The Man She'll Marry

CAROLE MORTIMER has a long-standing reputation as one of Mills & Boon®’s most popular authors. Readers love her likable heroines and strong, charismatic heroes, so it’s not surprising that over 40 million copies of her books have been distributed internationally. She says, “I was born in England, the youngest of three children—I have two older brothers. I started writing in 1978, and have now written 100 books for Mills & Boon. I have four sons—Matthew, Joshua, Timothy and Peter—and a bearded collie dog called Merlyn. I’m in a very happy relationship with Peter senior. We’re best friends as well as lovers, which is probably the best recipe for a successful relationship. We live on the Isle of Man.”

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Author

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

‘IS YOUR mother at home?’

Merry stared at the man who stood on the doorstep. She knew she was being rude; her ‘mother’ had taught her all the necessary social niceties. But, looking the way this man did, he had to be used to women staring at him. Dani would have described him as ‘drop-dead gorgeous’, and for the first time Merry understood exactly what she meant by that phrase; this man had to set female hearts pounding, pulses racing, wherever he went!

‘Is Dani anything like you?’

The second question was fired at her before she’d even had chance to formulate an answer to the first one. It had been a long day, and she had only got in a short time ago, though long enough to have quickly changed into an old pair of black denims Dani had outgrown some years before, and a sloppy green jumper that hung loosely down to mid-thigh. Not exactly the height of fashion, but she was comfortable.

At least she had been, until faced with the elegance of her visitor. This man, well over six feet in height, with his ‘drop-dead gorgeous’ good looks—slightly overlong blond hair, a face that looked hewn from granite, eyes a deep blue, nose long and arrogant, mouth sensual above a squarely challenging jaw—wore his own designer-label clothes with a complete disregard for those labels, or for how well his blue jacket and pale blue shirt emphasised the width of his shoulders and the narrowness of his waist, his blue jeans simply adding to his rugged handsomeness. Dani’s cast-offs, which were slightly too big at that, did not do the same for her own appearance!

He frowned at her now, although the laughter lines beside his eyes and mouth said he wasn’t always this serious. ‘Is your mother at home?’ he persisted.

‘No,’ she answered him honestly, intrigued in spite of herself. Oh, not by his looks; good looks alone had never impressed her. Well, only the once. And she had learnt bitterly from the experience. No, what intrigued her about this particular man was that he obviously knew of Dani but he had no idea what Dani actually looked like . . .!

Because Dani was nothing like Merry. Her own long hair was dark, almost black, whereas Dani’s was a riot of blonde curls, and Dani’s eyes were brown, whereas her own were green, and Dani, at eighteen, was much taller than her own five foot nothing. So who was this man? He knew of Dani, but nothing else about her—except her address...

He gave an impatient sigh. ‘I don’t suppose your sister is here, either? No.’ He answered his own question. ‘David said they were going to some coffee shop or other this evening. Damn,’ he muttered, looking thoughtful. ‘I don’t suppose I could come in and wait, could I?’ His imperious tone of voice totally belied the request that his words should have been.

A man used to getting his own way, Merry surmised ruefully. Probably in his late thirties, and with no ring on his left hand to say whether or not he was married. The fact that he wasn’t wearing a ring said he would do as he damn well pleased, not that he wasn’t actually married. Everything about this man quietly cried self-assurance and determination.

‘No, I don’t suppose you could,’ she answered dryly.

Blond brows rose over those deep blue eyes, his mouth quirking wryly. ‘Well, at least one of the family seems to have some sense!’ he allowed.

She remembered again that it had been a long day and she had only been home from work for a short time; what she really wanted right now was to sit down with a glass of cooled white wine and simply unwind before thinking about preparing dinner. Her unexpected guest did not fit in with those plans at all. Besides, exactly what did he want to come in and wait for?

‘One of the family?’ she echoed smoothly, the mildness of her tone totally masking her impatience.

He nodded. ‘You and Dani. You are obviously the elder—’

‘Obviously,’ she acknowledged crisply. Why state the obvious?

He gave her a sharp look, visibly making an effort to relax. ‘I didn’t mean to sound insulting, Miss Baker—’

‘You may not have meant to, Mr...?’ She paused pointedly; he knew her name while she had absolutely no idea what his might be.

