Business Arrangement Bride

‘You told me I was a bleeding heart,’ she countered, emboldened.

‘So you were,’ he agreed. ‘But a bleeding heart who got her own way, I seem to remember.’

Mary nodded. ‘You were fair,’ she acknowledged.

That was one thing you could say about Tyler Watts. He might be rude and impatient, and the most difficult and demanding of employers most of the time, but he was straight and he didn’t ignore or manipulate facts that didn’t suit him. Irritated he might have been, but he had listened to what she had had to say about Paul Dobson. The upshot had been a special inquiry, and Tyler had been prepared to reconsider his decision when he knew more.

Well, that explained why she had seemed so familiar, anyway. Tyler felt better. He didn’t like being puzzled or uncertain. Having solved the mystery, he could move on, but he was remembering something the HR director had once told him: ‘Mary Thomas may be young, but she’s got an instinctive understanding of human relationships.’

And, if that were still so, maybe Mary Thomas could be of some use to him after all.

‘Why did you leave Watts Holdings?’ he asked her.

Mary, trying to relaunch into her sales pitch, was thrown by the abrupt question. ‘I wanted to work in London,’ she said, puzzled by his interest. ‘I grew up in York and I was really lucky to get a job with you after I graduated, but after three years I was ready to spread my wings.’

‘You could have got a job with us in London.’

He sounded almost peeved that she hadn’t. She hadn’t realised that joining Watts Holdings was supposed to be a lifetime commitment. Mind you, there had been some fanatically loyal members of staff who probably thought of it that way. There tended to be a very high turnover amongst the rest, though, most of whom were terrified of Tyler Watts. Mary had only managed to survive three years by not being important enough to have much to do with him.

Still, better not tell Tyler that. She had been tactless enough for one evening.

‘I wanted to broaden my experience,’ she said instead.

‘Hmm.’ Tyler’s hard eyes studied her with such intentness that Mary began to feel uncomfortable. ‘And now you’re back in York?’ he said.

‘Yes. I’ve been back a few months now,’ she told him, relieved that he seemed to be getting back to the business in hand, which was about winning some work.

‘I’ve recently set up a recruitment agency,’ she went on, ready to launch back into her spiel and wishing that her feet didn’t hurt so much. ‘I offer a complete headhunting service for junior staff. Companies tend to spend a lot of money recruiting senior members of staff and skimp on employees at lower grades, but it’s a false economy in my view.

‘A financial investment in finding exactly the right person, however lowly the job, pays dividends,’ she said. ‘If all your staff, from janitors to chief executives, are doing the job they’re best suited to, your entire company will function more efficiently.’

Tyler was unimpressed. ‘Sounds expensive,’ he commented.

‘It’s more expensive than accepting anyone who happens to have the skills to do the job,’ Mary agreed. ‘But less expensive than realising you’ve appointed someone who doesn’t fit into the team or who doesn’t work effectively with their colleagues.’

She was beginning to perk up a bit now. Tyler’s expression might be unresponsive, but at least he was listening. ‘Before I look for the right person for you, I need to understand the company culture, and that means working very closely with your human resources department. It’s important to know exactly what the job entails and what sort of personality would fit most comfortably into the existing team.

‘I see my job less as matching skills and requirements, and more about forging successful human relationships,’ she finished grandly. She always liked that bit.

Relationships, the dreaded R word! Tyler was sick of hearing about them. He had recently spent a weekend with his best friend and his wife, and Julia had spent her whole time banging on about ‘relationships’ and making free with her advice.

‘For someone so clever at business, you’re extraordinarily stupid when it comes to women,’ she had told him bluntly. ‘You’ve got no idea how to have a relationship.’

Tyler had been outraged. ‘Of course I do! I’ve had loads of girlfriends.’

‘Yes, and how many of them have lasted more than a few weeks? Those are encounters, Ty, not relationships!’

Tyler was fond of Julia in his own way, but her comments had caught him on the raw, especially after that reunion he had gone to with Mike where all his peers seemed to be measuring their success suddenly in terms of wives and children rather than share value or racehorses or fast cars.

‘That’s what being really successful is nowadays,’ Mike had said, amused by Tyler’s bafflement. ‘You’re going to have to get yourself a wife and family, Tyler, if you want to be the man who really does have it all!’

