Carole Mortimer Romance Collection

Wolf hadn’t moved, and yet there was a tension about him now that hadn’t been quite so pronounced minutes ago. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ His voice was dangerously soft.

She glared across the desk at him. ‘Obviously you didn’t feel the same compunction about discussing me with him!’ she accused. ‘Or is it just that you don’t consider me a lady?’ she challenged defensively. After all, seven years ago she had become Wolf’s lover after knowing him only a few days; maybe he believed she had known a string of other lovers since then!

The truth of it was that there had been no other men that close to her since Wolf. Oh, she and Roger had fallen back into the easy relationship they had had before she met Wolf, going out together a couple of times a week, and they still did meet occasionally now, but she hadn’t allowed anyone close enough to her for there to even be the possibility of a physical relationship between them; Wolf had been the man she loved, and it hadn’t worked out, so instead she gained her happiness vicariously by arranging other people’s weddings.

‘I didn’t discuss you with Gerald, at any time,’ Wolf’s voice was icily controlled as he answered her, ‘but in the circumstances, it’s a little odd, considering we had a business lunch together today, that he didn’t mention seeing you last night.’

Cyn relaxed slightly, although it was a little odd to think that Wolf and Gerald had been lunching together while she and Rebecca were doing the same thing. Thank God they hadn’t all decided to lunch at the same restaurant; wouldn’t that have made an interesting meeting! ‘Maybe having dinner with me was particularly unmemorable for him,’ she suggested drily.

Wolf met her gaze steadily. ‘I doubt that,’ he said quietly.

Cyn looked at him sharply, but his expression remained enigmatic, giving her no insight as to what he might have meant by that remark. She sighed, putting up a hand to her throbbing temple; the strain of driving in London had certainly taken its toll on her today. ‘Could you just tell me why I’m here, Wolf, so I can go home, have a soak in the bath, some dinner, and then put my feet up for the rest of the weekend?’ After the last two days she felt desperately in need of the rest!

‘Hmm, sounds tempting.’ He gave a rueful grimace that told her he wouldn’t be doing anything as relaxing with his weekend.

Her mouth twisted. ‘I’m sure the head of Thornton Industries could do the same thing—if he chose to.’

‘Are you?’ he sighed. ‘I’m not so sure. Although I may be able to find some time to relax this weekend.’ He frowned suddenly. ‘Now that Rebecca has gone away for a couple of days.’

‘I’m sure you— Rebecca’s gone away?’ Cyn hoped her voice sounded as innocently curious as she wanted it to!

Rebecca had made no mention about going away when the two of them had talked earlier, so maybe her decision to do so had been a sudden one, so that she could think very carefully before committing herself to a marriage—and a man!—she didn’t seem totally sure of? Cyn sincerely hoped so; Rebecca was too young to tie herself to a relationship she wasn’t a hundred per cent sure about. Although she doubted if Wolf would see it in quite the same way, especially if it had been anything Cyn had said to the girl that had caused her to rethink the situation!

She could be totally wrong about that, Cyn acknowledged, and maybe Rebecca would come back having realised just how lucky she was to be marrying someone like Wolf, after all. Although there was still the question of that young gardener...

‘That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,’ Wolf nodded abruptly. ‘Rebecca has—been under a lot of strain the last few months, with our engagement and other things,’ he dismissed briskly. ‘So if you have any questions about the wedding arrangements during the next few days, perhaps you could come to me with them?’

Cyn had noticed the young girl’s engagement ring, the single large diamond, had guessed by the way she unconsciously sought its presence, twisting it around on her finger, that it was a fairly new acquisition. In which case the wedding must now seem to be absolutely rushing towards her—hence her near-panic, Cyn would guess. Even Rebecca’s confused feelings over the gardener might just be part of her pre-wedding nerves too. Cyn was no longer sure whether she wished that were the case or not...

