Hot-Blooded Husbands Bundle

by Michelle Reid

  Aidan Galloway—she was locked in the arms of Aidan Galloway! Lightning was striking twice again, using a burning blast of cynical reality to hit him full in the face.

  Aidan Galloway. It was a joke. He almost laughed. Only he didn’t feel like laughing. Turn, he told himself. Leave, he told himself. Get away from here before she sees you and knows what a bloody fool you’ve made of yourself.

  ‘Oh, Aidan,’ Eve sobbed into his shoulder. ‘I’ve made such a fool of myself!’

  ‘Join the club,’ Aidan said.

  ‘He isn’t going to come, and I’ve left this stupid message on his machine…’

  ‘Now it’s playing over and over in your head. I know.’ Aidan sighed. ‘Been there, done that, felt the agony.’

  ‘I hate Ethan Hayes.’ She sobbed into his shoulder.

  ‘I wish I could learn to hate Corin,’ Aidan murmured wistfully.

  ‘Oh.’ Eve touched his cheek. ‘Is she still—?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Eve playing Eve, Ethan observed bitterly, as he watched her lift up her head and gaze into Galloway’s eyes.

  He felt his muscles go into violent spasm, as a need to go down there and commit murder swelled in his chest. He was about to take his first step towards assuaging that desire when a hand touched him on the shoulder, making him spin round and almost explode all that violence on Theron Herakleides instead.

  ‘Come back inside, Mr Hayes,’ Eve’s grandfather said quietly.

  ‘That’s Aidan Galloway she’s with,’ he heard himself murmur hoarsely.

  ‘Yes, I know it is.’ Theron’s steely head nodded. ‘But angry men do not confront weaker men. So come inside,’ he repeated the invitation. ‘I have a matter I would like to discuss with you.’

  Business, Ethan surmised, and shrugged the older man’s hand from his shoulder. ‘Keep your business proposals for someone else,’ he said. He had taken enough from other people trying to direct his life. ‘I’m leaving.’ And he turned to stride back into the house.

  Theron followed. ‘Take care, Mr Hayes, what you say right now,’ he quietly advised. ‘For a man can still be chased through the courts here in Greece, for jilting his betrothed…’

  There were several words used in that comment that stirred Ethan’s blood. Jilting, was one of them, he chose to challenge another one. ‘There was no betrothal,’ he coldly denied. It was all just an elaborate sham thought up by the manipulating witch wearing hot-pink.

  ‘How many witnesses do you think will I find in San Estéban who would be willing to swear the opposite to that?’

  Ethan stopped walking, turned and looked at Eve’s grandfather, aware that there was still more to come.

  ‘Ah,’ Theron said. ‘I see you understand me. Then we will go in here and continue to discuss the small matter of a settlement…’

  With that, Theron opened the door to his study and walked inside. After a small hesitation, Ethan followed him with the word settlement ringing warning bells in his head.

  Theron’s study was furnished to suit the man’s big persona. Heavy furniture filled the floor space, heavy-framed portraits adorned the walls.

  ‘So,’ the big man began as he slotted himself behind his heavy oak desk. ‘Did you really think that you could send my granddaughter back to me like used and broken goods without paying a heavy price?’

  Broken. That word made Ethan release a hard mocking laugh. There had been nothing broken about the woman he’d seen wrapped in the arms of another man. ‘Ask Aidan Galloway to pay the price,’ he suggested. ‘He has the money. You’ll struggle to get a penny out of me.’

  ‘Eve loves you.’

  ‘Hell, damn it!’ Ethan suddenly exploded spectacularly. ‘Open your eyes, Theron! Eve only loves the thrill of the chase!’

  Through the fine silk drapes covering the opened French window of her grandfather’s study, Eve heard the deep rasping tones of Ethan’s voice, froze for a split second, then spun around to stare at the house.

  ‘Be assured that Aidan Galloway is more than willing to take your place tonight,’ Theron smoothly replied. ‘Oh, yes,’ he confirmed at Ethan’s sudden stillness. ‘Eve’s betrothal celebration will take place tonight whether or not it is you standing at her side. Eve is resigned to this. You’ve broken her heart, now she cares not about the man who will next share her bed.’

