As soon as their eyes met his sharpened with concern. ‘Hey, what’s wrong?’
‘Nothing.’ She forced a smile. ‘I just need to go to the bathroom.’
He scanned her face but thankfully didn’t push her. ‘Don’t be long. We’ll go when you get back.’
Oh, help.
She got up, stumbled and snagged the tablecloth with her leg. Cruz leaned over and held it while she straightened up. The deliciously sexy gown he had bought her swayed around her body and settled. She felt his eyes on her as she started to walk away, the dress floating around her legs as light as butterfly wings. Of course that was nothing compared to the butterflies using her belly as a trampoline.
Once in the bathroom she told herself to calm down and splashed cold water on her wrists, dabbed it on her cheeks. She checked her make-up, shocked to see her face so flushed. It was because every time he touched her she thought of sex.
A woman smiled at her in the mirror and Aspen dropped her gaze lest the woman accurately read her mind. Then she realised how rude that was and raised her eyes only to find the person had gone.
She let out a shaky laugh at her absurd behaviour. She felt like... She felt like... She frowned. She couldn’t remember ever feeling this nervous.
Well, maybe she could. On her wedding day. She’d had a similar fluttering feeling in her stomach then that had turned out to be a bad omen.
She stared at herself. Fear knotted her insides. She couldn’t do this. Her eyes looked like two huge dots in her face. She just couldn’t do it. She was so anxious she’d probably throw up all over him.
An older woman entered the bathroom and Aspen pretended to be wiping her hands.
She’d have to tell Cruz.
Would it mean she’d still get the money if she backed out?
Oh, who cares about the money? This was no longer about the money. This was now about self-preservation. This was about going back to the wonderful, predictable life that she loved.
Yes, but there won’t be that life if you don’t go through with this.
She’d backed herself into a corner and the only way out was through Cruz. A man who, for all his surface arrogance, genuinely cared about his family and was smart. And also ruthless. He would chew her up and spit her out without a backward glance if she let him.
‘Let’s not forget why you’re here, Aspen,’ she told her reflection softly.
He was pitting himself against her for Ocean Haven. Her farm. She should hate him for that alone but she didn’t, she realised. She didn’t hate him at all. Because she had come to understand him a little better. Understand what he had thought of her. What had shaped him as a boy. What had shaped him as a man.
How did you hate someone you instinctively sensed was good underneath? And what did that even matter?
Shaking her head at her reflection, she refastened a few loosened strands of hair and wondered where all her positive self-talk had run off to.
Maybe down the toilet.
She smiled at her lame attempt at humour and nearly walked straight into Cruz where he leant against the wall opposite the ladies’ room.
‘You were taking so long I got worried. I was just about to go in but I didn’t want to surprise you.’
‘I would have been okay.’ She let out a shaky breath. ‘It’s the old lady in the cubicle you might have had some trouble with.’
Cruz laughed and it broke the tension. He held out his hand. ‘Shall we go?’
She looked at his perfect, handsome face. Then his hand, palm up. He was strong, maybe stronger than Chad, but he wasn’t nasty. Even when he’d thought she had done him wrong he still hadn’t picked on her the way Chad would have done. No, Cruz was arrogant and controlling, but he was honest and straight down the line. A straight arrow. Black and white. No shades of grey.
‘Aspen?’
She saw hunger and desire in his eyes and it made her feel hot all over. Maybe she could do this. Maybe.
She glanced at his hand, wondered if she was as crazy as her uncle had suggested and placed hers in it.
He smiled.
She swallowed.
It wasn’t until they were halfway across the foyer that she saw a familiar figure—a man—leaning against the reception desk. He had his back to her, so she couldn’t see his face, but he was average height with blond hair and a slightly stocky bodybuilder’s physique.
Chad?
Cruz pressed the lift button and Aspen’s attention was momentarily snagged by their reflection in the gold-finished doors. They looked good together, she thought. He was tall and broad, and she looked feminine and almost otherworldly in the beautiful green dress.