Married By Christmas

‘But—’

‘Now, Gerry,’ he insisted, opening the back door for Lilli to precede him. ‘Enjoy your party,’ he called over his shoulder, his arm once more about Lilli’s waist as they stepped out into the cold December evening.

The blast of icy cold air was like a slap on the face, and Lilli could feel her head swimming from the amount of champagne and wine she had drunk during the evening. In fact, she suddenly felt decidedly light-headed.

‘Steady.’ Patrick’s arm tightened about her waist as he held her beside him. ‘My car is just over here. Don’t you have a coat?’ He frowned as she shivered from the cold while he unlocked the doors of his sleek black sports car.

She suddenly couldn’t remember whether she had a coat or not. In fact, she was having trouble putting two thoughts together inside her head!

She gave a laugh as he opened the car door for her to get in, showing a long expanse of shapely leg as she dropped down into the low passenger seat. ‘I’m sure you’ll help me to get warm once we reach the hotel,’ she told him seductively.

His mouth quirked. ‘I’ll do my best, Just Lilli,’ he assured her, the promise in his voice unmistakable.

Lilli leant her head back against the seat as he closed her door to move around the car and get in behind the wheel. What was she doing here...? Oh, yes, she was getting away from Geraldine and him!

‘Any preference on hotels?’ Patrick glanced at her as he turned on the ignition.

Hotels? Why were they going to a hotel...? Oh, yes...this man was going to make love to her.

She shook her head, instantly wishing she hadn’t as it began to spin once again. ‘You choose,’ she said weakly.

She wasn’t actually going to be sick, was she?

God, she hoped not. Although she had no idea where they were going as Patrick turned the car out onto the road. And at that moment she didn’t care either. Nothing mattered at the moment. Not her. Not him. Not Geraldine Simms!

‘All right?’ Patrick reached out to squeeze her hand reassuringly.

She didn’t think she would ever be ‘all right’ again. She had felt as if her world had shattered three months ago; tonight it felt as if it had ended completely.

‘Fine,’ she answered as if from a long way away. ‘Just take me somewhere private and make love to me.’

‘Oh, I intend to, Just Lilli. I intend to.’

Lilli sat back with her eyes closed, wishing at that moment for total oblivion, not just a few hours in Patrick Devlin’s arms...

CHAPTER TWO

‘YOUR jacket.’ The garment was thrown over the back of a dining-room chair.

Lilli didn’t move, didn’t even raise her head. She wasn’t sure that she could!

She had been sitting here at the dining-table for the last hour, just drinking strong, unsweetened black coffee; the smell of food on the serving plates sitting on the side board had made her feel nauseous, so she had asked for them to be taken away. There was no one else here to eat it, anyway. At least, there hadn’t been...

‘Did you hear what I said?’

‘I heard you!’ She winced as the sound of her own voice made the thumping in her head even louder. ‘I heard you,’ she repeated softly, her voice almost a whisper now. But it still sounded too loud for her sensitive ears!

‘Well?’

He wasn’t going to leave it at that. She should have known that he wouldn’t. But all she really wanted to do, now that her head had at least stopped spinning, was to crawl into bed and sleep for twenty-four hours.

Fat chance!

‘Lilli!’ The impatience deepened in his voice.

At last she raised her head from where it had been resting in her hands as she stared down into her coffee cup, pushing back the dark thickness of her hair to look up at him with studied determination.

‘My God, Lilli!’ her father gasped disbelievingly. ‘You look terrible!’

‘Thank you!’ Her smile was merely a caricature of one, even her facial muscles seeming to hurt.

She knew exactly how she looked, had recoiled from her own reflection in the mirror earlier this morning. Her eyes were a dull green, bruises from lack of sleep visible beneath them, her face chalk-white. Her tangled hair she had managed to smooth into some sort of order with her fingers, but the overall impression, she knew, was not good. It wasn’t helped by the fact that she still had on the revealing red dress she had worn to the party the night before. A fact Grimes, the family butler, had definitely noted when she’d arrived back here by taxi an hour ago!

But if her father thought she looked bad now he should have seen her a couple of hours ago, when she’d first woken up; then she hadn’t even been wearing the red dress! And the rich baritone voice of Patrick Devlin had been coming from the bathroom as he’d sung while he took a shower...!

