Destiny Unleashed (22 page)

To avoid another confrontation with his wife, he waited until he got to the office to place the overdue call that would set his scheme in motion. He caught up with Destiny at her desk.

“Yes?” she said, greeting him with far more caution than usual.

Richard frowned at her tone. “Is something wrong?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

Richard had the distinct impression that she’d been anticipating this call. “Were you expecting to hear from me this morning?”

“Actually I was expecting a call yesterday,” she said. “That’s when Mack and Ben chose to let me know that I was behaving like a silly old fool.”

Richard winced. He should have considered that her reaction to Ben and Mack would make her even less open to whatever he had to say. Destiny was obviously braced for a fight. He decided to attempt another tactic altogether, though past efforts at subterfuge hadn’t gone especially well.

“Actually I’m calling about something else entirely,” he said, feeling his way carefully. “Nothing to do with Harcourt or the company, for that matter.”

“Oh?”

“It’s the baby, actually,” he said, improvising. “She’s sick.”

“Oh? Your brothers didn’t say anything about that,” she said, sounding suspicious already.

“They don’t know,” he said. “This just came up overnight. I thought I should call you right away this morning. I’m really worried about her.”

“What’s wrong?” Destiny asked.

“She’s spiking a really high fever.”

“Children do that,” Destiny said calmly. “If you’re worried, call Beth. She can check it out.”

“Actually, I was hoping you would come home.”

The request was greeted with a long pause. “You want me to come home because your daughter has a fever?” she said slowly.

“It’s more than that. She has this awful hacking cough,” he added hurriedly, realizing that a fever wasn’t nearly alarming enough. “She woke us up with it in the middle of the night. It was so bad I had to talk Melanie out of taking her straight to the emergency room. Now I’m thinking maybe I was wrong.”

“Then call Beth,” Destiny repeated. “She is a pediatrician. I’m sure she can put your mind at ease. If the baby really is as sick as you say, she could be much worse by the time I get there. Besides, what can I do really? I’m not a doctor.”

“Can’t you just come because I’m telling you we need you?” Just as he completed the question, he heard a soft gasp and looked up to see Melanie staring at him, her expression incredulous. That look was quickly replaced by dismay as she marched across his office, a scowl firmly in place.

Before Richard could prevent it, she’d grabbed the phone from him.

“Destiny, whatever he’s telling you about our daughter, don’t believe a word of it,” Melanie said. “He’s just being a pigheaded idiot.” Her mouth
slowly curved into a smile. “I should have known you’d see right through it.”

Richard sank back in his chair. So much for sneaky manipulation. Obviously it wasn’t a lesson he’d learned all that well. Now he had both of the most important women in his life furious with him. Okay,
more
furious with him.

He turned and stared out his office window, studying the stark, wintry landscape, which wasn’t yet showing the first sign of spring. It mirrored his mood. Only when he heard Melanie say goodbye to Destiny did he finally turn around to face the music.

“How could you?” she asked quietly. “How could you use our daughter as an excuse to try to get Destiny home? If Destiny had believed you even for a second, don’t you realize how upsetting that would have been for her? If the baby were really sick, Destiny is too far away to get here in time to do anything. She would have felt miserable and scared and helpless. Is that what you wanted?”

“I wanted to get her away from Harcourt,” he said defensively.

“By lying to her? You tell me which one of you treats Destiny with more respect? Right this second, I’d have to say William gets my vote.”

She left his office and quietly, but emphatically, shut the door behind her. Richard groaned. He’d have felt better if she’d slammed it. That would have told him she was outraged. This, he thought, this was disappointment, and it cut straight through him, not just because it was Melanie, but because he suspected her disappointment was mild compared to what his aunt must be feeling.

When his private line rang, he was tempted to ignore it, but it didn’t quit. It had to be a member of his family. They were the only ones who used that number.

“Yes, what?” he growled.

“Uh-oh,” Ben said. “I guess you’re in the doghouse, too.”

“You could say that.”

“Mack and I are having lunch to lick our wounds. Care to join us?”

“When and where?” When Ben named a restaurant in Old Town Alexandria not far from Carlton Industries, Richard responded tersely, “I’ll be there.”

Maybe one of his brothers would have some idea how he could make amends to his wife and Destiny. Neither one was likely to be a pushover.

“Can you believe he had the audacity to use his own child as a pretext to try to get me out of London and away from you?” Destiny asked William.

She was still seething over that one. She would never have believed Richard capable of doing such a thing. It was a good thing she’d been expecting some sort of ploy from him, thanks to those calls from his brothers. They’d merely cautioned her that she was courting disaster and pleaded with her to think twice. If only Richard had confined himself to the same sort of admonition. If only he’d ranted on and on about William’s acquisition of Fortnum Travel.