‘Kingston,’ he supplied. ‘Zack Kingston.’

Merry frowned. Kingston? The name did sound familiar. Dani had mentioned someone at university by that name. David Kingston... ‘David would be your son—’

‘Nephew,’ Zack Kingston corrected. ‘Dani has obviously talked to you about him!’

Merry didn’t like the accusation in his tone. Any more than she liked standing on the doorstep having this conversation with him. ‘Mr Kingston, I was just about to have a glass of wine. Would you like to join me?’ Green eyes steadily met blue.

How much ‘sense’ did he think she had now? The trouble with Mr Zack Kingston was that he formed snap judgements, and had taken one look at her and decided she was small and defenceless. It was only one of several wrong assumptions he had made!

That direct blue gaze was reassessing now, moving slowly from her bare feet, over the faded black denims, the too-large jumper, to the wild cascade of her long dark hair, the small gamine face dominated by challenging eyes.

To Merry’s amusement, she could see he was none the wiser for his review of her. She obviously didn’t look to him what she actually was. There was something to be said for a man-free—and therefore problem-free—life, after all!

‘Make your mind up, Mr Kingston,’ she advised mockingly. ‘I don’t intend standing here all evening waiting for your answer!’

Anger flared briefly in his deep blue eyes before he quickly brought it under control. Here was a man used to calling the shots, Merry guessed again, not the other way around. Well, this was her home, and her time, and if he wanted to continue this conversation he could do it inside, where she could relax. She had absolutely no idea what he was doing here, what it had to do with Dani—if anything—and she had no intention of discussing it any further standing on the doorstep!

‘You’ll be quite safe, Mr Kingston,’ she added derisively. ‘I make it a rule never to attack defenceless men on—what is it today?—on a Tuesday evening,’ she teased as she turned and walked back inside the house, sure he would follow her, he had come here this evening with something to say, and unless she was mistaken he hadn’t said it yet!

‘I can assure you, Miss Baker, I am far from defenceless!’

She was right; he had followed her! And as she looked up from pouring two glasses of wine she tried hard not to notice how his large frame dominated the bright but compact kitchen. ‘You are?’ she returned as she handed him his glass.

‘I are—I mean—Oh, hell.’ He scowled. ‘Tell me, Miss Baker—’

‘Merry,’ she put in lightly, sitting up on one of the bar stools. ‘Short for Meredith,’ she tacked on, to save him the bother of asking; he was the sort of man who would want to know!

He nodded. ‘Tell me, Merry,’ he murmured softly as he sat on the second bar stool, his bent knee only inches away from her own. ‘What happens to “defenceless men” on the other evenings of the week?’

Different approach. Anger hadn’t worked, so now he was going to try cajoling, revealing some of that humour she had guessed at when she first saw him.

Merry quirked dark brows at him over the top of her wine glass. ‘Why don’t you come back tomorrow and find out?’ she replied.

For a moment he looked perplexed. And then he smiled, and laughed.

Whew! Merry continued sipping her wine, mainly as a way of hiding the way her breath had caught in her throat. ‘Drop-dead gorgeous’! That laugh only made him more so. A young Robert Redford, she decided admiringly.

He sobered, shaking his head as he still smiled. ‘If Dani is anything like you, then I think I understand David’s dilemma,’ he said.

‘David has a dilemma?’ she prompted softly.

The laughter had all gone now; Zack Kingston’s expression one of grim disapproval. ‘I consider it a dilemma, but I doubt that he does!’

Merry didn’t understand how his nephew’s dilemma could have anything to do with Dani. Dani had begun her studies at university at the end of September, and, being gregarious by nature, she had quickly made friends. David Kingston was only one of several Dani had mentioned during the last couple of months. Merry certainly couldn’t think of any reason for the boy’s uncle to come here in search of Dani...

‘When do you expect your mother home?’ Zack Kingston continued restlessly, putting down his glass of barely touched white wine.

Which wasn’t altogether fair on the wine. Merry didn’t consider herself a connoisseur by any means, but her taste was discerning, and the wine was a delicious Chablis, perfectly chilled.

