The Millionaire's Redemption
Page 8
‘You’re invested in this somehow.’
Her face paled, but barely so. If he hadn’t been so enthralled by the colour of her skin, by the features of her face that were so effortlessly breathtaking, he wouldn’t have noticed.
Stop.
‘No, I’m not.’
‘Yes, you are.’
‘If there was another reason, Jacques, why would I share it with you?’
She had straightened her spine, and he felt satisfaction pour through him. This Lily he could handle.
‘So there is another reason?’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake.’ She threw her hands up, and then put them on her hips. ‘If I tell you, you’ll just use it as leverage to force me to keep the game going.’
Guilt burned in his stomach, but that he could easily ignore.
‘You were the one who said that we have to go through with this. And telling me might remind you why you decided to do it in the first place. It might even give you the motivation you seem to need.’
Her eyes fluttered up to his, and he felt a punch in his gut at the emotion there. At the fire that sparked between them for the briefest moment.
Her hands fell from her sides—defeat, he thought—and her expression softened. And something gleamed in her eyes that made the voice in his head which was so concerned about his feelings when it came to Lily shout all the louder.
‘What do you see out there?’ she asked, gesturing to the beach.
He frowned. ‘People?’
‘Exactly. It’s a Friday evening. People are going home from work after a hard week. They come to the beach to relax, enjoy a cocktail. Maybe read a book and unwind. And yet here I am with you.’
It took him a moment, but he got there.
‘Your shop...?’
‘Should be open—yes. I should be using the opportunity. Capitalising on it.’ She paused. ‘I used to. For a few months. But then keeping the store open at night took more money than I had.’
He waited for the rest, though he’d begun to put two and two together.
‘I was at the studio this morning because I owed you. But I was also there because of that.’
She looked at him with a quiet strength he wondered if she knew she had.
‘I’ve put more into this place than you could possibly imagine. I’ve sacrificed so much.’
She took a deep breath.
‘My store is failing, Jacques,’ she said in a voice that broke, and the expression on her face told him she thought she was failing, too. ‘I’m barely staying afloat being open during the day. If I don’t get more customers I won’t be able to afford to pay the rent, or the electricity bill, or the rates. Not to mention pay my two staff members and the millions of other things small business owners need to pay.’
She shook her head, looked him in the eye, and he saw the fatigue. But then she straightened her shoulders again.
‘So I thought if you mentioned my name, my occupation, it would drive more people into the store during the day, which might let me pay for keeping the store opening during the evening. I thought pretending to be your girlfriend would help my business.’
‘So you were using me, too?’
‘No!’ she said sharply. ‘I didn’t trick you into doing anything you didn’t want to. You were the one who wanted me there, and I saw how that might benefit the place I love so much. But I would never have done what you did to me.’
He knew he shouldn’t have said those words the moment they’d left his lips, but he hadn’t been able to help it. And now he wondered why he couldn’t just let it go. Why he couldn’t admit he’d been wrong.
‘You didn’t tell me any of that before I did the interview. You didn’t even mention it when you were on TV.’
‘I know.’ She sighed. ‘I didn’t think it through properly. If you hadn’t gone to get coffee I would have probably realised that and gone home before I embarrassed myself. And then I was on TV and I couldn’t think straight. It was like a nightmare come true.’
‘But you managed to defend me so well that people are saying I’m lucky to have you.’
‘That’s why I was there.’
Suddenly he remembered how struck he’d been when he’d seen her just before the interview. And how much what she’d said during the interview had meant to him. There was something about Lily—about the two of them together—that took Jacques completely out of his comfort zone.
And into a zone that forced him to feel.
‘I don’t always make the best decisions.’
Her words dragged him out of his thoughts. ‘I’m glad you made this one.’
‘I don’t know if I can say the same,’ she admitted softly.
‘Well, you made the decision.’ He stepped closer to her. ‘And you were more prepared than I was when you did. Reading up on me, however creepy, shows me your decision wasn’t entirely rash.’
Her lips curved, and the tension in his shoulders slackened.
‘The things you said...they really helped. No one has ever said something like that about me.’ Her eyes fluttered up at him and he quickly added, ‘Not in public, I mean.’
‘Yeah, I figured that when people kept asking me, “Is Jacques really the way you said he was on TV?” Mostly girls with hearts in their eyes, but it’s something.’
‘So you had more people in your store today?’
She sighed, gave him a look that told him she knew what he was doing.
‘Yes.’
‘It can keep being like this, Lily.’
‘Yes, I know if I pretend to be your girlfriend some more my store will be a lot busier,’ she said flatly. ‘I know I don’t really have a choice, Jacques. You don’t have to keep trying to convince me.’
‘Thanks for the confirmation. But I thought... Well, I was thinking about more than that.’
He wasn’t sure why he’d faltered when his idea was actually a good one.
