Bride By Blackmail

Andrew was everything that Georgie wanted in her future husband: pleasant-mannered, considerate, caring, and most of all even-tempered. Completely unlike—

Stop!

Unwelcome thoughts of her grandfather had been quite enough for one evening, without thinking about him too! ‘Your parents and Miss Sukie are in the drawing room, Mr Andrew,’ the butler answered in reply to Andrew’s query, at the same time relieving Andrew of their luggage.

‘The drawing room, no less. Not the family sitting room,’ Andrew murmured ruefully as he and Georgie walked arm in arm through the wide hallway towards the formal drawing room. ‘Definitely not one of Sukie’s less-than-respectable friends, then,’ he teased.

‘Andrew!’ Lady Annabelle greeted him warmly as they entered the room, standing up to rush over and hug her son. She was tiny and blonde, and still very beautiful despite being in her early fifties. Her plain black dress was a perfect foil for her delicate build and fair colouring.

Sir Gerald Lawson had risen at their entrance too, moving forward to kiss Georgie lightly on the cheek before shaking his son warmly by the hand.

An older version of Andrew, Georgie had found Gerald easy to get on with from the first. Annabelle, she was a little less sure of, she acknowledged, even as she stepped forward to accept the other woman’s cool kiss on her cheek.

Although Annabelle was outwardly friendly, Georgie nevertheless sensed there was a certain reserve in her manner towards her. But, to be fair, Andrew was her only son, as well as the ‘baby’ of the family, and Annabelle obviously wanted the best for him. It was up to Georgie to convince the other woman that was what she was!

‘Isn’t it a beautiful evening?’ Gerald enthused as he poured them both a pre-dinner glass of sherry. ‘Almost warm enough to eat outside.’

‘Don’t be provincial, Gerald,’ Annabelle rebuked gently. ‘Besides, we have guests for dinner,’ she reminded him archly.

Speaking of whom…?

What had become patently obvious to Georgie in the last few minutes was that the older Lawsons were alone in the drawing room. Which begged the question—where were Sukie and the mystery guests?

Andrew gave Georgie a conspiratorial wink before turning back to his mother. ‘I noticed Sukie’s car outside; where’s she hiding herself?’

‘Taking my name in vain again, little brother?’ the recognisable voice of his sister queried as she came through from the conservatory that sided this sunlit room.

A younger version of her mother to look at, but with her father’s height, Sukie was another member of the family that Georgie wasn’t too sure of yet. Only a year older than Andrew, Sukie had a brittle hardness that was reflected in her cool blue eyes. The short blue dress she was wearing this evening showed off the slenderness of her figure and a long expanse of slender bare legs.

‘I had no idea you were interested in flowers, Sukie,’ Andrew taunted his older sister as she strolled into the room to kiss him on the cheek.

‘Only the type delivered by the florist, darling,’ Sukie answered him with cool dismissal. ‘I was actually just showing our guest around.’

Guest, not guests. Which probably meant she was the other guest, Georgie realised ruefully. Oh, well, only time could change Annabelle’s opinion of her. She—

Georgie gasped as the guest stepped into the room behind Sukie, the smile becoming fixed on her lips, her expression like a mask as she simply froze. Even her breathing seemed to stop momentarily as she simply stared at the man. This wasn’t a rain cloud—it was a hurricane!

Named Jed Lord!

Cool, fathomless grey eyes looked across the room at her as he registered her shocked recognition. A shock that wasn’t reflected in his own demeanour. Which could only mean that he had already known the two of them were to meet this evening…

Aged in his mid-thirties, he was well over six feet tall. The tailoring of his well-cut suit did nothing to hide the powerful physique beneath. He had hair as dark as night, though it was the sheer power in the hardness of his face that dominated: his grey eyes scrutinised the scene from beneath jutting black brows, and above a straight, uncompromising nose; his sculptured lips, although curved into a humourless smile at the moment, hinted at the hardness that was such an integral part of his character, and his jaw was square and determined.

Georgie, who had thought—hoped!—she’d never see him again, was completely thrown by the unexpectedness of this meeting. A fact of which Jed, so supremely self-confident as he strolled further into the room, was obviously well aware.

