‘I’m sorry for misjudging you the other night.’ Holly’s tone was softened with remorse. ‘You sound like a good son. He’s lucky to have you to support him.’
‘I do my best, but it’s tough at times. That’s why I decided to run with our engagement after Kendra sent that Tweet. My dad’s been blaming himself for my playboy lifestyle. I figured if I showed him I was in a committed relationship it might take some of that guilt off him.’ Zack stretched his mouth into a rueful smile. ‘I don’t normally talk about this stuff to anyone. You’re a good listener.’
She smiled back. ‘I could say the same about you.’
He couldn’t drag his eyes away from the sweet curve of her lips. He moved closer and slid his hand along the side of her face, lifting her chin to mesh her gaze with his. ‘If we don’t go and get some dinner soon, I might change my mind and eat you instead.’
She gave a delicate shiver as if his erotic promise had secretly thrilled her. She slipped out of his hold, her colour high. ‘I’ll go and get changed. Please...make yourself at home.’ She stepped back and bumped into the kitchen table. ‘Oops. Silly me.’ She gave him a flustered smile and turned and disappeared out of the room.
* * *
Holly took a deep steadying breath when she got to her bedroom. Her heart was thumping like it had been given a shot of adrenaline and her body was tingling from the sensual threat Zack had promised. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror and saw the patch of beard rash on her chin and something in her stomach turned over. Why did she have no willpower around him? His kisses were like a drug she couldn’t get enough of and his touch made her senses turn cartwheels. She felt annoyed with herself for being so cynical about his ‘date’ the other night. He clearly had a good relationship with his father—a loving and supportive one that made her admire him all the more.
She’d been right about one thing, though. His parents’ divorce had made an impact on him. A big impact. His reluctance to commit fully to a relationship made perfect sense when she thought about his father’s struggles that Zack had witnessed first-hand.
Holly turned away from the mirror and opened her wardrobe. What was she going to wear? She had always been too busy working to pay much attention to fashion. She wore casual clothes to work because floristry could be messy at times. She had a couple of nice outfits that got her by, but nothing in the same class as some of his glamorous lovers. How would she measure up in her boring off-the-peg little black dress?
She sighed and stripped off her work gear and stepped into her dress, smoothing it over her stomach and thighs. She brushed her hair and then scooped it up on top of her head in a casual knot, leaving some tendrils hanging down around her face. She scrabbled around on her dressing table for a set of pearl droplet earrings her parents had given her for her last birthday and put them on. She freshened up her make-up and sprayed her wrists with perfume. She slipped on a pair of heels and grabbed a cashmere pashmina—another birthday present, this time from her sister Katie—and wrapped it around her shoulders.
She tilted her head from side to side, wondering why Zack had chosen her as his latest seduction target. She wasn’t a beauty, not in the traditional sense of the word. Her three sisters were the beauties in the family. She was kind of okay but in a forgettable girl-next-door way.
Holly blew out a sigh and picked up her evening purse. Her man drought was over but pretending to be engaged to Zack Knight was surely the craziest thing she’d ever done.
And by far the most exciting.
* * *
Holly came back out to the sitting room, where Zack was waiting for her. He was scrolling through the messages or emails on his phone...or maybe he was reading his Twitter feed. He stood when she came into the room, his gaze travelling over her figure with blatant male appraisal. ‘Wow. You look amazing.’
She could feel her cheeks glowing and wondered if she would ever get tired of hearing him compliment her. No. Never. He made her feel more feminine, more attractive, more desirable than she’d ever felt before. Why was she insisting on resisting him? No man had ever made her feel so attractive. No man had ever touched her and made her burn with need. When he looked at her with those dark blue smouldering-with-lust eyes, her insides quaked with longing—a longing so intense it threatened to overrule every one of her reasons for not getting involved with him. ‘Thank you,’ she said with a smile.
