A Perfect Husband Read online

  His decision to examine the whole process from a business point of view had been a major turning point. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of the idea earlier. He had never had any problem negotiating complex legal agreements and, at the end of the day, the binding nature of marriage was similar to a business contract.

  The emotional side was the tricky part but, since he had already decided he wanted Lilah to live with him, he figured that with her systematic, logical approach, they could negotiate their way to an understanding.

  He was clear on the main point: Lilah belonged to him and before the night was out he was determined that she would have his ring on her finger.

  If she would accept him as a husband.

  His jaw clenched. The thought that, after years of avoiding sexual lures and marriage traps, he would literally have to force a woman to marry him should have been amusing.

  Unfortunately his sense of humor had died that afternoon on a hot beach on Ambrus.

  “Zane, babe!”

  Zane’s jaw locked as Gemma, all flowing red hair and sexy black lace, blocked his view of Lilah and Lucas.

  Her arms coiled around his neck. His hands clamped her waist preventing full body contact.

  She winked and grinned good-naturedly. “I’ve been calling, but you haven’t answered.”

  That was because he had a block on her number. “I’ve been busy.”

  Calmly, he disengaged himself and declined her invitation to join her for a drink out on the terrace.

  If he had known how complicated it was going to be taking Gemma along to charity functions in Sydney as his casual date, as insurance that he wouldn’t lose his head over Lilah, he never would have crossed that particular line.

  Zane finally managed to disentangle himself, only to discover that Lilah had disappeared.

  Lucas snapped closed the cell he had been talking into, a grin lighting his face. “Carla has just arrived at the airport. I’m on my way to pick her up.”

  Zane swallowed the blunt warning he had been about to deliver. If Lucas, who had entered the room just seconds before, had been on the phone to Carla then he would not have had time to talk with Lilah.

  Zane skimmed the well-dressed crowd, looking for a spectacular red dress and a silky fall of dark hair. “I thought Carla wasn’t well.”

  Lucas dug car keys out of his pocket. “She’s feeling better, which is good. I’ve missed her like crazy.”

  For the first time Zane noticed the changes in Lucas. He looked relaxed and carefree. Even his clothing was different. The suit he was wearing was a cutting-edge departure from his usual classic style. The changes could mean only one thing. He had seen the phenomena often enough in friends. Relief loosened some of Zane’s tension. “You love Carla.”

  Lucas tossed the keys in one hand and clapped him on the arm. “I’m in love with her. There’s a difference.”

  Zane watched his brother leave, transfixed by the thought of all the changes Lilah had recently made. He had been so concerned with his own issues, he had somehow managed to miss the fact that Lilah had literally blossomed while they’d been together.

  He wondered how he could ever have been so blind.

  Lilah joined the small knot of guests and stared blindly at an exquisite display of antique Ambrosi pearls. She should have been upset at the clinch she had just witnessed. She was not good with the body contact, but Gemma sidetracking Zane wasn’t what was upsetting her. The thing that had struck her most was Gemma’s single-minded pursuit of Zane. That was, she realized, the basis of the cold unease that gripped her. Gemma’s determination reminded her forcibly of herself.

  Taking a deep breath, she tried to concentrate on the jewelry display. One strand of outstanding iridescent pearls, the signature product of Ambrosi, was said to be the first ever produced by the inventor of the process, Dominic Ambrosi, an alchemist who had lived in the eighteenth century.

  Symbolic of the business merger, an entire section of the display was devoted to Atraeus jewels. A blank space in the display had been filled by a photograph and description of The Illium Cache, the ancient set of diamond-and-emerald jewels that for some reason had not made it into the case. Frowning, Lilah bent closer to study the photograph.

  She caught a flash of Zane’s reflection in the mirrored display case. Heart suddenly pounding, she straightened.

  Zane’s gaze seemed riveted by the red crystal suspended in the valley between her breasts. “I see you’ve found my ancestor’s treasure trove.”

