Name: Kate Cassidy. Location: London.

Sexual experience: none.

Kate’s virginity is not something billionaire Theo Knox ever wanted to know about. He swore to protect her after her brother’s death, but when he discovers Kate’s dating profile, all he can think about is how much he’s tempted to unravel her...

Kate is mortified when Theo discovers her secret. Yet she can’t resist his tantalizing offer to introduce her to pleasure beyond her wildest imagination! Their chemistry is as unstoppable as it is off-limits, but the biggest scandal of all is yet to happen...

LUCY KING spent her adolescence lost in the glamorous and exciting world of Mills & Boon when she really ought to have been paying attention to her teachers. But, as she couldn’t live in a dream world for ever, she eventually acquired a degree in languages and an eclectic collection of jobs. After a decade in southwest Spain, Lucy now lives with her young family in Wiltshire. When not writing, or trying to think up new and innovative things to do with mince, she spends her time reading, failing to finish cryptic crosswords and dreaming of the golden beaches of Andalucia.

Also by Lucy King

Bought: Damsel in Distress

Propositioned by the Billionaire

The Crown Affair

Say It with Diamonds

The Couple Behind the Headlines

One More Sleepless Night

The Reunion Lie

One Night with Her Ex

The Best Man for the Job

The Party Starts at Midnight

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

A Scandal Made in London

Lucy King

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09813-7

A SCANDAL MADE IN LONDON

© 2020 Lucy King

Published in Great Britain 2020

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

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For Flo, for all the support and encouragement.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT ON EARTH...?

From behind his desk, situated on the top floor of the forty-four-storey building that housed the Knox Group, Theo Knox stared at the web page that filled the screen of the iPad that his head of security had just brought in and placed in front of him.

It appeared to be a table of information.

Harmony was the heading; below that came the details.

Geographical location: London

Age: 26

Height: 6' 1"

Vital statistics: 38-28-38

Hair: blonde

Eyes: blue

Tattoos: one

Interests: travel, books, music

Sexual experience: none

And the website? Belle’s Angels, according to the elaborate logo involving entwined vines that shimmered in the top right corner. ‘Matches made in heaven’, apparently.

Which was all well and good, but of what use was any of this to him? And why did Antonio Scarlatto, a valued employee he’d previously considered competent and level-headed, think it would be?

Theo had absolutely no interest in dating sites, or in any kind of dating at all, since the occasional one-night stand when the need arose suited him fine. And even if he did, he had no time for it. As owner and CEO of a company that spanned the globe, employed thousands and was worth billions, he had a multitude of issues clamouring for his attention, the principle one of which currently was figuring out how he was going to persuade the ridiculously sentimental owner of the business he badly wanted to sell it to him.

‘Why are you wasting my time by showing me this?’ Theo demanded, lifting his gaze from the screen and levelling it at the man standing on the other side of the desk, who was way out of line if he thought Theo needed Harmony in his life.

‘It relates to a current member of your staff,’ said Antonio, not batting an eyelid in response to the dark look and arctic tone that usually had people quaking in their boots. ‘She’s registered on the site and this is her page. She tried to log in from her work computer twenty minutes ago. Our firewall flagged it up. As it’s against company policy to access sites like this, I need to know what action to take.’

‘It’s a dating site,’ Theo said flatly.

‘It’s not just a dating site,’ Antonio countered. ‘I wouldn’t have disturbed you if it was. Scroll down.’

Mentally having to concede that point, Theo shoved a lid on his exasperation and switched his attention back to the tablet. He briefly ran his gaze over the table again, automatically registering and dismissing the information, then swiped up.

And froze.

Because to accompany Harmony’s description were half a dozen photos. Of the woman in question in various outfits in various eye-popping poses. In the first four pictures, she was at least wearing clothes—short and tight and pretty revealing, but clothes nevertheless. In the last two, however, she wasn’t wearing very much at all. Technically she had on a negligee, he saw, but she might as well not have bothered. It was so diaphanous it hid nothing that wasn’t concealed under a few scraps of strategically placed lace beneath. Not her curves. Not the length of her limbs. Nothing.

And her face...

He knew that face.

It was Kate Cassidy.

Harmony, with her luscious body and dazzlingly striking looks, was Kate Cassidy.

The realisation hit Theo like a blow to the gut and he reeled.

What the hell was she up to?

Steeling himself, he scrolled down and read the text that accompanied the photos, and his blood turned to ice. Antonio had been right. Belle’s Angels wasn’t just any dating site and Kate wasn’t after any kind of normal date at all.

As the implications of what he’d read and seen sank in, questions ricocheted around his head. What on earth was she thinking? Did she have any idea of the danger she could be putting herself in? More importantly, now he knew what she had planned, what was he going to do about it?

