He wanted to throw his head back and roar against the unfairness of it.
Only it wasn’t unfair, was it? This woman had every reason to loathe him. And she did—he could see that in the endless depths of her green eyes—eyes the colour of sea glass. Some would call it poetic justice.
He’d call it hell. But it was a hell he deserved.
He swallowed and nodded. ‘Hello, Eve.’
Greamsman glanced from one to the other, speculation rife in his eyes. ‘You know each other?’
Her eyes turned hard and cold, her lips refusing to lift into anything even approximating a smile. ‘“Know” would be an exaggeration, Mr Greamsman.’
I thought I knew you, but I was wrong.
Her words from four years ago circled through his mind now. His temples started to throb.
‘I once had the pleasure...’ the word dripped with sarcasm ‘...of working with Mr Macy.’
‘Ah, so you’ll be aware of his business practices, then.’
That made his back stiffen. ‘My business practices are completely above board. If they weren’t, you’d have found a way to have my company brought before an industrial tribunal by now, Greamsman.’
‘Perhaps, perhaps not,’ the other man said. ‘But your tactics...’
‘Can leave a lot to be desired,’ Eve finished, folding her arms.
‘Well, my dear—’
‘Don’t call me your dear.’ Cold eyes turned to his rival and Damon’s spine unhitched a fraction with the relief of being released from their cold, penetrating knowingness and the accusation that flared in their depths.
‘Yes, well,’ Kevin blustered. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I have a plane to catch.’ He gathered up his things before shooting Damon a malicious smile. ‘Nothing personal, remember, Demon. Just business.’
Damon wanted to slam a fist into the other man’s face—not for the smugness or his ridiculous game of one-upmanship but for continuing to call him that hideous nickname. The impulse made him suck in a breath. For the last four years he’d been incarcerated in some icy, contained world of his own. But one look at Eve had brought all those walls crashing down. Really?
He rolled his shoulders. It felt good, invigorating. Disturbing, too, but...he felt alive again. He straightened. When had he started to feel so dead inside?
He glanced at Eve as Greamsman and the lawyer left the room. She hated him, and he deserved her resentment, her censure, her mistrust—it was an undeniable truth. But he wanted to live again, to feel alive again. He was through with punishing himself. He’d done her the good turn she deserved. Now he was free to go to Frankfurt, do all he could to close the Mueller deal and then...
He lifted his chin. And then he’d take a holiday, walk on a beach somewhere and rethink his life...make some changes.
Her arms were still folded and the fingers of her right hand drummed against her left upper arm. She stuck out a hip and raised an eyebrow. He nodded. Before he could do any of that, he needed to deal with the here and now. ‘I know you must hate me, Eve.’
She waved that away. ‘Ancient history.’
He tried to gauge what was happening behind her eyes, but he couldn’t. Had she really moved on so easily? A dark heaviness settled over him that he tried to shake off. He hoped she had.
‘Is it true that you’ve bought the site from Greamsman?’
She didn’t want to talk about the past. Her gaze was firmly fixed on the future—on her livelihood—as it should be. He pulled himself into straight lines and nodded. ‘Yes.’
Her eyes didn’t waver from his. That was one of the things he’d always loved about her—her unflinching strength.
‘And what do you mean to do with it?’
The tightness in his chest started to drain away. Finally, he could give her something of worth. ‘Absolutely nothing.’
She blinked as if his words made no sense.
‘Mirror Glass Bay will retain its unspoilt character, preserved for generations to come as it should be. I know how special—’
‘You’re not going to build a big, shiny new resort on that spot?’ she interrupted him.
‘No, I’m not.’ He waited for her shock to dissolve into relief...to dissolve into happiness. He didn’t expect her to thank him, but one small smile didn’t seem too much to ask for.
Her hands clenched and her face twisted. A breath shot out of her lungs and it seemed to leave her diminished, lesser...broken. ‘What the hell did I ever do to you to deserve this? From you of all people!’
His mouth went dry. ‘What are you talking about?’
She slammed a hand down to the table between them and eyed the pens, the bowls of mints and the coffee mugs as if she was trying to decide which of them to hurl at him first. ‘Damn you, Demon.’
His jaw clenched so hard pain shot down his neck.
‘Mirror Glass Bay needed that development.’
What the hell...?
‘You wanted that development?’
‘Yes!’
He took a step back, his veins freezing to ice. Damn it all to hell, how had he got this so wrong?
* * *
Eve fell into a seat at the board table and dropped her head to her hands. She’d promised everyone to do her best. Think! She had to find a way to fix this. She was an intelligent woman. Her hands clenched into fists at her temples. She should be able to fix this. If she could only get her mind to work.
Except her mind had downed tools at the first sight of Damon.
‘Eve?’
Damon’s hand came into view and she jerked away. ‘Don’t touch me!’
He pulled his hand back, his face going white and the lines about his mouth pinching as if he were fighting a spasm of pain. Maybe he had a bad back, or a raging migraine. She really hoped so.
Her reaction to him had never been measured, but the ferocity of her animosity now took her off guard. It was just...