‘I called a mate of mine who owns a jewellery shop,’ he said. ‘I’ve done two of his divorces so far and counting. He designs his own exclusive range. We can go to his studio before dinner—he’s staying open specially for us.’
Holly blinked and her smile fell away. ‘A jewellery designer sounds hideously expensive. Why can’t we just use one from a chain store?’
‘This engagement of ours might not be the real deal but I insist any jewellery you wear from me will be,’ Zack said. ‘I’m not having people think I’m too tight to buy my fiancée a decent rock.’
Holly drew her pashmina closer around her shoulders. ‘I’ll accept a ring, but only on the proviso that I give it back to you once we end our engagement. Agreed?’
‘No.’ His tone was as firm as a punctuation mark. ‘You will keep it. I insist. Think of it as a gift.’
Her chin came up. ‘I don’t accept expensive gifts from men.’
‘Even ones you’re in love with?’
Holly affected a laugh. ‘I’m not in love with you.’
He gave a slow smile and stroked a lazy finger down the slope of her burning cheek. ‘This is probably a good time to set some ground rules.’ His finger moved to the patch of stubble rash on her chin, passing over it in a faint movement that made her skin tingle. ‘No falling in love, okay? This isn’t for ever.’
Holly pulled away from him before she went into a mesmerised trance. ‘Are you saying that for your benefit or mine? What if you fall in love with me? Have you thought about that possibility?’
Something flickered through his gaze but his smile never faltered. ‘There’s no way of saying this without it sounding like an insult, but no, I’m not going to fall in love with you or anybody.’
Holly wasn’t sure why she should be feeling such a painful stab of disappointment. She didn’t want him to fall in love with her. Why would she? She didn’t want to fall in love with anyone ever again. Having a fling with him was something she was prepared to consider. More than prepared. But falling in love with him? Not going to happen. ‘Maybe you haven’t met the right woman. The one who holds the key to your cynical heart.’
He jangled his car keys in his pocket, his expression now as inscrutable as a blank canvas. ‘We should get going. Nathan will be waiting for us.’
* * *
Holly went with Zack to where his car was parked out on the street. It was a top-model sports car, a deep navy blue, the same colour as his eyes. He helped her into the passenger seat and she thought back to all the times her exes had left her to fend for herself. She might be a feminist, but she still loved it when a man held a door open for her. She breathed in his aftershave as she moved past him to get in the car, her senses so finely tuned to him she was aware of every point of contact. The slightest brush of his fingers was enough to make her heart skip a beat. When their gazes met, her stomach slipped like a foot missing a rung on a ladder.
When he got behind the wheel she was conscious of how close he was to her, his strong muscular thighs within touching distance, his hand on the gear lever close enough for her to see the dark hairs sprinkled over the back of his hand. She sucked in a breath and pulled her seat belt down, clipping it in place, wishing she could restrain her body’s traitorous longings just as easily. Did he know the battle she was fighting? The battle to resist his lethal charm. The battle she was fast losing because her body was a traitor. It was drawn to him like the ocean was drawn towards the shore. An unstoppable tide of longing that rolled through her in slow, rh
ythmic waves, washing away her willpower like shallow footprints in sand.
Zack started the car with a throaty roar that sent a shudder through her body. Sheesh. Even his car made her think of sex.
He glanced at her with a smile. ‘Ready?’
‘Ready.’ Holly wasn’t sure if she was or not. Accepting an engagement ring from a man who didn’t love her was becoming a pattern for her, it seemed. But she had to get her business back on track and she had to get through her sister’s engagement party next month. She couldn’t allow any misgivings about her ‘engagement’ with Zack to distract her from her mission. She didn’t want to think too much about how long they would continue the charade. He’d mentioned weeks, possibly months, but she knew from the gossip pages he never stayed with a lover longer than a month, sometimes less. She’d found it kind of sweet how he wanted to convince his father he was a reformed playboy, but how long before Zack got restless and wanted to move on?
