Miranda Lee – The Blackmailed Bridegroom (страница 3)

Once presented with the reality of a child-to-be, Conrad had done the right thing and married the woman. He’d been hoping for a son and heir to take over the business. Instead, Paige had been born.

It had not been a happy union, and when his wife of one year had run off to America with a salesman, Conrad hadn’t been shattered. Antonio imagined that his boss also hadn’t lost much sleep over the news, a few years later, that his errant wife had been found dead in a New York hotel room of a drug overdose.

He was not a sentimental man.

‘I’m planning on retiring at the end of the year,’ Conrad went on now, snapping Antonio back to the matter at hand. ‘I’ll be moving permanently to my home in the Bahamas. When I do, the position of CEO of Fortune Productions will become vacant. I intend to promote you, Antonio,’ he said, and Antonio sucked in a sharp breath. ‘But only if you’re my son-in-law at the time,’ Conrad finished.

Antonio exhaled with a rush. ‘Damn and blast it, Conrad, that’s blackmail!’

‘No. That’s good business. Who better to look after one’s interests but family? You, as a born and bred Italian, should appreciate that.’

Antonio kept his temper with difficulty. ‘And if I refuse?’ he bit out.

‘I’ll make the same offer to Brock Masters. I imagine he could handle both jobs almost as well.’

Antonio gritted his teeth. Brock Masters was head of the North American Division. Publicly, he was all capped teeth and false charm, in Antonio’s opinion. Handsome as Satan, but privately he had the morals of the Marquis de Sade.

‘He’ll ruin the company,’ Antonio warned. ‘And he’ll destroy your daughter,’ he added as an afterthought.

‘If you think that, Antonio,’ Conrad said smoothly, ‘you know what to do.’

‘You’re a ruthless devil, do you know that?’

‘Takes one to know one.’

‘Yet you want me to marry your daughter!’

‘She needs a real man for a change. One who will keep her on her toes in order to keep him. And one who can give her what she keeps looking for.’

‘Which is?’

‘What all women want. Love, of course.’

‘For pity’s sake, Conrad, you know darned well I don’t love her.’

Conrad shrugged. ‘What’s love but an illusion anyway? Just tell Paige you love her. The silly little fool won’t know the difference, as long as the sex is good. And the sex will be good, I’m sure. The way the ladies chase after you—even after one short evening in your bed—speaks volumes for your abilities in that department.’

Antonio stared at the man. He almost felt sorry for Paige, having such a cold-blooded bastard for a parent. He could not understand how a father could do such a thing to his daughter.

Still, Antonio was not a fool. He knew if he knocked Conrad back on this he was finished at Fortune Productions. Brock Masters hated his guts. Antonio supposed he could quit and find another job with a rival company, settle back and watch the rot set in at Fortune Productions. It would serve Conrad right if he did just that.

But pride in a job well done—and in the company—would not let him seriously consider such an action. And then there was the added image of Paige, being seduced, corrupted and destroyed by an amoral, cocaine-snorting pervert.

Antonio’s stomach turned over. A silly little fool she might be, but she didn’t deserve that.

‘Under the circumstances,’ he said, in that coolly ruthless voice which emerged when he was cornered, ‘I will expect something in writing.’

Conrad beamed. ‘But of course, Antonio. I’ll have it ready for you when you come to dinner here tonight.’

Antonio frowned. ‘Tonight?’

‘I thought the sooner you got started the better. After all, you have to be back in London in a fortnight. A whirlwind romance is just what the doctor ordered. I see no reason why Paige shouldn’t travel back with you, once she’s wearing your engagement ring.’

‘You expect her to agree to marry me in two short weeks?’

‘You’ve negotiated more difficult contracts in much faster time, Antonio. Speaking of contracts, the day you marry Paige you will have your contract as CEO of Fortune Productions, plus I will give you the deeds to this house as a wedding present.’

‘No, thank you, Conrad. The contract will do. I wouldn’t want to live here.’ Even if he could tolerate the space, he didn’t want to be surrounded by Conrad’s extra ears.

