Page 5 of Consequences of Their Wedding Charade
Jess felt the charm within that utterly sexy drawl feather over her and she had to fight not to shiver with treacherous awareness because this was what he was so good at...this was what made Curtis Hamilton such a health hazard when it came to the opposite sex. It wasn’t just about those incredible looks or the money, what wasreallydangerous about him was the fact that he was so gifted at interacting. He knew how to listen, he picked up on things quickly, knew how to steer a conversation to elicit those little confidences you might not have wanted to impart. The very fact that they had been friends for so long, on such familiar terms, made her all the more conscious of the dangers of being lured back to that place from which she knew she had to flee. She had fallen for a guy who only saw her as a one-dimensional girl next door.
She had no intention of admitting to any kind ofatmospherebetween them, but she was certainly going to tell him what she thought on the matter of his godfather, of whom she was deeply fond.
‘He’s in awe of you, Curtis.’ This was the most blunt she could remember being, but then it was also the first time he had been away for such a long period of time—several weeks, only popping back for Christmas. Into that void, Jess had certainly noticed signs of depression, something she was well adept at spotting given her own mother’s descent into mild depression following her husband’s death.
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘Sometimes you can be so...blind. Honestly!’ She clicked her tongue as he continued to frown, mulling over what she had said. ‘He doesn’t want to bother you, Curtis. You’re his golden godson who’s conquered the world... You’re his pride and joy who got a first in Maths at Cambridge and then developed an app to deal with weight load that had every architect and engineering company in the world begging to pay you a king’s ransom for it. You’re the whiz-kid who was already formulating a property portfolio at twenty-three whilst opening his own company to deal with sexy, high-end constructions and then, as if that weren’t enough, began taking over companies and making yet more millions...’
‘Stop, please.’ He held up his hands in a gesture of mock surrender. ‘It’s all going to go to my head and you wouldn’t want that, would you?’ His tone was light. His mind was whirring. William? Depressed? Just thinking about it sent a coil of clammy alarm curling through him. When it came to the rest of the world, and certainly when it came to women, he might have locked his heart away and thrown away the key to protect himself from ever being hurt, but not so when it came to his godfather.
‘I think he feels that you might find it boring if he starts dwelling on his own problems. And these past few weeks... You haven’t been around that much. I guess, when you have been here, he just wants to enjoy your company without bringing up anything troublesome...’
‘Do you realise that you’re the only woman who has ever been able to talk to me like this?’ His voice was absent-minded, his thoughts dwelling on what she had said, his keen brain already trying to source ways to remedy a problem of which he had been unaware.
Jess looked at him, so familiar, so stupidly dear to her, so oblivious to how she felt about him.
He stretched and she compulsively and guiltily drank in the sinewy length of his body and the sliver of hard skin exposed as the jumper rode up ever so slightly.
She wondered whether he was seeing anyone. Many times, she got wind of girlfriends thanks to the diligent paparazzi, who couldn’t seem to get enough of someone clever, stupidly rich and insanely good-looking. It was as though they’d hit jackpot with him and so kept bouncing back to cover whatever he happened to be up to. All had been quiet on the Western Front for some time.
Not your business!She shook her head, clearing it to focus on what he had said.
‘You say that but that’s because all those poor women you date are so desperate to be with you that they’d do anything to hang on, including agreeing with everything you say. If you ask me, it’s not healthy...’
He burst out laughing and looked at her with warm appreciation. ‘Thank God I have one nag in my life, making sure my ego doesn’t over-inflate.’
‘Thanks for the compliment, Curtis.’ But something inside her twisted painfully even though she knew that actually, in his eyes, it reallywasa compliment.
‘I’ll keep an eye on him while I’m here and I’ve wrapped up a heck of a lot of pressing business abroad, so my time is going to be a little less pressured for the next few months. I’d planned,’ he mused, ‘on staying for the weekend but maybe I’ll stretch it out a bit longer. Hang around for a week instead. What would we do without the World Wide Web? Business on the go wherever you happen to be and thankfully the internet connection at the cottage is first rate.’ He sat up abruptly, slapped his hands on his thighs and looked at her with sudden seriousness. ‘I haven’t come bearing gifts for no apparent reason,’ he said gravely.
‘I had no idea that the doughnuts were meant to be a gift,’ Jess replied politely. ‘My birthday isn’t for another three months, as it happens, but I appreciate the thought.’
‘It’s not so much a gift as more of a...how shall I put it...?’
‘Please don’t be coy, Curtis. That’s not like you.’
He grinned and stood up and strolled over to her fridge, which he opened so that he could peer inside. ‘Would you like to make me some breakfast?’ he asked. ‘Somehow doughnuts don’t quite do the trick. Or I could make you something. What have you got?’ He pulled out a yoghurt pot and inspected the lid. ‘Aside from some Greek yoghurt three days past its sell-by date?’
This, Jess thought helplessly, was where beinggood friendsgot a girl. A guy who felt comfortable rooting through your fridge in search of food as opposed to the guy who showed up with red roses and tickets to the opera.
‘Sit down. I guess I could do some eggs.’
‘Or, better still, I could take you out for breakfast...’
‘I can’t,’ she said hurriedly. ‘I have a busy day ahead.’
‘So you’ve said, even though you’re not working this week. Busy doing what?’
‘Meeting some of the staff,’ she said vaguely, ‘to discuss what else we can do to raise money for the school. There’s a real risk it might be merged with the really huge secondary five miles away, which would be a disaster.’
‘You need a generous donor,’ Curtis murmured thoughtfully, but she was already turning away, fetching eggs and bread and concocting a breakfast she hadn’t banked on making.
‘So...’ she said a few moments later as she plated up for both of them—scrambled eggs and toast. ‘What do you have to ask me, Curtis?’
There was a reason he was sitting at her table, sprawled in the chair, watching her with those amazing cut glass green eyes. He wanted something and the very fact that he was beating about the bush was not a good sign.
‘I need something of a...ah...a favour...’
