“Cat? You said you’ve dreamed of the freedom your inheritance will bring you. You told me that you didn’t want to be trapped in yet another cage.” He hesitated. “That’s right, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” she said briskly, “it is.”
“Yeah.” Jake cleared his throat. It had been foolish to expect her to say anything else. He’d spent a lot of time figuring out just how to phrase the question. He wanted her to make the choice between him and her freedom rationally.
The last thing he wanted to do was play on her emotions.
He had to accept that he’d awakened her to passion, not to love. She was too young for love, too inexperienced to be tied to one man. Life, the world, all the things she’d never known, stretched ahead of her.
He loved her too much to deny her any of it.
Jake took a deep breath. “I know—I know that I took what you intended to offer to the man who marries you.”
“Don’t! Please—”
“I’m not going to apologize for it.” Damned right he wasn’t. He didn’t even want to think about Cat in another man’s arms. “But there has to be another way. Something else you can use to get a guy like Lucas to—to cooperate.”
Catarina shook her head. “I’ll just have to go through with a real marriage,” she said in a small voice.
“No!” Jake took a deep breath. “No,” he said, more calmly. “There must be something a rich man would—a rich man would…” He paused. A slow smile angled across his mouth. “Of course! That’s it.”
“What’s it? What idea? What could I possibly offer? I don’t have—”
“But I do.” He clasped her shoulders, lifted h
er to her toes. “I own some land, Cat. On Maui. Beachfront property in an area where there’s nothing left for sale. Lucas knows about it. We talked about it, he and I—you know, small talk at some charity thing. Hawaii, how we both liked it, how he wished he owned land there…” Jake’s eyes met hers. “Lucas and I can strike a deal.”
Her heart twisted with pain. A piece of land. Jake would sell it to Lucas, Lucas would agree to a marriage followed by divorce, and this would be over.
“Cat? Do you understand?”
She nodded, afraid to speak for fear she would weep instead.
“You’ll get your inheritance. Your fortune. You’ll be free. You’ll never have to be left on the wrong side of the gates again.” A muscle flickered in his jaw. His hands seemed to tighten on her. “That’s what you want most in the world, you said. Isn’t that right?”
Their eyes met and she waited for him to say, Forget your inheritance, sweetheart. The only thing you need is me.
But he didn’t. He didn’t say anything. Finally, when all eternity seemed to have gone by, Catarina lifted her chin and forced a little smile to her lips.
“Yes,” she said, “that’s exactly right, Jake. I get my money. You get—you get whatever it is you get. And then we’ll both be free.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CAT was the hit of the party.
Jake wasn’t surprised. She was bright, articulate, alive with vitality and incredibly beautiful—even in this crowd, where the faces of most of the women had graced magazine covers.
A dozen men were gathered around her, smiling when she smiled, laughing when she laughed—and she laughed and smiled a lot. It wasn’t because she’d had too much to drink. Not tonight. Lucas had poured her only one glass of champagne and she’d done little more than sip at it.
Tonight, Cat was laughing because she was happy. Why wouldn’t she be? Her freedom was on the horizon. He’d given her the chance to say that it wasn’t what she wanted…but it was.
So he’d done what he had to do. Brought her here. Handed her over to Lucas. Told him he was a good guy, that Cat liked him. The rest of it—the offer he was going to make to give Lucas those acres in Hawaii—would come later, if—hell—when Cat said she was ready for him to make the next move.
Talk to Lucas. Explain the situation.
Tell him he was going to give him millions of dollars’ worth of beachfront if he’d agree to marry Catarina but not touch her. Not touch her. Not…
Jake lifted his glass to his lips and took a long swallow. He wasn’t drinking champagne. He’d switched to Scotch. Not his favorite brand, but it didn’t matter. Anything that might burn away the tightness in his chest would do tonight. 155