Читать книгу One Winter's Sunrise: Gift-Wrapped in Her Wedding Dress - Алисон Робертс - Страница 16

CHAPTER EIGHT

DOMINIC WATCHED ANDIE’S reactions flit across her face—shock and indignation followed by disappointment. In him? He braced himself—certain she was going to say no.

‘Are you serious?’ she finally said, her hands flat down on the table in front of her.

‘Very,’ he said, gritting his teeth. He’d been an idiot to get himself into a mess like this. Panic. He shouldn’t have given in to panic in that phone call with Walter Burton. He hadn’t let panic or fear rule him for a long time.

Andie tilted her head to one side and frowned. ‘You want me to marry you? We hardly know each other.’

Marriage? Who was talking about marriage? ‘No. Just to pretend—’ Whatever he said wasn’t going to sound good. ‘Pretend to be my fiancée. Until after the Christmas party.’

Andie shook her head in disbelief. ‘To pretend to be engaged to you? To lie? No! I can’t believe you asked me to...to even think of such a thing. I’m a party planner, not a...a...the type of person who would agree to that.’

She looked at him as though she’d never seen him before. And that maybe she didn’t like what she saw. Dominic swallowed hard—he didn’t like the feeling her expression gave him. She pushed herself up from the chair and walked away from the table, her body rigid with disapproval. He was very aware she wanted to distance herself from him. He didn’t like that either. It had seemed so intimate, drinking coffee and eating breakfast at her table. And he had liked that.

He swivelled in his chair to face her. ‘It was a stupid thing to do, I know that,’ he said. He had spent the entire flight back from Perth regretting his impulsive action. ‘But it’s done.’

She turned around, glared at him. ‘Then I suggest you undo it.’

‘By admitting I lied?’

She shrugged. ‘Tell Mr Burton your fiancée dumped you.’

‘As if that would fly.’

‘You think it’s beyond belief that a woman would ever dump you?’

‘I didn’t say that.’ Though it was true. Since it had ended with Melody, he had always been the one to end a relationship. ‘It would seem too...sudden.’

‘Just like the sudden engagement?’

‘It wouldn’t denote...stability.’

‘You’re right about that.’ She crossed her arms in front of her chest—totally unaware that the action pushed up her breasts into an enticing cleavage in the V-necked top she wore. ‘It’s a crazy idea.’

‘I’m not denying that,’ he growled. He didn’t need to have his mistake pointed out to him. ‘But I’m asking you to help me out.’

‘Why me? Find someone else. I’m sure there would be no shortage of candidates.’

‘But it makes sense for my fiancée to be you.’ He could be doggedly persistent when he wanted to be.

He unfolded himself from the too-small chair at the kitchen table. Most chairs were too small for him. He took a step towards her, only for her to take a step back from him. ‘Andie. Please.’

Her hair had fallen across her face and she tossed it back. ‘Why? We’re just client and contractor.’

‘Is that all it is between us?’

‘Of course it is.’ But she wouldn’t meet his gaze and he felt triumphant. So she felt it too. That attraction that had flashed between them from the get-go.

‘When I opened the door to the beautiful woman with the misbehaving skirt—’ that got a grudging smile from her ‘—I thought it could be more than just a business arrangement. But you know now why I don’t date anyone hired by the company.’

‘And Party Queens has a policy of not mixing business with...with pleasure.’ Her voice got huskier on the last words.

He looked her direct in the face, pinning her with his gaze. ‘If it ever happened, it would be pleasure all the way, Andie, I think we both know that.’ She hadn’t quite cleared her face of a wisp of flyaway hair. He reached down and gently smoothed it back behind her ear.

She trembled under his touch. A blush travelled up her throat to stain her cheeks. ‘I’ve never even thought about it, the...the pleasure, I mean,’ she said.

She wouldn’t blush like that if she hadn’t. Or flutter her hands to the leather laces of her neckline. Now who was lying?

