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She froze, her eyes widening. ‘My father? I thought you said I would repay the money?’
‘That doesn’t absolve him of wrongdoing. My company is being audited at the end of the month. Regardless of who repays the funds after that, the crime will be discovered.’
‘But...I can’t pay back half a million pounds by then,’ she blurted.
‘I know,’ he replied with more than a drawl of satisfaction.
The shadow he’d glimpsed earlier settled over her face, her eyes darkening as she stared at him. ‘You have the power to stop this. If you want to. That’s what you’ve been hinting at all along, isn’t it?’
‘That depends on whether you’re prepared to meet my demands.’
She shook her head. ‘If you expect me to pull out of the championship, then the answer’s no.’
‘You want to compete that badly?’
She bit her bottom lip, then released it. Her mouth trembled slightly before she exhaled. ‘Yes.’
Draco wasn’t aware his hands had left his pockets until they cupped her shoulders. Delicate bones and soft, silky skin registered along his senses, even as he spoke. ‘Are you willing to can the bravado and listen to me for five minutes?’
‘If you insist.’
He drew her closer. He told himself it was because he needed her close so she didn’t misunderstand what he planned to say to her. ‘I insist.’
Her gaze dropped to his mouth for a moment before sliding away. ‘Fine. I have training at five in the morning, so if you don’t mind, can we just get on with it, Mr Angelis?’
‘Draco.’
Her eyes flew back to his. ‘What?’
‘For what I have in mind, you’ll need to start calling me by my first name. Try it.’
‘Umm...no—’
He slid a finger beneath her chin to hold her steady. ‘Say my name, Arabella.’
Her nose wrinkled. ‘I prefer Rebel.’
‘I think we’ve established that what you prefer is low on my priority list. I will call you Arabella. And you will say my name, without the snark or the attitude.’
‘Fine... Draco.’
His fingers tightened. ‘Once more, with feeling.’
‘This is truly absurd... Draco.’
The sultry decadence of his name on her lips arrowed straight through his rigid control, reminding him unequivocally that his libido was alive and well. For a hot second, Draco spied himself from the other side of the room, observing the unfolding scene with growing astonishment.
Was he really contemplating this insane course of action?
Then he reminded himself why he was doing this.
For Maria. For the sister he’d let down so severely. For the sister whose eyes filled with pain each time she looked at him, and yet was determined to rise above bitterness. To forgive.
Draco hadn’t quite mastered that particular technique. Wasn’t sure he wanted to. Bitterness and pain were his correct penance for letting his sister down, for ruining a life that had once held so much unbridled potential.
If he could get back even a shadow of joy for his sister, he would do whatever it took.
‘Earth to Draco?’
The sinful drawl brought him back to himself. To the room where low decadent music thrummed to a sensual rhythm, and where a reckless siren in hot pants could well be the answer to what he needed.
He really was going crazy...
He jerked as soft fingers grazed his jaw. The touch was gone a second later, but its earthy power streaked fire across his senses.
‘If I haven’t turned you into a zombie, can you tell me why me calling you by your first name is necessary in this grand plan of yours?’
He stared into her flawless face. With her wide eyes and parted lips, she perfectly emulated innocence. Except he knew she was duplicitous to the core. She was wild, totally remorseless and disturbingly reckless with well-documented antics both in her professional and personal lives.
Those heinous traits would guarantee that he would remain sexually and emotionally detached—not that the latter was in doubt—from the plan he intended to carry out.
This was for Maria. And Maria alone.
‘If you want to keep your father and yourself out of jail, I need you to pretend to be my fiancée for the next three months.’
CHAPTER FIVE
REBEL’S FIRST THOUGHT after the shocked laugh that erupted from her lips was, ‘I’d rather skydive naked. Twice.’
She knew the words hadn’t remained mere thoughts when Draco’s features tightened with formidable displeasure. His mouth twisted in a cruel yet fascinating line that drew her gaze to the sensual curve she’d warned herself not to keep staring at.
‘If you think that’s your worst nightmare, then you haven’t experienced hell.’
