“You can’t be serious?” She reached behind her, finding a chair and dropping down into it. The support was suddenly imperative.
“Serious about what?” He prompted, moving to stand over her, his arms crossed, his expression like iron.
“You think I’ll go to bed with you in exchange for money?”
His laugh was sardonic. “Oh, Ava. You were a sensational lover, but not irreplaceable, believe me. I do not need to pay any woman to get her into bed.”
Addie squeezed her eyes shut as emotions tumbled through her. Embarrassment at the way he’d belittled what they’d shared, reducing it to average sex when it had been anything but. Jealousy and rage at the way he’d just intimated she’d been usurped in his bed – and so easily. Hate, yes, hate, for how they were speaking to one another, when at one time she had loved him with all of her heart.
How could he think these things of her? How could he despise her so much?
“That’s a relief, because believe me, I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot barge pole.”
They both knew it was bravado. And a lie. Then again, she was a skilled liar, according to him, so what if she was simply living up to his expectations?
“I’ll enjoy disproving that at a later date.”
Her eyes lifted to his. That implied a future that she hadn’t envisaged. “What do you want from me, Guy?”
“It’s what you want from me,” he corrected. “And what you’re willing to do to get it.”
Addie thought of her mother, her mother who might as well have died with her father and brother, she thought of her family as it had once been. And the home that had housed them so happily for twelve years of Addie’s life. She thought of how close she was to losing it all, how desperately she needed to make the repayments that had amassed without her knowledge.
And she knew there was no limit to what she’d do to save her mother. Tears sparkled on her lashes but they were tears of resentment and defiance. “I’ll do anything,” she heard herself admit. “Does that make you happy? To know that I’m so desperate I’ll agree to anything you propose? Do you enjoy seeing me demeaned like this?” She dashed away her tears and stood, side-stepping him with care.
“Yes.” The answer was like a crack of lightning, slashing through the air. “I enjoy seeing you get a hint of what I think you deserve. Perhaps you have never had to face the consequences of your actions, but that is going to change immediately.”
Her heart was thumping in her chest and angry defiance zipped through her. “You make it sound as though I hatched a plan to steal the crown jewels of England!” His eyes narrowed. “I never meant to deceive you. What happened with us was an accident, Guy. You have to believe I had no intention of meeting anyone like you that night. I was doing this thing, with my cousin, I was…” Trying to forget. The words clogged in her throat. She blinked her eyes shut. “I was just having fun. I never planned to lie to you.”
“But you did lie to me, again and again and again. I do not forgive liars, querida. And I will never forgive you.”
Ice ran through her veins. “You hate me.”
“I don’t feel enough for you to hate you,” he said with a careless shrug. “I hate what you did. I hate the kind of woman you are. But I would say, instead, that I pity you and your lifestyle choices.”
“God, Guy, don’t!” She lifted her hands to his chest, suddenly needing him to understand, needing him to see her for who she really was. “Think about what we were. Think about all the time we spent together. Laughing, talking, walking, sleeping… everything. How could I have lied to you that whole time? You knew me. Not my name, not my address, but come on! Everything that mattered, you knew!”
He stared at her for so long that she thought he might have been listening to sense. That perhaps he was going to realise how foolish he was being. “I will not enter into a deal with you, of any kind, if you continue to discuss the past. So far as I’m concerned, it is of no interest. There is no sense discussing what we were, for we will never be that again.”
Addie’s stomach churned with misery and shock. “Guy…”
“No.” He spoke harshly, interrupting her. “It is non-negotiable, Ava. I do not want to listen to any more of your pathetic lies.”
“It isn’t a lie!” She cried, stomping her foot in frustration. “Please, just let me explain about that night. About why…”
But his Spanish temper was soaring. Addie could feel it and it stirred an answering wave of heat inside of her. She hadn’t told him anything about her family. About her father and brother and The Accident. She hadn’t wanted him to look at her like everyone else did. But maybe if he knew the truth, he would start to see that it was so much more complex than he appreciated.
“Enough! There will be no more talk of it. Understood?”
Her caramel eyes clashed with his, and electricity arced around the room, sizzling and powerful. Tension pulled between them until finally, it was almost at breaking point.
“What do you want from me?” Addie asked out of desperation.
“Something you will find easy to accommodate,” he murmured. “I want you to lie for me.”
Addie stared at him as though he’d started to speak Swahili.
She opened her mouth to defend herself but he lifted his hand, his palm facing her, imploring her to be silent.
“If you so much as try to defend yourself, I will terminate this negotiation. I told you, I do not want to discuss the past. I do not care to hear your excuses. I do not mean that you should lie to me.”
Pain scored her body, a sharp, aching pain. “Who then?” She whispered, not sure if she had any intention of doing what he suggested, but needing to know for some macabre reason.
“At the end of the month, it is my grandfather’s birthday.” Guy moved away from Addie, and she was glad. Glad for the breathing space and the sanity his absence gave her. “He will be eighty-five.”
Addie nodded, but she had no idea where Guy was going with this conversation.
