side, if I gave him a voting position on the board. It was only supposed to be for a limited time.”
“I don’t understand. Why would that stop your company from getting the contract?” Gwen’s question hung in the air, her confusion evident in her tone.
“Because he’s already made it clear he’ll veto any application for funds for a project this size. He likes to control people. He likes to think he can control me.”
“And if you have the trust fund?” she prompted.
“I can bankroll the whole project myself.” Please don’t let her say no.
“I 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.”
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