A Daughter's Dilemma

He kept watching her almost warily and Carolyn wondered what he was getting at. ‘I have no idea,’ she hedged. ‘I haven’t seen it yet.’

‘I doubt that’ll make a damned bit of difference,’ he muttered, confusing her all the more. ‘Well? When do you want to see it? This afternoon some time?’

A quick glance at her watch showed eleven twenty-eight. ‘I have a half-hour appointment to see Miss Powers at eleven-thirty,’ she stated, hoping a businesslike manner would hide the emotional distress this encounter had evoked. ‘Perhaps the three of us could go and see the house together after that. Do you think that would be possible?’

Vaughan shook his head. ‘Unfortunately Maddie has another client at twelve whom she can’t put off and who’ll take at least an hour. I tell you what. After you’ve finished with her I’ll take you to lunch, then the three of us can meet up at the house around two.’

Carolyn only just managed to control the look of horror that threatened to spread across her face. She didn’t want to do anything as intimate as have lunch with him. Bad enough to have to put up with the occasional conducted tour around the house over the next couple of months.

‘Thank you for the offer,’ she said crisply, ‘but I’m afraid I’m not very hungry.’ She stood up. ‘Perhaps you could drop me off at the house and I can have a look around by myself while you go and have lunch.’

This suggestion brought a sharp glance. Vaughan stood up slowly, his eyes remaining hard as he came round the desk to join her. ‘I couldn’t do that. The place is a bit rough and you might hurt yourself. Look, there’s no point in your avoiding my company, Carolyn. It’s rather silly and schoolgirlish.’

Her blue eyes flashed with automatic pique. If there was anything she wasn’t, it was silly and schoolgirlish. My God, she’d had to assume the mantle of adulthood from a very early age, bypassing the life of a normal teenager, never having the sort of mindless fun adolescent girls indulged in. And all because of this man and his compulsion to bed every woman who came across his path. Her mother... Madeline Powers... Anthea Maxwell... And how many countless others?

Just as well that she had unwittingly taken Justin’s advice and made herself as unattractive as possible, otherwise he might even now be attempting to seduce her! Given this unwanted though undeniable sexual attraction she was feeling for him, who knew what disaster might have come of it?

‘I wasn’t avoiding your company,’ she lied frostily.

His sardonic smile showed he didn’t believe her for a moment. ‘In that case you can come with me and nurse a drink while I eat.’

Before she could stop him he took her elbow and began to usher her from the room. ‘You can tell me all about what you’re doing these days. Oddly enough, I’ve often thought of you over the years,’ came the wry remark. ‘Hard to dismiss the pretty blue-eyed little thing who used to glare at me with such obvious disapproval. Something which hasn’t changed much, has it?’ he added drily when she pulled away from him at the door. ‘You still think I’m some kind of ogre.’

‘Not at all,’ she returned with admirable coolness. ‘I don’t think of you as anything any more. You’re just my stepfather’s architect.’

‘Is that so?’ His gaze turned hard as it locked with hers. ‘And how should I think of you, Carolyn? As my client’s stepdaughter, here to help finish his house to everyone’s satisfaction? Or as a female harbouring an irrational grudge against me and who might be thinking of sabotaging my work out of revenge?’

She gasped with true shock.

‘I think any suspicion on my part is well warranted,’ he went on coldly. ‘After all, you did give a false name to my secretary, then you wangled your way into my office. If I hadn’t come in when I did, you would have been left alone with my plans to do God knows what to them. And just now, you seemed eager to be left alone at the house. I wonder what might have been missing or damaged when I returned?’

Her eyes widened even more. ‘I would never do such a low thing!’ she protested, trying not to colour guiltily over her earlier vengeful thoughts. ‘Never! I have a high regard for achievement and hard work, regardless of what my opinion is of the person behind them.’

‘And what is that, if you don’t mind my asking?’

‘Well, I...I...’

‘Go on, tell me exactly what you have against me, except a bit of ancient history that was hardly my fault, regardless of the consequences.’ He folded his arms and glared at her. ‘Well? Haven’t you anything to say? Don’t you think I deserve an explanation for this exaggerated hostility?’

Carolyn’s mind was going round and round. All she could think of was that fury became him, making him draw his body up tall and straight and proud, making his eyes darken and flash with a wicked appeal, his jaw jutting strongly forward, highlighting the splendid bones in his face.