‘And you won’t be that until you learn how to have a relationship,’ Julia added. ‘If you want to be the best, Ty, you’re going to have to get yourself a relationship coach.’

It was all rubbish, of course, but her words had rankled with Tyler. He liked being the best—needed to be the best, even—and he wasn’t prepared to accept that there was anything he didn’t do well, even something as unimportant as relationships. He didn’t do failure, in any shape or form.

Now here was Mary Thomas going on about relationships too.

‘What is it with all this relationship stuff nowadays?’ he demanded truculently. ‘Why is it no one can just do the job they’re paid to do any more? Why do they all have to spend their time forging relationships?’

‘Because unless they do form relationships, they won’t work effectively,’ said Mary, who was wishing Tyler Watts would stop talking and let her get out of these shoes. ‘You know, it’s not a big deal,’ she told him when he made no effort either to move on or to hide his scepticism. ‘It’s not about hugging each other or sitting around chanting. It’s just about understanding that different people have different approaches, different needs, different expectations. It’s about being aware of other people, of what they do and how they do it.’

She attempted a smile, although they tended to be rather wasted on Tyler from what she could remember. ‘Like any other relationship, in fact.’

To her surprise, an arrested expression sprang into the cold blue eyes that were boring in to her. ‘Do you think you can teach that?’

‘Teach what?’

‘All that stuff you were just talking about…you know, understanding, being aware of people…’ Tyler waved a dismissive hand, clearly unable to remember any other alien concepts.

‘Of course,’ said Mary, surprised.

This was one area she really did know about, thanks to Alan. He had been running a coaching course when she’d met him, and she had been bowled over by his psychological insights and grasp of the complexities of human relationships.

Of course, it hadn’t helped when their own relationship had fallen apart, but that was experts for you.

‘I’ve run a number of courses on workplace relationships in the past,’ she went on, thinking there would be no harm in bigging herself up a little. ‘It’s an interesting area, and it’s amazing what a difference tackling problems like this can make to a company’s productivity.’

‘Do you do other kinds of coaching?’ Tyler asked.

‘Yes.’ Mary was really getting into her stride now. ‘I can help people identify their goals at a personal level and work out a strategy to achieve them.’

Now she was talking his language. Tyler looked at her with approval. He might not have a clue about relationships, but he understood goals and strategies all right.

‘In that case, I might have a job for you,’ he said.

Mary was taken by surprise. ‘I thought you weren’t involved with staff recruitment?’

‘This isn’t about staffing,’ he said. ‘It’s about me.’

‘Oh?’ said Mary, puzzled but polite.

‘Yes.’ Characteristically, Tyler went straight to the point. ‘I want to get married.’

CHAPTER TWO

MARY laughed. ‘Well, this is very sudden!’ she said, entering into the spirit of the joke and pretending confusion. She pressed a hand to her throat as if to contain her palpitations. ‘I don’t know what to say. I had no idea you felt that way about me.’

‘What?’ Tyler stared at her.

‘Still, it’s a good offer,’ she said, putting her head on one side as if giving it serious consideration. ‘I’m thirty-five, and a girl my age can’t be picking and choosing. I’m up for it if you are!’

Looking down into her face, Tyler realised with a mixture of incredulity and outrage that she was laughing at him. The grey eyes were alight and a smile was tugging at the corner of her wide mouth.

‘I’m serious,’ he said, glowering.

The smile was wiped off Mary’s face and it was her turn to stare. ‘I thought you were joking!’

‘Do I look like the joking type?’

‘Well, no, now you come to mention it, but…No, come on.’ She laughed uncertainly. ‘You are joking!’

‘I can assure you,’ said Tyler grimly, ‘that I am not in a humorous mood.’

‘But…you don’t want to marry me, surely?’

His expression changed ludicrously. ‘Good God, no!’ he said, appalled at the misunderstanding. ‘I don’t want to marry you.’

Charming, thought Mary acidly. She knew that she wasn’t beautiful and, OK, she was a bit overweight at the moment, but she wasn’t that bad, and Tyler was no George Clooney, when it came down to it. He had no call to look as if he would rather pick up slugs than touch her.