  Lilah blushed, acutely aware of the revealing neckline. It wasn’t as revealing as Gemma’s black lace dress, but it was uncomfortably close. “Unfortunately, the most important pieces are missing.”

  “Ah. The fabled Illium Cache.”

  Off to one side of the room, a flash of red caught Lilah’s eye. Gemma’s hair, as bright as a flame. She paused just short of the corridor that lead to the bathrooms and the castello’s private suites. Her gaze was fixed on Zane as if she was waiting for him to make eye contact. To Lilah’s eyes, she looked a little desperate.

  The hollow feeling she had experienced when she had seen Gemma winding herself around Zane came back to haunt her. “I just saw you with Gemma.”

  Zane, who barely seemed to notice Gemma’s attempt to get his attention, looked impatient. “We need to talk, and we can’t do it here.”

  Zane’s grip on her elbow distracted her from the lonely figure of Gemma, waiting for Zane to notice her, as he steered her away from the jewelry cases.

  Minutes later he showed her into what looked like a study filled with heavy dark furniture and an oversized desk. An entire wall was lined with leather-bound volumes; the remaining walls were decorated with oils. When she saw Zane’s laptop sitting on the desk, she realized that this was his office.

  Zane perched on the edge of the desk, arms folded across his chest. “You’re in love with me.”

  The soft, flat statement took her breath. She thought she had done a thorough job of covering up her feelings. Clearly she had slipped up badly. Now that Zane knew she loved him, that didn’t leave her with much leeway. “That doesn’t mean I’ll agree to live with you on a temporary basis.”

  “Because I’m terrible husband material?”

  “I never said that.”

  “Not directly, but it’s a fact that I didn’t make it on to your list. Would you stay if I offered marriage?”

  Lilah’s fingers tightened on her clutch. She stared at the closest painting, one of a girl holding a bunch of bright flowers. The soft expression on the girl’s face as she looked directly at the painter radiated tender promise. She was in love.

  As Lilah knew, firsthand, that tended to change things. “I’m not sure what you mean exactly by ‘marriage.’”

  His expression shifted, as if she had surprised him. “A legal marriage. I thought that was what you wanted.”

  Her heart pounded in her chest. Marriage was her goal—with Zane, if he could love her. “I do.”

  She saw his flicker of relief. “Good. If we marry, I won’t touch another woman while we’re together.”

  While we’re together.

  The qualifier made her stiffen. It implied an end.

  In other words he was still talking about the same, temporary arrangement he had mentioned in their hotel suite, but ratified by marriage.

  Suddenly Zane’s businesslike approach fell into its correct context. He was not registering emotion because this was not an emotional discussion. He had reverted to business tactics in order to control the terms of the relationship.

  The thought that Zane felt he needed to control her love so he could be with her was subtly wounding. She of all people could understand his emotional fears and vulnerabilities because for years she had shared them, although to a lesser degree. “Just out of interest, how long do you think this proposed marriage will last?”

  Silence reigned for long seconds, filled by the tick of a mantel clock, the distant strains of music.

/>   “I can’t answer that question, but if you think I’m going to fall in love with someone else, you don’t have to worry. That won’t happen.”

  For a split second she almost managed to twist the meaning of Zane’s comment into a declaration of his love for her, then his flat denial that he could fall in love registered.

  As if the thought of surrendering to love was not on his personal horizon.

  It was not a new concept. It was Zane’s modus operandi with relationships. The fact that she could not make Zane fall in love with her was the basis that had undermined her entire strategy. “It’s a common enough scenario. Women fall for you on a regular basis.”

  Irritation registered in his gaze. “I get partnered with women on a regular basis through company business and charitable events. That’s mostly what the tabloids pick up on. The only woman I know who has certifiably fallen for me is you.”

  The knife twisted a little deeper. “And that makes me a sure bet.”

