Marooned with the Millionaire by Nina Milne

Author:Nina Milne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-02-06T19:49:13+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

MARCUS WATCHED AS April busied herself serving the food. She had completely put him through the wringer with her attempts to extract information he’d rather not have divulged. He could see the quote now: All the real Marcus Alrikson can offer a woman is short-term physical gratification! Disastrous.

But right now that wasn’t what bothered him most; he felt a sense of injustice. Somehow April had gleaned a whole load of information about him, yet managed to vouchsafe absolutely nothing about herself. Article or not, that didn’t seem fair.

‘So,’ he said. ‘What about you?’

‘What about me?’

‘I know you said you don’t want a family, but what’s your take on relationships?’

‘I don’t have a take—because I’m not interested in a relationship of any sort.’ She walked over to the table and placed the platter of food in the middle.

‘So you don’t date at all?’

‘Why is that such a surprise to a man who loathes dates?’

‘Because I may not date but, as we’ve ascertained, I do still enter short-term affairs.’

‘Well, I don’t.’ Gesturing at the food, she added, ‘Help yourself.’

Without further ado he sampled the chicken and closed his eyes. ‘April, this is truly wonderful.’

She cut a sliver of chicken and tasted it, her brow creased as she concentrated. ‘Perhaps a bit too much lemon—or maybe I could have cooked it a little less time—’

‘Stop.’ Marcus realised what else had been bugging him. ‘Every time I say something nice about you, you reject the compliment. It’s as if you’re waiting for the “but”. This food is delicious. Period.’

April stared at him for a long moment. ‘Maybe I’m modest.’

‘Maybe—but it seems to me that you don’t actually believe the compliments. You can’t see that the food is lovely, that you looked beautiful in that dress last night.’

‘I... I...’ She paused, looked down at her plate.

‘You need to believe in yourself. That’s what I tell Gemma and Blake and all those teenagers. They have to believe in themselves and their own unique talents.’

It was one of the most important skills that he wanted to teach those teenagers in Lycander’s poverty stricken areas.

‘I do believe in myself.’ Her voice sounded hesitant, but then she frowned, as though annoyed with herself. ‘And I believe in my chicken.’

‘Good! Because it is delicious.’

‘Thank you. And thank you for pointing out that I can be a bit over-critical of myself. It’s a bad habit I thought I’d got rid of.’

Genuine self-annoyance was etched on her face and he knew he’d hit a nerve. ‘Any reason for it?’

April hesitated, and then shrugged as if there was no harm in sharing the information. ‘A super-critical ex. Everything I cooked, Dean would find some fault with it. It was always a bit burnt, or had a pinch too much salt, or I’d underdone the beef or overcooked the steak... It got to the point where I got so nervous I made more mistakes, and then I suppose the criticism became justified... I used to believe my cooking reflected my emotions—the stews

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