She took a deep breath and he tried to keep his gaze from the resulting further exposure of her cleavage. ‘I don’t want to be involved in this mad scheme in any way,’ she said. ‘Except to add your pretend fiancée—when you find one—to the Christmas party guest list.’

‘I’m afraid you’re already involved.’

She frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

Dominic took the few steps necessary back to his chair and took out his smartphone from the inside pocket of his leather jacket. He scrolled through, then handed it to Andie.

She stared at the screen. ‘But this is me. Us.’

The photo she was staring at was of him and her at a restaurant table. They were leaning towards each other, looking into each other’s faces, Andie’s hand on his arm.

‘At the restaurant in Circular Quay, the day of the Friday meeting,’ she said.

‘Yes,’ he said. The business lunch that had felt like a date. In this photo, it looked like a date.

She shook her head, bewildered. ‘Who took it?’

‘Some opportunistic person with a smartphone, I expect. Maybe a trouble-making friend of Tara’s. Who knows?’

She looked back down at the screen, did some scrolling of her own. He waited for her to notice the words that accompanied the image on the gossip site.

Her eyes widened in horror. ‘Did you see this?’ She read out the heading. ‘“Is This the Bed-Hopping Billionaire’s New Conquest?”’ She swore under her breath—the first time he had heard her do so.

‘I’m sorry. Of course I had no idea this was happening. But, in light of it, you can see why it makes sense that my fake fiancée should be you.’

She shook her head. ‘No. It doesn’t make any sense. That was a business lunch. Not the...the romantic rendezvous it appears to be in the picture.’

‘You know that. I know that. But the way they’ve cropped the photo, that’s exactly what it seems. Announce an engagement and suddenly the picture would make a whole lot of sense. Good sense.’

Her green eyes narrowed. ‘This photo doesn’t bother me. It will blow over. We’re both single. Who even cares?’ He’d been stunned to see the expression in his eyes as he’d looked into her face in the photo. It had looked as if he wanted to have her for dessert. Had she noticed? No wonder the gossip site had drawn a conclusion of romantic intrigue.

‘If you’re so indifferent, why not help me out?’ he said. ‘Be my fake fiancée, just until after Christmas.’

‘Christmas is nearly a month away. Twenty-five days, to be precise. For twenty-five days I’d have to pretend to be your fiancée?’

‘So you’re considering it? Because we’ve already been “outed”, so to speak, it wouldn’t come out of the blue. It would be believable.’

‘Huh! We’ve only known each other for two weeks. Who would believe it?’

‘People get married on less acquaintance,’ he said.

‘Not people like me,’ she said.

‘You don’t think anyone would believe you could be smitten by me in that time? I think I’m offended.’

‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘I... I believe many women would be smitten by you. You’re handsome, intelligent—’

‘And personable, yes, you said. Though I bet you don’t think I’m so personable right now.’

She glared at him, though there was a lilt to the corners of her mouth that made it seem like she might want to smile. ‘You could be right about that.’

‘Now to you—gorgeous, sexy, smart Andie Newman.’ Her blush deepened as he sounded each adjective. ‘People would certainly believe I could be instantly smitten with such a woman,’ he said. ‘In fact they’d think I was clever getting a ring on your finger so quickly.’

That flustered her. ‘Th...thank you. I... I’m flattered. But it wouldn’t seem authentic. We’d have to pretend so much. It would be such deception.’

With any other woman, he’d be waiting for her to ask: What’s in it for me? Not Andie. He doubted the thought of a reward for her participation had even entered her head. He would have to entice her with an offer she couldn’t refuse. And save the big gun to sway her from her final refusal.

‘So you’re going to say “yes”?’

She shook her head vehemently. ‘No. I’m not. It wouldn’t be right.’

‘What’s the harm? You’d be helping me out.’