Conrad smiled. ‘I had a feeling you’d say that. Shall we expect you around seven-thirty, then?’

‘Are you sure Paige will still be here?’ Antonio commented caustically.

‘I should think so. Her latest boyfriend gave her quite a scare.’

‘Oh?’

‘He hit her.’

Antonio was surprised at how angry this news made him. There again, violence against women had always pushed savage buttons in him. ‘I gather you know this charmer’s name and address?’ he ground out.

‘Actually, no, I don’t.’

‘But you always know where Paige is living and who with!’

Conrad sighed. ‘I stopped putting Lew on the job this past year. I just couldn’t take it any more. I have no idea what she’s been up to since January. Paige rang me out of the blue last night around one, and asked if Jim could come and pick her up at Central Station. She sounded scared, which, as you know, isn’t like Paige at all. But the penny dropped once I saw the big bruise on her face. She wouldn’t tell me anything when I asked her last night. But maybe she’ll tell you.’

‘Maybe.’ If she did, Antonio was going to teach the creep a lesson he wouldn’t forget in a hurry!

Still, it had only been a question of time before Paige became mixed up with a really unsavoury type. The girl never could see the risks she was taking in living with men she didn’t really know. She had no common sense, and no appreciation of the consequences of her actions. She’d be the perfect victim for the likes of Brock Masters!

Possibly there were excuses for her many and potentially dangerous relationships—Antonio was beginning to appreciate there’d been little enough warmth and affection here at home—but one would have thought she’d have learned by now. Almost twenty-three, and she was still looking for love in all the wrong places!

Well, she certainly won’t find it with you, either, came the coldly cynical thought.

‘You know, Conrad,’ he said with a sardonic twist of his mouth. ‘Has it occurred to you that Paige might say no to marriage, whether she falls in love with me or not?’

‘It did cross my mind. If needs be, I suggest you use a method as old as time.’

‘And what’s that?’

‘Get her pregnant.’

Antonio’s eyes widened.

‘I’m sure you won’t find such a task beyond you,’ his boss drawled. ‘I gather the Wilding girl had to have a little operation before she could become engaged to the Jansen millions. Which was understandable. She couldn’t risk a black-eyed baby born to a blond, blue-eyed father, could she?’

Antonio momentarily went white. Lauren had been pregnant when she’d run home to Daddy? She’d aborted his child, just to marry money?

‘You really know how to strike below the belt, Conrad,’ he said bitterly. ‘How long have you known about my relationship with Lauren?’

‘From the start. Do you honestly think I would employ a man to be my personal assistant and to live in my home if I hadn’t had him thoroughly checked out? Forget the Wilding girl, Antonio. She was a fool, and so was her father. I know a good man when I see one. Marry my daughter, and you’ll never regret it.’

Now that, Antonio conceded ruefully, was a matter of opinion.

Rising from his chair, he set a cool black gaze upon his future father-in-law and stretched out his hand. ‘It’s a deal.’

Conrad took, then pumped his hand. ‘Splendid, my boy. Splendid. I knew you’d make the right decision. See you tonight, around seven-thirty. We’ll have a celebratory drink together before dinner.’

Antonio said nothing to that, just spun on his heels and strode towards the doorway.

Evelyn barely had time to retreat hastily from where she’d been listening to every single word.

CHAPTER TWO

PAIGE woke mid-afternoon and just lay there for a while, staring up at the bedroom ceiling, thinking.

Home again.

If you could call this wretched house a home, that was.

The word home normally conjured up feelings of peace and warmth. It was where you could be yourself; where you were most relaxed; where you felt loved and accepted.

But home had never been like that for Paige. Fortune Hall was a cold, heartless place which evoked nothing in her but feelings of failure and inadequacy, of being unwanted and unloved, of being unsure of who she was or what she wanted out of life.

Only once had Paige momentarily been happy in this house: the year when Antonio Scarlatti had first come to Fortune Hall to live.

The memory of their first meeting was indelibly imprinted on her brain. It had been her last year in high school, and she’d caught the train home for the Easter break, feeling miserable when her father had said he couldn’t possibly meet her at Central.