‘I can help you use the momentum of this publicity to get regular customers. I can help with your business plan, with the accounts—with pretty much everything your shop needs to stay successful when this is all over. I can even give you a loan—’
He broke off when she stepped back abruptly.
‘I don’t want your money, Jacques. You can’t pay me to do what you want me to.’
CHAPTER TEN
‘I’M NOT PAYING YOU,’ Jacques answered with a frown. ‘I’m just offering you a loan to help get you on your feet again.’
‘And would you have offered me that loan if you didn’t need my help?’
Her breathing was much too rapid, and she forced herself to inhale and exhale slowly.
‘No, I suppose not. But—’
‘Then don’t do it now,’ she snapped, and turned away from him so that he couldn’t see the tears in her eyes.
She suddenly felt incredibly tired. The interview, the store, the public, and now this conversation... She’d told him things she hadn’t intended to because—well, because he’d listened. Maybe he even cared.
But that was just an illusion, she thought, and she was the magician, weaving a world where she believed in things that didn’t exist. Like someone who was genuinely interested in her worries, her cares.
And his offer of money... It reminded her entirely too much of the way her relationship with Kyle had ended. If she accepted money from Jacques, as she had from the Van der Rosses, all the regret she’d felt since then would have been a lie. She would have been lying to herself. It would make her just as bad as she already thought she was for taking that money in the first place...
‘I’m sorry, Lily, I didn’t mean to offend you.’
‘No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have...’ She took a breath. ‘It’s just been...so lonely. Who’d
have thought starting a store would be lonely?’
She’d meant it as a joke, and was horrified when her eyes burned. Because it had been lonely. And carrying the burden of the store’s fate alone...
She couldn’t turn to her parents—they’d just say I told you so and try to make her see where she’d gone wrong. Because in their minds she would be the one in the wrong.
As she always was.
When she had complained about being bullied at school they’d asked her what she had done. When she’d broken off her engagement they’d asked her what she had done.
There was constant disapproval from them. A constant expectation of failure. Especially when the things she wanted were so different from what they wanted.
‘I don’t want your money, Jacques. But I will accept your help with my business skills. I want you to train me, show me where I’m going wrong. But that’s all.’ She paused, watched his face for his agreement. When she saw it there she nodded in response.
‘Is the money thing...? Is it because of Kyle?’
Her insides felt as if they’d been dipped into an ice bucket. ‘What?’
‘He had money. I thought maybe you didn’t want to be reminded of it.’
The ice defrosted, but her body still shook.
‘You’re right. I don’t want to be. I just want that part of my life to be over.’
He was quiet for a moment, and then he said, ‘It’s been bothering me for a while. You and him together.’
His face was clear while he spoke, but something in his eyes made her belly warm.
‘I can’t see it.’
‘Because he’s rich and handsome and successful and I’m just okay-looking with a struggling store?’
‘Stop that,’ he commanded. ‘I don’t want to hear you talk about yourself like that any more. And I sure as hell don’t want to hear you make him sound like he’s some kind of prize.’
She felt a flush stain her cheeks. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘And stop apologising. You have nothing to apologise for.’
He walked towards her, and her heart sped with each step he took.
‘I’m going to say this once, because you need to hear it.’
He lifted her chin with a finger, forcing her to look into his eyes.
‘You are the most...captivating woman I have ever met. Your hair makes me want to slide my fingers through it so I can see the curls bounce back.’ He pulled at one, as if to illustrate his words. ‘Sometimes when I look into your eyes I feel like you’re looking through me. And that doesn’t scare me—even though it absolutely should. And those lips...’
He brushed his thumb over them, making her tremble.
‘They make me regret stopping last night. Every time I see them I want to taste them again, to check whether they’re really as sweet as I remember.’ He lifted his eyes to hers. ‘Don’t tell me you’re “okay-looking” when you have that effect on me. When I have eyes, Lily.’
There was a pause while she tried to catch her breath.
‘We have an audience.’
His fingers grazed her chin again, tightened slightly when she tried to turn her head to look at what—who—he was talking about.
‘This won’t look nearly as genuine if you check to see where the cameras are,’ he murmured, tucking a curl behind her ear and moving so that there was no more space between them.
Any hope she had of catching her breath again disappeared. Not because of the cameras—though somewhere at the back of her mind she was worried about being photographed after a hard day’s work. No, that didn’t bother her as much when she was still recovering from the seduction of his words. From the proximity of his body.
The fresh, manly smell of his cologne filled her lungs. The easy way he touched her made her see only him, hear only him. She wanted to shake her head clear, to beg the logical part of her mind to take control again.
But all her senses were completely captivated by him.
His hand wrapped around her waist, lightly at first, and before she knew it she was pressed against his body.
