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She caught her breath, his impatience stirring irritation of her own. ‘Yes. I don’t like lying to someone I like and respect.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘I’m sure you’ll still “like and respect” him when he agrees to sell to me.’
She stared at him, her heart banging against her ribs. He was missing the point. Or choosing to miss it.
‘It just makes me feel shabby. He’s a nice man. He doesn’t deserve—’
‘Deserve what?’ His face was set, the tension in his body now a tangible presence. ‘The large sum of money I’m going to pay him? Dunmore’s a businessman. If he sells to me, it will be a business decision, not a favour or a charitable bequest.’
She shivered. His whole manner had changed, his face hardening to a mask so that it was all she could do to meet his gaze.
‘That’s not what you said before,’ she said hoarsely. ‘You said he’d only sell to someone with the right values. That’s why we have to marry, isn’t it? So he’ll believe you’ve found love and happiness with the right woman?’
He flinched at her words—or maybe it was the sunlight catching her eye, for when she looked at him again he seemed as poised and cold as before.
‘I’m not responsible for what Dunmore believes or feels.’
‘What about what you feel?’ The blood was humming in her head, a nub of dread chafing beneath her heart. ‘I thought you liked him.’
A muscle flickered in his cheek.
‘It would make no difference to my decision if I didn’t. This is business, and feelings have nothing to do with business.’ He stood up abruptly. ‘But, more important, neither do you. In case you’ve forgotten, you’re just here to clear a debt.’
Her breath seemed to fray in her chest. Just here to clear a debt. It sounded like an epitaph. And in a way it was—an epitaph for her naivety.
Had she really thought having sex with Rollo would change their relationship? She’d been wrong.
They were back to being strangers.
She wanted to rail against her stupid, gullible self for the way she had lain in his arms, opened her body to his, felt—
>
Her hands started to shake and, balling them into fists, she directed her fury at Rollo instead.
‘No, that’s your reason, Rollo, not mine. I’m here because I love my brother. But do you know something? I’d stay now even if you weren’t blackmailing me, because I know how much this deal means to you. Perhaps if you cared about anything other than your business and that building, you might understand that. Oh, and you might not have to blackmail a stranger into playing your wife. You might actually be the man you’re pretending to be!’
His face was blank, but she could tell he was fighting for control...at the edge of losing his temper.
‘You know nothing about me. Or what I care about.’
There was a clear note of warning in his voice and she was glad, for it meant that she had struck a nerve.
‘Why? Because I’m just a woman clearing a debt?’
But even as she spoke she knew that it wasn’t about her. This was about him. About his anger and his arrogance and the mask that came down every time he thought she was getting too close.
‘You’re wrong, Rollo. I do know what you care about. You care about honesty. Only you’re not being honest now about why you’re upset with me.’
There was a long, quivering silence. Finally, he breathed out unsteadily. ‘Did you mean it? What you said about staying with me?’
She blinked. She hadn’t planned on saying those words; they’d sprung from somewhere deep inside. She felt suddenly vulnerable, hearing them repeated back to her. But even if it meant looking foolish and weak, she wasn’t going to lie to him.
She nodded. ‘But I don’t suppose that matters to you any more than I do.’
‘You do matter...’
‘I know.’ She spoke coldly, her eyes blazing. ‘Without me you won’t get your building—’
