"Fine," Matt interrupted. "Get busy checking out the rumors, find out if there really is another player, and if there is one, find out who the hell it is."

The luxury liner lifted gracefully over the heavy Atlantic swells, then glided down in what seemed to Philip Bancroft to be the most annoying, boringly repetitious movement he'd ever been forced to endure. Seated at the captain's table between a senator's wife and a Texas oilman, he listened with feigned interest to the woman who was speaking to him. "We should make port late in the afternoon, the day after tomorrow," she was saying. "Have you enjoyed the cruise so far?"

"Immensely," he lied, stealing a glance at his watch beneath the edge of his tuxedo jacket. It was ten o'clock in Chicago. He could be watching the news right now, or playing cards at the country club, instead of being held prisoner on this floating hotel.

"Will you be staying with friends while we're in Italy?" she asked.

"I don't have friends there," Philip replied. Despite the exasperating tedium, he felt better, stronger, every day. His doctor had been right—he had needed to absent himself completely from the concerns of the world and his business for a while.

"No friends in Italy?" she repeated, trying valiantly to carry the one-sided conversation.

"No. Just an ex-wife," Philip retorted absently.

"Oh. Will you be visiting her?"

"Hardly," Philip replied, and then his hand stilled in shock that he had even referred to the woman he'd thrown out of his home and his life all those years ago. Obviously, all this enforced relaxation was numbing his brain.

Chapter 47

From the moment Matt had suggested her birthday celebration become a foursome, Meredith had felt grave doubts about the evening, but when Parker and Lisa arrived within moments of each other, they both looked so determinedly cheerful and festive, she was lulled into thinking it might not be a disaster after all. "Happy birthday, Mer," Lisa said, wrapping her in a tight hug and handing her a gaily wrapped box. "Happy birthday," Parker said, and gave her a small, rather heavy oblong box. "Farrell's not here yet?" he added, glancing around.

"Not yet, but there's wine and hors d'oeuvres in the kitchen. I was just fixing a tray."

"I'll finish and bring it out," Lisa volunteered. "I'm famished." She vanished into the kitchen in a cloud of fringed plum silk.

Scowling at her back, Parker demanded of Meredith, "Why does she dress like that? Why can't she dress like normal people?"

"Because she's special," Meredith said with a firm smile. "You know," she added, giving him a puzzled look, "most men think Lisa is stunning."

"I like the way you dress," he said, casting an appreciative glance over her bright red velvet bolero jacket trimmed in gold braid and an attached ascot tie that gave the outfit an air of deceptive innocence. The jacket was open now, revealing a strapless red dress that was nipped in at her narrow waist and gently shirred at the hem. Pointedly ignoring her comment about Lisa, he smiled and said, "Why don't you open my present before Farrell gets here?"

Inside the silver wrapping paper was a blue velvet box, and nestled in satin within it was a stunning sapphire and diamond bracelet. Meredith carefully removed it. "It's beautiful," she whispered while her chest contracted painfully and her stomach clenched into knots. Tears burned her eyes, causing the glittering jewels to blur and waver, and at that moment she knew—she knew that neither the bracelet nor Parker could be hers to keep. Not when she'd already betrayed Parker in her mind and her heart because of her helpless obsession with Matt. Lifting her head, she forced herself to meet Parker's expectant gaze and held the bracelet out to him. "I'm sorry," she said in a suffocated voice. "It's magnificent, but I—I can't accept this, Parker."

"Why not?" he began, but he already knew the answer to that, had sensed this moment was coming. "So that's the way it is," he said harshly. "Farrell's won."

"Not completely," she said quietly, "but whatever happens between Matt and me, I still couldn't marry you. Not now. You deserve more than a wife who can't seem to control her feelings for another man."

After a moment of tense silence, he said, "Does Farrell know you're breaking our engagement?"

"No!" she explained a little wildly. "And I'd just as soon he doesn't know. It will only make him more persistent."

Again he hesitated, and then he reached out, took the bracelet from her hand, and firmly fastened it on her wrist. "I'm not giving up," he said with a grim smile. "I regard this as a minor setback. I really hate that bastard."

The buzzer sounded, Parker looked up, and his gaze riveted on Lisa, who was standing in the kitchen doorway, holding a tray. "How the hell long have you been there, eavesdropping?" he demanded while Meredith went to let Matt into the apartment.

"Not long," she said in what struck him as an unusually gentle voice. "Would you like a glass of wine?"

"No," he said bitterly, "I'd like the whole bottle."

Instead of gloating over his predicament, she filled a glass and brought it to him, her eyes soft and strangely luminous.

Matt stepped through the doorway, and to Meredith it seemed as if the entire living room was overwhelmed by the sheer force of his presence. "Happy birthday," he said, smiling down at her. "You look fantastic," he added, running his eyes over her from the top of her shining golden hair to the tips of her red shoes.

Meredith said thank you and tried not to notice how breathtakingly handsome he looked in a gray suit and vest, gleaming white shirt, and conservative striped tie. Lisa made the first move to lighten the atmosphere. "Hi, Matt," she said, beaming at him. "You look more like a banker tonight than Parker."

"I don't have a Phi Beta Kappa key," Matt joked, reluctantly reaching out to shake Parker's hand which was extended to him with equal reluctance.

"Lisa hates bankers," Parker said, letting go of Matt's hand and walking over to the wine bottle. He filled his glass and tossed it down.

"Well, Farrell," Parker said with unprecedented bad manners, "it's Meredith's birthday. Lisa and I remembered it. Where's your gift?"

"I didn't bring it here."

"You mean you forgot, don't you?"

"I mean I didn't bring it here."

"Why don't we get going, everyone," Lisa burst out, sharing Meredith's desire to get both men to a public place—preferably a noisy one, where they couldn't spar. "Meredith can open my gift later."