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‘Is it really such a ridiculous scheme?’ he questioned curiously.
‘You know it is.’
‘Why? I think we could convince the world we’re a reconciled couple, don’t you? You don’t seem to have any problems responding to me as a loving wife might do,’ he continued, and now his mind was filled with a whisper of erotic possibility. ‘Not earlier and not at your grandfather’s, when I kissed you,’ he concluded huskily.
‘I expect most women react like that when you kiss them?’
‘And if they do?’ he drawled.
He saw her wince.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said quickly, the flush in her cheeks intensifying. ‘So it won’t actually mean anything—this marriage of ours?’
‘Howcanit mean anything? It will be a fake marriage. A marriage of convenience. And would it really be so different from a million others?’
She pushed a bright curl away from where it had strayed to the edge of her mouth. ‘What others?’
Theo could feel the sudden powering of his heart because all he could think about was covering that mouth with his. Or feeling her lips at his groin, circling the stiff shaft which was currently throbbing with frustration and need. ‘I’m talking about unhappy couples, and unhappy marriages. I know plenty of those, don’t you, Mia? I have no illusions about the institution of marriage. But all the people who are unhappy don’t automatically separate. Some of them stay together for years. Some for all of their lives. They hide their pain and their boredom and their infidelities behind different masks.’ He ground out a bitter laugh. ‘So why don’t we find our own masks to wear? Why don’t we remind the world that we are man and wife, for your grandfather’s sake?’ His ebony eyes glittered. ‘It’s not for ever. At most, a few months. And afterwards, we can divorce.’
‘Are you...serious?’
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘There’s my job, for a start. I arranged three weeks’ leave of absence—this could be a much longer arrangement.’
He shrugged. ‘You’re a maid, and maids are easily replaceable.’
‘Not good ones,’ she argued hotly. ‘And besides, I got promoted. I became a housekeeper, and then a supervisor, which is what I’m doing at the moment, though not for much longer.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Why, what else are you planning?’
Mia twiddled a coppery curl with her finger as she gazed up into his face, because suddenly it became important for her to make him understand that she hadn’t just stayed static since they’d been apart. That the person he’d judged her to be wasn’t the person she really was.
‘I realised I didn’t want to stay working in a city hotel,’ she said, her attention momentarily caught by a pale moth fluttering frantically in the dying light of the day. ‘You probably don’t remember, but my dream had always been to work with animals.’
‘The first time I met you, you were holding Tycheros,’ he said slowly.
Mia blinked. ‘You remember that?’
‘How could I forget?’ A look of something vaguely uncomfortable passed across his features. ‘You were covered in his blood from where that bastard had taken out his eye with an air gun, but you didn’t flinch. I’d never seen a woman behave like that before.’ He shook his head. ‘With such courage and such fortitude.’
Something about his approval made her go all mushy inside and her needy response angered her. Mia forced herself to concentrate on the facts because evenfeelingthis vulnerable was dangerous, let alone showing it. It suited her much better to think he’d married her to get his hands on the land—only now she’d discovered that he hadn’t done that either.
‘I’ve been saving up to go to school to be a veterinary nurse,’ she continued. ‘I’ve got a place which starts in September and in the meantime I help at the dog rescue centre in my spare time. So I can’t just come and live here indefinitely in what sounds like a horrendous situation.Pretending to be your wife!’ She shook her head. ‘I’ve forged a new life for myself and it’s one I’m proud of.’
But his expression remained implacable.
‘You’ve seen how sick he is,’ he said. ‘The doctors told me it would be a matter of weeks. It’s now April, and your college place doesn’t start until September.’ He paused. ‘What if we see how things go? I can always get my team to help the Granchester find a replacement for you, if needed, so you’re not leaving them in the lurch. Couldn’t you do it? For him?’
Mia hesitated. The obvious answer was no, especially when she considered the pain she could inflict on herself by agreeing to such a crazy masquerade. She wanted to ask whether he’d thought aboutherfeelings—or did he just consider them necessary collateral? But if she admitted her worries and her fears wouldn’t that make her appear weak? As if she hadn’t moved on at all, when clearly he had.
Because earlier today Mia had broken her self-imposed rule of not probing into Theo’s life. When she’d got back from her swim and had been killing time, she had given into temptation and looked him up on the Internet. Not the business side of his life, which extolled all his achievements as well as his many virtues, but the other side of his life.
His personal side.
And his vices.
It had been something she had long suspected but finding out for certain had been a chilling wake-up call. Because while Mia had spent the last six years untouched by another man’s hand, it seemed Theo had been behaving very differently. With masochistic intent, she had studied the images which had flashed up on her computer while her heart had beaten painfully fast. She’d wanted to shut the screen down but there had been a terrible, irresistible compulsion to keep scrolling down over the photos. And there they were. Paparazzi shots of him with models and actresses. Heiresses and athletes. All of them beautiful. All of them gazing up at him as if they couldn’t believe their luck.
