A High Price to Pay (7 page)

realise we're not enjoying a conventional relationship. But I'd prefer

my mother to retain some illusions. Although she'll be so relieved that

I'm answering her prayers at last that .she won't enquire too closely,

but welcome you with open arms.'

'Oh, really?' Alison lifted her chin. 'I'd have said I was the last girl on

earth she would ever expect you to produce as her future

daughter-in-law.'

Nicholas shrugged. 'That's a risk we'll have to take,' he dismissed.

'Now, phone your boss, and let's make a start.'

It was foolish, she knew, but his failure to utter even a token

reassurance about her suitability rankled with her.

She said stiltedly, 'My mother is still in her room, but I'm sure she'll

want to—speak to you ...'

'To assure herself about my prospects?' The dark brows lifted

mockingly. 'Well, there's no problem. You were going to offer me

dinner here, I hope.'

Alison was taken aback. 'Yes—if you wish.' The thought of spending

the entire day in his company, and the evening as well, was a frankly

disturbing one.

He smiled rather grimly, as if he had gauged her inner turmoil. 'I feel

we should further our acquaintance, don't you?'

She shrugged slightly. 'Perhaps. I had the impression we wouldn't be

together a great deal.'

'Yet we can hardly be expected to shun each other this early in the

relationship.' He sounded amused, and slightly impatient. 'I'm paying

highly for your services, Alison. I expect a little cooperation.'

She avoided his gaze. 'Yes—well, I'll go and make that call.'

She told Simon she was involved with some unexpected business

concerned with her late father's estate, and accepted his sympathetic

enquiries like soothing balm for her feelings.

A sleek black Porsche was waiting for them on the drive, and Alison's

brows rose. 'No driver today?' she asked sweetly.

'I thought privacy was more important,' Nick retorted, opening the

passenger door for her. 'You'll have to trust yourself to my tender

mercies.'

And how! Alison thought silently as she adjusted her seatbelt.

'You don't waste words do you?' Nick Bristow observed after they'd

travelled the first few miles in silence.

'Sometimes,' she returned coolly. 'But you're hardly here today for the

pleasure of my company.'

'True.' His mouth curled slightly. 'But as I've already pointed out, part

of the bargain outlined to you was that you should "play the part" of

my wife. Maybe you should begin by rehearsing the role of the happy

fiancee. Hard looks, and answering me in monosyllables, are hardly

going to convince anyone that we're the victims of a mutual and

overwhelming passion.'

'I didn't know that was the impression I was supposed to give.' Alison

stared rigidly ahead of her. 'If that's so, perhaps you should get

yourself a better actress.'

'Or perhaps you could make more effort,' he retorted on a note of

exasperation. 'For God's sake, Alison, this isn't easy for me either.'

She flushed. 'I'm sorry. But I'm sure we'd find it—simpler, if I were

just the housekeeper.'

'For you, perhaps,' he said sardonically. 'Unfortunately, my

requirements extend beyond the purely domestic, as I've already

made clear to you. You knew that when you telephoned me last night,

so why are you having second thoughts now?'

'Because of something called the cold light of day,' Alison said wryly.

'I'm just beginning to realise what I've got myself into. And your

attitude isn't helping to reconcile me to my fate either.'

'I apologise.' He shot her a lightning glance. 'But I didn't think you'd

welcome any—overt demonstration. Do you want me to make love to

you?'

'Not if you were the last man on earth,' she said huskily. 'That isn't

want I meant, and you know it. You complain about me, but you're

barely civil yourself.'

Nick glanced in his mirror, then swung the car off the quiet road on to

the verge.

'Then I must apologise again, and this time I mean it,' he said quietly.

'I think we're both going to have to make a number of allowances that

we never bargained for, but even if our relationship isn't quite what

we may have originally envisaged for ourselves, there's no reason

why it can't work perfectly well.'

'I don't know.' Alison stared down at her hands, tensely clamped

together in her lap. 'Are you sure you've thought it through? All the

implications?' She took a deep breath. 'Children, for instance.'

He gave a faint frown. 'Perhaps I'm lacking in the paternal spirit, but

I've never had any wish to see any little carbon copies of myself

running about." He studied her, his frown deepening. 'Although I

admit I hadn't looked at the problem from your point of view.

Perhaps, if things work out between us, in a few years we could

consider adoption.'

She said wearily, 'Perhaps,' and discovered to her chagrin that she

wanted very badly to burst into tears.She fought it, and said with an

assumption of calm, 'And there's one other thing I think we should get

straight. I've heard a lot about the way you intend to—conduct your

private life when we're married. Can I take it that I'm entitled to the

same amount of leeway?'

'What the hell are you talking about?' She'd set him back on his heels

for once, Alison noted with satisfaction. He couldn't have looked

more amazed if she'd suddenly grown a second head in front of him.

'I'm sure I don't have to go into details,' she said sweetly. 'Or do you

expect me to live like a nun?'

'No, of course not,' he denied impatiently. 'Although I admit I hadn't

considered ...'

'That I was enough of a woman to have any emotional needs of my

own?' she asked flatly.

'Don't put words into my mouth,' he said harshly. 'Let's say I hadn't

credited you with that kind of sophistication. My impression was that

you were sexually innocent, but I've been wrong before.'

'We're not discussing what I am, but what I may become,' Alison said

calmly. 'I can't live on the fringe of your life, and remain totally

unscathed. And perhaps my lack of experience is just lack of

opportunity,' she added with bravado.

He said between his teeth, if it's experience you want, sweetheart,

then I'll be only too happy to oblige you.'

