A Vow of Obligation (Marriage by Command 3)

‘Let’s not,’ she said woodenly, turning on her side so that her back was turned to him. ‘My system’s very irregular—I’m pretty sure we won’t have anything to worry about.’

But in spite of that breezy assurance she was still lying wide awake and worrying long after the deep even sound of his breathing had alerted her to the fact that he had gone back to sleep. Why, oh, why had she chosen to overlook the fact that he was paying her thousands of pounds to pretend to be his fiancée? Money problems always changed the nature of relationships, she thought wretchedly. The cash angle had put a wall between them. It was the single biggest difference between them, that reminder that he was rich and she was poor, never mind the truth that he had found her apparently stealing from him. Why had she believed that she could handle sex in such an unequal relationship? He had just proven how wrong that conviction could be.

By the time that dawn was lightening the darkness behind the curtains, Tawny had had enough of lying in the bed as still as a corpse. She got up again as quietly as she could and decided that she could go out for a walk without disturbing the entire household. The only clothes of her own that she had packed were her skinny jeans and skeleton tee. She put them on, teaming them with a woollen jacket with a velvet collar and a pair of laced boots. She crept out of the room and downstairs and was soon out in the fresh air experiencing a deep abiding sense of relief and a desperate need to reclaim her freedom.

The charade of their engagement would shortly be over, she told herself soothingly. Soon she would be back home and out searching for another job. Hopefully the turmoil of overexcited feelings that she was currently feeling would vanish along with Navarre Cazier …

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘TAWNY! I saw you walking up the drive from the window. Navarre will be relieved—he’s been looking everywhere for you!’ Catrina told her brightly as Tawny mounted the front steps, muddy and windblown and embarrassed by her long absence and untidy appearance. It occurred to her that her hostess had never smiled at her with such welcoming warmth before but she was in too troubled a state of mind to be suspicious.

‘I went out for a walk and got a bit lost,’ Tawny muttered apologetically. ‘Have I missed breakfast?’

‘No. Navarre was worried that you had seen that story in the newspapers and been upset by it … it’s so embarrassing when these things happen when you’re away from home,’ Catrina commented with unconvincing sympathy.

Tawny had frozen in the hallway. ‘What newspaper story?’

Catrina helpfully passed her the tabloid newspaper she was already clutching in readiness. ‘I’ll have breakfast sent up to your room if you like.’

Tawny opened the paper and there it was: Billionaire and Maid? There was a beaming picture of Julie, her self-elected best friend, who she could only assume had spilled her guts to a reporter for cash. She supposed that in the absence of any more colourful story about Navarre going with an engagement that had to be a fake must have seemed worthwhile. Almost everything she had ever told Julie that could be given the right twist was there in black and white from Tawny’s brief time in foster care as a child to the recent mysterious breakdown in family relations. Oh, yes, and what Julie described as Tawny’s frantic determination to meet and marry a rich man through her work … yes, Julie had had to find an angle to make Tawny sound more interesting and that was the angle she had chosen. Tawny was a rampant gold-digger in search of a meal ticket. According to Julie Tawny had used her employment as a chambermaid to sleep with several wealthy guests in a search for one who would offer to take her away from cleaning and spoil her to death with his money for ever. What insane rubbish! Tawny thought furiously, wondering who on earth would believe such nonsense.

‘Wouldn’t you prefer to have your breakfast in your room?’ Catrina Coulter prompted expectantly.

‘Have all the guests seen this?’ Tawny enquired.

Catrina gave her a sympathetic glance as unconvincing as her earlier smile. ‘Probably …’

‘I’ll be eating downstairs,’ Tawny announced, folding the paper and tucking it casually below one arm to march into the lofty-ceilinged dining room with her bright head held high and a martial glint in her gaze. A moment too late she recalled that her hair was in a wild tangle and her jeans spattered with mud, but she had to tough out that knowledge because her fellow guests turned as one to watch her progress down the length of the long table towards the empty chair beside Navarre.

Navarre, sleek and sexy in a striped shirt and a pair of designer chinos, stood up as she approached and spun out the chair for her. Inside, her body hummed as if an engine had been switched on. Her eyes, with an alacrity all their own, darted over him, taking in the cropped black hair, the brilliant green eyes and the dark shadow that told her he hadn’t shaved since the night before. And it was no use, in spite of the fact that she was furious with him the fact that he was drop-dead gorgeous triumphed and she blushed with awareness, her heartbeat quickening in time with her pulse as she sank down into the seat.

‘I’ll get you something to eat,’ Navarre offered, vaulting upright to stride across to the side table laden with lidded dishes laid out on hot plates for guests to serve themselves.

Surprised that he was giving her that amount of attention, Tawny watched him heap a dining plate as high as if he were feeding half the table instead of just one skinny redhead and bring it back to her with positive ceremony.

‘You must’ve walked miles … you have to be starving,’ he pointed out when she gaped at the amount of food he had put on the plate.

Trying not to laugh at the shocked appraisal of the blonde with a health conscious plate of fresh fruit opposite, Tawny began to butter her first slice of toast. ‘I walked miles more than I planned. I’m afraid I found myself on boggy ground and got lost and very muddy. I ended up having to walk along the road to find my way back here. I shouldn’t have gone so far without a map,’ she confided breathlessly as he poured her coffee for her.

Tawny sugared her coffee while wondering why Navarre, who had hurt her so much just hours earlier, was now being so kind and attentive

. Had he not read the same newspaper spread? Didn’t he realise that she could only have tried to steal his laptop to grab his attention and then bonk his brains out in the hope that great sex would make him her meal ticket for life? It was obvious that the rest of the guests had read the newspaper. She was painfully conscious that everyone else at the table was watching her and Navarre closely, clearly hoping for some gossipy titbit or some sign that he was going to dump her right there and then. Thanks to her erstwhile friend she had been depicted in print as a mercenary chambermaid who had seduced innocent hotel guests in an effort to entrap a wealthy husband.

Navarre watched Tawny eat a cooked breakfast with the enthusiasm of a woman who had not seen food for a month. He was relieved to see that a scurrilous article in a downmarket newspaper had not detracted from her appetite. Above all things Navarre admired courage and the courage she had displayed in choosing to take her breakfast as normal in front of an inquisitive audience hugely impressed him. Few women would have kept their cool in such an embarrassing situation.

‘I have to pack,’ she told him prosaically once she had finished her second cup of coffee.

In the mood Tawny was in the packing did not take long. Ten minutes and it was done. Navarre walked into the room just as she lowered the case to the floor. She would have offered to do his packing as well just to keep busy but he had already taken care of the task. She folded her arms defensively.

‘We should talk before the helicopter arrives,’ Navarre imparted flatly. ‘We’ll be staying in another hotel for the next couple of days, after which I will let you return to your life. I’ll be tied up with business once we return to London.’

Tawny said nothing. Another hotel, mercifully not the one where she had once been employed. It was clear that their arrangement would soon have run its course. So much for his declaration the night before that their intimacy was to be a beginning and not an end! She had fallen for a line, it seemed.

Navarre studied her with sardonic cool. ‘I hope you won’t prove to be pregnant.’

Tawny stiffened. ‘I hope so too, particularly because it would be my life which would be majorly screwed up by that development.’

‘It would screw up both our lives,’ Navarre countered grimly.