Bound As His Business-Deal Bride

‘I’m sorry.’ The words stuck in his throat, but it was the right thing to do, to give his sympathy. He wasn’t a complete savage—on most days, at least.

Eve didn’t soften but appeared completely unmoved. ‘No, you’re not. But you needed to know because if it’s revenge you’re after, all you have is me.’

Her face was still impassive, as if it was merely business they’d been discussing. Hugo Chevalier’s name had been the single thing holding that company together. One word about this spoken to the wrong person and Knight was done. He could have his revenge with no effort at all, but that would never satisfy him. He wanted the axe to fall by his hand. To know he’d won and taken everything for himself. So he still needed Eve, to achieve public redemption.

He hated it. Hated that he required her for this. Hated that all he’d ever wanted was her. Desire lashed him like a whip-crack as he watched Eve now. Her wide-set blue eyes, petite nose, luscious mouth, sleek hair. That beautiful body all trussed up in a business suit he wanted to snip at and unravel till she fell apart. It had always damned well been her, whether in love or revenge. She shifted in her seat and the gentle scent of jasmine and spring teased his nose, inflamed his blood. Made all of him hot and tight under the suit. He’d shrug off his jacket if he wasn’t so damned hard she’d tell in an instant that while his head might loathe her, his body craved her with an unhealthy obsession.

‘You’ll do,’ he said, his voice grinding out all rough and unrecognisable. She blinked fast, like something had been flung at her face.

‘Was that meant to sting? Because nothing can hurt me anymore.’ He wondered fleetingly what possible hurt she could have suffered in her privileged, protected life. ‘It was such a long time ago, and we both know where revenge leads. It’s beneath you.’

Sure, it might be beneath him, but while some memories in life had dimmed, one hadn’t. Eve and those last weeks before the end haunted his dreams. Trying her phone in increasingly frantic efforts. Getting nothing then one day having her pick up. The relief that she was okay had flooded him, until she’d cruelly discarded him. From the tinny, hollow sound of the call he’d known he was on speaker and her father had been in the room, listening to it all. Doubtless gloating.

No, he could never forget.

He’d tried to exorcise her from his life. But to his fury every time he’d touched another woman, his body had rebelled. He’d cut a swathe through the female population at college, trying to drown out the memory of her, but he’d never been able to. Any time he’d seen the bright splash of golden hair or a flash of pearly skin his heart rate had spiked, thinking it might be her. But she’d been happily getting on with her life in France as he’d been trying to rebuild the pieces of his broken heart. It had taken years to forget the breathy sounds she made as she came. The smell of her, like the flower gardens she loved so much and wanted to create for herself. Time now to rid her from his life for good.

He sat on the table near her. Her gaze trailed down his shirt, hesitated on his tie, drifted to rest on the buckle of his belt and lower still. A swift shot of adrenaline punched right through him as her gaze lingered there a bit damn long. If she kept looking, she’d know exactly how much his cursed body still wanted her.

What if he kissed her? Would she react? By the flaring of her nostrils and her blown pupils he bet he could lay her out on this table and take her hard and fast till she screamed so loudly the lawyer outside would hear. Show her that, while he might not have been good enough to marry, she still wanted him.

That would be beneath him. Not this—an engagement as fake as the woman in front of him. If it could get the European deal over the line, it would be worth everything. Revenge was just a tasty morsel on the side. An amuse-bouche. Cleansing his palate for better things. It was time t

o get Eve out of his system once and for all. Because he’d never trust her, not again. She’d cured him of that gentler sentiment.

‘That’s easy for you to say, isn’t it? You haven’t suffered any consequences.’

Her brow creased. ‘Consequences? I don’t—’

‘Enough. The innocent act, as compelling as it seems, doesn’t suit you.’ He stood, stalked to the other end of the table and grabbed a glass of water, taking a long, cold gulp. It didn’t help cool the fire of anger burning in his gut. ‘But don’t worry. All it’ll require is for you to pretend for a little while, which should be easy. I’m not trying to rekindle old flames and I don’t want to tie myself to you permanently. Just long enough to get a deal over the line and then you’re free.’

‘A deal? Who is this merry charade for?’

He hesitated. She didn’t need to know, there was nothing he had to tell her, and yet...she’d told him about her father. That was a devastating secret being kept from the business world, which he could have used to destroy everything without any effort on his part. She could have kept quiet about it till she had his money. He didn’t understand why she had so willingly handed him the perfect means to ruin her.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to tell her why he needed her. If she worked with him on this, rather than against him, their association could be over sooner. It’s what he wanted, wasn’t it? A tightness settled low inside him, like that thought was somehow wrong.

‘Greta Bonitz.’

Eve’s eyes widened. The German industrialist was renowned for her investments in renewable technology. Reclusive, private and family minded, it had taken one hint that Gage may not have had impeccable morals for her to cool and put their discussions on permanent hold.

With Eve as his fiancée, that would change. A partnership with the Bonitz group of companies would give Caron Investments what it should have had years before, premier billing on the world stage. He’d do that for his father, for all the times things had not gone as planned because of what Gage had done as a stupid twenty-three-year-old drunk on lust and a belief in true love.

He’d finally be relieved of this burden of guilt he’d carried.

‘Why?’

‘She needs to believe the lie that you and I are together. Help me get an agreement over the line and Caron will bail out your company and keep your precious mother and sister safe from the wolves already coming down the mountain for them.’

He saw the flare in her eyes, the intelligence ticking in a way that said she thought she might be able to find a way out of this. ‘Take care, Eve. You’ve got more to lose than me. Fail, and I might lose a deal. You’ll lose everything.’

‘You’re the only wolf at the door, Gage. You have been for years, haven’t you?’

He smiled. She’d come to realise just how determined he’d been to bring them to this point, sitting across the table from one another with her future in his grip.

‘Seven, to be precise.’

He saw the moment she knew she’d been backed into a corner she couldn’t escape. She took a deep breath, straightened her spine and looked him in the face, her lips a tight, tense line. ‘When do we start this fantasy?’