Her father dropped down heavily into the chair opposite her. ‘What were you thinking of, Lilli?’ He looked at her searchingly. ‘Or were you just not thinking at all?’ he added with regret.

He knew; she could tell by the expression in his eyes that he did. Of course he knew; Geraldine would have told him!

Because her father had been the man at Geraldine Simms’ side last night, the gorgeous man that Sally had referred to so interestedly, the man Geraldine had been draped over so intimately, her ‘ageing lover’, as Patrick had called him.

‘Were you?’ Lilli challenged insultingly. ‘Yes, I saw you last night,’ she scorned as a guarded look came over her father’s handsome face. ‘With Geraldine Simms,’ she continued accusingly, so angry she didn’t care about the pounding in her head at that moment. ‘But I suppose you call her Gerry.’ Her top lip curled back contemptuously. ‘All her intimate friends do!’

He drew in a harshly controlling breath. ‘And is that why you did what you did?’ he asked flatly. ‘Went off with a man you had only just met? A man you obviously spent the night with,’ he added as he looked pointedly at her dress.

‘And what about you?’ Lilli accused emotionally. ‘I don’t need to ask where you spent the night. Or with whom!’ She was furiously angry, but at the same time tears of pain glistened in her eyes.

Her father reached out to touch her hand, but she drew back as if she had been burnt ‘You don’t understand, Lilli,’ he told her in a hurt voice. ‘You—’

‘Oh, I understand only too well.’ She stood up so suddenly, her chair fell over behind her with a loud clatter, but neither of them took any notice of it as their green eyes locked. ‘You spent last night in the bed of a woman everyone knows to be a man-eating flirt, a woman who has been involved with numerous men since her brief marriage—and equally quick divorce!—five years ago. And with my mother, your wife, barely cold in her grave!’ She glared across the table at him, her breathing shallow and erratic in her agitation, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

For that was what hurt the most about all this. After a long illness, her mother had died three months ago—and now her father was intimately involved with one of the biggest flirts in London!

It was an insult to her mother’s memory. It was—it was—God, the pain last night of seeing her father with another woman—with that woman in particular!—had been almost more than she could bear.

Her father looked as if she had physically hit him, his face as pale as her own, the likeness between them even more noticeable during those seconds. Lilli had always been so proud of her father, had adored him as a child, admired him as an adult, had always loved the fact that she looked so much like him, her hair as dark as his.

Now she wished she looked like anyone else but him—because at this particular moment she hated him!

‘You’re right, Father, I don’t understand,’ she told him coldly as she rose and walked away from him. ‘But then, I don’t think I particularly want to.’

‘Lilli, did you spend the night with Patrick Devlin?’

She stopped at the door, her back still towards him. Then, swallowing hard, she turned to face him, her head held back defiantly. ‘Yes, I did,’ she told him starkly.

He frowned. ‘You went to bed with him?’

Lilli stared at her parent woodenly. She had woken up in a hotel bedroom this morning, wearing only her lace panties, with Patrick Devlin singing in the adjoining bathroom as he took a shower, the other side of the double bed showing signs of someone having slept there, the pillow indented, the sheet tangled; so it was probably a fair assumption that she had been to bed with him!

But the real truth of the matter was she didn’t actually remember, couldn’t recall anything of the night before from the moment she had closed her eyes in the car—and even some of the events before that were a bit hazy!

Her mouth tightened stubbornly. ‘What if I did? I’m over twenty-one.’ Just! ‘And a free agent.’ Definitely that, since the end of her engagement. She had barely been out of the house during the last six months—which was the reason the champagne and wine she’d drunk last night had hit her so strongly, she was sure. At least, that was what she had told herself this morning when she’d finally managed to open her eyes and face the day. ‘Who was I hurting?’ she added challengingly.

Her father gave a weary sigh, shaking his head. ‘Well, I believe the intention was to hurt me. But the person you’ve hurt the most is yourself. Lilli, do you have any idea who Patrick Devlin is?’

Why should she? As her father had already said, she had only met the man last night. And her nonsensical conversation with Patrick in the kitchen had told her nothing about him, except that he had a sense of humour. But then, she had told him nothing about herself either, was ‘Just Lilli’ as far as he was concerned. She never expected to see or hear from him again!