When she finally met William’s gaze, he was frowning. “Do you want to go home?”

“No, I do not want to go home. Why would I go running back there, when there’s no crisis except
whatever’s going on in Richard’s too vivid imagination.”

“I thought perhaps you’d like to put his mind at rest.”

“The only thing that would put his mind at rest would be me quitting my job here and vowing never to set eyes on you again,” she said candidly. “I’m thinking perfectly clearly about this, perhaps for the first time ever, and neither of those things is an option.”

“They are your family. I know making peace with them is bound to be important to you,” he said quietly.

She stopped her pacing and stared. “You’re thinking of what I said to you about what happened with your family all those years ago, aren’t you?”

He nodded. “You were willing to break us up so that I could make peace with them.”

She heard the pain in his voice and knew that she’d been just as wrong then as he was now. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You were right. Giving up one person for another is no solution. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, I finally get that.”

“I certainly never thought it was,” he agreed. “But it is what happened, isn’t it? Though not entirely the way you’d originally envisioned it.”

“Yes,” she admitted slowly. “That is what happened. And now that I see all of the repercussions and unhappiness, I will regret it with my dying breath. I should have reached out to you. I certainly shouldn’t have blamed you for not being a mind reader and not coming after me on your own, when I’d made it so clear that you should stay behind.”

“Destiny, we can cover this ground again if you like, but I think we’d be far better off concentrating on the future.”

“How can I?”

“It’s simple enough. Just vow here and now to put the past behind us.”

“But the past inevitably shapes who we are. It’s impossible to ignore it.”

“Not impossible,” he insisted. “It’s a choice.”

She stared at him, not entirely comprehending. “In what way?”

“I could waste time and energy—in fact, I
did
waste time and energy—being angry over the unilateral decision you made to do what you thought was in my best interests. Now I choose not to think about that. All that matters to me is what we do about today and tomorrow. We still have control over that.”

Destiny nodded slowly. “Yes, I see what you mean. So, if we control today, does that mean we can decide here and now to play hooky from work and take a walk in the park? It’s the first truly lovely spring day we’ve had.”

William laughed. “By jove, I think you’ve got it.”

“I’ll make you a promise here and now,” she told him quietly, taking his hands in hers. “I will try my best to look forward and not back from now on.”

He bent and kissed her gently. “Your promises have always been good enough for me.”

“And yours for me,” she said.

If only her nephews could see William the way she did, if only they could grasp that he was a man of integrity and honor, then all truly would be right with her world.

“I
f Destiny won’t come home, even for a visit, then one of us needs to go to London and see firsthand what’s going on with Harcourt,” Ben said emphatically as he, Mack and Richard sat around a table nursing beers, their food mostly untouched, their expressions gloomy. “It was probably a mistake to send our wives. Women simply can’t see things as clearly as men, not once they get some romantic fantasy going in their minds.”

Mack stared at him with undisguised amusement. “I dare you to repeat that to Kathleen sometime. I figure that scene ought to be good for a laugh or two.” His grin spread. “But only do it when I’m around to pick up the pieces.”

Richard scowled at the pair of them. “I’m glad you two are taking this so lightly.”

“Lightly?” Ben scoffed. “I just finished saying somebody needs to go to London. It’s Mack who finds the idea preposterous.”

“Not the idea, just your rationale,” Mack corrected. “Aren’t we here right now because we misjudged our wives? Let’s not compound the problem by insulting them.”

“Good point,” Richard conceded. “Melanie’s furious enough with me as it is.”

“Then maybe you should be the one to visit Destiny,” Ben said. “After all, you have the perfect excuse. She’s running one of your major divisions. How’s that going, by the way?”

“Far better than I expected, to be honest,” Richard said bleakly. “If it weren’t, I could fire her and she’d have to come home.”

Mack hooted at that. “You are so delusional, big brother. Destiny doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to do. It’s not as if she’s some kid who’d have no resources if you cut off her allowance. I’m not against you flying to London to see what’s really going on, but I think you’re going to be wasting your breath if you think you can persuade Destiny to change her mind where Harcourt’s concerned. Every time one of us utters a word against him, she digs in her heels a little deeper. She slammed the phone down on me before I got so much as a word out about him. She just assumed she knew what I had to say.”

“True,” Ben said. “We’re eventually going to drive her straight into his arms, if we don’t lighten up.”

“I suspect she’s already in his arms,” Richard admitted gloomily. “I’ll settle for preventing her from marrying him.”

