LITMIR.BIZ

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very first loan for university. You wouldn’t be where you are today without his mentorship and his belief in you.’

      He leaned back in his chair, his demeanour casual as you please. He picked up his pen again, but this time rolled it between two of his long fingers. ‘Two point four million dollars is a lot of money, Gabriella,’ he said. ‘If I were to hand over such an amount I would want something in return. Something I could depend on to cover my losses if things were to take a sudden downturn.’

      Gabby felt a prickle of alarm lift the surface of her skin. ‘You mean like a guarantee or something?’ she asked. ‘W-we can have something drawn up with the lawyers. A repayment plan over…say five years, with fixed interest. How does that sound?’

      He gave a smile that wasn’t reflected in those unreadable eyes of his. ‘It sounds risky,’ he said. ‘I would want a better guarantee than something written on paper.’

      She looked at him in confusion. ‘I’m not sure what you mean… Are you asking for more collateral? There’s the house but Mum and Dad will need somewhere to—’

      ‘I don’t want their house,’ he said, his eyes still burning like fire into hers.

      Gabby ran her tongue over her lips again, her stomach doing another nervous shuffling movement. ‘Then…then what do you want?’ she asked, annoyed with herself at how whispery and frightened her voice sounded.

      The silence became charged with something she couldn’t quite identify. The air was thick—so thick she could scarcely breathe without feeling as if her chest was being pressed down with a weight far too heavy for her finely boned ribcage. Apprehension slowly but stealthily crept up her spine, with tiptoeing, ice-cold steps, disturbing each and every fine hair on the back of her neck.

      Vinn’s eyes were fathomless pools of murky shadows as they held onto hers. ‘How do you feel about stepping up to the plate as guarantor?’ he asked.

      Gabby frowned. ‘I don’t have anything like that amount at my disposal,’ she said, her heart starting to race. ‘I have a small income I draw from the company for my immediate needs, but nothing that would cover that amount at short notice.’

      He tilted one of his dark brows ironically. ‘So I take it your late husband didn’t leave you in the manner to which you have been accustomed for all of your silver-spooned life?’ he said.

      Gabby lowered her gaze and looked at her knotted hands rather than see the I-told-you-so gleam in his eyes. ‘Tristan’s finances were in a bit of a mess when he died so suddenly. There were debts and…so many things to see to…’ And so many secrets to keep, she thought grimly.

      A three-beat pause passed.

      ‘I will give you the money,’ Vinn said at last. ‘I can have it in your father’s business account with a few clicks of my computer mouse. Your little problem will be solved before you catch the lift down to the ground floor of this building.’

      Gabby could sense a ‘but’ coming, and waited with bated breath for him to deliver it. She knew him too well to expect him to hand over that amount of money without some sort of condition on the deal. Sure, he admired and respected her father, he even tolerated her mother to some degree, but he had every reason to hate Gabby, and she couldn’t imagine him missing a golden opportunity like this to demonstrate how deep his loathing of her ran.

      ‘But of course there will be some conditions on the deal,’ he inserted into the silence.

      Gabby felt her heart skip a beat when she saw the determined glint in his gaze. ‘W-what sort of conditions?’ she asked.

      ‘I am surprised you haven’t already guessed,’ he remarked, with an inscrutable smile playing with the sensual line of his mouth, giving him a devilishly ruthless look.

      Gabby felt another shiver of apprehension pass through her. ‘I—I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ she said, her nails scoring into her palms as she tightened her fists in her lap.

      ‘Ah, but I think you do,’ he said. ‘Remember the night before your wedding?’

      She forced herself to hold his gaze, even though she could feel a bloom of guilty colour staining her cheeks. The memory was as clear as if it had happened yesterday. God knew she had relived that brief, fiery exchange so many times during her train wreck of a marriage, wondering how different her life might have been if she had heeded Vinn’s warning…

      The wedding rehearsal had been going ahead, in spite of Tristan calling at the last minute to say he had been held up in a meeting and might not make it after all, and Vinn had arrived at the church bleary-eyed and unshaven from an international flight, after spending the last six months in Italy where his terminally ill mother had asked to be taken to die.

      He had leaned in that indolent way of his against one of the columns at the back of the cathedral, his strong arms folded, one ankle crossed over the other, and his eyes—those amazingly penetrating eyes—every time Gabby happened to glance his way, trained on her.

      Once the minister had taken them through their paces, Gabby’s mother had invited everyone present back to the St Clair house for a light supper. Gabby had secretly hoped Vinn would decline the invitation, but as she had come out of one of the upstairs bathrooms half an hour or so later, Vinn had stepped forward to block her path.

      ‘I’d like a word with you, Gabriella,’ he said. ‘In private.’

      ‘I can’t imagine what you’d have to say to me,’ she said coldly, as she tried to sidestep him, but he took one of her wrists in the steel bracelet of his fingers, the physical contact sending sparks of fizzing electricity up and down her arm. ‘Let me go, Vinn,’ she said, trying to pull away.

      His hold tightened to the point of pain. ‘Don’t go through with it, Gabriella,’ he said in a strained sort of tone she had never heard him use before. ‘He’s not the right man for you.’

      Pride made her put her chin up. ‘Let me go,’ she repeated, and, using her free hand, scraped the back of his hand with her nails.

      He captured her other hand and pulled her up close—closer than she had ever been to him before. It was a shock to find how hard the wall of his chest was, and the latent power of his thighs pressed against her trembling body made her spine feel loose and watery all of a sudden.

      His eyes were burning as they warred with hers. ‘Call it off,’ he said. ‘Your parents will understand. It’s not too late.’

      She threw him an icy glare. ‘If you don’t let me go this instant I’ll tell everyone you tried to assault me. You’ll go to jail. Tristan’s father will act for me in court. You won’t have a leg to stand on.’

      His mouth tightened, and she saw a pulse beating like a drum in his neck. ‘Glendenning is only marrying you for your money,’ he ground out.

      Gabby was incensed, even though a tiny pinhole of doubt had already worn through the thick veil of denial she had stitched in place over the last few weeks of her engagement. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she spat at him. ‘Tristan loves me. I know he does.’

      Vinn’s hands were like handcuffs on her wrists. ‘If it’s marriage you want, then marry me. At least you’ll know what you’re getting.’

      Gabby laughed in his face. ‘Marry you?’ She injected as much insult as she could into her tone. ‘And spend the rest of my life like your mother did, scrubbing other people’s houses? Thanks, but no thanks.’

      ‘I won’t let you go through with it, Gabriella,’ he warned. ‘If you don’t call the wedding off tonight I will stand up during the ceremony tomorrow and tell the congregation why the marriage should not go ahead.’

      ‘You wouldn’t dare!’

      His eyes challenged hers. ‘You just watch me, Blondie,’ he said. ‘Do you want the whole of Sydney to know what sort of man you are marrying?’

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