Читать книгу The Bridegroom's Secret - Melissa James - Страница 4

CHAPTER ONE

SO THIS was how it felt to be a queen….

Her engagement party was being held in Celebre, Boston’s best restaurant—the place where Matt had first proposed to her. The champagne was flowing. There were red roses by the dozen on every table, and fairy lights lit the satin-draped walls. She wore a watered-silk dress of softest silver green and the McLachlan family diamond necklace, earrings and bracelet set, all supplied by her adoring fiancé.

Given the stress of the past nine months, after Matt’s father’s death and the near collapse of both his business and hers, it felt amazing that they were here now.

Well, amazing that she was here, anyway. Matt fitted into this world perfectly.

The cream of Boston society—all childhood friends of Matt’s—filled the room and spilled out onto the terrace. Her own family hadn’t been able to make it from Sydney at such short notice. But her friends, affectionately known as The Wedding Belles, because they ran a complete-wedding-package business in Boston, were here either with their own wonderful men or working the room. They were creating new business just by being there, because they were responsible for this “wedding of the year.”

Her wedding.

Julie shook her head, as if to clear it. She, plain, publicity-shy Julie Montgomery from Rockdale, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, was the bride in what the media had dubbed Boston’s Wedding of the Year. She, just a simple general assistant for The Wedding Belles, had captured the heart of Boston’s most eligible bachelor. Why they’d chosen her wedding, she didn’t know, any more than she knew why a man like Matt had ever fallen for someone like her.

Why she’d fallen for him was no mystery. She looked across the room at him, and her heart almost burst with pride and love. Tall and lithe, he wore the tux as though he’d been born in it, which, given his family background, he probably had been. His dark hair curled just enough to look sexily mussed; she loved the light streaks of early grey about his ears and temples, which always made her fingers ache to plunge right in there. His eyes—what woman could look into that ice-blue perfection and not do what she’d done the first minute she’d seen him? Intelligent, kind and strong, he could never see someone in need without doing something about it, whether helping out at charity events or donating funds to needy causes. If she’d fallen in love with him at a glance, she’d fallen even deeper for the man beneath, the man of integrity and generosity. He worked hard, had true creative genius, and a heart that never stopped giving.

And those hands…what he could do to her with a touch!

He’d been so busy lately, and, oh, how she’d missed him. But tonight was theirs, their engagement party, and he was hers alone. Needing to be near him, she smiled and detached herself from her future mother-in-law and began to go to him.

“Miss Montgomery, could we have a minute for a few questions?”

Julie held in the sigh. This was one part of her engagement she found less than appealing. As the love interest of Matthew McLachlan, president of McLachlan Marine Industries since his father’s death, she was subject to public scrutiny. It was almost like being part of a second marriage. She could always count on the presence of the press in her life, during both the good times and definitely through the bad.

The Belles had come up with the idea of throwing them a wedding when it looked like Matt was going to lose the company after his father’s wildly unsuccessful speculations. Since then her private love story had become public entertainment. The invitation list for the quiet family wedding The Belles had planned was now up to over 150, and the simple garden venue was now the cathedral on the harbour front, which had room for media photo shoots and the live television feed. Their wedding had become an official “human interest story,” and was being followed by a top magazine, three tabloids and two TV stations covering the tristate area.

But all the media interest had also saved The Belles from going under when the high-society Vandiver wedding cancellation had left them deep in the red; so Julie’s every smile for the cameras held as much gratitude and relief as it did resentment.

She turned now, with the smile that had felt more like a grimace for the past few months. “Of course… Jemima, isn’t it?”

Jemima Whittaker of Boston People Today, the magazine covering her wedding, beamed at her. “So good of you to remember.”

Remember? It was impossible not to when the woman had been in her face almost constantly for the past few months.

“So how do you feel about your fiancé’s phenomenal success in saving McLachlan Marine Industries from financial flatlining?”