Because he’d definitely be doing something, he thought grimly as he clicked around the site, his horror growing with every passing second. Kate clearly needed looking out for. In fact, he should have been keeping an eye on her and her younger sister ever since their older brother Mike’s death nine months ago. Discreetly. From afar. But nonetheless making sure they were as okay as they could be, because the debt he owed him was huge, because Mike had died because of something he could have prevented, and finally because they had no one else.

So why hadn’t he done anything? Why hadn’t he even been aware Kate was working for him? Guilt? Denial? The fact that these days he only seemed to function through sheer force of will?

Well, whatever it was, it stopped now because she, at least, was not okay. She’d evidently lost her tiny little mind. Furthermore, by signing herself up to this particular website she’d put herself at considerable risk, and that was unacceptable. The potential consequences didn’t bear thinking about, and a person hurt—or worse—because he hadn’t done enough to stop it simply could not happen again. Twice in one lifetime was more than enough.

‘What action do you want me to take?’ asked Antonio, cutting off Theo’s thoughts before they could scythe through the fog of Mike’s death and hurtle down memory lane to his own turbulent teenage years.

‘Shut the site down,’ Theo said as he pushed the tablet in Antonio’s direction and slammed a mental door on Harmony’s bio and the photos. ‘Whatever it takes, however much it costs, shut it down.’

The head of security acknowledged the order with a brief nod of his head. ‘And with regards to the employee in question?’

‘I’ll deal with her.’

Not once in the five and a half months she’d been working at the Knox Group had Kate been summoned to the hallowed top floor of the central London building that housed it, and that was fine with her. Her position as a middle-ranking accountant didn’t merit the dubious honour, and, quite frankly, the less she had to do with the horrible Theo Knox, the better.

Not that they knew each other well, thank God. He might have been supposed ‘friends’ with her brother—although she struggled with the concept that her uptight, aloof über boss could ever do anything as human as friends—but she’d only met him once. At Mike’s funeral nine months ago, in fact. And since that had hardly been a cordial encounter, she hadn’t expected him to be in touch.

He was the man, after all, who’d coldly told her he wasn’t interested and then turned his back on her when she’d made the monumental mistake of asking him for his support. All she’d wanted was a quick drink after the wake. To talk. Nothing more. Everyone else had left and she’d been distraught, feeling so horribly alone she’d simply wanted to prolong the afternoon by talking about her brother with someone who presumably had known him well. High and mighty Theo Knox, however, had evidently interpreted her suggestion as an invitation, and had treated it with the disdain and contempt he obviously felt it deserved before spinning on his heel and stalking off.

Kate had stood there staring at his retreating figure, open-mouthed and dumbstruck, unsure whether to laugh or cry because had he really thought she was coming on to him? At her brother’s funeral? How inappropriate, how downright absurd, was that? His arrogance had been breathtaking. She’d never encountered self-absorption like it. Even worse was the lousy way his unwarranted rejection had made her feel. She shouldn’t have cared what he thought of her since he meant absolutely nothing to her, yet his response had pulverised what little self-esteem she had, and for one blazing moment she’d never hated anyone more.

So if she’d been in any position to turn down the offer of a job at his company that had come her way shortly after, she’d have done so. However, she had bills to pay and the salary she’d been offered had been too generous to refuse. Not generous enough, of course, to cover the stratospheric sums of money her sister’s residential care facility required, nor the repayment of the ever-increasing debt her brother had accrued to cover it, but definitely generous enough to make her want to pass her probationary period. And that was why, when she’d received the call from Theo’s assistant requesting her presence on the top floor at precisely six p.m., the time she should have been leaving for home, she’d obeyed instead of telling him where to stick his imperious demand.

The lift she was travelling in slowed until it came to a smooth stop, and the doors opened with a soft swoosh. Automatically reminding herself not to slouch, Kate lifted her chin and crossed the plush white carpet that covered the floor with a long-legged stride.

When she arrived at the reception desk, she was waved in the direction of a pair of vast wooden doors, and headed towards them. Taking a deep breath, she knocked, and didn’t have to wait long before a deep masculine voice barked, ‘Come in.’

Kate braced herself and did as he’d commanded. The minute she walked through the door her attention instantly zoomed in on the man sitting behind the oak monolith of a desk, the man who was looking at her with a dark intensity and a stillness that radiated powerful authority and suggested complete and utter control.

Of her surroundings—the sleek white office so vast her entire flat would fit in it, the crystal-clear wall-to-wall windows that allowed the early evening late spring sunshine to flood in, the luxurious furnishings and the colourful pops of modern art on the walls—she was only dimly aware. All she was conscious of was her boss, the rude, condescending, hurtful jerk, and the memory of the intense loathing he’d once aroused in her.

‘Shut the door.’

She did so, then walked towards him, the office becoming increasingly hot and claustrophobic with every step she took. Which, given the state-of-the-art temperature control the building had, was odd, and not a little disturbing.

