Authors: Fiona Brand
Unfortunately, old or new, she couldn’t risk accepting the bracelet in case Zane took that as her tacit agreement to a relationship with him on his terms.
As his temporary live-in lover.
After the way he had interfered with her dating program that afternoon, she knew that if she weakened, Zane would be relentless.
Reluctantly, she placed the bracelet on the table.
Zane frowned. “Aren’t you going to try it on?”
“It’s lovely, but I can’t accept it.”
“If this is about Gemma, you don’t have to worry. She was my personal assistant, nothing more.”
“I don’t think she sees it that way.” Gemma’s attitude toward Zane had always been distinctly proprietorial. So much so that for most of the past two years, Lilah had thought she
was
Zane’s steady girl.
He looked impatient. “Which is why she isn’t my P.A.
anymore. The bracelet was a goodbye gift.”
Lilah made an effort to calm emotions that were rapidly spiraling out of control. She had to keep reminding herself that she was with Zane now, not Gemma. “Goodbye, and she transfers to Medinos?”
It would not have been the way she would have handled the situation.
“I couldn’t fire her, and she liked Medinos. It was a solution.”
Lilah’s fingers clenched. Gemma had clearly gotten emotional y involved and Zane had found a way of shifting her out of his work space, while stil letting her have her way and stay close.
And think that she stil had a chance.
It was a perfect example of Zane’s nice side. From her dealings with him in the charity, Lilah knew he didn’t like seeing anyone in a vulnerable situation get hurt. He would go out of his way to personal y help. She loved that evidence of his compassion but she couldn’t help wishing that Zane had been a bit more ruthless with Gemma.
Another unsettling thought occurred to her. If Zane had not given Gemma a definite “no” she had to wonder how many other discarded women stil lingered on the fringes of his life in the hope that a relationship was stil possible.
It was not a happy thought. Zane was nothing like the irresponsible, self-centered men who had abandoned her mother and grandmother, nevertheless the scenario with Gemma was unsettling in a way she hadn’t quite worked out.
Ignoring the champagne and the dessert, Lilah got briskly to her feet.
Now visibly annoyed, Zane slipped the bracelet into his pocket and rose to his feet. He fel into step with her as she threaded her way between the tables, easily keeping pace.
His palm cupped her elbow, sending tingling heat up her arm. His gaze locked on hers. “Why won’t you accept the gift?”
Lilah ignored the gritty demand and the pleasure that flooded her that, final y, Zane was responding in the way she had hoped. She focused on a bland section of beige wal in an effort to control the wimpy desire to give in, fling her arms around his neck and melt against him. “It’s…too expensive.”
“I’m rich. Money is no object.”
They emerged from the restaurant. A little desperately she eyed the bank of elevators ahead. “It’s not about the value, exactly.”
Zane released her elbow as they reached the elevators.
She caught a flash of his expression in the glossy steel doors. He looked disbelieving and grimly annoyed.
“Do I get points for trying?”
Her gaze snapped to his. “You
read
my folder.”
“I needed to see what I was up against.”
Lilah jabbed the elevator button. A door slid open. “That would be commitment.”
After a night of passion that was curiously unsatisfying, Lilah rose early and spent time alone, adapting elements of the marriage plan to suit the new strategy. She decided the best way to show Zane that she was not fretting over the way their brief fling, apart from the heart-pounding sex, seemed to be disintegrating was to throw herself into her work.
During the early hours, she had given herself a pep talk about the positives. Zane had responded to her elusiveness with a gift. It had been the wrong gift and he had cheated by reading her folder, which was a blot. She was prepared to overlook his behavior on the basis that he had not thought things through. The one shining factor was that he had made his choices based on the desire to win her. It was progress.
For the next two days she got up early and walked to Ambrosi’s new retail center, a charming, antiquated building situated on the bustling waterfront. Interior decorating wasn’t her job, but the retail center would be her temporary office until the facility on Ambrus was completed.
Lilah figured that if she had to work there for the next six months she needed to like her surroundings, so she pul ed rank and inserted herself into the process.
