The Billionaire Affair by Diana Hamilton

Author:Diana Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2001-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

CAROLINE turned quickly. Too quickly. Her head swam dizzily. She would have fallen if Ben hadn’t slipped an arm around her and held her, pulling her against the broad, hard wall of his chest.

His blunt, out-of-the-blue proposal was the very last thing she’d expected. Her acceptance, should she be crazy enough to give it, would throw up implications she didn’t think she’d be able to handle.

Marrying Ben Dexter had once been her most precious dream but now, after all that had happened and the passage of so many years, it was totally out of the question. Her shoulders shook with the onset of hysteria and her sudden, unstoppable and totally humiliating tears soaked the front of his T-shirt.

‘Don’t cry,’ he said soothingly. ‘Please don’t. I shouldn’t have landed that on you so suddenly.’ Strong hands on her slender shoulders held her slightly away, his fingers brushing away the wetness from her cheeks, his dark eyes sweeping over her troubled features. ‘I don’t expect an answer right now, Caro. You’ll need time to think about it. I’ve been mulling it over ever since you fell asleep in my arms, so I’ve had a head start.’

He dropped a light kiss on her quivering mouth, his eyes smiling now, bringing all his forceful charisma into play as he slipped an arm back around her waist and insisted wryly, ‘We’ll both feel less disorientated if we eat. I’ll throw something on the stove while you choose the wine.’

Resisting the strong desire to disintegrate into further hysterics Caroline dragged air through her pinched nostrils and blurted, ‘I can’t marry you, you know I can’t—it was a crazy thing to ask!’

She felt utterly confused and deeply upset and his lazy ‘Why?’ did nothing to help. Breathing unevenly, she pulled away from him. Ever since she’d returned to Langley Hayes she’d lost her grip on reality. Somehow or other she had to regain it.

‘Because,’ she said more steadily, determined now to gather her defences against the man her treacherous body and stupid heart craved so desperately, ‘what you feel for me is simply lust—not to mention contempt. Marriage couldn’t possibly work out.’

‘Contempt; yes, there was that,’ he admitted softly after a pause no longer than a heartbeat. ‘For a long time now I’ve believed you were planning to marry the Curtis fortune while having a furtive affair with me. That sort of conviction is difficult to shake off. You see, way back then, I wanted to ask you if it was true, about Curtis, but when I got back I found that letter telling me it was all over between us, that you never wanted to set eyes on me again. As far as I was concerned it confirmed everything your father had told me.’

He walked into her line of vision, his hands bunched into his trouser pockets, his dark eyes moody. ‘I had to go that day; there was no choice. With hindsight I know I should have told you of my plans, explained why I used to disappear for days, but I wasn’t sure things would work out.

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