Her gaze flicked to Matt, talking to some people she didn’t recognise in the centre of the room—probably more members of the press— and she felt her smile soften with the love she couldn’t hide. “I’m incredibly proud of him, of course, but I knew he could do it. He’s so dedicated to his workers and their families.”

“Your fiancé didn’t just save jobs, Miss Montgomery. The new water converter he’s invented will revolutionise the industry.” The reporter sounded one point less than smug with the information. “The new contracts with Jet Stream Industries and Red Line Marine—not to mention the giants in the motor industry showing marked interest in a land prototype— will give McLachlan’s more power and wealth than it’s known in its eighty-year history. Matt’s done more than rescue the company from the investment mistakes of his father—he’s become a multimillionaire, is being hailed as a wunderkind, and has been nominated for businessman of the year after he gave shares in the converter to every McLachlan’s worker that waited for their overdue salaries. Many of them are now well on their way to being rich. How do you feel about that?”

It took all of Julie’s willpower to not blink or frown. Matt had enjoyed so much success in the public arena, had done so much more than save the company, and he hadn’t told her? “As I said, I always knew he was a genius,” she replied with another halfway-to-grimace smile, wondering why this reporter knew so much about the importance of Matt’s invention, while she, his fiancée, knew nothing.

“I suppose you think so because he chose you instead of Sara Enderby or Elise Pettifer,” Jemima laughed, totally without spite— probably because, like Julie herself, she came from less exalted origins than most in the room. Jemima’s hand swept to where Matt stood in a crowd of people, laughing—and it was only then Julie realised that six of the eight people surrounding him were very attractive women. “You’re one secure woman, obviously. If Matthew McLachlan were my fiancé, and he had two very beautiful exes making him laugh the way those women are right now, I’d drape myself over him faster than Speedy Gonzalez.” She laughed again as she said, “Or kick them out of the way like that baby kangaroo on the cartoons.”

The two exquisite blondes on either side of him were his ex-girlfriends?

Self-control. Julie held her hands at her sides, refusing to check the current state of her French twist. Her bright-red French twist. She didn’t smooth her hands over her lightly applied makeup. She knew the freckles showed anyway.

“With Elise in particular, everyone was taking bets on the wedding date,” Jemima went on, still without malice but with a good deal of curiosity. Digging. “She’s an engineer, too, you know. In fact, I’ve heard rumours that she worked with him on the design of the water converter. They seemed the perfect match. That’s why there was such interest when he broke up with her, and was seen with you so soon after.”

A perfect match…oh, weren’t they just? The handsome, high-born genius and the beautiful, high-society woman, one of his own people, who made him laugh so easily. Perfection, side by side….

Julie had met both women earlier, but hadn’t thought much about either of them afterward. They’d seemed nice women, without any sign of cattiness in their conversation or demeanour. Not by word or act had they shown anything but kindness to her.

But then, why would they need to compete, when they were so beautiful?

Then she remembered the look in Matt’s eyes when he’d seen her tonight, and the world seemed to spin the right way again. “You’ll have to ask Matt about who he works with and why. That’s his place. Thanks for the advice, but after all, those women are in his past—I’m his future. I’m the one wearing his ring.” With a cool smile she ended the interview.

But she didn’t continue toward Matt. That might make it seem as if she didn’t trust him, which could create fodder for a speculative story about the status of their relationship. She’d had enough of that in the past few months.

Finally the night was over, his gift to Julie. Now, after all his months of work to save McLachlan’s, he could be alone with the woman he loved.

Matthew McLachlan smiled, almost bursting with the pride and love he felt. In a love story filled with obstacles—from his father’s opposition to Matt falling for an unknown Australian woman, to the intense media speculation, to the problems with his business and hers—Julie had risen to every occasion. She’d won everyone over with her quirky humour, her strength, grace and dignity. An extraordinary woman…and she was all his. His woman, his love.

