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He was right, of course. But, ‘My friends, workmates, my family, the whole village are looking at this and I know what they’re thinking.’
‘Who cares what they think?’
‘Not you, obviously.’ It just slipped out and she stared at her hands in her lap.
‘Sybella,’ he said, at least sounding as if he cared, ‘I don’t like it any more than you do but it is what it is.’
‘I don’t even understand why you’re investing in her company.’ It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him to pull out, but she felt as if it was her old insecurities at work. A lot of people probably relied on this project going ahead.
She needed to woman up.
But she couldn’t help adding, ‘Is this what you like?’
‘That’s not what this is.’
Something in her kicked. ‘I asked you a question,’ she said softly.
Nik made one of those frustrated male sounds but he didn’t answer her. He was smart enough to know when to keep his mouth shut.
She should have been smart enough to shut hers.
‘I guess it’s what most men like. Woman in next to nothing writhing around on your lap.’ She made a wry face at the little screen before turning it off. ‘But the champagne is kind of overkill. No woman I know wants to be thought tacky. Who’s she trying to appeal to, women who can afford her lingerie or teenage boys?’
‘I have no idea.’
‘Well, you should probably get up to speed on that, seeing you’re her major investor.’
Nik grunted, but she could feel him watching her as if he was gauging the right time to say something to her. Only Sybella didn’t want to hear it. She was afraid to hear it. She just wanted to go home.
* * *
‘I want you to forget those photos,’ he said as he closed her bedroom door. ‘Because I’m not a regular in the tabloid press, Sybella. I leave that to my brother.’
Sybella slipped off her shoes and lost about three inches in height. ‘Well, that’s one blessing, I guess.’
‘Give it a week and they’ll be onto something else.’
‘I guess.’
She was feeling vulnerable, any woman would, but Nik didn’t seem to see it that way. But why would he? He came across as the guy who either pulled the sexiest woman in the world or, in his words, turned her down. She was the girl who had to live in a small village where everyone was going to pity her.
‘But how would you feel if that was me in my underwear with another man?’
He began to chuckle. ‘You?’
A flash of white-hot shame went through her, immediately followed by a huge rush of anger at the unfairness of it all. Because, no, she would be humiliated to see images of herself like that, and only two men had seen her in her underwear. And he knew that. She’d trusted him in the intimacy of their relationship to let him know how special this was for her. And now he was laughing at her?
‘That’s an entirely improbable scenario,’ he said.
‘Why? Because I can’t get another man?’
He frowned. ‘No, because I don’t date women who flash their assets for profit on the Internet.’
‘Funny, the world now thinks you do.’
Nik sighed. ‘If this is about issuing some kind of public statement, you know I can’t do that, Sybella. I don’t play that game.’
‘Well, no,’ she said awkwardly, because she agreed with him in principle, ‘but what about me?’ Her voice went small. ‘I’m put in a very difficult position.’
She hated having to say it, hated more that he didn’t say it first!
‘It’s just I have to live here, Nik, and now I’m poor Sybella who can’t hold her man.’
‘Do people still think that way? I suspect that’s more in your head than what’s actually going on.’ He sounded exasperated.
‘Oh.’ It came out on a little puff of pain.
‘I am sorry,’ he said, coming over and drawing her to him, his hands resting possessively around her shoulders. As hard as his words were sometimes, when he touched her he communicated a kind of tender restraint that never failed to move her. ‘But do you really care what a few locals are saying about you? If I paid attention to the number of people who cursed me out I’d be a pretty poor businessman.’
