A Perfect Husband Read online

  Before her courage deserted her altogether, she quickly changed then knotted the turquoise sarong that went with the bikini around her hips. She frowned at the lush display of tanned cleavage and considered changing back into her white jeans, camisole and shirt.

  Even as the thought passed through her mind she knew she could not afford to do that now. She had lost the leverage of the three J’s and she was almost out of time. Unfortunately, the bikini was now a crucial part of her strategy.

  Zane almost had a heart attack when Lilah emerged onto the beach. He was glad Spiros had taken the three J’s on a snorkeling expedition. It was an easier solution than the medieval threats he would have been forced to issue just in case any one of them decided it was okay to look.

  The cut of the outrageously sexy bikini somehow managed to make Lilah’s narrow hips and delicate curves look mouthwateringly voluptuous. Added to that, after just a few days on Medinos, her skin had taken on a tawny glow that made her green eyes look startlingly light, her cheekbones even more exotic. In the span of a few minutes, Lilah had gone from mysterious and reserved to lusciously, searingly hot.

  If she had bought the bikini for the specific purpose of driving him crazy, Zane thought grimly, she had achieved the result. “When did you get the bikini?”

  Lilah, who seemed more interested in laying out a bright turquoise towel and rummaging through her trendily matching beach bag, gave him a distracted, too innocent look as if she hadn’t quite registered who had spoken.

  Zane’s jaw clamped tighter as she abandoned arranging a neat line of possessions, one of which, suspiciously, was a red folder, and finally seemed to become aware of his presence.

  She directed a smile in his general direction. “Two days ago.”

  After their discussion.

  Zane folded his arms across his chest so that he wouldn’t repeat the cavemanlike behavior he had displayed on the jetty and simply grab Lilah. He eyed the red folder and wondered what new scheme she was cooking up now. “Have you come to a decision yet?”

  She lifted a hand to her eyes and stared out to sea as if she was more interested in the four heads bobbing in the water than having an actual conversation with him. “I’m still thinking it over.”

  His jaw clamped. If he wasn’t mistaken the smile she had given him was the same smooth, professional smile she had given the builder earlier on in the day. “The way I see it, we have three days left.” He jerked his head in the direction of the swimmers. “And we’re wasting time.”

  Lilah’s cheeks went instantly pink. “Is sex all you’re interested in?”

  He noted with satisfaction, any suggestion that she was disinterested in him evaporated. “At the moment, yes.”

  Lilah glanced around distractedly. Her gaze came to rest on Jasmine, who was flipping through a magazine.

  Zane frowned. It was not the response he had wanted. Living with Lilah for the past two days had been like living with a professionally cheerful automaton. The passionate nights aside, he was now officially frustrated. “Jasmine can’t hear a thing. She’s listening to her iPod. If she registered anything short of an explosion it would be a miracle.”

  She glared at him and he realized something else that was different about Lilah. She’d had light streaks put in her hair.

  His hold on his temper slipped another notch. He had never thought of himself as a controlling person; his motto was Live and Let Live. However, when it came to Lilah he didn’t feel anything that came even remotely close to flexibility. He found himself supremely irked that she had changed her hair without even bothering to mention it to him. “You’ve changed your hair.”

  From her beach bag Lilah fished out another object, which seemed much more rivetingly interesting than the conversation he was trying to have with her. “Yesterday. I didn’t think you had noticed.”

  The bright turquoise iPod, which signaled that Lilah had found a new way to block him out, was the last straw, literally. In two years Lilah had never been trendy; she had remained tantalizingly, coolly the same. “Honey, I’m noticing now.”

  Lilah’s gaze flashed to his, the deep anger in their depths electrifying, and suddenly the air was charged.

  For two years he had been burningly aware of Lilah’s underlying sensuality, the latent feminine power buried beneath the tempting reserve and bland, virginal white.

  The reserve, like the white clothing, was long gone, replaced by hot, passionate colors, cutting-edge fashion and way too much skin.

  He had been so absorbed with his own reactions to the new confident, sexy Lilah that he hadn’t stopped to think about what was driving the change.

  The answer was terrifyingly simple. Lilah was no longer a virgin. Thanks to him, she was now a mature woman of experience. Single. Available. And, if he wasn’t mistaken, ready to shop around for what she wanted.

  Taking into consideration the wish list in her white folder, he had to assume that the kind of man she would want to extend her sexual experience with would not be a man with a dysfunctional past and an inability to commit.

  He did not think she was calculatingly aware of the power she could wield. She was still feeling her way, but he was grimly certain that it would not take her long to find out.

  It was a dangerous state of affairs.

  Suddenly the color of the new folder—red—took on an unsettling meaning. The thought that if he could not satisfy Lilah’s needs that she could start experimenting with men—plural—made him go cold inside.

  Jack Riordan popped out of the surf, a speargun in one hand, a silvery fish flapping on the end.

  Feeling embattled, Zane studied Riordan with new eyes. He was the least good-looking of the three, but he had a lean, rugged build and the kind of mature dependability that even Zane liked.

  Riordan had one other advantage; he was a mature man who was clearly looking to settle down.

