Page 63 of Worth the Risk

His gaze rolled over to me, all deceptively calm and dangerous. ‘Do you have a bee in your bonnet about something?’

I left the doorway, crossed the cabin to stand in front of him. ‘Don’t change the subject. My time is precious, Gideon. I don’t like to waste it. If you’d rather be alone...’

He took a deep breath, then slid a finger down my cheek. ‘How the hell can I when you’re around?’ he demanded thickly.

‘That sounds like an accusation.’

He dropped his hand, stood and walked to the French doors leading onto his balcony. I wrapped my arms around my middle and waited for him to turn around.

‘Do you care about me, Leonora?’

The question shocked me enough to jerk me out of my pretended nonchalance. ‘What kind of question is that?’

‘A simple one, I think,’ he countered.

‘I...’ I had no way of answering that without baring my soul so I clamped my lips shut.

His face settled in harsh lines.

The ashen hollow inside widened. ‘Gideon?’

Bleak, distant eyes found mine. ‘I told you I had a fiancée. You’ve probably guessed the reason she’s not my fiancée any more is because she cheated on me. With Damian. How fucking clichéd is that?’

Hearing the intricate details didn’t make me hurt less for him. ‘I’m sorry.’

Lips compressed, he glanced away, as if he didn’t want my sympathy.

‘Has something changed? With Damian, I mean?’

He gave a harsh laugh. ‘If I had my way, he’d be rotting at the bottom of a ravine somewhere. But no, the fucker’s decided to rear his head again.’

‘He’s coming here?’

‘I bloody well hope not, for his own sake. But he’s back in London making noises about rejoining the board. Hence my required attendance at the board meeting.’

‘And you don’t want that to happen.’

‘What the hell do you think?’

Like a beam of light cutting through a thunderstorm, I saw through his bravado to the pain lurking beneath. The band around my chest squeezed tighter.

Gideon was still in love with his fiancée.

It explained his edginess at his cousin’s reappearance.

Gideon’s rabid need for loyalty and fidelity made sense now, too, especially if he still loved a woman who’d betrayed him.

I shoved away all the jagged angst those conclusions threatened to rip through me and focused on him. ‘You think your family are coming over to try to talk you into allowing him back into the company?’

‘Of course they are. They don’t miss a chance to chuck a spanner in the works.’

‘Can they do that?’

He shrugged. ‘Technically, he never left, merely took a leave of absence. So yes.’ Despite his abrasive words, there was a longing in his voice that snagged me. The Mortimer family was large and rambling, and like most dynastic families it was fraught with drama.

Despite my own unsettling emotions, my heart went out to him. ‘Why exactly do you want me there tonight, Gideon?’

‘Gemma is Damian’s sister. She’s bound to rabbit on about him at some point.’

---