The Billionaire's Blackmail Bargain. Margaret Mayo

what a sorry figure her father had become, but if he was going to help then she had to be totally honest.

      Cade’s lips suddenly tightened. ‘So that’s where my money went.’ His nostrils dilated as he took a deep breath. ‘I wish to God I’d never met you, Simone Maxwell,’ he said, his voice thick with emotion. ‘I had no idea you were a woman of such low principles. You made a fool of me all those years ago. Damn it, you deserve to be—’

      ‘Stop it!’ Simone’s eyes shot sparks of purple anger. ‘Cade, like I said at the time, I didn’t know what my father was up to. He fooled me exactly the same as he fooled you!’

      ‘And I’m supposed to believe that?’ Cade snorted. ‘I know what you want me to believe, Simone, and why, but he told me. He explained that you were in on it together, so please don’t lie to me any more.’

      Simone stiffened. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘If that’s what he said, then he was the one lying,’ she protested, horrified to think that her father had shifted part of the blame on to her. ‘I asked you to invest in all innocence, Cade. I thought it would be good for you…for us.’

      Cade’s eyes flashed his disbelief. ‘I’d be a fool to believe that now. I paid dearly for what you did to me, Simone.’

      ‘And you think I haven’t suffered?’ she cut in frostily. ‘I’ve suffered plenty. My mother’s in a home because of my father’s behaviour. I’m about to lose my business. I have a—’ She pulled herself up short. Perhaps this was not the right time to tell Cade about her failed marriage. ‘And my father—well, he’s not my father any more. Not the man I knew. My life’s hell, if you must know.’

      She got up and walked over to the window again. There was something calming about watching the ocean, and she desperately needed calm at this moment. Her breathing was all over the place and she wanted to throw something—preferably at Cade Dupont’s handsome face. She drew in a deep breath and held it, then let it go again. Twice more she did this, closing her eyes now, letting her thoughts drift back to that fateful time nearly five years ago.

      She had been going out with Cade for almost fifteen months when he had announced out of the blue that he had inherited a considerable sum of money from his paternal grandfather. ‘What are you going to do with it?’ she had asked, hoping that maybe he would propose to her, and that they would buy a lovely house to live in.

      ‘I’m going into business,’ he had announced.

      Simone had hid her disappointment, but had shown a genuine interest in Cade’s dream. ‘What sort of business?’

      ‘I don’t know yet,’ he had answered. ‘I need to give it some thought.’

      When she had told her father, he had immediately wondered whether Cade would like to buy into a new boat- building company he was considering setting up. ‘I’ve been thinking about it for some time,’ he had said. ‘I was looking for an investor, and Cade might be the perfect person. It will go hand in hand very nicely with our current business. How about you ask him if he’d be interested?’

      So Simone had put the idea to Cade, telling him what a good investment it would be, hoping that it would unite their families and make a future proposal from Cade a certainty. Cade had been interested, and, after much consideration and consultation with her father, he’d decided to take Matthew Maxwell up on his offer. Neither of them had known, especially not Simone, that her father had had no intention of setting up another business. What he had been after was simply more money to cover his gambling debts.

      It had only been afterwards, when Cade had discovered that he’d lost all his money, that Simone had realised what her father was up to. She had never forgiven him. And now Cade hadn’t forgiven her either. He was firmly convinced that she’d been in on the con trick and he wouldn’t listen to anything she had to say.

      He had flown to England very shortly afterwards. It was where Cade had been born and had lived until he was twelve. Simone had been heartbroken, and even more so when he hadn’t returned her phone calls. Her mobile phone had been red-hot for weeks, sending texts and messages to his voice mail. But he’d ignored every one of them. And as the months had turned into years she had accepted the fact that she would never see Cade again.

      And now he was here, larger than life and just as overwhelming.

      Without warning his arms snaked around her waist, and she was pulled back against the hard, exciting length of him. She didn’t fight. What was the point? Fighting Cade had always been useless. And, actually, it felt good to be held by him. She dropped her head back on his shoulder, felt his warm breath feathering her cheek, and for one crazy moment she wished that things were different between them.

      But they weren’t, and they never would be. ‘I’m sorry things haven’t worked out for you,’ he said, his voice surprisingly soft.

      Simone remained silent. He was saying what he thought she wanted to hear. He didn’t mean it. Too much had happened between them for him to be genuine. He was only offering to help with the business because it would be to his benefit. Cade would probably tie her up in complicated legal knots, and she’d sign her life away and be left with nothing. Just as he thought she had done to him!

      As this second thought struck her, Simone struggled to free herself. Cade was clever, but not clever enough. ‘Don’t worry about me, Cade, I’m all right,’ she insisted.

      ‘Then I suggest we begin our meal.’ He sounded incredibly satisfied as he led her to the table, confirming in Simone’s mind that she had every reason to be wary of him. It didn’t stop her responding to his sex appeal, though. It was so strong that it came across her in waves of thick emotion. She had only to breathe the air around them to feel an instant stirring of her senses.

      He was so insufferably arrogant these days that she didn’t know how she could possibly react so wildly. It had to be a throwback to her youth, and the heady rush she had felt as she had fallen in love for the first time. It was said that no one ever forgot their first love. Well, she most certainly had never forgotten Cade. What she hadn’t expected was for the same feelings to come tumbling back.

      She found herself hungering for his kisses, wondering whether they would be the same as they had been or whether he’d improved. She used to think that was impossible; how could you improve on perfection? But where Cade was concerned she was quickly beginning to learn that anything was feasible.

      In the centre of the table was a red rose in a bud vase. Simone hadn’t noticed it before, and she winced as she remembered that this was Cade’s signature tune before spending a romantic evening together.

      She felt like picking the vase up and flinging it across the room, but of course she didn’t. She ignored it, sitting perfectly still instead.

      ‘You’ve gone very quiet all of a sudden,’ said Cade as he filled their wine glasses. ‘What are you thinking?’

      His voice, deep and amused, had her looking up with a startled expression in her lovely eyes. ‘Nothing,’ she answered.

      ‘Impossible. Unless, of course, by nothing you mean that I was the object of your thoughts, mmm?’

      Of course he knew that she’d been thinking about him. He’d always had an invisible antenna that picked up on her thoughts whenever he was in them. It looked like some things never changed, and that she’d need to be even more wary in future.

      ‘It would be pretty ridiculous not to think about you when you’re right here in front of me,’ she replied sharply.

      Cade raised his glass. ‘Here’s to us, then. To a successful partnership.’

      Simone eyed him warily. ‘Partnership?’ She wasn’t aware that she had agreed to anything yet.

      ‘What else would you call it?’

      ‘Nothing,’ she said quickly, trying to dismiss the fact that she’d