Out of Hours...Her Ruthless Boss: Ruthless Boss, Hired Wife / Unworldly Secretary, Untamed Greek / Her Ruthless Italian Boss. Кейт Хьюит
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university?’ Cormac clarified.
‘Yes…apparently things got out of control at a party and she’s been expelled.’ Lizzie flushed. ‘There’s no excuse, I know, but she’s young…’ She trailed off at his cynical expression. ‘Anyway, she needs me. I have to go home.’
‘We have a flight booked in less than forty-eight hours.’ His voice was mild, but Lizzie heard—felt—the steel underneath. ‘Don’t you think she can take care of herself till then?’
‘She’s a wreck, Cormac—’
‘She certainly is if she’s been thrown out of university her first week there.’
‘Cormac…’ Lizzie held her hand out in appeal. ‘She’s my sister. I need to be with her—now. As soon as possible. Jan will understand. He can get me a flight to Bonaire—’
‘Those family values at work, eh?’ Cormac shook his head. ‘No, Lizzie. You’re staying here.’
The cold finality in his tone went over her like a shiver. She stared at him, suddenly conscious that they were both naked.
‘It won’t affect the commission,’ she said. ‘I’ll still pretend to be your wife—even wives have family emergencies!’
‘Yes,’ Cormac agreed, ‘but how will it look if I let you run off while I stay to court this commission?’
‘I…’
‘It’ll look like I care more about the commission than I do about you,’ he finished flatly. ‘I’m not about to have Jan think that for a second.’
‘He’d understand—’
‘It’s not worth the risk.’
‘But, Cormac!’ Lizzie shook her head, confused. She felt that if she only explained, he’d understand. He’d turn back into the man he’d been before, the man she knew he truly was. The man who had looked at her with kind compassion, with exquisite tenderness.
That man.
‘Cormac,’ she tried again, ‘I know it may seem unreasonable, but I’m all Dani has. She’s my sister and she needs me. Nothing is more important than that.’
‘Actually, something is.’ Cormac’s voice was frighteningly mild. ‘My commission.’
Lizzie stared at him for a long moment. She looked into his eyes. How come she’d never noticed how cold they were? Lifeless. Blank. And she’d wanted to see them. She’d wanted to gaze into his eyes as he made love to her and see love shining there, or at least tenderness. But there was nothing.
Nothing.
She took a step away and, suddenly ashamed of her nakedness, she hurried over and snatched her dress, pulled it on with trembling hands.
‘I don’t understand you,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I can’t understand how you can be so…so kind one moment, and then the next…’
‘Can’t you?’ He stood before her, naked, unconcerned, arms crossed. One eyebrow quirked in cold cynicism.
Lizzie shook her head slowly. She felt dizzy, faint, sick. The man in front of her was like a reflection in ice, without a soul.
Frightening.
The truth.
‘What’s happened…’ She stopped. Cormac stared at her. Waiting. ‘You’ve been using me,’ she said slowly, each word like a jagged splinter tearing her heart, her soul. ‘You’ve been using me this whole time.’
Cormac said nothing, and the silence damned him. Damned her. Lizzie pressed a fist to her mouth, choked back a sob of horrified realisation.
‘You’ve been using me,’ she repeated, a disconnected part of her amazed at how well he’d played the role, how easily she’d fallen into his trap.
‘All those things you said,’ she whispered, remembering the words that had seemed so compassionate, so considerate, so…corrupt. Lies. All lies. ‘All those promises…the understanding…the sympathy…you didn’t mean any of it, did you? You were just saying what you thought I wanted to hear…what I needed to hear to get me into your bed.’
‘As I recall,’ Cormac replied in a voice of cutting precision, ‘you were the one trying to get me into your bed.’
‘Only because you made it that way! Didn’t you?’ She laughed, a broken sound of pain and lost dignity. ‘You manipulated—played—me as you’ve played Jan, and Stears and every other person you’ve ever come across. So it would be my idea. My fault.’
‘You’re jumping to conclusions—’ Cormac began in a hard, warning voice, but Lizzie shook her head. She couldn’t bear to be managed and manipulated now. Not when she knew.
She knew. So much. Too much.
‘You said you didn’t know how much you could give,’ she recalled, her fist still pressed to her mouth. ‘I know the answer to that!’ It came out in a cry, a cry of plaintive hurt that she choked back, biting on her knuckles, torn between fury and pain. ‘You said you didn’t want to hurt me! What a joke.’
There was a tic in Cormac’s jaw. His face was otherwise impassive.
‘What?’ Lizzie demanded. ‘Don’t you have any more tricks up your sleeve, Cormac? Another way to manipulate me? You must have been laughing at me, how I fell for every soft, stupid line you gave me.’
‘I was never laughing at you,’ he said.
‘No, you were playing me! Playing me like a fish on a line, and I let you…’ She spun away, pressed her hands to her eyes, desperate to stop the tears. She wouldn’t cry in front of him. Not now. Not ever.
‘Why?’ she asked after a long moment when the only sound was her own ragged breathing. ‘Why did you do it?’ Her voice came out stronger. ‘What more is there for you to possibly gain? My humiliation? Is that what you want?’
‘Lizzie, you’re making more of this than there is,’ Cormac said after a moment. ‘What I said was true. I want you. You can’t fake desire—’
‘That’s all it was!’
‘I never said it was more.’
‘Yes, you were very careful with your words.’ Lizzie turned around, gave a sharp little laugh. ‘Covering your tracks, no doubt. How long were you going to keep up the charade, Cormac? Pretending that you actually cared about me? Letting me believe that you were—different. Deeper. How long? About thirty-six more hours?’
His eyes raked her and he inclined his head, gave a small smile of acknowledgement. ‘About that.’
‘I was so desperate to believe you were a good man, that underneath that hardness there was—’
‘There was what?’ Cormac strode to her, grabbed her shoulders. ‘What were you thinking, Lizzie? That this was real? That I’d suddenly fallen in love with you, cared about you?’
Yes. She stared at him, horrified, transfixed. She bit hard on her lips to stop herself from crying out.
‘Yes, I played you,’ Cormac gritted out. His eyes glittered with fierce determination, as if he wanted her to know. As if he wanted her to be hurt. ‘I used you. I thought Hassell would be more convinced of our marriage if there was something real to it.’
‘But this isn’t real!’
‘You believed it was.’
Lizzie wondered if she would be sick. She felt sick. Sickened.
‘As I remember,’ Cormac continued coolly, ‘you were begging me to make love to you, no strings, no promises. You understood the rules.’
‘But