As was the automatic way in which she seemed to be taking a mental inventory of his looks. At Mike’s funeral she’d been in too great a state to register much about any of the guests, least of all him. Now, though, she had to grudgingly admit that the gossip columns, which lauded his appearance as much as they lamented his enigmatic elusiveness, were right. With his short dark hair, obsidian eyes and chiselled features he was easily the best-looking man she’d ever seen. The shoulders beneath the suit were impressively broad and they were matched by an equally impressive height, which she knew to be true because even though he was now sitting down, she’d just had a brief flash of memory of how she’d been in the unusual position of having to look up at him when she’d suggested a drink that afternoon.

He was also immaculate, she thought resentfully, taking in the perfection of his appearance as she advanced. Did he ever shove his hands through his hair in frustration? Ever permit even the hint of a five o’clock shadow? She doubted it. And had he ever been paralysed by self-doubt or plagued by rock-bottom self-esteem as she continually was? Even more unlikely. The man was a machine. A high-performing, single-minded, ruthlessly brilliant one, if the business press was to be believed, but a machine nevertheless.

Well.

Whatever.

What he was and how he looked were immaterial. So he was staggeringly handsome, in enviable control of himself and a good three or four inches taller than her. He was still a deeply unpleasant human being.

Coming to a halt a foot from the desk, Kate pulled herself together and reminded herself to stay calm, since it wouldn’t do to reveal either how little she thought of him or how vulnerable she could be if she kept remembering how wretched he’d once made her feel. ‘Mr Knox,’ she said coolly. ‘You wanted to see me?’

Something flickered in the depths of his dark eyes, something that flashed and burned and swiftly disappeared but nevertheless made her pulse skip a beat and her blood heat. ‘I did,’ he said with a brief nod in the direction of the two modern armchairs on her side of the desk. ‘Theo will do. Sit down.’

‘Thank you.’

Deliberately taking her time, Kate folded her six-foot-one frame into a chair and then spent a couple of vital seconds tugging her jacket down and smoothing her skirt. She needed to settle herself. This pulse-skipping, blood-heating business was ridiculous, as was the strange restlessness that churned around inside her. Nerves, most probably, because she had no idea why she’d been summoned and despite what she thought of him he was a bit intimidating. Or dread perhaps, the kind that came from knowing that one false move and the many plates she had spinning would crash to the ground. But still, either way, it was absurd.

‘How are you?’

She stilled for a second and fought back a frown. What? Now he wanted pleasantries? Well, okay, she could do that. She could forget how they’d met for now. She couldn’t imagine he remembered in any case. He certainly didn’t appear to recognise her. ‘Fine,’ she said brightly, as if she weren’t wrung out with stress and exhaustion. ‘You?’

‘Fine. Coffee?’

She gave her head a quick shake. ‘No, thank you.’

‘Tea?’

‘No.’

‘Anything?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘How’s the job going?’

Hah. Which one? As well as being an accountant, she now worked in a bar five nights a week and dog-walked at the weekend. What little time she had left when she wasn’t visiting her sister, she dedicated to the freelance bookkeeping work she’d also started to take on. ‘Extremely well,’ she said with a beaming smile, determined not to think about how close she was to the edge or how terrifying that was. ‘I’m enjoying it very much.’

‘Good,’ he said, leaning forwards in a way that for some bizarre reason made her breath catch and her pulse skip a beat all over again. ‘So. Kate. Tell me about Belle’s Angels.’

And just like that—bang!—there went her composure. Talk about being lulled into a false sense of security, she thought, her smile fading as the churning started up again in her stomach. What did Theo Knox know about Belle’s Angels? And how? Surely he couldn’t be a member. He’d have no trouble getting a date. But had he visited the site? Had he seen her page? She had no idea why when her profile had racked up over a thousand views since she’d rashly stuck it up last night but the thought of him looking at her photos made her feel quite weak.

‘What about it?’ she said carefully, since his expression was giving absolutely nothing away.

‘You’re on it.’

Ah. Right. Busted.

Since Mr Knox—Theo—was allegedly insanely sharp, Kate didn’t see the point in trying to come up with an excuse. ‘I am,’ she said, reminding herself that she had nothing to apologise for and nothing to be embarrassed about. What did it matter if he had seen her page? The photos were good. Empowering. Or something like that. At least she’d come up with a solution to the traumatic situation that had been robbing her of what little sleep she did get, even if it had had unexpected and rather unsettling consequences.

‘You tried to access it while at work.’

Indeed she had. Earlier this afternoon. Her profile had attracted a great deal of interest, her alluded-to virginity in particular, and she’d been inundated with emails, some merely curious, some a bit odd, some downright creepy. Not having a clue what to do about any of it and wanting the deluge to stop, she’d decided to alter her account settings while she figured it out. ‘I did.’

‘Which is an infringement of company policy.’

At that Kate went very still, her heart giving a great lurch.

Oh.

Oh, dear.

