Her Marriage Secret

“Hello, Meg.”

She froze. His voice was unmistakable, low and smooth, awakening her body to long-suppressed reactions. Jake, her Jake. Her heart skipped a beat. She’d thought she’d never hear that voice again. She wasn’t sure whether to cry or scream. She looked up.

His eyes bored into hers. Green eyes that tore at her heart, and she had the perverse urge to leap into his strong arms and hold him. But there was too much between them to embrace him, too much to even move. He was part of the past and there was no way she’d let him or any other man into her heart again, just to break it.

He turned to Meg’s best friend, Suzie. “Jacob Adams. I’m Meg’s—”

“Friend.” Meg found her voice. “An old friend….”

We’re delighted to present a fresh new talent for Harlequin Romance®

DARCY MAGUIRE

We hope you enjoy Darcy’s first novel, Her Marriage Secret. This is the emotional story of Meg, whose life is disrupted by the arrival of her handsome estranged husband….

Darcy Maguire wanted to grow up to be a fairy, but her wings never grew, her magic never worked and her life was no fairy tale. But one thing she knew for certain was that she was going to find her soul mate and live happily ever after. Darcy found her dark and handsome hero on a blind date, married him a year later and found that love truly is the soul of creativity. With four children too young to play matchmaker for (yet!) Darcy satisfies the romantic in her by finding true love for her fictional characters. It was this passion for romance, and her ability to sit in a chair every day, that led to her first sale. Darcy lives in Melbourne, Australia, and loves to read widely, sew and sneak off to the movies without the kids.

Darcy Maguire’s second novel, Accidental Bride

Her Marriage Secret

Darcy Maguire

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

PROLOGUE

THE house was dark.

Jake quickened his pace, tightening his grip on his case as he moved through the shadows. She should be home. It was too early to be asleep. An unusual time to be shopping. She wouldn’t be out on a Tuesday night…

His heart hammered in his chest, drumming against his ribs, deafening his thoughts as he fumbled for the keys.

He paused. Took a deep breath. Plucked the right key from the bunch and shoved it in the lock.

Jake pushed open the door and felt the cold emptiness of the house envelop him. Fear gripped him. Where was she?

He moved quickly through the house, flicking the switches, flooding the rooms with light. The place was neat, cool, tidy. He swiped a finger along the kitchen bench and examined the fine layer of dust on the tip of it. Jake shuddered.

He yanked his mobile from his belt and punched Danny’s number. The painful knot of fear in the pit of his gut swelled with every ring.

‘You’re back,’ Danny said.

‘Where is she?’ His voice cracked.

A pause. ‘I’ll come round.’ And Danny rang off.

Jake dialled again, getting a message service. What the hell was going on? What couldn’t Dan tell him over the phone?

He ran a hand through his hair. If something had happened to Meg, Danny could have rung him. He always had his mobile with him. Icy fingers squeezed his chest. Why the hell hadn’t Danny rung him?

Jake clenched his fists by his sides. She was his life, his reason for being. What the hell had happened? He snatched the phone book up and slammed it onto the bench, rifled the pages for hospitals.

‘You won’t find her in there.’ Danny’s voice was slow and gentle.

Jake swung around. Danny stood in the doorway, his hands in his pockets, his shoulders hunched, his face dour.

‘What is it? What’s happened to Meg? Where is she?’

‘She’s gone.’

Gone. His legs shook under him and he sank into the nearest chair. ‘What do you mean gone? Gone where? How?’

‘She left you three weeks ago.’

‘What?’ His voice broke and he covered his mouth with his hand, rubbing his bristles. This couldn’t be happening. Not to them. Not to him. Not after all he knew. He was never going to muck up his life like his parents had.

‘She packed up and left you.’

‘I don’t understand.’ The words choked him. He did everything right, didn’t he? Sure, he was away a lot. He was working hard for the security of owning their own home. Which was more than his own father ever had…half-sloshed in the front lounge and out of work until he walked out the door one day and didn’t come back.

Danny touched him on the shoulder. ‘She didn’t love you, mate, that’s all.’