  The words were used as well-aimed bullets that sank themselves deep into Ethan’s head. Was that what Eve was doing out there—seducing Aidan Galloway to take his place? More bells began ringing, a red tide of anger came flooding in. He was very intimate with Eve’s powers of persuasion. He knew only too well what it was like to fall into her sticky web.

  ‘What do you want from me, Theron?’ he demanded grimly.

  ‘I want you to honour those promises you made to me in the Caribbean,’ the big man said.

  ‘I’ll talk to her.’ It was Ethan’s only concession, though he was planning to do a lot more than just talk to Eve when he could get his hands on her. She played with men’s feelings. She walked all over their self-respect. She made love like a natural-born seducer and he was damned if any other man was going to know how good that felt.

  ‘Not without the right,’ Theron smoothly said.

  Ethan glared at him. ‘Explain,’ he insisted.

  Theron went one better and slid several documents across the top of his desk. ‘You know the score. Sign, and you can talk to my granddaughter. Don’t sign, and you can leave her to Aidan Galloway’s adequate care.’

  Ah, Ethan thought. The contract to protect Theron’s precious money. He almost laughed in the old man’s face as he stepped up to the desk, picked up Theron’s handy pen, and scrawled his signature in the allotted space.

  ‘Now, if you will excuse me,’ he concluded coldly.

  ‘Don’t you think you should have read what it is you’ve just put your signature to? It is an unwise man who signs a document without first ensuring himself that he has not just signed his entire wealth away.’

  Wealth, Ethan thought. ‘What wealth?’ he mocked. His wealth stood outside in the arms of another man.

  His wealth, his woman—hell, he was right back on track again; he felt so much better for realising that.

  ‘You’re a liar, Hayes,’ Theron inserted, then suddenly let rip with a hearty laugh. ‘Do you think I would let you seduce my granddaughter into marriage without having you thoroughly checked out? You are a Caledonian Hayes of the merchant shipping line. Your grandfather sold up in the sixties and died in the eighties, leaving you so much money you could even afford to buy me out!’

  ‘Ah—my credentials,’ Ethan acknowledged and the depth of his cynicism played havoc with his face. ‘How long have you been planning this?’ he demanded.

  ‘Marrying you to my granddaughter? Two weeks ago you became worthy of consideration when my nephew, Leandros, let slip how much money you had invested in San Estéban,’ Theron replied. ‘A mere architect, no matter how gifted he is, could not earn that kind of money in a hundred years. I have an instinct for these things.’ With a smugness that said he was enjoying himself, Theron touched a finger to the end of his nose. ‘The nose twitched. So I decided to have you checked out for curiosity sake, you understand. And for Eve’s sake, of course.’

  Glancing down at the document he had just put his signature to, Ethan began to wonder what he had signed away. ‘It won’t do you any good,’ he announced. ‘I live off my earned income. Any money my grandfather left me is tied up in trusts for any children I might have.’

  ‘Or my grandchildren.’ Theron nodded. ‘Exactly.’

  So that was what this was all about. ‘Eve is up for sale to the man with the biggest return.’

  From sitting there wallowing in his own self-satisfied smugness, Theron was suddenly launching to his feet in a towering rage. ‘Don’t speak about Eve in that tone!’ he bellowed. ‘It is okay for you with your hidden millions to stand here mocking me whose wealth is well documented. But place yourself
in Eve’s shoes and tell me how she distinguishes between the man who will love her for herself and the one with love only for the money she will inherit one day!’

  ‘So you think that by finding her a husband who is wealthier than herself, you are safeguarding her against disillusionment and a broken heart?’ Ethan’s tone poured contempt all over that concept as his own fury rose to match the older man’s. ‘Money in the bank is no guarantee for love, Theron!’ he bit out furiously. ‘It’s just—money in the bank! I am as capable as the next man is of breaking her foolish, reckless heart!’

  ‘If you were the kind of man to do that, you would not be standing here arguing with me about this!’

  ‘She already thinks I’m in love with another woman!’ he threw at Theron. ‘Are you telling me that your investigation of me did not tell you that?’

