He held up his hand, stopping her. ‘I’m not done. If you want this deal, I want something more.’ He swivelled his chair round and stared her down. A ferocious businessman, burning with a vengeance. The shark had returned, circling. Even though the expansive boardroom table separated them, she wanted to get as far away as possible from the coming attack. She shivered and pressed back into her seat. He smiled again.
‘Congratulations, cher. You’re my new fiancée.’
CHAPTER TWO
THE COLOUR BLED from Eve’s face till she was as white as the stark walls of his boardroom. It seemed surreal now that he’d had his hands all over that pale flesh once. A body now dutifully hidden under an impeccable, silver-grey suit that fitted her slender frame to a perfection. A fit that might make a lesser man weep with thanks. Not him. Not anymore.
He’d seen more of that skin than she’d probably care to remember, considering the way he’d seemed to disgust her only weeks after they’d parted. He’d stroked her in wonder, marvelling at the privilege of being permitted to touch her, to enter her lithe, luscious body. He couldn’t shake that thought now, of stroking her responsive flesh till she moaned with pleasure.
He hated it. Hated that in the months after she’d finally rejected him, he’d tried to get over her. Had attempted to drown his sorrows in spirits and women who’d deserved far better than he had been offering. And still the memory of her had tainted everything. They’d been each other’s first and some days it had felt like she was the only woman he’d ever truly enjoy, all others fading like a pale imitation beside the vivid memories of her. Like his body had recognised only one person as its own. Its other half. And without that there’d been a part of him missing.
He shook those thoughts aside. He didn’t need them, not today. Not when he knew what she was. Flighty. Duplicitous. A consummate liar. She still hadn’t responded to his pronouncement. Her plush pink mouth was opening, closing then opening again. Gaping like a fish caught on a hook and hauled from the water. For he had caught her and, by association, her father.
Bitter bile rose in his throat, but he swallowed it down with a grimace. All he’d needed to do was to choose the right lure and reel them in inch by inch. Just like fishing for bass with his dad. Easier, because Hugo Chevalier was nothing if not predictable. Anything he’d thought he could steal from a Caron he had, even if the deal was a dud. So long as Gage pretended to be interested, that was all Eve’s father had needed. It had been surprisingly easy. Unlike this.
He hadn’t expected Eve to put up so much of a fight. That she had stitched a thread of something like pleasure right through him. Another thing he’d be forced to ignore in time. And he had plenty of that. If she wanted to have some semblance of a company left at the end of all this, she’d do what he demanded. He relaxed back in his chair and waited. Made a show of checking his watch then looking back at her. He’d been waiting seven years so what were a few more minutes?
She seemed to compose herself. Gave a tremulous little laugh. ‘You can’t be serious.’
His simmering anger began to boil then. He’d done well to keep it under control so far. Playing this little game because he always knew the end point. Eve and her family had tried to smear his family’s name since the night her father had hauled him off and given him the hiding of his life for having the temerity to steal away his precious daughter.
In the years that had followed, nasty whispers had abounded. Not enough to cross over into defamation, and nothing too public. Just a quiet word in the right ear whenever a deal was going to be struck or Caron Investments had achieved something great. That Eve hadn’t been a willing party to their flight that rainy evening. That Gage was not a man to trust.
He’d be damned if that falsehood continued, especially now. It was time for Eve to pay. He’d make sure of it.
‘I’m deadly serious.’
‘Have you forgotten that in our great-grandparents’ time it was frowned on for people who worked at Knight to even date a Caron employee and vice versa? The enmity has only become worse since then. This is insane.’
Yes. It was. But there was only one person who could quell the rumours that dogged him. The cause of them herself. She sat there stiff and straight, almost prim with her generous mouth pulled to a taut line. Not a part of her was anything other than perfect, right down to her sleek, tamed, golden hair. All the wildness smoothed and ironed out of her. He’d been witness to that wildness underneath. It was still there in the way her pale blue eyes flashed at him, making him crave for them to spark for reasons of pleasure, not anger.
He loathed how his body still reacted to her. A siren’s song calling for him to dash himself bloody on the rocks of their memories.
‘It’s the perfect narrative. I can see the headlines. “Fated childhood sweethearts together again, despite their warring families”. A Romeo and Juliet story, without all the annoying death at the end. The press will eat it up.’
‘We’re not barely-out-of-our-teens runaways anymore.’ She shook her head. ‘No. It’s not happening.’
How quickly she’d dismissed their past, but it would happen or she’d lose everything. She had nothing to bargain with here. He’d take Knight, carve it to tiny pieces. What he sought from her was more important than anything. Redemption, in the eyes of the business world and his family.
He would never forget the crunch of fist on bone or the cold cuffs crushing his wrists when he’d refused to tell Hugo Chevalier where Eve was. Then the disappointment on his father’s face later that night when he’d come to the police station, bailed Gage out for the trumped-up charge levelled against him that had dissolved as soon as his father’s lawyers had got their teeth into it.
All the approbation had been worth it...till Eve had resurfaced in the bosom of her family. The days he’d waited frantically for her call. Planning to go and meet her. Marry her and to hell with everyone. Until he’d realised he’d been fooled. That while she’d professed love, it had really been the thrill-se
eking of a bored little princess who in the end had just wanted to dally with someone till she could get her hands on her trust fund. He gritted his teeth.
‘I didn’t make myself plain. That’s the offer.’
‘You can have seventy per cent, so long as my mother and sister’s investments are protected.’
‘No.’
He stood and strolled towards her. She pushed the chair out from behind the table as he neared, her hands gripping the arms.
‘Eighty per cent.’
‘You’re part of the deal or there’s no deal at all.’ He towered over her now. She tilted her head back, eyes wide and pupils dark, her breathing fast and shallow. He shouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as this, but he couldn’t help himself. ‘How long will it take before the creditors come to your door? Before your precious mother and sister are out on the streets? Till I own everything anyway?’
‘If you’re going to own everything anyhow, what do you possibly have to gain by this?’ Her voice was rough and breathy. The throaty sound of it scored down his spine like he remembered her fingernails had.