A Stranger's Kiss

today.
    ‘Doesn’t your daughter have a say in this?’ he asked.
    ‘You don’t have to concern yourself with my daughter, Brodie. I’ll deal with her. All I want you to do is talk to this...gigolo...and find out how much it will take to buy him off.’
    Buy him off.
    Beneath that smooth aristocratic exterior, Brodie decided, Gerald Carlisle was a bully. He didn’t like bullies and for just a moment felt a surge of sympathy for Carlisle’s daughter, and for the young man she had declared it was her intention to marry. But only for a moment because he didn’t doubt that she was a spoilt brat who had to be regularly bailed out of trouble. Maybe, for once, she should be left to get on with it, stew in a broth of her own making and learn a lesson the hard way.
    For one giddy moment he was tempted to suggest such a strategy, just to see the look on Carlisle’s face. But it wouldn’t do. Emerald Carlisle was an old-fashioned heiress on a grand scale. He knew that because BHM managed her Trust. Or rather Hollingworth did. Personally. It was that big.
    Even a man of his egalitarian principles understood that a gigolo could not be allowed to prosper at the expense of one of BHM’s most valued — and valuable — clients. At least not while he was responsible for her.
    Carlisle pushed a file across the desk. ‘You’ll find everything you need to know about Fairfax in there.’
    Tom opened the folder and glanced at the top sheet — a report on Kit Fairfax from an investigation company which, despite the thinness of the file, appeared to have been thorough. He wouldn’t have expected anything else. It was a perfectly reputable company that his own firm used when necessary and Hollingworth had undoubtedly recommended them to Carlisle.
    He flicked through the papers, glanced at the photographs of a man in his early twenties, his hair long and curling over his shoulders. He had a slightly distant expression, as if unaware of the extraordinarily pretty girl at his side, her arm looped through his, although that seemed unlikely.
    As unlikely as the idea of a man setting an investigation agency to watch his own daughter simply because he didn’t much care for her boyfriend.
    The whole business left Tom Brodie with a bad taste in his mouth but he made a determined effort to bury his own personal prejudices. Gerald Carlisle was concerned about his daughter, probably with good cause. Doubtless she was the target of all kinds of fortune hunters. ‘And if Fairfax won’t be bought off?’ he asked.
    ‘Everyone has a price, Brodie. Try a hundred thousand. It’s a nice round sum.’ Round, Brodie thought, in the way that peanuts were round. The guy must surely know that Emerald Carlisle was worth millions? But maybe he wasn’t that ambitious, maybe a “nice round” payoff was all that Fairfax was after. But somehow that dreamy face didn’t quite fit such a cynical scenario. Carlisle must have seen the doubt in Brodie’s face. ‘It’s a pity Hollingworth is away. He knows what he’s doing.’
    Tom’s glance flickered to the other man. ‘Is this a regular occurrence?’
    Carlisle stiffened. ‘Emerald is rather gullible. She needs protecting from unscrupulous people who would take advantage of her.’
    ‘I see.’ Obviously it was.
    ‘I doubt it, Brodie. I very much doubt it.’ He made it sound as if having Emerald for a daughter was like bearing the world on his shoulders. Maybe it was time he let the girl make a few mistakes. The longer he protected her, the harder it would eventually be. But Carlisle did not want to hear that and Tom wasn’t there to offer “agony aunt” advice. ‘I’m relying on you to deal with this situation quickly and without any fuss. Do whatever you have to. Hollingworth—’
    ‘I’m sure James Hollingworth would be more than happy to come back from Scotland if you prefer that he handle such a delicate matter,’ Brodie interjected, quickly. His own speciality was corporate law. Buying off an unsuitable husband was new territory for him, territory he was not anxious to explore.
    But there was no escape. ‘That would take too long. I want this settled and I want it settled quickly before Emerald does something she’ll regret. You’re Hollingworth’s partner and I’m relying on you to do whatever you have to in order to stop my daughter marrying this man.’
    * * *
    Emmy Carlisle was fuming. She was nearly twenty-three years old, for heaven’s sake. Quite capable of making