‘I only wanted to go to bed with him, not hear his life story!’ she scorned dismissively.

Her father drew a harsh breath. ‘Perhaps if you had done the latter, and not the former, this conversation wouldn’t be taking place. In fact, I’m sure it wouldn’t,’ he rasped abruptly. ‘You really don’t have any idea who he is?’

‘Why do you keep harping on about the man?’ She snapped her impatience. ‘He isn’t important—’

‘Oh, but he is,’ her father cut in softly.

‘Not to me.’ She gave a firm shake of her head, wincing as she did so.

She just wanted to forget about Patrick Devlin. Last night she had behaved completely out of character, mostly because, as her father had guessed, she wanted to hit out at him. But also at Geraldine Simms. Well, she had done that—more than done that if her father’s reaction was anything to go by!—and now she just wanted to forget it had ever happened. She couldn’t even remember half of last night’s events, so it shouldn’t be that hard to do!

‘Oh, yes, Lilli, he is important to you too.’ Her father nodded grimly. ‘Patrick Devlin is the Chairman of Paradise Bank.’

She thought back to the man she had met last night in Geraldine Simms’ kitchen—she couldn’t count this morning; she had left the hotel before he’d stopped singing and emerged from the bathroom! She remembered a tall, handsome man, with slightly overlong dark hair, and laughter in his deep grey eyes. He hadn’t looked anything like a banker.

She shrugged. ‘So? Is he married, with a dozen children; is that the problem?’ Although if he were he must have a very understanding wife, to have gone off to a party on his own and then have felt no compunction about staying out all night. No...somehow she didn’t think he was married.

Her father gave a sigh at the mockery in her tone. ‘Okay, let’s leave that part alone for a while. Do you know what else he is, Lilli?’

‘A Liberal Democrat,’ she taunted.

‘Oh, very funny!’ Her father, a staunch Conservative voter, wasn’t in the least amused at her continued levity.

‘Look, Father, I don’t—’

‘And will you stop calling me “Father” in that judgemental tone?’ he bit out tautly.

‘I’m sorry, but you just don’t seem like “Daddy” to me at the moment,’ she told him in a pained voice, unable to look at him at that moment, too.

Her father had always been there for her in the past, she had always been ‘Daddy’s little girl’, and now he suddenly seemed like a stranger...

‘I’m really sorry you feel that way, Lilli.’ He spoke gently. ‘It wasn’t meant to be this way.’

‘I’m not even going to ask what you mean by that remark,’ she said scathingly, turning towards the door once again.

‘I haven’t finished yet, Lilli—’

‘But I have!’ She swung round, eyes flashing deeply green. ‘To be honest, I’m not sure I can listen to any more of this without being sick!’ This time she did turn and walk out the door, her head held high.

‘He’s Geraldine’s brother,’ her father called after her. ‘Patrick Devlin is Geraldine’s older brother!’

She faltered only slightly, and then she just kept on walking, her legs moving automatically, that numbness she had known the night before thankfully creeping over her once again.

‘Where are you going?’ Her father now stood at the bottom of the stairs she had half ascended.

‘To bed,’ she told him flatly. ‘To sleep.’ For a million years, if she was lucky!

‘This mess will still be here when you wake up, Lilli,’ her father told her fiercely. ‘I’ll still be here!’

She didn’t answer him, didn’t even glance at him, continuing up to her bedroom, closing the door firmly behind her, deliberately keeping her mind blank as she threw off the clothes she had worn last night, not even bothering to put on a nightgown before climbing in between the sheets of her bed, pulling the covers up over the top of her head, willing herself to go to sleep.

And when she woke up maybe she would find the last twelve hours had been a nightmare...!

Geraldine Simms’ brother!

She didn’t know what time it was, how long she had slept, only that she had woken suddenly, sitting up in the bed, her eyes wide as that terrible truth pounded in her brain.

Patrick Devlin wasn’t a past or present lover of Geraldine Simms, but her brother!

No wonder he had been so familiar with the house, with where the wine was kept. And he hadn’t been going to spend the night there with Geraldine, but was obviously her guest at her house during his visit to London.