She heard the click as her seatbelt was released, then Nick pulled her

towards him with such force that her little cry of protest and outrage

was stifled on her lips.

His dark face seemed to swim before hers, and instinctively she

closed her eyes to blot him out, only to experience instead the first

ravaging assault of his mouth on her own.

His hand clamped at the back of her head, forestalling any movement

of rejection, forcing her to accept his kiss, his lips grinding hers

bruisingly against her teeth, as he sought to impose a deeper intimacy.

She couldn't move. She could hardly breathe, but she fought him

silently, her aching mouth tightly compressed against his invasion.

Her hands were pinned helplessly between their bodies, and she could

feel beneath her palms, disturbingly, the warmth of his skin through

the thin sweater, and the hurry of his heartbeat.

Then, as suddenly, she was free, drawing shaky gulps of breath into

her lungs as she shrank back into her seat. A couple of buttons on her

shirt had become undone during the brief fracas, but she was damned

if she was going to start fumbling to fasten them while he was

watching her, she thought stormily. Her hair was standing on end too,

and she probably hadn't a scrap of lipstick left.

'Disappointed, darling?' His voice was soft and goading. 'Sexual

skirmishing not all it's cracked up to be?'

'Is that what it was?' Alison lifted her shoulders in a faint shrug,

thankful that her voice, at least, sounded composed. 'I have been

kissed before, actually, but with rather more finesse.'

'You amaze me,' he drawled. 'And I hope you responded with rather

more finesse too. I'd say you had a lot to learn before taking your

place as a woman of the world.'

'Probably,' she said. 'But with luck, I'll find a more considerate

teacher.'

'I wouldn't count on it,' he said softly. 'And I'd better warn you now

that after we're married, I expect you to behave with discretion.'

'Isn't that what they call a double standard?' Her lower lip felt tender,

and she touched it tentatively with her finger.

'Call it what the hell you like,' he said tersely. 'I can't stop you

amusing yourself, but I won't allow you to flaunt your affairs in my

face either. You'd better remember that when you start looking round

for a lover.'

He paused, as if waiting for some reply, but when none was

forthcoming, simply shrugged, and re-started the car.

It took the remainder of the journey for Alison to regain some

semblance of her normal quiet composure. It hadn't been a kiss, she

thought, seething. It had been rape in miniature, and he knew it as

well as she did. And if that was a sample of what other women

flocked round him for, then they must insane!

That strange inner trembling had, thank goodness, subsided by the

time Nick parked in front of a pleasant red brick house, set back from

the road in what looked to be extensive grounds. If she was nervous

now, it was for a very different reason. She got out of the car, and

stood taking deep breaths of cool air.

'Relax.' Nick took her arm, and she had to fight the impulse to pull

violently away. 'She won't eat you—you're what she's been dreaming

of for years.'

Nick's mother was slight with a mass of grey- streaked dark hair, and

eyes as vividly blue as her son's. But that was where the resemblance

ended. Mrs Bristow's eyes were alight with joyous pleasure, her smile

as wide as the world as she welcomed them.

'This is wonderful!' She hugged Alison almost fiercely. 'When Nick

phoned almost at dawn and said he had a surprise for me, I never

guessed what it was. You wicked pair! Why didn't you give me a

hint? I haven't even a bottle of champagne to drink your health.'

'I didn't want to arouse your hopes,' said Nick. 'After all,' he added,

with a sardonic glance at Alison, 'she might have turned me down.'

He watched the swift colour flood her face, and laughed. 'You

see—she actually blushes! I'd forgotten women could.'

'You've been moving in the wrong circles, darling.' His mother gave

him a fond but minatory smile. 'But you've seen sense at last, thank

the Lord. I'm so relieved that...'

'I'm sure you are,' he broke in drily. 'Now why don't you offer us some

sherry in place of the undoubtedly tactless reminiscence you were

about to favour us with?'

'Oh, I'm sure Alison has few illusions about you, my pet,' Mrs

Bristow said serenely. 'Women rarely do, you know. And what they

say about reformed rakes is true, you know. Your father, bless him,

was proof of that.' Her smile grew misty for a moment, then she

rallied. 'Now—that sherry.'

Lunch, prepared and served by a plump and beaming elderly soul

who turned out to have been Nick's nanny many years before, was

delicious, and it should have been a happy family celebration, but

Alison was on edge the whole time.

She woSh, she thought ruefully, have found it easier to take if Nick's

mother had eyed heraskance, and made her aware she fell well short

of requirements. To be welcomed so completely and affectionately

was almost more than she could bear.

After lunch, Mrs Bristow suggested a stroll round the garden, and

Alison accepted eagerly. Gardens were neutral territory, and

herbaceous borders a safer topic of conversation than personalities.

But she hadn't bargained for Nick accompanying them, or less still for

the casual slide of his arm round her waist as they walked along. It

was simply part of this charade they were acting, and she knew it, but

she couldn't repress the deep, responsive shiver that went through her

as he drew her lightly against him.

It was normal. It was what anyone would expect of an engaged

couple, but, oh God, it was so hard to accept, she thought miserably

as she made herself listen to what her future mother-in-law was

saying about buddleia.

At last Nick looked at his watch. 'I think we'll have to tear ourselves

away, love. But I'll bring Alison over to see you in a few days and you

can talk weddings. We've decided on a quiet family affair in the

circumstances.'

'You wouldn't rather wait a little?' his mother suggested.

He shook his head determinedly. 'No, Alison's been> through a hell