  His hands curled around her upper arms, his palms shiveringly hot against her skin. “You were a virgin, and you’ve got a logical, methodical approach to relationships. That’s what I trust.”

  Jaw set, Lilah resisted the gentle pressure to step closer to Zane. She would not muddy this process any further with passion. They had already been that route. And what Zane proposed was sounding more like a business deal than a relationship.

  The vibration of his cell phone broke the taut silence.

  Frowning, Zane released his grip and checked the screen. He looked briefly frustrated. “I have to go. There’s something I need to take care of before the official part of the evening begins.”

  Lilah strolled back to the party and circulated, chatting with buyers and contractors. She checked her wristwatch. Long minutes had passed since Zane had excused himself.

  She walked out on the terrace just in case he had come back and she had somehow missed him. The terrace was windswept and empty.

  She strolled back inside and surveyed the reception room again. Zane was not in the room.

  It suddenly occurred to her that neither was Gemma, and with her flaming red hair and white skin, the younger woman was unmistakable.

  The last time she had seen Gemma, she had been heading toward the part of the castello where the private suites were located, and suddenly she knew what the desperate look she had sent Zane had meant.

  Feeling like an automaton, Lilah stepped out of the reception room. A ridiculously short amount of time later she found herself in the castello’s darkened hallway, the chill from the thick stone walls seeping through the silk of her red gown.

  She paused at the door of Zane’s private quarters and lifted her hand to knock. The chink of glass on glass signaled that the suite was occupied.

  A grim sense of déjà vu gripped her. She rapped once, twice.

  It occurred to her that this time, unlike the incident with Lucas, Zane could not rescue her because, in a sense, she was confronting an aspect of herself that she did not like very much.

  The door swung open on a waft of perfume. Gemma’s tousled red hair cascaded around her white shoulders. Slim fingers clutched a silky black negligee closed over her breasts, the defensive gesture making her look young and absurdly vulnerable.

  Lilah couldn’t help thinking that it looked like they had both had the same idea about setting the scene for seduction.

  She felt the weight of every one of her twenty-nine years crushing down on her. Her irritation with Gemma evaporated. “You should stop trying and go home. Sex won’t make Zane, or any man, have a relationship with you.”

  “How can you know that?”

  Because it had been burned into her psyche by both her mother and her grandmother. Unfortunately, she had temporarily forgotten that fact. “Logic. If you couldn’t make him fall in love with you in two years, then it’s probably not going to happen.”

  Gemma’s expression went blank, as if she didn’t know what to say next.

  A split second later, the door snapped shut in Lilah’s face.

  Lilah fumbled the key into the lock of her door and let herself in. The door closed with a soft click behind her.

  She stared at the glowing lamp-lit room, the sexy, filmy negligee draped over the bed.

  The preparations were wrenchingly similar to Gemma’s, and the end result would be the same. She could not make Zane love her, either.

  She had changed, through falling in love with him, but she had to accept that for Zane the past might never be healed.

  Feeling numb and faintly sick, she jammed the negligee out of sight in the case, picked up the phone and made a quick call to the airport. She managed to secure a flight to Dubai, which was leaving in an hour. She would have several hours to wait before she could get a connection to Sydney, but that didn’t matter. She could leave Medinos tonight.

  She arranged for a taxi then changed into clothes suitable for a long flight—cotton pants and a sleek-fitting tank, a light jacket and comfortable shoes. She caught a glimpse of the red crystal earrings dangling from her lobes in the dresser mirror as she packed. She removed them with fingers that were stiff and clumsy, wound her hair into a knot and secured it with pins.

  She did a final check of the room then tensed when she realized she was lingering in the hope that Zane would come looking for her.

  Swallowing against the sudden pain squeezing her chest, she walked down to the lobby of the castello. She didn’t have time to stop at the hotel and collect all of her things. That would have to wait until she returned to Medinos at the end of her vacation.

  Not a problem.

