think you are? You snap your fingers and I’m to drop everything? Sorry. Your women friends may do that but I have a mind of my own.”
His eyes hardened. “Oh, come now, Danielle. Who are you trying to fool?”
She straightened her shoulders. “The only fool around here is you.”
His face tightened, making her aware of the firm thrust of his jaw and the broad plane of his forehead. “Don’t underestimate me.”
A frisson of fear slipped down her spine. This man had wealth, power and the right connections and he believed she’d done him an injustice. As much as she wanted to deny he could make life uncomfortable for her, she knew he would do it if pushed. She couldn’t afford that. There wasn’t only herself to think about now.
She moistened her mouth and tried to be conciliatory. “Mr. Donovan, please…I don’t sleep with men I barely know.”
“That isn’t what your late husband told me.”
She felt the blood drain from her face.
“I see you don’t like being caught out,” he mocked, seeming to watch her more closely.
Pain squeezed her heart. Robert…her husband…the man she’d been married to for three years…had told Flynn Donovan such lies about her? Why?
“Um…” She cleared her throat. “What exactly did Robert say?”
“That you married him for his money. And that you slept around and spent it all,” he said bluntly.
It was just as well she was sitting on the stool or she may well have fallen. How could Robert have said those things about her? She’d thought she’d loved Robert when she married him. And she never, ever slept around and she’d never wasted his money. Never.
Then she looked at Flynn Donovan. At that moment she hated Robert for his lies, but she hated Flynn more for his lack of compunction over her feelings. “I see. You obviously believed him.”
His lips twisted. “When he explained the reason for defaulting on the loan, I wasn’t actually concerned with character references.”
“Yet you lent the money to us based on character,” she said, her voice remarkably calm considering the turmoil inside her.
His eyes narrowed. “No, we based it on the fact that he was coming into money and would pay us back as soon as he received it. He seemed a good risk at the time. We didn’t take into account that you had the money spent before he could even get to it.”
Danielle remembered Robert mentioning something about coming into an inheritance from one of his aunts, but she hadn’t realized it was a large enough amount to serve as collateral for a loan. For him to have then spent that amount plus the two hundred thousand he’d borrowed from Flynn Donovan spoke of sheer irresponsibility.
And Monica? Had she known? Danielle didn’t think so. Her mother-in-law was well-off in her own right but had never discussed money and, in any case, she knew Monica had never suspected her son had a problem with money.
She certainly hadn’t suspected any problems, Danielle mused as she realized Flynn had walked over to the first-aid kit and was rummaging around in it. One thing was clear. No one would believe her if she chose to refute Robert’s claims.
“Why deny it?” Flynn said coldly over his shoulder, confirming her fears. “Your car alone cost fifty thousand dollars, not to mention your frequent European holidays and shopping sprees. Your credit cards were maxed to the limit, too.”
Credit cards? European holidays? Shopping sprees? She fought to take it all in. Had someone stolen her identity? It certainly hadn’t been her doing all those things. Robert had been the one to…
Oh, God. Is that what Robert had been doing on his frequent business trips? The ones where he’d wanted her to stay home as company for his mother?
As for the car, she’d had no idea of its cost. Robert had always seemed to have plenty of money and as far as she’d known, the car had been in his name only. He definitely hadn’t insured it. Or himself. If only he had, she could at least have paid back some of the money now.
And then something occurred to her. The holidays, the shopping, didn’t sound like something one did alone. Had Robert been unfaithful to her? Looking back, she knew he was selfish enough to want his cake and eat it, too. What sort of double life had he been living? And why didn’t that thought hurt as much as it should?
Suddenly she realized Flynn was in front of her, bringing her into the present with a rush. In that moment they were right back to one man, one woman.
Her heart gave a sudden lurch when he picked up her finger and covered it with the antiseptic cream before placing a plaster around it. The gentleness of his touch confused her. How could he be tender in one aspect and so hardhearted in another?
But she wasn’t about to show him her uncertainty. He would take advantage of it. “Mr. Donovan, you think I want you for your money, yet you’re willing to take me away with you? That doesn’t make sense.”
“It makes perfect sense,” he murmured, his throaty tone faint but potent. “We were meant to spend time together.”
“Of all the…” She almost jumped to her feet but that would have brought her closer to him and at the last millisecond she stopped herself. His eyes darkened at how close she’d come to being in his arms.
She leveled him a look. “Don’t let me keep you,” she said, but cursed her husky voice and refused to allow the tip of her tongue to moisten her suddenly dry lips.
He cupped her chin with his warm fingers, holding her head still, as if he wanted to wet her lips for her. “You won’t,” he said huskily, his eyes intent on her mouth.
His head began to lower. She lifted her face up to him…ready…ready to become his.
And then he moved imperceptibly closer, and the movement broke through the fog of desire that seemed to swirl around them.
His? Dear God, what was she thinking? She never wanted to belong to another man again.
And definitely not Flynn Donovan.
She pulled her head back. “There is no way I’m going away with you,” she murmured, shaken at how close she’d come to kissing him.
Something flickered far back in those dark eyes before they flashed a now-familiar display of arrogance. “Is that so?” To prove his point, he lifted some strands of her hair from her cheek and tugged her toward him.
She held her head still, refusing to wince at the slight pain, unwilling to let him force her into submission. She wasn’t going to become his plaything. She couldn’t, despite the desire coursing through her.
“Do you think you could leave now?” she said coolly, determined not to let him see his effect on her. “I’m expecting a…” She paused deliberately. “Friend.”
He let her strands of hair drop back into place and drawled mockingly, “You have no…friend.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Perhaps