  It was an advantage he should have taken more note of before he had risked bringing Riordan to Medinos.

  His jaw tightened. This wasn’t working.

  His aim had been to protect Lilah and eliminate the competition. Unfortunately, Lilah seemed to like Riordan, in which case his plan could have backfired.

  The thought that she might start dating Riordan was a defining moment.

  Over my dead body.

  Flashes of white caught his eye; Smith and Appleby were also exiting the water. He scooped up the beach bag, which, if he wasn’t mistaken, contained Lilah’s clothes. He had played a waiting game long enough.

  Lilah realized Zane’s intent a bare second before he swung her up into his arms. She noted where the expensive little iPod, which she had been on the verge of working out, had fallen and clutched at his bare shoulders. She tried to repress the automatic thrill that he was actually carrying her.

  She was still angry and deeply depressed at the thought that had occurred to her, that she had made a dreadful mistake in thinking that Zane cared for her. That her entire strategy was flawed.

  If Zane was even the tiniest bit as obsessed as she had become, he should have noticed her hair before now.

  She stared at the approaching tree line. “Where are you taking me?”

  “Somewhere you can get dressed.”

  “I’m wearing clothes.”

  His gaze burned over the expanse of silky skin bared by the skimpy bikini, the length of her legs visible beneath the transparent gauze of the sarong. “Couldn’t prove it by me.”

  “I’m wearing more than Jasmine.” In point of fact she was wearing a great deal more. Jasmine had a microscopic bikini, with no sarong.

  “What Jasmine does or does not wear is irrelevant.”

  Cool shade slid over her skin as he rounded the clump of trees she had changed behind earlier. Lilah blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. “I don’t see why.”

  He set her down. “Because Jasmine doesn’t interest me. Which brings me to the subject of Smith, Appleby and Riordan. Get rid of them.”

 
There was a moment of vibrating silence.

  Zane was jealous.

  Lilah kept her expression carefully blank, but a part of her was melting and ridiculously happy because even if Zane wasn’t showing any signs of being in love with her yet, he wanted her enough to bully and coerce and demand.

  And he wanted the three J’s out of the picture.

  “I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”

  His gaze was hot and distinctly irritable, signaling that the cool reserve that had grown between them when she had refused to agree to his relationship terms was finally and definitely gone. “Take as much time as you need. But we have an agreement and we are not wasting any more time.” Both hands were wrapped around the soft flesh of her upper arms now. With a slow, inevitable movement, he pulled her close. His mouth brushed hers, heat zapped through her.

  Drawing in a deep breath, she planted her palms on his chest, created a small amount of overheated space and tried not to notice how gorgeous his chest looked. “I’ve decided to finish with the three J’s.”

  There was a moment of tense silence. “Will you stay with me at the castello tonight?”

  For a shivering, delicious second she drowned in the stormy depths of Zane’s eyes. Of course, she would be present at the launch party at the castello, but Zane was asking her to stay with him at his family home. “Yes.”

  * * *

  The last blaze of a fiery sunset illuminated the evening sky as Zane showed Lilah to her suite at the castello.

  He was acutely conscious that the guest suite he had allocated Lilah, the only one next to his, also happened to be next door to Lucas’s suite.

  Zane unlocked the door and handed her the key.

  Lilah glanced at Lucas’s door, a faint flush to her cheeks. Zane’s jaw tightened as he pushed the door open and stepped inside. He had been on the verge of asking Lilah to stay with him in his private suite a number of times that afternoon, but every time he approached the subject his jaw had locked and the words wouldn’t come.

  He carried her suitcase through to the bedroom.

  Lilah unzipped her case. “What time do you need me downstairs?”

  Zane checked his watch. Frustrated, he noted he was overdue at a press interview.

  He had spent valuable time driving Appleby, Riordan and Smith to the airport and making sure they boarded their commercial flight out. In light of the discovery that Appleby had been a journalist, and that he had somehow gotten photos of Lilah in her bikini, wiping the memory stick of his camera had been a job he had not wanted to entrust to Spiros. “In one hour.”

  Zane couldn’t help noticing there was no sign of Lilah’s normal low-key wardrobe as she shook out a jewel-bright array of clothes and hung them in the closet.

  His gaze snagged on an outrageously sexy pair of red heels. He had never been obsessed with women’s clothing, but as he left the suite, Zane found himself wondering what Lilah would wear tonight. After the revelation of the orange bikini, he decided, he couldn’t bank on one of the modest cream cocktail dresses she had alternated wearing to a number of charity functions.

  Unlocking his own suite door, he walked into his room, which, for the first time, did not feel like a refuge. Instead it felt oddly blank and solitary. He changed into evening clothes and walked downstairs in time to meet Constantine and Lucas, who had decided to stay on Medinos for the opening of the new pearl facility.

  Even knowing that Lilah didn’t want Lucas, Zane would have been profoundly annoyed by his brother’s presence if he hadn’t known that Carla was supposed to be joining him.

  As they walked into the small reception room where the interview was being held, for the first time in years Zane’s mind was not on business.

  He wondered how far Lilah would push him tonight.

  Grimly, he decided that his biggest problem was one that had never bothered him before. Because they hadn’t established firm grounds for a relationship, he didn’t have any rights.

