Page 89 of 2 Books in One Bundle

Isla took a breath, her hands clenching in the pockets of her jeans. ‘It’s an opportunity, Orion. That’s all it is. You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to. But I... I wanted to give it to you nonetheless.’

‘Thank you,’ Orion said. ‘But this is one opportunity I think I’ll pass on.’ Then he moved over to the fire and casually threw the piece of paper into the flames, before turning around and walking straight out.

Anger moved in his blood like lava and once he was in his office with the door shut behind him, he had to stand in the middle of the room and take a couple of deep breaths just to stop himself from punching his fist through the nearest wall.

How dare she do that to him? How dare she bring up the subject of Luke again, after she’d told him that night in the gorge that she wouldn’t? How dare she look for him and find him andknowhim?

It was none of her goddamn business.

‘He’s doing fine arts at university and he has a girlfriend.’

Orion stormed over to his desk and put his hands flat onto the desktop and leaned on them, staring down at the wood. He couldn’t get a breath, rage and pain strangling him.

He didn’t want to know. He’d cut Luke out of his life on purpose, because it was easier. Who the hell did she think she was bringing him back again?

‘Easier for who? For him or for you?’

She’d said that to him the night in the pool, pushing him, bringing up old doubts and old fears and old agonies. Old griefs he didn’t want to deal with and didn’t want to face. He wanted them to stay dead and buried where he’d put them.

Behind him he heard a sound, the door opening and slamming shut.

He pushed himself away from the desk and turned around sharply.

Isla had followed him, and stood there in the middle of his office, her golden hair in a cloud around her head, her blue eyes full of sympathy and yet also full of determination. ‘I know you’re angry with me,’ she said. ‘And I know I overstepped. I’m sorry. But you have to know that I did it for you. Because you’re hurting.’

He bared his teeth at her, struggling to leash the anger that burned inside him. ‘Perhaps I wouldn’t be if you didn’t keep bringing up things I didn’t ask you to bring up.’

She didn’t seem to be cowed by his anger. She even took a step closer, as if it didn’t bother her in the slightest. ‘I know that. And you don’t have to do anything with the information. The choice is yours. But... Orion... He deserves to know you.’ She took another step closer. ‘He deserves to know what kind of father he has.’

Orion felt frozen even as the rage burned inside him. A fruitless, frustrated rage at the past. At all the chances that were taken from him. At the future he wanted so badly that had been denied him. He hadn’t thought he’d still feel that, but he did. And it was pointless. The past was dead and gone, and he’d already chosen his future.

‘The father he has is a man who destroys things,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘A man who takes things apart. He doesn’t build anything. He doesn’t create. He ruins everything he touches.’

Isla’s eyes widened and a terrible compassion crossed her face. She moved, closing the distance between them. ‘No,’ she said softly, reaching for him ‘No, that’s not true.’

But before her hands could make contact, he grabbed her wrists, her skin warm against his fingers. He didn’t want her to touch him. He couldn’t bear the thought of it.

‘It is true,’ he said harshly, releasing her as quickly as he’d grabbed her. ‘I ruined the wedding you planned. I ruined your hope for a family by paying off your fiancé. I threatened you with the destruction of your company to get you to marry me, and I’m still planning on taking it apart when the year is up. Tell me, Isla. Whathaven’tI ruined?’

She blinked and he could see the sparkle of tears in her eyes. It tore something inside him. ‘You didn’t ruinanything,’ she said passionately. ‘Yes, you did those things, but you didn’t force me into anything, Orion. You gave me choices and I made them. And you don’t destroy things. You promised to keep the company intact and signed a legal agreement to do so. You created the most lovely Christmas here in the lodge, with a tree and presents. And you made me feel good about myself in a way no one ever has. You made me feel fascinating and precious and beautiful, as if I was worth something.’ Her voice thickened, becoming husky. ‘You made me feel wanted, Orion. And no one has ever made me feel that way, not one person.’

His chest tightened, but he shoved the feeling away. There was no room for anything but anger in his heart. ‘Don’t turn this into something it isn’t, Isla,’ he snapped harshly. ‘Iboughtyou, remember? Your father sold you to me for the price of Kendricks’. And I only wanted you because I was fascinated by you. It was aboutmyfascination, not you.’

She went pale. ‘So what are you saying? That everything we shared, everything we talked about, all those things you said to me... You didn’t mean any of them? You were only pretending?’

He’d known that would hurt her, yet there wasn’t any other way to make her see the truth of what he was. What he’d always been, even as a kid. Intense, desperate, wanting things he could never have. And what he couldn’t have, he destroyed, like the bond he’d destroyed with his son. Cutting Luke out of his life as if he didn’t exist.

He was selfish, that’s what he was, and she needed to understand that.

‘Of course, I was only pretending.’ He had to force out the words, the rough edge in his voice turning them sharp and jagged. ‘Did you truly think I meant any of it?’

She went white, her blue gaze darkening with hurt. ‘But...you told me you never said anything you didn’t mean.’

He had to end this. He had to bring this whole farce of a honeymoon to an end. He’d call a helicopter for her, send her back to the UK, get her out of his sight and out of his life, and then maybe once she was gone, everything would go back to normal.

‘Well,’ he said coldly. ‘I lied.’ He turned and went around the side of his desk, reaching into his pocket for his phone. He kept his gaze on the windows and the landscape outside. It was snowing, which wasn’t ideal. ‘I’m bringing this to a close, Isla,’ he went on. ‘It’s been a nice week, but I believe I’ve come to the end of my fascination with you after all. It’s time for you to go home.’

There was silence behind him, but he didn’t turn around and he wondered if she’d leave him alone now, and felt something else tear inside him at the thought.

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