Page 25 of Boss With Benefits

The constant brush-offs were frustrating. He was getting nowhere. The prospect of injecting the passion back into the bedroom was retreating with every passing hour, and that was alarming. He wasn’t used to failure, yet to his consternation, that was precisely what seemed to be happening.

However, defeat was not an option. It never had been, never would be. Not when it came to turning his life around after his mother’s death. Not when it came to restoring the fortunes of his company after his father’s. And definitely not when it came to acquiring Helberg Holdings, reclaiming Montague’s and finding redemption.

Unbending Ella so that their last week together was as good as the first would not be the project to beat him, he vowed. He was in control here, not her. He would break through her defences. He would close the distance between them and put the heat back into the sex. Even if it meant having to tell her more. Even if it meant having to tell her everything.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ELLAHADBEENfinding it almost impossible to remain cool and detached when the snippets of information Adam had shared with her were so fascinating and everything he’d shown her was so stunning.

Really, she should have resisted the tour of his island. But he’d taken her by surprise. Up until then, they’d stuck to the villa, so why the sudden change in routine? For a moment she’d wondered whetherhecould be getting bored ofher. Perhaps she needed to up her game sexwise, she’d thought with a flicker of concern. Unlike him, she didn’t have many skills in her repertoire. She was more about numbers than tricks. How might one go about sourcing a pair of handcuffs while languishing incognito on an island that was a fifteen-minute seaplane ride from the nearest shop?

But whatever the reason for the volte-face, she’d figured her body could do with a break. Besides, it wasn’t as if she would be making make the mistake of fixating on him again or expressing any great fascination for anything. She’d learned her lesson on that front. She was like a fortress. Rock solid and unassailable.

She’d just about held it together outwardly, but pretty much the minute they’d set off in his jeep for the tour, she’d been captivated by the landscape—the verdancy, the crimson hibiscus that flourished everywhere, the cacti, the palm trees and the sand, so much sand. Her senses had been overwhelmed. The colours were so intense. The sounds so exotic. The scents so deliciously tropical.

When he’d begun to talk, it hadn’t taken long for her curiosity to break free of its confines and batter her with the desire toknow more. About life in the castle, the wedding-cake mansion and his ancestry. About the staff who worked for him, the rowing boats and how he relaxed. All of it was wildly different to anything she’d ever known. His life experiences had clearly been the polar opposite of hers, which made them all the more gripping.

Then he’d taken her up in the seaplane and dazzled her with sights so stunning she’d wanted to weep. Nature had never looked so majestic. The fact that she’d always overlooked this part of the world seemed unfathomable. What made a blue hole? she couldn’t help but wonder. What was the story behind the shipwreck? Did any of the super glamorous resorts belong to him?

However, she’d pushed away these clamouring questions and reined in her curiosity. She’d repeatedly reminded herself of the need to steer clear of any sort of emotional connection with him, to resist getting caught up in the fantastical luxury of it all, and told herself that there was always the internet for the facts.

It was a challenge. The tension generated by such self-restraint was excruciating. But she stayed strong and held off.

Until the night he insisted on joining her for a walk along the beach that she’d planned to take alone to clear her head and strengthen her defences, after a dinner during which he’d seemed distant and preoccupied.

Something was on his mind, she thought, too on edge with awareness and anxiety to fully appreciate the beauty of the dark sea sparkling in the moonlight and the tiny waves lapping gently on the shore. The sand was warm between her toes. The evening breeze caressed the bare skin of her arms and legs.

Peace and tranquillity abounded, but nevertheless her stomach churned and her throat was tight. These past couple of days she’d sensed that he didn’t appreciate her lack of engagement, even though he ought to. That was exactly whathe’d wanted, wasn’t it? So had he had enough? Was she out of his system and was he planning to end the affair? How would she feel if he did? Short-changed? Relieved? She didn’t know.

‘Let’s sit,’ he said quietly, cutting through her jittery thoughts and making her jump.

She swallowed hard and fought back the panic which revealed that shedidn’twant this to be over just yet. ‘I’d rather be heading back.’

‘Please.’

Something about the tone of his voice prickled her skin and switched her senses to high alert. Her heart began to thud. He looked oddly nervous, which was bizarre when she’d never seen him anything other than supremely confident. But at least that ruled out ending things. If that was his intention, he’d come right out and say it. He wouldn’t need a dinner to think it through and a walk on the beach. And anyway, this felt weightier than that. If she’d been the dramatic sort, she’d have described the atmosphere between them as momentous even. ‘All right.’

He led her to a wide, spacious hammock that hung between two palm trees. She arranged herself at one end, he at the other. He rubbed his hands over his face and then gave himself a shake. ‘Do you remember once asking me about my home life?’ he said, his expression as serious as she’d ever seen it.

Ella’s breath caught in her lungs. The question was wholly unexpected. What was going on? Was he actually going to talk to her? Now? Why? She didn’t want that. Except, she did. God, shedid. She wanted to know what made him tick. She craved information. So much so that she couldn’t turn down this opportunity to get it. And so what if it did create some sort of a connection? It was hardly likely to be a deep one. They were already two-thirds of the way into their affair. In approximatelya week’s time, it would be over and all contact would be instantly severed, exactly as planned.

So she took a deep breath and said, ‘How could I forget when you punished me so exquisitely for it?’

He gave her a fleeting smile that tugged briefly on her heart strings and was gone all too soon. ‘My upbringing wasn’t very pleasant,’ he said gruffly. ‘Not quite as tough as yours, but nevertheless, not very pleasant. You said you’d read about my father.’

She nodded, thinking with an inward grimace of the photos, the scandals and the lawsuits that had hit the tabloids over the years.

‘He was selfish and volatile. On occasion he could be cruel. When he was around we walked on eggshells. When he wasn’t, well, the press let us know where he was and what he was doing. I can’t remember a time when he wasn’t having an affair. Sometimes he brought the women he slept with home, which, even at the age of six, I knew wasn’t quite right.’

A wave of nausea rose up her throat and she swallowed it back down. ‘How quickly you must have had to grow up.’

‘No quicker than you.’

Well, yes, that was true, but this wasn’t about her. ‘How did you all cope?’

‘My mother dealt with it by moving to Northumberland shortly after Charley was born and hardly ever left. When I was seven I went off to boarding school, and once there, it was easy not to think about home too much. As I got older, I stayed away as much as I could. It wasn’t hard. Whenever possible, I spent the holidays with friends. When I wasn’t doing that, I was out. I partied hard. I screwed around. A lot. In fact, some of my behaviour wasn’t that dissimilar to my father’s. He once called me a chip off the old block, and he was right. I didn’t give a tossabout anyone but myself, and I didn’t care who I hurt in the process.’

Because it was too hard to think of the boy and teenager he’d been, adrift without support, having to rely totally on himself just as she had, Ella forced the image from her head. And because she didn’t want to be feeling anything for him at all, she thought instead of theBlushmagazine article she’d read and recalled how annoyed he’d seemed about it. ‘You said that wasn’t who you were any more.’

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