She spun on her heel away from him and he faced her back view, her tensely hunched shoulders, for a long moment before she turned back to confront him. ‘Can’t you see it makes a mockery of...of a man and a woman committing to each other? To spending their lives together in a loving union? That’s what getting engaged is all about. Not sealing a business deal.’

He closed his eyes at the emotion in her voice, the blurring of her words with choking pain. Under his breath he cursed fluently. Because, from any moral point of view, she was absolutely right.

‘Were you engaged to...to Anthony?’ he asked.

Her eyes when she lifted them to him glistened with the sheen of unshed tears. ‘Not officially. But we had our future planned, even the names of our kids chosen. That’s why I know promising to marry someone isn’t something you do lightly. And not...not for a scam. Do you understand?’

Of course he did. He’d once been idealistic about love and marriage and sharing his life with that one special woman. But he couldn’t admit it. Or that he’d become cynical that that kind of love would ever exist for him. Too much rode on this deal. Including his integrity.

‘But this isn’t really getting engaged,’ he said. ‘It’s just...a limited agreement.’

Slowly she shook her head. ‘I can’t help you,’ she said. ‘Sorry.’

Dominic braced himself. He’d had to be ruthless at times to get where he’d got. To overcome the disadvantages of his youth. To win.

‘What if by agreeing to be my fake fiancée you were helping someone else?’ he said.

She frowned. ‘Like who? Helping Walter Burton to make even more billions? I honestly can’t say I like the sound of that guy, linking business to people’s private lives. He sounds like a hypocrite, for one thing—you know, rich men and eyes of needles and all that. I’m not lying for him.’

‘Not Walter Burton. I mean your nephew Timothy.’ The little boy was his big gun.

‘What do you mean, Timothy?’

Dominic fired his shot. ‘Agree to be my fake fiancée and I will pay for all of Timothy’s medical treatment—both immediate and ongoing. No limits. Hannah tells me there’s a clinic in the United States that’s at the forefront of research into treatment for his condition.’

Andie stared at him. ‘You’ve spoken to Hannah? You’ve told Hannah about this? That you’ll pay for Timothy if I agree to—’

He put up his hand. ‘Not true.’

‘But you—’

‘I met with Hannah the day after the dinner with your family to talk about her helping me recruit the families for the party. At that meeting—out of interest—I asked her to tell me more about Timothy. She told me about the American treatment. I offered then to pay all the treatment—airfares and accommodation included.’

The colour rushed back into Andie’s cheeks. ‘That...that was extraordinarily generous of you. What did Hannah say?’

‘She refused.’

‘Of course she would. She hardly knows you. A Newman wouldn’t accept charity. Although I might have tried to convince her.’

‘Maybe you could convince her now. If Hannah thought I was going to be part of the family—her brother-in-law, in fact—she could hardly refuse to accept, could she? And isn’t it the sooner the better for Timothy’s treatment?’

* * *

Andie stared at Dominic for a very long moment, too shocked to speak. ‘Th...that’s coercion. Coercion of the most insidious kind,’ she finally managed to choke out.

A whole lot more words she couldn’t express also tumbled around in her brain. Ruthless. Conniving. Heartless. And yet...he’d offered to help Timothy well before the fake fiancée thing. Not a Scrooge after all. She’d thought she’d been getting to know him—but Dominic Hunt was more of a mystery to her than ever.

He drew his dark brows together. ‘Coercion? I wouldn’t go that far. But I did offer to help Timothy without any strings attached. Hannah refused. This way, she might accept. And your nephew will get the help he needs. I see it as a win-win scenario.’

Andie realised she was twisting the leather thronging that laced together the front of her top and stopped it. Nothing in her life had equipped her to make this kind of decision. ‘You’re really putting me on the spot here. Asking me to lie and be someone I’m not—’

‘Someone you’re not? How does that work? You’d still be Andie.’

