LITMIR.BIZ

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and, yes, Sophia could admit it to herself, extremely attractive—need to pay a complete stranger to act as his wife?

      He was still eyeing her expectantly, waiting for her to fill the silence with the answer to his implied question. Sophia kept her expression carefully neutral. ‘If I am to fulfil my role convincingly, then, painful as it may be to explain yourself to a complete stranger, it seems you must.’ And painful as it might be, she must first ensure that her own terms were clearly understood. ‘Though before we proceed, I would like to discuss the conditions which I stipulated.’

      ‘I am not sure what there is to discuss,’ Jean-Luc answered. ‘I accepted them, as you must know, else you would not be here.’

      Sophia smiled tightly. ‘In principle, yes. But I find it is best to be crystal-clear about the detail.’

      His brows shot up. ‘You find? You have entered into contracts such as this previously?’

      ‘I have never before entered into an arrangement such as this one,’ she said stiffly, which was after all the truth, but he need not know the precise nature of her previous arrangements. ‘What I meant was, that I find it is—I think it would be best for us both to be absolutely clear, before we start, as to the extent of our—our intimacies.’ Sophia squirmed inwardly. She sounded like a prude. ‘If I am to play your wife, I presume it is for the benefit of an audience, and that therefore there will be some displays of affection required? I would be obliged if you could explain in plain terms what form you anticipate those taking.’

      ‘I confess, I had not thought so specifically—but you are right, it is best to be clear.’ Jean-Luc stared down at his signet ring. ‘Very well, in plain terms then, our marriage will be for public consumption only. In private, you have my word of honour that I will make no physical demands upon you of any sort. For the sake of appearances, in public and in front of my servants, our “intimacies”, as you refer to them, will be confined to only those acts which can be performed in public with propriety. Do you wish me to be any plainer or is that sufficient?’

      ‘It is more than sufficient.’ And an enormous relief. Some of the tension in her shoulders eased. Her instincts told her that she could trust him to keep his word, though her instincts had proven to be fallible in the past. Disastrously so. ‘You understand that any breach of these terms would render our contract null and void? Not only would I leave immediately, but you...’

      ‘I would be obliged to recompense you with the full amount. I am aware. I have already given you my word that I will not breach the terms, Sophia, I’m not sure what else I can do to reassure you, save to tell you that my reasons for bringing you here in the first place are, en effet, life-changing. This charade of ours must succeed. I have no intentions of doing anything to endanger it. You understand?’

      ‘I do.’ A little more of the tension eased. She allowed herself a small smile. ‘And I can assure you, monsieur—Jean-Luc—that I will also do all I can to ensure that our charade does succeed.’

      ‘Eh, bien, then I trust that is an end to the matter?’

      ‘Thank you, yes.’

      He returned her smile, but only in a perfunctory way. ‘You must understand though, Sophia, that it is vital that we are convincing? I do not expect you to make love to me, but I do expect you to appear as if you wish to, or better still as if you just have.’

      ‘Of course.’ She could feel the slashes of colour stain her cheeks. It was mortifying to discover that even after all she had been forced to endure, her sensibilities could still be so obviously inflamed. It would be considerably easier than she had expected to spend time in his company. It might even be—no, it was too much of an exaggeration to say enjoyable, but it would be no hardship. ‘Though I’m still not at all clear,’ Sophia said, flustered by her thoughts, ‘as to why you need a wife? And why must it be a love match?’

      ‘Oh, as to that, it is quite simple. Love,’ Jean-Luc said with a wry smile, ‘is the only credible explanation for the suddenness of our union, and the suddenness of our union will come as a great surprise to all who know me.’ He frowned, choosing his words with care. ‘It is not that I am against marriage. It is an institution I have always planned to embrace at some point in the future, but for the time being, it is well known that I am effectively married to my business. Ironically, my passion for my business has largely been responsible for my success, which in turn means that I am rather inconveniently considered a much sought-after marital prize.’

      His tone made his thoughts on this state of affairs clear. ‘Yet you have so far evaded capture,’ Sophia said. ‘I cannot believe that you have employed me in order to ensure that you continue to do so. You do not strike me as a man who could be persuaded to do anything against his will.’

      ‘Not so Simple Sophia after all,’ Jean-Luc said, smiling. ‘You are quite right. It is precisely because I will not have my hand forced that you are here.’

      ‘Good heavens,’ she exclaimed, startled, for she had spoken mostly in jest. ‘You can’t possibly mean that you are being forced to marry someone against your will?’

      His smile became a sneer. ‘There is indeed a woman attempting to do exactly that. Whether she is a charlatan or simply deluded I cannot decide, but whichever it is, she is doomed to failure. I intend to prove to her that her various claims are utterly without foundation. Producing you as proof that I am already married is just my first salvo across her bows.’

      * * *

      Sophia was gazing up at him, her extraordinary blue eyes wide with astonishment. ‘I don’t understand. One cannot be forced into marriage, not even when—not ever,’ she said, hastily amending whatever it was she had been about to disclose. ‘This woman, she can hardly hold a gun to your head and force you to take her hand in marriage.’

      ‘But she does have a gun, and she has been holding it at my head since April.’ Jean-Luc laughed grimly. ‘It is loaded, she thinks, with a silver bullet which will be the answer to all her problems. You are the armour I need to deflect that bullet’

      Sophia shook her head in bewilderment. ‘I still don’t understand. Why not simply tell her that you won’t marry her?’

      ‘Because it is not that simple. I’m sorry, I have been living and breathing this farce for so long, and now you are here, I am so eager to put my plans into action that I forget you know nothing of them.’

      She smiled, her first genuine smile, and it quite dazzled him. ‘Let me reassure you, I am just as eager as you are to begin. So why don’t you tell me more about this woman who wishes to be your wife. Starting with her name, perhaps?’

      ‘Haven’t I told you?’ Jean-Luc rolled his eyes. ‘Juliette de Cressy is her name, and she turned up, quite unannounced on my doorstep six weeks ago. Until that point I had never heard of her.’

      Sophia wrinkled her brow. ‘But if she was a complete stranger, why did you grant her an audience?’

      ‘One of the many things which makes me ambivalent about Mademoiselle de Cressy is that she appears, on first inspection, to be eminently respectable. She called with a maid in tow. She had a visiting card. I have an enquiring mind and was intrigued enough to hear what she had to say. When I did, my immediate reaction was simply to dismiss her tale out of hand. In a bid to take the wind out of her sails I told her that she was wasting her time, as I was already married.’

      ‘I take it she didn’t believe you? Hardly surprising, considering what you have more or less confessed to being known as a dedicated bachelor.’

      ‘Yes, but it was more than disbelief. She was—I don’t know, it is difficult to explain. At first she was quite distraught, but she very quickly recovered. That is when she produced the legal documents—her silver bullet—which she believed would substantiate her claim. And that is when I realised she was not, as I had assumed, simply a brazen and audacious opportunist who would be put off by the threat of an invisible wife. It wasn’t only that she didn’t believe I was married, you see, it was that she was extremely convincing in the strength

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