The Billionaire's Blackmail Bargain. Margaret Mayo

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СКАЧАТЬ to pay. Or was it his own bill he was settling? She swung around and faced him fiercely. ‘What was that money for?’

      ‘Just settling up.’

      Simone opened her bag and searched for her credit card, but a firm hand stilled her.

      ‘My treat.’

      ‘I won’t let you,’ she snapped, horrified when his touch sent her pulses into devastating spasm. She didn’t need this; she didn’t want personal complications on top of her present problems. Cade was her past, and that was where he must stay.

      ‘Can you really afford to turn me down?’ he asked in a silken-smooth voice, his long, hard body almost touching hers. He was so close that she could smell the male scent of him; so close that she could feel the full violent impact of his sexuality.

      ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’ Simone’s enormous eyes were almost purple in her distress. She wished he would step away. She didn’t want to back off, because it would reveal the fact that she found him too deeply disturbing, but his nearness threatened to cut off her breathing.

      ‘Your problems are common knowledge around here, Simone.’ He smiled as he spoke, and in her heightened state Simone felt that he was taking great delight in imparting that piece of news. ‘Of course everyone’s sympathetic, they know that your father is the cause of your problems, but business is business, isn’t that right?’ he murmured smoothly. ‘And since I’m in the same game maybe there’s something I can do for you?’

      Simone’s heartbeat quickened until finally it hammered a painful tattoo against her ribcage. She wanted to put her hand over it, still its flight, but to do so would alert Cade to her fear. What was he suggesting—that he buy her out? She couldn’t allow that. It would be too ironic by far.

      ‘There’s nothing you can do, nothing I want you to do,’ she declared fiercely, continuing her race out of the restaurant. ‘I’ll sort my own problems.’

      It was bad enough that he’d paid her bill, without him offering to bail her out of her present financial difficulties. And it was extremely humiliating that he had asked around and found out how badly MM Charters was doing. She could have done with hiding that fact from him. Her situation was actually worse than anyone knew. A few more weeks, maybe less, and she would be out of business altogether.

      But Cade was persistent. ‘You really would be a fool to turn me down.’

      He was hot on her heels as she raced out of the restaurant, and Simone fancied that she could feel his breath on the back of her neck. She hurried even faster to her parked car. It was unbelievable that he still had the power to churn her emotions. It felt as though the years in between had melted away like raindrops in the sun.

      Their relationship had been hot and amorous; she’d given herself to him so completely that it was embarrassing now to even think about it. He had taught her the art of love-making. He had turned her from an innocent teenager into a woman fully aware of her body and all the pleasures it held. She had been totally in love with him.

      When she reached her car she turned around, fully intending to tell him to leave her alone. But when their eyes met, when she saw the dangerous darkness lurking there, a cyclone erupted, sucking all the breath from her body. She saw once again the man who had been her perfect lover, and instead of thinking about her troubles all she could concentrate on was Cade himself and the way he could still whip up her emotions to such an extent that she wanted to scream for release.

      ‘Please leave me alone.’ Her voice was no more than a husky whisper, and she was conscious of her breasts rising and falling far more rapidly than they were supposed to. The only time they had ever behaved like this was when they’d been making spectacular, glorious love.

      Simone checked her thoughts. Best not think along those lines. Not at this moment anyway. She was more concerned with getting rid of Cade.

      Except that Cade did not want to go. His feet were planted firmly on the ground. He leaned on the car with one hand, and his other looked as though it was prepared to take the key fob from her if she should dare try to climb inside.

      His eyes locked unwaveringly with hers. She had never met a man with eyes so sensationally golden. They were the colour of a lion’s skin—sometimes softly seductive, sometimes purposeful, sometimes dark with passion. They used to turn her bones to liquid, and the annoying part was that they still had the power to thrill.

      ‘Don’t dismiss my offer out of hand, Simone,’ he said softly. ‘If what I’ve been told is true, I’ve arrived at exactly the right time.’

      ‘And why would you help me?’ she asked faintly.

      Cade was asking himself the same question. Why would he want to help Simone when she had been instrumental in him losing his fortune? He ought to run a mile. She could deny it for as long as she liked, but Matthew Maxwell had confirmed that his daughter had known all along exactly what she was doing. He had never thought her capable of such duplicity, and his hurt had been unbearable. He should have been pleased that Simone was out of his life. But, damn it, he’d never been able to forget her. He’d enjoyed teaching her the pleasures of the flesh, and she’d become a sensational lover. He’d thought she was the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He’d been wrong.

      His blood pounded through his veins at the very thought of them making love again. It was what he’d wanted from her from the first moment he’d set eyes on her in the restaurant. Not that he’d forgiven her for her past actions, or ever would—but it might give him a feeling of satisfaction to use that beautiful body again. Bend her to his will, make her dependent on him, and then maybe… He smiled at the idea entering his mind.

      Cade had been devastated when she’d let him down. He’d believed that she’d had more integrity than to plot with her father against him, and his faith in humanity had been badly dented.

      Cade’s trip out here had nothing to do with Simone. He knew the Whitsundays well, and had simply seen them as the perfect place to set up another branch of his business. He hadn’t even known whether Simone still lived in the area. And yet here she was, as vividly beautiful as he remembered— more so, in fact. She was devastatingly, heart-stoppingly stunning with her shiny dark-auburn hair tied back in a cute ponytail, revealing in all its exquisite detail her heart-shaped face and huge, luminous violet eyes. Her mouth was soft and tempting even in the midst of her resentful anger.

      He wanted to touch, he wanted to take, and he was not unaware of the effect he’d had on her. She ought to be uncomfortable after what she’d done to him, indeed she’d do well to be afraid of him, But he’d observed her deepened breathing, seen the darkening of her eyes and he guessed that she too was remembering the exciting times they’d spent together. He’d bet his life that she was wondering what it would be like to be made-love to by him again.

      He rigidly pushed such unworthy thoughts to the back of his mind. ‘It’s not a matter of why I’d help you,’ he said tersely. ‘It’s—how shall I put it?—a matter of expediency. Like I said, I’m looking to expand my business, and picking up the bones of an old one might be better than starting out afresh. I’ve been looking around; there aren’t too many new opportunities here. The area’s pretty well covered.’

      ‘You mean you want to take me over?’ Simone’s eyes widened even further and her chin jutted, lengthening her already long, slender neck.

      She looked so СКАЧАТЬ