Bound As His Business-Deal Bride (Mills & Boon Modern) Read online

  Eve nodded. She’d travelled halfway round the world to be here. May as well not waste the airfare before judging how this would play out to the end. Her lawyer looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

  ‘I’ll be outside the door if you need me. For the record, it has been a monumental error coming here.’ He looked back at Gage as he reached the door and hesitated. ‘You, sir, are no gentleman.’

  ‘Ouch,’ Gage said with a sneer as the boardroom door slammed shut. He motioned towards her chair. ‘Please take a seat.’

  ‘You’re using your manners now?’

  ‘I may as well, since I’ve just worked out how far I can push you before you walk.’

  A fierce heat bubbled in her blood. He’d been playing her, and she’d fallen for it. She took a slow breath, trying to restore the equilibrium that seemed to have fled her. Lowered herself into the warm leather of her seat. Smoothed out her slim skirt, and there they sat in silence at either end of the long boardroom table. But no matter how large the room or expansive the wooden surface, the walls closed in on her. She took another sip of water. Tried to steer the conversation back to some level of civility. It was the polite thing to do.

  ‘I admire what you’re achieving in Detroit. Repurposing those factories for renewable technologies and retraining staff is admirable.’

  ‘Flattery won’t work here.’

  ‘I’m not flattering you, it’s the truth.’

  He hesitated. Most people wouldn’t have noticed. With Gage, she noticed everything.

  ‘You been keeping an eye on me?’

  She thought about the contents of a small, battered, yellow suitcase safely stowed in a hotel room in the heart of the city. A suitcase that travelled with her everywhere and held all her memories, physical proof that her eyes were always on Gage. She couldn’t look away, even from France. But she’d never let him know it.

  ‘I read the business pages like everyone else.’

  ‘Giving unemployed people jobs and hope is the right thing to do. You believe in doing the right thing, don’t you, cher?’

  The pet name he’d once called her with so much love sounded bitter and poisonous on his tongue now. There were some memories she wouldn’t allow to be tainted by all that had happened since, and this was one.

  ‘It’s Ms Chevalier, or Eve.’

  Gage leaned back in the chair, the corners of his mouth kicking up for the briefest of moments. ‘Eve, then. The original temptress.’

  If that’s what he believed, so be it. She deserved his rage, so she’d let him use it. As long as her mother and Veronique’s fortunes were protected, she’d allow him to take his hurt and anger out on her. But Gage always liked a challenge, so she’d give him one.

  ‘People only take the fruits offered them, if it’s something they already crave,’ she said, with a smile of her own. ‘But enough of this. Why do I get the feeling you’ve asked me here only to mock me?’

  ‘Allow me to indulge myself for a few moments. I enjoy watching you writhe under a good tongue lashing.’

  His voice was low, soft. Overtly sexual. Heat roared to her cheeks and she was back on a picnic blanket, hidden under the cascading boughs of an old willow where he’d threaded flowers in her hair and indulged her naked body till she’d wept with pleasure. Gage smirked and the burning in her cheeks flamed hotter.

  How dared he? He would not rekindle those memories, not now.

  ‘That’s childish and beneath you.’

  He shrugged. ‘I seem to recall you’ve levelled that accusation at me before. Or was it that you called me common? I’m not sure. Our final conversation seems to have been lost in the annals of my memory somewhere.’

  It hadn’t been in hers. She’d never forget each second of that last phone call, or the way it had cleaved her heart into a million pieces. With her father sitting next to her and Gage all but begging to see her again, she’d delivered the death blow to any chance they may have had of a reconciliation.

  ‘It’s over. You’re being a child. This excess of emotion is common.’

  She’d been cruel to be kind. Her father had promised that if she rejected Gage, he’d never reveal the secret he’d somehow discovered at a critical time for the Caron company: Gage wasn’t the true heir to Caron Investments. He wasn’t his father’s child.

