A Price Worth Paying - By Trish Morey Page 0,22

did like was the way she blushed. Whether it was because of her fair colouring, or because she was harbouring some guilty secret, that was one thing he wasn’t used to. He glanced sideways at her. And he liked whatever the salon had done to her hair and how the sunlight through his roof turned her highlights to glistening threads of copper and gold. Not that he was about to admit that to her.

In fact, given his misgivings about her motives, he was better off not giving her too much encouragement at all.

He changed down gears as he headed into a tight bend, changing down gears on his thoughts at the same time.

‘You might want to save your money,’ he said, probably sounding more gruff than he intended, ‘for when you get home. You might need it.’

Cold.

He might just as well have tossed a bucket of icy water over her. And why?

Moreover, why did she even care?

Alesander was nothing to her but a solution to a problem.

She was nothing to him but a means to an end.

It was a mutual arrangement.

So why did he feel it so important to remind her that this arrangement was not permanent?

Didn’t he think that was how she wanted it?

She turned to him, or rather to his profile, strong and noble and too utterly perfect to be real, as he negotiated the winding track up the hill towards her grandfather’s vineyard. ‘What are you so afraid of?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Only that every chance you get, you feel the need to remind me that this arrangement is temporary. “You might want to save your money for when you get home,” you said. Well, I do know this is temporary because I was the one who insisted it would be from the start.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Just that you seem to be operating under the misapprehension that I either want or expect this arrangement to become permanent.’

He scoffed her protests away. ‘I have only your word that you don’t want it to be.’

‘I am expecting to sign a contract saying exactly that! A contract which includes the condition I specifically demanded when I brokered this agreement—a condition that precludes sex between us. So when will you believe me? Because as clearly wonderful a catch as you so evidently are, I would rather not have to marry you. I don’t want to be your wife, other than to convince Felipe that his vines are as good as reunited. And when Felipe is no longer with us, I expect the quickest divorce from marriage with you that it is possible to get. I expect the contract terms to reflect that fact.’

He changed down gears as he rounded the bend before climbing the hill up towards Felipe’s estate. ‘I will ensure it will be provided as quick as is humanly or inhumanly possible. I will not make you wait to be free.’

‘Excellent. So we understand each other then.’

‘Oh yes,’ he said through gritted teeth, ‘we understand each other perfectly.’

The banging started the next morning while she was cooking breakfast. ‘What is that?’ a grumpy Felipe demanded, peering out of the window, searching for the cause.

‘I don’t know,’ she answered as she put a plate of eggs on the table for him. ‘I’ll go and find out.’

The morning air was crisp and clean. It would be warm later, but for now the cool air prickled the skin of her bare arms and her nipples turned to tight buds. She should have grabbed her jacket before she’d set off, she thought, hugging her arms over her chest as she followed the sound down the driveway.

Around a bend she found a four-wheel drive parked and someone working under the vines where part of the trellis had collapsed under the weight of the vines. And she remembered that Alesander had said something about getting that fixed. She hadn’t paid any heed to his words at the time but he must have meant it and sent someone after all, no doubt to ensure there was no more damage done before he took over the vineyard completely.

But even if he was doing it for his own reasons, she could still be hospitable.

‘Buenos dias,’ she called out over the hammering. ‘Is there anything you need that I can get you?’

‘Coffee would be good,’ a familiar deep voice said, as Alesander pushed aside the tangle of vines with one arm to peer out at her.

‘You? What are you doing here?’

‘I told you I’d get this fixed.’

‘But