He’d known she felt intimidated by the overwhelming media and social interest in their lives, especially since The Belles’ plans for their wedding had become public knowledge. He’d seen her trepidation about tonight. Then he’d given her the dress he’d bought for her on his last trip to New York and the McLachlan diamonds his mother had brought down for her, the possession of all the future McLachlan brides. He’d seen the utter delight in being so spoiled fill her face, the excitement at being the belle of the ball, as he’d jokingly called her, playing on her job at The Wedding Belles.

Though he’d also known she didn’t like all the hype, and felt she didn’t quite know what to say to his high-powered friends, he could barely hold in the pride when she was nothing but herself, without an ounce of pretentiousness or trying to fit in. She’d neither clung to him, nor hidden out with her own friends, but had spent the night circulating. His mom, who’d adored Jules from the start, hadn’t even had to show her future daughter-in-law the ropes of a society function. Julie had dealt with the press, the cattier members of high society, and won the approval of the older women, so hard to impress. “A lovely girl,” had been the consensus he’d overheard after Jules had moved on.

She’d even chatted pleasantly with two of his ex-girlfriends, Elise and Sara, asking them about themselves, as she always did. She had such an interest in people of all walks of life. And when the press had seen the women together and had taken a picture, Matt had seen the frustration on the face of the reporter, because all three women were laughing, their body language relaxed and friendly.

“What a sensational woman,” his old friend Victor had said as he left the party. “Why didn’t she fall at my feet?” he’d muttered, with true envy in his voice.

“You’re a lucky man,” his other oldest friend, Guy, had added, with a quick, wistful glance at Julie.

Secure in Julie’s love, Matt only grinned. Lucky…didn’t he know it.

Now at last they were home, Mom had gone tactfully to bed and, remembering the utter love in Julie’s eyes as she looked at him all night, he couldn’t wait anymore. “Come here, woman.” He dragged her into his arms. “Do you have any idea how incredible you looked tonight? I’ve been dying to take this off you for hours.” He lowered a strap of her dress and softly kissed her shoulder.

“Matt,” she whispered as her shoulder lifted and her head fell back in the abandoned sensuality he could arouse in her with a touch.

He felt her quiver, and smiled. Hell, yes, he was a lucky man. Every day it just got better. He’d never been so happy in his life. To have a magnificent woman like Julie crazy in love with him from first sight, before she’d known who he was or what his bank balance was, had been unbelievable to him from the start.

To have her love him still, through the turbulent months where he’d sold off almost everything to prevent his mother from losing her apartment, to keep McLachlan’s afloat and his workers in their jobs; to have her love him through the endless weeks when he’d been so deep in thought with the practical applications of the water converter, he’d practically forgotten she was there; to love him through a backyard engagement party and few presents, to cheerfully agree with the plans for a private wedding at City Hall to save costs—

Julie Montgomery was a walking, loving miracle, and he intended to hold on to her for life.

That’s what tonight had been about. Now that he’d returned to his place in the world, McLachlan’s was safe and all its workers secure, he wanted to thank her for everything, to show her off to the world for the extraordinary woman she was, to pronounce to the world that this was no temporary thing. Matt McLachlan was a one-woman man, and he was definitely taken.

Jules turned her face to his, kissing him softly, once, twice. But when he dropped the spaghetti-thin strap from her shoulder, she shook her head. “Your mother’s here,” she whispered.

He moved to kiss her throat in a way he knew she couldn’t resist. “She knows we’re lovers, Jules.”

She shivered again with the touch, and Matt grinned as he bent to kiss lower.

“But it doesn’t feel right,” she said softly, punctuated with kisses. “I’m sorry, darling, but I can’t—not with your mother in the house.”

With a sigh he kissed her shoulder, and put the dress back in its place. “Ah well, she’s only here for two nights. I can wait that long. You do realise I won’t sleep, don’t you? You’re a cruel woman, Montgomery.”

