The Tycoon's Outrageous Proposal by Miranda Lee

Author:Miranda Lee [Lee, Miranda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2017-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

‘OH, DEAR, I just realised something,’ Cleo said when Byron announced that they were nearly there.

‘What?’

‘I didn’t buy your mother a birthday present. Or even a card.’ She’d been far too wrapped up all day in making herself over into the sort of woman Byron would date. Even she thought she looked pretty fabulous, but that didn’t make her feel any less guilty over her selfishness.

‘Don’t stress about it,’ Byron reassured her. ‘I’ve bought her a gift, and a card. I’ll say that they’re from you as well.’

‘Oh, thank you. That makes me feel better. What did you buy her?’

Byron’s smile was wry. ‘A book.’

Cleo frowned. ‘That’s all?’ Hardly what she’d been imagining. Surely he could have afforded something a little more expensive—and imaginative—than a book.

Byron shrugged. ‘I did have some very expensive flowers delivered today as well. Look, she’s not an easy person to buy a present for. She doesn’t like anyone to buy her clothes, or artwork, or anything for the house. Husbands and lovers are allowed to buy women jewellery, but not a son. Or so she told me when I bought her a necklace once when I was a gauche teenager. But possibly that was because I didn’t spend enough money on it. I bought her a lovely little sculpture last year—an original, might I add—and it now resides on the shelf behind the toilet in the pool house.’

‘She has a pool house?’

‘Yep. To go with the pool.’

‘But she lives right on the beach.’

‘The pool is more of a landscaping item than something Rosalind ever uses,’ Byron explained. ‘Lara swims in it occasionally. Though she prefers the beach. So does Jasper.’ Cleo was glad she knew who he was talking about. Rosalind was his mother, Lara his teenage sister, and Jasper the golden retriever who’d had the same injury as Mungo.

‘I doubt any of the guests will be swimming tonight,’ Byron went on. ‘The pool is heated, but the women won’t want their hairstyles ruined. And the men will be more interested in the wine than anything else.’

Cleo didn’t much like the sound of his mother’s guests. Still, she wouldn’t want her hairstyle ruined either. It had cost her a packet.

‘So what was the book you bought?’

‘The latest thriller by Daniel Silva. Mum loves him.’

‘Then won’t she have bought it herself?’

‘Not yet. She actually doesn’t buy books herself. She prefers to get books from the local library, then she doesn’t feel obliged to finish one if she doesn’t like it. She can be extravagant with some things but very frugal in other ways. Perhaps because she was once quite poor. Until she met my father, that is.’

‘Are you saying she married him for his money? Is that why their marriage failed?’ The questions fell out of her mouth before Cleo could stop herself. ‘Sorry,’ she said straight away. ‘That was rude of me. And none of my business.’

‘No, no, don’t apologise. I think they were very much in love to begin with, but Dad was a workaholic and was away from home far too much.

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