  ‘If it didn’t, he knows now,’ another quieter, heart-piercingly level voice inserted.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  BOTH men stiffened sharply, both turned to stare at the silk-draped window where Eve now stood. Both men went as pale as death.

  ‘Eve, that wasn’t said to—’

  The flick of a hand silenced him; the expression on her face tore him apart. She was hurting, he was hurting. Ethan didn’t even want to know what Theron was feeling like. Big, green how-could-you-both-hurt-me-like-this eyes flicked from one man to the other. She took in a breath of air. It seemed to pull all of the oxygen out of the room and left none for them to breathe.

  Pale but composed, feeling as fragile as a lily about to snap in the soft warm breeze, Eve took a small step to bring herself into the very male-orientated surroundings of her grandfather’s study, and announced. ‘If you’ve both finished playing Russian roulette with my future. I would like to point out that women gained the right to choose for themselves some time during the last century.’

  ‘You break my heart, child,’ her grandpa told her painfully. ‘I would be failing in my duty to you if I did not make this man formally declare his intentions.’

  ‘He doesn’t have any intentions!’ Eve slashed at him.

  ‘Yes, I do,’ Ethan argued.

  She turned on him, eyes burning like phosphorescence as they fixed themselves onto his. His chest swelled, his heart began to pump, other parts of him began to send taunting little signals out across his skin. She was waiting to hear more. More was coming, if he could only get past the sight of her in Galloway’s arms.

  ‘Will you marry me, Eve?’ There, he’d said it.

  ‘Oh.’ She choked, and her eyes filled with tears. ‘How could you let him browbeat you into saying that?’

  ‘I didn’t.’ He was shocked.

  ‘I’ll never forgive you for this—never.’ She sobbed, turned and ran outside leaving Ethan staring after her in thundering dismay!

  ‘I would go after her if I were you,’ Theron smoothly advised while calmly reading the contract Ethan had just signed.

  On an act of sheer frustration Ethan snatched the document out of Theron’s hands. ‘I am sick and tired of other people meddling in my life!’ he announced, then turned and walked out of the study—by the conventional route of the door through to the hallway.

  Outside he was a mass of offended dignity. Inside he was bubbling with angry offence at the way Eve had rejected him. He’d had enough. Eve was impossible. He was happy to let Aidan Galloway have her. He strode down the hallway with every intention of leaving this house and never stepping foot in it again.

  As he crossed the foot of the stairs, he heard a door on the upper landing shut. His feet came to a stop. Bubbling offence had changed to something else entirely, and he knew he wasn’t going anywhere but up those stairs to open her shut door.

  On a lethal curse, he changed direction. As he took the stairs, two at a time, he had even reached the point of asking how he thought he could walk away, when he could feel that lead still attached to his neck.

  She tugged, he went where it pulled him.

  Eve stood in the middle of her bedroom and shook from fingers to toes. She couldn’t believe he’d said that. She couldn’t believe she’d actually looked her dearest in the face then had turned and had walked away from it!

  How could he—how could he stand there in her grandfather’s study wheeling and dealing her life away? He was just like Grandpa: money orientated, power orientated! If she had any sense left she would get out of here. She would disappear somewhere so remote that she would never be found! She hated men—all men. Young, old, they were all the same: arrogant self-obsessed bullies who liked to think they were in control of everything.

  The bedroom door suddenly flew open. She spun round to find Ethan standing there. ‘If you’ve come to offer another proposal of marriage then don’t bother!’ she snapped.

  ‘You will have to get down on your knees to get another one of those out of me,’ Ethan grimly returned.

  Her knees tried to buckle. Eve felt like screaming. He looked lean and hard, and tough and angry; the bitter expression on his face was spoiling its handsome lines. She liked it. It meant he was hurting. If he was hurting then it had to be because of her—didn’t it?

  ‘Then what do you want?’ she demanded coldly.

  ‘You,’ he said, ‘to explain to me what the hell were you doing wrapped in Galloway’s arms the moment my back was turned!’

  The door slammed shut. Eve’s eyes began to fire. ‘What were you doing leaving me to go to her, just because she crooked her little finger at you?’ she countered furiously.