  Until that afternoon he had not understood how important it was to make it very clear, publicly, that Lilah was his.

  Sixteen

  Lilah showered and spent some time smoothing an expensive body moisturizer into her skin. With her skin pampered and glowing, she wrapped herself in a robe and confronted her wardrobe.

  Instead of wearing the classic cream cocktail dress she had originally planned on, she took out an uncrushable red halterneck she had bought the previous day. Not her usual color, or style, the curve-hugging dress was transforming, bringing a glow to her skin and deepening the color of her eyes.

  After dressing, she carefully applied her makeup, following the instructions she had been given by the beautician who had sold her the products. Instead of confining her hair in its usual coil, she brushed it out, letting it swing in loose silky waves down her back. She inserted red crystal earrings in her lobes and fastened a gold pendant around her neck. The fine gold chain was almost invisible, leaving a single red crystal suspended just above the shadowy cleavage of her breasts.

  She slipped into red heels and walked over to the closet door, which had a full-length mirror.

  Her heart rate, which was already too rapid, pounded a little faster. It was going to take some time getting used to the glaringly available siren who stared back at her.

  She consulted her red folder, which was open at a page she had entitled “Seduction” then quickly worked through her list. Her fingers shook slightly with nerves as she draped a red silk negligee over the bed then unpacked a box of richly scented votive candles and placed them at strategic points around the room.

  They had made love enough times that she shouldn’t feel nervous about the idea, but she had never set out to deliberately seduce Zane before. She wanted to make everything, herself included, as irresistible and gorgeous as possible. The last touch was a bottle of very expensive French champagne in the small bar fridge.

  She surveyed the room with an eagle eye. The scene was set.

  If Zane finally made the kind of emotional breakthrough she had been hoping for, he could even propose. The thought made her pulse race even faster.

  Taking several deep breaths to calm herself down, she remembered to spritz herself with a waft of an exotic perfume she’d bought to go with the dress, picked up a matching red clutch and strolled downstairs.

  Lilah’s heart sank when the first person she saw as she entered a large, elegant reception room hung with chandeliers and festooned with white roses, was Gemma.

  She was mentally braced to brazen out the evening with Zane; she didn’t know if she could cope with another feminine dueling match with Zane’s former P.A.

  Before she could slide past the younger woman, Gemma waved her over to her group and insisted on introducing her.

  Lilah already knew the two buyers from a high-end European chain of stores. She kept a smooth, professional smile in place while she chatted and tried to pretend that the way she looked was not wildly different to her usual low-key style.

  Gemma was bubbling over with enthusiasm for the Atraeus family, who had moved her from Sydney to Medinos.

  As Gemma’s enthusiasm for all things Atraeus continued unabated, including the fact that she loved Medinos so much she intended to settle there permanently, Lilah felt again the sense of unease that had swept through her the previous evening. It wasn’t jealousy. Although Gemma was bluntly intent on making her aware of just how much she wanted Zane. The tension that gripped her was more elusive and disturbing. She couldn’t quite put her finger on—

  The deep cool register of Zane’s voice sent a hot tingle down her spine. Bracing herself for his reaction when he saw the red dress, she turned.

  The voice belonged to Lucas, not Zane. The embarrassment of the moment was limited by the fact that Lucas was talking on his cell. Judging from the blankness of his expression, he had not even recognized her.

  Zane’s oldest brother, Constantine, an imposing figure, was just feet away, his arm around his new wife, Sienna Ambrosi
, who was pregnant and glowing.

  Out of nowhere, longing, unexpected and powerful, hit Lilah. For years the idea of a pregnancy had been something she had avoided thinking about, beyond taking extreme measures to make sure it never happened to her. Now, in the space of a few seconds, everything had changed.

  Sienna, Lilah realized, was the picture of everything she wanted: the protective husband, the well-loved glow, the baby. Bleakly, she faced the fact that if Zane didn’t fall in love with her, it was possible that she would never achieve any of those things. If she could not imagine replacing Zane with another man, she did not see how she was ever going to progress to the point of having a baby with someone she did not love.

  She refocused beyond Lucas’s shoulder. Her breath caught in her throat. Zane, looking edgily gorgeous in a tuxedo, was heading straight for her.

  A prosaic little fact that had been the stumbling block of Cole women for fifty years, and which she had happily glossed over in her pursuit of Zane, was suddenly glaringly highlighted.

  She could try any number of strategies and tactics, but she could not make Zane fall in love with her.

  Zane cut through the room, his gaze caught and held by the intensity of Lilah’s.

  Something had happened; something had changed.

  His jaw locked as he took in the spectacular red dress that clung to every curve, the lavish, silky fall of dark hair.

  The only time he had seen Lilah’s hair out of its neat coils had been when he had pulled out pins and threaded his fingers through it. To his knowledge she had never voluntarily undone her hair for anyone, himself included.

  His attention shifted to the man standing nearby.

  Lucas.

  The suspicion he had never entirely managed to wipe from his mind shot to the surface. If he’d had any doubts about the concept of marriage, which he had been tossing around like a hot coal for the past hour, they were gone.