An Unlikely Bride for the Billionaire (6 page)

And that should matter to me because...?
She bit the words back. She'd had a lot of practice at swallowing sarcastic rejoinders. She'd made it a policy long ago not to inflame a situation if she could help it.

‘Carla and Dylan are too trusting by half—but you won't find
me
so gullible.'

Giving a person the benefit of the doubt did
not
make Dylan gullible.

‘You're not a fit person for Carla to know. You stay away from her, you hear? If you don't I'll cause trouble for you...and that's a promise.'

‘Is everything okay here?'

A strip of sunlight slashed through the darkness as Dylan came back through the doors. The doors were merely thick flaps of overlapping black rubber that kept the sun out. A few threads of light backlit him, haloing his head and shading his face. Mia didn't need to see his face to sense the tension rippling through him.

Without another word Thierry snapped away and moved through the rubber panels, his footsteps loud on the wooden walkway as he strode off.

‘Are you okay?'

Dylan's concern, absurdly, made her want to cry in a way that Thierry's threats hadn't.

‘Yes, of course.' She turned and gestured to the snakes. ‘Just so you know: a reptile encounter can be arranged for the wedding guests too, if anyone's interested. Though it has to be said it's not to everyone's taste.'

* * *

Dylan took Mia's arm and led her back out into the sunshine, wincing at her pallor.

Her colour started to return after a few deep breaths and he found the rapid beat of his heart slowed in direct proportion.

‘I heard the last part of what Thierry said to you.'

He hadn't liked the way Thierry had asked Mia to stay behind. It was why he'd doubled back—to make sure everything was okay.

‘It's not the first time someone has taken exception to my past, Dylan, and I expect it won't be the last.'

Her revelation yesterday had shocked him—
prison!
—but he'd have had to be blind not to see how much she regretted that part of her life. He'd sensed her sincerity in wanting to create a new, honest life for herself. She'd paid dearly for whatever mistakes lay in her past. As far as he was concerned she should be allowed to get on with things in peace.

Thierry's threat, the utter contempt in his voice...

Dylan's hands clenched. It had been a long time since he'd wanted to knock someone to the ground. He'd wanted to deck Thierry, though. He'd wanted to beat the man black and blue.

He dragged a hand down his face. It had only been the thought of who'd pay for his actions—Mia—that had stopped him.

You didn't even think of Carla!

Mia stared up at him, her gaze steady. ‘Don't blame Thierry. He only has Carla's welfare in mind.'

‘It doesn't excuse his behaviour.' A scowl scuffed through him. ‘The man's a bully and a jerk. What the hell does Carla see in him?'

She gestured that they should continue along the path towards the amphibian house. ‘Don't you know?'

He didn't have a single clue.

‘Haven't the two of you talked about him?'

Not really
. But to say as much would only reveal what a poor excuse for a brother he'd been to Carla these last twelve months.

He glanced across at Mia and found that she'd paled again, but before he could ask her if she was okay she'd plunged into the darkness of the amphibian house. Was she worried about running into Thierry again?

He plunged right in after her.

‘Do you want to linger?'

He couldn't have said how he knew, but he sensed the tension coiling through her. ‘No.'

She led them back outside and gulped in a couple of breaths. She stilled when she realised how closely he watched her.

He reached out to stop her from moving on. ‘What's wrong?'

She glanced away. ‘What makes you think anything's wrong?'

When she turned back, he just shrugged.

Her shoulders sagged. ‘I'd rather nobody else knew this.'

Silently, he crossed his heart.

She looked away again. ‘I don't like the nocturnal houses. They make me feel claustrophobic and closed in.

They were like being in jail!

He had to stiffen his legs to stop himself from pitching over.

‘I'm fine out here on the walkways, where we're above or beside the enclosures and aviaries, but the nocturnal houses are necessarily dark...and warm. The air feels too close.'

She finished with a deprecating little shrug that broke his heart a little bit.

