‘Nigel’s a total idiot!’ Sholto spread expressive brown hands. ‘And believe me, cara, it goes against the grain to even consider giving him another chance to prove himself.’
‘He’s learnt his lesson. He really has,’ Molly emphasised pleadingly. ‘He would do whatever you wanted him to do to sort things out.’
‘And what about you?’
Molly blinked. ‘But I don’t have anything to do with the garden centre.’
Brilliant dark eyes swept over her frowning face and lingered. ‘I am not talking about the business. You said that no pressure and no price would persuade you to share my bed. I’m calling your bluff,’ Sholto delivered silkily. ‘If you move into my house and live with me, I will settle your brother’s debts, allow him to remain in his home and ensure that he doesn’t get himself into a similar mess a second time.’
For a count of ten paralysed seconds, Molly gaped at him with startled green eyes and parted lips. ‘You’re not serious,’ she framed when she could finally unpeel her tongue from the roof of her mouth.
‘I want you…and you want your brother off the hook. A fair exchange or an abuse of my power?’ Sholto mused with galling cool. ‘I shall leave you to decide which.’
Molly tried and failed to swallow, brows pleating as she squirmed uneasily on her seat. ‘You are joking, aren’t you?’
‘Do I look like I’m joking?’
She noted with disbelief that he had a perfectly straight face.
‘But why would you want me to live with you?’ Molly enquired helplessly.
‘All the usual male reasons,’ Sholto supplied with gentle, slightly apologetic emphasis. ‘I wasn’t planning to stash you in a guest room as a hostage to Nigel’s good behaviour in the future. I would expect you to sleep in my bed with me, wear the clothes that I buy, appear at social occasions by my side and be available to travel with me whenever I ask.’
Molly’s heart thudded with preternatural slowness in her eardrums. Every word he said echoed twice over inside her head. He had spelt out his expectations with clarity. But she could no more see herself featuring in such an existence than she could see herself taking flight without wings. ‘I want you’, he had said, in-much the same casual manner as he might have voiced the selection of a meal from a menu.
He couldn’t possibly want her so much that he was prepared to bribe her to get back into bed with him. Unless his sole motivation was the sheer senseless and stubborn perversity of a macho male hopelessly ill equipped to deal with any form of female rejection! After all, she had slapped his face and walked out of the late Freddy’s house and refused to engage in any remotely personal dialogue when he’d come to the office where she worked. Sholto was not accustomed to that kind of treatment.
‘You’re actually suggesting that I become your mistress?’ she murmured, her incredulity unconcealed.
‘That’s a very old-fashioned and emotive label, Molly,’ Sholto responded in a tone of reproof. ‘Live-in relationships are very common these days.’
‘You’re talking about couples who freely choose to live together!’
‘You have a choice too.’
‘And those same couples would naturally have feelings for each other!’ Molly pointed out rawly.
‘Whereas I’m proposing an exclusively physical affair. You see, I was deeply unimpressed by the staying power of your feelings when we married,’ Sholto countered with derisive bite. ‘I was infinitely more impressed by your passionate response in bed two weeks ago…’
A little shudder of repulsion ran through Molly, her mortification rising by the minute. ‘I think you brought me here purely to humiliate me. What gave you the idea that I might be prepared to barter my body like some sort of commodity in exchange for my family’s security?’
‘You gave me the idea yesterday.’
‘I…did?’ she gasped.
‘Would you like me to have some coffee brought in while you mull over the dangerous risk of descending into a life of sleazy decadence after a mere few months in my bed?’
Flashes of hot colour stained Molly’s cheekbones She didn’t appreciate his drawling mockery and, determined to walk out, she flew upright in one swift and angry movement. Simultaneously a wave of dizziness engulfed her and she swayed, darkness flashing across her vision as the room spun and her head pounded. A pair of strong hands immediately steadied her, curving round her shoulders and pressing her firmly back down onto the seat.
‘Are you all right?’
Dizzily she focused on Sholto, crouched down in front of her, dark eyes raking her bemused face with frowning intensity. ‘I thought you were going to faint.’
‘I’ve never fainted in my life.’
Looking surprisingly pale and tense, Sholto very slowly slid upright again. ‘I’ll bring you a glass of water.’
‘I must’ve stood up too fast. I skipped lunch.’ And only had coffee for breakfast, she completed inwardly. No doubt all the stress and tension had reacted badly on her empty stomach and made her light-headed.