“You’re not,” Matthieu added his calm reassurance to Skye’s.
“I’m glad.” But Fleur’s lively face had lost all colour and spark. She turned away from them on the pretext of placing her champagne flute on the edge of the table, then walked across the terrace to the railings, her back to the ‘happy couple’.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” Skye whispered, preparing to take a step away from Matthieu.
His hand dropped to her waist, drawing her closer and holding her at his side, clamping her there. “No.” The word was so quiet she almost didn’t hear it. “Stay.” His face was taut. “My real fiancé wouldn’t run away from my family.”
Her heart dropped to her toes and her lips parted on a whoosh of hurt. “I’m not running away,” she returned quickly, her own voice lowered to avoid being overheard.
“Then how come I haven’t seen you since we landed?”
“This is a pretty sensitive situation,” she pointed out. “Obviously I wanted to give you your privacy.”
“Exactly. But you are supposed to be acting as my real fiancé.”
“Even if I were your real fiancé, if this was the first day I was meeting your family, I would have made myself scarce. You can’t seriously be annoyed about this?”
He furrowed his brow, as if only just realizing that he’d sounded angry. He shook his head once, his eyes moving from Skye’s face to the view, landing on Fleur with a deepening of his frown. “You agreed to play a part,” he said finally, his tone grim.
“And I am,” she promised. “I’m just playing the part of an emotionally-aware woman, jettisoned into the middle of her fiancé’s family’s worst day.”
“It is, as it turns out, not the worst day,” he shifted, bringing his body in front of hers, latching his arms behind her back at the same time he blocked Skye from Fleur completely. “Are you regretting agreeing to this?”
Her mouth formed a perfect ‘o’. “No.” A small divot formed between her brows. “Though I have been wondering if you’re having regrets.”
His eyes roamed her face then landed on hers, piercing her with their intensity. “If anything, my grandfather’s frail state makes me glad I am giving him this.”
Her heart tightened. “He means a lot to you.”
“My grandparents basically raised me after my mother died.”
She lifted a hand to his cheek, wondering at the gesture of casual affection. And yet it felt so right to offer it! She padded her thumb over his jaw gently, all her attention on him in that moment. “Then I’m glad you’re giving him this as well. I promise, I’ll do my best to make it all seem real.”
He dropped his head closer to hers, his mouth at her ear. “I’m going to kiss you. I suspect my cousin is watching us.”
Skye’s central nervous system went into overdrive. First at the anticipation of his kiss, but then, with a strange skidding thud at the reminder that so much of this was for show. Even as she held onto the fact they’d both agreed that the chemistry between them was inevitably going to explode.
She lifted up onto the tips of her toes, the gesture a silent invitation, an encouragement, and an admission of need. “Then you’d better make it good.”
And he did. Passion zipped between them, only barely restrained thanks to Matthieu. For Skye’s part, everything about the kiss set off a cascade of lava in her bloodstream. She wanted to surrender to it completely—to him—then and there. Thank heavens he was able to keep a level head despite the ravages of need firing inside her veins.
“Thank you,” he said as he pulled back. “That’s exactly what I needed.”
Pleasure burst inside her until she realized what he meant: to convince his cousin that this was genuine. Not that Fleur had shown any signs of doubt.
Suddenly, it didn’t matter that Skye didn’t fit in here. It didn’t matter that she was yet again a square peg trying to exist with round holes. Her clothes were old and unfashionable, from the high street, not designer boutiques, and her hair was its natural, unglossy colour, and she couldn’t apply eyeliner to save her life, but somehow, Fleur believed she belonged, right here, with Matthieu.
She didn’t know why, but that made Skye smile, pleasure lifting through her even as a danger siren blared right alongside it.
This was all for show. Nothing here was real. It was a mantra she had to keep at the top of her mind. This was about making Matthieu’s family believe in the engagement: she couldn’t allow herself to get caught up in the ruse.