his eyes and mouth relaxed. But the amusement still sparkled in his jade gaze.
God, she’d missed this. Sharing a meal with him.
She placed her coffee mug down on the table. Time to lay their cards on the table. Her stomach was full and he was dressed. She couldn’t bear the suspense any longer.
‘Okay, Nate. Spill. Why the bizarre request?’
Nathan watched her watching him, her gaze wary. Would she listen to him? Would she hear him out? Would she agree? ‘I have a … problem only you can help me with.’
Jacqui’s heart started drumming in her chest. It seemed so loud in the intense silence that followed his statement it was real competition for the rain on the roof. Surely he could hear it? ‘Go on.’
‘You ever heard of a guy called Vince Slater?’
Jacqui frowned, the name vaguely familiar. ‘Some rich old guy who’s on to wife number six?’
Nathan chuckled. Good summation. Except he was also a world-renowned financial genius, with razor-sharp business acumen and the Midas touch. And a friend.
‘That’s the guy. He’s agreed to join the executive of TrentFertility, which will put us in a very strong position for the float.’ He looked at Jacqui, looking at him as if he was speaking in tongues. ‘You do know about the float?’
Jacqui nodded. Her mother kept her up to date with all Nate’s goings on. She received regular clippings from the nation’s newspapers, all featuring Nate’s very commanding presence.
TrentFertility was about to go public.
‘Of course. We do have TV and newspapers out here, you know.’
He ignored her sarcasm. ‘This is big for me. Bigger than anything else I’ve done.’ She needed to understand that he wasn’t asking anything of her lightly.
Jacqui heard the hard edge in his voice. He wanted this badly. ‘I don’t understand. Why do you need Vince? Surely you have enough money of your own? Why do you need his financial backing?’
Nathan shook his head. ‘It’s not about his money. It’s about confidence. Market confidence. Vince is a seasoned executive. He’s known and well thought of in all the right business and financial sectors. He has experience, and a reputation for shrewd fiscal choices. Stockmarkets, particularly in the last few years, are notoriously jittery. Having him on board will be a ringing endorsement for TrentFertility.’
Jacqui listened to Nathan’s clinical assessment of Vince Slater’s attributes and felt chilled by how detached he sounded. ‘So billionaire doctor, top of the rich list isn’t enough for you?’
Nathan stalled. She didn’t get it. She’d never got it. A nerve jumped at the angle of his jaw. ‘Like I said, it’s not about the money, Jacqueline.’
She sighed at his stiff response. She, more intimately than anyone, knew that. She understood the demons that had driven him to push himself beyond just a career in medicine. She had been party to all his young-man dreams, his drive to make something of himself beyond just plain Dr Nathan Trent.
The hand-to-mouth existence of his childhood, when he’d been forced to live out of the family car for a while after his father’s bankruptcy and subsequent suicide, working three jobs to put himself through med school, had hand-tooled him to build the medical empire he resided over today.
Twenty fertility clinics responsible for a thousand babies—several to high-profile couples. He’d gone global five years ago, with clinics expanding into the Asian and European markets. Three research facilities. He’d come a long way and become a force to be reckoned with—both in medicine and in business. More importantly, he’d built something that no one could take from him. Because underneath it all Nathan Trent—fertility guru, medical magnate—craved security.
She sighed. ‘What’s this got to do with me, Nate?’
‘Vince’s wife.’
Jacqui saw the slight flicker in his gaze, the way he couldn’t quite meet her eyes. He looked guilty as hell. She shut her eyes. Had money totally corrupted him?
‘Oh, Nate … you haven’t?’
Nathan blinked, his gaze settling back on hers. He drew his brows together, annoyed that she would think what she was obviously thinking. ‘No,’ he denied icily, his jade gaze chilly. ‘I bloody well haven’t.’
‘Nate …’ He could deny it as much as he liked, but something had happened between the two of them. She could read him like a book. ‘Tell me.’
‘Abigail’s taken a … a shine to me.’
Jacqui raised an eyebrow. ‘And you haven’t encouraged her?’
‘No.’ His denial was as emphatic as he could make it. ‘She’s young enough to be my daughter. And married. To a close business associate and dear friend. You know me better than that.’
Did she? Truth was, she didn’t know him any more. She hadn’t even known who he was for the last couple of years of their marriage. Perhaps she never had? Perhaps she’d only ever seen what she’d wanted to see?
But he hadn’t exactly been a monk during the decade they’d been apart. Her mother made sure she had a copy of every picture of every woman who had ever been photographed gracing Nathan’s arm.
‘She’s got the wrong idea,’ Nathan supplied.
‘And how would she have got that, Nate?’
‘Not through anything I’ve ever said or done,’ he said firmly. Infidelity had always been abhorrent to him. Jacqui knew that. At least she’d used to. ‘But she’s persistent. She thinks I’m playing hard to get.’
‘So tell Vince.’
Nathan shook his head. ‘Vince may be a financial genius, but he’s dumb as a rock when it comes to matters of the heart. He loves her. You know what they say—there’s no fool like an old fool. It’d break him.’
Jacqui was taken by the softening of Nathan’s voice as he spoke about Vince, given his earlier businesslike summation of the man. Seeing Nate bordering on sentimental took her back to the old days—when he’d been nothing like the man who had looked at her from the kitchen doorway with cold purpose less than thirty minutes ago.
It was clear that while Vince was a means to an end, Nathan held obvious affection for the older man. But she had a feeling that the worst was yet to come, and hardened her heart. ‘I don’t suppose it’d help the float any either?’
Nathan lips flattened into a grim line. ‘Vince would resign. It’d cause a big scandal. A newly floated company might not survive the backlash. Vince is TrentFertility’s greatest asset for legitimacy in this new frontier we’re embarking on.’
‘Aren’t you its greatest asset?’
Nathan returned her gaze, feeling curiously flattered. ‘Not this time. This is a whole new ballgame and I need him.’
She turned her attention to the murky
