troublemakers.
‘I love Max and that’s enough for me. I’m not the same as you.’ Behind her she heard a noise and turned, phone held to her ear, and looked at Max. She saw his armour reinforcing itself, saw him retreating from the place she’d finally made him reach, the place where her love could reach him. How long had he been standing there and how much had he heard?
She watched Max walk away, heard her mother’s voice. ‘Then I shall leave you to make the most of your love nest, because it won’t last.’
‘Goodbye, Mother.’ Lisa ended the call and dropped the phone onto the smoked glass of the coffee table, the clattering noise an ominous sound. She wanted to go after him, wanted to find out what he’d heard, because a one-sided conversation would have sounded pretty damning. It would have made her seem as calculating as, only last night, she’d confessed her mother was.
She was walking after him even before she realised she was doing it and stood once more on the threshold of his domain.
‘Save it, Lisa.’ He glared at her and she knew he’d heard it all. ‘I’m not in the mood.’
‘No, Max, I won’t.’
He drew in a deep, angry breath. ‘Stop trying to force me to love you.’
‘I’m not,’ she said softly, knowing the last part of the conversation he’d overheard would have sounded exactly like that.
He stood taller, his glitteringly angry eyes fixing her to the spot. ‘There will be no happy ever after here, Lisa, so stop looking for something that doesn’t exist.’
‘Damn you, Max,’ Lisa hurled at him as the pain of his words spiked her anger. ‘I already know there isn’t such a thing, at least not with you. All I want is what is best for my child. And maybe that is not you.’
He moved from behind his desk and came so close she could smell his aftershave, but this time she fought hard not to let it unbalance her, to set off the sparks of desire. ‘Then I suggest you leave.’
‘Oh, I intend to.’ She turned to walk away, anything to prevent the sting of tears from falling, but Max caught her arm.
‘But not until our deal is over, Lisa. Not until midnight on New Year’s Eve.’
‘I’m leaving now. Right now.’ She defiantly glared up at him.
‘Angelina is expecting us at her twenty-first birthday party this evening and we will be there, Lisa—together.’
MAX STOOD AND watched Angelina and her friends as they laughed, toasting his sister with champagne. Tall and slender, with sleek dark hair just like her mother, Angelina looked exquisite in the cream silk dress Lydia had personally selected for him to give her as part of her gift. The other part, a central London apartment in one of the best areas, would give him peace of mind that she always had a place to go, a place to call home.
It was hard to believe his little sister was so grown up now and didn’t need him any more. Now his child needed him and despite Lisa’s act of loving him, the words she’d said as they’d enjoyed the most amazing sex, he wasn’t at all sure his wife needed him. Her angry defiance just hours ago proved that.
‘Angelina looks happy,’ Lisa said as she came to join him, the black dress fitting her to perfection. The very same dress, before trouble had blown up between them once more, he’d envisaged taking from her sexy body before making her his again.
Lisa had sought him out after she’d seen him watching her talking to her mother, but he’d been too angry, too disappointed to say anything. Lisa’s motives, her need for love and happiness, went far deeper, right to the very core of all the vulnerabilities he’d hidden well from everyone.
‘And that makes me happy,’ he said curtly, aware of Lisa looking up at him. He didn’t look at her, but kept his focus on his sister, although he wanted to know if Lisa’s beautiful face was tinged with sadness or if the anger she’d thrown at him still made her eyes spark.
‘About earlier,’ Lisa said and he swung round to face her, those expressive green eyes widening in shock.
‘The conversation with your mother, where you told her you’d found a way to be better than she was?’
‘That’s not what I said.’ She gasped and her acting skills surpassed any he knew as tears welled into her eyes.
‘What I heard was exactly that, Lisa.’
‘That’s not fair, Max. You only heard what I said, not what she’d said to me.’
‘It was enough.’
‘Enough for what?’ Lisa said the words slowly, intently looking up at him now, her silver earrings swaying gently against her neck, touching skin he’d kissed. Damn it. Why did she always do this to him? Always distract him from what was really going on?
‘I will support you and our child but we cannot remain together—or even married.’
Lisa gasped. ‘You want to go ahead with the divorce?’
‘It is for the best, but I will expect to be involved in my child’s life, to see him or her often. In the meantime, we have tonight to get through and, in two days’ time, a New Year’s Eve party.’
‘We?’ She glared at him. ‘You expect me to accept that you want a divorce yet continue to act the part of loving wife?’
‘I will of course make it financially worth your while by way of a substantial settlement, but I have no wish to give the press or society’s gossips any further ammunition to create headline news with. Therefore, I expect you to act, as you so nicely put it, the loving wife for the remainder of this evening and on New Year’s Eve.’
‘You are...’ She struggled to find the right words and he added them for her.
‘Cold-hearted? Despicable? Mercenary?’ The smile he bestowed on her was on the surface real, but in reality it was formed in his hardened heart.
‘Oh, yes, all of those and I can add some too.’ She at him, anger making her lips press into a firm line.
‘Not right now, you won’t,’ he said softly as he leant toward her, touching her gently on the shoulder. ‘You have a role to play and what wife would say such things to the man she loves?’
‘I don’t see why we have to keep up such a façade.’ A smile became firmly fixed on her face. How stupid had he been to almost fall for her talk of love, to almost open up a heart he’d thought had died long ago? He’d been on the brink of letting her into his heart, of allowing emotions back into his life. But not any more. It was over. All she wanted was to prove to herself she could be better than her mother and he’d foolishly believed her when she’d told him her mother always tried to bring her down.
He stepped back from Lisa, calling a waiter over to them, hardly daring to look at how sexy she was in that dress, how the neckline skimmed her breasts, the crossover straps drawing his eyes there even when he tried to avoid looking.
‘I
