Lucas shrugged. ‘I have no more time for the gold-diggers,’ he gritted. ‘At least a guy with his head screwed on has a fighting chance of recognising them for what they are and can take the necessary precautions. You, I’m guessing, had no chance against a skilled predator. Continue.’
‘I’d confided in my best friend,’ Katy said, with a grimace. ‘I felt such a fool. Claire was far more experienced than me, and she was livid when I told her about the messages I’d accidentally seen on his phone from his wife. He’d made a mistake in leaving it on the table while he vanished off to the toilet when we’d been having a meal out. Up popped a reminder to phone the kids to say good night and to remember some party they were going to on the weekend. He’d told me he was going to be away on business. Weekends, he’d always said, were tricky for him because he was trying to kick-start a photography business and they were the only times he could do whatever he had to do—networking and the like—because he was at the bank during the week.’
‘A skilled excuse,’ Lucas said drily. ‘The man obviously came with form.’
‘That was what Claire said. She told me that I was probably not the first, which needless to say didn’t make me feel at all better.’
It was as though she was looking at a very young, very naïve stranger from the advantageous position of someone who was much older and wiser. And she had Lucas to thank for that.
‘Anyway, she started doing a little digging around. The world’s a small place these days.’ Katy grimaced. ‘She found that he was a serial womaniser and she went to see his wife.’
‘Ah.’
‘I had no idea at the time that that was her plan, and afterwards she confessed that she didn’t quite know what had prompted her to take such drastic action. But she was upset on my behalf and, in a weird way, upset on behalf of all the other girls he had conned into sleeping with him. His marriage fell apart on the back of that, so...’
‘I’m getting the picture loud and clear. The ex who hates you and holds you responsible for the breakdown of his marriage now has the perfect vehicle for revenge put into his hands.’
‘If I had told you the whole story in the first place, you would have realised that there was no chance I could have been any kind of mole. Then we wouldn’t have ended up here and none of this would be happening now.’
Lucas smiled wryly. ‘Really think that would have been how it would have worked?’
‘No,’ Katy answered honestly. ‘You wouldn’t have believed me. I would have been guilty until proven innocent.’ At that point in time, he’d been a one-dimensional autocrat—ruthless, suspicious, arrogant. At this point in time...
She didn’t know what he was and she didn’t want to think too hard about it. They had a situation and she began to see all the nooks and crannies of it. If Duncan decided to take his revenge by publicising a tale of some sordid love tryst between Lucas and herself, not only would Lucas’s deal be ruined but he would have to face the horror of the world gossiping about him behind his back. His reputation would be in tatters because, however much a lie could be disproved, mud inevitably stuck. He was the sort of guy who would claim to shrug off the opinions of other people, but that would be a heck of a lot to shrug off.
And it would all have been her fault.
Could she allow that to happen?
And then, aside from Lucas, there was the matter of her and her parents. They would never live it down. She felt sick thinking about their disappointment and the whispers that would circulate around the village like a raging forest fire blazing out of control. When she returned to see them, people would stare at her. Her parents would shy away from discussing it but she would see the sadness in their eyes.
She would be at the heart of a tabloid scandal: ‘desperate virgin in sordid tryst with billionaire happy to use her for a few days before discarding her’. ‘Sad and gullible innocent lured to a villa for sex, too stupid to appreciate her own idiocy’.
‘Marry me!’ she blurted out and then looked at him with wide-eyed dismay.
She jumped to her feet and began pacing the veranda, before curling onto the three-seater wicker sofa and drawing her knees up.
‘Forget I said that.’
‘Forget that I’ve received a marriage proposal?’ Lucas drawled, strolling over to the sofa and sitting down, body angled towards her. ‘It’s the first I ever have...’
‘It wasn’t a marriage proposal,’ Katy muttered, eyeing him with a glower, her cheeks tinged with heated colour.
‘Sure about that? Because I distinctly heard the words “marry me”.’
