At the Billionaire's Bidding

by Trish Wylie

  And now she was just so conflicted!

  The movie continued, the palm of her hand brushed by Connor’s fingertips at regular intervals. And her mind meandered to when he had said that she had ‘left him,’

  suggesting there had been more to their relationship than friendship and a one-night stand—which there hadn’t been.

  No matter how much she had wished there had been at the time…

  Right now, a big part of her really just wished he’d go away—far away from her sight and her physical proximity—so that she could think clearly.

  ‘So, what is this movie about exactly?’

  Shannon rolled her eyes. ‘You are such a Neanderthal. It’s Brief Encounter—it’s famous.’

  She felt his shoulder shrug beside her. ‘Still don’t get what it’s about and I’ve been watching ten minutes now. You’ll have to enlighten me.’

  ‘You are really going to suck as a millionaire, you know, if you can’t appreciate the finer things in life like all-time classic movies, fine wine, the opera…’

  ‘Nah, I’m perfect millionaire material. I was training to be a playboy before I even had money.’

  Shannon squirmed round a little to look at his profile in the dim light. ‘You see, that’s another one of those statements that keeps reminding me that I don’t know you any more.

  Give me one good reason why I should bother getting involved with you again.’

  Connor shrugged. ’Cos you already are.’

  Damn again. He had her on that one.

  ‘And do you like who you are now? Won’t you worry that people will only be nice to you because you’re a millionaire and they think they’ll have something to gain?’

  She raised her palm again, waiting patiently while the rustling signalled Connor’s search for another sweet. When he found it and leaned forward to set it into her hand, his fingers lingered there, brushing softly against her skin.

  ‘Shannon Hennessey, are you trying to pick a fight with me again?’

  ‘No, I’m trying to hold a conversation with you.’

  His face turned towards hers, hidden in shadows as his fingertips stilled, his voice so low she had to lean forwards to hear him. ‘It just kills you that you’re still attracted to me, doesn’t it?’

  She scowled at him. But it was pointless. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t see his face properly in the dark, so there was no way he could see hers.

  But apparently he could see better than she thought he could, because when his fingers left her palm he reached up and tucked her lock of hair in place without faltering, the scent of the sweets stronger again as his breath washed over her face. One finger traced down the side of her face, along the fine line of her jaw—hand turning, his knuckles brushing her cheek, finding her mouth, moving back and forth in gentle strokes.

  Dear Lord. Would this sweet agony never end?

  ‘In answer to your question—’ his whispered words sounded close to her ear ‘—no, I don’t worry that people will just be nice to me because I have money. Money gets respect, that’s all.’

  Hypnotized by his warm touch against her face, Shannon had to take a moment to concentrate on what he was saying. If nothing else to try and stop from ending up kissing him on the sofa at the back of a room full of pensioners—ones that wouldn’t approve of who she was kissing.

  ‘It doesn’t buy happiness, though.’

  ‘No. It doesn’t.’ And the deep tone of his voice told Shannon that he knew that only too well.

  How many people would sell their souls for the kind of money Connor had had handed to him? But it really hadn’t brought him happiness, had it? In fact, if anything, it had so far probably brought him the exact opposite.

  She just couldn’t believe that had been Frank McMahon’s intention. He’d probably been trying to right a wrong somehow.

  While she mulled that over, Connor’s fingers sliding down the column of her neck, her gaze moved around the room to see who might be watching, settling on an elderly couple near the front just as the man reached his arm over the woman’s shoulder.

  And she smiled at the sight, reaching up to tangle her fingers with Connor’s before setting their joined hands in her lap. Then she turned a little towards him, her chin tilting up as she sought his eyes in the dim light. ‘Can you see the couple in the front on the right?’

  Connor turned his face to look, leaving Shannon focusing on his profile just as the room lit up a little more with reflected light from the screen.

  And she remembered how, back in the day, he had seemed so inaccessible to her somehow. It was why making a play for him had been such a big deal. He’d had charm by the bucketload, looks to turn any female head no matter what age, confidence to burn, a strong family bond behind him no matter what. He’d had everything while she’d had nothing from the moment her nan had got ill.

  But knowing he had some tough stuff to work through in the here and now—that he maybe wasn’t finding easy to deal with—somehow made him more human.

  ‘The lovebirds?’ He turned to look down at her, their heads close together as they continued to whisper conspiratorially.

  Shannon smiled up at him. ‘Yes, that’s them. They’ve been married forty years, barely have a penny—and they’re two of the happiest people I’ve ever met. They look forward to this every week—it’s their only night out. Come rain, hail, or sleet they make their way from their little house just up the road to see the film. It’s only ever ice or snow that keeps them at home and when that happens someone from here goes to visit them.’

  Connor was smiling back at her.

  But she couldn’t quite manage to keep looking at him when he was doing that, even in the dim, sometimes briefly flashing light. So she looked forwards again.

  ‘When the film’s over they have a cup of tea and then they walk home arm in arm. They don’t need money to be happy. They value what they have and they make the effort to hang onto it.’

