Читать книгу To Marry For Duty - Rebecca Winters - Страница 6

August

Kingston, New York

“THANKS for seeing me on such short notice, Dr. Arnavitz. I’ve never been to a psychiatrist before, so I’m nervous.”

He cocked his gray head. “Nervousness on the part of my patients seems to go with the territory. At least on a first visit. Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you and we’ll start there.”

Piper Duchess sat on the edge of the chair with her hands rigidly clasped on top of her knees. “Everything’s bothering me—” she blurted before hot tears rolled down her flushed cheeks.

Without saying anything the doctor pushed a box of tissues toward her. She took one and wiped the moisture from her face. When she’d regained a little composure, she said, “For the first time in my life, I’m really alone, and I’m not handling it very well. To be honest, I’m not handling it at all—” She broke down again.

“Do you mean emotionally, physically?”

“Both.” She blotted her aqua eyes with another tissue.

“From your chart I see that you’re twenty-seven years old and single. Are you going through a breakup with a boyfriend or fiancé?”

No.

Nic didn’t qualify for either category and anyway he wasn’t interested in her. In fact Nicolas de Pastrana of the House of Parma-Bourbon in Spain had always been off limits to her though she hadn’t known that when she’d first met him and his cousins. “No,” her voice trembled, “but I would imagine this is exactly how it must feel. No wonder it’s such a traumatic experience.”

“Tell me about your family.”

“My parents have both passed away. My sisters Greer and Olivia are now married and live in Europe. Olivia just got married in Marbella. I flew home from Spain to New York three days ago.”

“You live alone?”

She nodded. “In a basement apartment here in Kingston. The three of us shared it after Daddy died in the spring.”

“You have no extended family?”

“No. Our parents were both older when they married and their families have all passed on.”

“So you’re virtually alone now.”

Her throat started to close up with pain. “Yes. I sound like a big baby, don’t I?”

“Not at all. Most people have some relatives living in the same country at least. Where do you fit in your family constellation?”

Piper thought she understood what he meant. “I’m the middle child, but that may sound misleading since my sisters and I are nonidentical triplets.”

“Ah…” That was all he said, but apparently it answered some questions for him.

“I’ve never been completely alone like this before. I’m not talking just the physical separation from my sisters. It’s a mental thing.”

“The reign of the Three Musketeers has come to an end?” he supplied.

“Yes!” she cried. “It’s exactly like that. All for one, one for all. Now they have husbands and nothing will ever be the same again.”

“Are you angry about that?”

Her head was bowed. “Yes. I know that’s an awful thing to say.”

“You’re wrong. It’s the honest thing to say. If you’d said anything else, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

“It’s my fault they’re married, so I don’t have anyone to blame but myself.”

“You mean you held a gun to their husbands’ heads when they proposed to your sisters?”

She laughed in spite of her tears. If only he knew the extent of the machinations involved. “No.”

“So how could their marriages be your fault?”

“It’s a long story.”

“We have twenty more minutes.”

Meaning she’d better get to the point fast. “Greer’s the oldest. She always told Olivia and me what to do. She was the one who talked us into starting our Internet business after college. It was her plan that we become millionaires by the time we were thirty, so she said none of us could get married or it would spoil everything.

“Olivia and I didn’t care about becoming millionaires and figured we needed to get her married off first so we could meet a man and settle down to be happy like our parents.

“Dad worried about Greer’s attitude too. Before he died, Olivia and I came up with a plan for him to leave any money to us in a special fund we called the Husband Fund.

“The one legal stipulation was that we could only use the money to find a husband, and for no other reason. Of course Daddy, who approved of the idea wholeheartedly, didn’t let on to Greer that we were behind it.

“In June we planned a trip to the Riviera, the perfect place for all of us to meet an exciting man. The whole point was for Greer to meet one who would cause her to forget about becoming a millionaire.

“Greer went along with it because she was carrying out Daddy’s last wish. But she had no intention of getting married, only of getting a playboy to propose to her while we were on vacation. Then she would turn him down flat for the sheer fun of it.

“We pretended to go along with her plan. Then to our amazement she met Maximilliano di Varano of the House of Parma-Bourbon, the man of her dreams, and she ended up proposing to him! They were married inside of six weeks, and now live in Italy.

“That was terrific. It meant Olivia and I could go back to New York and do our own thing. But then,” her voice shook, “Olivia fell in love with Max’s first cousin, Lucien de Falcon, also of the House of Parma-Bourbon. They were just married a few days ago and will be living in Monaco.”

