Page 17 of Black Tie Billionaire
Yet she grasped it, then opened it.
Minutes later, her heart thudded against her chest wall like a hammer against stone. The pounding clang in her head deafened her. God, she wished it would blind her to what she was reading.
Report after report detailing shady business deals involving her brother, and even some with his future father-in-law, Senator Reus.Bribery for product placement, undercutting bidding contracts, predatory practices, procuring illegal campaign contributions on behalf of the senator. And these were just some of the accusations leveled against Trevor and RemingtonNeal.
“Why are you showing me these...these lies?” She dropped the stack back on the table as if it singed her fingertips. If it didn’t betray weakness, she would’veshoved her chair back from the table just to place more space between that file and her.
“Lies?” He arched a black eyebrow, the corner of his mouth lifting in the faintest of sneers. “Facts, Ms. Neal. Your determination to believe they’re false doesn’t make it so.”
“And your determination to believe they’re true doesn’t make it so,” she snapped, throwing his words back at him. “I don’tknow you, and I damn sure don’t know the people who gathered this defamatory conjecture.” She flicked a corner of the folder. “Let’s face it, Mr. Knight. If any of this was provable in court, you wouldn’t be sitting here across from me at a restaurant table. You would be meeting with the DA or SEC.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said, cruel satisfaction glinting in his eyes. “It’s amazinghow the court of public opinion will try and convict someone much swifter than a court of law.”
Her stomach rolled, bile churning before racing for the back of her throat. She hated to admit it, but he was right. Good God, ifanyof this information leaked, it would destroy Trevor’s reputation, his engagement, and irreparably harm the family company. It wouldn’t matter if the claims couldn’tbe proved; the speculation alone would be detrimental and the damage irreversible. Since their father died, Trevor’s one goal—no, his obsession—had been to enlarge RemingtonNeal, to make it even more successful and powerful than what their father had done. None of that would be possible if even an iota of the data in this dossier was true.
Not that she believed it. Shecouldn’t. Yes, Trevorcould be merciless and cut-throat. She’d increasingly seen more and more evidence of this, personally and professionally, in the last few years. And it worried her. The glimpses of the brother she’d revered and adored as a child and teen were becoming further and further apart.
But it was those glimpses that gave her hope. That reminded her that underneath the often cold demeanor existed agood man. A man incapable of the things noted in that defaming file.
And bottom line... She loved him.
Love and loyalty demanded she believe in him.
“What do you want?” she asked, forcing a calm into her voice that was a farce. Questions, thoughts andfearwhipped through her in a chaotic gale.
The man who’d fed her and provided her protection and light in a blackout didn’t sitacross from her. No, this wasn’t the man who’d introduced her to such pleasure she still felt the echo of it weeks later. This man... He was a stranger. A cold, calculating, beautiful stranger.
“You.”
The blunt announcement doused her in a frigid blast, stunning her.
“Excuse me?” she rasped.
He couldn’t mean...?
No. No way.
He didn’t want her. He had to mean something else.
But God, her body was having one hell of a time getting the message.You. Heat prickled at the base of her spine, and desire wound through her veins like a molten stream. A barrage of memories assaulted her—the sound of his ragged breath in her ear as he thrust into her body, all that dark, thick hair tumbling around his lust-tautened face, his whispered “moonbeam” as he stroked her damn skin...Her breath evaporated in her lungs, and she struggled to keep any hint of arousal from her face.
“I want you.” He leaned forward, his midnight gaze pinning her to her chair. “More specifically, I want you to be in love with me.”
The images in her head splintered like glass, dousing the passion-kindled flames inside her. She gaped at him. Couldn’t help it. After all, it wasn’t every daythat she sat across from a lunatic.
“Are you crazy?” she demanded, clutching the edge of the table as if it were the only thing keeping her from leaping out of her chair. “I don’t evenlikeyou. And we’ve never met,” she continued, ignoring the memory of skin pressed to damp skin that flashed across her mind’s eye. “How could you believe you love me?”
He flicked a hand, the gesture impatient,dismissive. “Of course I don’t love you. And I don’t need your affection or professions of an emotion that is nothing but an excuse for fools and liars to behave badly.”
Shay shook her head, confused. “But you just said—”
“Pretend,” he interrupted. “You’re going to pretend to be deeply enamored with me, and our whirlwind relationship will be as fake as that sentiment.”
“Youarecrazy,”she breathed. “That’s ridiculous. Why would you even propose something like that?”
“Why?” he repeated, that damn eyebrow arching again. “Your brother.”
She barked out a harsh crack of laughter. “My brother? Do you really think Trevor cares if I’m in a relationship with you?” Hell, he might be happy. Yes, he and Gideon were business rivals, and Trevor had been trying to acquire the otherman’s company for years, but her brother would probably consider it a coup for his sister to date such a successful and wealthy man.
