‘Water straight from the tap will do me just fine, thanks.’
‘You don’t want any wine?’ he asked in mock surprise. ‘No French champagne tonight?’
‘I’m not so stupid I’d make that mistake a second time,’ she answered with spirit.
‘You blame the bubbles?’ He smiled.
She took the glass of chilled water he offered. ‘No, but I don’t think it helped. I’m grown-up enough to accept most of the madness was my own fault.’
He watched her from the other side of the granite-topped bench. ‘What about the lodge—does the décor inspire you as much as the chateau’s did?’
Ruefully she sipped, flushing her boiling system with the almost frozen water, and refused to answer. Instead she turned away from the gorgeously deluxe interior to look out of the window at the amazing skyline. ‘How many of these places do you own?’ She needed their addresses so she could avoid them at all costs. Just her luck that when she finally got to go somewhere gorgeous, her one most wicked encounter would have to be waiting.
‘Last count it was five. I’m working on the sixth and seventh at the moment.’
‘That’s quite a stable.’ Especially given each came with a multimillion-dollar price tag.
‘They’re not all as big as this one. But they keep me busy.’
She glanced back at him as he answered. Yes, there was the slightest hint of tiredness about his eyes. On the bench was the laptop, the tablet, the smart phones—all the paraphernalia of the businessman who worked 24/7.
‘But the chateau was the first?’ She pressed for more information. ‘And it was your father who built it?’ And who’d had the folly of the marriage?
‘It had been his dream, but he got sick before he could finish it,’ Ruben answered, no flicker of emotion crossing his face.
‘Oh, I’m sorry.’
‘Cancer.’ He elaborated a fraction. ‘He was older. It was only to be expected, I guess.’
‘So you took it over?’ She skimmed over his father’s age reference for now. She was more interested in how on earth Ruben had managed to achieve all he had.
He nodded.
‘How old were you?’
‘Fourteen when he died, seventeen when I took on the chateau.’
‘Seventeen?’
The roguish smile appeared at her amazed tone. ‘My mother signed it over to me.’
‘She did?’
He nodded as if it were completely everyday and then turned to the massive stainless-steel fridge. ‘I wanted it, she didn’t.’
Ellie was gobsmacked. Who on earth signed over a massive property to a teenager? ‘Where’s your mother now?’
‘She went back to France a few months after he died. She didn’t want to be hounded as a merry widow.’
‘But you stayed?’ All alone in New Zealand, barely old enough to leave school, let alone take on a massive business project?
‘I wanted to finish the chateau.’ He pulled a covered dish from the fridge and put it into the microwave, pressing the electronic controls, still speaking in that carefree way. ‘I wanted to realise my father’s dream. But Mama couldn’t face it. I don’t blame her for that.’
His mother had been that unhappy? And had their relationship been so fragmented she’d chosen to leave her only child behind? It seemed Ruben had some pain in common with Ellie’s. ‘Do you see her much?’ Ellie couldn’t resist asking and her curiosity didn’t seem to bother him given the way he answered so easily.
‘We use Skype and stuff but we’re both busy. She has a small boutique she loves. I’m flat out,’ he answered with that easy-going smile.
Okay, so maybe that relationship wasn’t the greatest. But hadn’t he had a better one with his dad? ‘You must have been close to your father to want to finish his dream for him.’
Ruben’s smile became fixed. ‘He died a while back now.’
Yeah, but some wounds remained, never truly healing. While you got on with it, there was that permanent bruise beneath the skin. And though Ellie hadn’t lost anyone close, she still understood heartbreak—in her case for what could have been, for what she’d missed out on from both parents. ‘You don’t have any other family?’
He shook his head. ‘Nor do I want any.’ He turned and caught her eye. His chocolate gaze held pointed meaning, despite the wicked seductiveness of his smile. ‘I’m not a wedding-ring kind of guy.’
‘Is that you trying to be subtle?’ she asked, flipping to tart. ‘You don’t need to warn me. I’m not coming anywhere near you.’
‘Oh, right.’ He chuckled. ‘My mistake.’
Arrogant sod. Of course, she couldn’t help smiling and she couldn’t help her curiosity. ‘So, why no commitment? What’s your marriage-avoidance excuse? You had a close shave with a stereotypically money-hungry woman or something?’ She rolled her eyes at the cliché. Successful men always seemed to fear some big bad woman was going to come after half their assets in the divorce court or something.
‘No.’ He walked the few paces back to the business end of the kitchen, pulled a salad bowl from the fridge. ‘It’s a matter of priority. Work is my priority and has been for a while. It takes up every minute of every day and that’s not about to change. I travel a lot between venues. I can’t be at someone’s beck and call.’
Beck and call? She frowned. ‘We’re talking marriage, not servitude.’
‘There’s a difference?’ He smiled as if he was joking—kind of. ‘I can’t be anyone’s husband. I can’t be the guy who’s going to be there for all those “important” things. It’s not fair of me to promise that only to let someone down time after time. I don’t want resentment to build and then be hurled against me.’
Was that what had happened? He’d been with someone who’d demanded too much of his time? But wouldn’t a woman know what she was getting into in a relationship with a guy like him? That the career drive was an inseparable part of the man she’d fallen for? Just as a woman who married a military man would know that both she and he would have to sacrifice some things because of his duty? Didn’t those relationships still work—with some work?
Yeah, maybe that was it. Maybe Ruben spent so much energy on his business, he couldn’t be bothered working on sustaining a relationship. And why should he have to when he undoubtedly had billions of women throwing themselves at him?
‘No, that’s still just an excuse,’ she said callously. ‘You don’t want to commit to a woman because you can get what you want from any number. Why would you limit yourself to just one?’
He filled a bowl from the rice cooker on the utility bench, grinning as he did so. And he didn’t deny it. ‘Let’s