‘I don’t usually work weekends,’ she told Wolf impatiently. ‘And you could have said all this on the telephone.’ She sighed as she realised that her second trip in here today had been a waste of time, and picked up her handbag in preparation to leave. ‘Maybe you have time to waste, Wolf, but I—’

‘Sit down!’ Wolf ordered thunderously, sitting forward in his chair now to rest his arms on the top of his desk, all pretence of relaxing totally gone. ‘I don’t have time to waste either,’ he rasped harshly. ‘I never did,’ he added enigmatically.

He used to say that concerning his painting, Cyn remembered painfully. What had happened to that? This office had several originals on its walls, but even a cursory glance told her that none of them were Wolf’s own. ‘Why don’t you paint any more, Wolf?’ The question was blurted out before she even had time to think about it. And as Wolf’s face darkened ominously, she knew she shouldn’t have asked the question at all, let alone as bluntly as she had. But she wanted to know, dammit!

‘I’ve just told you,’ he grated coldly, ‘I don’t have any time to waste!’

Cyn gasped. ‘Your painting was never a waste, Wolf!’

His eyes narrowed. ‘And what would you know about it?’

She paled, swallowing hard. Wolf had never been cruel in the past, but she realised he was a master at it now, that he had meant to be insulting—and that he had succeeded! ‘I’d better go—’

‘I haven’t finished!’ he said impatiently. ‘We keep being side-tracked by the past. Which is something else I wanted to talk to you about—except not the parts we keep discussing.’ He looked grim. ‘I realised after I’d left you yesterday and had time to think things over—’

‘That you behaved like an overbearing, autocratic pig!’ Cyn accused with feeling, recovering slightly from his deliberate taunt; she couldn’t allow herself to be destroyed all over again by this man.

His mouth twisted. ‘That we hadn’t discussed Rebecca not being told of our past—association,’ he completed pointedly. ‘Of course she knows I was engaged to someone else seven years ago—’

‘Big of you to have told her even that,’ Cyn snapped, resentful of this whole conversation; as if she had any wish for Rebecca, or anyone else, to realise she had once been going to marry Wolf herself!

Wolf’s eyes narrowed to icy-cold slits. ‘It would have been pointless to have kept that from her,’ he bit out tersely. ‘But I saw no reason to bore her with the details.’

‘Of course not,’ Cyn scorned, stung by his attitude. ‘Although you didn’t really have to tell her anything; there were so few people who even knew we were engaged at all!’

‘And whose fault was that?’ Wolf accused harshly.

Hers, she freely admitted that. But although she had been sure of her love for Wolf, she had still been insecure about his wealthy background, even if he did choose to dismiss it most of the time. He was still a Thornton, had known a much more privileged childhood than her, had never known what it was like to want something so badly that when it actually came to her she had been terrified of losing it. Wolf’s love had been like that to her. And, in retrospect, she had been wise to step warily where any kind of permanent future for them was concerned. Because it just hadn’t happened.

‘This is all past history, Wolf,’ she sighed wearily.

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ he nodded abruptly. ‘And I want it to remain that way,’ he added warningly.

‘Consider it forgotten,’ Cyn told him resentfully, knowing she would never forget it. And from the thunderous expression on Wolf’s face, neither would he—but for different reasons, Cyn didn’t doubt! ‘Now I—’ She broke off abruptly as the door behind her suddenly opened; most of the staff had been leaving the building as she arrived at five-thirty, and Wolf had dismissed his efficient secretary once she had shown Cyn into his office, so who was this walking unannounced into Wolf’s office in this familiar—?

Cyn only needed one glance across the office to know exactly who would dare to do such a thing.

Barbara!

It might have been almost seven years since she had last seen the other woman, but Cyn would know the beautiful Barbara Thornton anywhere. Besides, the other woman had changed little; her hair was still an ebony cloud, although styled shorter than it used to be, her beautifully perfect features still as glowingly youthful, despite the fact that she had to be thirty-three now. And she still wore her clothes, a tailored black dress this evening, with all the style and elegance she had learnt during her years as a top-class model. Yes, Cyn would know the beautiful Barbara Thornton. Anywhere.