The doctor nodded. “So now you’re free to do your own thing.”

A sob got trapped in her throat. My own thing. “I don’t know what that is anymore.”

Dr. Arnavitz sat forward. “The end of the Three Musketeers may be the end of your girlhood, but it’s the beginning of Piper Duchess’s life as a woman with new worlds to conquer. Europe is as near as the next plane ride.”

“I know,” she said in a dull voice.

But Nic was there. After the way he’d rejected her, she refused to give him the satisfaction of thinking she was aware of his existence.

“Are you still working at your Internet business?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I’m an artist. I draw illustrations for wall calendars with slogans that appeal to women. You know like, ‘If you need to get it done, ask a woman.’ Greer thought up the slogans, and Olivia did the marketing.”

He smiled. “Does it provide you with a good living?”

“Yes. They’re selling well throughout the U.S. and are going to be distributed in a couple of cities in Europe.”

“Lucky you. Why don’t you turn the tables on Greer?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your sister wanted to be a millionaire by the time she was thirty. You wanted to get married. So get busy seeing how much money you can make by the time you’re thirty.

“Broaden your horizons. There’s always South America, Australia, the Far East. Set up office space. Hire staff. Become a tycoon. Make it into an empire. Who knows what the future holds in store for you?

“If you stay in that basement apartment and remain angry, no one will feel sorry for you. Not every woman has your intelligence, your talent, your health, your lovely blond looks, your ability to do whatever you want. There’s nothing to stop you except your own unhealthy self-pity.”

Ooh.

Dr. Arnavitz knew how to hit where it hurt. But that’s what she was paying him $200.00 a half hour for.

Speaking of half hour, her time was up. She thanked him for seeing her and told him she’d think hard about what he’d said.

On the drive back to the apartment in her dad’s old Pontiac, the doctor’s admonition kept swirling around in her head.

Become a tycoon, he’d said. Hire staff.

By the time she reached home, she’d made up her mind that she would become a millionaire before she was thirty. It would prove to Nic she didn’t need him.

The second she got back to her apartment, she marched into the living room which she and the girls had turned into an office, and phoned Don Jardine. He was Greer’s former boyfriend, the man who’d never stood a chance with her. It was Don who owned and ran the company that printed the calendars they sold and distributed throughout the States.

“Hi, Don!”

“Piper—I didn’t realize you were back from Europe. How did everything go?”

She noticed he didn’t ask about Greer. Smart man. Piper planned to take a leaf out of his book and never ask her sisters about Nic.

“Olivia is now married to Lucien de Falcon. That’s how things went! I’ll let you be the one to tell Fred the news.”

Fred was Olivia’s former boyfriend, and Don’s friend.

After a prolonged silence, “That’s two down. There must be something in the Varano genes that’s fatal for the Duchess triplets.”

Don must have been reading Piper’s mind. No doubt there was a scientific explanation for the fact that she and her sisters were all enamored of men who belonged to the same family.

Once she read about two male twins in England who fell in love with the same woman. She loved them both, so the three of them settled down together and lived happily ever after. At the time Piper read the story to her sisters, all three of them rolled on the floor with laughter, but Piper wasn’t rolling with laughter now.

“Not this Duchess triplet!” she declared with vehemence.

“Does that mean there’s hope for Tom after all?”

“No.”

Tom was Piper’s ex-boyfriend and another good friend of Don’s. Once upon a time all six of them had enjoyed waterskiing and going to movies in a group. As Greer had always pointed out, there was safety in numbers.

Truer words were never spoken. Once Max had gotten Greer to himself, that was the end of the girls’ lifelong triumvirate. It started the domino effect. Olivia fell under Luc’s spell. As for Piper…

Piper was a fool who would never, ever throw herself at a man again.

“I have a business proposition for you. It’s big.”

“How big?”

“Want to fly to Sydney, Tokyo and Rio with me to find out? Depending on the outcome, we’ll incorporate and offer shares on the stock market. Are you interested?”

A long silence ensued. “How soon do you want to get together to talk?”

“Tonight if you’re free. First off we need to come up with the best savvy corporate attorney we can find.”

“Agreed. But what about Europe?”

Her body stiffened. “Forget it. I’m never stepping foot on that continent again.”

“You don’t mean that, Piper. Your sisters live there.”

“Then they’ll have to come to me if they want to see me.”

“What am I missing here? I thought garnering new markets was the reason you were in Spain last week.”

“I thought so too until I found out it was a setup. I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“If you want me for a business partner, I’m afraid you’re going to have to. How were you set up, and more importantly, why?”