‘That’s all?’ The words burst from his throat. How could it be? They were like music together. His loins heated at the memory of her.

‘You shouldn’t have swept her off her feet like that, so soon after her dad dying and all.’ Danny stalked to the door. ‘You didn’t deserve her.’

Jake lifted his head.

‘You weren’t good enough for her, mate.’ Danny stood tall and rigid, glaring at him. ‘You took her at a vulnerable time but now she’s woken up to her senses. She wants a life that doesn’t include you.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘Apart from being here when you weren’t?’ He shifted his weight and looked at the floor. ‘Because I love her.’

‘What?’ Jake stood up and reduced the distance between them in a heartbeat, his blood surging with fury.

Danny quailed. ‘I didn’t tell Meg. Truly, I didn’t.’ He looked to the door. ‘I wish I had.’

Pain branded Jake deep in the chest. ‘Get out!’

The man who had been his best mate for as long as he could remember turned away from him like a stranger and melted into the shadows.

Jake blindly stumbled to the mantelpiece, his breath coming harsh and hard. He reached out, touching the photos, tracing Meg’s smiling eyes, her soft lips, her silky blonde hair that used to drape over his chest as she slept.

So he wasn’t what she wanted.

Regrets assailed him. Yes. He’d done a lot wrong. Too fast. Too busy. Too blind. He looked to the door and it was all he could do not to go after her. But it wouldn’t change anything. He was still the man he was.

Jake sat in lonely silence, his thoughts jagged, painful. A bitter battle raged between his own desires and the needs of the woman he loved with all his heart and soul.

There was only one decision to make. He was going to become his own man, become more civilised, become the man that would win Meg’s heart. And then he’d find her, make her his…and never let her go.

CHAPTER ONE

‘WOW, would you get a load of that one?’ Suzie gestured wildly. ‘He’s a 9.9 on the male Richter scale!’

Megan James turned in her seat and smiled at her best friend’s enthusiasm. She scanned the busy Melbourne restaurant obligingly, perusing the suited men that crowded the place. Suzie sure knew how to pick restaurants for single women to have lunch in—there had to be at least ten men for every woman, and the added bonus of the very virile, handsome Italian waiters.

‘The tourist.’ Suzie pointed to the well-built man at the bar.

His casual attire made him stick out among the businessmen. He was tall, broad-shouldered, slim-hipped and long-legged. A tailor’s delight. It would have been nice to design that shirt and trousers around his body.

A warm tingle caressed her spine. He certainly radiated ‘wrap your arms around me’. Meg sighed. So he had a nice body, but nothing outstanding she could see that would elicit such a response from Suzie—except his taste in clothes. But then, she couldn’t see his face.

Suzie nudged her. ‘Well?’

Meg shrugged and pushed a strand of her short blonde hair back from her face. ‘I can’t even see him properly. He could have a face like—’

He turned towards them as if on cue. His vivid green eyes scanned the room with a casual indifference.

Meg’s stomach clenched tight. He was clean-shaven, his strong jawline giving his features a power that she’d forgotten. His dark hair was cut short now, but there was no mistaking him; his ruggedly handsome face was all too familiar.

Meg grabbed the menu she’d left idle in front of her and slapped it to her face, her heart thudding fiercely.

‘What are you doing? Have you gone crazy, Meg?’

‘We’ve got to get out of here,’ she whispered shakily from behind the menu. Meg’s mind tumbled around in confusion. How could he have found her after all this time? It had to be coincidence.

Desire pulsed hot through her veins, bringing a deep low ache to her body, enticing her mind into fantasies of what they’d shared once, long ago.

Damn him. She was still as disturbed by him as she had been three years ago. And now he was here. She shook off her body’s traitorous response. She’d always told herself that if he came looking for her it would be out of obligation, but as the days, weeks and then months had gone by, and he hadn’t turned up, she’d concluded soberly that she hadn’t meant anything to him. She’d been a notch for his ego with a dose of obligation thrown in—nothing more.

‘Why?’ Suzie sounded bewildered. ‘Don’t you like him? You’d look great together, and he’s definitely loaded. He’s perfect for you.’

