Page 14 of His Wedding Day Revenge

‘It was brought to my attention.’

‘I thought billionaires didn’t bother with the little stuff. They floated around on private jets and went to film premieres.’ She stopped, thinking of his companions at the last glittering event he’d been pictured at.

‘You wishing you’d stayed around to enjoy the lifestyle?’ he mocked.

This first direct reference made her stiffen. ‘I think we both know I’d have been a terrible wife for a billionaire. You still haven’t said,’ she added, ‘what brings you here.’

‘The eco-management course.’

‘Oh, if it’s oversubscribed, no problem at all.’

‘It is not oversubscribed,’ he retorted, framing the words with invisible quotation marks. ‘I am led to believe you have...’ He paused, his dark eyes glittering as they captured and held hers. ‘Conditions?’ He folded his hands across his chest, looking amused. ‘I am here to hear them.’

Jane blinked in confusion. ‘What?’ Comprehension dawned. ‘Oh, I didn’t mean—!’ Her shocked expression morphed into a frown. ‘The vicar didn’t say that, or mean that, and you,’ she accused, ‘knew it! I needed clarification of the childcare facilities. I’m not leaving Mattie with a stranger for hours on end. He needs continuity after...’

He arched a brow. ‘After?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Are there health issues?’

She shook her head. ‘No, nothing like that. He is very young.’

‘I have no experience of babies, but I hear they are very adaptable, but to ease your mind there will be several workshop situations that you can bring him along to,’ he said glibly, hoping this was true and realising if it wasn’t it ought to be. And not just because he had decided that having Jane within grabbing distance might be... Not that he would grab, he mentally corrected.

Why not? asked the voice in his head.

There was no denying there would be a sort of poetic justice in a role reversal. This time he would be the one to walk away...without an explanation.

No matter how many mental gymnastics he performed it was hard not to hear the word revenge. He was no saint, but he liked to think that taking advantage of a mother who had lost her partner was beneath him.

But it would be interesting to observe her reaction to what she had passed up on.

He wanted to see her regret...he wanted to know why.

He closed down that line of thought, not needing to admit what else he wanted and had wanted from the moment he had recognised her.

It was a weakness.

She was a weakness.

‘I will send the prospectus and timetable of events. No one is expected to attend them all, so there is time to spend with your son...there is flexibility.’

She felt a scratch of guilt. When she had seen him she’d assumed he had come here to...well, not be nice and certainly not show consideration. Clearly he had moved on, as, she reminded herself, had she, though not necessarily in the direction Draco thought.

Why hadn’t she told him the truth about Mattie’s parentage? she asked herself guiltily. His assumption would lead him to think she had moved on, which of course she had, but allowing the assumption to stand meant she didn’t have to prove anything.

The guilt remained and she felt uneasy about the subterfuge. She hadn’t planned this route; it had just opened up. She had actually assumed he already knew when he’d asked.

‘Actually M...’ The breath died in her throat when she looked up, the expression on his lean patrician features making her start to babble nervously

‘Well, that is very...it sounds good,’ she finished, her relief intense when he took the hint and began to move towards the door. ‘Oh, w—’

Her warning was cut off as his head hit the low beam where Carrie had inserted the downlighters, the thump made by the collision of his skull with wood sending her stomach into a lurching dive.

Stunned, but not as stunned as he was, she watched with horror as he sank to his knees, his head on his chest. The slow trickle of blood brought her to her senses.

People said she was good in an emergency situation, but actually she just reacted.

She took a step towards him and fell to her knees beside him. ‘Oh, my God, I should have warned you... I am...’ Fewer words, Jane, said the practical voice in her head, and more action.

‘I’m fine,’ he muttered irritably.

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