Still bristling with rage Piper said, “The Varano cousins used their powerful influence and money to pay Signore Tozetti to be our European distributor.

“It was a clever move on Luc’s part. He lured Olivia back to Europe through a lucrative business offer so he could win her forgiveness for his utter cruelty to her. His cunning plan worked so well, they are now on their honeymoon!

“But I don’t want any part of the money our calendars might make over there. We didn’t win that contract from Signore Tozetti on the merits of our talents alone.”

Piper would divide any profits made in Europe between her sisters. She didn’t plan on keeping a penny of the money Nic had anything to do with!

“I can’t say I blame you for that,” Don murmured.

“Thank you for understanding.”

“I understand a lot more than you think. You’re the artist after all. A brilliant one I might add.”

“Thanks, Don.”

“It’s true. One day you’re going to be famous, Piper.”

That’s what Olivia had said before they’d both found out they’d been set up.

Mother and Daddy would be so proud to know your drawings are going to be famous all over Europe, Piper.

We don’t know that yet, so let’s not count our chickens.

Signore Tozetti wouldn’t have paid us an advance to come to Spain if he didn’t believe he was going to make a bundle off you pretty soon. When he sees what you’ve done in just three days, he’ll be sending you everywhere; France— Switzerland—

Her hand tightened on the phone receiver. “You don’t become famous with a bunch of calendars.”

“Your calendars have only been a stepping stone. It’s time to branch out.”

He was starting to sound like Dr. Arnavitz. “In what way?”

“Commercial advertising over television and the Internet is hot. Think global and the sky’s the limit. Megacorporations spanning several continents pay seven and eight digit figures to the artist who can come up with the right worldwide image.”

She blinked. “How long have you been thinking this big for me?”

“Ever since I started printing the calendars for Duchesse Designs. You’ve got that touch of genius, Piper. Maybe with my help we can ignite it.”

“I like the way you think. Can you come over at seven?”

“I’ll be there with some ideas that have been percolating for a long time.”

“Did you ever tell Greer about this?”

“What do you think?”

“You’re right. That was sort of a dumb question.”

No one ever told Greer anything except Max. He’d managed to kiss her senseless on the Piccione, have her arrested and put in an Italian jail for the night, after which he’d propositioned her. It was the perfect path to her heart, and she’d ended up throwing herself at him.

Luc had operated a little differently. After breaking Olivia’s heart because of a tragic misunderstanding, he’d gotten her back to Europe on false pretenses. Then he’d locked her inside a robot-limo he’d designed and named Cog. It had so many clever inventions to break down her defenses, Olivia had practically crumbled on the spot forgiving him.

It was sickening.

Piper was happy for the four of them. She really was, but she didn’t want to think about her brothers-in-law, or she would start thinking about Nic, and that kind of thinking was disastrous.

January 26

Marbella, Spain

“Señor Pastrana?”

“Sí, Filomena?”

Nic was on the verge of leaving his office at the Banco De Iberia. Since he’d restructured its branch network, the bank had enjoyed another successful financial quarter that exceeded his expectations, but he took no joy in it.

“A gentleman is on the phone for you from Christie’s auction house in New York.” At the mere mention of New York, Nic’s pulse rate suddenly tripled. “Shall I put him through, or do you want me to take a message?”

“I’ll speak to him now.”

“Very good, Señor.”

While he waited, he closed the file on the bank’s foreign gold reserves he’d been examining and turned off the computer.

“Señor Pastrana?” an American sounding voice came over the speakerphone.

“This is he. Go ahead.”

“John Vashom here from the fine jewels department at Christie’s. Since you first alerted us, we’ve been watching for any jewelry from the Marie-Louise collection stolen from the Varano family palace in Colorno, Italy.

“This morning a jeweled comb showed up for auction by an anonymous seller. I went to our jewel loss register database and pulled out the pictures you supplied us. The piece in question appears to be a perfect match. How would you like me to proceed?”

An adrenaline rush drove Nic to his feet.

By some miracle he’d just been handed the legitimate excuse that would take him to New York, thereby getting him out of the final hellish commitment to the family of his deceased fiancée Nina Robles. The dreaded monthly duty visit wouldn’t be happening after all. Indeed, never again.

“I appreciate your quick handling of the matter, Mr. Vashom.”

“I try to do my best.”

Without conscious thought Nic pulled the black mourning band off his arm and tossed it in the wastebasket. It was a struggle for him to contain his excitement. “An agent from the CIA will be contacting you within the hour. In the meantime, hold on to the comb and say nothing to anyone.”