“Maybe it’s time we tried the reverse-psychology thing,” Ben said.

“What reverse-psychology thing?” Richard asked blankly.

Mack rolled his eyes, as Ben explained with exaggerated patience, “The one where we pretend we’re okay with it and take away the thrill of the forbidden.
Maybe then she’ll stop being so defensive and take a good long look at what the man is really after.”

“Is there any dirt at all to be had on this guy?” Mack asked. “I assume you’ve looked into his background, big brother.”

“Aside from his sneak attacks on Carlton Industries, he’s considered a reputable businessman from a very fine family,” Richard told them. “That’s what made all those maneuvers so blasted annoying. I couldn’t get a real handle on the guy or what he was up to.”

“Could it have been exactly what our wives suggested, that he was merely trying to get Destiny’s attention?” Mack asked.

“If he did, it was a damn risky tactic,” Richard retorted. “It could have cost him a fortune and never gotten the slightest rise out of Destiny. And, of course, that doesn’t take into account that Destiny is over there now and he still stole Fortnum Travel right out from under us. Would you tell me what the devil he needs with a travel company when all of his divisions are right in England? He had to have done it just to irk me.”

“Or because he’d made a promise to Fortnum. Isn’t that the way Destiny explained it?” Mack asked.

“Of course she’d believe him. That’s precisely the problem,” Richard said. “She’s too trusting.”

“You’re forgetting one thing,” Ben said, his expression thoughtful. “He supposedly knows Destiny very well. He obviously understands that when it comes to family, she’ll do anything necessary to protect us and, by extension, the family business. Let’s face it, if he understood all that, it was no risk at all.”

Richard sighed. Ben was right. Other than paying some lawyer, who was probably on retainer or on the company payroll, anyway, almost none of Harcourt’s schemes had cost him anything. He’d withdrawn from the bidding in the nick of time on most occasions…until Fortnum Travel. Had that been his target all along? Had the rest been mere diversions? Or had it always been about Destiny, just as he’d claimed?

It had all been rather cleverly concocted. Under other circumstances, Richard would have to admire the audacity of the man responsible.

“I’m going to London,” he said decisively.

If he could convince Harcourt to back away from Destiny, he might not even have to see his aunt. Okay, that was something of a pipe dream, but he’d reached the stage when grasping at straws was the only thing left to him. He could hardly ground a fifty-three-year-old woman to prevent her from dating a man he didn’t trust, though God knows he was willing to try.

The afternoon had been pleasantly lazy. The London sky was a brilliant blue with soft pillows of white clouds drifting overhead. The first daffodils were poking through the ground in the park. The air was balmy.

“Thank you for coming with me,” Destiny said, gazing over at William, who was seated next to her on a park bench. With his collar loosened and his tie off, he reminded her of the man who’d lived with her in Provence, the man who’d been content with nothing more than her company.

“My pleasure,” he responded. “What would you like to do now? It’s nearly time for tea.”

“I’d love tea,” she said at once.

“Harrods? One of the elegant hotels? Or one of the Harcourt & Sons tea shops?”

She laughed. “If we were to go there, you’d only worry I was spying and trying to steal ideas.”

“Where, then?”

“Would you consider taking me to your house?” she asked, her gaze steady on his.

William studied her intently. “Is it tea you’re looking for now?”

“And perhaps a bit more,” she admitted candidly. “What do you think?”

She had only to gaze into his eyes to know his response. There was a slow heat building there, an unmistakable eagerness. She remembered that expression from years ago.

“I think it’s the most brilliant idea you’ve had since you came back to London,” he said quietly. “But only if you’re very sure.”

Destiny smiled. “Have you ever known me not to know my own mind?”

“From time to time,” he teased, “but very rarely.”

“Then the odds are in your favor, aren’t they?”

“Right. Then my place it is.”

It was only a few minutes of brisk walking to William’s home, but as if he feared even that might give her time to change her mind, he regarded her intently as he closed the door behind them. Knowing the question he hadn’t yet asked, Destiny smiled at him.

“Let’s skip the tea for now, shall we?” she suggested. “I’d like to see what you’ve done to bring your bedroom into the current century.”

“How will you know?” he asked with a grin. “You refused to set foot in it the last time you stayed here.
I believe you said a late-night visit would be inappropriate and quite likely to offend my parents.”

She laughed. “I peeked in one morning after you and your parents were safely downstairs at breakfast. It was far drearier than the room I’d been assigned at the other end of the house. The location of that room, by the way, pretty much proved the sort of distance they intended to keep between us.”