Damn him!

What was he doing here? Was he Annabelle and Gerald’s guest, or had he, as Andrew and she had thought earlier when they’d arrived, come here with Sukie? The latter, Georgie noticed, was certainly looking at him like a cat about to lap up the cream!

But hadn’t women always looked at Jed in that way? Hadn’t she once? Once, perhaps, but certainly not now!

‘Jed, do let me introduce you to the rest of the family.’ Gerald encouraged the other man to join them, drawing him into the circle. ‘Jed Lord: my son, Andrew, and his fiancée, Georgina Jones. Although we all call her Georgie,’ Gerald added warmly.

‘Andrew.’ Jed moved forward to shake the younger man’s hand.

Georgie found she was holding her breath as he slowly turned towards her, having no idea what was going to happen in the next few minutes. Would Jed acknowledge that the two of them already knew each other? Or would he greet her as if she were a complete stranger to him?

Although hadn’t she always been so, even when they should have been at their closest…?

Either way, Jed’s being here, in the home of Andrew’s parents, was completely disastrous to her peace of mind!

‘Georgina,’ Jed greeted her throatily as he stepped close to her.

She stared down at the hand he held out to her, a long tapered hand with a masculine beauty that totally belied its strength. How could she possibly shake it when she didn’t even want to touch him? It was—

‘Or may I call you Georgie…?’ he prompted huskily, that grey gaze intent on the paleness of her face as she still made no effort to take the hand he held out to her.

Almost like a peace offering. Except there could never be any sort of peace between Jed and herself!

‘Of course,’ Georgie accepted vaguely, forcing herself to brush her fingers lightly against his, a shiver running icily down her spine even as she snatched her hand away before his fingers could curl around hers. Just that brief touch had been enough to tell her that she still couldn’t bear to be anywhere near this man!

‘Dinner is served, Sir Gerald,’ the butler announced politely.

‘Thank you, Bancroft,’ his employer rejoined cheerfully. ‘Shall we go through to the dining room?’ he suggested lightly.

Dinner. There was no way that Georgie could eat. No way she could possibly sit down at the same dinner table as Jed Lord!

Except… What choice did she have? Like her, Jed had given no indication that the two of them already knew each other. She knew her own reasons for not doing so, but she had no idea what Jed’s were for the lack of disclosure on his part. But one thing she did know about Jed, though—they would be his own reasons, and no one else’s. Because Jed never did anything that wasn’t to his own liking.

‘May I?’ Gerald held out his arm to escort her in to dinner.

Well, at least she wasn’t expected to go through to dinner as Jed’s partner; that would have been more than she could stand. In fact, she wasn’t sure how she was still standing at all after the shock she had received!

‘Thank you.’ She took Gerald’s arm, noting that Sukie had laid a firm claim on Jed, her long red-painted nails on his hand as she moved in close to him, while Andrew was left to escort his mother.

But Georgie was completely aware of Jed walking behind her as they went through to the dining room, could feel the heat of his gaze on her back. That enigmatic grey gaze that could freeze with coldness or burn with desire…!

But more often freeze with coldness, she reminded herself hollowly.

She had been so looking forward to this weekend in the Hampshire countryside with Andrew; the Lawson family home edged the New Forest. But with Jed here it had turned into a nightmare from which she couldn’t seem to wake!

To make matters worse, Jed sat opposite her at the oval dining table. Although it would have been even more unbearable if he had sat next to her. The simple truth was he shouldn’t be there at all!

She looked at him from beneath lowered auburn lashes as their first course was served to them. He looked much the same as when she had last seen him a year ago, although there were perhaps more lines beside his eyes and mouth, and a faint dusting of grey amongst the black hair at his temples. Although that, she acknowledged disgustedly, only made him look more devilishly attractive!

‘Is the smoked salmon not to your liking, Georgie?’ Jed remarked mildly. ‘You aren’t eating,’ he pointed out as she gave him a startled look.

She could feel the colour warm her cheeks at having attention drawn to her in this way. Deliberately so, she was sure. One look at the mocking amusement in Jed’s eyes was enough to tell her he was enjoying himself. At her expense.