‘It wasn’t a real marriage proposal,’ Katy clarified, hot all over. ‘It just seemed that...if Duncan does what he’s threatening to do—and I guess he will, if he’s already started dropping hints to your client—then it’s not just that your deal will be jeopardised—’
‘Ruined,’ Lucas elaborated for good measure. ‘Shot down in flames...dead in the water and beyond salvation...’
‘All those things,’ Katy mumbled, guilt washing over her with tidal force. She breathed in deeply and looked him directly in the eyes. ‘It’s not even a marriage proposal,’ she qualified. ‘It’s an engagement proposal. If we’re engaged then Duncan can’t spread any rumours about sordid trysts and he can’t take your reputation away from you by implying that you’re the sort of womaniser who’s happy to take advantage of...of...an inexperienced young girl...’
He wasn’t saying anything and she wished he would. In fact, she couldn’t even read what he was thinking because his expression was so shuttered.
‘Your deal can go ahead,’ she plunged on. ‘And you won’t have to worry about people gossiping about you behind your back.’
‘That sort of thing has never bothered me.’
Katy almost smiled, because that was just such a predictable response, then she thought about people gossiping about him and her heart clenched.
‘What’s in it for you?’ Lucas asked softly.
‘Firstly,’ Katy told him with absolute honesty, ‘You’re here because of me, so this is pretty much my fault. Secondly, I know how much this deal means to you. Thirdly, it’s not just about you. It’s also about me. My parents would be devastated and I can’t bear the thought of that. And you might not care about what other people think of you, but I care what other people think of me. I wouldn’t be able to stay on at either of my jobs because of the shame, and I would find it really hard to face people at home who have known me all my life.’
It was slowly dawning on her that there had been something in his softly spoken words when he had asked her what would be in it for her, something she hadn’t registered immediately but which she was registering fast enough now.
‘It would work.’ She tilted her chin at a defiant angle to rebut the hidden insinuation she had read behind his words. She might have been wrong in her interpretation but she didn’t think so. ‘And it would work brilliantly because there’s no emotional bond between us. I mean, there’s no danger that I would get it into my head that I was doing anything but role-playing. You could get your deal done, we could defuse a potential disaster and I would be able to live with myself.’
‘You’re presenting me with a business proposition, Katy?’ He dealt her a slashing smile that threatened to knock her sideways. ‘You, the ultimate romantic, are presenting me with a business proposition that involves a phoney engagement?’
‘It makes sense,’ she defended.
‘So it does,’ Lucas murmured. ‘And tell me, how long is this phoney engagement supposed to last?’ He couldn’t help but be amused by this from the girl who typified everything that smacked of flowers, chocolates, soul mates and walks up the aisle in a frothy, meringue wedding dress. Then he sobered up as he was struck by another, less amusing thought.
Had he changed her into something she was never meant to be? He had shown Katy the marvels of sex without strings because it was something that worked for him, but had he, in the process, somehow cha
nged her? For reasons he couldn’t explain, he didn’t like the thought of that, but he pushed those uneasy reservations to one side, choosing instead to go for the straightforward explanation she had given, which was that it was a solution that would work for her as well as it would work for him.
Katy shrugged. ‘You still haven’t said whether you think it’s a good idea or not.’
‘I couldn’t have come up with something better myself.’ Lucas grinned, then looked at her seriously. ‘But you should know that I wouldn’t ask you to do anything you feel uncomfortable about.’
Katy’s heart did that weird, clenching thing again. ‘I feel very comfortable about this and, as for how long it would last, I haven’t given much thought to that side of things.’
‘You’d be deceiving your parents,’ Lucas pointed out bluntly.
‘I realise that.’ She sighed and fiddled with the ends of her long hair, frowning slightly. ‘I never thought that the ends justified the means, and I hate the thought of deception, but, between the devil and the deep blue sea, this seems the less hurtful option.’
