Authors: Fiona Brand
As Lilah knew, firsthand, that tended to change things.
“I’m not sure what you mean exactly by ‘marriage.’”
His expression shifted, as if she had surprised him. “A legal marriage. I thought that was what you wanted.”
Her heart pounded in her chest. Marriage was her goal—
with Zane, if he could love her. “I do.”
She saw his flicker of relief. “Good. If we marry, I won’t touch another woman while we’re together.”
While we’re together
.
The qualifier made her stiffen. It implied an end.
In other words he was stil talking about the same, temporary arrangement he had mentioned in their hotel suite, but ratified by marriage.
Suddenly Zane’s businesslike approach fel into its correct context. He was not registering emotion because this was not an emotional discussion. He had reverted to business tactics in order to control the terms of the relationship.
The thought that Zane felt he needed to control her love so he could be with her was subtly wounding. She of al people could understand his emotional fears and vulnerabilities because for years she had shared them, although to a lesser degree. “Just out of interest, how long do you think this proposed marriage wil last?”
Silence reigned for long seconds, fil ed by the tick of a mantel clock, the distant strains of music.
“I can’t answer that question, but if you think I’m going to fal in love with someone else, you don’t have to worry. That won’t happen.”
For a split second she almost managed to twist the meaning of Zane’s comment into a declaration of his love for her, then his flat denial that he could fal in love registered.
A
s if the thought of surrendering to love was not on his personal horizon.
It was not a new concept. It was Zane’s modus operandi with relationships. The fact that she could not make Zane fal in love with her was the basis that had undermined her entire strategy. “It’s a common enough scenario. Women fal for you on a regular basis.”
Irritation registered in his gaze. “I get partnered with women on a regular basis through company business and charitable events. That’s mostly what the tabloids pick up on. The only woman I know who has certifiably fal en for me is you.”
The knife twisted a little deeper. “And that makes me a sure bet.”
His hands curled around her upper arms, his palms shiveringly hot against her skin. “You were a virgin, and you’ve got a logical, methodical approach to relationships.
That’s what I trust.”
Jaw set, Lilah resisted the gentle pressure to step closer to Zane. She would not muddy this process any further with passion. They had already been that route. And what Zane proposed was sounding more like a business deal than a relationship.
The vibration of his cel phone broke the taut silence.
Frowning, Zane released his grip and checked the screen. He looked briefly frustrated. “I have to go. There’s something I need to take care of before the official part of the evening begins.”
Lilah strol ed back to the party and circulated, chatting with buyers and contractors. She checked her wristwatch.
Long minutes had passed since Zane had excused himself.
She walked out on the terrace just in case he had come back and she had somehow missed him. The terrace was windswept and empty.
She strol ed back inside and surveyed the reception room again. Zane was not in the room.
It suddenly occurred to her that neither was Gemma, and with her flaming red hair and white skin, the younger woman was unmistakable.
The last time she had seen Gemma, she had been heading toward the part of the castel o where the private suites were located, and suddenly she knew what the desperate look she had sent Zane had meant.
Feeling like an automaton, Lilah stepped out of the reception room. A ridiculously short amount of time later she found herself in the castel o’s darkened hal way, the chil from the thick stone wal s seeping through the silk of her red gown.
She paused at the door of Zane’s private quarters and lifted her hand to knock. The chink of glass on glass signaled that the suite was occupied.
A grim sense of déjà vu gripped her. She rapped once, twice.
It occurred to her that this time, unlike the incident with Lucas, Zane could not rescue her because, in a sense, she was confronting an aspect of herself that she did not like very much.
The door swung open on a waft of perfume. Gemma’s tousled red hair cascaded around her white shoulders. Slim fingers clutched a silky black negligee closed over her breasts, the defensive gesture making her look young and absurdly vulnerable.
Lilah couldn’t help thinking that it looked like they had both had the same idea about setting the scene for seduction.
She felt the weight of every one of her twenty-nine years crushing down on her. Her irritation with Gemma evaporated. “You should stop trying and go home. Sex won’t make Zane, or any man, have a relationship with you.”
“How can you know that?”
Because it had been burned into her psyche by both her mother and her grandmother. Unfortunately, she had temporarily forgotten that fact. “Logic. If you couldn’t make him fal in love with you in two years, then it’s probably not going to happen.”
Gemma’s expression went blank, as if she didn’t know what to say next.
A split second later, the door snapped shut in Lilah’s face.
Lilah fumbled the key into the lock of her door and let herself in. The door closed with a soft click behind her.
She stared at the glowing lamp-lit room, the sexy, filmy negligee draped over the bed.
The preparations were wrenchingly similar to Gemma’s, and the end result would be the same. She could not make Zane love her, either.
She had changed, through fal ing in love with him, but she had to accept that for Zane the past might never be healed.
Feeling numb and faintly sick, she jammed the negligee out of sight in the case, picked up the phone and made a quick cal to the airport. She managed to secure a flight to Dubai, which was leaving in an hour. She would have several hours to wait before she could get a connection to Sydney, but that didn’t matter. She could leave Medinos tonight.
She arranged for a taxi then changed into clothes suitable for a long flight—cotton pants and a sleek-fitting tank, a light jacket and comfortable shoes. She caught a glimpse of the red crystal earrings dangling from her lobes in the dresser mirror as she packed. She removed them with fingers that were stiff and clumsy, wound her hair into a knot and secured it with pins.
She did a final check of the room then tensed when she realized she was lingering in the hope that Zane would come looking for her.
Swal owing against the sudden pain squeezing her chest, she walked down to the lobby of the castel o. She didn’t have time to stop at the hotel and col ect al of her things. That would have to wait until she returned to Medinos at the end of her vacation.
Not a problem.