It would be foolish of her to think he might not want to end the charade, that he might fall in love with her and...
Holly skirted away from the thought like someone avoiding a muddy puddle. She was over the fairy tale. Over. Over. Over. The fairy tale happened to other people, not to her. Every time she’d bought into the fairy tale it had handed her a poisoned apple. Two poisoned apples. Her involvement with Zack wasn’t a poisoned apple—it was forbidden fruit and she was going to enjoy every deliciously tempting bite.
‘Tell me about your family.’ Zack’s deep, mellifluous voice broke through her reverie.
‘Both my parents are high school teachers,’ Holly said. ‘They fell in love the first time they met in the school staffroom on the first day of term. I have three sisters. All of them are younger than me. Two of them are married and the youngest, Belinda, is the one who just got engaged.’
‘No pressure or anything.’
Holly grimaced. ‘Tell me about it. They can’t seem to accept I want to remain single.’
He sent her a sideways glance. ‘So you’re not after the fairy tale? The big church white wedding with all the trimmings?’
Holly gave a shudder. ‘No way. I’m done with the fairy tale.’ She turned in her seat to look at him. ‘What about your family? What sort of work do your parents do?’
A muscle tensed in his jaw and his hands on the steering wheel tightened a fraction. ‘My father is a civil servant. He mostly works part-time these days.’
‘And your mother?’
His mouth came up at one side in a cynical slant. ‘She does lunch. Her husband—one of three she’s had since my father—is a wealthy property developer. She hasn’t worked since she married my dad when she got pregnant with me.’
Holly wondered if his reasons for being a divorce lawyer had something to do with his background. Divorce was always hard on kids; even the most amicable of divorces could leave a mark on children. ‘Who did you spend most of your time with growing up?’
‘My father.’ He opened and closed his hands on the steering wheel as if he was conscious of gripping it too tightly. ‘My mother didn’t want custody.’
Holly bit her lip, thinking of the love her mother had for her and her sisters. She couldn’t imagine a single circumstance where her mother would have relinquished custody in the event of a divorce. Didn’t most parents share custodial arrangements? Or at least want to? ‘That must have been awfully tough on you, especially as a ten-year-old.’
He gave an indifferent shrug but she noticed his hands hadn’t totally relaxed their grip on the steering wheel. ‘I survived.’
‘Did you see much of her during your childhood? I mean, even though she didn’t want custody?’
‘Occasionally. Birthdays, that sort of thing.’
‘Is your parents’ divorce the reason why you became a divorce lawyer?’
‘I guess to some degree, yes.’ He glanced over his shoulder before he deftly switched lanes. ‘My father was completely blindsided by my mother’s demand for a divorce. He’d worked hard at keeping them together. Too hard, in my opinion. He’s much better off without her, but unfortunately he doesn’t believe that.’
Holly frowned. ‘But you said they divorced when you were ten. Isn’t that a little too long to be hoping someone will come back to you?’
He gave a frustrated-sounding sigh. ‘Try telling my father that. He believes my mother is the only woman he will ever truly love. That’s why his subsequent relationships always fail. His new partners never measure up.’
‘Do you see much of your mother now?’
His mouth twisted. ‘I’m a dutiful son.’
‘But not a devoted one?’
‘No.’
His one-word answer seemed to contain a host of intriguing backstory Holly longed to explore. His childhood had been so different from hers. She had never once doubted her parents’ love for her and or their love for each other. It had given her childhood a warm cosy blanket of security that to this day she still relied on. She couldn’t imagine how devastating it would have been for Zack to have his mother walk out on him and his father when he was only ten years old. To watch his father crumble emotionally and feel so powerless as a child to do anything to help him. And then to only see his mother occasionally while he was growing up. What had that done to him emotionally? Had it made him bitter and distrustful about long-term relationships? Was he commitment-shy in case the woman he loved walked out on him like his mother had done to him and his father?
