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She only then realised she wasn’t supposed to know that.
‘You expected me to know your company, but not that you played a popular South African sport? Besides, I’m sure Nathan mentioned it a while ago...’ She trailed off when she saw he wasn’t buying it.
‘Really? The brother who didn’t think I was going to come to his engagement party told you I used to play rugby?’
‘Would you believe me if I told you I used to watch you play?’
‘No.’
She sighed. She was going to have to tell him the truth.
‘I overheard your conversation earlier, Jacques. I’m really sorry.’
* * *
That explained how she’d known he would follow her lead when they’d spoken to Kyle, Jacques thought. It also meant she had heard Jade and Riley’s suggestion, which put his plan to convince her to be involved at risk.
‘Is eavesdropping a hobby of yours?’ he asked slowly.
‘I didn’t mean to,’ Lily replied primly. ‘I was upstairs because I saw—’
‘Kyle and the cheater?’
She nodded. ‘And when I walked past the room you were in I heard the whole marriage thing...’
So she had heard it, he thought, but soothed the faint trickle of panic by telling himself that she didn’t suspect he wanted her involved. She wouldn’t have agreed to his suggestion to continue the charade of their pretend relationship at the party if she did. And then Jacques would have lost the opportunity to ensure that all the wealthy people who formed part of his brother’s social circle—including Lily’s ex-fiancé—saw him and his ‘new girlfriend’.
The rest of his plan had originally involved them leaving together at the end of the night. It would have just been for coffee—though the party attendees wouldn’t have known that—and he would have suggested their pretend relationship continue for just a while longer. But this new information meant he needed to speed up that plan...
‘Why don’t we get out of here?’
Her eyebrows rose and her cheeks took on that shade of red he liked so much.
‘Together?’
‘Yeah. We can grab a cup of coffee.’
‘Why?’
‘I like you, Lily.’ Though he’d meant the words to convince her to have coffee with him, he found that he genuinely meant them. Something tightened in his stomach at the knowledge. ‘I also think there’s nothing more you’d like to do than to get out of here.’
Her face had changed when he’d said he liked her, and though he couldn’t quite read it he thought there was a trace of uncertainty there. As if she didn’t believe what he said. The tightening in his stomach pulsed, and for the first time he considered how manipulative his plan was. Sure, it wouldn’t hurt Lily—but it wouldn’t benefit her either. It was entirely for his benefit.
But you helped her, too, a voice in his head reminded him. That made him feel better, and because he couldn’t afford to dwell on why he should reconsider he chose to focus on that.
‘You’re right.’ Lily’s expression was unreadable. ‘And buying you a coffee is probably the least I can do to say thank you.’
She was setting boundaries, he realised. Letting him know that she was only accepting his offer because she wanted to say thanks. He wasn’t sure why that bothered him, but he didn’t have time to ponder it.
‘Are you sure you want to leave, though?’ she asked. She looked inside to where Nathan and Caitlyn were standing.
‘I don’t think Nathan expects me to stay longer than I already have,’ he said, ignoring the guilt.
‘Do you want to say goodbye?’ she asked softly, and he looked down to see a compassion he didn’t understand—and didn’t want—in her eyes.
‘I don’t want to interrupt them.’
She watched him for a moment longer, and then nodded.
He reached for her hand, thinking about how easily he could feign affection with Lily and yet struggle with women he was much more familiar with. His skin heated when her fingers closed around his, warning him that his plan might have complications he hadn’t considered.
But as he made his way through the crowd of people with Lily he knew that those complications would be worth it when the Shadows Rugby Club was his and he could help place them in the international league. If he could do that it would make up for the fact that he’d cost them their place in that league seven years ago.
When he felt like being kind to himself he told himself his actions that night of the championship game that should have determined that place had come from anger. From pain. That night had been the last time he’d seen either of his parents, too. Not a coincidence, considering that they’d been the reason he’d got into a fight with a player who hadn’t deserved Jacques’s attention. Who wouldn’t have got it if he hadn’t uttered those same words his father had before Jacques had arrived at the game...
‘You’re such a disappointment.’
The memory of that night still plagued him—still scarred him—but if he could pull off his PR company’s ridiculous plan maybe he would finally find some peace. Maybe he would finally be able to put it all behind him and move on.
‘Do you have somewhere specific you’d like to go?’ Lily asked once they were outside.
He watched her pull her coat tighter around her, saw her look out around the private estate his brother’s house was on, and realised she was nervous.
‘I’m not going to kidnap you, Lily.’
She looked at him. ‘I know. And I’m going in my own car.’
Smart girl, he thought, even though disappointment lapped at him for reasons he didn’t understand.
‘My office is pretty private.’ He saw something in her eyes, and said, ‘You’ll be safe, Lily. I promise to behave myself.’
My future depends on it.
She tilted her head, as though she was considering his words. ‘So let’s have coffee somewhere more neutral, then. I know a place...’
CHAPTER FOUR (#u4251f1d2-486d-519b-9800-37c01c75f833)
‘THIS IS NEUTRAL for you?’
Jacques joined Lily in front of her store, and looked pointedly at the sign that said ‘Lily’s’ above the glass entrance.