  She’d refused to believe her father at first, until he’d produced evidence. A sworn statement from Gage’s real father about an affair and the man’s photo—it had been shocking to see how closely Gage resembled him. Then there were letters from Gage’s mother about the pregnancy. Eve’s father had been right when he’d threatened to find a way of destroying Gage’s family. The information he had was the perfect bomb. It would have broken Gage to find out as he adored his parents.

  She had refused to allow her father to destroy the illusion of his happy family, especially as Eve’s own had seemed so bleak. Her father’s obsession and quest for revenge. Her mother’s illness, a woman always so frail and scared, preferring pills and liquor to her own children. Her sister’s whole future hanging by a thread.

  Gage’s solid family was something he’d held onto like a shield. Promising that if she entered their fold, she’d be protected as well. She’d so wanted that solidity and love to surround her too, like a goose-down comforter. The realisation all those years ago that Caron had been struggling, and that news of Gage’s parentage could tip the company and him over the edge, had devastated her. She’d do anything to save him from it. That’s what true love was, protecting those you adored, even if it went against your own self-interest.

  In her short life she’d become a master of it.

  ‘Now that you’ve stopped watching me squirm, I propose Knight Enterprises keep its name. I’ll take Caron’s guidance on the less profitable aspects of the company and I’ll support Caron purchasing a forty per cent stake.’

  Gage’s eyes darkened and then he laughed. Part entertained, part jeering. ‘You really think you have anything to bargain with?’

  She shrugged. It was more vain hope than an expectation of reality, but she couldn’t give up now. Because he’d come to her. Everyone wanted something. She just had to find out what Gage wanted from her.

  ‘I’ll give you points for audacity. I’m putting up the money and taking the risk for your poor decisions.’

  ‘It’s fixable and you know it. That is what you do, Gage. Break up what’s worthless and rebuild the good. If you were speaking the truth and this...’ she waved between them ‘...is just business, then this is a good deal.’

  ‘I’m taking the company. Seventy per cent. Knight is mine.’

  ‘Fifty-five. My mother and sister’s shares must remain unaffected. There’s to be no detriment to their position. And they’re to receive a parcel of shares each in Caron Investments.’

  ‘A Chevalier owning shares in Caron?’ he asked, his voice quiet and deadly.

  She owned some. Privately. An investment through a trust so Gage would never find out she held part of him, for ever. It only seemed fair, since she’d come to realise he owned her, body and soul.

  She’d shown her hand now, what she truly cared about. It was a risk, but if Gage understood one thing, it was the love of family. That’s why she’d not allowed his own to be destroyed when her father had threatened it. ‘You’ll never let Caron fail. Their future will be assured.’

  ‘What about yours?’ Gage cocked his head, his eyes softened a fraction, and she saw the man she’d thought the boy might become one day, had fate and her father not intervened. He was breath-taking, and her heart ached for what might have been. But she cast the thought aside. No matter how Gage affected her, it would never have worked between them. Even ignoring the enmity between their families, they’d been too young to commit to a lifetime together.

  ‘I can look after myself.’

  She hadn’t been able to
once. But she’d grown up fast after being shipped off to France. At least she hadn’t been locked up in a finishing school, which had been her father’s first intention. Instead, she’d fought for a university education, negotiating with a ferocity she hadn’t known she had while promising to make Gage suffer. Her father had agreed. So long as a Caron was hurting, he was happy.

  To protect Gage, she’d denied everything other than an infatuation. Denied Gage had touched her. Denied their love. Each one of those denials made her feel like Judas.

  ‘I’m sure your trust fund makes life very comfortable.’

  Let him think that was the only reason she’d gone back to her family, the money she’d been set to receive when she’d turned twenty-one. She didn’t care. When her dreams of being with Gage had died, she’d used that blood money to fund another, her flower farm in Grasse. Her father had never understood her love of growing things, had refused to allow her to study horticulture, as she’d wanted to. It had been either a society wedding or joining the family business, nothing in between. So she’d chosen the family business and bought her dream for herself.

