Married for the Tycoon's Empire
The fledgling tender emotions Lia had been feeling seemed to shrivel inside her. She had the very sick suspicion that she was the most monumental fool in the world.
She, of all people, who had seen how cruel and ruthless people could be. Even those who were meant to love you the most. She who had learnt her lesson, but had been all too ready to forget everything and believe in an illusion.
And just then she heard the sounds heralding Ben’s return from the bakery.
* * *
When Ben walked into the suite’s main foyer he saw the newspapers on the floor, where they’d fallen. He sensed instantly that something was wrong—like in Bahia, when he’d woken to find Lia gone. He stepped over them and his mouth tightened. If she’d run out on him again, like she had before...
But he came to a halt in the doorway of the living area when he saw her standing with her back to him at the main window. The relief that rushed through him would be worrying if he hadn’t still been feeling uneasy.
‘Hey, I’ve got some pastries and croissants.’
Lia didn’t turn around straight away, and when she did he saw her face was set. Pale. Her arms were crossed in a clearly defensive gesture. A million miles from the sleep-flushed woman who had smiled as he’d kissed her awake earlier...
Ben put down the bag on a nearby table. The way Lia was looking at him made him feel more wary than concerned. ‘Did something happen?’
‘You could say that,’ she answered tonelessly.
Ben frowned, but before he could respond to ask her What? she spoke again.
‘What is this, Ben? What are we doing here?’
A million carnal images came into his mind, but he desisted from making any facetious comment. An awful suspicion was entering his head—she knows...somehow she knows.
‘What do you think this is, Lia?’
She looked at him for a long moment. ‘To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure. It’s an elaborate seduction—that much I do know. For someone who up till just weeks ago was a perennial bachelor with a tarnished playboy status.’
Now Ben flushed, and gritted his jaw. ‘You didn’t seem interested in analysing things before now.’
‘No.’ Lia sounded bitter. ‘More fool me.’
His gut clenched in rejection of that. ‘You’re not a fool, Lia.’
She arched a brow. ‘No?’
Then she reached down for the newspaper on the couch near her and lobbed it over to Ben, who caught it on a reflex. He saw the headline and felt inordinately relieved.
Barely skimming the article and photo, he looked at her.
‘Is this all?’ It was just the tabloids...if anything this would work in Ben’s favour.
‘No, that’s not all.’ Lia’s tone was even cooler now. ‘You got a text message from a friend. I mistakenly read some of it because I thought it was my phone. But I’m not sorry I read it. I found it quite illuminating.’
Ben saw his phone on a table nearby and picked it up. When he saw the message he unlocked his phone to read it all the way to the end.
You might just beat the rest of us to the altar, so enjoy your freedom while you can. Ciao. Mancini.
Ben could almost hear the man’s drawling, sarcastic tone and he had to restrain himself from hurling the phone against something solid.
When he looked at Lia she was even paler, and her eyes were like two stark blue sapphires. Swirling with anger and other things he couldn’t decipher.
‘Why did he call it a million-dollar gamble?’
Something solid and heavy settled in Ben’s chest. He really hadn’t wanted it to go like this, but perhaps it was better just to be completely brutally honest. He threw the paper and his phone down.
He funnelled a hand through his hair and looked at Lia. ‘I initiated a meeting with the others after the press seemed to have become intent on decimating our reputations. There’s a charity we’re all involved in, and it was beginning to be adversely affected. That was the breaking point for me. I figured that if Trakas, Mancini and Sheikh Al-Ghamdi would agree to join forces with me, we could beat the press at their own game.’