That hadn’t occurred to her. But it should have done because of course it would be. Belle’s Angels, registered in Germany and possibly skirting the boundaries of legality in the UK, was just the sort of website that would be blocked by a firewall. Which was undoubtedly why it hadn’t opened. She hadn’t thought to reflect upon that. She’d just wanted to switch off the interminable stream of responses. But clearly she’d been an idiot. More than an idiot, actually. She could very well have put herself out of a job.

‘That was a mistake,’ she said as the potential ramifications raced through her head and a sweat broke out all over her skin. ‘A one-off. It won’t happen again.’

‘You’re right,’ he said flatly, his eyes dark and inscrutable. ‘It won’t.’

A ball lodged in her throat and she swallowed it down with difficulty. ‘Are you firing me?’ she asked, the rising panic making her voice tight.

She needed this job, she needed all her jobs, but if she lost this one, she’d be in even more serious trouble than she already was. Fired accountants weren’t exactly desirable potential employees and who knew how long it would be before she got another job? The bills were mounting up daily and the correspondence from the debt agency was growing increasingly threatening, not that her salary was anywhere near enough to cover the repayments or the cost of her sister’s care, but Milly depended on her and only her since there was no one else now Mike had died, and if she had to leave Fairview she’d be devastated, and, oh, she really should have thought this whole crazy plan through.

‘I’m not firing you.’

Phew.

‘Then what do you mean?’ she said as her racing heart slowed and the jumble of panicky thoughts faded.

‘I had the site shut down.’

What? The tension that had ebbed a moment ago shot straight back.

No.

No.

This was not good.

‘You can’t do that,’ she breathed, appalled, as it dawned on her that if what Theo was saying was true then he’d scuppered what, as far as she could see, was her only chance of making some serious, much-needed money fast.

‘I can,’ he said grimly. ‘And I have.’

‘How?’

‘It wasn’t hard.’

No, it wouldn’t be to a man of his considerable influence and power, but—‘You had no right.’

‘Probably not.’

‘So why?’

His eyebrows shot up, the only sign of expression she’d seen in him since she’d walked in. ‘Why?’

‘Yes, why?’ What was it to him? Even if he did know who she was, which was doubtful, why would he care all of a sudden?

‘You signed up to an escort agency, Kate.’

His tone was brutal and icily condemning but she refused to be intimidated. It was all very well for him and his billions in the bank. Lesser mortals had to think more creatively if they didn’t want to firstly destroy the happiness and security of their vulnerable younger sister, secondly lose the home they’d once shared with their adored, much-missed brother and lastly be declared bankrupt and never work in the field they loved again.

‘And so what?’ she said, resisting the urge to lift her chin since a punchy show of defiance could well make him reassess his decision not to fire her.

‘How could you be so reckless?’

Reckless? She wasn’t reckless. Desperate and exhausted and all out of options, yes, but reckless, no. ‘I’m not. I did my research.’

‘So did I,’ he said ominously.

‘Well, then.’

‘Belle’s Angels is basically an online brothel.’

‘Possibly,’ she had to admit, since there was that aspect to it, ‘but it’s a very high-class one.’

A tiny muscle began to tic in his jaw. ‘That is utterly irrelevant.’

‘No,’ she said. ‘It isn’t. Because this one has different levels of service agreement, and I only signed up to level one.’

He looked at her as if she’d grown two heads. ‘Did you honestly think someone was going to pay you a thousand pounds an hour for conversation?’

‘Why not?’ she said. ‘My conversational skills are first class.’

‘I have no doubt they are. However, believe me, your...clients...would have been expecting far more.’

‘Yes, well, you obviously have more experience of such sites than I do.’

In response to her demure yet pointed little dig Theo’s face darkened and the look he gave her was hard and forbidding. ‘I’ve heard stories,’ he said flatly. ‘None of them good. Do you have any idea of how dangerous it could have been?’

Kate opened her mouth to reply and then closed it because he might have a point there. Truth be told, she hadn’t exactly been thinking entirely rationally when she’d signed up to the site late last night. Another exorbitant bill had just come through from Fairview on top of a none-too-friendly email from the loan company Mike had used and a letter from her mortgage company informing her that she’d missed a payment, as if she needed reminding.

She’d had a couple of glasses of wine to dull the resulting anxiety, but they hadn’t worked; they’d just made her feel even sicker. A documentary about webcamming had been on TV in the background, and in the midst of her despair it had suddenly struck her that sex sold. Extremely well, apparently. And while she wasn’t desperate enough—yet—to perform for the camera, she’d figured there had to be other less extreme options.

It had been remarkably easy to find an appropriate site and register. When she remembered the stash of normal-sized clothes she’d bought over the years because it made her feel dainty and feminine just to know she owned them even though none of them actually fitted, it had seemed as though the stars had aligned. In fact, the most challenging aspect of the whole exercise had been mastering the self-timer on her phone.