  ‘It sure doesn’t hurt.’

  ‘It was all about the money, wasn’t it?’ Gage asked, eyes as hard as diamond chips. ‘But I own you now.’

  ‘Not yet you don’t, since you haven’t accepted my counter-offer.’

  Gage sprawled back and the leather chair creaked as he did so. He turned to look out over the city that lay beneath them. Seemingly uncaring. A slight smile toyed on his perfect mouth.

  ‘Sixty per cent. Your mother and sister can have their shares.’

  Relief broke, washing over her. Not perfect, but she’d known she’d have to cede the majority of Knight to him. So long as her mother and sister’s futures were assured, she was happy. She’d banked on him not destroying them too, and it seemed she’d been right. She released a long, slow breath. ‘Thank—’

  He held up his hand, stopping her. ‘I’m not done. If you want this deal, I want something more.’ He swivelled his chair round and stared her down. A ferocious businessman, burning with a vengeance. The shark had returned, circling. Even though the expansive boardroom table separated them, she wanted to get as far away as possible from the coming attack. She shivered and pressed back into her seat. He smiled again.

  ‘Congratulations, cher. You’re my new fiancée.’

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE COLOUR BLED from Eve’s face till she was as white as the stark walls of his boardroom. It seemed surreal now that he’d had his hands all over that pale flesh once. A body now dutifully hidden under an impeccable, silver-grey suit that fitted her slender frame to a perfection. A fit that might make a lesser man weep with thanks. Not him. Not anymore.

  He’d seen more of that skin than she’d probably care to remember, considering the way he’d seemed to disgust her only weeks after they’d parted. He’d stroked her in wonder, marvelling at the privilege of being permitted to touch her, to enter her lithe, luscious body. He couldn’t shake that thought now, of stroking her responsive flesh till she moaned with pleasure.

  He hated it. Hated that in the months after she’d finally rejected him, he’d tried to get over her. Had attempted to drown his sorrows in spirits and women who’d deserved far better than he had been offering. And still the memory of her had tainted everything. They’d been each other’s first and some days it had felt like she was the only woman he’d ever truly enjoy, all others fading like a pale imitation beside the vivid memories of her. Like his body had recognised only one person as its own. Its other half. And without that there’d been a part of him missing.

  He shook those thoughts aside. He didn’t need them, not today. Not when he knew what she was. Flighty. Duplicitous. A consummate liar. She still hadn’t responded to his pronouncement. Her plush pink mouth was opening, closing then opening again. Gaping like a fish caught on a hook and hauled from the water. For he had caught her and, by association, her father.

  Bitter bile rose in his throat, but he swallowed it down with a grimace. All he’d needed to do was to choose the right lure and reel them in inch by inch. Just like fishing for bass with his dad. Easier, because Hugo Chevalier was nothing if not predictable. Anything he’d thought he could steal from a Caron he had, even if the deal was a dud. So long as Gage pretended to be interested, that was all Eve’s father had needed. It had been surprisingly easy. Unlike this.

  He hadn’t expected Eve to put up so much of a fight. That she had stitched a thread of something like pleasure right through him. Another thing he’d be forced to ignore in time. And he had plenty of that. If she wanted to have some semblance of a company left at the end of all this, she’d do what he demanded. He relaxed back in his chair and waited. Made a show of checking his watch then looking back at her. He’d been waiting seven years so what were a few more minutes?

  She seemed to compose herself. Gave a tremulous little laugh. ‘You can’t be serious.’

  His simmering anger began to boil then. He’d done well to keep it under control so far. Playing this little game because he always knew the end point. Eve and her family had tried to smear his family’s name since the night her father had hauled him off and given him the hiding of his life for having the temerity to steal away his precious daughter.

  In the years that had followed, nasty whispers had abounded. Not enough to cross over into defamation, and nothing too public. Just a quiet word in the right ear whenever a deal was going to be struck or Caron Investments had achieved something great. That Eve hadn’t been a willing party to their flight that rainy evening. That Gage was not a man to trust.

