The Fiancée Charade. Fiona Brand

Gabriel was in the room and that he had witnessed her hugging Zane.

      In that moment she saw her actions from Gabriel’s viewpoint and she didn’t like the needy picture that formed.

      Anger stiffened her spine. For the first time in her life she was attempting to lose the strong independent streak that had been ingrained from childhood and ask a man she liked if he would consider having a relationship with her.

      Gabriel could disapprove all he liked, but it was a fact that he had stepped out of the picture six years ago.

      Plan A had failed. Now, unfortunately, she would have to resort to Plan B.

      Four

      Gabriel refused the glass of champagne a waiter offered him. His dark gaze swept the crowded reception room. A knot of gray-suited Japanese businessmen shifted and he was rewarded with another clear view of creamy skin, flame hair and black lace.

      Constantine Atraeus lifted a brow. “Gemma O’Neill. Girl’s going places, or was. She’s just had to resign, a personal commitment.”

      An instant replay of Gemma stepping into Zane’s arms made his jaw tighten. Then Constantine’s statement about Gemma resigning because of a personal commitment sank in.

      His gaze sliced back to Constantine, with whom he’d been closeted earlier in the day, during which time he had agreed to oversee the start-up of a new Ambrosi Pearls venture in Auckland. However, he’d been unable to commit to a loan from the Atraeus Group because Mario was a significant shareholder and would instantly veto the deal. He could raise the amount Gabriel needed personally, but it would take time, which Gabriel currently didn’t have. “She’s finally gotten engaged to Zane?”

      “Zane?” Constantine looked surprised. “As far as I know they’re friends, and that’s all. It’s not public yet, but Zane is on the verge of getting engaged to Lilah Cole. Although, an engagement is probably exactly what Gemma needs at this point.”

      Gabriel frowned at Constantine’s reference to another tabloid story he had found online, that Gemma was having custody difficulties with her small daughter.

      Constantine’s wife, Sienna, a gorgeous blonde, joined them, ending the conversation. The next time Gabriel searched out Gemma, she had disappeared from sight, and so had Zane. Jaw tight, he excused himself and went outside.

      The large stone terrace, with its spectacular view across a deceptively smooth stretch of sea to the island of Ambrus and the clear, star-studded sky, was empty. The tension that hummed through him loosened off a notch. Walking to the parapet, he gripped the railing and stared at the line of luminescence on the far horizon, the last soft glimmer of the setting sun.

      He didn’t know what he would have done if he had found Gemma and Zane locked in an intimate clinch. His reaction to the situation so far had not been either considered or tactical, it had simply been knee-jerk.

      Gaze still caught and held by the purity of sky and sea, he let the soft chill of the night settle around him. An image from the past, of dark red hair across his chest, Gemma soft and warm against him, filled his mind, blotting out the night sky.

      In the midst of the grief and betrayal of his father’s death there had been no time for the passion that had hit him like a thunderbolt.

      But that was six years ago. Since then the situation had changed. His family had recovered from the double blow of his father’s death and the resulting scandal. The bank’s financial performance had been brilliant, thanks to his careful management and his younger brother, Kyle’s, flare for investment. The only fly in the ointment was Mario and his machinations, which had recently begun to stall business.

      The raw relief he’d experienced when Constantine had said Zane was about to get engaged to Lilah Cole, a high-profile designer for Ambrosi Pearls, replayed itself.

      His fingers tightened on the parapet as he recalled the earlier sight of Gemma with her arms around Zane’s neck. It was clear that she didn’t understand she had lost Zane to another woman.

      The fact that Zane hadn’t had the courage to inform Gemma he was going to marry someone else made his jaw tighten. If he wasn’t mistaken, Gemma was about to be badly hurt.

      It wasn’t exactly a repeat of the situation that had thrown them together six years ago, but it was oddly close.

      The thought that, after years of careful control, utter focus on his work and family life, he could step into the maelstrom of passion that had swept him away in Dolphin Bay tightened every muscle in his body, but the desire to do so was tempered with caution. He couldn’t forget the power of the obsessive passion that had ensnared his father. There was no way he could abandon himself to desire, and suddenly he had his plan.

      Gemma needed relationship stability in order to establish custody of her child. With Constantine unable to guarantee the loan he needed within a forty-eight-hour framework, he could use a believable fiancée, on a strictly temporary basis, to cut through the legal clauses preventing him from taking full control of his company.

      A fake engagement would provide the solutions they both needed and in his case, a safe, controlled environment in which to explore the passion that coursed through his veins.

      Satisfied, he left the terrace and strolled back into the Castello and the ornate reception room. Gemma was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Zane.

      He would find Gemma, it was just a matter of time. Thanks to boyhood holidays spent running wild on Medinos, he knew every nook and cranny of the Castello. He only hoped he didn’t find Zane with her. If that was the case, he decided coldly, he would deal with the situation in the time-honored way, down on the beach and without an audience.

      Gemma walked quickly down a small corridor and stepped into an anteroom that was currently used to hold coats and wraps. Closing the door behind her, she leaned on it for long seconds, allowing her breathing and her heart rate to steady.

      Pushing away from the cold, dark wood of the door, she searched amongst the jumble of bags to find the canvas bag she had stashed in the room earlier.

      Relief flooded her as her fingers closed over the strap. Hauling it from out of the expensive collection of designer handbags, she placed it on an ornate carved table that had probably been in existence for centuries and was no doubt worth an obscene amount of money.

      The fact that the Atraeus family could put an heirloom antique in a room that was little more than a storage room underlined the yawning abyss between their lives and hers. Zane was not a typical Atraeus, which was another reason why she had found him so easy to get on with. Even though he bore the name Atraeus, he hadn’t come from wealth originally. He understood what it was like to be poor.

      Fingers shaking with an overload of adrenaline, she checked the black lace negligee and a bottle of champagne that was rapidly losing its chill. At the bottom of the bag she had also stowed a glossy magazine she’d found with an article titled “How To Seduce Your Man in Ten Easy Ways.”

      After careful thought, she had chosen the birthday surprise scenario, with her as the surprise. Nervous terror clutched at her just at the thought of actually having to resort to that tactic. Even viewing it as a scene she was acting, she wasn’t sure she could go through with it.

      At the last minute, she had also slipped into her evening bag an envelope of melt-your-heart snapshots of Sanchia.

      Plan C. Just in case she couldn’t go through with the seduction plan.

      Gemma hurried down a corridor lined with cold fortress stone and archaic-looking brass lamps that glowed a soft buttery gold in the dimness. Mouth dry, she opened the door to Zane’s private quarters, using the spare key she had obtained from the cleaner’s office downstairs, and stepped inside.

      A large sitting room with French doors opened onto a stone terrace. An ultramodern kitchenette occupied an alcove. Opening the fridge, she placed the now warm bottle of French champagne on a shelf to chill.

      Briskly, she set about completing her preparations.