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For a moment he didn’t answer. Instead, he leaned forward and picked up the swatch of blue silk that she’d been considering for the curtains.
‘I like this colour,’ he said softly. It was almost an exact match for his eyes, and she felt her face grow warm as he rubbed it between his fingers. Remembering the urgent press of his hands on her and the dark hunger in his eyes, she felt a sharp heat shoot through her and, terrified that he would see it on her face, she snatched the swatch from his hand.
‘Well, I don’t. I prefer the green, and stop pretending you care about my curtains. Or me. All we did was have sex—’
‘We did.’ His gaze dropped to where she could feel her pulse beating in her throat.
Ignoring the shiver of something hot and liquid trembling across her skin, Lily glared at him. ‘Sex isn’t a reason to get married. Thank you, but no, I don’t want to marry you.’
There was a short silence and then he turned towards her, and she felt a current of awareness spill over her skin. She was over him in every way it was possible to be over a man. Unfortunately, her body didn’t appear to have received that memo.
‘I need this.’
His voice sounded taut. There was anger there but frustration too, and pain. ‘You see, Winslow is my business. It’s my name above the door. I’m the majority shareholder, but some of my shares are held in a trust and if the trustees think that the actions of the CEO are incompatible with or detrimental to the effective running of the business, then they can remove him or her.’
She gave a humourless laugh.
‘You mean for some baffling reason they would have preferred that the man in charge hadn’t got himself held prisoner by a drug cartel in an Ecuadorian rainforest?’ She shook her head. ‘How unreasonable of them.’
His gaze didn’t flicker but she saw a dangerous glint in his blue eyes. ‘I went to Ecuador to go white water rafting.’
A pulse of anger beat across her skin. ‘On some of the most dangerous rapids in the world, so you knew there was a possibility you might drown. You just hadn’t factored in getting shot at or being held captive or getting lost in a rainforest.’ She felt a stab of pain, imagining his beautiful eyes staring sightlessly up at the sky. How dared he risk his life for some stupid momentary thrill? Tears pricked behind her eyes, and she blinked them away, stonewalling the feeling as she watched his face harden.
‘I don’t have a death wish so, no, I wasn’t thinking I might drown. I like the challenge, the purpose. There’s a clarity in the moment—’
‘In the moment?’ She cut across him. ‘And what about the aftermath? Everyone thought you were dead. Half the Ecuadorian police force was looking for you.’
He shrugged. ‘It’s their job.’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘Yeah, I’m sure that’s why they signed up for public service. To search for stupid “thrillionaires” who get themselves abducted.’
His eyes didn’t leave hers as his jaw tightened, his expression hard and unforgiving and she saw the emotion smouldering there, the male pride and arrogance. ‘I’ve already had one lecture this morning. I didn’t come here for another.’
‘That’s a pity, because that’s all you’re getting from me,’ she said crisply. ‘But don’t worry, I’m sure there are queues of women who will be more than willing to accept your proposal,’ she said, keeping her eyes averted from the temptingly smooth, tanned skin of his arms. ‘I don’t even know why you asked me. You want a wife, and we barely managed a two-month one-night stand.’
His eyes rested on her face. ‘I don’t remember you complaining at the time. Moaning, gasping, crying out my name, sure...but not complaining.’
There was a hoarse softness in his voice that made her shiver, remembering the noises she’d made as she had come apart in his arms and against his mouth. It was suddenly difficult to breathe, much less speak.
She gritted her teeth. It wasn’t fair of him to talk about the two of them in those moments. But then what did he know of fairness? He took his looks and charm, and wealth, for granted, assuming that they were his by right. He had never looked in the mirror and felt like an imposter or a let-down. Had never been surrounded by his peers and felt out of his depth.
Meeting his gaze, she shrugged. ‘So I enjoyed having sex with you. That’s all it was. I’m not going to take part in some charade of a marriage to get you out of a hole you dug yourself.’
He made a noise that was a mix of irritation and impatience. ‘But it’s not just my hole any more. It’s our hole. Officially. In that it’s in the open, public. Real. As far as they’re concerned.’
They? The apprehension she had felt earlier was no longer a ripple but a huge, towering wave. ‘Did you tell someone that you were going to come here and ask me to marry you?’
He shook his head.
‘I didn’t, no. It wouldn’t have made sense. You see, I’d already told them we were engaged. That we were engaged before I left the States.’ Now, he was shrugging off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves just like some husband in a sitcom.
‘Look, believe me, I don’t want to get married either, but I’m not going to lose my business over one holiday from hell. I need to look as if I’m changing. That’s why I need a wife. The trustees my father appointed are his peers. They have his values. They see marriage as a stabilising influence. They were putting pressure on me and I needed a name. But it had to be to the right woman. You know, someone reliable, sensible, unadventurous.’
She lifted her chin. ‘And you thought of me? How flattering.’ Curling her fingers into her palms, she stared at him, humiliated that was the only reason he had chosen her. Did he think, because she wasn’t some leggy model type with bee-stung lips, that she didn’t have feelings?
‘And it did the trick. You should have seen their faces light up. They like you, Lily.’
He had it all worked out, she thought, wishing she had never opened the door and let him back into her home, into her life.
