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‘Drink?’ he asked, sliding into the seat next to hers and stretching his legs out.
She shook her head blankly before looking at him. ‘You can’t want to marry me.’
‘I have no wish to marry at all, least of all to a poisonous viper like you.’
‘Then don’t.’
‘I will do whatever is necessary to protect my business and my reputation.’ He rolled his shoulders and looked at her. ‘I’ve been waiting more than fifteen years for the freedom to do whatever the hell I want; I can wait another six months for it. And, you know, I think a marriage to you could be fun.’
‘It will be hell. I’ll make sure of it.’
He laughed. ‘I’m sure you will, matia mou, but you are going to marry me. My cousin is marrying a week on Saturday. You will come as my guest and we will announce our engagement then.’
‘What?’
Ignoring her outrage, he continued. ‘We will marry by the end of the month. The sooner we do it, the sooner we can separate and get back to our real lives.’
‘No one will believe it.’ Hysteria crept into her voice. ‘I don’t want to marry, especially not a rich man, and everyone I work with knows that.’
‘You have made your feelings about rich men very clear,’ he said drily. ‘One could accuse you of having a prejudice against us.’
‘I do.’
‘Then you will have to act to the very best of your ability to convince people that you’ve fallen in love and changed your mind, won’t you?’ He reached out a hand and fingered her hair.
She slapped it away. ‘There is no way I can pretend to have fallen in love with you; I hate everything about you.’
‘That is good because I hate everything about you too. Won’t that make everything much more fun?’
‘Fun?’ she practically shrieked. ‘You’re mad!’
‘Not mad,’ he corrected. ‘Practical. I could look at your beautiful face and allow myself to be furious with you for your vendetta against me and the potential it has to destroy everything I’ve spent a lifetime working for, or I can flip it around and enjoy the fact that the woman who would have done me such harm is locked to my side. You can behave exactly as you want behind closed doors but you can and will make the world believe you have fallen madly and passionately in love with me, because if anyone doubts it the deal is off and I expose your underhand, illegal dealings to the world and your sister’s name will be dragged into it. Do it my way and we both keep our reputations and Violet gets to stay under whatever rock she is currently hiding under.’
She breathed deeply through her nose, the baleful glare she was casting him developing an air of resignation. ‘How do I know I can trust you to destroy the recording?’
‘It is a gamble you’re going to have to take but I am a man of my word and if you stick to your part of the arrangement I will stick to mine.’ He cupped her cheek and brushed his fingers over the satin skin and felt the tiniest hitch of her breath before her hand rose to slap his away again. He caught it and pulled it to his chest.
‘Don’t pretend you don’t welcome my touch, matia mou,’ he murmured. ‘We’ve finally been honest about everything else so why pretend? There is an attraction between us, a desire. You know it and I know it. We are going to live together for many months so why deny it?’
Her eyes held his for the longest time, a dozen emotions flickering through them, her lips pulled in tightly. Then they parted, the hazel eyes flashed and she tilted her head. ‘You are suffering from what I like to call Rich Man’s Delusion.’
He brought her hand to his lips and razed a kiss over her fingertips. ‘Oh, yes? And what is that?’
‘It’s a syndrome only found in the ridiculously wealthy man.’ Her voice had dropped, become breathy. Seductive. It whispered through his skin and seeped into his loins. ‘It makes him think he’s irresistible. I quite understand why a man like you would suffer from it—your wealth acts as a magnet to many women, I appreciate that, but sufferers, in their arrogance, then think every woman is attracted to him. It’s beyond your concept that a woman can look at you and not want to drop her knickers.’
Rising from her seat, she gently removed her hand from his hold and palmed his cheek so she stood over him, the tip of her nose almost touching his.
Her pretty fingers caressed his cheek and, Theos, his skin revelled in the sensation, little sparks firing through the rest of him, heating him like a gently firing furnace.
She moved her hand to thread through his hair. ‘I don’t desire you,’ she whispered, her lips so close to his that if he made a sudden movement they would fuse together, her sweet breath warm on him. ‘I don’t want you. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to do this…’
