Lynne Graham's Brides of L'Amour Bundle

‘What does it say?’ Hilary finally prompted.

“‘All that money and still miserable,”’ Roel translated grittily.

Hilary folded her arms. ‘Well, I’m sorry if I embarrassed you but it does prove that I was upset about the situation we’d got into—’

Roel dealt her a chilling glance. ‘We? Who created that situation? Who claimed to be my wife? Who lied her way into my home and my trust?’

Hilary unfolded her arms again with a jerk. Her eyes were bright with appeal and discomfiture. ‘Look, try to understand that I just got in too deep. When I arrived in Switzerland I genuinely did think you were seriously hurt and I did really want to see you. I also believed you’d been asking for me—’

‘Why the hell would I have been asking for a woman I had not seen in almost four years? A woman

who meant nothing to me?’ Roel demanded. ‘And how could I have been asking for anyone while I was unconscious?’

Absorbing that salient fact for herself, Hilary’s troubled face tightened with chagrin. Yes, it did indeed sound highly unlikely that he would have been asking for her. Had her sister, Emma, told her a little white lie? Had Emma made up that touching assurance in a naive attempt to encourage her elder sister to rush over to Geneva to be with her husband?

But before Hilary could fully consider that possibility Roel’s own words sounded afresh inside her head in the cruellest of echoes. A woman who meant nothing to me? That was what he had said. That was how he thought of her. As nothing and nobody. Well, what had she expected? Tender affection? For the brief space of a week her pretences had led him to believe that he must have some feelings for her and he had behaved accordingly. But that comforting time was now at an end.

Determined not to betray how terribly hurt she was, Hilary struggled to get back to the point she had been intending to make before his casually cruel honesty had hit her like a punch in the stomach. ‘Dr Lerther warned me not to tell you anything that might disturb you—’

‘So you let me think I was married? Didn’t that strike you as very disturbing news to give a man who revelled in being single?’ Roel slammed back at her.

‘I expect you really appreciate your freedom now that you know you never lost it—’

‘I did not lose my freedom. You stole it from me.’ His stunning golden eyes were full of contempt. ‘You claimed to be my wife and now rumours abound that I am a married man. As, strictly speaking, I am a married man, I cannot deny those rumours and the paparazzi have already managed to print a photograph of you.’

Guilty tears lashed the back of Hilary’s eyes. ‘I suppose that has to be embarrassing for you—’

‘I don’t embarrass easily,’ Roel cut in drily.

‘I don’t think you understand just how sorry I am,’ Hilary mumbled wretchedly.

‘Sorry is not enough to satisfy me. You really wanted to be my wife.’

Hilary’s pallor became laced by feverish, embarrassed colour.

Roel sent her a sizzling look of scorn. ‘You wanted to be my wife so badly that you lied and you cheated your way into the position.’

Shame and anger at the humiliation he was inflicting roared through Hilary. ‘I know it looks bad but—’

‘I won’t listen to your excuses. It looks bad because it was bad,’ Roel incised. ‘You took my beautifully organised life and trashed it. I dumped my mistress for you—’

‘You did…what?’ Eyes widening, Hilary glanced up at him.

‘The gorgeous brunette…she was my mistress and I ditched her because you made me believe that I was a married man.’

Hilary just closed her eyes. The gorgeous brunette. How could she ever have allowed herself to believe that a male like Roel Sabatino had no other woman in his life and his bed? She hadn’t wanted to accept that there might be a woman because accepting that would have made her own position untenable. Wasn’t that why she had chosen to assume that Roel was free of any entanglement? How could she have been so naive when it came to her own motives and so selfish? She really had messed up his life. Guilt and shame tore at her and made her throat thicken.

‘So there is a current vacancy in my bed and you are about to fill it again.’

‘I beg your pardon…?’ A frown of incomprehension had formed on Hilary’s strained face.

‘You’re coming back to Switzerland with me—’

Hilary was bemused. ‘Why would I do that?’

‘I’m not giving you a choice. Did you give me one when you told me that I was living in a fairytale marriage?’ Roel shot at her with cold condemnation.

Hilary paled as if she had been struck and evaded his harsh gaze. ‘I can’t think of one good reason why you’d want me to come back to Switzerland—’