“Did your mother know about the importance of the water converter from the start?” she asked out of nowhere. “Or was it only when you sold it?”

Though her voice held the usual love and faith, there was a note in it—some deeper insecurity he’d never heard before—and Matt started. “What was that?”

“Your mother,” she said, still smiling but with a clear worry beneath—and he wondered who’d been talking to her. “Does she know about what the water converter is, and the contracts that did far more than pull McLachlan’s out of the red?”

Now totally diverted from his one-track course to the bedroom, he frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s nothing important, really. Just me being insecure.” She kissed him again and smiled, her eyes full of love. Almost. The diffidence was new to her, new to him, and it niggled at him. Something was wrong. “Did you tell your mother about the water converter, and what it could mean for you, for her, for McLachlan’s and all your workers, before it sold?”

Thoroughly confused now, he answered, “Well, of course. She’s my mother.” And it affected her financial future. She’d needed to know what was happening when the banks had started making threats to sell her apartment and the house to pay for the huge investment he’d made in the water converter.

Julie paled. “I see. Does she know how well it’s doing—the multimillion-dollar contracts with the marine companies, and the possibility of the giants of the motor industry wanting a land prototype?”

“Who told you that?” he asked, startled. Who’d stolen his surprise? He’d planned tonight to the last detail. He’d been itching to tell her all about his hard work and success for weeks, and tonight had seemed the perfect time.

Now someone had stolen his rights from him, and he was furious—not with Julie, but with whoever had ruined their perfect night. When he found out who…

“Jemima Whittaker from Boston People Today.” Julie turned her face, fiddling with the diamonds around her neck. “How long have you left me out of the loop about your invention and the contracts, Matt? I had to be told about this important part of your life by a magazine reporter who thought I knew. It was so hard to hide how surprised I was.” He saw her hands come together, fingers twisting hard around each other. “It was so embarrassing. Why, Matt? Why did you tell your mother, let the media know all about it, and not me?”

He felt the colour drain from his face as he saw the sign flashing in front of him: Danger Ahead, Flash Floods. “It’s been a hard time for you and The Belles during the past six months. You’ve been working overtime, and going through so much, trying to save your own business from disaster. I didn’t want to burden you, Jules.” He heard the unconvincing tone of his voice and cursed it, knowing he sounded as nervous as he felt. If that reporter had gone further, and told her the other things he’d been waiting to tell her…

“But you told your mother,” she said softly, with a sadness in her voice that smote at him, making him realise he’d never thought about how she’d take his news—as surprise or secret. A secret others knew.

“I was going to tell you tonight, sweetheart.” Tell you everything, including about Kirsten and Molly, while you were in my arms, after the best night of your life. Knowing without a single doubt how much I love you.

His best-laid plans were going awry. In that superb dress, decked out with diamonds, she’d never been lovelier—but with her drooping head and her hand jerking as she plucked at the McLachlan necklace, she looked like a wilted flower.

“We discussed this before, Matt. I want to share the bad as well as the good. I’ve told you about The Belles’ problems, and not only when I’ve needed to work overtime, but what I’d be doing, why—and with whom.”

The sadness in her tone told Matt he wasn’t just in deep water, but in a stormy sea without a life preserver…and he realised how much he’d hurt her by his silence, not just now but for the past few months. By waiting for the right moment, instead of telling her the things she deserved to know, he’d hurt the woman he loved more than life or breath.

While he tried to prevent the shock from slowing his system, her next question broad¬ sided him. “Jemima said there are rumours that Elise Pettifer helped you with the water converter. Are they true?”

Like a final premonition of disaster, the name echoed around and around in his head. “Elise?” Damn, oh, damn…

“Yes, she told me that you dated her, too, if that’s what’s making you look so worried.” Julie bit her lip. “Jemima said you dated her for almost a year. She’s really nice, Matt. Well- bred, beautiful, and she’s a fellow engineer to boot. Everyone was so shocked when you apparently ditched her for someone like me. They were waiting for the wedding date to be announced.” Her eyes darkened with an emotion he didn’t dare name. “So how long has she been working with you on the water converter?”