‘Well, you know,’ she said, leaning forward confidentially, her smile a-glitter with defiance, ‘that’s what the princess in the fairy tale always says to the frog, and you know what happens to them!’

Tyler’s fierce brows were drawn together in a ferocious scowl, and if Mary hadn’t been so cross with him by this stage she would have been quailing in her heels. As it was, when he demanded, ‘Do you want a job or not?’ she only looked straight back at him.

‘I’m not at all clear what this job of yours involves,’ she said. ‘Or, to put it another way, I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about!’

A passing waiter, seeing that they were without glasses, approached with a tray, only to falter as Tyler waved him away irritably, but as the man made to retreat Mary gave him her best smile.

‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I’d love one.’

Ignoring Tyler’s glare, she helped herself to a glass of champagne. She didn’t care what he thought anymore. It was late, she was tired, her feet hurt and she was fed up with Tyler Watts looming over her. She didn’t know what he wanted, but it didn’t sound like it was anything to do with recruitment, and that meant he was wasting her time.

‘I think you’d better go back to the beginning,’ she told him coolly and took a sip of champagne.

Tyler drew a deep breath and counted to ten. If he was the kind of man who was prepared to admit that he had made a mistake, he would have to accept that he might have made a big one in approaching Mary Thomas.

When the idea had first struck him, she had seemed ideal. She had been talking about coaching and he needed a coach. More to the point, he didn’t want to spend time finding a suitable coach, and here was one, right in front of him and anxious for work, it seemed.

Her ordinariness had been appealing too, if he was honest. While accepting in principle the idea of a relationship coach—it was just one step in his strategy, after all—Tyler hadn’t been looking forward to the prospect of discussing his private affairs with anyone too smart or sophisticated. He had every intention of remaining in control of the whole process, and Mary Thomas had looked suitably meek and deferential. All he wanted was for her to offer him a few pointers and then fade into the background.

But the closer he looked, the less ordinary she seemed. Take away that ill-fitting suit and those ridiculous shoes, and you would be left with a lush figure and an impression of warmth that made an intriguing contrast with the direct grey gaze and the slight edge to her voice. Mary Thomas, he had realised already, was not going to do meek or deferential.

It was annoying, Tyler admitted. He had decided that she was the person he needed, and once he had made up his mind he liked to go straight for what he wanted. His ability to focus on a goal and his refusal to be diverted had been the secret of his business success and he wasn’t going to change a winning strategy now. He didn’t have time for doubt or hesitation. He needed to get Mary Thomas on side, and get the job done.

‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll start again. I want a wife.’

There was a pause while Mary tried to work out what was going on. He sounded utterly clear and utterly serious but she couldn’t see how this could be anything other than a very elaborate joke at her expense. People just didn’t say things like ‘I need a wife’.

Although, perhaps, people like Tyler Watts did.

‘I think you’ve misunderstood what I do,’ she said after a moment. ‘I’m not a dating agency. I can find you a secretary or a computer operator, but not a wife.’

And then she offered a smile, just in case he turned out to be joking after all.

Tyler looked down at the empty glass in his hand, made an irritated gesture and put it down. He was getting frustrated. Mary Thomas didn’t seem to be taking this seriously at all.

‘I don’t want you to find me a wife,’ he said in a taut voice. ‘I’m just trying to explain. Getting married is my goal. I just need a bit of coaching to get there.’

‘Coaching?’ said Mary, trying to look willing but still confused about where she came into all this.

‘Yes, you know…relationship coaching.’

Tyler couldn’t quite hide his distaste of the term, although Mary wasn’t sure whether it was relationship or coaching that was the problem for him. There was a very slight tinge of colour along his cheekbones and he looked faintly uncomfortable.

Mary’s interest sharpened. The Tyler Wattses of this world would normally only discuss emotions if they were listed on the stock exchange, so it must be costing him a lot to even mention the word relationship, let alone with the implication that he needed some help on that front. Men like Tyler Watts didn’t do asking for help any more than they did talking about their feelings. Things must be pretty bad.

