Married By Christmas

Married By Christmas
Carole Mortimer

Made to marry! Lilli had drunk just a little too much champagne. However, barely three months had passed since her world had been rocked by trauma. She remembered allowing herself to be taken away from the party by devastatingly handsome banker Patrick Devlin… but how had she come to wake up the next morning in his bed?Whether or not they'd become lovers, Patrick wasn't about to let Lilli forget it. He vowed that she'd marry him within a month. The fact that only Patrick could save Lilli's father's chain of hotels from going bust meant that she had no choice - she would become Patrick's bride by Christmas!

She was not going to marry Patrick. Devlin! (#u5fa76d9b-dccc-5dbf-9787-8910d7a03e1e)About the Author (#u5adc51d6-cbbf-54ed-a2ad-aef6839082e8)Books by Carole Mortimer (#u76dd914f-1bf5-5e1f-a72f-080dae3e6efe)Title Page (#u49808ad8-9418-5587-b2b6-d606eff8b8b7)CHAPTER ONE (#u264fbae8-d37e-5747-968c-2a75f941a0fa)CHAPTER TWO (#u560fcda4-c785-552f-bf39-df2909122de9)CHAPTER THREE (#ub5b1eca9-9706-5637-92ad-dd2092789ef6)CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

She was not going to marry Patrick. Devlin!

He was mad. Completely. Utterly insane!

His mouth quirked with amusement as he saw those emotions flashing across her expressive face. “A month, Lilli,” he told her softly. “You will be my wife within the month.”

Lilli looked up at him frowning; his gaze was enigmatic now. He sounded so sure of himself, so calmly certain....

CAROLE MORTIMER 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 over ninety books for Harlequin Presents

.

“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.”

Books by Carole Mortimer

HARLEQUIN PRESENTS

1929—A MARRIAGE TO REMEMBER

1966—THE DIAMOND BRIDE

1977—JOINED BY MARRIAGE

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Married by Christmas

Carole Mortimer

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

CHAPTER ONE

‘WHO is that gorgeous-looking man over there?’ Sally gushed eagerly at Lilli’s side.

Until that moment, Lilli had been staring sightlessly at a barman across the room as he quickly and efficiently served drinks to the multitude of people attending what had so far been a pretty boring party.

Or maybe it wasn’t the party that was boring; maybe it was just Lilli who felt slightly out of sync with the rest of the people here: if the babble of noise was anything to go by they were having such a good time.

She hadn’t attended a party like this in such a long while, and so much had happened in the preceding months. Once upon a time, she acknowledged, she would have thought this was a great party too, would have been at the centre of whatever was going on, but tonight—well, tonight she felt like a total outsider, rather as the only sober person in a room full of inebriates must feel. Except she had already consumed several glasses of champagne herself, so that wasn’t the reason she felt so out of touch with this crowd with which she had once spent so much time.

As for gorgeous men, the house was full of them—gorgeous and rich. When Geraldine Simms threw a party, this a pre-Christmas one, only the rich and beautiful were invited to attend, in their hundreds. Geraldine’s house, in a fashionable part of London, was as huge and prepossessing as its neighbours, and tonight it was bursting at the seams with bejewelled women and handsome men.

Lilli dragged her gaze away from the efficient barman, obviously hired for the evening. It was time she looked away anyway—the man had obviously noticed her attention several minutes ago, and, from the speculative look in his eyes, believed he had made a conquest! He couldn’t have been further from the truth; the last thing Lilli was interested in was a fling with any man, let alone someone as transient as a hired barman!

‘What gorgeous man?’ she asked Sally without interest. Sally was the one who had persuaded her to come in the first place, on the basis that a Geraldine Simms party, an event that only happened twice a year, was a party not to be missed.

‘Over by the door—Oh, damn it, he’s disappeared again!’ Sally frowned her irritation. She was a petite blonde, with a beauty that could stop a man in his tracks, the black dress she almost wore doing little to forestall this.

Lilli had met her several years ago, during the usual round of parties, and, because neither of them had any interest in becoming permanently entangled with any of the handsome men they encountered, they often found themselves spending the evening together laughing at some of the antics of the other women around them as they cast out their nets and secured some unsuspecting man for the evening. Rather a cruel occupation, really, but it had got Lilli and Sally through many a tedious occasion.

‘He must be gorgeous if you’ve taken an interest,’ Lilli said dryly, attracting more than her own fair share of admiring glances as she stood tall and slender next to Sally, her hair long and straight to her waist, as black as a raven’s wing, eyes cool and green in a gaminely beautiful face, the strapless above-knee-length red dress that she wore clinging to the perfection of her body. Her legs were long and shapely, still tanned from the summer months, the red high-heeled shoes she wore only adding to her height—and to the impression of unobtainable aloofness that she had practised to perfection over the years.

‘Oh, he is,’ Sally assured her, still searching the crowd for the object of her interest. ‘He makes all the other men here look like callow, narcissistic youths. He—Oh, damn,’ she swore impatiently. ‘Oh, well,’ she sighed, turning back to Lilli with a rueful grimace. ‘That was fun while it lasted!’ She sipped her champagne.

Lilli’s eyes widened. ‘You’ve given up already?’ She sounded surprised because she was. On the few occasions she had known Sally to take an interest in a man, she hadn’t given up until she had got him! And, as far as Lilli was aware, her friend had always succeeded...

‘Had to.’ Sally grimaced her disappointment, taking another sip of her champagne. ‘Unobtainable.’

‘You mean he’s married,’ Lilli said knowingly.

Sally arched her brows. ‘I’m sorry to say that hasn’t always been a deterrent in the past.’ She shook her head. ‘No, he belongs to Gerry,’ she explained disappointedly. ‘As far as I’m aware, no woman has ever taken one of our hostess’s men and lived to tell the tale. And I’m too young to die!’

Lilli laughed huskily at her friend’s woebegone expression. Sally was exaggerating, of course, although Geraldine’s succession of lovers was legendary. In fact, Lilli doubted there were too many men in this room the beautiful Geraldine Simms hadn’t been involved with at some time or other during the last few years. But at least she seemed to stay good friends with them, which had to say something about the bubbling effervescence of their hostess!

Sally glanced across the room again. ‘But he is so gorgeous...’ she said longingly.

Lilli gave a shake of her head. ‘Okay, I give up; where is he?’ She turned to look for the man who was so attractive that Sally seemed to be about to throw caution to the wind and challenge Gerry for him, on the other woman’s home ground, no less!

‘Over there.’ Sally nodded to the far side of the elegantly furnished room. ‘Standing next to Gerry near the window.’

Sally continued to give an exact description of the gorgeous man but Lilli was no longer listening to her, having already located the intimately engrossed couple, feeling the blood drain from her cheeks as she easily spotted the man standing so arrogantly self-assured at Geraldine’s side.

No!

Not him. Not here. Not with her!

Oh, God...! How could he? How dared he?

‘Isn’t he just—? I say, Lilli, you’ve gone very pale all of a sudden.’ Sally looked at her concernedly.

Pale? She was surprised she hadn’t gone grey, shocked she was still standing on legs that seemed to be shaking so badly her knees were knocking together, surprised she wasn’t screaming, accusing. What was he doing here? And so obviously with Geraldine Simms, a woman with the reputation of a man-eater.

‘Are you feeling okay?’ Sally touched her arm worriedly.

She wasn’t feeling at all, seemed to have gone completely numb. It wasn’t an emotion she was unfamiliar with, but she had never thought he would be the one to deal her such a blow.