‘I don’t,’ she told him consideringly. ‘David’s dilemma has something to do with Dani?’ An uneasy fluttering sensation was beginning in the pit of her stomach.

Dani wasn’t only gregarious, she was absolutely beautiful. And there was no bias involved in that observation; Dani had been bowling men off their feet since she was in her cradle!

‘Tell me,’ Merry said slowly, ‘is David anything like you?’

‘What the hell does that have to do—?’ Zack Kingston broke off, shaking his head impatiently. ‘David was the son of my older brother and his wife. Unfortunately they were both killed in a car accident ten years ago, which is when I took over his guardianship.’

Very commendable, considering the demands a child could make on you—even more so when he wasn’t actually your own...

‘That doesn’t actually answer my question, Mr Kingston,’ Merry persisted.

‘I don’t see what it has to do with anything—’

‘It has a great deal to do with it,’ she said tersely; a twenty-ish version of this man could be devastating to a girl like Dani. ‘David is tall, blond, and gorgeous, right?’

Now he was the one to look mockingly at her. ‘Like me?’ he returned.

Merry glared at him. ‘You’re too old to be playing these sort of games, Mr Kingston—’

‘The name is Zack—Merry,’ he cut in. ‘And I don’t consider myself “too old” for anything!’

The chill in his tone would have frozen a lesser woman into silence, but Merry didn’t consider herself a ‘lesser’ anything! And she never would!

‘So David is like you?’ she said irritably. Oh, Dani, sweet Dani, what have you done?

Zack shrugged. ‘There’s a certain similarity, yes. But—’

‘It’s enough,’ Merry waved a dismissive hand. ‘Dani told me she was meeting friends for coffee this evening. Am I to take it David is that friend?’ Singular, not plural. But not exactly a lie, either. Not that she had thought for a moment that it would be; she and Dani had never lied to each other.

Those blue eyes were narrowed now. ‘That’s what he told me before he left this morning to attend classes, yes,’ Zack agreed. ‘Amongst other things,’ he added. ‘I called here earlier in the day in the hope I could talk to Dani’s mother without—’

‘I work, Mr Kingston,’ Merry told him caustically. Unlike some people, obviously... The cut of his clothes, and that air of arrogance, spoke of wealth, and a nature that didn’t suffer fools gladly. Well, she certainly didn’t have the former, but she didn’t suffer fools, either, and this man was taking an awful long time to get to his point!

He was staring at her now, seemingly speechless—not something that happened often, Merry was sure!

She had realised a few minutes ago that he assumed she was Dani’s sister.

‘I suggest we dispense with any misconceptions you may have formed when you arrived, Mr Kingston,’ she told him briskly. ‘Dani doesn’t have a sister, older or otherwise. In fact, Dani is an only child.’ She met his eyes steadily.

Zack Kingston blinked, and then blinked again, his head tilted to one side as he reassessed the situation a second time. Finally he shook his head. ‘You aren’t old enough to be Dani’s mother! Unless—’ His gaze sharpened in dismay. ‘Exactly how old is Dani?’

Merry was unabashed. ‘Daniella—Dani—is eighteen.’

He looked relieved to hear that, but his puzzled vision returned to Merry once again, raking over her appearance once more, from the top of her head down to her bare toes, returning to her face—a face full of good humour, her green eyes clear and bright, her nose small and pert, her mouth wide and inclined to turn up at the corners, giving her a happy look even when she didn’t feel much like smiling.

As she didn’t now. This man, she had come to realise over the last few minutes, had come here to tell her something important about his nephew and her daughter. And in view of the way Dani had made her own way into life, Merry couldn’t help the feelings of foreboding that were seething over her. She no longer found this man’s mistake over her identity a cause for amusement, merely questioned the urgency of his need to talk to Dani’s mother.

Zack drew in a controlling breath. ‘Miss Baker—Er, Mrs—’

‘Miss Baker,’ Merry corrected stiltedly. What was that saying about ‘the sins of the father’...? Did it also apply to ‘the mistakes of the mother’? ‘I’ve never been a Mrs Anything, Mr Kingston,’ she informed him flatly, pointed chin raised defiantly.