“You can count on me.”

Nic checked his watch. It was nine-thirty in the morning on the East Coast of the U.S. “I’m on my way to New York now. Expect me before your closing time. I’ll need your cell phone number so we can stay in touch.”

While he wrote it down, his mind made a mental list of people to call. The second they hung up, he phoned the chief investigator in Rome coordinating the efforts of the various police and undercover agents working on the case. Signore Barzini would contact the CIA in New York.

Next he called Signore Rossi, Italy’s top jewelry authenticator, and arranged for him to fly to New York from Parma in one of the Varano jets. Only he could declare if the jeweled comb was the genuine article.

The collection had belonged to the Duchess of Parma, otherwise known as Marie-Louise of Austria of the House of Bourbon, second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. The theft of the treasure almost two years earlier had been a blow to the whole family. Since that time Nic and his cousins had been conducting an international investigation with the help of police and undercover agents.

One authenticated piece had been recovered when it turned up at a London auction last August. He’d paid a small fortune to get it back. Unfortunately there’d been no leads on the person or persons responsible for the daring jewelry heist.

Now that another part of the collection had shown up in the States, perhaps a fake, perhaps not, Nic was hopeful for a break in the case.

He rang his father but got his voice mail. After apprising him of the situation, he asked his parent to make his excuses to the Robles family for not being able to join them. Even Nic’s father would agree that the call from the auction house constituted the kind of emergency over which Nina’s parents couldn’t take exception.

The Pastrana and the Robles family shared ties through the Spanish House of Bourbon that ran deep. However if Nina’s parents believed they could foist their twenty-seven-year-old daughter Camilla on Nic as a replacement for Nina because of some ancient family custom, then they were more out of touch with reality than he’d first supposed.

After summoning his driver, Nic left the bank through his private entrance and climbed in the back of the limo. En route to the airport he phoned the pilot and told him to get the Pastrana jet ready. There was no need to stop by the villa. Nic kept a change of clothes and toiletries on board.

Euphoric to have thrown off the shackles of his bondage, he phoned Max to fill him in on everything, but he got his cousin’s voice mail as well. Frustrated not to be able to talk to him, he left a message about his plans, then called Luc who picked up on the third ring.

“Olivia and I were just about to call you. We’re sailing to Mallorca this weekend. How would you like to join us there on Sunday after you’re through with your duty visit?”

Luc sounded like a different man these days. Since his marriage to Olivia, he was beyond happy. They were expecting a baby in September. Nic had never known a more ecstatic couple except for Max and Greer who’d put in for adoption and were waiting.

“There’s nothing I’d like more, but something important has come up. I have news that can’t wait.” Within minutes he’d told him about the phone call from Christie’s.

In an instant Luc’s mood had sobered. “I’ll meet you in New York.”

“No. You and Olivia need your time alone. I’m only telling you this because I’ll be gone a while following the investigation.”

“What’s going on?”

Nic took a fortifying breath. “What if I told you the arm band is sitting in the wastebasket of my office getting ready to be tossed out with the trash in the next few minutes?”

“¡Dieu merci!” his cousin exploded. “It was an archaic custom you should never have been subjected to. I hope this means what I think it means.”

“It’s all I’ve been able to think about since Max’s wedding,” he whispered.

“You may have problems tracking Piper down. She called Olivia from Sydney last week. I’m not sure if she’s back in the States yet.”

“I’ll find her, even if I have to fly to Australia.”

“Should I hear anything different, I’ll let you know. Are you sure you don’t want me to come to New York?”

“Let’s wait and see what Signore Rossi has to say about the comb. If it’s the original, then we’ll have a confab with Max.”

“All right. Take care and good luck, mon vieux.”

Nic knew what his cousin meant. Since Luc’s wedding, Nic hadn’t laid eyes on Piper. Because of the hated black band, a grim reminder of his dark past with all its attendant pain, he hadn’t been able to do anything about her.

For the last eleven months, twenty-five days and seven hours, he’d worn the band faithfully…except for a four day period last June when he’d taken it off to go undercover as the captain of the Piccione.

Those four days had been long enough for him to have become bewitched by a pair of aquamarine eyes shot with blue while he and his cousins pursued the Duchess triplets, believing them to be the thieves responsible for the stolen jewels from the Varano family palace in Colorno, Italy.

Nothing could have been further from the truth, and in that short period of time his life had changed forever.

“I’m going to need it, Luc.”

