The Millionaire Falls Hard (2 page)

She started walking again.

Maybe her anger was a hormonal response. Her menstrual cycle had always been incredibly irregular, perhaps she was due. But then, she'd never been conscious of any hormonal mood swings before.

Maybe it was the threats. She'd had another one today and they were getting nastier. Up 'til now she'd tried to shrug them off as something to expect when you were in the public but perhaps now she should tell someone about them and share the burden that was beginning to weigh heavily.

'Mum,' Charlie interrupted her thoughts, 'can we go swimming after we've had our ice cream?'

That was one of Charlie's strengths she mused, he bounced back quickly!

As she played with her son for the rest of the afternoon in their indoor heated swimming pool, she forgot all about the new owner, Jake Calderwood, and all about the threats. Charlie was the light of her life and their time together was so precious.

*

Later that evening, after Charlie was in bed, Carrie sat in her custom-made oversized porch swing in the garden room. It was really a very large conservatory but Carrie never felt calling it that did it justice when it had glass walls that folded open all the way round to allow complete access to the outside. In the summer she loved nothing better than having pool parties, where the outside merged seamlessly with the inside. With her pool also having a glass wall that slid open, her guests could move easily between indoors and outdoors and the pool. She couldn't wait for the warmer days to arrive.

At other times of the year, like now, she loved sitting in her wonderfully comfortable, huggable porch swing, looking out into her subtly lit landscaped gardens, listening to peaceful, relaxing music and drinking a mug of her favourite rooibos, red tea.

Carrie usually found this a relaxing time and place, somewhere where she just seemed able to blot out her worries. But tonight, she had troubled thoughts. Jake Calderwood's face kept swimming into her mind. Now she seemed able to use his name, rather than think of him as 'that man'. She'd been so incensed with him earlier, and yet his ice-blue eyes and dark blonde wavy hair were firmly imprinted on her. She couldn't recall any other features. She couldn't recall either, ever having been driven to such anger, those threatening letters must be getting to her more than she thought.

She sighed as she settled further into the swing. She'd fallen in love with a smaller version of this type of hammock and had had this one hand-crafted from solid oak for the frame and cotton for the rope structure. All the pillows were the softest egyptian cotton. Being enveloped in the cosiness of this swing, she reckoned, was as close a feeling she would ever get to the feeling of a loving man's arms around her.

Surely not all men were like her ex-husband. She longed to feel cosseted and loved, and had a momentary flash of what it might feel like to have Jake's arms around her.

She shook herself, took a sip of her tea and closed her eyes.

Jake's anger reminded her of her ex.

Exhaustion washed over her.

Her mind drifted back and if anyone had been looking at that moment, they would have wondered about the flow of pain and confusion, with the occasional smile, that flitted across her face. Why was she remembering now? She always tried to blot out her past; the mistakes she'd made; the unhappiness she'd experienced. But tonight, it was all there so clearly as if it had just been yesterday.

She'd felt so content when her and her mother had finally landed on American soil, having travelled for over ten hours from Scotland. The tension she hadn't realised had existed in her young body had just drained away. At fourteen years of age, she'd been so relieved to find out they would finally escape from her abusive father, or rather the man she had believed to be her father at the time. Not that he'd ever laid a hand on her, although as she'd reached puberty he'd started to leer at her developing body. It would probably have been only a matter of time before he'd tried it on with her. She could still see those boggle eyes dragging themselves all over her body before they would turn to her mother and seem to pop out of the sockets as he raged at her and hit her for yet another minor mistake her mother was supposed to have made.
She involuntarily cried out, momentarily opening her eyes to realise she was in the sanctuary of her home. Her eyes drifted closed again.

The only kindness in their lives at that time had been Lord Gemmell, who had been meeting them secretly for a couple of years. A man who looked much older and grander than her mother, and yet, someone who looked as if he'd allowed life to beat him. She hadn't understood then why he had taken an interest in them and finally persuaded her mother to head for the sanctuary of her cousin's in the States. They'd never seen him after that, but she knew her mother had exchanged lengthy letters with him. She remembered him with a fondness and a longing that she'd never got to know him better. But it was no use lingering on what could never now be.

Her mother, determined to turn her life around, had worked hard to put herself through a college course whilst working full time, so she perhaps hadn't been there enough for Carrie in those difficult teenage years. Very often Carrie had felt so alone in a new country with her mother preoccupied and no father to turn to. That was probably why Pip Hastings had been such a pull. Twenty years older than her seventeen years, he was perhaps the father figure she'd longed for, and yet there had also been an excitement about his life that had appealed to the free spirit within her.

She grimaced as she recalled the pain etched on her mother's face during those turbulent years spent with Pip.
She didn't know what possessed her to go through with the wedding when she'd known even then that what she felt wasn't love. How she'd rebelled in those years and lived to regret it afterwards.

Although she'd lived without love and respect and had to tolerate providing sex on demand to a man who it was publicly rumoured favoured the company of prostitutes, two good things had come from her liaison with her ex-husband. On the few occasions when he wasn't high on drink and drugs, he'd introduced her to the right people and by the time she was twenty two she'd been a world renowned author with three of her books serialised on American TV. Writing at that time had been a fantasy world she could escape to and she'd discovered it was something she excelled at.