Lucas looked at her long and hard. ‘So we’re a loved-up couple,’ he murmured, his dark eyes veiled. ‘And in fact, so irresistibly in love with one another that we escaped for some heady time to my yacht where we could be together free from interruption from the outside world. Your colleagues at work might find it a little hard to swallow.’
‘You’d be shocked at how many people believe in love at first sight.’ Katy smiled. ‘You know, just because you’re such a miserable cynic when it comes to love, doesn’t mean that the rest of us are as well...’
‘So now I’m a miserable cynic,’ Lucas drawled, reaching out to tug her towards him. ‘Tell me how likely it is that you would fall head over heels for a miserable cynic?’
‘Not likely at all!’ Katy laughed, looking up at him, and her heart did that funny thing again, skipping a beat, which made her feel as though she’d been cruising along quite nicely only to hit a sudden patch of violent turbulence. ‘I’m afraid what you have is a girl who could only fall head over heels for someone as romantic as she is!’ She frowned and tried to visualise this special person but the only face to fill her head was Lucas’s dark and devastatingly handsome one.
‘If we’re going to be engaged, then we need to get to know one another a whole lot better,’ Lucas told her, still admiring the very practical streak which had led her to propose this very practical solution. Although, why should he be that surprised? She was a whizz at IT and that, surely, indicated a practical side to her that she herself was probably not even aware of.
He stood up, his fingers still linked with hers, and led her back through the villa and in the direction of his bedroom.
‘What are you going to do with me once the engagement is over?’ he murmured, toeing open his bedroom door, and then propelling her backwards to his bed while she tried to contain her laughter. ‘I mean...’ he lowered his head and kissed her, flicking his tongue into her mouth and igniting a series of fireworks inside her ‘... I’m assuming that, since you are the one with the clever plan to stage a fake engagement, you’ll likewise be the one with the clever plan when it comes to wriggling out of it. So how will you dispose of me?’
He slid his hand under her tee-shirt and the warmth of her skin sent his body immediately into outer orbit. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and he curved his big hand over her breast and gently teased her nipple until it was ripe and throbbing between his skilful fingers. They tumbled onto the bed, he settled her under him and straddled her so that he could see her face as he continued to tease her.
As usual, Katy’s brain was losing the ability to fire on all cylinders, especially when he pushed up the tee-shirt and lowered himself to suckle her nipple. He looked up and caught her eyes, then flicked his tongue over the stiffened bud before devoting his attention to her pouting lips, kissing her again until she felt as though she was coming apart at the seams.
‘Well?’ He nuzzled the side of her neck and she wriggled and squirmed underneath him, hands on his waist, pushing into the waistband of his trousers and feeling his buttocks.
‘Oh, I think we’ll just drift apart,’ Katy murmured. ‘You know the sort of thing. You’ll be working far too hard and you’ll be spending most of your time in the Far East because of the deal you’ve managed to secure. I’ll grow lonely and...who knows?...maybe I’ll find some hunky guy to help me deal with my loneliness...’
‘Not if I have any say in the matter,’ Lucas growled, cupping her between her legs and rubbing until the pressure of his hand did all sorts of things through the barrier of her clothes.
‘No,’ Katy panted, bucking against his hand as she felt the stirrings of an orgasm building. ‘I have to admit,’ she gasped, her fingers digging into his shoulders, ‘That finding another man wouldn’t work, so perhaps you’ll have to tire of me not being around and find someone else instead...’
And how she hated the thought of that although, she laughed shakily to herself, in the game of make-believe, what was the big deal? ‘Let’s not talk about this.’ She tugged apart the button on his trousers and awkwardly tried to pull down the zipper. She looked at him and met his eyes. ‘We can be engaged...for two months. Long enough to find out that we’re not really compatible and short enough for no lasting damage.’
