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  “Yes, very,” Karen answered honestly.

  “Mac is a very good man.”

  Karen didn’t say anything. Maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t. The only thing she knew for sure was that he wasn’t hers. “Do you know the truth about Elaine?”

  She and Rita were alone in the kitchen, as most of the work was done, and for a moment Rita looked at Karen as though considering whether or not to tell her. “I have been sworn to secrecy,” Rita said, looking down at her knife.

  Karen drew in her breath. A woman admitting that she knew a secret meant that half the battle was won. All Rita needed was a bit of urging. But Karen hesitated. Part of her wanted to know and part of her didn’t want to hear. What had made the woman walk out of her wedding like that? What had Mac done to her? “I would truly like to know,” she said with feeling.

  Rita stared into Karen’s eyes for a moment, then smiled and looked back down at her knife. “You really do love him, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” was all Karen could say; she didn’t dare allow herself to say another word.

  “Elaine was madly in love with some poor artist who all of us could see was more interested in her trust fund than he was in her. But love is blind and Elaine fought for him with all she had. Her father sent the artist—not that he ever painted anything—a letter saying that if he married Elaine, her trust fund would be cut off. He enclosed a check for twenty thousand dollars that would only be honored if the man left Elaine. When Elaine got home that night, her artist was gone. She blamed her father for everything, and said that if he wanted her to marry a rich man then she would.”

  Pausing, Rita looked at Karen with her lips tight. “Elaine systematically went after Mac, the oldest of the Taggerts who wasn’t yet married. She’s beautiful, talented, and confident. Mac didn’t have a chance. The night before the wedding her artist came back, and when Mac returned to their apartment, he found them in bed together.”

  Rita gave Karen time to assimilate this information before continuing. “Mac refused to marry her, but, being the gentleman he is, he allowed everyone to think that Elaine was the one who walked out on him. Since then he’s been scared to death of marriage. He wants to get married, to have his own home, but I think he purposely chooses women who only want his money, then he tests them with some ridiculous prenuptial agreement and when they won’t sign, it reinforces his belief that that’s all women want from him. I’m glad to see that at last he’s going to allow that wound to heal. I’m glad he’s going to marry you, someone who actually loves him.”

  Karen didn’t look up from the celery she was dicing for the salad.

  “I’m telling you this because Mac has some sort of misguided sense of honor toward Elaine, so I didn’t think he would ever tell you. And there’re only two people outside of them who know the truth—his mother and I.”

  “But you told me this because I love him?”

  “And because he loves you,” Rita answered simply.

  Karen smiled indulgently. “No he doesn’t. We’re not really engaged. He hired me to be his escort for the wedding and to—” She broke off because Rita was smiling at her in a very smug way.

  “Karen, get real. Mac doesn’t need to hire a woman for anything. He has women making fools of themselves wherever he goes. His mother is constantly complaining about the way the women who work for him make believe he comes with the job. She says he has two women executives so crazy about him they think that any work he gives them is proof of his love for them. His mother tells him to fire them, but Mac is so softhearted he won’t. So he pays them outrageous salaries then does all the work himself.”

  “And the women complain to everyone because he doesn’t share the load,” Karen said softly.

  “Probably. But Mac always takes the blame rather than allow a woman to look bad. His mother wanted to tell the world about Elaine, but Mac wouldn’t allow it. Mac is from another era in time.”

  “Yes,” Karen said in agreement. “I believe he is.”

  “Speak of the devil,” Rita said, “a car just pulled up and it’s Elaine. Karen! don’t look like that. Go out there and—”

  Karen was looking out the kitchen window. The arrival of Elaine had stopped the ball game because all the men had run toward the car to help the elegant, beautiful, exquisite Elaine out of the backseat of the long, black limo. And at the head of the crowd was McAllister Taggert.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I have to … to …” Karen could think of nothing she needed to do, so she turned and ran out of the kitchen, then ran up the stairs to her bedroom.

  Five

  THIRTY MINUTES LATER, KAREN FELT THAT SHE HAD LECTURED herself enough, and maybe she now had enough control to meet Elaine and not thrust a knife into her cold heart. Unfortunately, just outside the bedroom door, she found Elaine flanked by Steve and Mac.

  Up close, Elaine was even more beautiful than she was from a distance. She was tall, blonde, cool-looking, and sophisticated enough to make Karen feel completely gauche. Elaine was exactly what Karen had envisioned as a woman Mac should marry. No doubt her father was the ambassador to some elegant foreign country, and no doubt she had a master’s degree in something sophisticated and useless, like Chinese philosophy.

  Just looking at Elaine made Karen feel as if she were wearing overalls and had straw sticking out of her hair. No wonder Mac had fallen head over heels in love with her, she thought.

  Pausing at the head of the stairs, Elaine gave Mac a look that could warm a steel I-beam, while Mac just stared at her like a lost puppy, his heart in his eyes. He still loves her, Karen thought, and, against her best self-control, a flash of rage ran through her.

  Steve paused only long enough to introduce Karen as Mac’s fiancée, then he ran down the hall, football in hand, leaving the three of them alone.

  “Still trying to get a woman to marry you, Mac?” Elaine asked softly, her eyes on Mac, as though Karen didn’t exist.

  “Still paying men to marry you, Elaine?” Karen shot back, then had the satisfaction of seeing Elaine’s perfectly composed face crumble just before she turned and ran down the stairs. Obviously she’d thought her secret was safe forever and she could taunt Mac at will.

  What Karen was not prepared for was Mac’s reaction. His strong hand clamped around her upper arm and he half pulled her into their bedroom. When the door was shut, he faced her. “I didn’t like that!” he said angrily, his face near hers. “What happened between Elaine and me is our business and no one else’s, and I won’t have you or anyone else sneering at her.”

  Karen straightened her body, ordering her muscles to remain rigid. If she hadn’t, she would have collapsed on the bed in tears. What did it matter to her that McAllister Taggert was in love with a woman who had publicly made him a laughingstock? “Certainly, Mr. Taggert,” she said stiffly, then turned toward the door.

  But Mac caught her, shoved her against the wall, and kissed her hungrily. For a moment Karen’s pride made her fight him off, but it wasn’t long before she was pulling him closer to her, her hands in his hair, her fingers gouging into his back.

  “I hate you,” she managed to say as he kissed her neck, his hands moving all over her body.

  “Yes, I know. You hate me as much as I hate you.”

  Later, she didn’t know how it happened, but one minute they were against the wall, fully clothed, and the next they were naked and writhing on the bed. Karen had been celibate for over two years and the only way she had remained that way was by repressing all sexual desire. The combination of her anger at Mac and now his soft caresses made her erupt into flames, all her desires exploding at once.

  Mac was a worthy opponent and his passion matched hers as he entered her with force, then more gently as he put his mouth over Karen’s to keep her from crying out.

  It didn’t take long, but in those few minutes, a lamp fell crashing to the floor, Karen fell off the bed, and Mac lifted her so her feet were on the floor, her back on the bed.

  Whe