both fallen victims to the charm of the Karadines men; it was that simple, and they had both had a lucky escape.

Swivelling back to face her desk, Amber picked up the telephone and dialled Tim’s number in Thropton. He had a right to know Spiro was dead.

The conversation was not as difficult as she had expected. Tim was quite philosophical about it: the past was past—so they had lost a good friend, but in reality they had lost him years ago.

‘You’re right, Tim…’ Suddenly her office door swung open and someone walked in unannounced. Amber lifted her head. Recognition was instant, her golden eyes widening in shock. ‘I’ll see you soon, love,’ she finished her conversation, and replaced the receiver.

She was thankful she was sitting down because she doubted her legs would support her. Lucas Karadines… She didn’t dare meet his cold black eyes, and, carefully taking deep breaths, she sought to calm her suddenly erratic pulse. She should have expected this as soon as she had read the line ‘something to her advantage’ she realised too late.

He was standing in the middle of her office as though he owned the place. Amber’s first thought was that Lucas at forty-one looked little different than he had done when they had first met. His body beneath the conservatively tailored charcoal-grey suit was still lithe and firm, his face was still handsome, but the harsh symmetry of bones and flesh mirrored a cold bitterness that she had never noticed before. He looked lean and as predatory as ever, but he looked older, harder than she would have expected for a happily married man, was her second thought. The lines bracketing his mouth were deeper, the hair at his temples liberally streaked with silver. But nothing could detract from the aura of dynamic, vibrant male he wore like a powerful cloak, masking his ruthlessly chauvinistic nature. He would be a handsome devil to his dying day, Amber acknowledged wryly.

Amber felt colour creeping under her skin as he made no immediate attempt to either move or speak. His hands were slanted casually into his trouser pockets, accentuating the musculature of his long legs. His eyes were hooded so she could not tell what he was thinking as they slid slowly over her head and shoulders to where the collar of her blue silk blouse revealed a glimpse of cleavage. She fought the impulse to slip her suit jacket off the back of the chair and put it on. This was her office, and Lucas was the intruder, and as he made no attempt to break the tense silence between them she finally found her voice.

‘What do you want?’ she asked abruptly.

Lucas Karadines for the first time in his life was struck dumb. The instant tightening in his groin shocked him into silence. His body had not reacted this way in years. His memory of Amber had not done her justice. She’d matured into the most exquisitely beautiful woman he had ever seen. His dark eyes drank in the sight of her. The hair scraped back from her face only accentuated the perfection of her features, the elegant line of her throat, the shadowed cleft between her luscious breasts her conservative blouse could not quite hide.

‘Not a great welcome for an old friend,’ Lucas finally murmured, his dark eyes gleaming with mockery, before scanning the elegant office. ‘So this is your domain.’

A corner suite with windows on two sides, it was light and airy, and in keeping with her present position in the firm as the youngest partner, and Amber was justifiably proud of her achievements. ‘Obviously,’ she said dryly.

‘You have done well for yourself, but then I always said you would.’ Lucas’s glance skimmed lightly over her desk as he moved towards it, noting her hand still on the phone. ‘Sorry if I interrupted your conversation with your lover, but you and I have some pressing business to discuss.’

Her hand gripping the telephone was white-knuckled, and, realising she was betraying her shock, she smoothly slipped her hands to her lap and managed to smile coolly back at him. She was fiercely glad that the sophisticate she had pretended to be when they had first met was now a reality. She refused to be intimidated by Lucas—or any man, for that matter.

‘I can’t imagine we have anything to discuss, Mr Karadines. As far as I am aware you are a client of Janson’s and I am not in the habit of poaching my father’s clients.’ It gave her great satisfaction to say it. Whether Lucas was aware Sir David was her father, she did not know. But she was making it abundantly clear he was not about to treat her like some inferior being to be discarded like yesterday’s newspaper as he had before.

‘Yes, I heard. I’m surprised you didn’t choose to join Sir David’s firm,’ he opined smoothly. ‘I seem to remember Clive Thompson was rather keen on the idea.’

‘He still is,’ Amber shot back, angry that Lucas had the nerve to remind her of that horrible party. ‘But I like it at Brentford’s and I don’t believe in nepotism,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Nor mixing business with pleasure.’ Let him make of that what he liked. She’d been dating Clive for the past year and part of the reason she had spent the last couple of weeks on holiday was to decide if she should accept Clive’s proposal of marriage.

‘Very wise of you. I dispensed with their services myself some months ago.’

That did surprise her. Neither Clive nor Mark, her half-brother, who had been the head of the firm since their father had retired two years ago, had mentioned the fact.

‘I didn’t know,’ she said blandly, implying that she didn’t really care.

‘Now, if there is nothing further, I am rather busy.’ Tilting back her head, she stared up at him, deliberately holding his eyes. ‘And it is usual to make an appointment.’ The sarcasm in her tone was very evident. ‘I am a busy lady.’

Lucas was not the slightest bit fazed. ‘I’m sure you are, Amber—a little too busy, it would seem.’

Amber raised her eyebrows. ‘Too busy, says a man who was the most driven, competitive workaholic!’ she mocked lightly. ‘Marriage has changed you. How is the family? Well, I hope.’ She was proud of her ability to ask the conventional question, and was surprised to realise it actually did not hurt at all.

Lucas stilled, his handsome face as expressionless as stone. ‘I have no family. Spiro was the last—that is why I am here.’

Amber’s face went white. Oh, God! In her shock at seeing Lucas again, she had forgotten all about Spiro’s death. How could she have been so callous? ‘I’m sorry, Lucas, truly sorry,’ she hastened into an explanation. ‘I only found out this morning. I’ve been on holiday, and the news hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’m sorry I missed the funeral. Please sit down.’ She indicated a chair at the opposite side of the desk with the wave of her hand. ‘I’ll order some coffee.’ She was babbling, she knew, and, pressing for her secretary, she quickly asked Sandy to bring in two coffees.

He lowered his long length into the chair she had indicated. ‘Cut out the phoney sympathy, Amber,’ he commanded bluntly. ‘We both know Spiro hated my guts, and the fact he left everything he possessed to you simply underlined the fact.’

‘He what?’ she exclaimed, her golden eyes widening in astonishment on Lucas’s hard face, and what she saw in his night-black eyes sent a shiver of something very like fear quivering down her spine. ‘No, I don’t believe you,’ she amended quickly. ‘Spiro wouldn’t.’ Then she remembered the ‘something to her advantage’.

‘Yes, Spiro would, and did, and your innocent act does not impress me,’ he said harshly. ‘You knew damn fine you stood to inherit Spiro’s share of the business.’