CHAPTER 3

“Oh, you got back at me all right, Gemma Wakefield! This morning, not half an hour ago, in fact, I had a phone call from my friend, Jude Brennan congratulating me for my... engagement. I didn't know what the hell he was talking about,” Declan said forcefully. “I felt like a damned fool. But I managed to bluff my way out of it. Can you imagine what it felt like to be told by a third party that I'm supposed to be getting married? I didn't even know who Gemma Wakefield was, but I did know the name sounded familiar. Then I realized I hear it every morning when I entered the building.”

“You called me… a mouse that day I came up here” Gemma reminded him resentfully. “A mouse…”

“And for that, you landed us both in this mess?”

          Gemma flicked back her hair.

“It will be all right, Mr. Starr. We can just announce in the next issue that it was a huge misunderstanding.”

          Declan stood up again, his height making her feel very tiny, and he was so big and masculine with it… so very male.

“You think it's as easy as that, do you? What a ridiculous little girl you are! Don't you realize that by accepting Jude's congratulations this morning, I as much as admitted the engagement was a real one? He's also invited the two of us to a party this evening.”

“Oh, God… You… You didn't accept?” she asked frowning.

“Of course, I did. What else could I do? They all want to get a look at you… my fiancée… And I didn't have time to think of a good excuse not to take you along.”

“You could’ve… Well, uh… You could’ve told him we wanted to be alone this evening… to celebrate,” Gemma countered desperately.

“We don't all have your devious mind, Miss Gemma.”

“But you… you can't mean this engagement to stand?”

          Her voice was becoming shrill now.

“Oh, but I do. I'm in business, I can't become engaged one day and renounce it the next. That wouldn't do much for my reputation as a reliable businessman. Oh no, Gemma. You started this and you can damn well see it through to the bitter end.”

“The… bitter end?” she echoed hollowly.

          Declan shrugged.

“Just a figure of speech.”

          Gemma wasn't so sure. There was an inflexibility about him that pointed to him not liking to be thwarted. A pity she hadn't noticed that sooner, like two weeks ago.

“But I don't want to be engaged… And, certainly, I don’t want to be engaged to you,” she told him crossly.

“Such a pity you didn't think of that before. I'm sure you realize that I feel exactly the same way.”

“Yes,” Gemma admitted guiltily, knowing that this was entirely her own fault.

“Hmm…” he said thoughtfully. “Well, now that it seems to be public knowledge you can start acting the part. We'll meet for lunch at twelve-thirty.”

“We… what? No, I couldn't… I couldn't go out to lunch with you. Absolutely not… What would everyone think?”

          Besides, she was hardly dressed to go out with him.

“I couldn’t care less. They can think what they damn well please,” Declan muttered grimly.

“Mr. Starr, I think you've taken this far enough,” Gemma snapped, suddenly angry. “I admit that what I did was wrong on every level, and I'll pack my stuff and leave the company and my work if that’s what it takes to make it better.”

          Although how she would support herself until she found another job she had no idea!

“But I won’t be standing here allowing you to make a fool of me.”

“I think you've managed that quite successfully without any help from me, Gemma,” he interrupted dryly.

“You have no right…”

“Oh, but I have absolutely every right! Think of how much more of a fool you would have looked if I'd denied all knowledge of you. Think of the adverse reaction you would have got from the press if I'd done that. They would have hounded you until your last breath... so to speak.”

          Gemma knew Declan was right. The trouble with her was that she hadn't thought of the consequences when she had made that stupid move, and now Declan was going to make her pay for it.

          But what else had she expected? He was a well-known personality… he couldn't afford the publicity of a broken engagement. And neither could she! Gemma could just imagine the unpleasantness it would cause.

          Still, she couldn't stay engaged to him either. Just to look at him terrified the life out of her. How she had ever thought herself in love with him she would never know. She must have been mad. Yes, that must be it! At twenty years of age, Gemma was definitely past the stage of infatuation.

“Darling?” he cut into her thoughts.

“Don't call me that!” Gemma snapped her resentment.