‘You’re the one calling the shots.’ Lucas nipped her neck, reared up and yanked off his shirt, before proceeding to undress her very, very slowly and, when she was completely naked, pushing apart her thighs and gazing down for a few charged seconds at her stupendous nudity. ‘And I like it... Now, stop talking. It’s time for action, my wife-to-be...’
CHAPTER EIGHT
KATY HAD A week to think about what would happen when they arrived back in London. The surprise announcement of their engagement had hit the headlines with the fanfare of a royal proclamation. Sitting in the little square in the island’s town, whilst they sipped coffees in the sunshine, she had scrolled through the newspapers on her phone and read out loud some of the more outrageous descriptions of the ‘love at first sight’ scenario which Lucas had vaguely hinted at when he had called, firstly, the anxious Ken Huang and then his personal assistant, who had been instructed to inform various elements of the press.
Lucas had been amused at her reaction to what, for him, was not entirely surprising, considering the extent of his wealth and eligibility.
Now, finally on the way back to London, with the helicopter that had delivered them to his super-yacht due to land in under half an hour, the events of the past few days no longer felt like a surreal dream that wasn’t quite happening.
It was one thing to read the centre pages of the tabloids and marvel that she was actually reading about herself. It was quite another to be heading straight into the eye of the hurricane where, she had been warned by Lucas, there might still be some lingering press attention.
‘At least there’s been some time for the story to calm down a bit,’ he had told her. ‘Although there’s nothing the public loves more than a good, old-fashioned tale of romance.’
‘Except,’ Katy had quipped, ‘A good, old-fashioned tale of a break-up.’
Lucas had laughed but, now that the story was out in the open, now that her parents had been told and had doubtless told every single person in the village and beyond, Katy was beginning to visualise the fallout when the phoney engagement came to an end. In short, her theory about the end justifying the means was beginning to look a little frayed at the edges.
She had spoken to her parents every single day since the announcement and had played fast and loose with fairy stories about the way her heart had whooshed the minute she had clapped eyes on Lucas, the second she had known that it was the real thing. They had wanted details and she had given them details.
Katy knew that she would have to face all sorts of awkward questions when this charade was over. No doubt, she would be an object of pity. Her parents would be mortified that yet again she
had been short-sighted enough to go for the wrong guy. If they ever happened to meet Lucas in the flesh, then they would probably suss that he was the wrong guy before the fairy tale even had time to come crashing down.
The world would feel sorry for her. Her friends would shake their heads and wonder if there was something wrong with her. And, inevitably, there would be malicious swipes at her stupidity in thinking that she could ever have thought that a relationship with someone like Lucas Cipriani could ever last the distance.
Who did she think she was?
And yet she was happy to close the door on reality because the thrill of living for the moment was so intense. It ate everything up. All her incipient doubts, and all her darkest imaginings about what lay beyond that two-month time line they had agreed upon, were swept aside and devoured by the intensity of appreciating every single second she had with him.
The timer had been set and every feeling, every sensation and every response was heightened to an excruciating pitch.
‘I have something to tell you.’ Lucas pulled her towards him. It still surprised him the way he couldn’t get enough of her. ‘Tonight we will be the main event at a black-tie ball.’
Katy stared at him in consternation. ‘Tonight?’
‘The Chinese company’s throwing it. It seems that Ken Huang is keen to meet you, as are all the members of his family—and, in all events, with signatures now being put to paper, it’s a fitting chance to celebrate our engagement publicly as well as the closing of the deal. Your parents, naturally have been invited to attend, as have your friends and other family members. Have you got any other family, as a matter of interest?’
Katy laughed. ‘Shouldn’t you know that?’
‘I should,’ Lucas said gravely, ‘But these things sometimes get overlooked in a hectic whirlwind romance.’ She was wearing a little blue top and some faded cut-off jeans and, if they had been anywhere remotely private, he would have enjoyed nothing better than getting her out of both items of clothing.
Cipriani's Innocent Captive Page 11
