Harlequin Romance August 2017 Box Set by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488019845
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

JACQUES COULDN’T DENY enjoying the way the woman he’d only just met shivered in his arms. Or the look her ex—a man he had a very low opinion of—was aiming at him. But those things were irrelevant to him at that moment. What was relevant was an opportunity to do just as his PR firm had advised. An opportunity that had just fallen into his lap, and would get him exactly what he wanted if he used it properly.

Lily shifted, reminding him that the opportunity wasn’t an it but a who.

‘If I say yes, will you let go of me?’

She asked it in a shaky tone, and he looked down into uncertain eyes. They became guarded a moment later, and he frowned, wondering where the spirit he’d admired earlier had gone.

‘I’ll let go of you regardless, Lily.’

He spoke softly, but forced his heart to harden. He couldn’t feel anything for her—including empathy. It would make using her a lot more difficult.

It sounded harsh, even to him, but he knew he would do it if it meant he could redeem himself from the mistakes he’d made in the past. He’d been trying to do that since he’d realised he was only proving people right—specifically his father—by acting the way he had during the year after his suspension.

The realisation had had him channelling the ‘I’ll do whatever it takes’ motto he’d been known for during his rugby days into building a sporting goods company. Into making it a success.

Now it was. And yet people still thought of him as the bad boy who’d beaten up his opponent seven years ago, and it grated him. So when he’d heard that his old rugby club was being sold, he’d known it was an opportunity. He could go back to the root of it all—to where his problems had started.

The irony was that he needed a better reputation to get the club he believed would change his poor reputation. And Lily was the key to that.

‘Let’s do it.’

The words were said firmly, surprising him after the brief moment of vulnerability he’d just seen, but he simply asked, ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes.’

She gave a quick nod, and then moved her mouth so that it was next to his ear, just as he had done to her earlier. It made it seem as if she was responding to his question—something her action made seem suggestive—and he would have appreciated the strategy if a thrill hadn’t gone through his body, distracting him.

‘We’ll have to tell Caitlyn about this. If she sees us and thinks we’re together she’s going to freak out.’

She pulled back and laid a hand on his chest—an intimate gesture that had his heart beating too hard for his liking.

‘That would probably be best,’ he answered stiffly.

It took him a moment to figure out whether his tone came because of the effect she had on him or the prospect of speaking to his brother.

A fist clenched at a piece of his heart as it always did when he thought of Nathan, but he tried to focus on his task.

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