She’d never expected to see him again.
She’d never wanted to see him again.
‘You wanted the development to go through?’ he repeated.
‘Yes!’ The word snapped out of her, full of fire and brimstone, but she couldn’t seem to moderate her tone.
‘But there was a newspaper article that said local residents were against it.’
She stood, her entire body starting to shake. ‘Are you telling me your research of what the residents of Mirror Glass Bay wanted was based on one newspaper article?’
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. ‘I researched the development.’ His Adam’s apple bobbed again. ‘Thoroughly.’
‘One newspaper article?’ she repeated, refusing to let the strong column of his throat distract her.
‘The development was slotted for a resort. For holidaymakers. It would’ve been in direct competition to your motel.’
But his voice wavered as he uttered the words, and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Had he done no research on Mirror Glass Bay—on her gorgeous, quirky and utterly frustrating community—at all? ‘Not in competition,’ she managed through gritted teeth. ‘We’d have attracted completely different clienteles. The people who come to stay in my motel would no sooner think of staying in a luxury resort than they would take annual trips to Europe.’
He dragged a hand down his face and swore.
‘Why?’ She tried not to shout the word. ‘Why did you get involved at all? Why did you have to meddle?’
‘I wanted to make amends.’ His lips pressed into a straight, uncompromising line, but he’d lost his colour and it hadn’t come back yet. He looked as if he might throw up. She ignored the stupid skip of her heart, its stupid weakening. ‘To you,’ he croaked. ‘I wanted to make amends to you. I wanted to help.’
She folded her arms across her chest so tightly they started to ache. She wou
ld not let his words warm her. She wouldn’t even let herself believe them. ‘If you wanted to help, why didn’t you ask me first instead of going off half-cocked and ruining everything?’
He opened his mouth as if to protest but shut it again with a snap and a nod.
‘Why couldn’t you have left me alone? What the hell did I ever do to you to deserve...?’
She broke off, appalled at how heavily she breathed. It was as if she’d been running a race as hard and as fast as she could but still couldn’t win...couldn’t even seem to make it to the finish line. She hitched up her chin, desperately wanting to channel ice-cold composure. ‘This has nothing to do with me, has it? It’s about you wanting to allay a guilty conscience.’
‘Maybe they’re different sides of the same coin.’
‘And maybe they’re not. One is selfish and self-interested and the other isn’t. We both know unselfishness isn’t a trait you’re known for.’ She wanted to call him Demon again, but she didn’t have the heart for it. ‘Either way, looks like I’m the one having to pay the price. Again.’
‘I can fix this, Eve.’
She didn’t want him to. She wanted him out of her life for good. She never wanted to see him again.
Except...
She swallowed. It left her throat feeling bruised and sore. Except she’d promised her community, her friends, to do everything she could to make sure this resort went through. And she’d keep that promise, regardless of her animosity...regardless of the pain crushing her chest, as if seeing him now was breaking her heart all over again.
‘I swear to you that I can fix this.’ He sat at the table and pulled a pad and pen towards him. She remembered then how he’d always liked to brainstorm with pen and paper rather than being chained to his computer and a Word document.
She wrestled with her desire to walk out the door and not turn back. But in the end Mirror Glass Bay and her promise won out. She sat too.
He glanced across at her. He didn’t smile, but she had to remind herself that the warmth in his eyes was not reflected in his heart. He’d given her no apology—not for then and not for now. Damon Macy took what he wanted, when he wanted, without apology. And without thought for how it might affect anyone else. She’d be a fool to forget it.
She sat, folded her arms and forced her spine to make contact with the back of the chair. She loathed Damon Macy and all he stood for, but she couldn’t let her antipathy harm Mirror Glass Bay. If he really wanted to make amends, she intended to take full advantage of that. ‘How will you fix it? Do you now plan to build that luxury resort?’
‘I—’ He broke off with a curse. ‘I signed a non-compete clause. It was the only way I could get Greamsman to agree to the deal.’
Wow. His conscience must be making him feel really guilty. But then the meaning of his words hit her, and it was all she could do not to drop her head to her arms and cry. A non-compete clause meant Mirror Glass Bay could kiss goodbye to a luxury resort for good. The town needed an injection of capital. It needed development, jobs and infrastructure. Local government grants and initiatives were all given to Byron Bay, where the tourist dollar repaid it ten-fold. Mirror Glass Bay didn’t aspire to those same standards. It just wanted a little piece of the pie—just enough to support a medical centre and to keep the tiny primary school open. It didn’t seem too much to ask.
‘Right.’
Damon straightened and the broad expanse of his shoulders squared, as if he were a superhero in a big-budget film getting ready for the fight of his life. It should’ve made her want to laugh in scorn and derision and call him unflattering names, such as egotist and poseur. No scorn or derision rose through her, though—at least, not any directed at him.
‘I can build several state-of-the-art high-rises on that site—luxury apartments.’ He tapped the pen against his mouth. ‘As long as I can get the necessary planning permissions.’