He nodded abruptly. ‘Well, Miss Baker, it appears you’re about to have a wedding in the family now! My nephew David informed me this morning that he intends marrying your daughter!’

Merry swallowed hard, feeling the colour drain from her cheeks. Dani. Eighteen-year-old Dani. Beautiful Dani, who had her whole life before her. Dani, who had only been at university for two months. It couldn’t be happening all over again!

Was the mistake of the mother being repeated by the daughter...?

CHAPTER TWO

‘HERE, drink this,’

Merry looked up at Zack. ‘This’ turned out to be what was left of the wine in his glass. There could only be one reason—in the present circumstances!—why Zack Kingston was encouraging her to drink it.

She pushed the glass away, glaring at him. ‘I am not in need of restorative alcohol, thank you,’ she told him frostily. ‘Did you say you have been David’s guardian for the last ten years?’

‘Almost ten and a half, to be exact,’ he confirmed, frowning at the question.

Merry couldn’t see what difference that six months made! ‘Oh, let’s, by all means, be exact,’ she snapped caustically, looking him up and down, once again noticing the expensive cut of his clothes, his only jewellery a signet ring on the little finger of his right hand. ‘Are you married, Mr Kingston?’ she demanded in clipped tones.

His mouth twisted. ‘Fortunately not.’

She had thought not; he didn’t give the impression of a man in a hurry to get back to his home. Or a wife. ‘You do have some intelligence, then,’ she replied dismissively. ‘In that case—’

‘You consider it intelligent not to be married, Miss—Merry?’ he interrupted.

She looked at him pityingly. She could well understand his amazement at finding a woman who wasn’t interested in marriage; considering the way he looked, his apparent wealth and his bachelor status, she could imagine he had met far too many women desperate to get married—to him!

‘As I’ve already pointed out to you, marriage is an unknown quantity to me personally.’ She shrugged. ‘And it seems to me, from the amount of separation and divorce, that marriage has become an overrated state to be in!’

‘You—’

‘However, that does not mean I advocate single motherhood, either,’ she continued firmly. ‘I know from experience how hard that can be. For the mother left on her own to bring up the child, not the father,’ she added heatedly. ‘He usually walks away without any responsibilities!’

That deep blue gaze watched her consideringly. ‘Is that what happened to you?’

She bristled defensively. ‘We weren’t talking about me!’ Merry snapped back.

Zack shook his head dazedly. ‘Then I would like to know who we are talking about?’

‘Dani, of course!’ Despite her refusal of his wine a few minutes ago, she now took a grateful sip from her own glass. ‘You are the boy’s guardian. Didn’t you teach him any of the facts of life?’ She shook her head with angry disgust. ‘Or are you one of those men who believe it’s the woman’s responsibility to take care of the precautions?’ That seemed all too often to be the case nowadays; woman’s demand for equality, and therefore independence, had rebounded on them in the case of sexual relationships!

‘Dani suffers from a similar problem to me, in that she is medically unable to take the pill,’ she told Zack coldly.

‘I’ll file that information away for future reference,’ he said, sounding amused.

Merry could feel the heat in her cheeks. This man was making fun of her! ‘I’m glad you find this situation funny, Mr Kingston—’

‘“Funny” is far from the right word to describe how I feel about what’s happened,’ he bit out, suddenly looking at her with an arctic chill in his eyes. ‘You are obviously under some misapprehension concerning Dani and David’s relationship. Contrary to the conclusion you seem to have jumped to, your daughter is not pregnant!’

Merry stared at him uncomprehending. Not...? When Zack Kingston informed her of his nephew’s determination to marry Dani, it had seemed to her there could be only one reason for such impetuosity. Distressing as that conclusion might have been. But he was saying Dani wasn’t pregnant!

‘I don’t understand.’ She shook her head.

‘I didn’t,’ he rasped. ‘But, having now met you, I’m beginning to!’

Merry looked at him blankly. What was that supposed to mean? What could she possibly have to do with his nephew’s announcement that he intended marrying Dani; she had never even met the young man!

‘Perhaps you would care to explain that remark?’ she invited coolly, green eyes sparkling.

