Page 15 of Her Diamond Deal with the CEO

His beautiful mouth curled. ‘You have two ex-husbands, you work two jobs, and you could wallpaper your house with final demands. What more is there to know?’

‘Nothing. And there’s nothing more to say either,’ she said coldly. ‘I’ll call you a cab.’

He stared at her speculatively. ‘You know where to find me when you change your mind. Just be discreet—’

She yanked open the door. ‘You can wait on the deck. Goodbye, Jack.’

Curling up on her side, Ondine hugged her duvet closer. It was nearly an hour since Jack had left and she had another two hours before she would have to head into work. But she was going to need every minute of those two hours to get her head straight. To get Jack and his ridiculous, patronising offer out of her head.

Her heart thudded hard as she remembered the curve of his mouth and that lift of his eyebrow. He thought he knew her but he didn’t know anything about her. He didn’t know what she needed.

She felt something stir inside her. Okay, maybe he did, but that didn’t count. It shouldn’t even have happened.

Her heart leapt against her ribs as her phone rang, and as she glanced down at the caller ID, she started to smile.

‘Oli?’ There was a crackling sound. ‘Oli—can you hear me?’

‘Yes, I can hear you.’

She could hear the excitement in his voice. ‘How are you? How’s it going?’

‘I’m fine. And it’s going really well. Yesterday I inoculated about a hundred children and today I watched a woman give birth.’

He sounded so young, so pleased with himself and she felt a rush of pride and love. ‘That’s amazing, Oli.’

‘It really was. But we can talk about that in a minute. What’s happening at home? How’s Dolores and Herc? Did you get the car fixed?’

‘Dolores and Herc are fine and,no, I haven’t got around to sorting out the car yet. And everything here is the same old, same old,’ she lied. ‘You know...waiting tables, standing by the pool.’

Oh, and having sex with a man she’d rescued from the sea.

‘I miss you—’

There was a lump in her throat. ‘I miss you too. But you’re enjoying it, aren’t you?’

‘I am.’ She heard him take a breath and when he spoke again his voice was quieter, more serious. ‘I didn’t say anything before I left, but I was worried, O, you know, that I might come out here and realise that I’d made a mistake. Because of always being so certain. But it’s everything I thought it would be, and so much—’

The crackling sound was back.

‘Oli. Are you there?’

The phone clicked and she frowned as the dial tone filled her ear. This happened every single time. But he would call back—

On cue, the phone rang and she snatched it up.

‘You were saying something about making a mistake,’ she teased.

‘Ondine?’

She almost dropped the phone. That wasn’t Oliver. It was her ex-husband. ‘Vince?’

‘How are you?’

Her shoulders stiffened.Poor. Stupid. Lonely. All of the above,she thought, but instead, keeping her voice casual, she said, ‘I’m good. Busy, actually.’

‘Right, that’s good.’

She frowned. She hadn’t heard from Vince in nearly ten months. There was no need. Both of them had moved on. Which meant he was at a loose end or he wanted money.

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