One Night to Risk It All(28)

“There’s the obvious but I hesitate to ask.”

“Well, since I’m part owner in the business, it makes sense that I help, especially since— What is this huge order?”

“It’s costume stuff, which I don’t love to do, but I’d get a film credit. It’s for a really big French film and—”

“Say no more. I’m coming over. We’ll get it all worked out.”

“You don’t have to come if you’re still deep in issues with your mystery man.”

Rachel looked up at Alex. “Let me worry about that.” She hung up. “I have to go to Cannes.”

“What?”

“My friend Alana has a boutique there. Technically, I have a boutique there. I own most of it. But I’m a silent business partner, as it were.”

“How is it I didn’t know that?”

“No one knows that,” she said. “Not even Ajax. And yes, I felt a little guilty about it, but I believe in her skills as a designer and I wanted to support her. So I set her up with a boutique. And we’ve been turning a decent profit the past few years. She’s having a crisis now, though—burst pipe upstairs—and we have damaged clothes. So I need to go and see what all happened, and try to help her get everything put back together.”

“That’s easy,” he said. “Throw money at it.”

“What? Like just pay someone to go and fix it all?”

“Why not?”

“I have a budget. What? I do. I have a trust, yes, but I have to live off of it. And I just stopped living in the apartment my father paid for. And I’ve just burned some bridges, so all things considered, I should throw a mop at it, not money. It needs to get done quickly because she has a chance to pick up a major client, but not if she’s underwater. So to speak.”

“I could pay for it. You know, if you were my wife I would feel obligated to pay for it.”

“Oh, no! I’m not your wife, though. I’m not even your fiancée. You know what? It feels really good not to be someone’s fiancée. It really does.”

“I’m happy for you.”

“You don’t sound it. So anyway, as I’m assuming I’m not a prisoner, I need to get a plane off this island and get myself to Cannes.”

“Are you coming back?”

She bit her lip. “I don’t know. I might stay with Alana for a while. This, you and me, is probably going to end in shared custody.”

He frowned. “That’s not how I want it to end.”

“How do you see this ending?”

“With our family together. You with your child, me with both of you. You in my bed.”

She choked on her coffee, coughing and sputtering, bracing herself on the counter until she could suck in a breath that wasn’t blocked by liquid. “What?” she finally managed to rasp.

“What did you think I meant when I proposed marriage?”

“Something not so...intimate.”

“And why not? We’re good together, agape.”

“Whatever. You only slept with me because you were being revenge-y. And you were wanting to steal Ajax’s woman and his business and whatever. It had nothing to do with me.”

A muscle in his jaw ticked. “I suppose. But things have changed. You’re the mother of my child and all things considered...”

“I will never be a convenience. Not for any man. Not ever again. You talked about being fake. Fine, maybe I’ve been fake. I didn’t even know it, though. That’s the thing. I didn’t know...how far from love what I felt for Ajax was, and I’ll never put myself in that position just to make other people comfortable. I’m done making other people comfortable. I’m going to make me and my baby comfortable. Beginning and end of story.”

“Well, then, I suppose I should drink more coffee and pack.”

“Why?”

“Because, apparently, we’re going to Cannes.”

“We?”

“I’m not done with you, Rachel. Not by a long shot. And hey, this time, I’ll pay for the hotel room. Since you paid for the last one.”

Her ears burned. “Did you not just hear what I said?” She really needed him to not be suggesting they pick up where they left off in Corfu, because she was genuinely afraid that she would be too weak to tell him no. That she would say “yes, yes, take me!” and lie down on the nearest flat surface so he could have his wicked way with her, and that would accomplish nothing.

It would be fun, though...

Maybe. But she wasn’t going to have any more of that kind of fun with him. She had, in some strange way, been set free by all these crazy turns of events, and she was going to make the most of that freedom. Not head toward another loveless engagement.

“I heard you. I’ll get us a penthouse suite with separate bedrooms. It will be very luxurious and private and it will not interfere with your budget.”

“Well...thanks. But why?”

“Because I am not going to give up on you, agape mou. On us.”

“Because you love me so much?” she asked, her heart hammering, her palms sweaty. She’d asked it to put him off. To mock him. Instead, she found herself standing there shaking, a part of her praying his answer would be yes.