Lilli had thought she was being so clever, that she was walking away with a prize taken from under Geraldine’s nose. But all the time Patrick was the woman’s brother! No wonder Geraldine had tried to stop the two of them leaving together; considering her own involvement with Lilli’s father, any relationship between Lilli and her brother was a complication she could well do without!

Lilli had been to bed with the enemy...!

But she wasn’t involved with Patrick Devlin, had no ‘relationship’ with him; one night in bed together did not a relationship make!

One night in bed...

And she didn’t even remember it, she inwardly groaned. But Patrick had been singing quite happily to himself in the shower this morning, so he obviously did!

With the exception of her ex-fiancé, she had spent the majority of the last four years ignoring the obvious advances of the ‘beautiful men’ she met at parties, not even aware of the less obvious ones. But in a single night she had wiped all of that out by going to bed with the one man she should have stayed well away from.

Her father was right—this was a mess!

She fell back against the pillows, her eyes closed. A million years of sleep couldn’t undo what she had done last night.

Her only consolation—and it was a very slight one!—was that she was sure Patrick had been involved in a conversation with his sister this morning very similar to the one she’d had with her father. She wouldn’t be ‘Just Lilli’ to Patrick any more, but Elizabeth Bennett, daughter of Richard Bennett, of Bennett International Hotels, the current man in Geraldine’s life. No doubt her identity as the daughter of his sister’s ‘ageing lover’ had come as much of a shock to him as it had to her to realise he was Geraldine’s brother.

Lilli opened her eyes, her expression thoughtful now. Patrick hadn’t seemed any more pleased than she was at his sister’s choice of lover, which meant he wouldn’t be too eager ever to meet the lover’s daughter again, either. Which meant she could forget the whole sorry business.

End of mess.

Of course it was.

Now if she could just make her father see sense over this ridiculous involvement with Geraldine Simms—

She turned towards the door as a knock sounded on it. She hadn’t left instructions that she wasn’t to be disturbed, but even so she was irritated at the intrusion. ‘Yes?’ she prompted impatiently, getting out of bed to pull on her robe.

‘There’s someone downstairs waiting to see you, Miss Lilli, and—’

The young maid broke off in surprise as Lilli wrenched open the door. ‘There’s someone to see you,’ the maid repeated awkwardly.

‘What time is it?’ Lilli frowned, totally disoriented after her daytime sleep.

‘Three-thirty,’ Emily provided, a girl not much younger than Lilli herself. ‘Would you like me to serve tea to you and your visitor?’

She wasn’t in the mood to receive visitors, let alone sit and have tea with them. ‘I don’t think so, thank you,’ she replied distractedly. ‘Who is it?’ She frowned.

‘A Mr Devlin,’ Emily told her chattily. ‘I asked him to wait in the small sitting-room—’

‘Devlin!’ Lilli repeated forcefully, causing the young maid to look alarmed all over again. ‘Did you say a Mr Devlin, Emily?’ Her thoughts raced.

Patrick was here? So much for her thinking he wouldn’t ever want to see her again either once he realised who she was!

‘Yes.’ The young girl’s face was alight with infatuation—all the evidence Lilli needed that indeed it was the handsome Patrick Devlin downstairs.

Thinking back to the way he had looked last night—tall, and so elegantly handsome—she found it easy to see how a woman’s breath could be taken away just to look at him. And she had just spent the night with him!

Lilli drew in a sharp breath. ‘Please tell him I’ll be down in a few minutes.’ Once she was dressed. His last memory of her must be of her wearing only cream lace panties; she intended the memory he took away of her today to be quite different!

It took more than the few minutes she had said to don a black sweater, fitted black trousers, apply a light makeup to hide the pallor of her face, and to braid her long hair into a loose plait down her spine. But at least when she looked in the mirror at her reflection she was satisfied with the result—cool and elegant.

Nevertheless, she took a deep breath before entering the room where Patrick Devlin waited for her. She had no idea what he was doing here—didn’t a woman walking out on him without even a goodbye, after spending the night with him, tell him that she didn’t want to see him again—ever? Obviously not, if his presence here was anything to go by...

He was standing in front of the window looking out at the winter garden when she entered, slowly turning to look at her as he became aware of her presence.

Lilli’s breath caught in her throat. God, he was handsome!