  ‘So now you think I should just give all the money away so I can be happier than I am now?’

  The room went dark for a second, so that it took a moment for his face to come into focus when she looked his way. ‘I’m not saying that either. It’s not up to me to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. Not that you’d let me. I’m just pointing out that being happy isn’t necessarily linked to being stupidly rich. Something I think you probably know round about now.’

  Connor shook his head.

  ‘And you disagree. That’s a nice change.’

  He leaned to whisper back, ‘Are you still trying to persuade me not to sell this building, perchance?’

  If he hadn’t said it in such a soft tone then she might have risen to the bait. But, ‘Maybe I am. I can’t help it, Connor. This place means something.’

  ‘And you’re finding it hard to reconcile being attracted to me while technically I’m now the enemy, right?’

  ‘Yes.’ Well, it was part of it. So it wasn’t a complete lie…

  He turned away, his head facing the direction of the older couple again, and Shannon heard him take a deep breath. It was only when his fingers flexed around hers that she remembered she was still holding his hand.

  But he didn’t answer. And that left Shannon torn for the rest of the film. How could she get involved with him again, even in a purely sexual way, when he was taking something so precious from the people she loved?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘AND THEN THERE were two…’

  ‘Nope, then there was one—I’m gonna have to kick you out. I’m tired and hungry.’

  And Shannon needed more time before she slept with him—which was what would happen if he stayed.

  Connor shook his head. ‘You’re not the only one who’s hungry. We’ll order pizza.’

  Shannon mulled that over for a moment or two. Not that she couldn’t have done with something to eat, but it would be too dangerous to have him stay. All it would take would be more touching, some kissing, then there would b
e the removal of clothing, more intimate kissing…

  She took a deep breath and blew it out.

  ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’

  ‘You used to like pizza.’

  ‘It has nothing to do with the choice of food.’

  Connor’s face changed, his dark eyes searching her eyes for a long moment. ‘Are you going to try telling me you have a date lined up?’

  She could feel yet another flush creep over her cheeks, so she turned away and headed towards the front doors—hoping he would take the hint and follow her. ‘No, I don’t have a date lined up. I’m just tired. One full day here wasn’t enough for you?’

  When she turned round he was still standing in the middle of the foyer, his large hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans. And he smiled a stunningly sexy smile across at her. ‘Maybe I’m just trying to establish where you stand on the whole dating issue.’

  ‘You don’t need to know that.’

  ‘Ah, now, you see, that’s where you’d be wrong.’ Freeing his hands, he walked towards her with slow, measured steps, his gaze still locked on her face. ‘I definitely need to know that before I spend another day here.’

  The sight of him working his way across the room to her with such a purposeful look on his face sent Shannon’s pulse fluttering all over again.

  But what she wouldn’t and couldn’t do was let him see it. It gave him the advantage again. So, she stood her ground—pulling open the door as he got closer.

  ‘Whether or not I have dates lined up has nothing to do with you spending time here to see what this place is all about like you did today. This was a business thing, remember?’

  ‘It may have started out as a business thing. But before we head where we’re heading I should at least know whether or not I have to look over my shoulder for rabid boyfriends, don’t you think? When we were kissing before the film, that could have been a seven-foot gorilla interrupting us to claim his woman.’

  ‘That wasn’t us kissing.’ She frowned at him as he got closer. ‘That was you kissing me to shut me up. I didn’t do anything.’

  Connor nodded solemnly. ‘Only because we were interrupted—we’d have done more than that otherwise. And we’re still going to, whether it happens right now or you kick me out and I come back for it to happen next time. So, tell me, have you been seeing someone?’

  Shannon stared at him in stark amazement.

  While his foot hit the first step up to her. ‘I need to know before I kiss you again. Practice makes perfect, they say.’

  Folding her arms across her breast to stop her heart from thundering its way out of her chest cavity, she leaned a shoulder against the edge of the open door. ‘There’ll be no practising going on here, trust me. I’m too tired to play with you. I think we should just quit while we’re ahead. We’ve managed a whole day without arguing—and that’s an achievement in itself.’

  ‘It is…’ the gleam in his eyes said he wasn’t giving up that easily, while he made it onto the second step ‘—but we can’t leave a half a kiss as the last kiss ’til next time. I have standards to uphold. This time you’ll kiss me back. And then I’ll think about leaving.’

  ‘Honestly, Connor, I don’t think us kissing again, or doing anything more than kissing, is such a good idea. Not while we have the issue of this place hanging between us.’

  His eyes narrowed as he froze halfway between the second and third step. ‘Why are we suddenly back to this again?’

  ‘We’re not back to it. It never went away. The fact that we got on better today doesn’t change that.’

  ‘So you did think that making an effort with me today would change my mind—is that what you’re saying? Were you referring to yourself when you asked me if I worried about people being nice to me in order to gain something now that I have money?’ The bitterness was all too evident in his voice. ‘Maybe you should just tell me exactly how far you were prepared to go to keep this place?’

