The Millionaire's Redemption. Therese Beharrie

hand froze on the door at his words, and it took her a moment to hear the store’s alarm beeping. She hurriedly entered the code, trying desperately to come up with something to say. But her mind only formulated excuses—not the sassy comeback she’d hoped for.

      You should have known it wouldn’t last, a voice mocked her.

      And though she wanted to deny the words she couldn’t. She’d thought it was a good idea to bring him back to her store and then to walk on the beach. She’d feel better in a familiar place, she’d told herself.

      But being in that familiar place had snatched her from the fantasy world she’d been in for the past few hours. The world where she’d flirted as though she were in a thinner body. As though she had all the confidence in the world. As though she wasn’t trying with all her might to value herself.

      ‘This is nice,’ he said, breaking the silence. ‘It’s a coffee shop and a bookstore?’

      ‘Yeah. I love reading and I love coffee, and a lot of the people I know do, too. So I thought it would be pretty great to have a place where you could relax and do both. And, of course, there’s the view.’

      She was rambling, she knew. A combination of nerves at Jacques being there and the defensiveness she always felt when she spoke about her store.

      Her parents’ warnings echoed in her head—as did their urges for her to do something more respectable than being a store-owner—and she shook it off. She had more pressing things to worry about at the moment.

      ‘Do you have any preferences for coffee?’

      ‘Black, no sugar.’

      She busied herself with the task, and for a few moments there was silence.

      ‘You have good taste.’

      The milk she was pouring spilled onto the counter. ‘Wh...what?’

      ‘I assume you decorated the store yourself?’

      She nodded mutely, refusing to look at him in case he wore that amused expression again.

      ‘It’s the perfect décor for a shop like this.’

      She’d gone with a blue and white colour scheme, to complement the view of the sea that stretched endlessly through the glass entrance. White bookshelves held as many books as she could fit in them—old and new—and lined the walls on either side of the shop. The wooden tables and blue-cushioned chairs were homely, comfortable—exactly what she’d been going for when she’d decorated, though she knew she’d spent hopelessly too much on them.

      But she only worried about that when she did her accounts and saw how many negative numbers they had.

      ‘Thanks,’ she said, making quick work of the clean-up before handing him his coffee in a takeaway cup. She cleared her throat. ‘We don’t have to...to do the walk. I just thought it made sense...’

      ‘I was teasing, Lily.’

      The smile on his lips made her stomach flip. And then there were even more gymnastics when he lifted her chin.

      ‘You know—that thing I do so I can see you blush?’

      She took a step back. ‘You mean the thing I shouldn’t let fluster me?’

      ‘Exactly.’

      She couldn’t help a smile at his quick answer. ‘How about we take this to the beach?’

      She left her coat and her shoes in the store, and a few moments later they were walking on the sand together.

      ‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ he said, looking out to the water.

      Waves crashed against the sand at his words, and the reflection of the full moon on the water shimmered, as though thanking Jacques for the compliment.

      ‘Yeah, it is. I remember going on holiday to Johannesburg when I was younger. I refused to go again when I realised there was no beach.’ She shrugged. ‘Something about a beach just—’

      ‘Calms you?’

      ‘Yeah.’ She glanced over. ‘Did the same thing ever happen to you?’

      There was a bark of laughter. ‘That would have involved my parents actually taking us on holiday, so no.’

      The words surprised her, and if his silence was any indication they had surprised him, too. She wanted to press him—for reasons she didn’t want to think about—but before she could Jacques jogged a few paces ahead of her. Lily watched as he threw his empty coffee cup into a nearby bin, and in a few quick movements climbed onto a large boulder.

      He grinned down at her when she reached him. ‘Join me.’

      ‘Up there? In this dress?’ She shook her head. ‘I’ll pass.’

      ‘How about that one?’ Jacques nodded at the boulder next to the one he was on. It was smaller, but she still didn’t see herself up there.

      ‘I don’t think you understand, Jacques—’

      She broke off when he jumped down next to her, threw her coffee cup into the same bin—despite the fact that hers had only been half-empty—and took her free hand.

      ‘Come on—it’ll be a good place to talk.’

      Helpless to do otherwise, she let him lead her to the next boulder, but stopped when they reached it.

      ‘I don’t see how this is going to work.’

      ‘Like this.’

      She felt his hands on her waist, and realised his intentions too late—he was already lifting her.

      ‘Oh, no, Jacques,’ she gasped. ‘I’m too heavy—’

      But she didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence since her feet were already on the smooth, cold granite of the boulder.

      A few moments later, Jacques joined her. ‘Did you just say that you were too heavy?’

      He barely sounded winded, and it took Lily a while to find her words. She was too busy wondering whether she’d overestimated her weight or underestimated his strength. Since she didn’t live in a world where the former was ever a reality, she settled on the second.

      ‘I guess not,’ she finally answered him.

      ‘You think you’re heavy?’

      ‘I...well... Kyle wasn’t as strong as you are,’ she finished lamely.

      He gave her a strange look, but didn’t say anything. Instead he offered a hand, gesturing that they should sit. She ignored the spark that zipped through her at the contact, and snatched her hand back as soon as she was sitting.

      ‘Thanks for agreeing to have coffee with me,’ he said when he settled down beside her.

      ‘It was the least I could do after you helped me with Kyle. Even if you did throw most of mine in the bin.’

      ‘Sorry...’

      Jacques smiled apologetically, but something on his face told her there was more.

      He confirmed it when he said, ‘I actually wanted to talk to you in private because...’

      He took a breath, and she felt a frisson of nerves deep inside.

      ‘I was hoping you would do a little more than just have coffee with me.’

      ‘What do you want?’ she asked stiffly, hearing a voice mocking her in her head.

      Did you really think he was being nice to you because he liked you?

      ‘Nothing we haven’t already managed to pull off.’ He paused. ‘I’d like you to pretend to be my girlfriend.’