MELANIE MILBURNE - The Tycoon's Marriage Deal

The mother he’d adored and who had made his and his father’s life so perfect and happy had gone.

Irretrievably gone.

But somehow some measure of childhood resilience had kicked in and he’d become the parent during the long years of his father’s slow climb out of the abyss of despair. His dad had never remarried or re-partnered. Hadn’t even dated.

But after his dad’s recent health scare, Blake was determined to put this one wrong thing right; no matter what the cost or the effort. McClelland Park was the key to his father’s full recovery.

He knew it in his blood. He knew it in his bones. He knew it at a cellular level.

His dad felt enormous guilt and shame about losing the property that had been passed down through the generations. Blake suspected his dad’s inability to move on with his life was tied up in the loss of the estate. His dad would literally die a slow and painful death without it being returned to him.

It was up to Blake to get McClelland Park back and get it back he would.

He smiled when he thought of Matilda Toppington. Colour him every shade of confident but he knew he had this in the bag with a big satin ribbon tied around it. She was exactly the woman for the job. Old man Pendleton wouldn’t stop gushing about her—how kind and considerate she was, all the charitable work she did in the local community, the way she took care of everyone. He’d seen it himself each time he’d been in the shop. Freebies for the kids, special treats for the elderly, home deliveries for the infirm. Tillie was such a do-gooder; he was surprised she hadn’t sprouted a pair of wings and didn’t carry a harp under her arm. When pressed on the aborted wedding, the old man had more or less hinted he was relieved it hadn’t gone ahead. Apparently so was everyone else in the village, although, according to Maude Rosethorne at the bed and breakfast, most weren’t game enough to say it to Tillie’s face.

But Blake was certain Tillie would say yes to him about the pretend engagement, if not yes to sleeping with him. When had a woman ever said no? He was the package most women wanted: wealth, status, looks and skill in bed. Besides, he was giving her the perfect tool to get back at her ex by showing off a new lover.

And becoming Tillie Toppington’s lover was something he was seriously tempted to do. From the first moment he’d met her gaze he’d been intrigued by her. She wasn’t his usual type but he was up for a change. The way she’d blushed when he’d first spoken to her made him do it all the more. She pretended to dislike him but he knew she was interested. All the signs were there. She was responding to him the way he responded to her—with good old-fashioned, clothes-ripping lust.

Okay, so call him vain, but no woman had ever complained about not having a good time in his bed. Not that he let them spend much time in it. He had a policy of no longer than a month. After that things got tricky. Women started measuring him for a morning suit. They started dropping hints about engagement rings or started dragging their heels while going past jewellery shop windows.

The estate came into view and a boulder landed in Blake’s gut. The silver-birch-lined driveway leading to the house brought back a rush of memories. The screaming siren of the ambulance as his mother was rushed to hospital. The drive home with his father, the night his mother died. The empty front passenger seat where his mother should have been sitting. How he had stared at that seat with his eyes burning and his stomach churning and his head pounding with a silent scream.

The horrible silence.

The silence that gouged a hole in his chest that had never properly closed. If he closed his eyes he could still hear the crunch of the car tyres on the gravel on that last drive out twenty-four years ago, that and the sound of his father’s quiet but no less heart-bludgeoning sobbing.

Blake braked but didn’t turn into the driveway. After a slow drive past his memories, he put his foot down and drove on with a roar of the engine.

He would wait until he heard from Tillie before he finally came home.

* * *

Tillie walked into her office to put another bill on the pile. She had kept out of there for most of the day, determined to resist peeking at the ring. And to avoid looking at the stack of bills on her desk. She put the overdue florist notice on top of the others and eyed the ring box as if it were a cockroach in cake batter. ‘You think I’m going to look at you, don’t you? You’ve been sitting there all day just waiting for me to break.’

Taking money from Mrs Fisher’s pawnshop for Blake’s ring was proving a little tricky for Tillie’s conscience. He had given it to her but it was hardly a no-strings gift. There were conditions attached. Conditions that involved what exactly? He’d said pretend to be his fiancée. What would that involve? Hanging out with him? Would hanging out include kissing him? Touching him?

Him touching her?

He’d said sleeping with him wasn’t mandatory but she’d seen the way his eyes darkened every time they met hers. Darkened and smouldered and made her body feel as if she were sitting too close to a fire. Naked.

Maybe she should have discussed the terms with him. Sussed out some of the details before she flatly refused. The bills weren’t going away—they were mounting up like a croquembouche cake.

Tillie sat down, and after a moment, began tapping her fingers on the desk. ‘It’s no good looking at me like that. You could be the identical twin of the Hope Diamond and I still wouldn’t look at you.’

After another long moment, she gently nudged the box, moving it a millimetre away as if she were pushing away a crumb. The box was plush velvet. Rich velvet. Luxury jeweller’s velvet.

Hours had passed since Blake had given the ring to her, but she couldn’t help thinking about how that box had been in his trouser pocket right next to his...

Tillie snatched her hand back and tucked it in her lap, eyeballing the ring box as if it were a poisonous viper sitting on her desk. ‘Thought you had me there, didn’t you?’