‘Relax,’ she replied, though the way her heart was beating told her she was probably saying it to herself.
‘We’re just stopping here for the coffee—then we can take a walk down the beach. It’s not too busy this time of night.’
‘I usually let a woman take me out for dinner before I do romantic walks on the beach, Lily.’
Her hand froze on the door at his words, and it took her a moment to hear the store’s alarm beeping. She hurriedly entered the code, trying desperately to come up with something to say. But her mind only formulated excuses—not the sassy comeback she’d hoped for.
You should have known it wouldn’t last, a voice mocked her.
And though she wanted to deny the words she couldn’t. She’d thought it was a good idea to bring him back to her store and then to walk on the beach. She’d feel better in a familiar place, she’d told herself.
But being in that familiar place had snatched her from the fantasy world she’d been in for the past few hours. The world where she’d flirted as though she were in a thinner body. As though she had all the confidence in the world. As though she wasn’t trying with all her might to value herself.
‘This is nice,’ he said, breaking the silence. ‘It’s a coffee shop and a bookstore?’
‘Yeah. I love reading and I love coffee, and a lot of the people I know do, too. So I thought it would be pretty great to have a place where you could relax and do both. And, of course, there’s the view.’
She was rambling, she knew. A combination of nerves at Jacques being there and the defensiveness she always felt when she spoke about her store.
Her parents’ warnings echoed in her head—as did their urges for her to do something more respectable than being a store-owner—and she shook it off. She had more pressing things to worry about at the moment.
‘Do you have any preferences for coffee?’
‘Black, no sugar.’
She busied herself with the task, and for a few moments there was silence.
‘You have good taste.’
The milk she was pouring spilled onto the counter. ‘Wh...what?’
‘I assume you decorated the store yourself?’
She nodded mutely, refusing to look at him in case he wore that amused expression again.
‘It’s the perfect décor for a shop like this.’
She’d gone with a blue and white colour scheme, to complement the view of the sea that stretched endlessly through the glass entrance. White bookshelves held as many books as she could fit in them—old and new—and lined the walls on either side of the shop. The wooden tables and blue-cushioned chairs were homely, comfortable—exactly what she’d been going for when she’d decorated, though she knew she’d spent hopelessly too much on them.
But she only worried about that when she did her accounts and saw how many negative numbers they had.
‘Thanks,’ she said, making quick work of the clean-up before handing him his coffee in a takeaway cup. She cleared her throat. ‘We don’t have to...to do the walk. I just thought it made sense...’
‘I was teasing, Lily.’
The smile on his lips made her stomach flip. And then there were even more gymnastics when he lifted her chin.
‘You know—that thing I do so I can see you blush?’
She took a step back. ‘You mean the thing I shouldn’t let fluster me?’
‘Exactly.’
She couldn’t help a smile at his quick answer. ‘How about we take this to the beach?’
She left her coat and her shoes in the store, and a few moments later they were walking on the sand together.
‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ he said, looking out to the water.
Waves crashed against the sand at his words, and the reflection of the full moon on the water shimmered, as though thanking Jacques for the compliment.
‘Yeah, it is. I remember going on holiday to Johannesburg when I was younger. I refused to go again when I realised there was no beach.’ She shrugged. ‘Something about a beach just—’
‘Calms you?’
‘Yeah.’ She glanced over. ‘Did the same thing ever happen to you?’
There was a bark of laughter. ‘That would have involved my parents actually taking us on holiday, so no.’
The words surprised her, and if his silence was any indication they had surprised him, too. She wanted to press him—for reasons she didn’t want to think about—but before she could Jacques jogged a few paces ahead of her. Lily watched as he threw his empty coffee cup into a nearby bin, and in a few quick movements climbed onto a large boulder.
He grinned down at her when she reached him. ‘Join me.’
‘Up there? In this dress?’ She shook her head. ‘I’ll pass.’
‘How about that one?’ Jacques nodded at the boulder next to the one he was on. It was smaller, but she still didn’t see herself up there.
‘I don’t think you understand, Jacques—’
She broke off when he jumped down next to her, threw her coffee cup into the same bin—despite the fact that hers had only been half-empty—and took her free hand.
‘Come on—it’ll be a good place to talk.’
Helpless to do otherwise, she let him lead her to the next boulder, but stopped when they reached it.
‘I don’t see how this is going to work.’
‘Like this.’
She felt his hands on her waist, and realised his intentions too late—he was already lifting her.
‘Oh, no, Jacques,’ she gasped. ‘I’m too heavy—’
But she didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence since her feet were already on the smooth, cold granite of the boulder.
A few moments later, Jacques joined her. ‘Did you just say that you were too heavy?’
He barely sounded winded, and it took Lily a while to find her words. She was too busy wondering whether she’d overestimated her weight or underestimated his strength. Since she didn’t live in a world where the former was ever a reality, she settled on the second.
‘I guess not,’ she finally answered him.
‘You think you’re heavy?’
‘I...well... Kyle wasn’t as strong as you are,’ she finished lamely.
He gave her a strange look, but didn’t say anything. Instead he offered a hand, gesturing that they should sit. She ignored the spark that zipped through her at the contact, and snatched her hand back as soon as she was sitting.