She hadn’t really registered that last night, but in the clear light of day he was incredibly attractive, ruggedly so, his hair so dark a brown it almost appeared black, with those distinguished wings of silver at his temples. His skin was lightly tanned, features so finely hewn they might have been carved from stone, his eyes a light, enigmatic grey.

He was dressed very similarly to her, except he wore a fine checked jacket over his black jumper. Which meant he had been back to Geraldine’s house this morning—if only to change his clothes!

He moved forward in long, easy movements, looking her critically up and down. ‘Well, well, well,’ he finally drawled. ‘If it isn’t Just Lilli—alias Elizabeth Bennett.’ His voice hardened over the latter.

‘Mr Devlin.’ She nodded coolly in acknowledgement, none of her inner turmoil—she hoped!—in evidence.

She had chosen to go with this man the evening before for two reasons: to hurt her father, and hit out at Geraldine Simms. And at this moment Patrick Devlin seemed very much aware of that!

His mouth twisted mockingly. ‘Mr. Devlin...? Really, Lilli, it’s a little late for formality between us, isn’t it?’ he taunted.

She moved pointedly away from him; his derisive manner was deliberately insulting. ‘Why are you here?’ She looked at him across the room with cool green eyes.

Dark brows rose at her tone. ‘Well, I could say you left your bra behind and I’ve come to return it, but as you weren’t wearing a bra last night...!’

‘That’s enough!’ she snapped, two bright spots of embarrassed colour in her cheeks now.

‘More than enough, I would say,’ he agreed, his eyes glittering icily. ‘Lilli, exactly what did you hope to achieve by going to bed with me?’

To hit out at her father, to hurt Geraldine Simms. Nothing more. But certainly nothing less. At the time she hadn’t realised the man she had chosen to help her was actually the other woman’s brother. She accepted it complicated things a little. Especially as he had come here today...

She deliberately gave a careless shrug. ‘A good time.’ It was half a question—because she couldn’t remember whether or not they’d had a good time together!

He gave an acknowledging nod at her reply. ‘And did you? Have a good time,’ he persisted dryly at her puzzled expression.

She frowned. ‘Didn’t you?’ she instantly returned. Two could play at this game!

His mouth quirked. ‘Marks out of ten? Or do you have some other method of rating your lovers—?’

‘There’s no need to be insulting!’ Lilli told him sharply.

‘There’s every need, damn you!’ Patrick advanced towards her, his hand on her arm, fingers warm against her skin.

‘Don’t touch me!’ she told him angrily, pulling away, and only succeeding in hurting herself. ‘Let me go,’ she ordered with every ounce of Bennett arrogance she possessed. This was her home, damn it, and he couldn’t just come in here—uninvited!—and insult and manhandle her!

He thrust her away from him. ‘I ought to break that beautiful neck of yours!’ he ground out fiercely, eyes narrowed. ‘You looked older last night... Exactly how old are you?’ he bit out, his gaze sweeping over her scathingly.

She looked startled. ‘What does my age have to do with anything?’

‘Just answer the question, Lilli,’ he rasped. ‘And while you’re at it explain to me exactly how the haughty Elizabeth Bennett ended up with a name like Lilli!’

Her own cheeks were flushed with anger now. ‘Neither of those things is any of your business!’

‘I’m making them so,’ he told her levelly.

This man might be as good-looking as the devil, but he had the arrogance to match! Why hadn’t she realised any of this the previous evening when she had met him? Because she hadn’t been thinking straight, she acknowledged heavily, had been blinded by the fury she felt towards her father and the woman he was obviously involved with. This man’s sister... She still had trouble connecting the two—they looked absolutely nothing alike!

‘Well?’ he prompted at her continued silence.

She glared at him resentfully, wanting him to leave but knowing he had no intention of doing so until he was good and ready—and he wasn’t either of those things yet! ‘I’m twenty-one,’ she told him tautly.

‘And?’ He looked at her hardly.

‘And three months,’ she supplied challengingly, knowing it wasn’t what he had been asking. But she had no intention of telling him that she had acquired the name Lilli because the baby brother she had adored, the baby brother who had died when he was only two years old, hadn’t been able to manage the name Elizabeth. Just as she had no intention of telling him that she knew to the day exactly how old she was, because her mother, the mother she had also adored, had died on her twenty-first birthday... It was also the day her fiancée, her father’s assistant, had walked out of her life...