A Reputation to Uphold. Victoria Parker

kill her. Bad enough he was in her apartment. Touching things. Sucking the pleasure she’d always gained from her soothing space and replacing it with wretched visual pictures sure to taunt her for days. But what was worse, far worse, was that while she’d been counting down the minutes until he would leave, he’d been planning on staying for the foreseeable future. With her. A woman he abhorred. So really, ‘Who would ever believe us?’

      ‘It is done, Eva. Everyone already believes,’ he said, his voice hardening to steel. The self-satisfied look of earlier being replaced by dark irascibility.

      Understanding dawned. He actually expected her to jump aboard the Dante freight train to hell. Without so much as a quibble. In effect, she’d require an industrial-strength fire retardant suit!

      ‘You didn’t think to ask me first?’ she said, her indignation now fully stoked, voice high octane, ready to smash every glass object within a ten-foot radius. She was in control of her own life, dammit! ‘You’re so...so arrogant.’

      He stood to his full six-foot-three, eclipsing the sun and sucking all the air from the room. And Eva held her breath until she nigh on asphyxiated.

      ‘I am taking control of the situation and fixing it. What have you been doing all morning? Lying in bed painting your pearly toes and rewriting your social calendar?’

      ‘Oooh. You just can’t resist, can you?’

      The devil-may-care shrug he gave her made her angrier still.

      Eva sighed, rubbing her temple. When was he going to start taking her seriously? ‘If you want me to admit to something then I’ll admit to fretting. Fretting my little heart out and thinking of what to do next. But do you blame me? There is nothing wrong with being concerned about my business. It may be small fry compared to your whale of enterprise but it’s mine and I’ve worked hard for it.’ Her business was her life. For however long she had. The only joy in a sea of uncertainty. She’d do anything to keep it afloat, but feigning a relationship with Dante was sailing into depths unknown and she wasn’t ready to drown just yet.

      ‘If it is so important to you, where is the problem?’ he said, now irritated to the point of explosion.

      ‘I don’t like the idea,’ she said, risking another glance at him, voicing the only argument she could think of without the need to purge her life story. ‘It’s lying.’

      Frank bewilderment widened his beautiful deep umber eyes. ‘Funny how naive has never been a word I associate with you. You want to be successful, Eva? You have to play the game. You want to save your career? Get ruthless.’

      The only thing ruthless about her was the way she haggled with her suppliers for a measly two per cent and dashed to the supermarket when her favourite ice cream was on special. She preferred to play fair. And she loathed lying. Blame it on the tales she’d heard spouting from her father’s tainted lips as her mother lay sick in bed. Blame it on the press for painting her as an alcoholic, drugged up, sexual assassin. Whatever. Lying to the world, to the soon-to-be Duchess, with Dante, made her feel...dirty, somehow.

      That must be why she was scratching at her neck. Why her skin felt too tight. It had nothing to do with his presence filling the room with a dark feral aura that made her feel equal parts aroused and scared witless. How could she possibly hide this ridiculous, malapropos attraction when he wanted it on full show? For everyone to see...

      She gripped the squashy arm of the sofa until her knuckles screamed. ‘Whoa, hold on. What’s Finn going to think?’

      Dante rubbed over his lips with the flat of his hand and Eva fancied she’d just taken a chunk out of his invincible armour.

      ‘I will explain everything and he’ll realise that such a story is in our mutual interest. I will not risk losing Hamptons and it’s clear to me you’ve worked hard to gain your professional standing. So let us make the most of a bad situation.’

      Why was one more department store so important to him? Was he so power-hungry? She understood ambition but, hell’s bells, he was one of the richest men on earth. It was said he could turn one dollar into a million within an hour. Sell noodles to a Chinaman, green grass to the Irish.