Only later did she remember that she could have thrown his relationship with Anthea Maxwell in his face. Mrs Maxwell was, after all, a married woman, unlike Miss Powers who was clearly single. But at the time, she merely blushed furiously, giving him a dangerous glimpse of her vulnerability. ‘I...I don’t know,’ she said shakily, before pulling herself together and lifting an equally proud chin. ‘You seem to bring out the worst in me. You always have done. I just don’t like you, Vaughan. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.’

Her blunt remarks surprised him. They rather surprised her too. But after the surprise came selfsatisfaction.

At least I’m taking this ridiculous attraction by the scruff of the neck and killing its chances of going anywhere stone dead. Nothing puts a man off more than saying you don’t like him.

Not that I really needed to put him off, she thought with a certain irony. He hasn’t shown one ounce of interest in me in a sexual sense. Quite understandable, looking as I do today.

‘Well, I’m sorry about that too,’ he returned brusquely. ‘I always rather liked you. Even as a child you had character. You weren’t a ditherheaded little nincompoop like most of your girlfriends.’

‘Oh? You mean because I didn’t drool over the gorgeous Vaughan Slater?’ she said acidly before she could bite the words back.

His eyes narrowed slightly and Carolyn hoped she hadn’t just made a big mistake. Too much hostility was more revealing than none at all. With a supreme effort she dragged up a covering smile. ‘See?’ she laughed drily. ‘You’re still bringing out the worst in me. I’m not usually such a bitch.’

Those thoughtful eyes travelled over her so intently that her arms broke out in goose-bumps under her jacket sleeves. ‘No,’ he said slowly. ‘I wouldn’t have thought you were. Frankly, I think that if you could put aside this irrational antagonism of yours you’d probably turn into quite the nicest, most sincere person I’ve ever met.’

Her stomach clenched down hard. First sympathy, and now flattery. Oh, he had all the best weapons where women were concerned, didn’t he? Thank God he didn’t seem to fancy her or she’d be in real danger.

‘You know it will be hard working together, if you’re going to be glaring and sniping at me all the time,’ he went on quite reasonably. ‘Do you think, for the house’s sake, you could put your dislike of me on hold for two months? Or is that too long for you to control your—er—feelings?’

Carolyn swallowed. She certainly hoped not. ‘I think I could just about manage two months.’

He laughed. ‘Good lord, you don’t pull any punches do you? But who knows? Once you get to know me better, you might find I’m not quite the heartless cad you’ve obviously believed I was all these years.’

I doubt that very much, she thought with private irony.

Vaughan’s mouth curved back into a rueful smile as he surveyed her unrelenting face. ‘Come on. Maddie will be wondering where you are.’ And with that he took her elbow again, opened the door, and marched her from the room.

She was jerked to a halt in front of the secretary’s desk.

‘I’m walking Carolyn here along to Maddie’s office, Nora,’ Vaughan pronounced. ‘I’ll be back in five minutes and you’ll be able to go home. The big bad ogre is giving you an early mark for putting up with his rudeness.’

‘Oh, Mr Slater,’ the woman simpered in return. ‘You’re never really rude.’

His chuckle was dry. ‘That’s an opinion not shared by several building contractors I know.’

‘Some of them deserve a blast,’ the secretary defended loyally.

‘We had all sorts of trouble with the plumbers at Julian’s house,’ Vaughan confessed as they made their way along to Suite Four, that insidious male hand still glued to her arm. ‘Most of the time they just didn’t turn up when they said they would. It’s no wonder one can’t get a house built in the time scheduled if the tradesmen don’t even make an appearance some days.’

‘But what excuse do they give?’ Carolyn asked, curious, despite her discomfort. She was still shaking inside from their highly strung encounter, and quite rattled by her unexpected response to her once vowed enemy. If only he wouldn’t keep on touching her...

Vaughan shrugged his broad shoulders in reply. ‘Occasionally the weather. It was either too hot or too cold or too wet, which was crazy since the walls and roof were intact at the time. Mostly they just said they hadn’t finished the previous job, but when I contacted the project in question I found out that hadn’t been finished because they consistently hadn’t turned up there either! It’s a vicious circle of apathy and laziness. No wonder this country’s building industry is in a mess!’

‘You really care about your work, don’t you?’ she remarked.

His sidewards glance was puzzled. ‘You sound surprised. Oh, I see...’ His eyes darkened, flashing with anger. ‘I’m a man without conscience, without... what was it? Without a shred of decency.’ He made a dry, scoffing sound. ‘As a man without morals, I’m not supposed to have any integrity, even regarding my work, am I? Might I remind you, Carolyn,’ he added caustically, ‘that some of the most immoral men in history have been high achievers. Look at Napoleon or Hitler!’