He gave an abrupt laugh. ‘I most certainly would,’ he rasped. ‘You obviously have an attitude towards pre-marital sex—’

‘I have an attitude towards marriage too!’ she jumped in. How dared this man come into her home and make snap judgements about her? He didn’t even know her! He was an arrogant swine, and if he thought she was going to let her daughter have anything to do with a relative of his, then he was sadly—

‘We’ll get to that in a minute,’ he dismissed, with that arrogance she had just mentally attributed to him. ‘I was about to say that, in the circumstances, your attitude towards pre-marital relationships is perfectly understandable.’

‘Exactly what “circumstances” would you be referring to, Mr Kingston?’ Merry prompted fiercely, raising herself to her full height of five feet and half an inch—and making absolutely no impression on him, judging by the way he looked down his arrogant nose at her!

As she had expected, he looked unperturbed. ‘Obviously the circumstances of Dani’s birth—’

‘Which you know absolutely nothing about!’ she returned furiously. He raised his blond brows questioningly. Well, he could question all he liked; it was none of his business what those ‘circumstances’ might have been! Besides, he seemed to have already drawn his own conclusions.

The silence stretched between them, as green eyes warred with blue. But Merry had no intention of being the one to back down.

‘Which I know absolutely nothing about,’ Zack was finally the one to slowly admit. ‘But I believe it has everything to do with Dani’s own feelings towards relationships.’

‘You already said that,’ Merry retorted.

His mouth tightened. ‘Having now thought about this, it’s my belief—though I won’t be able to confirm this until I’ve spoken to David again—that he and Dani are in love, and that, like all young people in love, they wish to consummate their physical attraction towards each other, but that Dani would rather wait until after they are married.’

‘I can’t see anything wrong with that,’ Merry scorned.

‘There is if their only solution to the problem is for them to marry immediately!’ Zack returned exasperatedly.

Dani had watched Merry’s struggles over the years to cope with working and being a mother, and she knew exactly how difficult it had been for Merry to acquire a career at all when she had become pregnant during her first term at university. Had that coloured Dani’s own views on marriage and lovemaking? If it had, was that really such a bad thing? Dani was so young still, not much more than a child, really, not old enough for the responsibility of either marriage or a family.

Thinking of Dani dissipated Merry’s anger and distress, cleared the initial panic from her mind. She and Dani were close, and she didn’t believe, now that she could think straight, that Dani would agree to marry someone and then not tell her own mother about it. Admittedly, Dani seemed to have kept the intensity of this particular relationship with David Kingston to herself, not seeming to have mentioned him any more than the other new friends she had made in the last couple of months. But a marriage proposal, and its acceptance, was something else entirely...

Merry looked up at Zack Kingston with a new confidence. ‘I don’t believe they have decided to marry, immediately or otherwise,’ she told him calmly. ‘I think you may have been a little premature in coming here today, Mr Kingston—’

‘For God’s sake call me Zack!’ he exploded. ‘And no matter what you may think, Merry, I did not imagine David’s announcement to me this morning—it totally destroyed my appetite for breakfast!’

Merry felt her mouth twitching with humour, had to bite her lip to stop herself from smiling. She could picture Zack now, seated at the end of a long dining table, newspaper spread out in front of him, while some meticulous, silent servant served him bacon and eggs—the latter would be scrambled, of course, no messy egg-yolks for this man to deal with’ And then, just as he was about to take his first mouthful of the mouthwatering food, David dropping his bombshell!

‘I trust you managed to eat lunch, Zack?’ she said soothingly. ‘It really isn’t good for the blood sugar for you to go without food for too long. It impairs your judgement, and—’

‘My judgement is not impaired, Merry,’ he bit out. ‘David told me—’

‘I’m not disputing what he told you,’ she assured him evenly. ‘I’m merely questioning the validity of the news that Dani intends marrying him. I must admit I was thrown for a few minutes after your initial announcement, but I’ve had time to collect my thoughts now. I know Dani, the two of us are friends, as well as mother and daughter, and if she were serious about your nephew then I believe she would have told me about him.’ Merry’s confidence increased even as she spoke the words. She did know Dani, and what this man was suggesting didn’t sound at all like her daughter. ‘I don’t disbelieve that David told you how he felt towards Dani—’