Page 40 of How to Undo the Proud Billionaire

“Hopefully by then you’ll also have buried that death trap you call a car,” Radd muttered.

Brin smiled at the note of frustration in his voice. He obviously loved cars and Betsy’s lack of well, style, class and running ability offended him. But he didn’t understand that upgrading her car would mean taking a loan from her sister or mother, and that would be like walking straight back into the spider’s web.

It had taken her far too long to disentangle herself to take that risk.

“I just want to be self-sufficient and independent, Radd.” Brin quietly stated. “I don’t want to have to answer to anyone ever again. I’ve spent the last couple of months finding myself.”

Radd looked pensive. “I’ve never really understood that expression. I mean, God, you’re not a winning Lotto ticket in a coat pocket.”

“But I’ve felt so lost, like I’m a reflection of Ker…of my mother and sister.”

“I think whoever you are, the person youreallyare, is there, deep in you. It’s just buried beneath all the crap society feeds us, the messages we received as kids, and what the media tells us we should be. Could finding yourself actually mean returning to yourself, to being the ‘you’ you were before life and people got their hands on you?”

His words slapped her in her soul, in that place deep down inside that no one ever ventured. Man, he got her, understood her on a deep, dark intrinsic level. Despite not knowing everything about the mixed, complicated relationship between her, her sister and her mother, he managed to nail the proverbial nail on the head.

He understood her in a way she needed to be understood. From the moment she met him, she trusted him… She’d jumped into a plane with him, trusted him to pay her the money she was owed, moved into his villa with him.

Had things turned out differently, she would’ve trusted him with her body. And she might still do that.

Honesty made her admit she was a probably a hair’s breadth from falling in love with him—this man who operated in the same world she’d fought so hard to leave—but trust was far harder to find than love.

And, oh, God, Brin hoped he trusted her, too. Because she thought that maybe he did, just a little, she placed her hand on his arm and waited until he looked up and into her eyes. “That’s incredibly profound and I appreciate it more than you know. And because you said that, maybe I can say this…?”

“What?” Radd asked when she hesitated, his expression curious.

“Maybe the PR campaign is necessary, from a business point of view,” she shrugged. “Obviously I don’t know your business, but I do know that you are nothing like your parents and the people who deal with you are fools if they can’t see it. It doesn’t matter how people see you, Radd, it’s how you see yourself. The only way to stop your parents influencing your life is to stop caring, to accept that they made their own choices and that those choices had nothing to do with you.”

Radd stared down at his hands, and Brin didn’t push him for a response because their conversation was getting so deep, so intense.But,Brin thought as she looked up at the stars,this is the night, and the place for conversations like these. She wasn’t a fool to think that this was the start of something bright and shiny and new, but she did know that they’d impacted each other, that they’d reshaped each other’s thinking.

And that, in itself, was incredibly powerful.

After a delicious dinner, and a conversation filled with laughter, Brin sighed. It was almost a perfect evening, but she wanted more. She wanted a night she’d always remember in crystal clear detail, a wonderful memory to give her comfort when she returned to Cape Town and a Radd-free life.

Because a couple of days did not a relationship make.

But it was one thing to make the mental shift to decide to have sex, butaskingfor one night, a step out of time, was something completely different.

Seriously, Brin thought as she stared at Radd’s gorgeous profile in the romantic light of the oil lamps,why can’t he read my mind? It would be so much easier.

But that was his point, wasn’t it? He wanted her to make the first move, to take the initiative because then she could never accuse him of pressuring her. But the fear of rejection, something she’d battled with her entire life, kept the words locked firmly between her teeth. Brin tipped her head back to look at the stars, crystals hanging in a pure black sky. It was so quiet, yet, at the same time, it wasn’t. She was used to the sound of vehicles, the hum of their noisy fridge, barking dogs, wind in the tree outside her window. The noise of the bushveld was unlike anything she’d experienced, a dichotomy of silence and noise, both at the same time.

It was the sound of the earth and its creatures sighing, sleeping, dreaming. Even if nothing happened between her and Radd tonight—and she hoped to find the courage soon to ensure it would—it was almost enough just to sit under the low-hanging sky and listen to the sounds of the African night.

She heard the rumble, a displacement of air and, because she happened to be looking at Radd at the time, she saw his attention sharpen, his body tensing.

Brin leaned forward and, needing a connection, placed her hand on his knee. “What? Is everything okay?”

A small smile touched Radd’s face and he held up his index finger in a silent request for her to wait. Brin looked around anxiously.

“Shh, relax. Just listen.” Radd slid his fingers between hers, gently squeezing. Brin immediately relaxed; he’d protect her, she was safe.

Scooting closer to him, Brin placed her temple on the ball of his shoulder, her thigh aligning with his. Releasing her hand, Radd placed his arm around her back, his hand curving over her hip. His touch felt right and it felt real. If she lifted her head, her mouth would meet his…

A deep sound rumbled through the air, sounding as if it were pulled from the center of the earth and raising the hair on Brin’s arms and the back of her neck. It smacked her soul, the deep roar settling in the pockets of her heart and lungs, and twisting her stomach inside out.

“That’s a big boy,” Radd murmured, his voice lazy.

“Lion?” Brin asked, though she knew it couldn’t be anything else.

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