‘Believe me, he’s not.’ Meg lowered the menu slightly to see her over-zealous friend ogling the man she could only label as an ordeal personified. The man who had sent her whole life awry.

‘Come on, Meg. Gosh, you sound like some old prude. He looks like the perfect stranger to me.’

He’s not a stranger—and he’s far from perfect! she wanted to yell. For years Meg had fostered a crush on him. Years of teenage fantasies about the boy next door falling in love with her. Time had dragged by until the day when he’d come back from overseas and had set to seducing her. It had been all her dreams come true and she’d been so keen to believe every word he’d uttered, every touch and every kiss.

Blood pooled in her cheeks. He hadn’t needed to try very hard. She’d been a young, naive idiot to think there could’ve been anything between them—anything serious, anything that would stand the test of time.

‘Come on, Meg. You’re being silly.’ Suzie cast a long look in his direction.

Meg could see the admiration in Suzie’s eyes. Almost a mirror of what she must have looked like years ago. She slapped Suzie on the arm. ‘With a look like that he’ll come over!’ If he did she’d just die. How could she look at him after all that had happened between them? Guilt assailed her. For the running, for the hiding, and for the secret that hung heavily in the base of her stomach.

Suzie frowned. ‘That’s the point. You’ve got to get a guy in your life. There’s more to life than work. I could go over and get him to—’

Meg’s hand flew out and grabbed Suzie’s wrist. ‘Don’t you dare!’ The look of shock on her friend’s face snapped her back to reality. ‘I’m sorry.’ She tried to slow her breathing. ‘I know him, okay, and it didn’t work out.’ That was an understatement!

Suzie recovered quickly. ‘Can I go over, then, and have a go at him?’ She pulled her long auburn hair over her shoulders, arranging it over her chest to look as though she had just fallen out of a fashion magazine. ‘Could you introduce me? What’s his name?’

‘No, you can’t go over.’ A wave of unfamiliar emotion swept over her. She froze. She couldn’t still feel for him? After all the pain he’d caused her? After all this time?

Meg gritted her teeth. She was annoyed at her idiocy. It was over, she proclaimed to herself—as she’d done many times before. So Suzie was welcome to him. As long as she didn’t bring him anywhere near her.

‘Jake.’ His name slipped from her lips. A name she’d scrawled over her textbooks, over her heart. Etched in, refusing to budge no matter how much she had tried to rid his memory from her life. ‘His name is Jacob.’

Jacob. The young boy next door who had intruded constantly on her time with her father. Her father’s dust-covered four-wheel drive would pull up in the driveway and Jake would be over the fence and next to Dad in a flash. She’d hated him at first—stealing her father’s attention, listening to her dad’s exploits in New Guinea, in Saudi Arabia and in the Australian outback with more enthusiasm and gusto than she could manage. He would gasp about the monstrous earth-moving equipment Dad had worked around and brag how he would do the same when he grew up. Her dad had loved the attention.

The gangly boy next door had hung around for years, idolising her father whenever he deemed to make an appearance in her life. And slowly her anger at this boy had turned to a puppy love that grew into a giant infatuation scored into her heart. Even when Jake had followed in her father’s footsteps, becoming another strong, macho construction supervisor, her feelings hadn’t changed.

She raised the menu again to hide the rush of emotion, the sorrow, and the grief. The pain was still raw, as if a half-healed wound had been gouged anew by his presence. She should have known better than to trust him in the first place. She should have stuck with hating him—she would have been safe then.

Meg held her breath as she heard the heavy footfalls come closer, felt the rush of air across her bare arm as someone passed by. She could hear him stop, could feel him close. Her throat ached at the irony of meeting Jake here, out of the blue and without warning. What was she going to say to him?

She felt his hand on the menu, tugging it. She held firm.

‘Signorina, please,’ said a deep-accented baritone. ‘You eat your minestrone now. I have your order. I take the menu.’

Meg’s relief was palpable. She loosened her grip on the menu and it was swept from her hands. Her eyes followed the departing shield as the waiter proceeded to the next table. She wasn’t ready for Jake to see her—to come over, to talk to her after years of emptiness.

