The Billionaire Affair by Diana Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

firm of slick city lawyers.’ She took up the conversational ball, ignoring his reference to the long, stolen nights they’d spent together, hoping that in future he would do the same. If he didn’t then she’d be forced to have her say, and she didn’t want to have a stand-up fight with him, risk him complaining to Edward, putting the job she loved in jeopardy. Much better to try tohold her tongue on the vexed subject of their past and keep their present relationship as businesslike as it was possible to be under the circumstances.
    â€˜No. I believe in supporting local firms—now.’ As their waiter approached, he added, ‘What will you have?’
    She recited her order of Danish tartlets followed by red mullet with mushrooms abstractedly. By referring to himself as local he’d made it plain that he intended to settle at Langley Hayes. Being surrounded by his company’s golf course and leisure centre would be a small price to pay for the self-aggrandisement of living in the home of his former enemy.
    A home large enough to house a wife, a growing number of children and an army of servants. The thought that he might be contemplating marriage made her feel almost terminally ill.
    Though it shouldn’t. He was less than nothing to her now and she pitied his future wife. Once a liar and cheat, always a liar and cheat where women were concerned. She refused his offer of wine, ate well, made banal conversation and was thankful when they left.
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    The headlights made a sweeping golden tunnel beneath the newly leafing trees that overhung the narrow lane. Soon the Queen Anne’s lace would foam on the verges and the wild roses and honeysuckle would bloom, filling the air with fragrance.
    Her childhood had been lonely and often miserablebut even so she loved this part of the country. But her life was in London now, her home, her work, her friends. She didn’t want or need to feel this utterly surprising, aching pang of nostalgia.
    Without thinking, as they swept onto the driveway of Langley Hayes, she said tartly, ‘I’m sure the area has a need for a golf course and leisure facilities—your company wouldn’t have gone for it if they hadn’t done their homework—but won’t you mind being surrounded by people? Father would have had a fit if he’d found what he called the hoi polloi wandering around his property.’
    â€˜I’m not your father,’ he observed coldly and she tightened her mouth in mute acknowledgement. He was far more handsome and charismatic than her father had ever been, worked hard—he must do to have acquired what was obviously a massive fortune where her father had lived on dwindling capital, and had mismanaged what had been left of the once enormous estate. But both men possessed a streak of cruelty, a complete disregard for other people’s feelings.
    â€˜And I won’t be here that often to be troubled by the masses,’ he added sardonically. ‘However, I will keep a suite of rooms here.’
    He parked the gleaming Jaguar perilously close to the builder’s skip, the tyres crunching on badly targeted lumps of plaster and brick ends. Caroline, getting out before he did, wondered if he was always as careless with his possessions as he was with other people’s emotions.
    She entered the house before he did but he caught up with her. ‘Share a bottle of wine with me?’
    His voice had lost that sharp edge and here in the soft silence of the house his presence was sensationally male and potent. And dangerous.
    She shuddered inside. How easy it would be to give in to the temptation. Just be with him, get to know the man he had become. Wonder if he still made love as generously as he had done all those years ago or if he’d become jaded, taking his physical pleasure perfunctorily.
    She slammed the door of her mind shut on that thought and shook her head slightly. ‘Thank you, but