Page 19 of Resisting Her Playboy Boss

She rolled her eyes. ‘Water straight from the tap will do me just fine, thanks.’

‘You don’t want any wine?’ he asked in mock surprise. ‘No French champagne tonight?’

‘I’m not so stupid I’d make that mistake a second time,’ she answered with spirit.

‘You blame the bubbles?’ He smiled.

She took the glass of chilled water he offered. ‘No, but I don’t think it helped. I’m grown-up enough to accept most of the madness was my own fault.’

He watched her from the other side of the granite-topped bench. ‘What about the lodge—does the decor inspire you as much as the chateau’s did?’

Ruefully she sipped, flushing her boiling system with the almost frozen water, and refused to answer. Instead she turned away from the gorgeously deluxe interior to look out of the window at the amazing skyline.

‘How many of these places do you own?’ She needed their addresses so she could avoid them at all costs. Just her luck that when she finally got to go somewhere gorgeous, her one most wicked encounter would have to be waiting.

‘Last count it was five. I’m working on the sixth and seventh at the moment.’

‘That’s quite a stable.’ Especially given each came with a multimillion-dollar price tag.

‘They’re not all as big as this one. But they keep me busy.’

She glanced back at him as he answered. Yes, there was the slightest hint of tiredness about his eyes. On the bench was the laptop, the tablet, the smart phones—all the paraphernalia of the businessman who worked 24/7.

‘But the chateau was the first?’ She pressed for more information. ‘And it was your father who built it?’ And who’d had the folly of the marriage?

‘It had been his dream, but he got sick before he could finish it,’ Ruben answered, no flicker of emotion crossing his face.

‘Oh, I’m sorry.’

‘Cancer.’ He elaborated a fraction. ‘He was older. It was only to be expected, I guess.’

‘So you took it over?’ She skimmed over his father’s age reference for now. She was more interested in how on earth Ruben had managed to achieve all he had.

He nodded.

‘How old were you?’

‘Fourteen when he died, seventeen when I took on the chateau.’

‘Seventeen?’

The roguish smile appeared at her amazed tone. ‘My mother signed it over to me.’

‘She did?’

He nodded as if it were completely everyday and then turned to the massive stainless-steel fridge. ‘I wanted it, she didn’t.’

Ellie was gobsmacked. Who on earth signed over a massive property to a teenager? ‘Where’s your mother now?’

‘She went back to France a few months after he died. She didn’t want to be hounded as a merry widow.’

‘But you stayed?’ All alone in New Zealand, barely old enough to leave school, let alone take on a massive business project?

‘I wanted to finish the chateau.’ He pulled a covered dish from the fridge and put it into the microwave, pressing the electronic controls, still speaking in that carefree way. ‘I wanted to realise my father’s dream. I had some help, I worked with Carlisle Finance because I knew Alex Carlisle through a school contact and they’ve been fantastic ever since. But Mama couldn’t face it. I don’t blame her for that.’

His mother had been that unhappy? And had their relationship been so fragmented she’d chosen to leave her only child behind? It seemed Ruben had some pain in common with Ellie’s.

‘Do you see her much?’ Ellie couldn’t resist asking and her curiosity didn’t seem to bother him given the way he answered so easily.

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