Rescued by the Brooding Tycoon Read Online Free PDF Page B

snatched up the phone and dialled his ex-wife’s number in London.
    ‘Mary?’
    ‘Do you have to ring me at this hour? I was just going to bed.’
    ‘I suppose he’s with you?’
    ‘That’s no longer any concern of yours, since we’re divorced.’
    ‘Are Mark and Frankie there?’
    ‘Yes, but they’re asleep and I’m not waking them. Why don’t you call during the day, if you can make time? I never liked having to wait until you’d finished everything else, and they don’t like it either.’
    ‘Tell them I’ll call tomorrow.’
    ‘Not during the day. It’s a family outing.’
    ‘When you say “family” I take it you mean—’
    ‘Ken, too. You shouldn’t be surprised. We’ll be married soon, and he’ll be their father.’
    ‘The hell he will! I’ll call tomorrow evening. Tell them to expect me.’ He slammed down the phone.
    Darius had a fight on his hands there, he knew it. Mary had been a good wife and mother, but she’d never really understood the heavy demands of his work. And now, if he wasn’t careful, she would cut his children off from him.
    How his enemies would rejoice at his troubles. Enemies. In the good times they had been called opponents, rivals, competitors. But the bad times had changed all that, bringing out much bile and bitterness that had previously been hidden for tactical reasons.
    As so often, Harriet was hovering on the edge of his mind, an enemy who was at least open about her hostility. Tonight he’d had the satisfaction of confronting her head-on, a rare pleasure in his world. He could see her now, cheeky and challenging, but not beautiful, except for her eyes, and with skin that was as soft as rose petals; something that he’d discovered when he’d held her face prisoner between his fingers.
    This was how he’d always fought the battles, gaining information denied to others. But now it was different. Instead of triumph, he felt only confusion.
    After watching the darkness for a long time he went to bed.

CHAPTER THREE
    H ARRIET prided herself on her common sense. She needed to. There had been times in her recent past when it had been all that saved her from despair. Even now, the dark depths sometimes beckoned and she clung fiercely to her ‘boring side’ as she called it, because nothing else helped. And even that didn’t make the sadness go away. It simply made it possible to cling on until her courage returned.
    She knew that people had always envied her. Married at eighteen to an astonishingly handsome young man, living in apparently perfect harmony until his death eight years later. As far as the world knew, the only thing that blighted their happiness was the need for him to be away so often. His work in the tourist industry had necessitated many absences from home, but when he returned their reunions were legendary.
    ‘A perfect couple,’ people said. But they didn’t know.
    Brad had been a philanderer who had spent his trips away sleeping around, and expected her not to mind. It only happened while he was out of sight, so what was she complaining about? It was the unkindness of his attitude that hurt her as much as his infidelity.
    She’d clung on, deluding herself with the hope that in time he would change, presenting a bright face to the world so that her island neighbours never suspected. Finally Brad had left her, dying in a car crash in America before the divorce could come through, and the last of her hope was destroyed.
    To the outside world the myth of her perfect marriage persisted. Nobody knew the truth, and nobody ever would, she was determined on that.
    All she had left was Phantom, who had been Brad’s dog and who’d comforted her night after night when he was away. Phantom alone knew the truth; that behind the cheerful, sturdy exterior was a woman who had lost faith in men and life. His warmth brought joy to what would otherwise have been a desert.
    It was the thought of her beloved dog that made her set out one morning in the