Hotbed of Scandal: Mistress: At What Price? / Red Wine and Her Sexy Ex / Bedded by Blackmail. Kate Hardy

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СКАЧАТЬ Like he really meant it.

      Rather than tingly, her lips felt swollen and numb. She ran an experimental finger over them to check that they were still there. He’d told her last night that he’d enjoyed it, and that she had, too.

      ‘Why did you come back, Mariel?’

      ‘I told you, I—’

      ‘Aside from catching up with family.’

      She forced herself to take a slow, steadying breath. To take a mental step away from what had just happened here and focus on Dane’s much more important question. ‘I want to create my own fashion label, set up my own boutique.’

      ‘You could have done that overseas.’ His voice lost some of its hard edge. ‘Or didn’t you think Paris was big enough for the two of you?’

      Because her legs barely supported her, she sank onto the nearest chair. ‘It wasn’t that.’ She stared at her hands in her lap. He had to ask, didn’t he? Better to get it over with.

      He took a chair, turned it around and sat astride it, leaning his forearms on the back. ‘Tell me.’

      ‘Luc’s a fashion photographer; smooth and sophisticated, and he swept an innocent girl like me away.’

      At the low, throaty sound she looked up to see Dane’s jaw knotted. He nodded brusquely. ‘Go on.’

      ‘He liked my designs, but he liked my face better so I modelled for him. We went into business together. The money rolled in, we got involved, I moved into his apartment. It never occurred to me not to trust him. But it turns out Luc’s a drug dealer and he was having a fling on the side. I was just a useful addition to his cashflow. He was arrested on Christmas Day. I was taken in for questioning, too, and fingerprinted before being released.’

      ‘The bastard.’

      ‘Yes.’ Remembered humiliation washed through her. ‘My family knows nothing of this, and I want to keep it that way.’

      ‘You have my word on that.’

      The reassuring touch of his hand on hers threatened to open the floodgate on unshed tears. And unwanted desire. She tugged her hand away, swiped at her eyes. ‘So…anyway, I want to set up business here, but finances are a little tight right now.’

      His brow lifted. ‘I’d have thought you’d be laughing all the way to the…Don’t tell me…’

      ‘Yep. It’s gone.’ She rubbed at the tension in her neck. She felt like such a fool. ‘And I’m afraid now my name’s been in the press here—and linked with you—that they’ll dig up the dirt I left behind.’

      ‘Not if we give them something else to focus on and write about. Keep them interested in the here and now.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘We give them the impression we’re a couple.’

      ‘Couple?’ she choked out.

      ‘With eyes only for each other.’

      A strangled noise escaped her throat. As if. ‘There must be another way.’

      ‘If you can think of one I’d like to hear it.’

      Thing was, she couldn’t—because her stunned mind was on overload, trying to process his outrageous idea. Still, maybe if they went on a few dates. Movies, theatre, a dinner or two…

      ‘I need a regular companion to take some of the heat off this Bachelor of the Year thing,’ he continued. ‘Someone to accompany me to functions. It’ll be good publicity for you, too, and if they do find anything about Paris my influence with the media here could come in handy. As for finance—I have an empty ground-floor room near my office that you can use rent-free to get your business started.’

      She was still stuck on ‘regular’. ‘How regular are we talking?’

      His eyes were like charcoal now, and intense. ‘You’ll move in with me—’

      ‘Whoa. Hold it. Move in with you?’

      ‘It’s safer that way.’

      ‘Safer for who?’ Her gaze narrowed. ‘And what’s your definition of safe?’

      ‘Your parents are away; you don’t want to be up in that big house all by yourself. No one has to know what goes on behind closed doors, Mariel.’

      Not an answer. Not an answer at all. ‘So in the public’s eyes we’re a couple?’

      ‘Lovers,’ he corrected.

      Heat spurted through her veins at the mental image. ‘So we’ve gone from companion and a couple of dates to lovers?’

      His gaze remained steady on hers. ‘I won’t pretend not to want you in my bed, Mariel.’

      ‘What makes you think I’d want to be there?’ she shot back.

       What made her think she could resist?

      ‘Vibes,’ he said. ‘Zings. Whatever you call them, they’ve been humming between us since last night. Can’t say I’m happy about it. It complicates things.’

      ‘For once we’re in total agreement.’

      ‘Problem is, we both want the same thing—but I’m the only one here willing to talk about it.’

      Pressing her lips together to stop herself from giving in, she willed herself to look at him. Were his eyes a deeper colour?

      ‘Your eyes are answer enough.’ His gaze lowered to her breasts, which suddenly felt full and heavy. ‘Then there’s the way your body respon—’

      ‘All right, stop right there.’ She struggled to find air. Why was there no air in here? Damn him for making her feel vulnerable.

      For making her feel more alive than she had in years.

      His expression didn’t change, she noted with envy. How could he sit here so cool and casual and discuss the term ‘lovers’ and what amounted to a business arrangement in the same sentence?

      She took another swift breath. It didn’t matter; let him think what he liked about sleeping arrangements. Getting her business up and running was the most important thing right now. Good publicity and a place to set up. Forget vibes. And zings.

      And if that meant living in Dane’s house and masquerading as his lover…An affair. She swallowed…She’d bite the bullet and do it.

      ‘Okay. Two sophisticated people like us should be able to pull it off without too many dramas. But this is a business arrangement. I’ll pay you back once my business starts making money.’

      She reminded herself he wasn’t the type of man she dated. She loved glitz and glamour, and sophisticated men with a sense of style, whereas Dane still obviously СКАЧАТЬ