Of course she’d considered the possible consequences of her plan—she wasn’t a complete fool—but she’d been at her wits’ end and as a result her assessment had been brief. Conveniently, the pros had vastly outweighed the cons. What cons there were—mainly concerning the sort of people who might use such a site—she’d presumed would be neutralised by the application of filters and a robust screening process.

Clearly, however, there’d been little of that because some of the creepier emails she’d received had been downright disturbing. The staggering sums of money she’d been offered for her virginity, not to mention the many ways it could apparently be relieved, had been even more alarming. And, actually, even the more moderate correspondence had hinted at something other than conversation, so maybe Theo also had a point about her would-be clients’ expectations.

Perhaps, then, in hindsight, she’d had a lucky escape, even if it did mean that her only hope had vanished and she was now back at a terrifying square one. Because if she was being brutally honest, the reality of what the site offered was far seedier than in her naivety she’d imagined, and, regardless of the amount of money on offer, the thought of actually having to go through with some of the more lurid scenarios described made her want to throw up.

‘It is absolutely none of your business,’ she said, not inclined to admit that Theo could be right and give him the upper hand.

‘That’s not strictly true.’

No. Well. There was the small issue of pesky company policy, but still. He had no right to meddle in her affairs in this way. In any way. ‘I don’t need rescuing, Theo,’ she said steadily. ‘I’m twenty-six. I’m eminently sensible and perfectly capable of making my own choices.’ Not that she had many at this precise moment.

‘It doesn’t look like it from where I’m sitting.’

Ooh, he was insufferable. ‘Why do you even care?’

He stared at her silently for a moment, as if he couldn’t work it out either, and the hard intensity of his gaze coupled with the way he seemed to be trying to see into her soul was sending a strange sluggish heat oozing through her blood, detonating tiny sparks along her veins and electrifying her nerves.

To her consternation she found she couldn’t look away. She could hardly breathe. All of a sudden she wanted to get up, clamber over his desk and plaster herself against him. And then she wanted to—well, she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do next since she had little experience of such things, but she wanted to find out. So badly she was ablaze with it.

Appalled at and bewildered by her reaction, she shifted in an attempt to alleviate the fizzing of her stomach and the prickling of her heated skin, but all that did was inch her skirt up her thighs, at which point Theo’s darkening gaze dropped to her legs and lingered there a while, which sent the heat buzzing through her shooting straight down to the spot where she suddenly, alarmingly, burned.

Maybe she moved again, maybe she let out an audibly breathy gasp. She didn’t know. But Theo jerked his gaze back up, his expression once again cold and inscrutable, and the tension snapped.

‘I take it you need the money,’ he said bluntly, and all she could think was money? What money?

Ah.

Well, of course she needed the money, she thought, tugging her skirt back down with annoyingly shaky fingers as the reminder of her precarious financial state obliterated the bizarre heat and dizziness and refocused her attention. Why else would she do it? She wasn’t that desperate for a date. ‘I do.’

‘How much?’

‘A lump sum of a hundred thousand, plus around five thousand a month on an on-going basis for the next sixty, possibly seventy, years.’

Up shot his eyebrows. ‘That’s a lot of money.’

Really?

‘I am aware of that,’ she said coolly. And now, thanks to him and his high-handed ways, it was a lot of money she still had to somehow find because, quite apart from the distressing threat of homelessness, she was not having Milly moved when she was so happy and secure where she was.

‘It’s a concern,’ he said.

‘You’re telling me.’

‘It’s my concern.’

‘How?’

‘You’re an accountant,’ he said. ‘You’re about to finish your probation, at which point you will have access to certain aspects of the company’s bank accounts. Fraud is a risk.’

What the—?

Kate blinked at him, for a moment completely lost for words. Was he being serious? ‘Are you suggesting I might indulge in a little light embezzlement in order to pay my bills?’

‘It’s a possibility.’

‘It is not a possibility because I am not a criminal,’ she said heatedly.

‘What do you need it for?’

Kate took a deep breath to soothe the outrage surging through her. ‘I have a younger sister,’ she said. ‘Milly. She was in the car accident that killed our parents ten years ago.’ She swallowed hard but made herself continue. ‘She survived but she suffered catastrophic brain injuries. She can’t live on her own. She needs twenty-four-hour care. The insurance pay-out only covers the most basic of facilities, which just aren’t good enough.’

For a few long moments, Theo said nothing, just frowned. And then he nodded, as if something in his head had slotted into place. ‘Your brother used to fund the rest.’

Ah. So he did know who she was.

Well.

‘He did,’ she said, steeling herself against the surge of grief that still sometimes shot out of nowhere and walloped her in the chest. ‘And there was some money from his estate, but it’s run out.’

‘His flat?’

‘Rented. A few months before his death he gave it up and moved in with me.’

‘Life insurance?’

‘He didn’t have any.’ If only. ‘Believe me, if there was any money anywhere I’d have found it. After he died I discovered that he’d been taking out high-interest loans. They need repaying, like, yesterday.’