“Santiago is a proud man. We are very close, and always have been. As a child, I spent summers with him on Acantilados – his island. In short, he means the world to me.”
Addie stared at Guy, a man she’d once loved, and felt the weight of the world on his broad shoulders. She felt the tension that was inside of him and wished now that she could alleviate that. She’d been so focused on her own troubles, she hadn’t comprehended that he had his own to wrangle.
“My father was never interested in the business. When I was a boy, Santiago was training me. Teaching me. Showing me the ropes.” He turned then, pinpointing Addie with his intense stare. “We started in shipping. That was our first business. And Santiago would take me out to see the boats at the wharf, to talk to the men; that’s the kind of man he is. Not too proud to speak to the wharfies and labourers.”
Addie nodded, though she was still struggling to see what connection Guy’s grandfather could have to her.
“I have no siblings. The family business is mine, and mine alone. Santiago is anxious for me to settle down and start a family, to see his legacy in safe hands.”
Addie blanched visibly, once more reaching for a chair for support. This time though, she stayed standing, simply digging her fingers into the fabric back, using it to stay upright. “You aren’t actually suggesting I have a baby with you for fifty thousand pounds?”
“Cristo, no. You are the last woman I would want to raise a child with. How can you think I would ever want your deceitful, manipulative DNA in my child?”
It was so ludicrously hurtful that Addie laughed, a brittle, almost maniacal sound. She laughed even when his insult was digging into her heart and detonating it to pieces. “So what then, Guy? What do you want?”
“My family will go to Acantilados for Santiago’s birthday. We are to spend a week there, celebrating his life, celebrating him. It will distress him if I arrive alone, and more so if I bring one of the women I usually see – women he wastes no tim
e in telling me are not right for me.” His smile was a small curl of his lips. “I do not want the complications of a relationship. I’ve never intended to marry, and I still don’t.” His eyes narrowed meaningfully. “Not once have I met a woman who could tempt me to change my mind.”
More insults. He was so good at slashing them across Addie that she wondered how he’d hidden this talent when they were first dating.
“What I need, Ava Peters, is an actress of your caliber, your lack of morality, too. I want a woman with me who will play the part of my doting girlfriend without feeling bad about deceiving my family, who will spend the week by my side, making my grandfather believe I am settling down, and expect nothing from me in return.” His eyes narrowed. “Except fifty thousand pounds, of course.”
She blinked her eyes shut at what he was suggesting. “You mean me?”
His laugh unnerved her. “Yes.”
“You’re saying you want me to lie to your grandfather?”
Guy’s lips were a slash in his stunning handsome face. “My grandfather has not been well. Though he is in remission now, his illness weakened him. I want to give him the happiness of believing me to be … reforming my ways.”
“So you do think there are certain circumstances that justify a lie?”
His head jerked back, his surprise evident. “I think this is the deal I am offering you. Come to Acantilados with me at the end of the month. Spend the week pretending to be my lover, pretending to love me, and the money is yours.”
Addie stared at him with a mixture of shock and surprise. Pretend to love him? That wouldn’t be difficult. She’d loved him with all her heart and when he’d left her, she’d grieved. But she hadn’t forgotten what he’d meant to her.
He was the first man she’d ever loved, the first man who’d ever driven her wild with desire. He was her fantasy and dream, but loving him was going to be a nightmare.
How could she fight for her own pride, how could she argue with him over his judgement of her, when he was offering her a chance for redemption?
For surely a week together would change things? Surely a week together would make him see that she was still the same woman he’d cared for?
It was a gamble. A risk. But all to her own heart, and her heart was already breaking for Guy, so perhaps there was no risk at all. “Okay,” she said quietly. “Fine. I’ll do it. Consider me your girlfriend for hire.”
3
ADDIE’S FIRST GLIMPSE of Acantilados was of the sheer white cliffs that ran along the western side of the island, forming an impenetrable barrier that rose almost as if straight from the sea. She stared at them, breath held, eyes glued, dark hair whipping her face as the luxurious yacht moved ever-closer, the high speed causing the wind to roar past her.
And suddenly, her pulse wasn’t running because of Guy. It wasn’t tearing through her body because she knew he was somewhere on this space-age yacht, because she knew she would soon see him again.
No, there was something in the view of this island that was speaking to her, whispering ancient promises and lyrical invitations.
It was, quite simply, breath taking. Her fingers curved around the railing and unconsciously she peered closer, her eyes narrowing as she looked beyond the cliffs, to the clearing at the top. She could just make out the hint of a roof, a flat white structure, and a garden that looked to be formal in nature.
Guy’s grandfather’s house, perhaps?
She had run an internet search on the island as soon as she’d left Guy’s house, wanting to know everything she could about the scene for their ruse, and the family that she would be fooling. There was surprisingly little information; apparently the notorious Rodriguez privacy extended back generations.
She had managed to discover that it was privately owned, bought by Guy’s great-grandfather at some point decades earlier. Other than that, there was barely a whisper of information online, and so she hadn’t really been able to ‘prepare’ for this week.
