Holiday With The Millionaire

‘Why do you think it is exactly that Addison doesn’t like you?’ She strove to keep her tone neutral and the wobble out of her voice.

He took a few seconds before he answered. ‘Let’s just say I knew Caleb when we were relatively young guys—long before Addison came on the scene—and we might have been involved in a few...’ he paused to think of the right word ‘...boisterous activities.’

‘Boisterous activities? That’s it? That’s all you’re giving me?’

He nodded. ‘I think that would be best.’

She folded her arms across her chest and looked through the kitchen window into the darkness. ‘Looks like a long, rainy night out there to me...’ She let her voice drift off.

‘You’ve got to be joking? You’d actually ask me to leave?’

She started walking around the kitchen. ‘Absolutely. And just think, there’s a lovely king-sized bed up there, with fresh, clean sheets just waiting for you to jump in and ease your tired bones.’ She folded her arms around herself and rubbed her hands up and down them. She knew exactly how to play him.

He sat down his coffee cup. ‘You’re a manipulator.’

‘And you could be a murderer, a drug dealer or...’ she scrunched up her nose ‘...even worse, a wannabe.’

‘A what?’ He couldn’t hide the surprise in his voice. ‘What are you talking about?’

She waved her hand. ‘You tell me you’re a sports agent, then you tell me you have to sort out badly behaved sports stars. You might just want to hang around them. You might even bring random dubious sport stars back to this place. They could wreck it.’

He shook his head. ‘You honestly think I want to hang around these guys? Some of them are worse behaved than two-year-olds.’

She folded her arms across her chest again. ‘Then give me a straight answer. Explain your “boisterous activities”.’

Boy. She was good. He’d practically walked right into that one.

He stood up, put both hands at his waist and arched his aching back. ‘Fine. We did some cliff-jumping, some free running. There might have been a little police involvement back in the day. Then there was the usual girl stuff. That’s probably why Addison doesn’t like me. She probably thinks of me as a bad influence or something.’

Lara leaned against one of the white cupboards. ‘Why? Because you encouraged her husband to take part in extreme sports, or because of the girl stuff?’

He ran his fingers through his hair. Jet-lag was definitely hitting right now. ‘Truth? Probably a bit of both. But, remember, this was all before her time.’ It wasn’t exactly the truth. But that was as much as he was willing to say.

Lara gave a nod. She’d finished cleaning the kitchen and it was back to its original sparkling white show-home-kitchen appearance. The kind of kitchen that looked as if people didn’t actually live in the house. ‘Well, that’s okay, then.’

She was still watching him with those wary blue eyes. He was trying not to think about the idiot who’d cheated on her and was obviously short of a few brain cells.

‘I’ve got an idea,’ he said, as he walked back through to the sitting room and picked up her half-empty bottle of wine and glass. ‘Let’s have a toast.’

‘A toast to what?’ She looked completely bewildered.

‘A toast to the fact we’ll need to share this house for the next two weeks.’

He poured some wine into her glass and handed it to her before she could object, then lifted the bottle up towards her. ‘To an interesting two weeks.’ He clinked the bottle to her glass before lifting it to his lips.

Her eyes never left his. ‘To an interesting two weeks,’ she repeated.

CHAPTER THREE

IT WAS THE weirdest feeling. Somewhere in the space up above her there was another body breathing in and out.

She’d bet Reuben wasn’t having trouble sleeping. At first she’d thought she was too hot and had discarded the thick onesie. After tonight she’d probably never wear it again. Then she’d realised she didn’t have PJs—and sleeping in the nude with a stranger in the house just wasn’t an option. So she’d done something she’d never even thought about before and crept along the corridor to Addison and Caleb’s room and rummaged through a few drawers until she’d found something suitable.

But it wasn’t entirely suitable. Addison’s sleeping apparel seemed to be short satin nighties—a whole variety of them. Even lying in bed she kept trying to tug it over her backside as it left her feeling strangely exposed. Or maybe that was just because Reuben was overhead.

She couldn’t help it. She’d done an online search on him. Who wouldn’t?