‘Sorry, Wolf,’ the other woman drawled without any sign of real apology in her voice. ‘I didn’t realise you had someone with you.’ She gave Cyn a bright, meaningless smile—a smile that told Cyn, at least, that this woman wouldn’t have acted any differently if she had realised Wolf wasn’t alone, that she felt perfectly within her rights to walk in on him unannounced in his office. As Alex Thornton’s widow, Barbara had inherited Alex’s shares of Thornton Industries at the time of his death seven years ago, so she was probably right about that!

But as Cyn knew only too well, Barbara had never needed those shares to feel this peremptory right in Wolf’s life!

Barbara turned back to Wolf now. ‘I just wanted to remind you that dinner—is at eight—’ She broke off suddenly, turning sharply back to Cyn, her breath sharply indrawn as she looked at her more closely. ‘You!’ she accused, green eyes wide with recognition.

There had never been any love lost between the two women. Barbara had treated Cyn, at best, with cool condescension after Wolf had introduced them seven years ago.

Cyn hadn’t been too troubled by the other woman’s attitude at the time; she had known from the first that Wolf’s family wouldn’t exactly welcome her with open arms, that she was far from an ideal choice, in the haughty Thornton family’s eyes, as the wife of one of the Thornton heirs. After all, she worked as a receptionist in one of their hotels, and her family background was nonexistent, as was her social standing; it was only natural, Cyn had accepted, that they should treat her with a certain amount of wariness until she had shown them that it was Wolf she loved and not his money. Wolf hadn’t given a damn what his family thought; he had told them he was marrying her, and that was exactly what he intended doing, whether they approved of her or not!

Only Barbara Thornton’s antagonism towards Cyn had had nothing to do with approving or disapproving of her; she had hated her on sight. And from the way she was looking at Cyn now, that feeling had never changed!

But Cyn was seven years older now, she inwardly chided herself as she briefly experienced those familiar feelings of inadequacy where this woman was concerned; she was a successful businesswoman in her own right, even if it was on a much smaller scale than the Thornton company.

She met the other woman’s gaze steadily, knowing that, if Barbara appeared not to have changed, then she at least had; never again would she allow herself to be cowed by any member of this powerful family. Besides, she had had the advantage of realising for a couple of days that a meeting like this, when Wolf married Rebecca, was inevitable. She hadn’t liked the idea, but she had known that it had to happen. Barbara, in the meantime, still looked completely stunned to see her again after all this time.

‘Barbara,’ she greeted her drily. ‘You’re looking well,’ she added lightly.

‘I’m—!’ Barbara broke off, incredulous at Cyn’s cool command, and turned those flashing green eyes on Wolf now. ‘You didn’t tell me you and Lucynda had met again.’ She had difficulty controlling the sharp, almost shrill edge to her voice as she tried not to sound accusing.

Barbara, and Wolf’s mother Claudia, had both persisted in using her full first name once they had learnt that was what Cyn was short for, both of them claiming to dislike diminutives of names, especially ones as ridiculous as Cyn! Wolf hadn’t liked them calling her Lucynda at all, but at the time Cyn hadn’t thought it was worth causing an argument over, although she had winced every time they called her Lucynda; it reminded her too much of her years in the orphanage.

How naïvely trusting she had been seven years ago; now she could see the other women’s behaviour for exactly what it was, yet another way of the two powerful Thornton women keeping her at a distance from them, and firmly in her place, of letting her know she would never be accepted as one of them.

‘My name is Cyn. Or Miss Smith,’ she told the other woman before turning back to Wolf—a Wolf who sat watching the two of them with narrowed eyes; probably waiting to see if they scratched each other’s eyes out, Cyn acknowledged angrily. She wouldn’t give Barbara, or Wolf, the satisfaction! ‘I think that’s our business concluded for today,’ she said coolly, knowing by the way his mouth tightened and his eyes narrowed ominously that he didn’t like the way she was talking to him at all. Tough!

‘Business?’ Barbara echoed sharply. ‘What on earth sort of business could the two of you—?’