see. I imagine there are a lot of jobs riding on this, too.”
“Yes, there are.”
Her shoulders sagged as if all the air had been drawn out of her.
“All right.” Her reply was a mere ripple of sound in the night air.
“You’ll do it?” Hope leaped in his chest.
“Yes, but only on certain conditions.”
“What sort of conditions?”
She paced the width of the balcony before coming to a halt in front of him again. “You contract me to work on the Sellers building for the duration of the refit.”
He could live with that. In fact he was more than happy with the agreement. She’d made her mark in domestic restorations but with her skill she could only benefit his operation. Despite how he felt about Gwen, he was enough of a businessman to recognise an advantage when he saw it.
“Done. We’ll sort out the nuts and bolts of your contract with Connor tomorrow and get this tied up legally. Don’t worry about him knowing, he can be trusted to keep our arrangement confidential. Anything else?”
“No sex.”
Declan arched one eyebrow. “Do you mean with anybody else, or just with each other?”
“With anybody. I mean it,” she reiterated fiercely, wrapping her arms about her body like armour. “Absolutely no sex. I won’t be made a fool of. If this marriage is to look real, then you can’t see anyone else.”
Yeah, well, he could live with that, too. In fact, he was more than happy to live with that. The one time…no, it didn’t bear thinking about. It was enough that she had agreed to go along with this crazy scheme. “Fine by me. But we have to look like a married couple when we’re around other people, be comfortable together, you know—physically. Especially around the rest of my family. They might accept this sudden engagement, but they’ll suspect a sham if we don’t behave like a newly wed couple, and if my dad suspects a sham, I can kiss that trust fund goodbye.”
“Won’t they ask questions anyway?”
“Probably. But that’s my problem. I’ll handle it.” He sighed. “Anything else?”
“About the financial terms of the contract…”
Declan had had enough. “It’ll be worth your while—I promise.”
“It had better be.” Her eyes were opaque pools of emptiness. What was going on in that head of hers?
“It’s a deal, then?” He had to be certain she wasn’t going to back out of this.
“One more thing.”
He bit back an expletive. She had him between a rock and a hard place, and he hated it. Hated being beholden to her. “What is it?” Amazingly the words sounded civil.
“The length of our marriage—three months, tops.”
“Three months! That’s ridiculous. Twelve or my father will definitely smell a rat.”
“That’s far too long. Six, then.”
“Six months?” Declan considered it for a moment—that would work, just. He nodded sharply.
Gwen extended her hand to him and he took it, noting this was the first time she’d voluntarily reached out and touched him, tonight anyway. Laughter from inside penetrated the glass, reminding him they were in full view of the party going on inside. He turned her hand slightly, noting the tracery of blue veins beneath the silver-pale skin at her wrist. He bent forward and lifted her wrist to his lips, pressing them against satin skin where her pulse beat frantically, like a captured butterfly. She clearly wasn’t as unmoved as she tried to project.
“Just keeping up appearances,” he smiled grimly when she yanked her hand away as though his touch had burned her. “Oh, and Gwen?”
“What?”
“Thank you. You won’t regret it.”
“Regret it?” Gwen gave a sharp laugh as she turned to go inside. “I already do.”
Three
“Well, this certainly is an interesting turn of events.” Libby spoke from behind, her voice making Gwen jump. She needed to get a grip on these jitters. She was as skittish as a first time buyer at an auction.
“Don’t tease, Libby, it isn’t kind.”
“So, come on, how long has this been going on?” her friend drawled with a wink.
“Not long. It kind of took us both by surprise.” She clenched her hands at her sides, hoping Libby wouldn’t press her further. From the corner of her eye she saw Declan come back into the room—his presence effortlessly dominating the gathering.
Despite the way he’d treated her since Renata’s death, her gaze was continually drawn to him like metal filings to a magnet. The sensation of his lips still throbbed against her wrist. Unfortunately it was proving a great deal more difficult than she wanted to return her heartbeat to a regular rhythm. She couldn’t believe she’d agreed to go ahead with this. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the whole situation wouldn’t work. There was still too much that lay between them. Forget the frying pan. She was jumping straight into the fire.
Libby pursed her lips and let out a low whistle, “He’s welcome to take me by surprise any day of the week. No objections here, chickie!”
Gwen forced a laugh through her lips, although her face felt as if it would crack if she tried any harder. All at once the tension of the day became unbearable and exhaustion struck her in waves.
“You know, I would never have picked you for his type,” Libby continued.
Gwen felt an unexpected pang. Didn’t her friend think she was up to the job? “Really?” Her voice was glacial.
Remorse chased across Libby’s face as she realised how her words had sounded. “Oh, heck, Gwen. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it the way that came out. But you know he certainly hasn’t been short of female company in the past few years.”
“It’s okay.”
But deep inside, Libby’s words struck home. Gwen had been the antithesis of Renata—cool and controlled when her friend had been full of fire and unpredictable. Since that dreadful night, after Renata’s funeral, he’d made it clear he wanted her the hell out of his life. As time had gone by Declan had been surrounded by female admirers of all ages and marital persuasions. So why ask her when he must have any number of eager candidates to help him access his trust fund? Unless it was because he knew he’d never make the mistake of falling in love with her. Somehow, the realization only made her feel worse.
“Are you okay, Gwen? You look all done in.”
“It’s been a heck of a day. I’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep.” Gwen crossed her fingers in the