Joanne came into the office. ‘Who on earth are you talking to?’ she said and then glanced at the ring on the desk, a smile breaking over her face. ‘Ah.’

‘What do you mean “ah”?’ Tillie said, scowling.

Joanne’s eyes were doing the tiara thing again. ‘You want to so bad.’

‘No, I don’t.’ Tillie folded her arms.

‘Not even a little peek?’ Joanne’s hand reached for the box.

‘Don’t touch it!’

Joanne’s eyebrows went up and her smile widened so far it nearly fell off her face. ‘I thought you were going to take it to Mrs Fisher’s?’

‘Changed my mind.’

‘Because Mrs Fisher is the village’s version of Facebook?’

‘Exactly.’

Joanne perched on the edge of the desk, her eyes on the ring. ‘I wonder if he paid a lot for it?’

‘I. Do. Not. Care.’

‘Maybe it’s not a real diamond,’ Joanne said in a musing tone. ‘Some of those zircon ones look pretty amazing. You’d never know it wasn’t the real thing.’

‘I hardly think Blake McClelland is the type of man to buy a girl a zircon instead of a diamond,’ Tillie said.

Joanne’s twinkling eyes met Tillie’s. ‘True.’

Tillie frowned. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’

‘How am I looking at you?’ Joanne’s tone was so innocent it would have made an angel’s sound evil.

‘Don’t you have work to do?’ Tillie said with an I’m-your-boss arch of her brow.

Joanne’s cheeky smile didn’t back down. ‘Best not look at it, then. You might want to keep it.’ And giving a little finger wave, she left.

Tillie rolled her chair closer to the desk and picked up the ring box. She turned it over and over as if she were about to solve a Rubik’s Cube. What harm would one little peek do? No one would know she’d taken a look. She cautiously lifted the lid and then gasped. Inside was a stunning handcrafted ring that was set in a Gatsby era style. It wasn’t look-at-me huge but its finely crafted setting gave it an air of priceless beauty. There were a central diamond and two smaller ones either side of it, and a collection of tiny diamonds surrounding them. The sides of the ring were inset with more glittering tiny diamonds.

Tillie had seen some engagement rings in her time but none as beautiful as this. Hopelessly impractical, of course. She couldn’t imagine thrusting her hands into pastry while wearing it but, oh, how gorgeous was it?

You can’t keep it.

Right now Tillie didn’t want to listen to her conscience. She wanted to slip that ring over her finger and step out and parade it in the village to make sure everyone saw it winking there.

Take that, you cheating low-life ex. See what sort of calibre of man I can hook?

No one would be casting her pitying looks then. No one would be whispering behind their hands when she walked past them or into their shops, or asking each other sotto voce, ‘How do you think she’s holding up?’ and, ‘Doesn’t she look a little peaky to you?’ or, ‘I never thought Simon was right for her anyway.’

She took the ring out of the velvet-lined box and held it in the palm of her hand.

Go on. Put it on. See if it fits.

Tillie picked up the ring and, taking a deep breath, slipped it over her ring finger. It was a little snug but it fitted her finger better than the one Simon had ‘given’ her. She kept staring at the ring’s dazzling beauty, wondering how much it was worth. Wondering if she should take it off right this second before she got too attached to it. She had never worn anything so gorgeous. Her late mother hadn’t had much jewellery to speak of because she and Tillie’s dad were always so frugal over money in order to help others less fortunate. They hadn’t even bought an engagement ring but instead donated what they would have spent to their church’s missionary fund. Some of that social ethic had rubbed off on Tillie even though she didn’t even remember her mother because she’d died just hours after Tillie was born. But this was the sort of ring to be passed down generations from mothers to daughter to granddaughters and great-granddaughters.

Although Tillie had grown up in a loving home, largely due to her kind stepmother who was the antithesis of the wicked stepmother stereotype, she had still longed to belong to someone, to build a life together and raise a family. To have that special someone to be there for her, as her stepmother was there for her father, and Tillie’s mother before her. Prior to being jilted, she’d been a fully signed up member to the Love Makes the World Go Around Club.

Breaking up with Simon after so long together shattered her dream of happy ever after. She had been cast adrift like a tiny dinghy left bobbing alone in the ocean without a rudder or even an anchor. Three months on, it still felt a little odd to go out to dinner or visit the cinema on her own but she was determined to learn how to do it without feeling like a loser. It felt a little weird to be cooking a meal for one person but she was working on that, too—besides, she could do with a little less eating.

Now she was a fully paid up member of the Single and Loving It Club.

Well...maybe the Single and Still Getting Used to It Club was more appropriate.

But she would learn to love it even if it damn near killed her.

Tillie was about to take off the ring when her phone rang. She picked it up to see the number on the screen was the respite facility Mr Pendleton was staying in. ‘Hello?’

‘Tillie, it’s Claire Reed, one of the senior nurses on staff,’ a woman’s voice said. ‘I’m afraid Mr Pendleton’s had a nasty fall coming out of the bathroom earlier today. He’s okay now but he’s asking to see you. Can you come in when you get a chance?’