She had only ever thought of Tyler as an employer, but of course he was a man too. And not an unattractive one, Mary had to admit. He projected such a forceful personality that it was hard to get past that and look at him properly, but if that cold blue stare didn’t have you trapped like a rabbit stuck in headlights, it was possible to see that he had a face that was dark and strong rather than handsome.

The fierce brows, jutting nose and forceful jaw were familiar, of course, but she had never noticed his mouth before, she realised. It was rather a nice mouth too, now she came to look at it. They might be set in a stern line right now, but his lips looked cool and firm, and it would be interesting to see what they would be like if he smiled.

Or feel like if he kissed.

Sucking in an involuntary breath at the thought, Mary caught herself up sharply and stamped down firmly on the little tingle that was shivering its way down her spine.

What was she thinking of? This was Tyler Watts, of all people. He was a hard man, and she didn’t envy the woman he was planning on marrying. It would be like cuddling up to a lump of granite.

On the other hand, she would know what it was like to kiss him.

Enough. Mary pulled her wayward thoughts sternly to order.

‘Relationship coaching isn’t really my field,’ she said carefully. ‘If you’re having problems with your fiancée, there are plenty of organisations that offer counselling and will be able to help you. I could put you in touch with them, if you like.’

‘I don’t need counselling,’ said Tyler, outraged at the very idea. This was all proving much more difficult to explain than he had anticipated. ‘I haven’t got any problems. I haven’t!’ he insisted crossly when Mary just looked at him.

‘What does your fiancée think?’ she asked.

‘I haven’t got a fiancée, that’s the point,’ he snapped, goaded by the needle in her voice.

‘But you said you wanted to get married,’ said Mary, puzzled.

‘I do.’

‘Then who do you want to marry?’

‘Anyone—anyone except you,’ he added hastily.

‘Anyone?’

‘Well, not anyone,’ Tyler amended. ‘Obviously I’d want my wife to be beautiful and intelligent and sophisticated, but the point is, I don’t have anyone particular in mind yet.’

Incredible. He actually meant it, thought Mary. It was an oddly old-fashioned attitude for a man who had built this extraordinary twenty-first century building, but there wasn’t so much as a glimmer of laughter in his voice, and she could only conclude that he was serious. Anyone would think he was some stiff-necked earl planning a marriage of convenience in a Regency romance.

‘I’m sorry, but I still don’t see where I come in,’ she told him, looking around for somewhere to put her empty glass.

Tyler raked a hand through his hair in frustration. ‘Look, finding a woman isn’t a problem,’ he said with unconscious arrogance.

Mary would have loved to have contradicted him, but she was afraid it was all too true. Tyler was in his early forties and had built his company up from nothing to be listed in the top hundred in the country. He was extremely wealthy, undoubtedly intelligent, apparently straight and even attractive if you liked the ruthless, hard-bitten type—and let’s face it, lots of women did, even when the toughness wasn’t accompanied by loads of dosh.

No, Mary could see that acquiring a girlfriend wouldn’t be too difficult for Tyler.

‘Then what is the problem?’

‘Keeping her,’ he said. ‘I want to get married, but my relationships aren’t lasting long enough to get engaged.’

‘Maybe you just haven’t met the right woman yet,’ Mary suggested mildly, but he dismissed that idea.

‘It’s not that. No, there’ve been several suitable women, but I’m doing something wrong. That’s where you come in.’

‘I don’t see how,’ said Mary frankly.

‘You said that you ran coaching courses where you helped people identify and achieve their goals.’

‘Well, yes, but in a work context,’ she said. ‘I help people with their careers, not their love lives.’

Tyler brushed the distinction aside. ‘It’s the same process, surely? I’ve identified my goal—to get married. I need you to help me with my strategy.’

‘Relationships aren’t like business plans,’ said Mary. ‘You can’t have a strategy for emotions!’

‘Everything’s a strategy,’ said Tyler. He dug his hands into his pockets and hunched his shoulders. ‘I’m obviously getting something wrong,’ he conceded. ‘You work out what that is and tell me what I should be doing instead. I apply what I’ve learnt to my next relationship, the relationship works, I get married and achieve my goal. That’s strategy.’

Mary sighed. ‘I can tell you now what you’re getting wrong,’ she said. ‘Your attitude.’

