Lusty Billionaires Bundle(54)

This had never been part of the game, had never been the intended prize; love had come when everyone had said it would: when she was least expecting it.

And losing it for ever hurt like hell.

He pulled over into a lookout, a move that surprised Tabitha, who sat staring ahead as he opened the door and without a word left the car. Idly staring into the night sky, his profile strong in the moonlight, he stood motionless.

Unsure, she sat a moment in the car, memorising every last detail of him. As if sensing her longing, he turned his head, raising his hand to beckon her to join him.

‘It’s all right.’ His lips hardly moved as he spoke. ‘I’m not about to throw you in.’

She managed a shallow laugh as she teetered towards him, her high heels no match for the sandy inlet. ‘Thank goodness. I’d sink like a stone with all the cutlery I shoved down my bra.’

The tiny spark of humour between them shifted the mood away from the volatile anger of before; he looked sad now—jaded, perhaps, but infinitely more approachable.

‘Shouldn’t you be getting to the hospital?’ she ventured.

‘I don’t want to go,’ he replied simply.

Honestly.

She didn’t know how to respond; hearing the break in his voice tore at her heart.

‘I just need a moment; it’s going to be pretty messy when I get there.’ He swallowed hard and she realised then the pain he was in. How hard it must be for Zavier at times like this. How hard it must be to always be the strong one, to have everyone leaning on you, turning to you for every last thing. The lynchpin of the family, the breadwinner, the organiser, and sometimes the adjudicator.

‘He might make it.’ She tried to inject some hope into her voice, tried to give him something to cling to, something to sustain him, but miracles seemed in short supply today.

Zavier shrugged helplessly. ‘It doesn’t look great, though, does it? I know that really there’s no chance, that this surely must be it. Tabitha, what I said to you about the contract—I really didn’t mean it. I’m truly sorry for my words. You were amazing back there, and if my father does live he owes his life to you.’

Tabitha knew then that this was her only chance. If she didn’t say it now, couldn’t be there for him, to support him through what was undoubtedly about to come, then there wasn’t much point.

Maybe Zavier was right, maybe her grandmother’s affliction was hereditary, for she was about to take the biggest gamble of her life.

‘I didn’t do it for money.’ The words were out now, and she swallowed, watching closely for his reaction.

‘I know, and I had no right to imply that you did. I just saw red all of a sudden. I thought he was dead…’

‘I’m not talking about your father’s heart attack.’ Her teeth were chattering as badly as Aiden’s had been, but she forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down. ‘I love you, Zavier. I always have. I wasn’t marrying you for money.’

She heard the hiss of his breath as he exhaled loudly, stepped back as she watched his face darken, jumped as she heard the venom of his attack. ‘My God, I wondered how long it would take you to play your last card.’

She’d never expected him to take her in his arms, to accept her words without question, but the pungent delivery of his statement was a million miles away from any scenario she had tentatively imagined.

‘What do you mean?’ Her arms shot out to him, as if somehow by touching him she might reach him, might make him hear the truth in her words. ‘I love you, Zavier. I honestly love you.’#p#分页标题#e#

‘Please.’ He flicked her hand away, cruelly, dismissively. ‘Have you any idea how many women have said that to me? “Oh, Zavier, this has nothing to do with money.”’ His voice simpered in a derisive generalisation of the female population, then returned to its harsh reality. ‘This has everything to do with money, Tabitha. That was all it was ever about. And do you know what the saddest part is—the saddest bloody part of this whole charade?’ He was shouting now, and she shook her head dumbly, shocked and stunned at the anger her declaration had unleashed. ‘Believe it or not, I actually loved you.’

He stopped then, as stunned as she was by the admission.

It was Tabitha who broke the silence. ‘You love me?’ she gasped, her voice choked with wonder. But he broke in quickly, shattering her one second of salvation.

‘Loved you,’ he corrected. ‘Past tense, Tabitha. That’s all you’ll ever be to me. I’ve spent my whole life wondering how my father could have been so weak, how he could have stayed with my mother knowing that she didn’t love him, knowing she was only there for the life he could give her.’ Finally his eyes found hers. ‘And then you came along, Tabitha…’