“I can assure you my room has improved vastly since then,” he said, leading the way. He opened the door. “See for yourself.”

Destiny stepped inside and admired the new sheer curtains at the windows, the rich shades of blue on the bed and the thick, cream-colored carpeting. Though the antique furniture was still dark and massive, the room was indeed far airier and brighter now.

“How’s the bed?” she asked.

“You didn’t bounce on it back then when you had your peek?” he asked, amusement glinting in his eyes.

“I didn’t dare,” she admitted. She had, however, buried her face in his pillow just to catch the familiar scent of him. Back then, even a single night spent out of his arms had been torture and they had been in London for a full week.

“Then, by all means, try it now,” he told her.

She met his gaze, held it until her pulse scrambled and her breath caught in her throat. “Only if you’ll join me.”

“My darling Destiny, you couldn’t possibly keep me away.”

Destiny awoke at dawn filled with the kind of serenity she hadn’t experienced in years. Being in Wil
liam’s arms again, the incredible magic of his touch had made her feel young and vibrantly alive. It had also reassured her that she was right to be fighting for what they had.

After all the weeks of caution, after all the years of separation, it was as if they’d never been apart. He was as fit, as virile and inventive as he’d always been. No man had ever known her body so well. No one had ever given her more pleasure.

She sighed and stretched, then gazed at the man lying next to her. “I love you,” she whispered, stroking her hand across his stubbled cheek. The rough, totally masculine texture was something she’d missed for far too long now.

“I could use a shave,” William murmured.

“Not on my account,” she said. “Not just yet. I like the raffish way you look. It reminds me of the mornings you used to come looking for me in Provence, straight out of bed, all sexy and rumpled with just one thing on your mind.”

“Would you be surprised to know it’s on my mind right now?”

She smiled at him. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

“We missed tea and supper,” he said, regarding her worriedly. “Are you sure you’re not starving for breakfast?”

“The only thing I’ve been starving for all these years is you,” she insisted.

“Ah, Destiny, how did I ever let you go? I was such a fool not to chase you to the ends of the earth.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she reminded him. “We’re together now.”

“Indeed, we are, in every way that matters.”

This time when he made love to her, it was gentle and slow, each touch reverent. The flames built bit by bit, like tinder catching, until the heat exploded through her and then through him. She’d forgotten what it was like to experience all the degrees of passion, but it was coming back to her now. There were so many nuances yet to go, enough to last a lifetime.

“Now I
am
starving,” she said eventually, when she could catch her breath again.

“Then grab a shower while I go and see what sort of delicacies I can rustle up to tempt you. Shall I bring a tray up here?”

“No, I think I’d better come down, if either of us expects to get to work today.”

“Hooky’s over?” he asked, looking vaguely disappointed.

“It’s always best when it’s not a habit,” she told him, touching his dear face. “But there will be other nights and days, I’m sure of that.”

“Ah, now you’re looking toward the future. That’s good. You’ve learned the lesson well.”

“About time, wouldn’t you say?”

“I’ll see you downstairs. Grab a shirt or robe, if you like, after your shower. No need to dress.”

“I’ll be down in a few minutes, then.”

After he’d gone, she stared after him for just a moment, counting her blessings. She loved her nephews and their families with all her heart, but William had just jumped to the top of the list. In his arms, she’d found herself again. She didn’t think she could possibly bear to let him go.

When the doorbell rang, William muttered a harsh curse and put aside the eggs he’d been about to whisk.
When it rang again, the caller obviously impatient, he cut off the toaster and went to see who had the audacity to turn up on his doorstep at such an early hour.

To his complete shock, he discovered Richard Carlton looking thoroughly out of sorts.

“I ought to punch your nose in,” Richard announced.

William took it as a good sign that Destiny’s nephew seemed to have considered the idea and dismissed it. “A cup of tea, instead? I’ll drink from the same pot to prove you have nothing to fear.”

“No need. I have just two things to say and I can say them right here. Stay away from my company and stay away from my aunt.”

“Sorry, I can’t do that, at least not where Destiny’s concerned. We could probably come to some agreement on the business aspect of things, eventually at any rate,” William said, grateful that Destiny was taking her time upstairs. If she were to come down now, it could prove damn awkward.

Richard’s scowl deepened. “Are you telling me you won’t back off?”

“What kind of man would I be, if I did?”

“Dammit, Harcourt, be reasonable!”

William studied him with barely contained amusement. He doubted Richard would be pleased to know he was providing William with a certain amount of entertainment with his unrealistic demands.

“Do you fear a little healthy business competition?” he asked Richard.