After what seemed like minutes of waiting, she bowed her head, stiff and cold. Just as he’d have done—in fact it was what he had done when he’d been barely seventeen, a rising star in the art-house industry and the secrets surrounding his father’s death had been resurrected in the name of public entertainment. ‘Go on.’
‘But this cabin is my home. If I don’t stay in it while I’m here, it will cause the kind of remark and speculation you need least at the moment—but, again, if anyone sees you here and recognises you, you end up with the same problem.’
He saw the flash of fear cross her face before it disappeared. There was something deeper here she was worried about than just her public reputation. ‘I don’t know whether I caused your problem, you caused mine, or both,’ she said, with a slow kind of horror.
‘Both,’ he replied dryly. ‘Mine is but a minor nuisance, Ms Chase. I believe your problem to be more serious.’ He left the air filled with the question unspoken. The women he’d known usually rushed to fill a conversational gap if he made it intriguing enough.
This woman didn’t even look up, or seem to notice he’d left a half-question dangling there. ‘But I caused it. If I hadn’t left my room …’ Frowning hard, she shook her head.
If he was reading the look in her half-fallen eyes correctly, she felt as guilty as she did fearful—and he had her right where he wanted her. The future of his resorts could be smooth, and her life set back on the right course, with just a little manipulation.
But he’d been hurt and manipulated when he was a boy. Long ago, he’d sworn he would never inflict his will on another, no matter what benefits it could bring him. Yet here he was, playing the worst kind of game, being his father’s son. Was history repeating itself—the one thing he’d believed would never happen?
He refused to give in to the guilt coursing through him. Damn it, this time it’s right.
‘All the regular guests will wonder if I don’t stay here,’ he said, drowning the guilt beneath the weight of arguments he thought would convince her. Yes, he wanted something from her, but he was giving as much as he got, relatively speaking. He might gain financial rewards, but she got what she seemed to need desperately—peace and quiet. ‘Apart from family, I’ve never had any woman here so your presence has already caused speculation.’
Another look crossed her face, similar to when she’d asked about the complaints against the staff. ‘I didn’t realise …’ Her eyes squeezed shut. Her mouth opened, made soundless motions, and then she said faintly, ‘Again, I can only apologise for the trouble I’ve caused you.’
Her embarrassment was too genuine to deny. Armand felt a crazy urge to run out of the cabin, get some fresh air to clear his head. The spoiled-brat media darling he’d assumed her to be an hour ago might have railroaded his staff into bowing to her will, but this woman’s conscience seemed even more radiant than her smile. She reminded him of a clawless kitten. Whatever the truth was inside Dr Pete’s press releases, a Delilah this woman definitely was not.
This could be almost too easy, except that Armand refused to stoop to stealing candy from babies. Or use another person’s conscience against them, to make them sing his tune.
‘Since you’ve made the name change, and with the subtle amendments you’ve made to your appearance, you could probably take another room without issue,’ he said, giving her a last get-out if she wanted to take it. A sap to his conscience, even if he was sure she wouldn’t.
‘Your staff recognised me within a day, looking just like this,’ she replied, with a despairing rather than pugnacious note. ‘Apparently, my accent and voice give me away. I’ve been trying to learn Swiss German, but I’m about as good with accents as I am on skis.’
Armand felt an unusual urge to grin. Rachel Chase seemed almost disastrously honest—a definite downer for hiding in this electronic-media world, but it was a trait he strongly respected. ‘Then we go with my plan. I’ll stay here with you. I’ll go about my business through the day as usual. Monika will—’
‘You want me to stay here with you?’
The squeak in her voice wasn’t feigned. For all the stories Dr Pete had put out about her, she didn’t seem the kind to fall into the arms of a rich man when he showed up on her doorstep—even if it was his doorstep. ‘In another bedroom, Ms Chase,’ he said in cool amusement. ‘The cabin has four of them. You obviously took the word “proposition” to heart.’
A flare of pink touched her cheeks, but her eyes flashed. Though he waited a full minute, she made no retort, didn’t try to defend herself. ‘Go on,’ she said eventually, sounding as angry as she looked.
‘It’s a necessary evil,’ he said, fighting the renewed guilt of knowing he’d backed her into a corner, but torn between anger and amusement at the fact that he’d finally found a woman who not only didn’t leap at the idea of staying with him, but fought it all the way. ‘My staff’s coming and going to the cabin throughout the day while I was gone has already caused curiosity. My regular guests have asked who the VIP is that’s staying in my cabin, since I only arrived this morning.’
Again, he saw the riotous flush fill her cheeks. She looked quite pretty like that, in a country-girl fashion. Natural and pure. ‘You seem to have learned a lot in a few hours. What did you do, take a general survey?’
She was quick-minded, he’d give her that. ‘It’s my job to know what’s going on in my resort, Ms Chase.’
‘You do it well,’ she muttered, but it wasn’t a compliment.
He didn’t thank her; it would only inflame her anger at suddenly finding herself helpless in a situation that had felt safe until he’d invaded her sanctuary an hour ago. ‘As you do your job well, from what I’ve seen.’
She only shrugged in reply.
Goaded, he said in a silky-smooth voice, ‘I asked nothing of my guests, nor did I say anything. I didn’t need to. Your total avoidance of the other guests has caused curiosity amongst those who come here hoping for a certain kind of company. My staff has been avoiding all the guests’ questions, but you don’t want them putting the pieces of your puzzle together. In other words, you need a good cover story, Ms Chase.’
She sighed and nodded. ‘Call me Rachel,’ was all she said.
‘Rachel, then.’ In saying her name, Armand took a step into unknown territory. It didn’t feel as casual as it had in the past, probably because she’d offered the intimacy with such reluctance. ‘I am Armand.’
She only nodded, frowning, serious.
‘The assumption is that you must be famous or someone special to me, since my cabin’s always been off-limits. The first causes the kind of speculation you need least and, as to the second, my sisters are well known here. I could pass you off as a cousin, but it gives you no reason why you wouldn’t mingle with the guests. So either you leave on that train tonight, or become my lover in the eyes of anyone who asks when I refuse to explain who you are.’
He stopped when he saw her pale, a reaction no person could fake. With those enormous eyes, she looked like Bambi after his mother had been shot. ‘I think it’s best if I leave,’ she said quietly, rubbing her wrist with an absent yet anxious movement which was horribly familiar.
Armand’s
