Page 50 of Enemies with Benefits

Everything I’d experienced so far impressed a bone-deep belief that I was doing the right thing by not walking away from this deal, regardless of what my mother wanted. It had every promise of becoming the kind of exclusive, six-star resort reserved for the elite. Even without the Mortimer name attached to it. And with Jasper fronting it, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was already a mile-long waiting list.

No wonder Perry had bent over backwards to grab a piece of this.

Thoughts of my brother made my mind veer down a different path.

‘Hey, why the frown?’ Jasper asked.

About to give an evasive answer, I surprised myself by blurting out the truth. ‘I was thinking about Perry. I’m wondering whether he’d think I’ve stolen this project from him. It was his baby, after all.’

It was a testament to the kind of family we both came from that he didn’t think the question absurd considering Perry and I were siblings, supposedly working for the same team.

‘Have you heard from him?’

I shook my head, a wave of concern and sadness washing over me. ‘I don’t expect to even if places like that allowed contact with family. Things weren’t that great between us even before all of this.’ I waved my hand at the resort.

Jasper nodded. ‘You think he’ll be angry because he’ll believe he teed it up for you to hit the winning shot?’

I frowned, knowing he was making a point. ‘You don’t think he did.’

He snorted. ‘Absolutely not. And I’ll be happy to set him straight on that score. Sure, you and I have had a few ups and downs but think of the progress we’ve made in the last three weeks. It sure beat the months I was chasing him around to stop this project from suffering a catastrophic and costly setback.’

The praise was welcome but the hollow feeling inside remained. ‘Telling him is one thing. Getting him to accept it might be something else.’

‘And you believe it’s that something else that might drive a deeper wedge between you?’

Feeling a mournful little lump climbing into my throat, I took a hasty sip of tea. ‘I don’t know. On the one hand it seems inevitable that he’ll resent the progress I’ve made. On the other, I’m hoping I get lucky and he comes out of rehab, all goodness and mercy, champing at the bit to end our...estrangement.’

Jasper only frowned deeper. ‘Were things really that bad?’

My lips twisted, my inner voice mocking the hope of my latter statement. ‘You sound surprised. I got the impression your family wasn’t sweetness and light, either.’

His lips twitched sardonically. ‘We aren’t but our dysfunction is curiously programmed to infect the parent-child bond rather than the sibling one. Don’t get me wrong, Damian only recently emerged from some self-imposed secondment in New York and Gem is busy with her own family.’ He shrugged. ‘I don’t see much of them, anyway.’

‘And let me guess, you prefer it that way?’

The flash of disconcertion on his face told me I’d hit the nail on the head. For some reason, that deepened the chasm yawing inside me.

Before I could ask him more questions about his family—mainly to deflect from answering painful ones about my own—his eyes speared me again. ‘Was that what was bothering you this morning? The friction between you and Perry?’

Staring into the leafy green depths of my tea, I answered, ‘No, it was the parent-child part. I’m lucky enough to have it from both sides.’

‘Tell me,’ he encouraged, much as he had on the plane this morning.

‘My mother saw me leaving your hotel last week. Amongst my many other failings, that apparently makes me an irredeemable traitor to my family.’

His jaw clenched tight, his face a gathering thunderstorm. ‘Wren—’

‘Which is rich, considering they barely acknowledge my existence ninety-nine per cent of the time. I’ve been barely a Bingham since before my father died.’

This time my voice did break the smallest fraction. He heard it. Abandoning his tea, he slid his fingers over my nape and pulled me into a tight embrace. Unfortunately, that only reminded me of every other embrace I’d been deprived of for as far back as I could remember. I dissolved into Jasper’s arms, tears I seemed to have battled all day resurging, this time spilling down my cheeks as I buried my face in his chest.

I felt...cherished. Protected in a way I’d never done before in my life. As unwise as everything indicated, I wanted to hang on to it. Absorb it into myself until it became a part of my soul. Until I could look back on it some time in the dismal future and bask in its afterglow.

‘I’d love to say fuck them all but it’s not as simple as that, is it?’ he rasped, a deep understanding in his voice that spoke of his own demons.

Tears welled faster. ‘No, it’s not.’

His chest heaved in a long sigh, then I felt his lips brush the top of my head. ‘Our inability to kick them permanently out of our lives doesn’t mean they get to control us, though, correct? Only you have the power over you. No one else.’

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