  Son-of-a—

  That was not what she’d meant! Immediately leaning away from the door, she began to unfold her arms, glaring across at him, ‘Why, you—’

  Connor shrugged. ‘Well, tell me what this is, then.’

  ‘I’ve just told you what this is! I can’t sleep with you and still look those people in the face tomorrow!’

  Moving onto the third step, he snapped an arm out to stop the door from swinging shut without Shannon’s body to hold it open. ‘It wasn’t an issue in your kitchen a couple of days ago. It wasn’t an issue when you looked at me the way you did all day today. It wasn’t even an issue all the way through that stupid film we just watched about people in a train station.’

  And all that statement did was convince her she was making the right decision in sending him away. How he had managed to watch even a small part of that film and not have got that there was so much more to it than trains just proved to her that, when it came to sleeping with her, from his point of view, there wasn’t even a hint of emotion involved.

  Shannon might have told herself that she could cope with sex for sex’s sake. But having been reminded of the Connor she used to know so many times during the day, she wasn’t just so sure any more.

  ‘Well, I’m telling you it’s an issue now.’

  Connor let go of the door and it swung shut.

  ‘So, let’s just say for a minute the building issue didn’t exist—’

  ‘But it does.’

  ‘Let’s pretend it doesn’t.’

  ‘I’m too old for let’s pretend.’

  His eyes gleamed dangerously. ‘Oh, I don’t know. I think that let’s pretend still has a place between consenting adults.’

  She reached over to pull the door open. ‘And on that note—’

  Connor reached out his palm to close the door again, leaning on it so that he was distinctly inside her personal space, his deep voice low and seductive. ‘With the building issue to one side, then.’

  Shannon found herself mesmerized by the very male lump in his throat, watching it move as he swallowed. ‘We can’t put it to one side; we’re inside it as we speak. It’s not going away.’

  ‘Well, let’s say I made it go away.’

  Her gaze shot upwards in surprise. ‘Are you saying you’ll back out of the sale?’

  ‘No. I told you I wouldn’t change my mind that easily. I don’t want it. And I still don’t get why you won’t jump at the chance of a modern building more suited to the things you do here. But maybe, if it’s that big a deal to you, you should just have the damn thing.

  And then you won’t hide behind it any more.’

  Despite the fact that she knew she was doing a really good impersonation of a fish out of water, Shannon continued to stand completely still and stare up at him. He could not be serious. People didn’t just go around handing entire buildings to other people to settle an argument so the road to sex was clear. Was he insane?

  ‘I can’t afford to buy this place.’

  ‘I’m a reasonable man, despite what you may think of me.’ He smirked. ‘I said you could have it. We’ll find a nice, long payment plan for you—how does that sound? Because realistically they’re like Monopoly houses to me—they don’t mean anything beyond one hell of a retirement.’

  ‘How can you say something like that? You can’t tell me that the business end of that company doesn’t mean something to you or you wouldn’t be spending so much time working on it. Everything is worth something to somebody. You just don’t see places like this as anything beyond their monetary value! And that has to make for a real big empty feeling when you do retire, if you don’t already feel that way! How can you live your life like that, Connor?’

  His expression darkened. ‘Well, it’s obviously worth something to you. Right now, as far as I’m concerned, it’s getting in the way, so if handing it to you solves the problem then you can have it. And then we can just stop with the game-playing this time round so we don’t make the same mistake we did last time.’<
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  To some people she would have seemed as insane as him for not taking the offer in both hands and running like hell before he changed his mind. But it wasn’t that simple, not to Shannon. Or for Connor, no matter what he thought. And that was before she even thought about visiting the subject of the game he thought she had played last time!

  ‘Is your life really that unsatisfying now that you have to bargain a building to me for sex?’

  ‘What kind of question is that?’

  She folded her arms again. ‘I don’t think this whole—’ then unfolded them to make invisible speech marks in the air ‘—“destroy Frank’s legacy” mission you claim to be on is your real problem, is it?’

  ‘I already told you I don’t want any part of what mattered to him.’

  ‘You might not want it, Connor, but you’ve got it. And believe it or not—in this world—

  with the company he left you comes responsibility. Or at least that’s the way it should be.

  Responsibility to your own soul’s well-being if not to the people whose lives and livelihoods rely heavily on the decisions you make every day! And you should know that coming from the background you came from—where it was people and family and caring that made the real difference—so this new attitude of yours doesn’t make any sense, which means that the money and the company and the buildings aren’t the real problem.

  The problem is inside you!’

  Pushing back off the door, he nodded once towards her feet. ‘Do you want a soapbox to stand on to continue this or should I just pull up a chair?’

  O-h-h, that was it! Using all of her body weight, she reached her hands out to his broad chest and shoved—hard. And it was so unexpected a move that she did actually manage to rock him back a step before he grabbed hold of her hands and pushed upright again—

  in time for her to stand on tiptoe to get ‘in his face’ properly.

  ‘No matter what mistakes Frank McMahon made in his life, he at least made something of it! And whether or not you care about that doesn’t matter—because the man is dead!

  The only person you’re letting down by being such a moron is yourself!’