The Marriage Ultimatum Read online

  “I don’t know. That would be my first choice, but I’ll see what my doctor says.”

  “Do you mind? Because if you really don’t want to, I can—”

  “No.” She put her hand over his mouth. “I kind of like things the way they are now, without having to stop and think.”

  He chuckled. “The Pill’s probably a good idea. Thinking doesn’t seem to be something I’m real good at anymore when you walk through the door.”

  “Good.” There was a wealth of satisfaction in her voice.

  They sat in silence for a few minutes. He couldn’t remember when he’d enjoyed his morning more. Sitting here, with Kris in his lap, in his house, was almost perfect.

  The moment he thought it, he felt disloyal. His life with Deb had been perfect. Or close to it. She’d taken care of the house and helped him with the clinic. She’d been the perfect spouse for a busy young vet trying to establish a practice. Deb had never wanted to work outside the home, and had looked forward to being a full-time mother.

  On the other hand, he and Kris were going to have some things to work out along those lines. “Are you still going to want to work?” he asked her now.

  She sat up in his lap and her answer was slow in coming. “Yes, although I may not open a full-time practice like I’ve been planning. I want to be home with Mollie and any other children we have. Once the new employee for the sanctuary comes on board, I could go back to my old schedule, working part-time from home.”

  “You don’t have to work at all,” he told her. “I’d be happy to support you if you want to be a full-time mom with no work commitments.”

  “Oh, no, I have to work,” she said. “I mean, I want to work. And that reminds me—should we establish a joint account for the household expenses? We could put matching funds into it on a weekly or monthly basis.”

  He wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that. “We might as well just combine everything,” he said. “If you feel the need, you can bank your entire salary and I’ll take care of you.”

  “No,” she said hastily. “I wouldn’t feel right about that. Besides, vets don’t exactly compete with human doctors on the salary scale. Wouldn’t one income be a stretch for us?”

  He laughed, thinking of just how far his extensive wealth would go without stretching in the least. He supposed he’d have to tell her about it one day; but that wasn’t something he wanted to get into right now. “Trust me, we wouldn’t have any problems making ends meet.”

  “Still,” she said stubbornly, “I’d rather pay my portion of everything.”

  He sighed. “Kris, we’re becoming a family. Families don’t split things down the middle. They do things together.”

  She hesitated, and her heart-shaped face fell. “I know. It’s just that I have some financial obligations to conclude first.”

  Financial obligations? He idly wound one white-blond curl around his finger as he considered her words. Then he recalled something she’d said—or nearly said—the other day. What had it been, exactly? She’d been talking about opening a full-time accounting practice.

  It would be a nice leap in my income level, let me finally get out from under—

  Under what?

  It sounded very much as though she had debts to pay, although he knew that couldn’t be the case. When she’d insisted on selling her family home after her father’s death, he’d purchased it as close to the upper end of fair market value as he could without making her suspicious that he was doing it for her. He’d wanted her to have plenty of money for her education with some left over for a home of her own. Although so far, she’d lived in a rented town house since graduating from college.

  That was something he had been meaning to discuss with her when he had time. Instead of pouring her money into rent, she should be paying into a mortgage for which she would get home ownership in return. Not to mention the benefits at tax time.

  “You know,” he said, “that’s something I’ve been wanting to discuss with you. Why have you been renting instead of buying? I shouldn’t have to tell an accountant the benefits of a mortgage.”

  She shrugged. “I haven’t really had the time or desire to house-hunt.”

  “Even so,” he persisted, “you could at least have bought a town house like the one you’re in. It—”

  “Derek.” Her voice was soft yet implacable. “Has it ever occurred to you that one has to have a down payment to buy any sort of home at all?”

  “Well, sure,” he said, “but you should have plenty of money from selling me this place.”

  She tried to rise but he held her on his lap. “I don’t,” she said. “After Daddy died I had some…things to take care of.”

  He was shocked and he let it show. “You mean you have nothing left from that entire sum? What the hell have you been spending money on?”

  Her face froze and her expression warned him he might have gone too far. “Gigolos. Gambling. And oh, gee, did I forget to mention I have a serious addiction problem that requires a couple thousand dollars a day?”

  “Dammit, Kris,” he said, not appreciating the sarcasm, “what’s the big secret? I know you too well to believe anything as ridiculous as any of that.”

  “You don’t know me as well as you think,” she shot back. “You have absolutely no idea what I’ve been dealing with since Daddy died.”

  “I lost someone I loved, too,” he reminded her evenly, wondering what in the hell that had to do with her finances.

  “Yeah,” she said, “but your someone wasn’t up to her neck in debt, was she?”

  There was a stunned silence in the room. Kristin’s face grew red and her eyes filled with tears. “Dammit,” she said quietly. “I wasn’t ever going to tell you that.”

  “Tell me, anyway,” he said. He was furious with himself for not being more attentive to her problems after her father died. Dammit! Paul had trusted him enough to name him Kristin’s guardian in the event of his death…and he’d let his mentor down. He fought not to turn the feelings roiling inside him on her, controlling his irritation with her secretiveness. What exactly had she been trying to prove, dealing with it on her own?

