Bound As His Business-Deal Bride

‘Darling, it’s good to see you,’ he said, his gaze tracing over her body. She tugged at her shirt and wished she’d done up all the buttons rather than leave a few open, giving the merest hint of cleavage. At least she was dressed for business in a trouser suit. A reminder that for the foreseeable future every moment of her day was work. ‘How did your family take the news of our engagement?’

The flight attendant walked back towards the cockpit with a warm smile for them both. Eve tried to return it, but felt sure what she gave in response looked more ill than pleased.

‘As well as could be expected.’

Not well at all. She’d told her mom and sister that Gage had agreed to save the company. That they had unfinished business. Her mother had wailed about liars and cheats, betrayals and blood money, before taking to her room where she’d no doubt still be. Veronique had simply turned her back with the words ‘It’s treachery. He’s a filthy Caron.’ She’d ignored them both.

‘What did your parents say?’

‘My parents only want me to be happy,’ he said. A tiny muscle in his jaw clenched, and she wondered about the truth of what he’d said. There was no warmth or caring in that voice. She could almost hear the sneer of My family’s better than yours.

And as far as he knew, that was true. He was the only child, and doted on. Which was one of the reasons why the secret she held must always be kept. He’d idolised his father. Did Gus Caron even know Gage wasn’t his? They’d always seemed to be such a small, happy family whenever he’d spoken of them. She wasn’t sure her parents ever thought about her happiness. Not really. Her father was only interested in the dynasty, as if that warmed you on a cold night. Having two daughters had been a profound disappointment.

‘I thought we could visit for Thanksgiving,’ Gage said.

‘That’s...four months away. Will we still be playing this game then?’

‘Since game-playing is your forte, it doesn’t matter how long this goes on. Sit back, relax and enjoy it.’

She blew out a slow breath and buckled up her seat belt as the captain announced take-off. ‘Fooling people we don’t know is one thing, but carrying on a charade in front of your family, in person? I can’t and I won’t.’

‘You scared of being caught out as a fraud?’ His eyes were on her, cold and hard like blue steel. He could hate her all he liked. She’d take his approbation, but he wouldn’t push her around.

‘No, but people get excited about weddings and you’re their only child.’ The lie almost stuck in her throat. ‘I’m mindful of hurting the family you love.’

He looked out the window as the world raced by. Her stomach swooped as the wheels left the tarmac and the plane began to climb. She swallowed as her ears popped, and stared out the window too. Anything to ignore the man who sat like a force of nature in front of her. She could feel him, the air almost bristling and shimmering around him with restrained energy. It put her on edge, just when she needed to relax.

When he turned back to her, his face had softened a little. Like the hard edges had been sanded away. ‘No Thanksgiving, then.’

The plane levelled out and the captain announced they could release their seat belts, so Gage unbuckled his and strolled to the front of the aircraft into the cockpit. Eve couldn’t help watching him go. His strong, broad shoulders, tapering into a narrow waist. The way his suit trousers sat low and firm on his lean hips. A prickly kind of heat rushed over her. She looked away before she ogled his backside because that had always been one of her favourite parts of him. The way she’d gripped him as he’d moved over her...

No. She would not go there. He’d grown up, that was all. Lost his youthful softness, his angles now hard and one hundred per cent adult male in his prime. Any female on the planet would be transfixed by all that golden hair, tanned skin and muscular physique, but obsessing about something she would never have wasn’t worth the energy.

Eve sank back into her seat and closed her eyes, the painkillers she’d taken earlier finally taking the edge off her headache. She could work but nothing held her interest right now, everything depressingly bleak for the US operation. She didn’t need to read the most recent reports emailed to her to know most of the businesses her father had purchased in the last few years hadn’t lived up to the heady expectations of them. Or to know that the board’s lack of due diligence was also to blame, believing her father when they should have been questioning the madness of his obsession with beating Caron Investments at all costs.

She might try to snatch a bit of sleep but as she tried to blank her mind and relax, the atmosphere changed again, like everything held its breath. She opened her eyes and looked up to find Gage standing in front of her. He reached into his coat pocket and removed something then sat in the seat opposite.

‘This is yours.’ He held out a small blue box. The knot in her belly tightened because she knew what it was and didn’t want it. This was all a mockery, eating at her like a rat in corn. Still, she reached out to meet him halfway, trying not to touch him, not to let their fingers brush. She needn’t have worried. Gage was as keen to avoid her as she him. He pulled back his hand as if any contact between them would singe. She looked at the exquisite, embossed leather ring box. It was still warm from the heat of Gage’s body.

‘It’s unnecessary.’ Why did her voice sound so faint? Once she’d been desperate to wear his ring. They’d talked about getting one after they’d crossed the border and married. There was no time beforehand and Gage had been devastated he couldn’t do things the right way around—treat her like a princess, or so he’d said at the time. There was no point remembering any of that but, still, the difference between their dreams then and the reality now tore at her heart a little.

‘You and I will soon be officially engaged. Of course it’s necessary. Completes the blissful picture of our impending happy union.’

She could do this. It was only a piece of jewellery. It meant nothing.

And that was the whole problem, how meaningless this all was. It dirtied the memories of what they’d had together. Memories that had kept her going through seven years of long, cold, lonely nights. Memories of what love could be and what she might find for herself again one day.

No. There was no going back there. Her father had made it plain what would happen. Gage’s family would be destroyed. Their business ruined. Gage would have hated her. Not immediately, but eventually. When the beautiful gloss wore off and everything was tarnished, he would regret the day he’d ever peeked over the back wall separating the two family’s estates from his perch high in the magnolia tree, and said hello to a little girl picking flowers. That love of theirs would have morphed to hatred and they’d still be here, yet his life would be in tatters. She could never have done that to him. Love meant sacrifice. They were in the same place they would always have been. She’d done the right thing.

She had.

Eve lifted the lid of the box. Nestled in black velvet sat a huge emerald-cut sapphire, not dark but almost a cornflower-blue. The same colour blue as Gage’s eyes. The magnificent stone was su

rrounded by baguette diamonds and framed in white gold. It glittered under the lights, precious and perfect. She breathed through the burn at the back of her nose. She’d dreamed once of a ring like this when she’d been innocent, and everything had been simpler.

Her hands trembled as she lifted it from the box. Slid it onto her ring finger. ‘It fits perfectly.’ The gem sat there, heavy and warm; almost comforting, when there was nothing comforting about this at all. ‘How did you manage that?’

‘I knew your ring size once.’ Back then she’d never expected anything like this. While their families were wealthy, as two runaways they’d had very little. ‘I just sized it up a bit.’