‘I see.’

Did he? she wondered, swallowing down the tight ball of emotion that had lodged in her throat. She doubted it. The gut-wrenching combination of despair, guilt, anger, grief and dread she’d felt when she’d found out what Mike had done had to be unique. Besides, had Theo ever needed money so badly he’d do anything to get it? Unlikely. He’d made his first million by the age of seventeen and his fortune had rocketed year on year since.

‘You’ll have it.’

She stared at him in bewilderment. What was he talking about? Have it? Have what? ‘I’m sorry?’

‘Give me the details and I’ll pay off the debt and set up a trust fund to pay for whatever your sister needs for however long she needs it.’

What?

Oh.

Right.

Wow.

‘Are you serious?’ she asked in stunned disbelief.

‘Yes.’

‘Why would you do that?’

His eyes clouded and she caught a glimpse of what bizarrely looked like...what? Guilt? Anguish? Regret? As if. By all accounts he didn’t do emotion any more than he did friends, so who knew? It was most likely irritation that he’d had to interrupt his no doubt busy schedule to deal with what he perceived to be a problem. ‘Because I can,’ he said eventually.

That was undeniably true. He was one of the ten richest men in the world according to one newspaper article she’d read. What she needed might amount to millions but to him it was a rounding error. Nevertheless, what ultra-successful reportedly ruthless businessman did something like that?

‘Do you really expect me to believe you’re that altruistic?’ she asked, unable to keep the scepticism from her tone.

‘I don’t particularly care what you believe.’

Nice. ‘Well, thank you,’ she said primly. ‘But I can’t accept it.’

‘Why not?’

Hmm. Where to start? Because she didn’t like him and the thought of being indebted to a man she loathed was abhorrent? Because any man who could single-handedly close down a large, foreign website was to be treated with caution and she didn’t trust him an inch? She could hardly tell him any of that. He was still her boss.

‘It’s too much,’ she said instead.

‘Not from my perspective.’

‘Still no.’

‘Where else are you going to get the money?’

‘I’ll think of something.’ Hadn’t her brief foray into the shady world of online escorts proved that? Surely she’d be able to come up with a workable solution, one that didn’t involve seedy sex or overbearing men.

‘It sounds like you’d better think of it quickly.’

Well, yes, there was that. She was running out of time. Fast. How much longer did she have? How much more could she take? She was so tired of worrying about the money. About the debt and the reduced quality of life her sister might have if she had to move because she—Kate—had failed. About losing her home and the precious memories she had of her brother. The responsibilities she now had, which landed entirely on her shoulders, were crushing, bewildering, overwhelming. Sometimes she wished she could just go to bed for a month and cry.

‘Just out of interest, what would you want in return?’ she asked, because even if she had been considering it, which she wasn’t, surely that amount of money would come with strings.

‘Nothing.’

She stared at him. ‘Nothing?’

He gave a brief nod. ‘That’s right.’

‘Why not?’

‘Do I need a reason?’

‘I would. You’re in the business of deal-making. No one ever gets something for nothing. Even I know that.’

‘You have my word.’

‘I don’t know what your word is worth.’ What if hypothetically she agreed and he suddenly decided that his money gave him the right to influence Milly’s future? What if at some point he decided to stop?

‘I’ll have a contract drawn up,’ he said, clearly able to read the scepticism that must have been written all over her face. ‘You can state the terms. I won’t challenge them.’

‘Things that sound too good to be true generally are.’

His jaw tightened. ‘Just accept my offer, Kate. It’s the only one on the table.’

True. But—‘I’d never be able to repay you.’

‘There’d be no need.’

‘I’d feel a need.’

‘Then I suggest you get over it,’ he said tersely, ‘because you should know that I will be doing this, with or without your consent. Your agreement will merely speed things up.’

And quite suddenly, in the face of such intransigence, what remained of Kate’s resistance suddenly crumbled. Why was she still fighting this? She was running on fumes and at her wits’ end. What Theo was proposing would obliterate all her worries and stresses overnight. So if he could afford it and wanted to help, why shouldn’t she let him? Maybe he did feel something after all. Maybe he and Mike had been good friends. Ultimately, did it even matter? She didn’t need to like him, and his motivations were none of her concern. He was offering her a ‘no strings attached’ deal, which would get the debt collectors off her back and, more importantly, ensure Milly’s comfort for the rest of her life as well as the best treatments available. So despite feeling as though she might be making a deal with the devil, she couldn’t not accept his help. She just couldn’t.

‘Okay, fine,’ she said with a brief nod. ‘You win.’

CHAPTER TWO

HE’D WON, HAD HE?

Hmm...

Theo wasn’t so sure. He might have achieved the outcome he’d been intent on getting, but in reality, given the massive debt he owed Mike, the provision of financial support for Kate and her sister was long overdue and it certainly didn’t lessen the crushing omnipresent guilt he felt over the part he’d played in their brother’s death. If anything, it made it worse because he hadn’t known about the loans and he should have.