  Eve folded her arms across her front. Ethan leaned back against the door and did the same. Stalemate. They’d been here before. Excitement began to fizz in the air. Green eyes flashed with it; grey glinted with it. She wanted to go over there and kiss him stupid.

  ‘It was hell,’ he pronounced. ‘I didn’t have any idea how rife the rumours were until I saw the way my arrival was received. I half expected to die the death of a thousand cuts!’ He released a short laugh.

  ‘You are still in love with her,’ she tossed at him in pained accusation.

  ‘No, I am not,’ he tossed right back. ‘I am in love with you—God help me!’

  ‘Oh,’ she said.

  ‘Yes,’ he agreed in grim, tight mockery.

  ‘Then you shouldn’t have gone!’

  ‘You should have come. You would have enjoyed the spectacle.’

  ‘You should have invited me.’

  ‘If you hadn’t been so pig-stubborn, I probably would have done.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said again, and silence settled.

  Eve wanted to fill it by throwing herself into his arms and kissing her way back into his good graces. Ethan wanted to fill it by throwing her on that bed he could see across the room and loving her absolutely senseless.

  Instead they both looked at the papers he held in his hand. Eve recognised them for what they were; resentment began to flare again.

  ‘Rip it up,’ she told him.

  ‘Why?’ he asked. ‘He’s only got me to sign my life away.’

  ‘I don’t want your money.’

  ‘I didn’t say money, I said life!’ He flashed her a hard look. ‘Are you telling me you don’t want that, either?’

  Her chin went up. Two steps and she was snatching the contract from him just as he had snatched it from Theron.

  Eve ripped it up. She tossed it to the ground. She placed hands on hips and waited for his eyes to move up from the torn contract to her provocative pose, to her mouth which was wearing its angry pout, and finally to her eyes shot through with challenge. ‘Okay,’ she announced. ‘I’ll take your life.’

  Ethan reached out, pulled her hard up against him then kissed her…Why not? It was what they both needed. Eve didn’t so much as attempt to pull away.

  ‘Now, tell me why were you kissing Aidan Galloway,’ he murmured some very satisfying seconds later.

  ‘I wasn’t kissing him,’ Eve denied. ‘I was sobbing on his shoulder because you weren’t here and I wanted y
ou to be.’

  Ethan brought up a finger to gently touch the corner of her kiss-trembling mouth. ‘And the last time I saw you with him like that?’ he probed. ‘You weren’t sobbing then.’

  ‘You misread what you saw that night,’ she explained, slid out her tongue and licked his finger and watched as his eyes grew darker in response. ‘Aidan had just seen Corin wrapped in a heated clinch with his cousin. They were childhood sweethearts; he’s adored her all of his life. He was devastated, I was comforting him when I heard them coming towards us, and I just reacted by kissing Aidan to give Corin a taste of her own nasty medicine.’

  ‘Impulsive as usual.’ He sighed.

  ‘Well, you should know.’ She flashed. ‘When I realised you’d seen us, I knew what you would be thinking. So as soon as I could safely leave Aidan, I impulsively went to your room to explain. Only…’

  ‘You found me standing there stark-naked, and decided it was more fun to stare me into embarrassing myself?’

  ‘If that’s what you like to think.’ She wasn’t taking the bait. Instead she caught hold of his finger then fed it across the surface of his own mouth. Already moistened by the tip of her tongue the finger left a film of moisture on his lips.

  He licked it off. Sex was suddenly alive in the air. ‘You can’t control yourself around me,’ she informed him smugly, ‘which is why you made sure you kept your distance from then on.’

  His own hand came to remove her teasing finger. ‘You tease and flirt without conscience,’ he condemned.

  ‘Your fault,’ she blamed. ‘The more you disapproved of me the more outrageous I became.’

  ‘Dangerous is the word that comes to my mind.’

  He was referring to Raoul Delacroix, Eve realised. It altered the mood so abruptly that Ethan gave a sigh of regret when she withdrew right away from him then walked over to stare out of the bedroom window with her arms crossed over her body in a gesture he recognised as Eve needing to protect Eve.

  He followed, unwrapped her arms and replaced them with his own. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to resurrect bad memories.’