Strategy For Marriage. Margaret Way

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СКАЧАТЬ God.

      “Wakey, wakey,” a man’s voice breathed seductively in her ear.

      “Wh-a-at?” Christy started to say dazedly. “I surely didn’t doze off?” She felt such confusion, disorientation, staring up into his fathomless dark eyes.

      “You must have. You didn’t notice when I kissed you.”

      “You didn’t kiss me.” She was absolutely certain she would have registered it. On the Richter scale. She understood already, miserable as she was, Ashe McKinnon was that sort of man.

      “No, I didn’t,” he drawled. “I imagined I kissed you.”

      “Oh…” She was reduced to silence.

      Seemingly like magic they were outside her apartment block, the surrounding well-kept gardens giving off the scent of gardenia and frangipani. Above her head the Southern Cross was a dazzling presence. It appeared to be right over the spot where she was standing. A billion stars gleamed. It was a heavenly night, velvety and fragrant. It made her feel very very sad. She even yawned. Ashe McKinnon and the chauffeur, however, had their two heads bent together.

      What were they planning? Whatever Ashe said the chauffeur threw back his head and laughed. Men! They bonded in minutes. A moment more and the chauffeur got back behind the wheel, saluted briefly before he pulled away from the kerb, then did a U-turn back in the direction of the city.

      “Well which is it?” Ashe joined her, so tall he towered over her. “The penthouse?” He tilted his dark head back, staring up at the twenty floors of the high-rise building.

      “Don’t be stupid. I can’t afford the penthouse,” she said feeling a rush of something like panic, “neither do I recall asking you in.”

      “But my dear Miss Parker, it’s totally expected under these circumstances. You need someone to look after you.”

      “Not you, Mr. McKinnon. I’m in no doubt of that. Most decidedly not you.”

      “That’s okay.” He answered casually as if he wanted no part of that agenda either. “As it turns out I have plenty of women fighting over me.”

      “Men who ooze money generally do.”

      “Ouch, that was nasty.” He made a mock attempt to defend himself. “Come on, Miss Parker. For all you may have deserved it, you’ve had a bad day.” He made a grab for her hand and momentarily defeated she let him take it again, curiously responding to the feel of those calluses against her smooth skin.

      “Well if you’re coming in for a while, come,” she said, her voice carrying strain. “I want to get this damned dress off.” It reminded her too bitterly of the wedding. Of wasted time. Failure.

      He glanced down at her golden head for a moment then looked away. She’d created a sensation tonight. Ms. Bottecelli the gatecrasher. “Don’t you think you’re being rather forward?” he mocked.

      She scarcely heard. “I can’t stand it.” There was nothing left to her but to mourn. Parting with ex-boyfriends was never easy even if they were hollow men. “I’ll never give my heart again. I’ll lock it away someplace inside me. I’ll never give my trust.”

      “Oh stop feeling so sorry for yourself,” he advised, not without pity. “You’re young. You’re beautiful. So you let yourself get involved with a villain, there are good guys out there. Next time,” he added bluntly, “you might be a better judge. Callista spent more quality time choosing her wedding gown than her groom.”

      Whereas Josh the freeloader had instantly chosen a young woman with money to burn.

      They never spoke in the lift. He looked marvellous, she thought somewhere between detachment and admiration. A prince among men. Josh couldn’t hold a candle to him for looks or presence. Anything for that matter. If she was going to be fair. Not that Ashe McKinnon was the sort of man she should have fallen in love with. Men like that threw out such a challenge. One she preferred not to take on. Besides he was out of her league and he didn’t believe in marriage either. A man like that would expect his bride to sign a watertight pre-nuptial contract.

      Thinking about it, it only made common sense.

      Christy reached out and dislodged the pink confetti on his shoulders thinking he’d probably look as wonderful in his working gear—akubra, bush shirt and jeans, riding boots on his feet—as a morning suit. Groovy. Really groovy. That’s what her friend, Montana, would say. On the scale of one to ten Ashe McKinnon had to rate an eleven. She dwelt quietly on his physical attributes so as not to think about Josh. Josh would be labelled “unfit” beside this man.

      “So what’s the verdict?” His eyes glinted.

      “Sorry?” They stepped out of the lift together, Christy indicating with a little flourish of her arm her apartment was the one to the far right.

      “I’m surprised you haven’t noticed my gold tooth.”

      “You have a gold tooth?” She stood stock-still and stared at him in horrified amazement.

      “No I haven’t, but if I had I’m sure you would have noticed it. Do you usually eyeball men so closely?”

      “I know you look spectacular, but I was looking through you.”

      “Here, give me that.” She was fumbling, something she never did, but her fingers were nerveless, so he took the key off her, turning the dead lock and standing back while she preceded him into her one-bedroom but decidedly up-market apartment. She would spend the rest of her life paying it off but it was an excellent investment.

      Inside almost total darkness. He put out a hand and found the panel of light switches.

      “How did you do that?” She pushed back her hair.

      “What?” He gazed down at her with a puzzled expression.

      “Find the lights so easily? I’ve never thought they were terribly well placed.”

      “I have X-ray vision. I’ve spent my life learning how to see in the dark.”

      “Ah the pleasures of being a cattle baron,” she sighed. “Won’t you sit down? I have to get out of this dress. Won’t be a moment. Then we’ll have coffee.”

      “Take your time,” he said very dryly.

      “What’s so funny?” Christy turned back to ask.

      “Oh life in the fast lane. Do you mind if I take off my cravat?”

      “Go ahead.” She met those eyes and had the extraordinary sensation something was cutting off her breath. “I’m not coming back in a negligee if that’s what you’re thinking. I intend to burn this dress.”

      “When I thought you should wear it forever,” he said suavely. “I like your abode. Did you do the decorating yourself?”

      “Right down to painting the walls. By myself. Now I think about it, Josh always had an excuse to avoid anything like physical hard work.”

      “You call painting a few walls hard work?” he called СКАЧАТЬ