Page 54 of Her Diamond Deal with the CEO

‘No, I’m not her boss,’ he managed to say.

Even from eight thousand miles away, Oli’s relief was palpable. ‘Okay, I know she can’t really talk at work so I’ll give her a call back later. Sorry, I’m Oliver, by the way, her brother...’ The silence stretched between them as Oliver politely waited for him to provide his name.

‘I’m Jack.’

Oliver smiled. ‘Nice to meet you, Jack.’ Still smiling, he hung up.

Jack stared down at the phone in his hand, his heart pounding. He couldn’t seem to move. There had been no flicker of recognition when he’d told Oli his name. But that didn’t make any sense. If it did that could mean only one thing. Ondine hadn’t told her brother she was married.

Only that couldn’t be true. Why wouldn’t she have told him? Oli was her only family. Surely she would want him to know something that significant. Surely she would have to let him know if she meant what she said on the plane about making things work.

His heart shivered inside his chest. Unless, of course, she hadn’t meant it. She had simply said what was expedient in the moment to placate him. Like his father offering to play hide-and-seek.

He was still standing at the counter, frozen as if made of ice, when Ondine came into the kitchen.

Her hair was still damp from the pool and she was wearing one of his T-shirts over bare legs. The bump of her stomach pressed against the fabric. She had never looked more beautiful or natural. But looks could be deceptive.

As she slid her arms around his body his throat tightened, his body too, and it would be so easy to pull that T-shirt over her head and lift her onto the counter and lose himself in the slick heat between her thighs.

But instead he stepped backwards, his hands on hers, peeling her arms away from his waist.

‘What is it?’ She looked up at him, her blue eyes widening. ‘Are you okay?’

She sounded worried; looked worried too, and he wanted to believe what he was hearing and seeing but—

He tapped her phone. ‘Oli called.’

Her face softened as it always did when her brother was mentioned. ‘That’s okay. I can speak to him later.’

I can speak to him later.

Her words rolled around inside his head, like bottles on a bar-room floor. Had he ever seen her speak to Oli in real time? The answer to that question made him reach out and steady himself against the counter.

‘You don’t need to,’ he said slowly. ‘I spoke to him.’

And it was then, still watching her face, that any hopes he had that he was wrong were lost. Shattered. Relinquished.

There was silence. Now she was unnaturally still.

‘He doesn’t know about us. About the marriage.’ He phrased it as a statement. Because he could tell from the shock on her face that he didn’t need to ask the question. And then a new realisation rose like nausea in his throat. ‘He doesn’t know about the baby.’

‘I was going to tell him.’ Her voice was faint and scratchy as if the words were rough-edged. She reached out, and he flinched as she touched his arm.

‘I just wanted to find the right time. When things were settled.’

He stared at her disbelieving, angry, hurting in a way that made him long for the numbness of before. ‘Why bother? Why not just deny everything?’

She blinked as he threw her words back in her face.

‘That’s not what I was doing—’

‘Oh, please—’ He spun away from her into the living room, needing distance from her, from the shock and pain of her betrayal.

‘It’s exactly what you’re doing. You know how I know that? Because I was doing it back on Whydah.’

His hands clenched and, glancing down, he stared at them dazedly as if they belonged to someone else.

‘That was different. You hadn’t accepted the baby was yours—’

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