Page 21 of Signed, Sealed, Married

‘Not at all.’

She turned to find Adam close. Those severe black eyebrows crammed down in a frown and fathomless eyes narrowed on her in a way that made her breath catch.

Because his gaze wasn’t just probing. It felt...sympathetic. As if, despite everything, they weren’t opponents but were linked by a deeper understanding.

She stared back, transfixed by a feeling this man wasn’t the enemy he seemed.

He looked concerned. As if sensing the deep-seated trauma at the loss of her father that she’d never managed to put fully behind her. Because after that, her world had fallen apart.

But Adam Wilde didn’t know that. The one skill that had come out of her loss—and it had taken years of painful practice—was the ability to hide emotion. To appear soignée and confident in any situation.

She prayed that ability would allow her to keep the truth about this business deal marriage from her brother.

‘You’re not seasick?’ Adam wasn’t convinced.

‘On this calm sea?’ She gave a huff of laughter as if she hadn’t a care in the world. ‘Truly, I’m okay. I was just thinking.’

She looked past his shoulder as if taking in the view, noticing a speedboat approaching. Sunlight glinted on its windscreen as it changed direction.

Adam Wilde didn’t know her, despite his precious investigators’ report. To him she was an asset to acquire then discard when the time was right.

The only way she could disturb him was if she wasn’t conveniently at his side as the token Fontaine while he turned her beloved company into something of his own design. But the only way out that she could see was via an inconvenient fatal accident.

A broken laugh that was part silent sob shuddered through her.

She might be desperate, but not that desperate.

She understood the permanency of death and the anguish it created. As if the loss of her parents wasn’t enough, her fear for Julien’s health compounded that hard-won lesson.

Gisèle pretended to focus on the spectacular view.

They’d stopped opposite a two-storey villa of pale peach. It had a terracotta roof and a white colonnade behind which huge arched windows faced the sea. It looked inviting, secluded in vast gardens, out of sight of other properties. A pool filled the space between the mansion and the sea.

That Adam rented this exquisite place for a short stay, and this superb yacht for occasional use—travelling the twenty kilometres from Nice because he had a whim to sail—reinforced the man’s extraordinary wealth.

‘What a lovely location,’ Gisèle said brightly, collecting her shoes. She’d removed them in consideration for the immaculate wooden deck. Now, at the prospect of putting them on to go ashore with him, her brief delight in the cruise faded.

‘I’m glad you approve.’ He stepped so close she felt the warmth of his big frame as he moved into her space. She stiffened. ‘We could spend time here together.’

‘I can’t see that’s necessary.’ She didn’t want to be alone with him. Give her crowded squares and busy offices any day. Something about him got under her skin in a way no business rival should.

‘But we have a lot to discuss. I want you to fill me in on the company. Plus you want us to give the impression we’ve fallen for each other. We can only do that by being together.’

He was too close. She took a deep breath and found herself inhaling that elusive scent of his, intriguing and inviting. Immediately her body softened in response. Cedarwood and some deep note. Tonka bean? No, she couldn’t place it. Yet the drift of it—warm, masculine and as enticing as fresh honey—sank into her sense receptors.

She’d like to employ whoever made that cologne.

Stop trying to distract yourself! It’s not his cologne you’re interested in. It’s him.

How can that be? He’s a brutal, bullying billionaire who doesn’t give a toss for anyone but himself.

Yet your body responds when he gets close.

The thought horrified. But there was no denying the zap of tingling energy suffusing her. Threads of heat wove through her limbs, around her breasts and down to tangle in her pelvis.

Gisèle stepped away and found herself against the railing. She swallowed a constriction in her throat.

After a miserable disaster in her teens, she’d decided sexual desire wasn’t one of her weaknesses. She was almost impervious to attractive men. Yet standing close to Adam Wilde made her feel hot and heavy in a way that was disturbingly unfamiliar.

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