AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A lump rose in Leonie’s throat. There was a prickling behind her eyes and she felt like crying. Okay, so not only had her father thought she’d died, and hadn’t much cared, but her mother had lied to her. Had lied to her for years.
Does knowing all that really change anything?
No, it didn’t. She was still homeless. Still in this man’s power. This man who’d known who she was all this time and hadn’t told her. Who was planning to use her in some kind of twisted revenge plot.
It made her ache, made her furious, that all the heat and passion and wonder of the night before had been a lie. The joy she’d felt as he’d touched her as if she mattered was tainted.
He’d lied to her the way her mother had lied to her.
Bitterness and hurt threatened to overwhelm her, but she grabbed on to that thread of fury. Because fury was easier than pain every single time.
‘So that’s why you slept with me?’ She fought to keep the pain from her voice. ‘To make sure I’d do what I was told?’
Something flickered through his green eyes, though she didn’t know what it was.
‘No, sleeping with you was never the plan. I was going to make sure you trusted me and then I was going to put it to you as a business proposition. If you’d agree to marry me I would pay you a certain amount, and then in a few years we would divorce.’
‘I see.’ Carefully she drew the sheet around her, though it didn’t help the numbness creeping through her. ‘The sex was part of building trust, then?’
A muscle flicked in his jaw. ‘That wasn’t the intention.’
But it was clear that he wasn’t unhappy that it had happened between them.
Of course he wasn’t. It was another thing for him to use. And you thought you could trust him...
The cold in the pit of her stomach turned sharp, digging in, a jagged pain. She was a fool. The last person she’d trusted had been her mother and look how that had turned out. She’d thought after that she’d be more careful about who she gave her trust to, but apparently she’d learned nothing.
Though, really, what did it matter? The sex had been amazing, but so what? It was only sex and he wasn’t different. He was a liar, like everyone else. And one thing was certain: he would never touch her again.
‘Then what was your intention?’ She was pleased with how level her voice was.
He stared at her for a long moment, his gaze unreadable. ‘You’re beautiful, Leonie. And I thought—’
‘You thought,Why not? A girl from the streets could be fun? Something a bit different.’
Bitterness was creeping in now, which wasn’t supposed to happen, so she forced it out.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she went on dismissively. ‘It was a nice way to pass the evening.’
Shifting, she slid out of the bed, keeping the sheet wrapped around her as she took a couple of steps towards him, then stopped.
‘You didn’t need to bother, though. If you’d asked me the night you picked me up if I wanted to help you get revenge on my father I would have said yes. Especially if you’re going to pay me.’
Cristiano didn’t move, but the line of his shoulders was tense, his jaw tight. His gaze was absolutely impenetrable.
‘You have no loyalty to him, then?’
‘Why should I? I barely remember him. Money is what I need now.’
There was silence as he stared at her and she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
‘For what it’s worth,’ he said quietly, ‘I slept with you last night because you’re beautiful and I wanted you, Leonie. Because I couldn’t stop myself.’
She hated him a little in that moment, and part of her wanted to throw it back in his face. But that would give away the fact that their night had mattered to her, and she didn’t want him to know that. She didn’t want him to knowanything.
Last night she’d trusted him, but she certainly wasn’t going to make that mistake again. His money, on the other hand, was a different story. She could buy herself a new life with money like that. Buy that little cottage in the country, where she’d live with the only person she trusted in the entire world: herself.
So all she did was lift a shoulder as if she didn’t care and it didn’t matter. ‘Fine—but I want the money, Cristiano.’