The sun was high in the sky and Addie stared at the cliffs with a growing sense of wonderment, dropping her sunglasses down over her face as the picture was so bright, it made her eyes hurt.
They’d been on the boat a little over an hour, and she was yet to see Guy. A driver had collected her from Valencia, meeting her at the gate as she disembarked from the first-class flight Guy had booked for her (despite her protestations that he didn’t need to do any such thing). The same driver had brought her to the marina, and seen her onto the boat, introducing her to the ship’s captain and a valet before driving off into the sunset.
Guy was on board, she’d been informed by the valet, but not to be disturbed as he was in the middle of work.
The middle of work!
He didn’t even have the decency to come and meet her?
Was this how he imagined the week would go? That he would ignore her whenever it suited? That he would pretend she didn’t exist?
Addie tucked her raven dark hair behind her ears, a nervous gesture she thought she’d long ago outgrown. She wished, suddenly, that she’d contacted him before now. That she’d called him.
To say what?
To discuss this plan in greater detail, that’s what! So that she didn’t feel like she was potentially flying blind into a lion’s den. What did she know of Guy’s family? Only that they were mega-wealthy, super-influential, aristocratic, and quite frankly, terrifying to Adeline, who’d never had much to do with anyone of Guy’s ilk until, well, Guy.
Butterflies launched an assault on her stomach as the captain changed course, tacking the boat inlands, towards the island. But as it veered to the southern side, the cliffs dropped away, flattening themselves out to create the most beautiful white-sand beach Addie had ever imagined. The water was turquoise, and so clear that as they drew nearer to the island she observed turtles paddling a few metres away.
“Oh!” She gasped, leaning further over the boat, a smile curving her red lips as she watched their elegant movements.
“If you could avoid falling in, I would appreciate it.”
His accent was like salted caramel, oozing down her spine. Addie straightened, bracing herself for a brief moment, knowing that when she turned around she was going to be face to face with Guy, again. Slowly, she spun towards him, her heart in her throat.
It wasn’t as though she’d forgotten how handsome he was, yet her body reacted to the sight of him as though for the first time. Her knees felt weak and her blood pounded like lava through her veins, her chest moved quickly as she tried to breathe normally.
Yes, Guy was as captivatingly beautiful as this island. She’d never seen him dressed quite like this, either. So dangerously sensual, for relaxation and comfort. In a pair of beige shorts and a white t-shirt that hinted at the contours of his muscled chest, that showed off his deep tan, that made her ache to rip it off and run her fingers over a chest she remembered being contoured and broadly muscled.
She swallowed, but it was pointless. Her throat was as dry as the desert. Her equilibrium was nowhere to be found and yet Addie knew, even in her Guy-addled state, that she had to perfect the appearance of confidence, especially when she was far from feeling it.
“So, at last you deign to grant me the pleasure of your presence,” she delivered with ice in her tone, relieved that she’d taken the time that morning to choose a truly stunning outfit. She’d had no idea what to expect, so scant had the details been, and so she’d had to prepare for anything – including meeting his family as soon as she’d arrived.
She’d dressed to kill, and she was gratified by the look of awareness that passed over his face as he surveyed the frayed denim mini-skirt and pale blue halter neck shirt. Guy wasn’t the only one to boast a deep caramel tan. Addie didn’t have the luxury of Spain’s climate but the back garden at her home was secluded and she’d spent the last three weeks catching some Vitamin D whenever she could.
“Have you been missing me, querida?”
Her heart fluttered. “Not at
all, believe me.”
He moved towards her, and she held her breath, her eyes on his mouth as he closed the distance between them.
“Are you lying again?” He murmured, standing so close she could feel the heat emanating off him in waves. Against her will, without her knowledge, she swayed forward, her body pulled of its own volition, her stomach rolling. She stared at his mouth as though she could draw his lips to hers with the only the power of her mind.
Instead, he laughed. A soft sound of derision, of dismissal, and then he straightened, moving a little away.
He’d been playing with her. Toying with her so easily! Where had her bravado gone when she’d needed it?
Heat threatened to spread through her cheeks; Addie angled her body from his, returning her gaze to the island even when her whole concentration was focused on the man beside her. They were getting closer to a jetty, which she hadn’t seen earlier, and the boat was slowing as they approached.
The butterflies were worse than before, hammering her insides. She could make out some more structures in the distance, set a little way back from the beach, on a gentle rise that would allow for a view of the ocean.
“Having second thoughts?”
His question ran over her skin and goosebumps followed.
She wasn’t. Well, maybe she was, a little, but every time she’d thought about backing out of this crazy plan, the realization had instantly followed that it might mean she would never see Guy again. She didn’t know what would happen at the end of this week, but at least now she had a chance. A chance to explain. To help him understand the truth of her life.
She couldn’t blame him for being angry. Guy wasn’t a man to be made a fool of and he felt she’d done that to him. He didn’t realise that she hadn’t been lying so much as protecting herself.
She could never tell him about her mother – it was a secret she’d sworn she’d keep – but The Accident? Maybe if he knew… if he knew what she had been trying so hard to forget?
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