‘Is this what our arrangement is going to look like?’ she managed to ask, and his eyes darkened.
‘I really hope so...’
* * *
It was as if he had no control over his body, and his lips had touched hers before he had finished speaking.
She did taste as sweet as he remembered, and it made every regret he knew he’d have when he could think again worth it. He fought against the heat that demanded passion and slowly explored her mouth, relishing every feeling, every thrill that went through his body.
His hands made their way up over the back of her waist, loving how the curves of her body felt under his touch. Loving the quiver that it sent through Lily’s body. His right hand moved further along, brushing the side of her breast and making them both shudder. The sane part of him—the one that reminded him they were being watched—was the only thing that kept his hand from lingering there, and it finally made its way to its intended destination.
He slid his hand through her curls and tilted her head to give him better access to her neck, pulling his lips from hers so that they could memorise the feel of her pulse against them. The moan that he heard in return made him abandon his resolve to take it slowly, and when he took her mouth this time their kiss was more passionate, more dangerous.
He would never have his fill of her, he thought, and his hands gripped her hips to pull her even tighter towards him.
The shock of desire his action brought made him break away, and he took a step back, fighting to control his body. And when that didn’t entirely work he just wanted to control his lungs.
‘You are...’
Lily looked rumpled and it made him feel better when he saw the way her chest heaved just as his did.
‘Dangerous, Jacques. You make me...’
She didn’t continue her sentence, but her words helped sober him from the drunkenness of passion.
‘Feel?’ he finished for her. ‘I make you feel, don’t I?’
Her shake of the head didn’t matter when he knew it was the truth. She did the same thing to him.
‘I’m sure we’ve given those watching more than enough to talk about,’ she said, instead of answering him, looking at the small crowd that had gathered behind the fence around his property. ‘How did they even know we were here?’
‘We’re standing on a balcony, Lily,’ he replied dryly. ‘And we were talking for the better part of an hour. It wouldn’t take much for people on the very busy beach to notice us.’
‘Okay, fine. Let’s go back inside, then.’
They walked back into his flat, and he closed the door so their audience would lose interest.
And then he watched her gather herself, and found he was utterly taken by her.
By the simple green dress she wore that flared out at her waist. By the hair that was tied to the top of her head in a bun, curls spiralling out wherever they could manage it.
She didn’t look like any other woman he knew, he thought. And damn but she drew him in like no other woman ever had.
‘Would you like to have dinner with me?’
‘No, no, no,’ Lily said quickly. ‘There is no part of me that wants to do that after that kiss.’
‘It was just pretend, Lily. It wasn’t real.’
‘I’m not interested in trying to convince you that you’re fooling yourself if you want to believe that. But I will say that we need to draw a line if I agree to go through with this.’
‘I thought you’d already agreed?’
‘I can change my mind.’
She watched him for a moment, and Jacques wondered how now, during the most important deal of his life, he’d found the only woman who stood up to him.
The seriousness of her tone faded the remnants of his smile, and for the first time he heard the plea in her voice.
‘Those are my conditions,’ she said after a pause, and when she looked at him his heart stuttered at the confirmation of her plea. And although there was a part of him that wanted to tell her he couldn’t accept those conditions, he nodded.
‘That’s fair.’
‘So you agree?’ she asked, eyebrows raised. ‘Anything that happens between us from now on is strictly business. We can’t complicate things by letting pleasure cloud our judgement.’
He was surprised by how much he didn’t want to agree with her, but he nodded.
‘If that’s what you want, yes, I agree.’
‘It is what I want,’ she confirmed, though her tone made him think she wasn’t as convinced as she wanted to be. ‘Then I will have dinner with you. Because you’re not calling me on to live television again just because you don’t know enough about me.’
‘That’s why I suggested it.’
At least it should have been.
‘Could I just have a moment to freshen up?’
‘Sure.’
He showed her to the bathroom, and then tried to gather his thoughts. He needed to focus on his task. It hadn’t left his mind once in the few months that he’d been trying to secure the sale, and yet with Lily he constantly needed to remind himself of it.
It was just too easy to get caught up in getting to know her. In wondering how she could afford prime retail property with modern and expensive décor on Big Bay Beach in Cape Town when she didn’t have the money to sustain her store. She must have got the initial money somewhere. And after her reaction to his offer of a loan he thought it had to be connected.
And then there was her plea to keep things professional. After the way she’d dodged his question about Kyle, Jacques knew he was the reason why she’d asked.
Maybe he would have reacted the same way if his fiancée had cheated on him. But he’d never had a relationship last long enough for him to know what being in one felt like. He’d never wanted to be responsible for another woman’s feelings. He’d had a lifetime’s worth growing up with his mother. It was just a bonus that avoiding relationships meant he never needed to worry about how much of his father he had in him. About whether he was as cold, as oblivious to his partner’s feelings.