Falling For Her French Tycoon (Escape To Provence 1)

“How could it possibly be wrong? We both felt an attraction during the interview. It’s been building every second since and you know it. I’ve never felt this way about another woman in my life! Nathalie? Look at me.”

“I can’t.”

“All along you’ve been hiding something from me. Tell me what it is.”

“I don’t dare.”

“I knew it!” he bit out, and raked his hands through his hair in frustration. “Why are you so terrified? Help me understand.”

“I shouldn’t have applied for work at the vineyard. It was a mistake, and now I’m paying for it. Forgive me for the trouble I’ve caused you. I never meant to hurt you when you’ve been so wonderful to me.”

“What in the hell are you talking about? Have you run away from a husband I don’t know about and you’re hiding at the vineyard, afraid he’ll find you?”

“No!” she cried, shaking her head.

“Are you working for some editor to get information about the family business? You can tell me the truth.”

“No! No one is involved but me.”

“Involved how?”

“I can’t answer that. Would you please let me go, Dominic? I’m begging you.”

“Whatever this is, we can fix it.”

She backed away from him. “The only solution out of this is for us to stop seeing each other. Let me honor my contract to pick grapes until the harvest is over.”

He drew in a harsh breath. “How could I possibly stay away from you now? Deny it all you want, but our feelings for each other aren’t going to fade. Before you came into my life, I’d decided this experience would never happen to me. Then you showed up in that tent. I could no more walk away from you for good than stop breathing!”

“Don’t say that!” Tears trickled down her cheeks. “You mustn’t.”

“Why? Let’s hear the truth. Are you dying of a disease and don’t want to tell me?”

Not a disease, but I can’t give a man children.

“I promise it’s nothing like that,” she cried.

“Bon. I’ll drive us back to Nice. But this isn’t over.”

After cupping her wet face in his hands and kissing her breathless, he left the galley. She heard him race up on deck. Then he was back with her life jacket. He tossed it on a chair, then took off again. In another minute he’d started the motor.

The long journey back was pure agony for her. She cleaned up the galley before going up on deck. He said he didn’t want dinner. What she’d done to him was tearing both of them apart.

By evening he’d deposited her at the door of the rental. He didn’t try to kiss her again before she went inside. When she heard him drive away, she wanted to die, but there was a reason she hadn’t told him the truth tonight.

She still didn’t have proof that either brother was Alain’s father and didn’t dare probe further since she could be wrong and hurt everyone. It didn’t matter that she’d had the best reason in the world for doing what she’d done. She’d gone way too far and her feelings for him needed to be cut off for good.

She’d ventured where she shouldn’t have and would suffer for having given in to her guilty longing for him. It had to end now before she did damage to two men who had no comprehension of why she’d come to the vineyard to work.

Knowing that she was doing the right thing, she drove back to La Gaude at full speed. When she entered the house still in tears, she found her mom on the phone with Nathalie’s tante Patrice, her mother’s sister, who lived in Nice with her husband and family. Alain had already been put to bed. Her mother took one look at her and ended the conversation.

“You’re so pale, it alarms me. I’m almost afraid to ask what’s happened.”

Nathalie sank down on the chair. “I spent the whole day with Dominic and had a chance to confront him. But I couldn’t do it because I have no proof that either brother was involved with Antoinette. He knows I’ve been holding back.” She wiped more tears off her cheeks.

“I was afraid of this,” her mother murmured.

“I’m too involved with him, but it’s not too late. If I give up the job in the morning and never see him again, no one but you and I will know anything.”