In the next moment he was gripped with an avid need to know everything about her—were her parents still alive? How had they treated her when she was a child? What made her happy? What did she really want from life? What frightened her right down to her bones? What did she do in her spare time? What made her purr?

That last thought snapped him back. He had no right to ask such questions. He shouldn't even be considering them. What he should be doing was working out if Carla was about to make the biggest mistake of her life.
That
was what he should be focussed on.

‘What about when you're down below?' he found himself asking anyway. ‘When you have to go into the cages to clean them out...to feed the animals?'

He saw the answer in her eyes before she drew that damn veil down over them again.

‘It's okay. It's just another part of the job.'

Liar
. He didn't call her on it. It was none of his business. But it begged the question—why was Mia working in a place like this when enclosed spaces all but made her hyperventilate?

They found Carla and Thierry waiting for them beside the kangaroo enclosure.

The moment she saw Mia, Carla grabbed her arm. ‘I want to become a volunteer!'

Mia smiled as if she couldn't help it ‘Volunteers are always welcome at Plum Pines.'

Her tone held no awkwardness and Dylan's shoulders unhitched a couple of notches. Thierry's strictures hadn't constrained the warmth she showed to Carla, and he gave silent thanks for it.

Thierry pulled Mia back to his side, gently but inexorably. ‘Stop manhandling the staff, Carla.'

Dylan lifted himself up to his full height. ‘That's an insufferably snobbish thing to say, Thierry.'

Carla's face fell and he immediately regretted uttering the words within her earshot.

Thierry glared back at him. ‘
You
might be happy consorting with criminals, Dylan, but you'll have to excuse me for being less enthused.'

‘Ex.' Mia's voice cut through the tension, forcing all eyes to turn to her. ‘I'm an
ex
-criminal, Mr Geroux. Naturally, I don't expect you to trust me, but you can rest assured that if my employers have no qualms about either my conduct or my ability to perform the tasks required of me, then you need have no worries on that head either.'

‘We
don't
have qualms!' Carla jumped in, staring at Thierry as if a simple glare would force him to agree with her.

Thierry merely shrugged. ‘Is volunteering such a good idea? You could catch something...get bitten...and didn't you notice the frightful stench coming from the possums?'

‘Oh, I hadn't thought about the practicalities...'

She glanced at Mia uncertainly and Dylan wanted to throw his head back and howl.

‘You'd need to be up to date with your tetanus shots. All the information is on the Plum Pines website, and I can give you some brochures if you like. You can think about it for a bit, and call the volunteer co-ordinator if you have any questions.'

Thierry scowled at her, but she met his gaze calmly. ‘Maybe it's something the two of you could do together.'

Carla clapped her hands, evidently delighted with the idea.

Thierry glanced at his watch with an abrupt, ‘We have to go.' He said goodbye to Dylan, ignoring Mia completely, before leading Carla away.

‘An absolute charmer,' Dylan muttered under his breath.

Mia had to have heard him, but she didn't say anything, turning instead to a kangaroo waiting on the other side of the fence and feeding it some titbit she'd fished from her pocket. He glanced back at Carla and a sickening cramp stretched through his stomach—along with a growing sense of foreboding.

Mia nudged him, and then held out a handful of what looked like puffed wheat. ‘Would you like to feed the kangaroo?'

With a sense of wonder, he took it and fed the kangaroo. He even managed to run his fingers through the fur of the kangaroo's neck. The tightness in him eased.

‘Do you have anything pressing you need to attend to in the next couple of hours?'

She shook her head. ‘Nora has instructed me to give you all the time and assistance you need. Later this afternoon, if I'm free, she's going to run through some things that I probably need to know—help me create a checklist.'

‘Will you meet me at the lily pond in fifteen minutes?'

She blinked, but nodded without hesitation. ‘Yes, of course.'

* * *

Mia was sitting at the picnic table waiting for him—her notepad at the ready—when he arrived with his bag of goodies.