She dismissed that with a single wave of her hand. ‘And who will live in them? Sure, their construction and outfitting will bring jobs to the area, but it’s a short-term solution. Once they’re done...’
‘I could make them short-term holiday lets.’
‘Besides the fact that brings you dangerously close to contravening your non-compete clause...’
‘I’d make them family friendly, not luxury, and—’
‘In which case you’d be stealing from my client base.’
He cursed again and went back to jotting notes on his pad. ‘What about a theme park?’
‘What about you do some proper research into the area first and find out the kinds of tourists Mirror Glass Bay—and Byron Bay, for that matter—attract? That is, if you’re serious about helping.’
His gaze lifted, his eyes dark and intense. ‘I’m serious.’
He’d always been too serious. Though she’d been able to make him laugh, had managed to get him to loosen up—back in the old days. Her hands clenched. Until he’d thrown her over for two million dollars to advance his goddamned career. He’d thrown away everything they’d had for...
She folded her arms. It didn’t look as though it had brought him any joy.
Which served him right.
But it didn’t seem fair that his hair should be as dark and glossy as it had always been, his jaw just as square and strong or his shoulders as broad and appealing. It wasn’t fair that his outside should be so compelling, could make a woman’s stomach soften with longing, when inside his heart was black.
He leaned back in his seat, his chin lifting. ‘What’s wrong with my theme park idea?’
‘What am I now—your research assistant?’
Mirror Glass Bay needs help! If this man...
She dragged in a breath, moderated her tone. ‘How far are we from the Gold Coast?’
‘No idea. Three or four hours?’
‘An hour and fifteen minutes.’
If he really wanted to make amends—if he was sincere—then his heart couldn’t be that black, could it?
Her lips twisted. Maybe it was just a really dirty charcoal-grey.
‘What?’ he said, his hand lifting, as if to check his hair.
She snapped back to their conversation. ‘How many theme parks are there on the Gold Coast?’
She watched him count them off on his fingers. He held up three and raised an eyebrow.
‘Five,’ she told him. ‘So, if families or singles wanted a theme-park holiday, why would they come to Mirror Glass Bay when they could go to the Gold Coast?’
‘Because my theme park would be the best.’
He still had that same old arrogance, the same belief he could make things happen, and it tugged at some secret, hidden place inside her. And for the first time since she’d clapped eyes on him again she was scared rather than shocked and angry. Scared that he still had the power to hurt her.
She set her shoulders and did what she could to get her thumping heart back under control. That’d only happen if she let it. And there was no way on God’s green she was going to let it happen. Ever. She gripped her hands in her lap to counter their trembling. ‘What is Byron Bay known for?’
‘An amazing beach. An amazing surfing beach,’ he clarified. ‘The town has always attracted surfers and backpackers.’ His lips pursed. ‘It’s also considered a hub of new age and hippy culture. From what I saw yesterday, very briefly, there are a lot of yoga retreats and holistic wellness centres in the area.’
‘And do you think the kind of people who are attracted to those things—who come to this part of the world to experience those things—are the kind of people interested in rollercoasters and water slides?’
His pen started up a quick and annoying tap-tap-tap against his pad. She wanted to reach across and halt it, only that’d betray the calm composure she was trying to maintain.
‘You’re right,’ he said slowly.
&
nbsp; Hallelujah.
Except...
She frowned. ‘About what?’
‘I do need to research the area. Properly.’ His eyes narrowed at whatever he saw in her face. ‘I am going to fix this, Eve. You’ll see.’
She hoped to God he did. Her community needed it. And as for herself... ‘As long as you don’t expect me to pin a medal on your chest at the end of all this, clap you on the shoulder and tell you what a great guy you are.’
Because he wasn’t a great guy. And she had no intention of forgetting it.
‘Don’t worry, Evie,’ he drawled. ‘I’m keeping my fantasies firmly grounded in reality.’
She had to glance away at the word ‘fantasies’. It conjured up too much, and she’d lost too much to him last time. ‘Eve,’ she corrected. ‘Only my friends are allowed to call me Evie.’ It’d taken her too long to pick herself up and find some joy in life again after the last time. That peace had become precious to her, and she wasn’t letting him disturb it again.
‘There’s just one thing I want from you, Eve.’
To stay out of his hair?
She turned back and raised an eyebrow, crossing her fingers in her lap.
‘I need a place to stay. I need you to find me a room in that motel of yours.’
No!
She didn’t want this man anywhere near her beloved town. Mirror Glass Bay had become her haven and refuge. It’d saved her. It’d given her a new direction. It’d given her hope. If Damon Macy came crashing into her life now...
She halted that thought dead in its tracks. Mirror Glass Bay needed Damon to undo the damage he’d just done. And if she could hold him the least bit accountable then she owed it to her community.
She forced her lips upwards. ‘You’re in luck. It’s off-season so you can have the Kingfisher Suite. It’s our best.’ Though he’d be used to much finer these days. ‘And I’ll charge you through the nose for it.’
His low laugh vibrated in all her hidden secret places. ‘I wouldn’t expect anything less.’
Copyright © 2020 by Michelle Douglas
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