Page 17 of 2 Books in One Bundle

Mia swallowed hard. ‘She went into hospital after falling and breaking her arm and caught a superbug which turned into sepsis. She never came home. I was sixteen when she died.’

‘I’m so sorry.’

‘So am I,’ she said, her heart aching at the loss, even now after fourteen years. ‘But I’d grieved for her long before that.’

‘I can see why financial security would be so important to you.’

‘Security in general is important to me.’

‘Marry me and you’ll have it,’ he said, his dark, mesmerising gaze intent on hers but his expression otherwise blank. ‘Marry me, Mia, and you’ll never have to worry about anything ever again.’

CHAPTER SEVEN

THATZANDERHADchosen that particular moment to push his agenda should not have stung quite as much as it did, Mia thought, stamping out the strange sense of hurt and disappointment and determinedly pulling herself together.

She should have known he wouldn’t let the subject of marriage lie. Hadn’t she already seen how tenacious and unyielding he could be when he wanted something? Didn’t he have a reputation for ruthlessness? Why wouldn’t he take advantage of her rare moment of vulnerability? It was probably her fault in the first place, for carelessly revealing such personal details and furnishing him with ammunition that he hadn’t hesitated to use.

‘We’ve already discussed this,’ she said coolly, reminding herself to keep her wits about her before she was lulled into another false sense of security and quite possibly found herself at the altar.

‘Not to my satisfaction.’

‘My position on the subject remains unchanged.’

‘So does mine.’

‘Yes, I got that from the demand for my birth certificate.’

‘Which you still haven’t provided.’

Appetite gone, Mia pushed her plate to one side. ‘You really do have a problem with trust, don’t you?’ she said, deciding that it was now his turn to talk. He might even reveal a vulnerability of his own that she could exploit. ‘Is that why you’re still single?’

Zander half got up, leaned over and reached for her plate. ‘What makes you think that?’

‘You’re handsome, successful and rich, and you’re thirty-five,’ she replied, steeling herself against the temptation to close her eyes and breathe him in. ‘Evolutionarily, you should have been snapped up years ago. There has to be some reason you aren’t.’

‘Perhaps I simply haven’t wanted to be snapped up.’

‘Ah, yes,’ she said dryly. ‘Too many women, too little time, I seem to recall.’

He gave a shrug and flashed her a smile filled with self-deprecation that she didn’t believe for a moment. ‘Your words, not mine.’

‘Yet you’re willing to be hitched to me.’

‘That’s different,’ he said, removing their plates to the trolley and returning with a beautiful blueberry tart. ‘Our marriage will be purely one of convenience. A legality. Nothing more.’

‘How romantic.’

‘I’m not interested in romance.’

‘What about love?’

He sat back down, frowning in obvious confusion, as if she were speaking Swahili. ‘Love?’

‘You know. The heart-thumping, giddy feeling that’s generally considered to be the basis of a long-term union.’

‘I can’t think of anything worse,’ he said with a tiny yet visible shudder as he picked up a cake slice.

‘Why not?’

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