‘You should be so lucky.’ His smile this time wasn’t so nice. ‘No, if you want the necklace back, then you make amends.’
‘How do you want me to do that?’
‘You fulfil the role you claimed last night. You be my fiancée.’
‘What?’
Calmly he put the choker back into his pocket and then shot her a look. ‘You remain here as my fiancée for a few weeks until we amicably break up and then you leave.’
‘Why would you want me to do that?’
‘Because it suits me.’
‘And it’s all about you.’
‘Right now, yes, it is.’ He shrugged. ‘You broke into my house. You spread stories about me to all my friends. I think you owe me.’
She felt guilty enough already; she didn’t need him laying it on with a trowel.
‘I’m opening up the London office of my company,’ he went on. ‘It’s a big investment and I don’t want this sideshow overshadowing or impacting on its success. It doesn’t need to be a big deal; interest will fade very quickly once the company set-up is fully underway.’
‘I can’t just stay here as your fiancée. I have a job.’
‘You have a part-time position in a failing art gallery in the south of England where you don’t actually get paid; you merely get a roof over your head and use of the small studio out the back.’
Yes, he’d done a lot of research. She’d gone to Cornwall on a whim when her engagement to James had ended in that blaze of exposure and humiliation. She’d been there for the last six months. Happy enough, but lonely. She’d been unable to resist Teddy’s call for help.
‘It’s not failing,’ she grumbled, just so she could fight with him about something. ‘It’s a beautiful gallery. The light down there is amazing.’
‘I want you to work here and catalogue everything in this mausoleum. There are things in piles of boxes that I haven’t the time to open and sift through.’
‘So you can auction it off and make money from every little thing?’
‘I don’t need the money from these trinkets. They’d add less than a drop to my financial ocean.’
Oh, please—bully for him for being so wealthy. ‘I could steal from you, you know.’
‘I’m willing to take that risk.’ He smiled.
‘Don’t you have ten personal assistants or something?’
‘My PA is extremely efficient and I’m sure she’d do a good job, but her talents are better spent on the work she knows best. It’s better for this to be done by someone familiar with the content. The place is in a mess and you know it.’
He was right and it wasn’t just the boxes; there were years of repairs that had been left undone. Like his business, her father had left the house in a mess.
‘It needs an upgrade, and you can make the arrangements, at least for the chattels to begin with. A full restoration programme will take much longer, of course.’ Alejandro regarded her steadily. ‘So what do you think?’
She thought it was a flimsy excuse to keep her here just because...he simply wanted it. And he always got what he wanted, that was obvious. Yet his plan appealed to the spot where she was most vulnerable. She’d loved this home and she wanted to save some of those things. ‘So you’re not going to modernise, but restore?’
‘The building has many beautiful features that I find attractive and would like to keep.’ He nodded. ‘Of course I want to see it restored to its glory—not just the shell, but the interior as well.’
She felt her flush of gratitude mounting. It was so stupid, but he’d got her there. And he knew it.
‘You have an understanding of the items that are here; you can assess their value and importance. Catalogue them with a sell or keep recommendation and I’ll make my decision when I have time.’
She thought about it for a long moment. It was so tempting, but it was also impossible. And insane. She shook her head. ‘I can’t go from one engagement to another.’
Not even to a fake one.
‘It’s been about six months, hasn’t it?’ Alejandro pointed out, lazily selecting one of the grapes she’d left behind on the platter.
‘Who have you been talking to?’ She was mortified that he knew of her past.
He swallowed the fruit and laughed. ‘What does it matter?’ He reached forward, his teasing expression back. ‘You know a rebound romance is the perfect solution for that bad temper.’
‘This will never be a romance,’ she snarled, shocked at the way she was suddenly burning up.
‘No?’ He looked amused. ‘I was trying to make it sound less...raw.’
‘Less tacky, you mean.’ He was talking about lust and nothing but.
‘You need a system cleanse.’ He lifted his hands in that unexpectedly animated way that made her want to smile back at him. ‘A little light fun to restore your confidence and independence.’
‘And you’re offering?’ Like the generous, do-good kind of guy he so wasn’t. ‘A little light fun?’
What, exactly, would that entail? And why was it suddenly so hot in here?
‘I’m offering many things. All of them good.’ Still leaning forward, he propped his chin in his hand as he watched her. ‘You don’t have anywhere else to stay in London at the moment. I believe your brother is between apartments as well.’
Oh, hell, he knew it all. And the truth was, the prospect of couch-surfing with Teddy’s theatre friends for the next few days was depressing. Her father hadn’t thought it necessary to consider whether she’d have a place to stay. And nor should he. She was twenty-three and perfectly capable of finding her own accommodation. But she hadn’t realised how adrift she really was. ‘Is there anything you don’t know?’
‘There are many things I don’t know about you. Yet.’
The implied intimacy brought more colour to her cheeks.
‘It is the organisation of the house that earns you back the diamonds,’ he said. ‘Our sexual relationship is outside of that bargain.’
‘We have no sexual relationship,’ she said firmly.
‘Yet,’ he repeated with a smile. ‘It’s only a matter of time, Catriona.’
‘Not everything is that predictable.’
/>
‘This is.’
She drew in a shallow breath. ‘And if I refuse to organise the house?’
‘No necklace.’
‘But it’s not yours. It wasn’t part of the house sale and you know it.’
‘As you said yourself, possession is nine-tenths of the law. I have it, Catriona.’ He patted his pocket. ‘I’ll tell the world about your attempt to break in and steal from me. That initially I covered for you last night to spare your mortification, but that in the end you had to be charged.’
‘Wouldn’t that bring the “sideshow” you’re so keen to avoid?’ she asked, delighting in pointing out his own contradiction.
He shrugged. ‘I would prefer to avoid that, but I’ve been through worse. I’m not the villain in this—you’re the crazy woman.’
She was. She’d be labelled the desperate woman who’d faked a fiancé to save face. Humiliation sucked. This was a way of escaping with some pride intact. And it wasn’t all beneficence on his part; she knew what he wanted and frankly she was amazed—and stupidly flattered. She wasn’t anything like the beautiful, curvy models he dated.
The sound of a phone ringing startled her. Even more so when she realised it was her phone ringing.
Alejandro took her phone from his other pocket and tossed it to her, his gaze alert and speculative. ‘You’d better answer this time. He keeps ringing.’
She glanced at the screen. Teddy. He’d be having conniptions.
‘Kitty? You’re still in his house?’ her brother said as soon as she answered.
So Alejandro had spoken to Teddy. No wonder he knew about the diamonds and everything else. Her brother couldn’t keep a secret if he tried.
‘How did he catch you?’ Teddy’s astonishment rang down the phone the second she answered. ‘You got in and out so many times over the years and never got caught.’
Mainly because no one had cared enough to notice if she was missing. ‘Well, I did this time.’ The guy had to have eyes like a hawk. There’d been so many people present, she never should have been spotted.