Zane, who had had to spend long hours closeted with Elena working through the raft of paperwork on a deal in Florida, had become even more remote. Despite their lovemaking, the abyss between them seemed to be widening.
With her strategy seemingly in tatters, it was hard to concentrate on paint colors and curtain samples when al she wanted to do was take a taxi back to the resort and throw herself into Zane’s arms.
To avoid weakening, she had taken herself shopping during the long, somnolent lunch breaks the Medinians enjoyed. Instead of eating, she had spent a large amount of money on filmy, sexy clothes and a daring hot orange bikini that she gloomily decided she would probably never get the opportunity to wear.
New makeup that made her eyes look smoky and exotic, subtle caramel streaks in her hair and a fake tan completed the makeover. Every time she caught her reflection in glass doors or looked in a mirror, Lilah was amazed at the difference the subtle changes had made, although Zane had barely seemed to notice.
Tempted as she was to bluntly declare that she was in love with him and put an end to the tension, Lilah made a grim effort to appear sunnily content. She couldn’t shake off the dreadful conviction that the instant Zane knew she had fal en for him, he would put an end to any hope of long-term commitment.
That was how it had worked with her mother and her grandmother. Once the prize was won, the passion had cooled. Their lovers hadn’t been able to leave fast enough.
Zane strol ed into the building chaos just short of noon.
Wearing dark narrow trousers and a loose white shirt, sunlight slanting across his taut cheekbones, he managed to look both dangerously sexy and casual.
Lilah was instantly aware of her own attire. Instead of her usual low-key neutrals, today she was wearing one of her new purchases, a filmy orange blouse teamed with a tight little black camisole that revealed just a hint of cleavage and tight, white jeans. Combined with strappy orange heels and iridescent orange nail polish, the effect was unexpectedly striking.
Zane’s gaze glittered over her. Lilah registered the gratifying flare of shock that was almost instantly shuttered.
Zane had final y noticed her. Although, it could simply be the orange color, which she had developed something of a fetish for lately. Orange was hard to miss.
Just minutes ago she had felt warm, but comfortable.
Now, beneath the weight of Zane’s gaze, despite al of the doors and windows flung wide admitting the balmy sea breeze, Lilah felt flushed and overheated.
“Are you ready to go?”
That afternoon Zane had planned a boat trip to survey Ambrosi’s old oyster beds and the site for the new processing plant. The trip would be fol owed up by a launch function for the new enterprise at the castel o.
Lilah ignored the faint edge to Zane’s voice and kept her attention on Mario, the builder. She had spent the morning directing a number of contractors as they had fitted air-conditioning and lighting fixtures and erected partitioning.
Mario was a little on the short side, but outrageously handsome. On a purely intel ectual level she had thought she should feel something for such a good-looking man.
Depressingly, the only thing she had felt had been the battle of wil s as Mario had tried to improve on her floor plan.
“Almost.”
Zane’s gaze shifted to the bronzed contractor who was hefting a dividing panel into place. Mario had already repositioned the panel for her twice. Both times the angle had not been quite right. As a consequence he was sweating, his T-shirt clinging damply to his chest.
Mario placed the partition and final y got it right. She rewarded him with a smile. “
Bene
.”
Zane’s fingers interlaced with hers. A split second later she found herself pul ed into a light clinch. Her heart pounded as Zane’s gaze settled on her mouth. The move was masculine and dominant and, in front of the contractors, definitely territorial.
His mouth brushed over hers, sending a hot pulse of adrenaline through her. It was a claiming kiss, the kind of reaction she had wanted two days ago.
Two days. Panic made her tense. Time was sliding away, only four days left. Suddenly, it didn’t seem nearly enough time for Zane to fal in love with her.
Zane’s hands settled at her waist, making her feel even hotter. This close she could see the nicks of long-ago scars, the faint kink in a nose that should have been perfectly straight, the silky shadow of his lashes. She drew in a breath and just for a few seconds, gave herself permission to relax.
Zane cocked his head to one side. “Is this a ‘yes’?”
She stiffened at the lethal combination of pressure and charm. “Yes, to the boat trip.”
