Millionaire Under The Mistletoe: The Playboy's Mistress / Christmas in the Billionaire's Bed / The Boss's Mistletoe Manoeuvres

‘Is he as good-looking as he looks in the photos I’ve seen of him?’

‘I thought it was his money you were interested in.’ Harry received an annoyed glare for his insensitive comment. ‘I suppose you think he’s going to take one look at you and propose you share his bed and bank account,’ he sniggered.

‘It has been known,’ Clare confirmed calmly.

The awful part was that her sister’s complacence was perfectly understandable—Darcy could see it all: Reece blinded by Clare’s beauty, wondering what he’d ever seen in the dowdy little sister with the funny nose. Why hadn’t she foreseen this? she wondered bitterly.

If the loud, realistic gagging noises Harry made as he headed for the door dragging his twin with him were anything to go by, her comment made him feel sick too.

Charlie seemed perfectly willing to follow his twin but he couldn’t resist a taunting parting shot. ‘What makes you think he’s not already got a girlfriend or a wife even…?’

‘Those boys get worse!’ Clare exclaimed angrily as the door slammed behind them. ‘He hasn’t, has he, Darce?’ she added worriedly.

‘How should I know?’ Helping her sister seduce her own lover was above and beyond the call of sisterly duty.

‘Well, you have seen more of him than everyone else.’

‘Something gone down the wrong way, Darce?’ Nick asked solicitously.

‘Do you want a drink of water?’ Clare asked

Darcy wiped the moisture from the corner of her eye. ‘I’m fine,’ she protested hoarsely. The image in her mind of Reece’s powerful body slick with sweat, his powerful thighs quivering with need and power, made it difficult for her to formulate a suitable reply. ‘He didn’t discuss his personal life with me, Clare.’

The indentation between her brows deepened as it struck her forcibly just how adept he’d been at distracting her when their conversation had begun to touch on personal areas, but then his methods of distraction were in a class of their own. Married men acted like that…what if he’d been lying all along…? Clammy perspiration broke out along her brow as her tummy tied itself in knots of apprehension.

Darcy took a deep breath and firmly pushed aside her fears; this was her own insecurity at work. Reece wasn’t the type to resort to subterfuge—let’s face it, she thought, he doesn’t need to! He’d been upfront enough—he wanted sex and nothing more.

‘I can’t believe you wasted all that time.’

‘I wouldn’t call it wasted exactly.’ The way she recalled it, there hadn’t been a second they hadn’t filled with touching or tasting or taking… Darcy was confused on any number of matters but one thing was clear to her—she was glad they’d been lovers. She would always treasure the memory and no matter what the outcome that much at least wouldn’t change.

‘Oh, you’re hopeless, Darcy!’

Hopelessly in love. Darcy felt as though a large fist had landed a direct hit on her solar plexus. Suddenly the missing pieces of the emotional jigsaw fell into place. Her mouth opened and closed several times as she gasped for air like a land-locked fish. If anyone had noticed her condition they would no doubt not have considered it attractive—but nobody did.

‘I have made some enquiries…’

Clare squealed and gave her older brother her immediate approving attention. ‘Why, you clever old thing, you. And…?’

‘He’s a widower.’

‘Excellent!’ Clare exclaimed gleefully; unlike Darcy, she didn’t detect any undercurrent in Nick’s words.

‘Clare!’ Darcy exclaimed, unable to hide her shocked disapproval.

‘There’s no more edifying sight,’ Nick drawled to nobody in particular, ‘than a woman in full pursuit.’

‘I thought hunting was your favourite pastime, Nick…? But, silly me, you’re a man, so that makes it all right, doesn’t it?’ Darcy heard herself perversely defending her sister.

Nick grinned. ‘Sexist down to my cotton socks,’ he conceded good-naturedly. ‘I can’t help myself any more than you can help yourself being scrupulously fair, Darce—even when it’s not in your best interests,’ he added in an amused but not unsympathetic undertone.

‘Thank you, Darce. There’s no need for either of you to look like that,’ Clare insisted with a moody little pout. ‘It’s just such an excellent opportunity for me. It’s not as if I’m going to marry him or anything.’ A naughty grin flickered across her face. ‘Unless, of course, the opportunity arises,’ she added with a husky laugh. She shrugged when neither of her siblings showed any appreciation of her joke. ‘Can you imagine how much free publicity I’d get being seen with Reece Erskine? It could really be the break I’ve been waiting for. It’s perfectly legitimate,’ she announced, a shade of defiance entering her voice.

Darcy couldn’t help but wonder if her sister actually believed that. ‘Dad would go spare if he could hear you.’

‘Well, he can’t, can he?’ Clare pointed out unrepentantly. ‘And what he doesn’t know won’t harm him—unless you tell him…’

‘I can see it would put the spotlight on a brilliant new designer who is just starting out if she was seen in all the right places with someone the media love to write about,’ Nick agreed.

‘Don’t encourage her!’ Darcy pleaded.

‘At last, someone who understands!’ Clare sighed in a long-suffering ‘nobody understands me’ sort of way.

‘But doesn’t it rather spoil your plan if the guy in question bends over backwards to avoid the spotlight?’ Nick wondered.

‘These things have a way of leaking out—you of all people should know that, Nick.’

Darcy, who knew how ambitious her sister was for her business, was shocked by this display of casual ruthlessness.

‘You mean you’d leak things to the Press…? Plant a story…?’

‘Don’t you worry your head about the details, Darce.’

The patronising comment brought an angry flush to Darcy’s cheeks. ‘I think you’re getting a little bit ahead of yourself, Clare,’ she bit back coldly. ‘You haven’t even met the man yet.’ If she had her way that situation was not about to change. ‘And there’s no question at all of his staying here. Once Beth and the children arrive, not to mention Gran, we’ll all be doubling up, if not trebling up!’

‘I’ve thought about that,’ Clare replied smoothly. ‘You could share with the children in the attic room, and I suppose under the circumstances I could share with Gran.’

‘That’s mighty big of you.’

‘There’s no need to be like that, Darcy. I think it’s the least you could do—’

‘Whatever gave you the impression that I want to help you? I think what you’re planning to do is callous and calculating…’

Clare looked blankly astonished by her placid sister’s fresh outburst. ‘But you said to Nick…’ She was starting to think Darcy might be sickening for something—it wasn’t like her to be so belligerent.

‘I pointed out that Nick is a sexist pig.’ She paused to glare at her unmoved brother. ‘Which he is. But that doesn’t mean I don’t basically agree with him. What you’re planning to do is cold-blooded and unethical.’

Clare’s lips tightened. ‘I think you’re being very selfish. Mum and Dad invested a lot of money in my business, and I owe it to them to make it a success. I’m not trying to trap the man, but if meeting him happens to oil a few wheels, where is the problem?’ Slow tears began to form in her lovely eyes; she sniffed and one slid artistically down her smooth cheek.

Even though she knew her sister could cry on cue, Darcy knew that it wouldn’t be long before she’d be saying soothing things to drive that tragic expression from her lovely face. The pattern of behaviour had been laid down early on in childhood and was nigh on impossible to break at this stage in their lives. Somehow Darcy always ended up stiffly apologising and in her turn Clare would accept it and emerge looking gracious and generous.

‘Maybe I don’t have your lofty principles, Darcy,’ she added huskily, ‘but I do have fun…and so will he.’

The thought of Clare having fun with Reece made Darcy lose all desire to pour oil on troubled waters.

‘What is it, Dad?’ It was Nick who had noticed Jack’s return.

‘It was your mother.’ Jack smiled a little dazedly at their expectant faces. ‘She’s coming home.’