  She sighed. “Daddy had to borrow a lot of money in the first couple years of the sanctuary to get it up and running the way he wanted. If he’d lived, I’m sure we would have gotten back onto solid ground, but…”

  “But he died and left you holding the bag,” he finished for her.

  “It wasn’t like that,” she flared.

  “How could I not have known this?” he wondered aloud. “I was your guardian, for God’s sake.”

  “You were only my guardian for a couple of months,” she reminded him. “And don’t you remember? When I said I’d been handling our bills for several years, you and Deb agreed that I could continue to do so with the help of my attorney and our accountant? I managed,” she added defensively. “And after I sold the house to you, I was able to get the debt down to a very manageable balance.”

  “It’s not paid off yet, is it?” he asked grimly. He had a vivid memory of the banker who’d arranged the sale of the house nodding approvingly at the generous amount he had offered for the property. Damned old weasel. Why hadn’t anyone told him how much money she really needed?

  “Well, no,” she said. “It’s not. Not quite. I could do it in a year working full-time but now I’ll just—”

  “I’ll pay it off,” he said. He felt a little sick to his stomach at the thought of Kristin laboring under what had obviously been a sizable debt for her entire adult life.

  “You will not!”

  “Yes,” he said. “I will. You’re going to be my wife, that means you’re my responsibility.”

  Her face was red again but this time there was no trace of tears. “The last thing I intend to be is any man’s ‘responsibility,’” she said, making the word sound like an epithet. “I’ll take care of my own problems.”

  He measured the determination written in her face for a long, tense moment. She
glared at him, her green eyes spitting fire. Finally, he mentally crossed his fingers behind his back. “All right,” he said, “you can handle your money problems by yourself.” And the first thing Monday morning, he was going down to the bank and pay off the rest of what she owed. The bank could just tell her they’d made a mistake, or that some other creditor had paid what they owed her father. It wasn’t as if he’d ever miss such a small amount.

  They began packing her things Monday evening. Derek had just taken a load of winter clothes over to his house while Kristin tossed the contents of her drawers into a big trunk she’d had since college.

  Her flying fingers paused on the T-shirt she was folding and she sank onto the edge of her bed, hands dropping into her lap. She couldn’t believe how quickly everything was falling into place. Just as he’d said, Derek had begun the process of acquiring a marriage license earlier in the day, and they’d made appointments for their blood tests.

  It was hard to imagine that only five short weeks ago he’d been telling her that a marriage between them was a ridiculous notion.

  The rest of the weekend had been heavenly. They’d spent the day together with Mollie on Sunday, and that evening, he’d driven her over to her town house to pick up clothing for work on Monday. She’d asked if he was sure he wanted her to move in so quickly, and he’d only smiled. “Mollie and I want you with us,” he’d said, “the sooner, the better.”

  Wistfully, she thought that the ideal response would have been a declaration of love, but she knew that while Derek cared about her, he didn’t love her. He thought of her as a capable housekeeper, a great baby-sitter and a trusted friend. And as a lover, now. He wanted her, of that she was sure, but he wasn’t about to let his desire for her mesh with any more intimate feelings.

  The telephone rang and she rose automatically. She needed to call tomorrow to have the service stopped, she remembered as she lifted the handset. “Hello?”

  “Hello, Kristin. It’s Rusty. Is it true?”

  “Is what true?” She tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder as she returned to her folding and packing.

  “A little bird told me you and Derek are getting married.”

  “Goodness!” She was truly startled. “There are no secrets in this town, are there?”

  “Oh, you’d be surprised.” His voice was amused. “Your news, however, has gotten around. I would say congratulations but I’m too busy kicking myself for not talking you into dating me first.”

  She laughed. “Sorry.”

  “You two sure managed to keep things quiet,” he continued. “Even at Summerfest, no one had any idea you were more than friends.”

  She was beginning to feel uncomfortable. “I’m kind of tied up here, Rusty. Was there something you needed?”

  “As a matter of fact, there is.” His tone changed, became more confidential. “I’ve been thinking about the money that’s missing. Have you pursued it any further?”

  “I haven’t had much time since Friday,” she said, “but nothing’s leaped out at me. Whatever was done was hidden very carefully.”

  “I’m really concerned about the sanctuary’s reputation as well as Cathie’s,” he said. “She’s dead. She can’t defend herself. I spoke to one of the bank officers at the Rotary Club meeting today and he alluded to her being in debt. I couldn’t pry without making him suspicious, but I’m afraid our fears may be well founded. I think Cathie probably took the money to alleviate some personal problems she was having.”

  “Oh, no. I was so hoping…”

  “I know. So was I,” he said. “But there’s no help for it now, and even if we do go public I doubt we have a hope in hell of getting the money back.”

  She sighed heavily, her heart aching. “You’re probably right.”

  “So I think we should just write it off as a learning experience,” he continued. “I won’t tell anyone else what happened and if you don’t either, we can protect Cathie’s memory. I’ll tell the board that you feel our current financial system needs more checks and balances, and establish a more stringent way to release funds so no one can ever do this again.”