The midday sun struck down, glaringly hot on the marina jetty, as Lilah walked on ahead while Zane unloaded dive gear from the trunk of the car. She rummaged in her new string beach bag for a pair of dark glasses as she strol ed, drawn by the bobbing yachts and the aquamarine clarity of the sea.
Movement on Zane’s yacht drew her gaze. The bleached surfer hair on one of the men rang an instant alarm bel , although neither of the other two men on the yacht were remotely recognizable.
Although, if it was the three J’s she was looking at, she shouldn’t be surprised. If most of the applicants had been scammers, the odds were not good for the three she had picked.
Suddenly any idea that Zane had been suffering the agonies of an emotional crisis for the past two days was swept away. The entire time she had been playing her waiting game, he had been busy working on a preemptive move.
By the time Zane appeared, stripped down to a pair of sleek black neoprene dive pants, his chest bare, a gear bag fil ed with diving equipment, there was no doubt.
Jaw set, she met his gaze. “How did you get them here?
Wait, let me guess—Spiros.”
What was the point in having a henchman unless he could do useful things like kidnap al three of her potential husbands?
Fifteen
The lenses of Zane’s dark glasses made him look frustratingly remote and detached. “You make it sound like Spiros kidnapped them. Al he did was pilot the jet.”
That was like saying that al Blackbeard did was sail the ship. “How did you get them?”
The idea that they had been coerced in any way evaporated as she took in their col ective grins, the clink of beers. A definite holiday air pervaded the yacht. “No wait, don’t tel me, it was a corporate kidnap.” She slid her dark glasses onto the bridge of her nose. “Two days.
Paradise
.”
Zane shrugged. “They could have refused.”
“Hah!”
His gaze narrowed. “If you don’t want to spend time with them just say the word. Spiros can take them out for the afternoon, no problem.”
Which was, she realized, exactly what he wanted. He hadn’t brought the men here so she could get together with them. His plan was much simpler than that. He was intent on ruthlessly cutting them out of her life.
She squashed the thril that shot through her at his un-PC
behavior and jabbed a finger in the direction of his chest.
“You had no right—”
He caught her hand and drew her close, his hold gentle as he pressed her palm against his bare chest. “While you’re with me, I have every right. I told you I wanted to be present when you met them.”
Lilah’s toes curled at the fiery heat of his skin against her palm, the thud of his heart, the sneaky, undermining way he had gotten around the issue of crashing her dates. “I didn’t agree.”
Although, she realized that none of that mattered now, because it was clear Zane had never considered any of the men as serious contenders. If he had, he would not have brought them to Medinos.
She stared at the obdurate line of his jaw. In a moment of blinding clarity, she recognized the flip side of the situation, an even more important truth. Zane wanted her enough to eliminate the three J’s in the first place. Far from ignoring her for the past two days, Zane had been focusing his energies on systematical y clearing away al opposition so he could have what he wanted. As if her agreement to his proposition was a forgone conclusion.
He jerked his head in the direction of the yacht. “It’s your choice. If you don’t want to spend time with them, you don’t have to.”
Tension hummed through her along with an undermining, utterly female sense of satisfaction. It was difficult to stay mad at Zane for completely subverting her strategy when a part of her adored it that he had gone to such lengths to cut out the competition.
He wanted her, enough that he couldn’t bear the thought of her having other men in the picture. It was exactly the result she had wanted; it just hadn’t panned out the way she had thought.
A dazzling idea momentarily blotted out everything else.
She was suddenly glad for the concealment of the dark glasses. “Not a problem,” she said smoothly.
Mental y, she ticked off a number of new, exciting options al based around having three extra men in close proximity for the afternoon. “Now that they’re here, why not meet them?”
Seconds later, Zane handed Lilah onto the yacht.
Jack Riordan, clearly an outdoors kind of guy and at home on the yacht in a pair of board shorts and a tank, looked exactly like his photo. Jeremy Appleby did not.
Instead of tal and dark, he was blond and thin, with a goatee. He also had an impressive camera slung around his neck, which put Lilah on instant alert.