And then there was the battle for his self-control, which he’d started waging the moment Kate had walked into his office and detonated a savagely fierce and wholly unexpected reaction inside him. Was he winning that? By the skin of his teeth, and only then because he had years of practice.

He had not been prepared for her effect on him. The first and last time they’d met—at her brother’s funeral, an insanely tough and gruelling experience for a number of reasons—had certainly given no indication. This evening, however, she’d come through that door and for some unfathomable reason every sense he possessed had instantly sprung to high alert. The way she’d moved—languidly and sinuously graceful—had mesmerised him, and as she’d approached his desk, that web page she’d set up had slammed back into his head. So much for thinking he’d successfully excised it from his memory. Clearly he’d merely drawn a veil across it, a veil that her appearance in his space had instantly swept back.

With every step she took towards him, his blood had begun to heat and questions had started ricocheting around his head. Forget her vital statistics and her hobbies, he’d thought, his pulse thudding heavily and his body hardening. What he’d like to know more about was the tattoo. Where was it, and what was it of?

Then there was the tiny yet somehow momentous detail regarding her sexual experience. The ‘none’ of it implied that she was still a virgin, but regardless of its meaning, it shouldn’t have been of the slightest interest. However, infuriatingly, he seemed to find it fascinating because all he could think was, why? She was twenty-six and it couldn’t be from lack of opportunity. She looked like a goddess. Not, perhaps, conventionally beautiful, but certainly breathtakingly striking with her long blonde hair and big blue eyes and above average height.

And last, but by no means least, there were the photos, the last two in particular, which once seen could not unfortunately be unseen and were now indelibly etched into his memory. Those had had him instinctively thinking about the suite adjoining his office, the oversized bed he had in there, and her sprawled across it wearing nothing but that negligee.

Such a savage and unexpected assault on his senses had decimated his self-control and his body had responded—and was still responding—in the inevitable way, hence the subsequent battle.

However, he was concealing the attraction scorching through his blood effectively enough and he was well used to conducting a conversation that bore no reality to what was going on inside him. He might have been momentarily distracted when she’d shifted and the movement had exposed even more lovely long leg that he’d suddenly, appallingly, wanted to touch, but their discussion had remained—and would continue to remain—firmly on track. Kate would never have any idea of the fierce need pounding away inside him. It was purely physical and of zero importance anyway, and nothing she could do or say would ever entice him to yield to it. Not the blush on her cheeks, not the darkening of her irises, not the soft breathy gasp.

‘Is there anything else you need?’ he said coolly, his voice bearing not even a hint of the inner turmoil he was experiencing.

‘No. Thank you. I have everything else under control.’

Lucky her. ‘Let me know if that changes.’

‘Of course,’ she said, about to move again before clearly thinking the better of it, thank God, and adding, ‘And, actually, thank you for your offer of help. That “you win” of mine was churlish.’

‘It was.’

‘Although, to be fair, you had just ridden roughshod over my plans without any consideration for my feelings.’

She had a point, just not one he could bring himself to apologise for. ‘Perhaps.’

‘Nevertheless, that’s no excuse,’ she continued. ‘I apologise. My parents were particularly hot on manners. They’d be spinning in their graves at my lack of them...’ She tailed off for a moment, a flash of sorrow flitting across her expression, but then gave herself a quick shake. ‘Anyway,’ she said briskly, ‘I really am grateful for your offer. And since this seems to be the moment for it, I suppose I also ought to thank you for closing down that website.’

Sitting back and ignoring the desire to respond to that moment of grief because he didn’t do emotion and it was no business of his anyway, Theo rested his elbows on the arms of his chair. ‘Oh?’ he said, arching an eyebrow since only five minutes ago she’d been outraged by what he’d done. ‘Why?’

‘There were emails,’ she said with a shudder. ‘Disturbing ones. There are some very sick people out there.’

‘What did you expect?’ he said, not even wanting to think about the offers she might have received.

‘I’m not entirely sure,’ she said with a naivety he envied because he’d give everything he had not to know the depths people could sink to. ‘A few emails perhaps, maybe resulting in one or two regular clients with more money than sense. Certainly not that kind of a response. To be honest, it never occurred to me that my virginity would cause such a furore.’

He’d never have imagined taking such an interest in it either. He still couldn’t work out why he did. ‘You are pretty unique.’

Her eyebrows lifted and another blush tinged her cheeks. ‘Am I?’

‘In this day and age a twenty-six-year-old virgin is unusual.’

She appeared to deflate for a moment, but then rallied. ‘I suppose so,’ she said with a shrug.

‘What’s the issue?’

‘It’s none of your business.’

‘True.’

She tilted her head. ‘Why would you want to know anyway?’