  She felt like an ant in the path of a steamroller. “Maybe that would be best,” she said cautiously. “But what if it wasn’t Cathie?”

  “If it wasn’t, and they try it again, we’ll catch them,” Rusty said confidently. “If it was her, it won’t occur again and we’ll know, right?”

  She nodded, then realized he couldn’t see her. “I guess so. All right.”

  “Okay,” said Rusty. “If this works, we may not even have to alert whoever takes the job eventually that there was a problem.”

  She woke in the middle of the night and immediately her mind turned to the problem of who had embezzled the money from the sanctuary. She lay on her side in Derek’s bed, with his big body spooned around her and his hard arm circling her and she stared into the darkness as her mind raced.

  “What’s wrong?” Derek’s voice from behind her was little more than a quiet whisper but her body jolted in surprise.

  “I was just thinking,” she said. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

  He yawned. “I’m not sure what woke me. But I could tell you weren’t asleep. What’s the matter?”

  “I had lunch with Rusty last week and he seems certain Cathie was the embezzler,” she said. She told him about her lunch with Rusty on Friday and then his telephone call earlier. “But…”

  “You don’t think Cathie did it?”

  “No. That’s bothered me from the minute I found the discrepancies. One of the reasons I’ve been having such trouble imagining Cathie stealing from the sanctuary was because of her love for the project. Daddy chose her because she shared his vision.”

  “And she didn’t need the money, anyway,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Cathie came from a wealthy family,” Derek said. “She had a trust from her grandmother that kept her in comfort. Didn’t you ever wonder why she never asked for a raise? In fact, one year while you were in college, the board tried to give her a raise and she refused.”

  “I didn’t know that. Why didn’t you tell me when I first mentioned my concern that she might be embezzling?”

  “Because I doubted it was true and it wasn’t my place to share information she’d told me in confidence. She didn’t want people to know,” Derek said. “I can understand why. When people find out someone’s wealthy, their perceptions of that person change.”

  “I suppose,” she said slowly, wondering at the vehemence she heard in his tone, “that could be true.” Then she forgot all about what they’d been saying as a new possibility occurred to her. “Derek! What if Rusty is the one who took the money?”

  “Rusty? Why would he?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “He has awfully expensive tastes. Do you think his business does well enough to support two foreign cars, a country club membership, a Rolex and designer suits?”

  Derek considered for a moment. “I don’t know,” he said at last. “No one I ever knew got rich selling insurance. It’s a decent living but…”

  “And his family was local,” she added. “Not wealthy at all. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

  She felt Derek shrug from where he still lay behind her. “It’s possible,” he said.

  “It would explain why he doesn’t want to contact the police,” she said. “That’s the first thing I would have done if he hadn’t discouraged it.”

  “Maybe you’d better do it first thing tomorrow,” he suggested. “Without Rusty.”

  “Maybe he intended to replace the missing money. I bet he never intended for anyone to know about it, but when Cathie was killed and I found it, he blamed her.”

  “Whoa,” he said. “That’s a lot to assume without any proof.”

  “Yes, but it’s possible, right?”

  “It makes sense,” he said slowly, and he sounded a lot more awake. “He’s the person other than Cathie who knew the most about t
he sanctuary’s finances. And serving as the treasurer, he might have had the opportunity to cook up a false account or two.”

  “That’s what I’m going to start looking for first thing in the morning,” she said. “So far, all I’ve done was check and recheck figures to be sure they all match. Now I guess I’ll start looking for anything fishy.”

  They lay silently for a moment, then Derek spoke again. “Do you think there’s a possibility that she and Rusty were involved in it together?”

  “Not a chance,” she said immediately. “Cathie couldn’t stand Rusty. She always said his ego was bigger than the Goodyear blimp.” Then a horrible thought occurred. “Do you think…could he have arranged her accident somehow?”

  Derek’s arm tightened around her waist. “I don’t know the answer to that. But now you’ve really convinced me that you need to get law enforcement involved tomorrow.”

  She sighed. “God, this just gets worse and worse, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “It seems that way.”

  She glanced at the clock. “One-thirty-seven. I can’t call anyone for a few hours yet.”

  Derek pulled her closer, stroking his palm along the curve of her hip in a comforting gesture. She savored it for a moment, and eventually her disturbing thoughts receded as she felt him stirring and growing. Her bottom was nestled into the curve of his body and she squirmed against him, rubbing back and forth over his rising flesh. His hand crept up to cup one breast and he gently rotated his palm over her nipple. “You know, it’s a real shame that we’re both awake in the middle of the night.”

  She laughed breathlessly as her body grew warm and lethargic. “Yeah, I wonder what we could do that would help us get back to sleep.”

  “We’ll have to think of something.” Derek’s hand slipped down her body and slid between her legs. He lifted her leg over his thigh, then trailed his fingers along the widened V he’d made. She gave a broken cry of pleasure as he brushed over the sensitive feminine folds, touching her there with deft, careful strokes that gently aroused her. His fingers were quickly bathed in moisture and as he slid one deep inside her, she moaned and reached back to pull him hard against her. “What are you doing?”