‘I guess watching your dad go through such heartache for so long must make you pretty wary about relationships,’ Holly said. ‘And the divorce work you do must reinforce that wariness.’
‘I keep my relationships pretty simple.’
‘And short.’
He glanced at her with a wry smile. ‘So you do read the gossip pages.’
Holly could feel her cheeks heating. ‘At the hairdresser’s. It’s hard to find a magazine these days without a picture of you in it with your latest squeeze. Do you have a penchant for blondes?’
His eyes glinted. ‘Redheads are my current thing.’
Holly gave him a mock glare. ‘My hair isn’t red. It’s chestnut.’
‘It’s beautiful, like burnished copper. It’s the first thing I noticed about you. That and your gorgeous figure.’ He sent her a wicked grin. ‘Oh, and your mouth.’
Holly could feel herself glowing from his compliments. She had always been self-conscious about her wild hair and curvy figure. But when his gaze ran over her with such molten heat she felt like the most beautiful and sexy woman on the planet.
The jewellery design studio was situated in central London. Holly had heard of the designer Nathan Strickland, who made bespoke jewellery for the well-heeled and wealthy. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined she would be one day sitting in his studio being shown a tray of exquisite engagement rings.
‘Do you have a particular design in mind?’ Nathan asked once introductions were over.
Holly was still recovering from the shock of realising there weren’t any price tags in sight. That could only mean one thing—no way could she have ever afforded any item on show. Not even a pair of earrings. Not even one earring. ‘Erm...I like simple designs.’ She pointed to the smallest setting she could find in the tray. The solitaire diamond was set in a classic design and winked at her as if to say, Pick me!
‘You like this one?’ Zack said, lifting it out and turning it to the light.
‘Yes, it’s lovely...’
‘Your fiancée has excellent taste,’ Nathan said to Zack. ‘But then, why wouldn’t she since she’s chosen you, hey?’
Zack grinned, took Holly’s hand and slipped the ring on her finger. ‘Well, look at that. A perfect fit. It must be an omen.’
Holly looked at the ring on her finger and suppressed a shiver at the way Zack’s tanned hand contrasted with her lighter,
creamy-toned skin. She couldn’t stop imagining his hands on other parts of her body. On her breasts, on her belly. Between her legs... ‘It’s a beautiful ring...’ She looked up at Zack, her stomach slipping when his eyes meshed with hers. ‘But are you sure?’
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. ‘Never surer.’
Holly knew he was acting for the benefit of his friend watching on, but it didn’t stop a secret part of her wondering what it would be like to choose a ring with a man who truly loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Did such a man exist for her? Neither of her ex-fiancés had consulted her on her choice of ring but had presented her with ones she hadn’t really liked.
How strange that her fake fiancé would be prepared to buy her such a gorgeous ring and not blink an eye at the expense.
They said their goodbyes to Nathan and left the studio to head to the restaurant Zack had booked for dinner. It was a short walking distance from the studio and Zack took her arm and looped it through one of his. ‘Stop frowning, Holly,’ he said, glancing down at her while they waited for a pedestrian signal. ‘It wasn’t that expensive.’
‘I can’t believe you were prepared to pay that much for a ring for a woman you’re not in love with,’ Holly said.
‘I told you why. I don’t want people thinking you’re not worth a decent ring.’
Holly couldn’t help feeling a little thrilled he’d insisted on buying such a lovely ring for her. She kept glancing at it on her finger, marvelling at the way it suited her hand so well. But then, walking side by side with his arm around her, she felt the same strange sense of rightness, as if they had been walking arm in arm for years. ‘My exes bought me rings I hated, and Peter, my second fiancé, bought me a fake diamond. I didn’t realise it was fake until after we broke up. But, given how things panned out, I should’ve guessed earlier.’
‘The more I hear about your exes the more I want to knock their heads together,’ Zack said, frowning.
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