Matt broke out in a cold sweat. Dear God, she knew about his past with Elise, that he’d been working with her on a secret project, and he hadn’t been the one to tell her about it. “My relationship with Elise was nothing like me and you,” he said tightly. “We—damn it, it was a convenient thing. Neither of us had anyone and our parents kept throwing us together. We drifted into dating, but there was nothing there, Jules. We both agreed that if we met someone else, we’d part friends. And that’s what happened.”

“And she hasn’t met anyone since you broke up with her—a beautiful, intelligent and lovely woman like Elise?” From gentle and trusting, Julie’s voice had become brittle, and he knew he was in deep trouble.

Matt sighed. Given the way she adored him, Julie would never believe Elise didn’t love him the way she did—and worse still, given her past with cheating men, she’d have a hard time believing that he’d fallen for her while dating Elise; but he couldn’t let that affect him. It was time to tell her the truth.

“Elise is an old friend, and an excellent engineer. When I couldn’t get my head around a major part of the job, I did ask her opinion, and she came up with a way to make it work. From there, it just—well, it all fell into place, really. We work well together but that’s all.”

“I understand,” was all she said at first—but the pain in her voice gave him no relief, only a sinking feeling. “Were you really dating her when I kissed you that first day?” she asked, so softly he had to strain to hear her.

The spear of guilt hit him again. He wheeled away, trying to justify what was, to him, unjustifiable. “I went straight to her and told her I’d met you. We parted amicably, Jules. It was never serious between us.” Could he explain that he’d never even taken Elise to bed because it felt almost like she was a sister, a cousin? He’d known her since before kindergarten; their mothers were like sisters. It just hadn’t been there for him the way it was with Jules.

“Is she part of the contracts that will put McLachlan’s on a worldwide map? Has she worked with you on the motoring deal?”

Palpitations, cold sweat, clenching stomach—he hadn’t known extreme fear mimicked the symptoms of a heart attack until now. “Sweetheart…” He turned back to face her, knowing he might as well tell her the rest, and trust in her love to get them through. “She’s an old and trusted friend, and she put thousands of dollars into the prototype that I didn’t have at the time. You know how far McLachlan’s had crashed. I could barely afford to pay my workers for three months. She deserved the partnership, so I got a contract made up. She owns forty percent.”

“And your workers own how much?” she whispered. “Ms. Whittaker also told me your workers knew about your invention, and the deals, and have shares. It appears I’m the only one without any share in it at all.” She wrapped her arms around her waist and seemed to shrink inside herself.

Dear God. Matt’s stomach churned. Could this get any worse?

“Who else knows about you and Elise?” she said softly, her voice filled with a world of pain. “Who else knows about the contracts? How much time were you spending with her when you weren’t with me?”

From a faded flower, she’d become like a kicked puppy—a woman thinking she was scorned. Oh, God help him, what to say? How to make this right? “Julie, I’ve done nothing to earn this level of distrust from you. Okay, so I’ve spent some time with Elise over the past few months,” he admitted, thinking of the days and nights in Elise’s company, “but it was purely business.” His chin kicked up. “I don’t want her, Jules, and she doesn’t want me—not anymore.”

“Any more?” she pounced on his words. “I thought you said it was only ever friendship.”

He resisted the impulse to close his eyes. “Look, I don’t know why, but I couldn’t feel anything deeper for her—and if she had feelings for me for a little while, friendship is all we feel now. When I told her about you, she was happy for me, for us. We decided we would always have been better as friends. I haven’t touched her from that day—except a hug or two of jubilation when the water converter worked.”

She whitened further, and he could have shoved a gym bag full of dirty socks in his stupid mouth for saying that. Hadn’t he learned the lesson yet? Never give away too much, son. Women only want to know enough to make them happy.