“What would you have me call you? My love?” Declan taunted.

          She looked away.

“Are you out of your mind?! Of course, not!”

          Declan shrugged.

“Okay, I’ll have to call you somehow… So, since ‘darling’ and ‘my love’ are off the table, and since you are my fiancée, I'll call you by your name… Gemma,” he added mockingly.

“I am not your fiancée!”

“Oh yes, Gemma, you are! At least, until I say otherwise.”

          Her blue eyes widened.

“And how long do you think that will be?”

“Oh, four… maybe five months,” Declan replied carelessly.

“Say that again?!”

          Gemma walked forward to rest her knuckles on the front of the desk.

“Now I know you're joking!”

“I rarely joke about anything this serious.”

“You're… Erm… You're telling me I have to be engaged to you for four months?”

“At least four months,” he nodded.

“But won't that cramp your style a bit?”

“A little, but I can take it if you can. I gather there's no boyfriend… No, of course there isn't. He wouldn't exactly welcome the announcement.”

          Declan straightened some papers on his desk, giving an impatient look as the telephone rang and he picked it up.

“Yes, Sharon? No, and I don't want any more calls put through to me until Miss Wakefield has left.”

          He put the receiver down, looking up at her.

“Now, is there anyone I should talk to about our engagement?”

“Why on earth should you…”

“I’m talking about consent, Gemma. It's usually considered polite to consult parents when contemplating marrying their daughter.”

          Gemma paled even more. It all sounded so… so real when he put it like that.

“My parents are dead. I was brought up by an aunt.”

“So do I speak to her?”

“She died last year,” Gemma told him. “But I hadn't had a lot to do with her… For the past four years anyway, not since she made it perfectly clear to me that she disapproved of my father marrying her sister.”

“And four years ago, you were…?”

“Sixteen,” Gemma admitted quietly, remembering all too well the terrible things her aunt had said to her about her father.

“That makes you twenty now. God, could you be any younger?! You’re practically a kid…” Declan muttered in disgust. “I'm thirty-seven,” he added by way of explanation.

“And you've never married?”

          For the first time since Gemma had entered the room, Declan smiled, and she felt some of the tension start to leave her body. He sat back in the chair.

“I thought about it once, when I was a couple of years older than you are at this moment. She turned me down, thank God.”

“Oh.”

“Right…. Well, I think you've taken up enough of my time for one morning,” Declan said, rising. “I'll see you downstairs at twelve-thirty. And arrange to have a two-hour lunch break.”

“I can't do that,” Gemma protested. “I have a job to do.”

“And I'm your boss. Get whoever it is that usually covers for you when you're off sick to take over. And I won't expect an overshow of emotion in front of other people, but I will expect you to be a little bit more relaxed with me than you are at this moment.”

“Relaxed? How can I possibly feel relaxed? I've never even spoken to you until today!”

“Too bad,” he said callously. “Now I'll see you out to the elevator.”

          Gemma stiffened.

“That won't be necessary, thank you.”

          Declan opened the door for her.

“But I insist. I must show a natural consideration for my brand-new fiancée,” he taunted.

          Her eyes were beseeching.

'Please, Mr. Starr, don't…”

“Declan,” he corrected curtly. “Call me Declan.”

          No! Not in a million years! Gemma knew she could never do that!

“Please… Don't make me go through with this. I've apologized, I don't see what else I can do to make amends.”

“Gemma, in this case, an apology isn't enough,” he replied cruelly. “I've already explained my reasons. I could make things very unpleasant for you if you prove difficult.”

“I could leave this company and work elsewhere,” Gemma hung back defiantly, not willing to leave his office until she had this thing settled. “You're far from being the only well-paying company in the country.”

“Well, you could… But with no references from here, you could find things rather difficult.”

“You… you can't do that! I've been a good employee.”

“You call what you've just done being a good employee?” Declan demanded. “Are you aware that you could land up in court for that deliberate lie you chose to tell the newspapers? I could sue you. You're quoted, so it's pretty obvious who gave them the story.”

          Gemma went first pale and then red.

“You wouldn't…”