LITMIR.BIZ

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made an attempt to rise but her knees would not support her.

      ‘Which is where you come in.’

      A gurgling sound left her throat. He could not be suggesting... ‘Me!’ She started to shake her head and, hands on the table edge, she pushed her chair back farther as if to physically distance herself from this insanity. ‘You are insane,’ she told him with utter conviction. ‘And this conversation is over. I’m not going to be a baby incubator for you!’

      ‘I wouldn’t bring a child into the world just to please my grandfather.’ When he had been considering his options that had never even figured.

      She remained wary as she subsided in her seat. ‘What was I meant to think? You said—’

      ‘I want you to marry me, Lara, not have my children.’

      ‘Oh, well, that’s all right, then.’ She lost the mocking smile, unable to decide if he was serious or this was some sick joke as she directed a searching look of pained incredulity at his face... Hell, he made it sound as though he’d just requested nothing more outrageous than directions! ‘When my flight leaves I’ll be on it. This conversation really is over now.’ She jerked her hands to underline the finality of her statement.

      His broad shoulders lifted, the shrug negligent, but the dark gaze that held hers was intense. ‘Hear me out.’

      She shook her head slowly from side to side. ‘Nothing you can say will change my mind.’

      ‘Then you have nothing to lose from listening to what I have to say. Give me the consideration you’d give any other job offer.’

      She lifted threads of hair from her eyes, tucking them neatly behind her ears. Were you meant to humour insane people? ‘Do you drink in the daytime too?’

      He leaned in, the unexpected action bringing his face within an inch of hers. ‘Smell?’ he invited, parting his firm, sensual lips.

      As his mint-scented, warm breath brushed her cheek, Lara jolted back in her seat so fast she almost fell off her chair. ‘I’ll pass, and, in case you forgot, I have a job.’

      ‘Not sleeping with the boss is generally a good thing but in this instance...?’ He shook his head and studied her face, letting the blush of discomfort develop before adding, ‘I see you have worked that one out yourself. Did it not occur to you to ask yourself if a weekend in Rome might have consequences beyond losing your virginity?’ Recognising it was irrational didn’t stop him feeling furious every time he thought of her throwing herself away on some loser—any man who let this woman walk away deserved the definition. ‘Do you ever think ahead? At what point did it seem like a good idea?’

      ‘How is your offer better?’ she choked back, eyeing him with dislike. Where did he get off lecturing her?

      His lips flattened into a hard line. ‘Were you hoping to hook him?’ he speculated.

      ‘Hook?’ she echoed. Does he think I need reminding of what an idiot I was?

      ‘Was marriage what you were after?’ he cut back, coldness seeping into his voice as other features superimposed themselves over her vivid face.

      Lucy, his cold, calculating wife, had not done anything as extreme as save herself for him. She hadn’t needed to... He felt a stab of familiar contemptuous self-disgust aimed more at his romantic, easily manipulated younger self than Lucy and her mind games.

      ‘If I was out to catch a rich husband—which, by the way, went out with pearls and twinsets—I’d have chosen someone significantly richer than Mark.’

      The furious flash of eyes like emeralds burnt away that other face and as she lifted her rounded, determined chin Raoul knew he had earned the dislike blazing in them.

      Lara Gray was easy enough for a child to read! Not only could she not hide her feelings, she broadcast every emotion she felt on her beautiful face.

      ‘It wasn’t a judgement,’ he said quietly.

      She gave a snort. ‘Not much!’

      ‘If it’s any comfort I think you got off pretty lightly. It can take some people a lot longer to realise the person they fell for doesn’t really exist outside their own imagination.’

      ‘Speaking from experience, are you?’ she mocked, finding it totally impossible to imagine that situation.

      He pushed his empty cup away from him, the action allowing him the time to smooth out his expression. ‘Well, it wasn’t all bad. Look, last night we had a good time.’

      Lara struggled to fight her way out of the images that flickered relentlessly through her head.

      He said, ‘I made you forget.’

      Where she began and he ended.

      ‘And you returned the favour.’ The dark glitter in his eyes was mesmerising.

      The butterfly kicks had been a struggle to handle but now her stomach dissolved.

      ‘So what do you think?’

      She blinked like someone waking up and choked out, ‘It was sex and it was one night.’ She shook her head and loosed a shocked, incredulous laugh. ‘What you’re suggesting...beyond being certifiably insane—’

      ‘Could work. I’m not asking for you to sign over your life.’

      ‘Isn’t that what marriage usually entails?’

      ‘Have you read the divorce statistics? The contract I am suggesting would only last for...’ he paused, the muscles around his jawline quivering before he voiced the grim reality ‘...my grandfather’s lifetime, which according to the doctors is around six months, that or...’ He stopped, cancelling the unnecessary codicil in his head: until we want it to.

      He didn’t like the vagueness of it, the sense that it was not within his control. No, there had to be a definite cut-off point.

      His problem was thinking past the hunger she had shaken loose in him, a hunger he’d not felt, well, ever. Right now he felt as if he’d never be able to get enough of her. But inevitably he would; six weeks, six days...even this consuming passion had a sell-by date. It would not last as long as his grandfather, but, while it did, finding the sort of escape he had last night held a lot of appeal.

      ‘He doesn’t expect to see his grandchild, but being able to think there will be one will make his last days... It will give his life a purpose. Do you understand?’

      Lara tried a change of tack, knowing that she was doomed to lose any argument that hinged on him not being the perfect lover and her not wanting more of what he’d shown her last night.

      ‘I understand you’re going to lie to your grandfather and you want me to help you.’

      ‘You’ve never lied?’

      She flung him a resentful glare. ‘You know what I mean.’

      ‘This is business. I’m not expecting six months of your life for free. You admit that you are going to be out of work...?’

      She chewed on her lower lip. ‘Probably,’ she admitted reluctantly. ‘But that doesn’t change anything.’ Except my bank balance, she thought gloomily.

      ‘You’re right, there are always jobs for people with the right skill sets and qualifications,’ he agreed blandly.

      ‘I look on this as an opportunity to go back to school.’

      ‘I like your glass-half-full attitude, but of course university fees are not cheap and you have to live, pay the bills...or you could give me the next six months and walk away with enough money to put yourself through college without going into debt.’

      He mentioned a sum that would do a lot more than that.

      ‘It would be wrong.’ But it would really be a solution to the situation she found herself in...

      ‘Why?

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