  He’d be damned if that falsehood continued, especially now. It was time for Eve to pay. He’d make sure of it.

  ‘I’m deadly serious.’

  ‘Have you forgotten that in our great-grandparents’ time it was frowned on for people who worked at Knight to even date a Caron employee and vice versa? The enmity has only become worse since then. This is insane.’

  Yes. It was. But there was only one person who could quell the rumours that dogged him. The cause of them herself. She sat there stiff and straight, almost prim with her generous mouth pulled to a taut line. Not a part of her was anything other than perfect, right down to her sleek, tamed, golden hair. All the wildness smoothed and ironed out of her. He’d been witness to that wildness underneath. It was still there in the way her pale blue eyes flashed at him, making him crave for them to spark for reasons of pleasure, not anger.

  He loathed how his body still reacted to her. A siren’s song calling for him to dash himself bloody on the rocks of their memories.

  ‘It’s the perfect narrative. I can see the headlines. “Fated childhood sweethearts together again, despite their warring families”. A Romeo and Juliet story, without all the annoying death at the end. The press will eat it up.’

  ‘We’re not barely-out-of-our-teens runaways anymore.’ She shook her head. ‘No. It’s not happening.’

  How quickly she’d dismissed their past, but it would happen or she’d lose everything. She had nothing to bargain with here. He’d take Knight, carve it to tiny pieces. What he sought from her was more important than anything. Redemption, in the eyes of the business world and his family.

  He would never forget the crunch of fist on bone or the cold cuffs crushing his wrists when he’d refused to tell Hugo Chevalier where Eve was. Then the disappointment on his father’s face later that night when he’d come to the police station, bailed Gage out for the trumped-up charge levelled against him that had dissolved as soon as his father’s lawyers had got their teeth into it.

  All the approbation had been worth it...till Eve had resurfaced in the bosom of her family. The days he’d waited frantically for her call. Planning to go and meet her. Marry her and to hell with everyone. Until he’d realised he’d been fooled. That while she’d professed love, it had really been the thrill-se
eking of a bored little princess who in the end had just wanted to dally with someone till she could get her hands on her trust fund. He gritted his teeth.

  ‘I didn’t make myself plain. That’s the offer.’

  ‘You can have seventy per cent, so long as my mother and sister’s investments are protected.’

  ‘No.’

  He stood and strolled towards her. She pushed the chair out from behind the table as he neared, her hands gripping the arms.

  ‘Eighty per cent.’

  ‘You’re part of the deal or there’s no deal at all.’ He towered over her now. She tilted her head back, eyes wide and pupils dark, her breathing fast and shallow. He shouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as this, but he couldn’t help himself. ‘How long will it take before the creditors come to your door? Before your precious mother and sister are out on the streets? Till I own everything anyway?’

  ‘If you’re going to own everything anyhow, what do you possibly have to gain by this?’ Her voice was rough and breathy. The throaty sound of it scored down his spine like he remembered her fingernails had.

  He stilled. How dared she pretend? She was complicit in the suspicion that followed him. The women who’d chosen him, only wanting the bad boy. He was all too aware how a carefully placed whisper could bring everything crashing down. Sure, he’d done well. Working with his father, Caron had become a powerhouse, exceeding their wildest expectations. But Gage wanted more. Caron would be truly international. If he could secure the current deal he sought with the Germans—a deal he needed Eve’s help to achieve, as much as it galled him—then the world would see what he was capable of. It’s what he was owed, and Eve would pay up.

  ‘I gain everything I want.’

  ‘You want to marry me?’ She blurted that out and he could tell she hadn’t meant to say it. The mottle of red creeping up from her throat, marring her flawless skin, told him so. He laughed.

  ‘Of course not. Don’t worry, cher. It’s only temporary and won’t hurt a bit. Not unless you want it to. You know I always give a woman what she wants.’