Billionaire's Island Bride(15)

“Yep,” he said and this time he did laugh but it was a bitter laugh that sounded mean and ugly to her ears.

“I know girls like you,” he said, his voice harsh and brittle as brass, “gold-diggers on the lookout for the richest man they can find. You get him to sleep with you, get him to fall for you and then you take him for all he’s got.” He chuckled. “I’m on to your game, babe. This is one rich dude you’re not going to take for a ride.”

The blood turned to ice in Erin’s veins. If he’d hauled off and slapped her across the face she could not have been more shocked. Or hurt. Or devastated.

She now realized the truth. Dare, this man she thought she had come to know, had never been attracted to her. He’d never felt anything for her. All he had wanted was to get her into his bed, use her, and then toss her away like disposable dinnerware.

Heat rushed to her face then drained away leaving her cold and shivering and dazed. Then as the chill of his words encircled her heart, turning it into a solid block of ice, she dropped the covers, no longer caring, and stumbled out of the bed. Almost blindly, she fumbled around on the floor reaching for her bra under the chair, her panties under the bed and her dress, now a crumpled mass of black silk on the floor. It looked like exactly how she felt – trampled, damaged and discarded.

With a sob she kneeled on the floor and put on her panties and bra then pulled the dress over her head. Her purse and her shoes were nowhere to be seen.

Slowly she got up and walked on unsteady feet across the room. She wanted to cry. She wanted to throw herself on the floor and bawl. But she would not. She would never give this man the satisfaction of knowing how much he had hurt her. Even though she was dying inside she lifted her chin and without a backward glance she walked out of the room.

She found her shoes and purse in the living room. She retrieved them and then she walked out of Dare’s villa and out of his life.

***





A heel. That was what Dare felt like as he lay on the bed staring up at the ceiling. It had been over twenty minutes since Erin left his villa and still he had not moved. The look on the girl’s face, the sight of her dejection had floored him.

Had he made a mistake? Had he been wrong in how he’d judged her? It couldn’t be. She’d come on to him at the pool and just like he’d expected she’d found a way to conveniently bump into him again, this time at the bar. She’d even jumped at his invitation to dinner. And even more telling, she’d had no objection when he had taken her to his place. She’d given him every indication that she was after something and he’d been right to cut her loose.

Then why did he feel so low? Was it because of the panic he’d seen in her eyes? Was it the way she’d clung to him each time they made love? Was it the hurt he’d seen in her eyes?

Dare shook his head. No, she couldn’t be feeling hurt at his rejection. Anger, maybe. Disappointment. But not hurt. She’d gone into this with her eyes wide open, knowing the risk of trying to seduce a man. She must have been prepared for either outcome.

This was what his brain was telling him. He just wished that other side of him, that weaker part that dealt with his emotions, would just shut up and accept. He’d been right in doing what he did. The girl needed to pay.

So why did he feel like such a jerk?





Chapter 4





It was just after six in the morning when Erin sneaked into the villa, quiet as a cat, and hid herself in her bedroom. Thank God the girls were still fast asleep.

She went into the bathroom and locked the door and there, in the privacy of that space, she slid down to the rug on the floor, hid her face in her hands, and wept.

She had never been so humiliated in her life. To think that she had trusted this man, had felt an emotional connection with him, and then he’d turned out to be the same as the jerks she’d known all her life. She would never trust a man again. Life was infinitely better when she was alone.

With a sniff, Erin got up from the floor. She stepped out of her shoes then stripped off her dress and underwear, removing from her body all memories of the night before. From here on Dare would be a distant memory, just someone stored away in her collection of experiences. That was all. She stepped into the tub, turned on the shower and submerged herself in the cleansing flow.

Erin was relieved when the girls got up later that morning and seemed to have forgotten about her date. They must have come in late last night, half drunk as usual. They seem to have totally forgotten that she’d even gone out. Only Robyn seemed to be regarding her with some interest. Finally, as Erin was packing the plates back onto the room service trolley, she spoke.