her a censorious look as if he’d suddenly become the epitome of virtue.
‘I may be many things, but a breaker of promises I am not. Even in a civil ceremony I’d promise fidelity, and I’d never break that promise. If you want me to marry you, you’d better agree to the same.’ He was very curt and very clear.
She slammed her hands on the arms of the chair to stop herself slithering down to the floor. Was he going to say yes?
‘You’d—?’
‘Honour our vows for the duration of our marriage. Of course.’
‘But—’
‘Does it really come as that much of a shock?’ He pinched the bridge of his nose.
‘It’s just that you—’
‘I’ve never got married before? No. Never had the desire nor reason to.’
Her jaw hung open. ‘Are you saying you’re going to—?’
‘I’m just ascertaining the rules in play before I decide,’ he pre-empted her coolly. ‘How many lovers do you take in a month?’ he asked. He immediately followed up with another question purely designed to shock. ‘I enjoy sex and generally have it regularly. I assume you’re the same?’
Katie shut her mouth and swallowed. How could he possibly think that she’d have anywhere near the interest he had?
‘The past doesn’t matter,’ she said briskly, fighting down the all-consuming heat this conversation was creating within her. ‘There’s only the future. Best not to dwell on what’s gone before. I’ll not be unfaithful, if that’s what you’d prefer. I have no problem with celibacy.’
‘Well, see…here’s the thing,’ he drawled with an impossibly wicked glint in his eyes. ‘I don’t like celibacy.’
‘We don’t need to be married long,’ she said crossly. ‘I’m sure six months will be long enough to…to…’
‘Ensure you’re left utterly undesirable?’ he finished for her tartly.
‘Get our business affairs straightened out.’ She threw him another exasperated look.
‘Six months of celibacy?’ He clutched his chest and gasped theatrically, apparently appalled at the suggestion.
‘Please yourself,’ she retorted through gritted teeth, goaded to the extreme.
He cocked his head and that devilish smile spread over his too-perfect face. ‘Is that what you do?’
ALESSANDRO KNEW HE was being outrageous, but he figured she’d asked for it by waltzing into his office and demanding not just money but his damned hand in marriage, whilst casting him as an insatiable libertine at the same time. She seemed to think he was some satyr, unable to control his voracious sexual needs.
Her ‘research’ had flicked his pride, and he’d been unable to resist retaliating by playing it up and making Her Total Primness here blush again. And then again.
Frankly, he’d only agreed to see her out of mild boredom. While he’d remembered her name, he hadn’t remembered much else—he’d always refused to spend any time dwelling on that painful period of his past. But his commonplace curiosity had grown acute when she’d determinedly waited almost two hours to see him, and he’d turned his mind to what few memories he had of her.
She’d been a shy little thing, always hiding in the orchard and the gardens of that massive estate. Pale and too quiet. But she wasn’t that quiet now Brian was trying to make her marry Carl Westin. And not now he’d provoked her.
She was much more interesting when provoked. In fact she’d invigorated what had been lining up to be a tedious day facing a trillion clamouring employees, all of whom wanted a piece of him because he’d spent the last couple of weeks crisscrossing the globe as he shed a stake in one company while acquiring two others. Frankly, he’d wanted a bit of a break.
He’d figured Katie was after money and he’d been right. But her marriage proposal alongside that request had come as a complete shock.
Alessandro had crossed paths with Carl Westin a couple of years ago and the guy was a total jerk. Alessandro might party hard, but he was upfront and honest about it. He didn’t cheat. Carl Westin did—in both his business and his personal life. No way was Katie Collins going to marry him.
But, as snappy as she might be with Alessandro, she was vulnerable to Brian’s bullying.
Brian Fielding, together with his sister Naomi, had forced Alessandro out of his home. They’d taken the company that should have been his. But, most appallingly, they’d all but killed his father.
He picked up his phone, but didn’t take his gaze off Katie.
‘Cancel my next appointment, please, Dominique,’ he instructed his assistant. ‘I’m not to be disturbed.’
His interest was rooted in her absurd request, right? Nothing else. Certainly not physical attraction. From what he could see, given the boring ponytail, she had nondescript brown hair. Her eyes were a mix of green and brown and gold—he supposed they were hazel. And hidden beneath those ill-fitting ugly clothes he suspected there were some tidy curves, but not exactly generous ones.
Alessandro had been with too many women to have a particular ‘type’ but, even so, if he’d passed her on the street he wouldn’t have given Katie Collins a second glance…
Yet there was something about her that was drawing the attention of his more basic instincts. The spark that sometimes lit her eyes, the slight pout of her soft mouth, the luminosity of her pale skin when she fired up… Yeah, it was those unexpected little flashes of spirit. He wanted to see more of them. Actually, to his total bemusement, he wanted to see her sparkle.
What he’d told her was true. He’d achieved far greater success than both Naomi and Brian had in their handling of his father’s company. But Katie was more insightful than he’d acknowledged. The chance for a little revenge was tempting. He could buy White Oaks outright and evict them all—claim Katie’s little sauce company and disband it.
If he wanted to, Alessandro could destroy everything that family owned.
That plan ought to be far more appealing than some mad idea of a mock marriage. But Katie had been desperate enough to come to him rather than run away… She really didn’t feel she could. She was desperate. He’d seen it in her eyes, in the way she’d pushed past her natural reticence and snapped at him when he’d tested her. In the way she wanted to do everything she could to protect the woman she regarded as a mother…
That was a desire he did understand. That was the only thing that might actually sway him. Because once upon a time he’d wanted to do that—but he’d failed.
Grimly he shut down that line of thinking. The wound was too deep to heal and too sore to dwell on. He focused on Katie, sitting rigidly in that chair, clutching her bag, too terrified for his conscience to handle.
‘Do they know you’ve walked out?’ he asked abruptly.
‘I left a note for Susan, so she doesn’t worry.’
Alessandro had always thought of Susan as the wraith of White Oaks. She was thin, and had been sort of otherworldly as she’d wandered about the vast gardens, directing operations. Brian had seduced the aging heiress, and he’d married her promising Susan everything. And yet it had come with a price. Because Brian, like his sister Naomi, had the gold-digging gene.
Alessandro’s father had lost everything because of Naomi. And now it seemed Susan might lose it all because of Brian, just as her health was deteriorating to the point of complete dependence. And with Katie as