  By the time she came back, Zane, who was involved in a set of sensitive negotiations in the States, would probably be gone. The retail outlet would be almost ready to open and construction of the pearl facility on Ambrus would be underway. She would be busy interviewing and training staff. In theory she wouldn’t have time to think.

  When she reached the forecourt the taxi pulled into a space. A chilly breeze blew off the ocean, whipping strands of loose hair around her cheeks as she climbed into the backseat. She checked her wristwatch. Time was tight, but she would make her flight.

  Her throat closed as the taxi shot away from the castello. She was still reeling from the speed with which she had made the decision to leave, but she could not have done anything else.

  She was not a “glass half full” kind of girl and now she was in love.

  Until Zane, she hadn’t been even remotely tempted to break her rule of celibacy. It would have taken a bolt of lightning—literally a coup de foudre—to jolt her out of her mindset, and that was what had happened. She had seen Zane and in that moment she had lost her bearings. She had committed herself emotionally and now she didn’t know how to undo that.

  She could not accept the marriage agreement he had been clearly working toward. She refused to die a lingering emotional death, like Gemma.

  She stared bleakly ahead, at the taxi’s headlights piercing the dark winding ribbon of road.

  There was no going back. It was over.

  Seventeen

  Zane knocked on Lilah’s door. When there was no answer, he walked inside. A quick inventory informed him that she had packed and left.

  He strode to his suite. Any idea that Lilah had made an executive decision and moved in with him died an instant death. The moment he opened the door and caught the scent of Gemma’s signature perfume, his stomach hollowed out and he understood exactly what had gone wrong.

  A split second later, Gemma emerged from his bedroom, fully dressed, but the filmy negligee clutched in one hand told the story.

  Suppressing the raw panic that gripped him, he strode past Gemma and found his wallet and his overnight bag. “How long ago was Lilah here?”

  Gemma watched from the safety of the sitting room as he flung belongings into the bag. “Fifteen minutes.” She stuffed the negligee into her evening bag and sent him an embarrassed look. “You don’t have to worry, I won’t do t
his again.”

  Zane zipped the bag closed and walked to the door. He couldn’t be angry with Gemma, not when he was responsible for this mess. He had been guilty of the same sin Lucas had committed when he had tried to keep Carla at a distance. Now his strategy had backfired on him. “Good. You should keep dating that guy you were with the other night. He’s in love with you.”

  “How do you know?”

  Zane sent her a stark look.

  Gemma blinked. “Oh.”

  He waited pointedly at the door for Gemma to leave. He knew the boyfriend was somewhere downstairs, because Spiros had run a standard security check on him before the invitation to the castello was issued.

  Once Gemma was gone, he headed for the front entrance.

  He resisted the urge to check his watch. Lilah had been gone a good fifteen minutes. It only took ten minutes, max, to get a taxi out to the castello.

  He reached the forecourt in time to see the red taillights of a taxi disappearing down the drive. There had been a lone occupant in the rear seat.

  Constantine’s aide, Tomas, who was greeting late guests, confirmed that the occupant had been Lilah.

  Zane strode to the garage, found his car and accelerated after the taxi.

  The repercussions of Gemma’s stunt kept compounding. He hadn’t touched her, but with his past and his reputation, no one, least of all Lilah, would believe him.

  He reached their hotel suite and walked quickly through the rooms, long enough to ascertain that Lilah was not there, nor had she returned. That meant she had gone straight to the airport.

  Using his cell, Zane checked on flights as he took the elevator down to the lobby. There was an international departure scheduled in just under an hour. He made a second call. The Atraeus Group owned a significant block of shares in the airport itself. Enough to ensure that when Zane needed assistance it was never a problem.

  He reached the airport in record time and strode to the airline desk. As he spoke to the ticketing officer, his fingers automatically closed around the small jewelry case he had retrieved from the family vault before he had discovered that Lilah had left.