By the time she came back, Zane, who was involved in a set of sensitive negotiations in the States, would probably be gone. The retail outlet would be almost ready to open and construction of the pearl facility on Ambrus would be underway. She would be busy interviewing and training staff. In theory she wouldn’t have time to think.
When she reached the forecourt the taxi pul ed into a space. A chil y breeze blew off the ocean, whipping strands of loose hair around her cheeks as she climbed into the backseat. She checked her wristwatch. Time was tight, but she would make her flight.
Her throat closed as the taxi shot away from the castel o.
She was stil reeling from the speed with which she had made the decision to leave, but she could not have done anything else.
She was not a “glass half ful ” kind of girl and now she was in love.
Until Zane, she hadn’t been even remotely tempted to break her rule of celibacy. It would have taken a bolt of lightning—literal y a
coup de foudre
—to jolt her out of her mindset, and that was what had happened. She had seen Zane and in that moment she had lost her bearings. She had committed herself emotional y and now she didn’t know how to undo that.
She could not accept the marriage agreement he had been clearly working toward. She refused to die a lingering emotional death, like Gemma.
She stared bleakly ahead, at the taxi’s headlights piercing the dark winding ribbon of road.
There was no going back. It was over.
Seventeen
Zane knocked on Lilah’s door. When there was no answer, he walked inside. A quick inventory informed him that she had packed and left.
He strode to his suite. Any idea that Lilah had made an executive decision and moved in with him died an instant death. The moment he opened the door and caught the scent of Gemma’s signature perfume, his stomach hol owed out and he understood exactly what had gone wrong.
A split second later, Gemma emerged from his bedroom, ful y dressed, but the filmy negligee clutched in one hand told the story.
Suppressing the raw panic that gripped him, he strode past Gemma and found his wal et and his overnight bag.
“How long ago was Lilah here?”
Gemma watched from the safety of the sitting room as he flung belongings into the bag. “Fifteen minutes.” She stuffed the negligee into her evening bag and sent him an embarrassed look. “You don’t have to worry, I won’t do this again.”
Zane zipped the bag closed and walked to the door. He couldn’t be angry with Gemma, not when he was responsible for this mess. He had been guilty of the same sin Lucas had committed when he had tried to keep Carla at a distance. Now his strategy had backfired on him.
“Good. You should keep dating that guy you were with the other night. He’s in love with you.”
“How do you know?”
Zane sent her a stark look.
Gemma blinked. “Oh.”
He waited pointedly at the door for Gemma to leave. He knew the boyfriend was somewhere downstairs, because Spiros had run a standard security check on him before the invitation to the castel o was issued.
Once Gemma was gone, he headed for the front entrance.
He resisted the urge to check his watch. Lilah had been gone a good fifteen minutes. It only took ten minutes, max, to get a taxi out to the castel o.
He reached the forecourt in time to see the red tail ights of a taxi disappearing down the drive. There had been a lone occupant in the rear seat.
Constantine’s aide, Tomas, who was greeting late guests, confirmed that the occupant had been Lilah.
Zane strode to the garage, found his car and accelerated after the taxi.
The repercussions of Gemma’s stunt kept compounding.
He hadn’t touched her, but with his past and his reputation, no one, least of al Lilah, would believe him.
He reached their hotel suite and walked quickly through the rooms, long enough to ascertain that Lilah was not there, nor had she returned. That meant she had gone straight to the airport.
Using his cel , Zane checked on flights as he took the elevator down to the lobby. There was an international departure scheduled in just under an hour. He made a second cal . The Atraeus Group owned a significant block of shares in the airport itself. Enough to ensure that when Zane needed assistance it was never a problem.
He reached the airport in record time and strode to the airline desk. As he spoke to the ticketing officer, his fingers automatical y closed around the smal jewelry case he had retrieved from the family vault before he had discovered that Lilah had left.
She loved him. He could hardly believe it.
And al he had been prepared to offer her was a loveless marriage, a business deal that would al ow him to stay safe emotional y.
In retrospect the offer had been cowardly, a cover-up for his own failings and a situation he would not have been able to sustain, since a business arrangement was the last thing he wanted from Lilah.
His chest felt tight, his heart was pounding. For years he had been focused on the betrayals in his past. After al of
his
betrayals of Lilah, he was very much afraid that he had final y lost her.
* * *
A male voice with an American accent sent hope surging through her. She checked over her shoulder. For a split second she thought she saw Zane then she realized the man was shorter, darker.
Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how badly she had wanted Zane to come after her.
Blinking back a pulse of raw misery, she kept her gaze pinned on the flight board, which was now showing a
“delayed” message, and shuffled forward. She dug her boarding pass out of her purse as she neared the counter.
Behind her there was a stir. The deep register of another masculine voice that sounded even more like Zane made her tense. Determinedly, she ignored it.
Someone said “Excuse
me
,” in an offended tone.
Her head jerked around, her gaze clashed with Zane’s.
His eyes were dark and intense, his expression taut. “I didn’t touch her.”
A hot pulse of adrenaline that he
had
come for her momentarily froze her in place. “I know.”
He looked baffled. His hand closed on her elbow.
Despite the fact that her heart was pounding so fast she was having trouble breathing, Lilah gently disengaged from his hold. She knew how this worked. Once Zane got her out of the line he would start taking charge and she would melt; she would have trouble saying “No.”
“She wasn’t there at my invitation and there never was a
‘me and Gemma.’ She was only ever a…convenient date.”
Lilah blinked, then suddenly she knew. “For the charity functions.”
Zane’s gaze was level. “That’s right.”
She suddenly felt short of air. “If you felt you needed protection from me, why did you even bother to come?”
“The same reason I’m here now. I couldn’t stay away.”
An announcement came over the speaker system that the flight was delayed. Lilah made another heart-pounding connection. “
You
delayed the flight.”