She flinched under his outburst. ‘I would hardly put you in the same category as Hitler.’

His laughter did not sound amused. He reached out to the doorknob of Suite Four and lanced her with a cynical look. ‘Methinks our temporary truce is already fraying at the edges, but I suggest we regroup our defences for Maddie. We don’t want her asking any awkward questions, do we?’

‘Certainly not.’

‘Smile, then, Carolyn. We’re about to put your acting ability to the supreme test. Maddie has the most devilish female intuition that sees all, hears all and knows all, if given half a chance. She will not be fooled except by a most convincing performance. How are you at acting?’

‘Very good, actually,’ she returned with a measure of black humour. And gave him an Academy Award-winning smile. If she weren’t a good actress, he’d already know she found him the most disturbingly attractive man she’d ever met.

‘Excellent. And I presume you want to pretend we’ve just met for the first time?’

‘Definitely.’

‘I thought as much,’ he muttered, and with a savage twist of his hand flung the door to Suite Four open and waved her inside.

CHAPTER FOUR

‘MADDIE, sweetheart,’ he called out once they were in the conspicuously empty reception area, ‘in which one of your rooms are you hiding?’

A door on the left opened and the most strikinglooking woman Carolyn had ever seen appeared. She was very tall—almost as tall as Vaughan—and very slim, with the whitest of white skin. Yet everything else about her was black. Black hair, long and curly, bundled up in a most irregular pony-tail. Black eyes, flashing at the moment with apparent exasperation. Black eyebrows, thick and sardonically arched. Skin-tight black mini dress, black lacy stockings and black high heels. Only her ear-rings were coloured, huge discs in red, pink and orange hanging in interlocking circles from her lobes to her shoulders.

‘You’re late again!’ she accused, giving Vaughan a black look from those striking black eyes.

Carolyn tensed.

‘Only by a few minutes,’ Vaughan said, and smiled wryly. ‘Something not going right for you, sweetheart?’ He strode forward and gave the woman a bear-hug. ‘You always get testy like this when your colours aren’t blending properly.’

‘Don’t think you can get around me that easily, you bad man,’ the interior decorator scorned, but didn’t retreat from the hug. ‘Save it all for your lady-loves.’ And suddenly she winked at Carolyn over his shoulder.

Her heart gave a little jump. Did that mean Vaughan wasn’t sleeping with this woman?

Dismay was hot on the heels of her avid curiosity. What did it matter who he was sleeping with these days? It should mean nothing to her. Nothing!

Self-disgust must have sent a hard look into her face, for those black eyes—which a second before had winked at her—abruptly changed from an expression of amusement to a surprised thoughtfulness. Their owner drew back from Vaughan’s embrace to cast a sharp look his way.

‘You haven’t been bullying this sweet girl, have you?’ she asked.

‘No. Only Nora.’

‘Oh, Vaughan. Truly? The poor woman...’

‘Poor, my foot. I pay her damn well to sit there and answer the telephone. Anyway it’s all smoothed over now. Carolyn glared at me reproachfully and made me feel guilty, didn’t you?’ He threw an ironic look her way. ‘And it’s not Carolyn Thornton, by the way. Her surname is McKensie. She hasn’t taken Julian’s name.’

‘Really? But I thought...’

‘So did I. Seems Nora just jumped to that conclusion. Anyway, it’s Carolyn McKensie. Carolyn... come over here and meet Maddie.’

Carolyn walked forward and extended her hand. ‘How do you do?’

Maddie smiled and took her hand, all the while those penetrating black eyes surveying her closely, seemingly stripping her of her disguising clothes and making Carolyn feel most peculiarly naked. She had never had a woman look at her like that before and a most uncomfortable suspicion sprang into her mind.

‘My, you’re a very sensual-looking girl, aren’t you?’ the other woman said. ‘I’d love to paint you. In the nude, preferably.’

Carolyn tried not to choke on the spot.

‘For God’s sake, Maddie!’ Vaughan exploded with ill-concealed exasperation. ‘What will she start thinking if you say things like that without explaining yourself? Maddie’s a well-known portrait artist, Carolyn,’ he elaborated wearily, ‘specialising in nudes and semi-nudes. She’s been commissioned to do some quite famous women. And men. Believe me when I say she prefers painting the men to the women,’ he finished in a dry tone.

‘Now you make me sound promiscuous!’ Maddie wailed, but without seeming at all put out.

‘If the cap fits...’

‘Well, if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black,’ she countered with a pretend pout.

Carolyn stared from one to the other. This was not the camaraderie of lovers but of old friends. Friends who knew and liked each other, warts and all.

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