He seemed to be the darling of the acidic football critics. He’d brought two young, unknown Argentinian footballers to a Premiership team and had virtually saved it from bankruptcy. He’d negotiated a change of coach three times for his tennis player, which had helped him shoot up the rankings. He’d had seven baseball teams fighting over one of his players. And the dollar signs for his latest basketball signing made her eyes water.

Then there were the photos. Plenty with the latest sports star but she was more interested in the ones with a beauty by his side. Granted, the beauty was never the same twice. But all were considerably more glamorous than she was—even when she was wearing one of Addison’s satin nightdresses.

Eventually she heard noise downstairs. Had she slept at all? It didn’t feel like it. It felt as if she’d tossed and turned all night, her head full of dark-clothed strangers breaking into the house.

By the sound of it Reuben was banging through all the cupboards in the kitchen. Lara sighed and threw back the bedclothes. She sat up, the cooler morning hair hitting her barely covered skin. She glanced around. She wasn’t going to go downstairs dressed like this. She hesitated in the doorway, peering along the corridor before stealing down the corridor to Addison and Caleb’s bedroom again in search of a dressing gown.

She should have guessed. There was a perfect matching bright pink satin dressing gown to the nightdress she was wearing. Bright pink trimmed with purple lace. She didn’t even want to think what it had actually cost. She wrapped the dressing gown around her. That was much better. It covered all the parts of her it should, skimming just above her knees.

With a bit more confidence she opened the door to head towards the kitchen and almost barrelled straight into tea-bearing Reuben.

‘Oops, sorry.’

She jumped back as the tea sloshed onto the carpet.

Caleb’s eyes swept up and down her more exposed body. ‘Nice change,’ he said quickly. ‘So you don’t always dress as a teddy bear.’ He squinted behind her. ‘Is that Caleb’s room?’

Heat flushed into her cheeks. How did this guy do that to her? She bit her lip. ‘Caught. Just don’t tell. Let’s just say I didn’t bring a lot of nightwear with me.’

He looked as if he were going to say something but stopped and gave his head a shake. He held the tea out towards her. ‘I made you tea.’

She stared at the cup. ‘What are you up to?’

He gave her a smile. ‘What makes you think I’m up to something?’

‘It’s written all over your face.’

He sighed. ‘What are your plans for today?’

Her eyes dipped downwards to her pink-painted toes. She hadn’t realised it but they actually matched her nightdress and gown. Her toes curled. ‘I’m not actually sure.’

‘You would have been on holiday, right? What were you going to do?’

She bit the inside of her cheek and said nothing.

This time it was Reuben’s turn to blush as he realised her obvious change of plans. ‘Oh, right. You were planning on spending time with that numbnut that you called a boyfriend. That means you’re free for the next two weeks.’

Her head shot up. ‘What did you call him?’

Reuben shrugged. ‘A numbnut—which he obviously is. Does the guy think he’s some kind of superhero? How dare he cheat on you?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Want to get thinking creatively? We could plot some hideous revenge.’

Her hands closed around the cup of tea. ‘Revenge means thinking about him—I’d rather not.’

Reuben nodded. ‘I have some work to do. Do you fancy coming with me?’ What was wrong with him? He had a mountain of work to get through. He knew there were six hundred emails in his inbox. But he had some other things to do. And he was feeling sorry for her. This time his eyes lingered on her curves and long bare legs.

‘I suppose I’d better register somewhere to try and find a new rental in London.’

‘Do you have the name of a reputable agency?’

She nodded. ‘The one I used the last time was great. I guess I’ll just register with them again.’ She sighed. ‘Once I’ve done that, I think I need to do a little shopping.’

‘Food or clothes?’ He’d already checked out the kitchen. After last night’s feast there was hardly anything left.

She sighed again. ‘Both, I suppose.’

‘Well, come and hang out with me for a while, then we can do some shopping.’

She looked at him suspiciously.

He lifted his hands. ‘What? It’s only fair I foot the bill for shopping. I ate all your food last night.’

She nodded. ‘Okay, then. Let me drink this tea and find some clothes.’

He gave a cheery nod and wandered back down the corridor. She watched his retreating back, but her eyes were drawn downwards. He was still wearing well-fitting jeans and a snug grey T-shirt.

Her two weeks of misery seemed to be looking up.

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