“What’s your plan?”

“That’s a good question. Technically speaking I should have waited another week before removing the band. But since I’m leaving the country for an indeterminate period, no one’s going to know the difference except Piper. That is if she’s still speaking to me.”

“If anyone can win her around, you can. Talk to you later.”

“I’ll let you know when I’ve made contact,” he said with more confidence than he felt. Nic wasn’t certain of anything where she was concerned. All he knew was that he felt out of breath just anticipating seeing her again.

Now that he’d brought his period of mourning to a close, nothing and no one was going to stand in the way of his getting what he wanted…

January 29

Kingston, New York

“Excuse me for interrupting, Piper, but there’s a man out in front who’s asking for you.”

Jan, the former northeast distributor for Duchesse Designs was now Piper’s assistant in the company she’d formed with Don Jardine. They’d ended up calling it Cyber Network Concepts.

Piper kept sketching at her drafting table. “I’m not officially in until tomorrow.”

She’d moved into the Jardine office building where Don still ran his printing business on the side. He’d given her the suite next to him with a connecting door. So far the arrangement had been working perfectly.

“I told him that, but he insists on seeing you anyway.”

“What’s his name?”

“He said he preferred to surprise you.”

“That’s a pushy salesman tactic. He’s probably the regional manager from Mid Valley machines. They’ve been pestering us to buy their products for months. Get rid of him, Jan.”

“He warned me he wouldn’t leave until he’d spoken to you. I’m afraid he means it.”

“They all mean it. If he’s so anxious, tell him to talk to Don.”

“He doesn’t want to talk to him.”

“Then he’s wasting our time. If he were a client, he would have told you his name. Since we’ve paid all our bills, he couldn’t be a creditor. Tell him we just got back from Sydney with a ton of work to do. Tomorrow’s Tuesday. I’ll see him then.”

In the last six months she and Don had already garnered four lucrative advertising accounts with American companies doing business in Australia and South America. Piper had more work than she could handle now.

“I’m afraid he’s not going to take no for an answer.”

A certain nuance in her voice brought Piper’s head around. Bringing Jan in as office manager and head of their calendar sales in the U.S. had been a master stroke. Because Jan had great business sense, Piper was surprised to discover that her recently engaged assistant could be intimidated by anyone.

“How come you’re afraid to tell him no?”

“He has an aura about him. You know…a certain presence, probably because he’s foreign.”

The hairs prickled on the back of Piper’s neck. “How foreign?”

“If you’re talking about his English, he speaks it perfectly with a slight accent. I think he might be a Mediterranean type or something close to it.”

“So he’s dark-haired?”

“Yes. But tall and…well…you know…built like you wish all guys were built if you know what I mean. To be honest, he’s the most attractive male I’ve ever met in my life. Please don’t tell Jim what I said—”

The charcoal slipped from Piper’s fingers. Three men fit that description. They all belonged to the same family.

“Did this man’s accent sound French?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Are his eyes a fiery black?”

“No. They’re a piercing brown.”

Help!

Piper tried to swallow. It was impossible. “Is he wearing an arm band?”

“A what?”

“A black arm band above the elbow to designate he’s in mourning?”

“No. He’s dressed in this fabulous stone gray suit. I know this might sound weird to you, but he carries himself like he’s…royalty.”

Piper jumped up from her drafting table in shock. “Jan? You’ve just met the future Duc de Pastrana of the House of Parma-Bourbon. Nic is the first cousin of Greer and Olivia’s husbands.” No wonder Jan acted as if she’d just been through a life-changing experience. In an absolute panic she continued.

“If you value your job, you’ll let me put your engagement ring on. I only need it for a few minutes. Until he leaves I’m not just Don’s business partner, I’m his fiancée! Have you got that?”

Her assistant slowly nodded before removing her modest diamond ring. Piper slipped it on. It was a little loose because Jan was larger boned, but it didn’t matter. It was an engagement ring and would do the job.

“Thank you. For this favor you’ll get a bonus in your next paycheck. Go ahead and send him back.”

Piper’s heart thundered beneath the navy pullover she’d slipped on with her jeans earlier that morning. When she wasn’t traveling to meet with clients, she hibernated in her office to do her artwork away from people.

She sat down at her desk, then stood up again, trying to decide how she would greet him. When she caught sight of his tall, striking physique in the doorway, she’d just sat down again which was a good thing. Her legs wouldn’t have supported her.

“Well, well, well,” she declared with feigned nonchalance, taking the offensive. “If it isn’t the captain of the Piccione.”