Charlie was the other wonderful thing to come out of that turbulent relationship. Conceived in hatred when Pip had all but raped his own wife, she had loved Charlie from the moment she realised she was carrying him. After that dreadful night she had shut herself away for months, filled with dread and self-hate for what she had allowed her husband to do. 'I didn't want you, you stupid woman. I hope I've given you some nasty disease. Serve's you right you sanctimonious bitch'. Every word he had flung at her that night as he'd walked out for the last time was imprinted on her memory forever. How could she have been so stupid for thinking that that time he'd really meant to change.

It had been her mother's unquestioning love and faith in her daughter that had finally convinced Carrie she needed to see a doctor and take control of her own life.

A smile crossed Carrie's face as she thought of her mother, still in the States, and the wonderful, close relationship they had shared since that time.

Her face became sombre as her thoughts continued.

Just as she'd started to feel stronger she'd finally discovered the truth about her mother's relationship with her birth father and the legacy he'd left her. Lord Gemmell had died and left her two acres of land on his Estate in Scotland along with one million pounds with which to build a house.

Her mother had finally sat down and told her the truth. How she had been Lord Gemmell's housekeeper and how she had comforted him when he'd lost his beloved wife, because she had loved him herself. Carrie was the result of that brief affair. Lord Gemmell had only discovered the truth when his frequently drunken son had let something slip. Lord Gemmell had been so wrapped up in his grief that he'd never heard the rumours about himself and his housekeeper and why she'd left. From the moment he had tracked them down, he had played a part in their lives. He had been genuinely pleased when Carrie's mother had written to tell him she had finally found the love of a wonderful man.

Carrie sighed as she wished again that she could have known her father better
. Apart from her and her mother, the only living person who knew was Lord Gemmell's son, Roderick. It was a secret that she suspected she would take with her to the grave. Now that she was living in a place where Lord Gemmell was remembered with love and respect, she would never be the one to sully his memory.

Carrie opened her eyes, feeling emotionally drained from raking over her past. She wished she could forget but knew that without it she wouldn't be the person she was today, wouldn't be living here and wouldn't have her beautiful little boy. Lord Gemmell's legacy had been her life line and she'd fled to Scotland the moment Charlie was born. She hadn't known what she would do with the land until she'd seen it and fallen in love with the beauty and the peace. Charlie may never fully enjoy his heritage, with the Estate now sold outside the family, but he could at least grow up on the land and love it as she did.

She looked around her with pride at the magnificent home she'd had designed to her specific requirements. It had space, because that was one thing she'd always craved. Every room was spacious and well thought out.

A glass fronted entrance hall opened into a wide and long hall. On the right, there was a magnificent living room with a glass external wall running the full length of it. With a central fireplace to ward off the scottish winter evenings, it boasted a grand piano, a home cinema system and three separate groupings of wonderful, comfy sofas and chairs.

Because she entertained so frequently, her dining room and kitchen were equally spacious. She'd also had the forethought to design in an extra room that housed commercial ovens and fridges that the caterers used, which also doubled as a laundry room. Down a long corridor opposite the living room were five large bedrooms, all with en-suites. Her own was the height of decadence with an oversized four-poster bed in the centre. She'd had a fantasy of enjoying passionate nights on that bed with a life long lover, but six years on, it remained just that, a fantasy.

Her suite of offices were at the front of the house with their own entrance for visitors. Her work had been so successful in the last six years that she now employed a full-time PA and someone part-time to administer her charitable trust fund. She'd created her own space for writing in a snug next to the main office. The first floor boasted five spacious en-suite guest rooms each with their own balcony, an exercise room and a treatment room. Carrie was spotted and photographed everywhere she went, and whilst the locals respected her privacy, it was easier for the professional people she used to come to her. She would forever be grateful that she could afford luxuries she'd once never known existed.

Carrie looked at the clock on the wall, shocked to discover it was nearly midnight. Too late to phone her PA and best friend, Lynne. She resolved to unburden herself tomorrow as she turned off the outside lights and the music and took herself off to bed, annoyed that once more her thoughts had turned to Jake. Still, she grimaced, if it was a toss up between worrying thoughts about the threats or disturbing thoughts about him, she supposed he was the lesser of two evils.

Chapter 2

Jake could only assume that moving from London to her new home in Scotland had addled the brain of his usually highly efficient secretary, who had forgotten to book the flights. Now he and his finance director, Phil Tennant, were having to rush for the only flight left with available seats, at a time of day when he could have been doing something useful in the office. Irritated didn't even begin to describe how he felt. Jake hadn't earned his reputation in business by wasting time, and travelling in business hours was definitely a waste of time in his book.

His chauffeured Mercedes-Benz had got caught up in road works on the way in, and despite his chauffeur doing his best to take all the known diversions around them, they had still been held up. At such short notice, they'd been unable to check-in on line so had to face making a mad dash through the airport to arrive at check-in with just five minutes to go. To top it off they'd discovered the flight was delayed by nearly an hour. Jake's day was just going from bad to worse. He and Phil were only heading down to London because one of their largest and most important clients had hit major problems that could not be sorted from the tranquility of his new headquarters. He hadn't expected to be seeing London again quite so soon.

As they turned away from check-in with their business class boarding cards in their hands, Jake stopped and stared. Coming towards them was that woman who he hadn't seen since their unfortunate encounter nearly two weeks ago. He noticed the smile on her face swiftly change to a grimace as she recognised him. Oh dear, time hadn't made her forgive him then.

Jake was about to give a nod of recognition and walk past her when he heard Phil say 'Hello Carrie, you off to London too?'

'Hello Phil. Mmm, summonsed by my agent! So I've decided to mix business with pleasure and make a weekend of it.'