Her eyes leapt to the neatly arranged table. The cutlery wasn’t going to be useful, neither was the vase of flowers, and her soup bowl was out of the question—steaming hot and aromatic.

‘Hello, Meg.’

She froze. His voice was unmistakable, low and smooth, awakening her body to long-suppressed reactions. Jake. Her Jake. Her heart skipped a beat. She’d thought she’d never hear that voice again. She wasn’t sure whether to cry or scream. She looked up.

His eyes bored into hers. Green eyes that tore at her heart. She had the perverse urge to leap into his strong arms and hold him.

Jake stood tall in front of her table, looking tough, his muscles rippling under his cream designer shirt. The years had been kind to him. His features had matured from the smooth and boyish she’d known to the ‘seasoned by the world’, devilishly handsome face that was now right in front of her.

She sat frozen in her seat. There was too much between them for her to embrace him, too much even to move. He was part of the past and there was no way she’d let him or any other man into her heart again just to break it.

Jake pulled a chair to the table. ‘May I?’ He carried himself with a new, commanding air of authority. ‘You’re looking well, Meg.’

She nodded, afraid her voice would betray her if she used it. The scent of his aftershave tormented her with memories of their times together, and hearing her name on his lips was a torture she’d thought she’d never have to endure again.

He turned to Suzie. ‘Jacob Adams. I’m Meg’s—’

‘Friend.’ Meg found her voice. ‘An old friend.’ She gave him a hostile glare. How dared he think he could walk in here and take over? Tell the whole world who he was and what she was to him?

‘You don’t look that old to me.’ Suzie leant her elbows onto the table and rested her chin on her hands. Her friend’s hazel eyes glinted and her cherry lips were conspicuously seductive.

Meg squirmed. Suzie was going all out. She had no idea that this guy had no concept of commitment. She knew it only too well—she’d learnt it the hard way.

‘I’m old enough.’ Jake held Suzie’s look a moment longer than was necessary. He turned to Meg. ‘I hear you’re quite a success. I never knew you were going into fashion.’

It was strange to hear him talk so calmly, so familiarly to her, as if there hadn’t been an altercation between them at all. She forced her lips to move. ‘There was a lot you didn’t know about me.’

‘You didn’t give me a chance.’

‘It wasn’t like you were planning to stick around to find out anything.’ The day she’d found that oneway plane ticket to Delhi had clinched it. It wasn’t going to work if he was going to disappear on her again and again, just like her father had.

‘You didn’t know that.’

‘Yes, I did. I knew a lot more than you gave me credit for.’

His eyes darkened. ‘I couldn’t just walk away from work.’

‘You could walk away from me,’ she bit out, glaring at him. ‘But then I wasn’t very high on your list of priorities, was I?’

‘You were provided for.’ He spoke without a hint of emotion. ‘You had everything you could possibly need.’

Not everything, she thought bitterly. Not him. Not the love she needed and deserved. She’d rather go to hell and back than live without love in her life again. She wanted a different life for herself than the one her father had given her. Very different.

‘Hey!’ Suzie waved her hands between them. ‘Truce. What the hell went on between you two?’

‘Absolutely nothing.’ Meg felt as though her dormant wits had finally returned. She rose from the table. She had nothing to say or prove. Her life was perfect. She didn’t need Mr Jacob Adams for anything. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I’m not hungry any more.’

Jake stood abruptly. ‘You can’t leave without giving me some answers.’

‘Watch me.’ Meg sauntered out, holding her breath, fighting against an avalanche of emotion, struggling to hold back the tears that stung behind her eyes.

She wasn’t going to let Jacob Adams back into her heart or her life. He’d done enough damage the first time round.

CHAPTER TWO

THE vibrant displays in Meg’s shopfront window went unnoticed for the first time. Even her assistants passed in a blur, their voices incoherent as Meg contemplated her conversation with Jake. She was already rehashing it in her mind, wishing she’d said things differently or not at all. If only the waiter had let her keep the menu…But she knew that she couldn’t have kept hiding for ever.