He reached for her. “I don’t even know why we’re having this conversation. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for us—for our future.”

She moved away, shaking her head. “Future?” she whispered. “A future of what, Matt? More secrets? More months and years in which you do these amazing things, and your mother, your ex and your workers share your life and I know nothing about it?”

Anger began to surge through him. “Tonight was our engagement party. I did all this for you. What else do I have to do to prove you’re the only one for me? You must know that by now.”

She moved out of his touch and spoke so softly he could barely hear her. “It seems there’s a lot I don’t know.”

Matt turned her around and looked into her eyes. “Maybe I made a mistake in waiting until tonight to tell you everything at once—but we’re getting married, Jules. You either trust me by now or you don’t.”

She just looked at him with deep, unblinking eyes, but he could see she wasn’t truly with him. She’d slipped into the past, remembering another man, an unfaithful man who’d said the same thing.

He didn’t have a chance in hell, unless he took control right now.

Taking her hands in his, he looked into her eyes and said, with what he hoped was quiet strength, “Sit down and listen to me, Jules, and I’ll tell you everything. I was going to tell you tonight, anyway. I’d planned it all.”

“You mean there’s more?” she whispered, sounding horrified. “Not…not now, Matt. No more now…”

One look at her white face and dilated eyes told him what he’d done to her. He knew there was no way he could tell her his final secret tonight, he couldn’t let her down again. It would break her.

There was only one thing he could think to say. “I love you, Jules.”

She didn’t answer in words; she even refused to look at him now. Finally, after what seemed hours, she spoke. “I don’t know you…”

He couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, couldn’t even breathe. He was about to lose the love of his life because of a damned reporter!

When she spoke, it had nothing to do with what he’d just said. Or maybe it did. “Thank you for making me feel like a queen tonight.” She looked up then, and he saw her eyes glimmering with tears. She kissed his cheek, and it froze him through with its gentle good manners and definite farewell. “Spend time with your mother while she’s here. Tell her about your inventions, and the deals you’re making. Or you can talk to Elise. She seems a lovely person, and wouldn’t just accept ‘it’s only work, I wouldn’t want to bore you with the technical details.’”

He might have been angered further still by her mirroring of his words if he hadn’t heard the truth inside them…that he’d done more than merely hurt her by his months of silence. The slight hiccupping rasp at the end of each sentence was a sure sign Jules was close to tears, if she wasn’t crying already.

Though emotional by nature, Julie never cried for effect. She didn’t know how to manipulate him. She was crystal clear, impulsive and giving, funny and adorable—

And walking out the door.

He ran after her. “Julie, I won’t let you leave now, not like this. We have to talk.”

She kept walking. “I can’t take any more tonight.”

He grabbed her by the wrist to stop her walking out, but she pushed at him with her free hand. “I need time, Matt. You gave me the night of my life—the best and the worst. I’m feeling pretty betrayed right about now. I need to get my head around it.”

Shock held him immobile, rendered him speechless. As death knells to love went, betrayed ranked among the worst words.

And then she was gone.

He was wrenching her car door open before he knew he’d followed her. “Don’t do this to us, Julie! Damn it, Elise is only a friend—she was only ever a friend. I never loved her. She knows that. Ask her! I love you, only you!”

She stared up at him and hiccupped again. “How can you love me, if you don’t trust me with your life?”

God help me. “It wasn’t like that. Please don’t go, Jules. Stay. Talk to me,” he said, dropping his voice for the last sentence, suddenly conscious of his mother in the house behind them.

But the tears streaming down Julie’s face told him that talking was the last thing she wanted to do now. At least with him.

Gently, with finality, she closed the car door to her little compact and drove away. No wrenching gears, no racing out. She just left.

She left, and Matt stood there staring after her, reading his future in the past fifteen minutes and without a single clue what to do about it.