If he hadn't been so worried about Carla's situation he'd have laughed at the look on her face when he pulled forth sandwiches, chocolate bars and sodas.

‘This is a working lunch, Mia, not some dastardly plot to seduce you.'

Pink flushed her cheeks. ‘I never considered anything else for a moment.'

To be fair, she probably hadn't. She'd made it clear where she stood yesterday. When he'd gone back over her words it had struck him that she really
hadn't
thought him interested in her. She'd just been setting boundaries. And if that boundary-setting hadn't been for his benefit, then it had to have been for hers. Which was interesting.

He took the seat beside her rather than the one opposite.

Why was Mia so determined to remain aloof?

He didn't want her aloof.

He wanted her help.

He took her notepad and pen and put them in his pocket. ‘You won't need those.' He pushed the stack of sandwiches, a can of soda and a couple of chocolate bars towards her. ‘Eat up while I talk.'

She fixed him with those moss-green eyes, but after a moment gave a shrug and reached for the topmost sandwich. She didn't even check to see what it was.

He gestured to the stack. ‘I didn't know what you'd like so I got a variety.' He'd grabbed enough to feed a small army, but he'd wanted to make sure he bought something she liked.

She shrugged again. ‘I'm not fussy. I'll eat pretty much anything.'

He had a sudden vision of her in prison, eating prison food, and promptly lost his appetite.'

‘Dylan?'

He snapped his attention back. ‘Sorry, I'm a bit distracted.'

She bit into her sandwich and chewed, simply waiting for him to speak. It occurred to him that if he wanted her help he was going to have to be honest with her.

A weight pressed down on him. Yesterday afternoon she'd looked at him with such gratitude and admiration—as if he were a superhero. Nobody had ever looked at him like that. He didn't want to lose it so quickly.

Not even for Carla's sake?

He straightened. He'd do anything for Carla.

He opened his can of soft drink and took a long swallow before setting it back down. ‘I'm ashamed to admit this, but over the last twelve months I've neglected Carla shamefully. She and Thierry have only been dating six months, and the news of their engagement came as a shock. This will probably sound ridiculously big brotherly, but... I'm worried she's making a mistake.'

Mia stared at him for a moment. ‘You and Carla seem very close.'

‘We are.'

‘So why haven't you spent much time together recently?'

How much of the truth did he have to tell her?

He scrubbed a hand through his hair. ‘There's an older family member who I have...difficulties with. It's impossible to avoid him when I'm in Australia, and I've wanted to avoid a falling out, so...'

‘So you've spent a lot of time overseas instead?'

‘Rather than putting up with said family member, I flitted off to organise parties. There was a Turkish sultan's sixtieth birthday party, and then a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebration for a couple of members of the British aristocracy. I did some corporate work on the Italian Grand Prix. Oh, and there was a red carpet film premiere that I did just for fun.'

She blinked, as if he'd just spoken in a foreign language. In some ways he supposed he had.

‘So there you have it—I'm a coward.'

He lifted his arms and let them drop, waiting for her eyes to darken with scorn. She just stared back at him and waited for him to continue, her gaze not wavering.

He swallowed. ‘I came home for Carla's birthday...and for two days over Christmas.' It hadn't been enough! ‘That's when she announced her engagement. That's when I realised I'd spent too long away.'

But Carla had finally seemed so settled...so happy. She'd refused to come and work for FWE, preferring to focus on her charity work. Nothing had rung alarm bells for him...until he'd met Thierry.

Mia didn't say anything, but he could tell from her eyes how intently she listened.

‘When I heard what he said to you in the reptile house I wanted to knock him to the ground.'

She halted mid-chew, before swallowing. ‘I'm very glad you didn't.'

It had only been the thought that Gordon would somehow bring the blame back to her and she'd lose her job that had stilled his hand.

‘What he said to you...' His hand clenched and unclenched convulsively around his can of drink. ‘I'm sorry you were put into a position where you were forced to listen to that.'