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He gave a leisurely shrug as he strolled through the door. ‘I read your proposal.’
She stared after him, stunned, almost hating him. ‘You had no right. It’s private.’
‘Which is why I am returning it to you. Did you get to your meeting?’
His intensely blue eyes seemed to pierce her skin, seeing more than she wanted him to—seeing too much. ‘No, I didn’t.’
‘That’s a shame. It is a good proposal. A little amateurish, and not nearly ambitious enough, but it is well-argued.’
As he turned slowly on the spot she followed his gaze, trying to imagine what her small, neat flat must look like to him.
‘Did you paint this?’
His eyes had stopped on her portrait, and as he leaned forward her body felt taut and achy...almost as if he was leaning into her.
She shook her head. ‘No, my—’ She was about to say my mother, but he already knew enough about her life from her proposal. She didn’t need to reveal anything more to this stunning, arrogant man. ‘No, Sam painted it.’
‘Sam?’ His face stilled. ‘Are you in a relationship?’
‘No, I’m not.’ She shook her head again, turning away to pull off her coat so that he wouldn’t see the lie in her eyes. Although it was more just letting him assume something than actually lying. ‘Not that it’s any of your business.’
‘True enough.’
Straightening up, he turned to face her, and she felt goosebumps explode over her skin as his eyes found hers.
‘But that could be about to change.’
She stared at him, trying to make sense of his words. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Kane—’
‘Achileas,’ he corrected her. ‘I think we’ve moved past any need for formalities.’
Had they?
Her heart thudded hard, his words accelerating her already racing pulse. ‘Maybe...but either way I’m not sure I understand what it is you’re trying to say.’
The shifting evening sunlight was licking the miraculous curves of his cheekbones, but his gaze on her face was as dark and powerful and impossible to ignore as a supernova.
‘Then let me explain.’ He sat down on the sofa and gestured towards the armchair opposite, as if this was his flat, not hers. ‘I have a proposition for you. You know the kind of thing—I scratch your back, you scratch mine.’
The small living space seemed to shrink and grow airless as his words swept through her like a forest fire. Scratch. Back. Yours. Mine.
‘No, I don’t think I do know,’ she said, trying desperately not to sound as panicked as she felt.
‘It’s quite simple. I will give you five times what you were asking from the bank. Only it won’t be a loan. You won’t have to pay a penny of it back.’
Effie blinked. ‘You’re going to give me five times what I asked for? For nothing?’
‘No, not for nothing,’ he said, his gaze narrowing in on hers in a way that made her breathing go shallow. ‘I need something in return. Something a little, shall we say, unorthodox.’
She stared at him, startled by the word and the flurry of unsettling thoughts it prompted. ‘So, what is it that you need?’ she said after a moment.
He stretched out his legs and his mouth twisted into a smile that managed to be both mocking and dangerous.
‘I need a wife.’