She pushed open the door to her private office. The large mahogany desk set against the pastel colours of the walls, the floral cushions adorning the cream sofa and the polished timber floor she had dreamt of for ages now all seemed meaningless. What had he done to her? Usually she found joy and satisfaction in the achievement of her own boutique. She’d struggled against the world, against the odds, and won.

In the space of a couple of minutes Jake’s magnetic green eyes had penetrated her carefully constructed world and destroyed her happiness, shattering her contentment. She sank into her chair behind the desk. Why had she gone out to lunch today?

Meg grimaced at Suzie’s dedication to shoving her out into the dating scene. Meg hadn’t been very co-operative. She’d pushed herself for the last twelve months, trying to break into the exclusive designer world while juggling a hectic private life. Men, although not the last thing on her mind, were an unnecessary complication, an issue she could do without. But Suzie had other plans.

‘Meg?’ Her secretary, Joyce, tapped on the door and entered. ‘Are you all right? You look terrible.’

‘I’m fine.’ Meg stiffened. ‘Lunch just didn’t go to plan, that’s all.’ She fiddled with her pen and tried to avoid Joyce’s perceptive eyes. Joyce had been with her almost from the start, but still Meg couldn’t bring herself to tell her everything. To tell her the truth about her life.

Joyce pushed her thin-framed glasses up her nose and approached the desk. She dropped a couple of files in front of Meg. ‘Did you and Suzie have a falling out?’

Meg wished it was that easy. It was usual for Suzie and she not to see eye to eye on quite a few issues, and Suzie had the awful habit of telling Meg exactly what she thought in the bluntest way. Meg was the first to admit that Suzie was an acquired taste, but Joyce was way off the mark this time.

‘You could say that.’ Meg bit her lip. Or rather Suzie had been all for falling in while she’d fallen flat. ‘I’ll call her later.’

‘A reporter called and wanted an interview.’ Joyce straightened the papers on her desk. ‘I said I’d have to check with you.’

Meg sighed and picked up a file. It had had to come, she supposed. Her designs had done well in a fashion show last week, and it was only natural the media and the public were interested in who she was and where she’d come from. Only she wasn’t ready to tell. Not yet. ‘Can you stall him? I’m so busy at the moment.’

‘Are you sure?’ Joyce appeared unconvinced. She dithered around the room, dusting the knick-knacks Meg liked to scatter over the shelves.

‘Back to the grind,’ Meg hinted.

Joyce stopped at the door and patted her coloured hair into place before turning the handle. ‘Your one o’clock has arrived early.’

‘No worries. Send her in.’ Better to get stuck into work than dwell on Jake and her traitorous body. How could he still affect her like that?

‘It’s a him. By himself.’ Joyce closed the door.

A ‘him’ was unusual. She catered for rich women who wanted original outfits for exclusive events. In all the time she’d been in business not one man had come in on his own.

Meg stood up and smoothed down her red top, flicking the creases out of her black trousers. She positioned herself squarely behind her desk, primed to set a good first impression.

The door opened. ‘A Mr Jacob Adams,’ Joyce announced cheerily, hanging onto the doorhandle whilst admiring the visitor’s tall, well-proportioned figure as he walked in.

Meg stared dumbly at Jake.

It wasn’t as if her appointment book was empty. He’d either used his charm or his money on Joyce. Or he’d known well in advance where she was and their meeting today at the restaurant had been no accident. Meg tensed. ‘Thank you, Joyce,’ she said as calmly as she could manage.

Meg glared at Jake. How long had he known where she was? More importantly, how much did he know? Her knees gave out from under her and she disguised her collapse into her high-backed leather chair with as much dignity and grace as she could muster.

The door closed and she leant forward. ‘What the blazes are you doing here?’ She willed her weakness to vanish so she could come out of her corner fighting. There was no way she was coming out of this second best.

Jake stood there casually, looking as strong and confident on her turf as he would anywhere, she guessed. He carried with him an air of confidence that chafed. His hair seemed a little more ruffled and he’d opened another button on his shirt since lunch, revealing the light scattering of chest hair that she’d used to coil her fingers in.