She found it difficult to meet his direct, confronting gaze. Those observant grey eyes seemed to see more than she wanted him to. ‘You’re asking me to pretend to be...to pretend to be a woman in love. When...when I’m not.’ She’d only ever been in love once—and she didn’t want to trawl back in her memories to try and relive that feeling—love lost hurt way too much. She did have feelings for Dominic beyond the employer/contractor relationship—but they were more of the other ‘l’ word—lust rather than love.

His eyes seemed to darken. ‘I suppose I am.’

‘And you too,’ she said. ‘You would have to pretend to be in love with...with me. And it would have to look darn authentic to be convincing.’

This was why she was prevaricating. As soon as he’d mentioned Timothy, she knew she would have little choice but to agree. If it had been any other blackmailing billionaire she would probably have said “yes” straight away—living a lie for a month would be worth it for Timothy to get the treatment her family’s combined resources couldn’t afford.

But not this man. How could she blithely pretend to be in love with a man she wanted as much as she wanted him? It would be some kind of torture.

‘I see,’ he said. Had he seriously not thought this through?

‘We would be playing with big emotions, here, Dominic. And other people would be affected too. My family thinks you hung the moon. They’d be delighted if we dated—a sudden engagement would both shock and worry them. At some stage I would have to introduce you to Anthony’s parents—they would be happy for me and want to meet you.’

‘I see where you’re going,’ he said, raking his hand through his hair once more in a gesture that was becoming familiar.

She narrowed her eyes. ‘And yet...would it all be worth it for Hannah to accept your help for Timothy?’ She put up her hand to stop him from replying. ‘I’m thinking out loud here.’

‘And helping me achieve something I really want.’

There must be something more behind his drive to get this American deal. She hoped she’d discover it one day, sooner rather than later. It might help her understand him.

‘You’ve backed me into a corner here, Dominic, and I can’t say I appreciate it. How can I say “no” to such an incredible opportunity for Timothy?’

‘Does that mean your answer is “yes”?’

She tilted her chin upwards—determined not to capitulate too readily to something about which she still had serious doubts. ‘That’s an unusual way to put it, Dominic—rather like you’ve made me a genuine proposal.’

Dominic pulled a face but it didn’t dull the glint of triumph in his eyes. He thought he’d won. But she was determined to get something out of this deal for herself too.

Andie had no doubt if she asked for recompense—money, gifts—he’d give it to her. Dominic was getting what he wanted. Timothy would be getting what he so desperately needed. But what about her?

She wasn’t interested in jewellery or fancy shopping. What she wanted was him. She wanted to kiss him, she wanted to hold him and she very much wanted to make love with him. Not for fake—for real.

There was a very good chance this arrangement would end in tears—her tears. But if she agreed to a fake engagement with this man, who attracted her like no other, she wanted what a fiancée might be expected to have—him. She thought, with a little shiver of desire, about what he’d said: pleasure all the way. She would be fine with that.

‘Would it help if I made it sound like a genuine proposal?’ he said, obviously bemused.

That hurt. Because the way he spoke made it sound as if there was no way he would ever make a genuine proposal to her. Not that she wanted that—heck, she hardly knew the guy. But it put her on warning. Let’s be honest, she thought. She wanted him in her bed. But she also wanted to make darn sure she didn’t get hurt. This was just a business deal to him—nothing personal involved.

‘Do it,’ she said, pointing to the floor. ‘The full down-on-bended-knee thing.’

‘Seriously?’ he said, dark brows raised.

‘Yes,’ she said imperiously.

He grinned. ‘Okay.’

The tall, black denim-clad hunk obediently knelt down on one knee, took her left hand in both of his and looked up into her face. ‘Andie, will you do me the honour of becoming my fake fiancée?’ he intoned in that deep, so-sexy voice.

Looking down at his roughly handsome face, Andie didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ‘Yes, I accept your proposal,’ she said in a voice that wasn’t quite steady.

Dominic squeezed her hand hard as relief flooded his face. He got up from bended knee and for a moment she thought he might kiss her.

‘But there are conditions,’ she said, pulling away and letting go of his hand.