Lusty Billionaires Bundle(56)

‘Sorry about that.’ His face was white in the streetlight, his lips set in a thin line as he strode over. ‘I just wasn’t banking on my father suffering a cardiac arrest and then having to police my fiancée from rushing off with the family silver. Next time I’ll be more patient.’

His biting sarcasm actually helped! Enough anyway to dry up her tears and return the fire to her eyes.

‘There’s a small window round the back. If I break it I can get my hand in and undo the laundry door lock.’

Without a word he turned on his heel, walking smartly along the side of the house, not even bothering to part the rather overgrown fauna that she’d never quite got around to trimming.

‘I can manage,’ she said proudly.

‘Sure, and were you planning to smash the glass with your bare hand?’

She hadn’t thought of that! ‘I’m sure there’s a towel or something in my case…’

He didn’t even deign to give a response. Pulling off his jacket, he wrapped it around his arm and punched the glass out in one quick motion. Slipping his hand through, he promptly undid the lock.

‘Not the safest property, is it?’ he said dryly as she tiptoed her way through the glass. ‘You should see about getting someone in to put some security screens up.’

‘Save it, Zavier. My safety’s not your concern; you’ve made that abundantly clear.’#p#分页标题#e#

As she stepped into the laundry she lost her footing for a second in the darkness. His hand shot out to save her in a reflex action, steadying her from falling, perhaps, but sending her body into absolute overdrive.

The world stopped for a moment; his skin seemed to sear her flesh. Tabitha half expected to look down and see blisters forming around the strong grip of his fingers. Dragging her eyes up, she held his gaze. His contumelious words, the inscrutable features, couldn’t mask the pain in his eyes or the passion that burnt there: a lexicon of the love she would now never know.

‘I have to go.’

‘I know.’ With a sob she pulled the ruby off her finger. ‘Here, you’d better take this.’

‘Keep it.’

‘I don’t want it. You said it had to stay in the family…’ She stood stricken as he took the ring, her words tailing off as he tossed it out of the broken window.

‘What the hell do you think I’d need it for now?’

Stunned and reeling, she stood in the darkness of her laundry, listening to his footsteps echoing down the path, the slam of the car door, the deep purr of the engine as he pulled off into the darkness. And finally when there was nothing left of him to hear, when the draught from the open door had taken away every last trace of his powerful cologne, when the skin on her arm had stopped tingling from his touch, Tabitha flicked on the light. The shattered glass littering the floor, the jagged remains of what had once been her window, were so achingly akin to the remnants of her own life she might just as well be looking into a mirror.





CHAPTER TWELVE




SIX months. That was all she had wanted.

Six months to show him how good and wonderful love could be, if only you’d let it.

Wandering home from work in her smart little boxy suit, she thought no one could have guessed the agony in each step, the burden of lugging around a broken heart.

Milk.

The most basic of daily chores took a huge mental effort these days.

Even the local milk bar was agony. Everything seemed to remind her of Zavier, from the mineral water to the daily papers headlining the amazing progress of Jeremy Chambers. How he had been wheeled into Emergency barely conscious, with an unrecordable blood pressure and a grim diagnosis. His appalling chances of survival were the only reason the surgeons had agreed to operate.

After all, you can’t kill a dead man.

Amy Dellier even managed to flash a smile from the pages of the glossies, strategically placed at the checkout. It was as if in the short time she had known him Zavier had permeated every facet of her life, taken over every last one of her senses.

Arriving home, she was reminded of him sitting in the driveway as she scrabbled for her keys, and such was her longing she half expected to look up and see him sitting there in the car. As she opened her front door for a moment she was almost sure she could smell him.

Flicking listlessly through her mail, she felt her heart skip a beat as his flashy writing jumped out at her. Her hands shaking, she ripped open the envelope. She ignored the cheque that fell out as she hastily opened the letter inside. It didn’t take long to read it—after all, it was only three little words.

As agreed

Zavier.



Just not the three little words she needed to hear.