‘What’s wrong with my attitude?’

‘Relationships just don’t work like that. I can understand wanting to get married, but first of all you need to fall in love and that’s not something you can plan for. You can’t predict when you’re going to meet the right person. It’s not like interviewing for a job, you know. Falling in love isn’t about mugging up a few notes, drawing up a list of criteria and finding someone who more or less fits your requirements!’

That was exactly what Tyler had planned to do. ‘I think you’re over-romanticising,’ he said stiffly. ‘The goal here is to get married. It’s not about falling in love.’

‘But if you want to get married, that’s exactly what it should be about,’ said Mary, appalled.

‘You don’t really believe that love is the only reason people get married, do you?’ he asked, raising his brows superciliously, and Mary lifted her chin.

‘Yes, as a matter of fact, I do!’

‘You’re a romantic.’ He didn’t make it sound like a compliment. ‘My own view of the world is a little more practical…perhaps realistic would be a better word,’ he added after a moment’s consideration.

‘I’m prepared to accept that some people do indeed get married because they’re in love, whatever that means,’ he went on, putting sneery quotation marks around the words, ‘but you’re a fool if you think it’s the only reason, or the only good reason. There are plenty of equally valid reasons to marry.’

‘Like what?’ she demanded, profoundly unconvinced.

‘Like security…stability…comfort…fear of loneliness…financial incentives…status…convenience…’

‘Oh, please!’ Mary rolled her eyes. ‘Marriages of convenience went out centuries ago!’

‘I disagree,’ said Tyler. ‘I think the idea of settling into a routine where you don’t have to think about making the effort to go out and impress someone new is very appealing for a lot of people. Knowing that there’s someone else to do the cooking and cleaning, or change the plug, or pick up the dry-cleaning, is a lot more convenient than having to think about everything for yourself. I imagine there are a lot more happy marriages based on comfort and convenience than on bodice-ripping passion.’

Mary opened her mouth to disagree, then thought about her mother’s second marriage. Her mother had been open about the fact that she was settling for comfort this time round, and she had been very happy with Bill. Until Bill had decided that comfort wasn’t enough, of course, but that was another story.

‘Perhaps,’ she allowed, ‘but I don’t see you as someone who’s short of comfort and security and all that stuff. You certainly don’t have any financial incentive to get married! So why get married unless you are in love?’

‘Because I’ve decided that’s what I want to do,’ said Tyler curtly. He didn’t have to explain himself to Mary Thomas. ‘You’re not concerned with the goal, only with how to achieve it.’

Mary shook her head. ‘I’m not concerned with any of it,’ she corrected him. ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. You’re not talking about the kind of goals and strategies I want to be associated with.’

His brows drew together in the familiar frown at the flatness of her rejection. ‘I thought you were looking for work?’

‘Not that kind of work,’ she said. ‘Recruitment opportunities, yes.’

‘And if I tell Steven Halliday I don’t want your agency considered if any recruitment contracts come up?’

Mary’s eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘That’s blackmail!’ she said, and he shrugged.

‘That’s business. I want something from you, you want something for me. Why should I give you what you want if I don’t get what I want in return?’

‘That’s not business,’ said Mary, her voice shaking with fury. ‘I’m offering you an excellent service. If you choose to use that service, you pay me for what I do. That’s business.’

Tyler merely looked contemptuous. ‘That’s not the deal that’s on offer here.’

‘Then you can keep your deal! I may be desperate for work, but I’m not that desperate!’

‘Sure? The recruitment contract will be a lucrative one.’

‘I’m sure,’ said Mary distinctly. She took a firmer grip of her bag and got ready to leave. ‘You know, I’m not surprised that you have problems forming relationships if your first response to rejection is bullying and blackmail,’ she told him, too angry by now to care about alienating him, his company or the entire business community if it came to that.

‘What makes you think that I’d want to be involved in your pathetic strategies?’ she went on in a scathing tone. ‘I can think of better goals to work towards than seeing some poor woman trapped in a loveless marriage with someone so emotionally stunted! Frankly, the whole idea is offensive.’

A muscle was jumping furiously in Tyler’s jaw and there was a dangerously white look around his mouth. It was some satisfaction to know that he was as angry as she was.