Good question. He barely knew her. He didn’t do personal and didn’t need to know. He certainly had no intention of helping her out with it, and where the hell had that idea even come from? Nonetheless, he could tell himself all he liked that it was important to be in full possession of all the facts so he could stop her embarking on any further acts of recklessness, but the plain truth was that for some reason he just wanted to know. ‘I’m curious.’

‘It’s hardly an appropriate topic for a boss/employee conversation,’ she countered. ‘And besides, I’m still on probation.’

No problem there. He’d spoken to her line manager in the accounts department earlier just in case she did need firing. Fortunately, she didn’t. Her work was superb and she was a reliable, valued member of the team.

‘You’re excellent at your job,’ he said. ‘You’ll pass it. And we crossed the boss/employee line the minute you tried to access the Belle’s Angels site from a computer I own.’

‘Nevertheless, no.’

‘Okay, fine,’ he said, annoyed with himself for pushing it. He wasn’t that curious, dammit. If she didn’t want to tell him, so what? In fact, it was a good thing, because she ought to go. The battle he was having to keep his eyes off her legs and his mind off the rest of her was taking more effort than he’d anticipated. Their business was concluded and, frankly, the sooner he could get back to work, back to normal, the better. ‘You can see yourself out.’

Kate watched Theo nod in the direction of the door and then turn his attention to whatever was on his computer screen, and thought that if that wasn’t a cue to leave, she didn’t know what was. As dismissals went it was unambiguous. She’d refused to play ball and he’d lost interest. Which was fine. There was no way she was going to share the issues surrounding her non-existent sex-life with her boss, of all people. Imagine the humiliation. It didn’t bear thinking about.

Therefore his cue was one she was going to take. Right now. She was going to get up, waltz out and go home, where she could ponder at length this evening’s whole surreal conversation and, when it came to her money troubles, pinch herself hard.

So why wasn’t she moving? Why did her bottom appear to be glued to the chair? Why was her heart hammering at such a rate it might crack a rib and why was a cold sweat breaking out all over her skin? She couldn’t actually be thinking of telling him what he wanted to know, could she?

No. It was out of the question. Theo Knox was the very last man she ought to want to confide in, although her brother had obviously had time for the guy and he was prepared to come through for Milly so maybe he wasn’t all bad. But that was irrelevant. Spilling her innermost thoughts and fears to him would be insane. Complete and utter professional suicide. Not to mention epically mortifying. Besides, why would she even want to? She shouldn’t. She didn’t.

And yet, to her horror, it was growing increasingly tempting to think to hell with it and throw caution to the wind. She could feel the pressure to do exactly that building unbearably inside her, and the words were on the tip of her tongue, piling up one on top of the other, clamouring for release.

What was going on? she wondered in mounting panic, clamping her lips together as horror thundered through her. Had the stress of everything that had happened lately finally broken her down? Had Theo cunningly deployed some sort of reverse psychology that suddenly had her desperate to share every tiny detail? Or was it simply that now she’d experienced a smidgeon of his interest she wanted more?

Impossible, she told herself as she took a deep breath through her nose and willed the dizziness to subside. That would be utterly ridiculous. She wasn’t that pathetic. She certainly wasn’t so starved of attention that she’d forfeit her dignity and fall on any crumb dropped at her feet.

But when was the last time a man had expressed any interest in her? Ever? Okay, so Theo had made it perfectly clear at Mike’s funeral he wasn’t interested in her like that, and that was fine because it wasn’t as if she wanted him to do anything about her little problem, was it? Heaven forbid. When she did finally get around to losing her virginity she didn’t want him anywhere near her. He was rude, high-handed and unpleasant and made her bristle with loathing, although, come to think of it, it wasn’t loathing she’d been bristling with for the last quarter of an hour. She wasn’t entirely sure what it was, any more than she understood what that charged moment when he’d looked at her legs had been about. The blessed relief that her money worries were over, most probably.

It couldn’t be anything else. It certainly couldn’t be attraction. What a waste of time and energy that would be. Even if she had liked him, Theo Knox was so far out of her league he was on another planet. He was a staggeringly handsome, enormously successful billionaire. She was an inexperienced ordinary woman of significantly above average height, who managed to look passable on a good day in the right clothes, of which, truth be told, she had few since it was expensive to clothe well a body like hers. She was moderately good at her job and reasonably intelligent, but she wasn’t beautiful. She wasn’t special. In fact, she was the very opposite of special.

But regardless of her non-specialness, something about what she’d done had caught his attention enough to summon her up here and grill her when he could have just had her fired. And that was more appealing than it ought to be.

And so it seemed that—oh, dear—she was that pitiful and she was that starved of attention, because whatever the cost to her pride she wanted Theo’s interest back. She wanted to matter to someone. It was undoubtedly stupid and she definitely didn’t want to think about what it said about her, but the longer she sat there, the more inevitable it became, the more powerful was the urge to share, and she suddenly didn’t have the strength to resist.

‘Well, if you really want to know,’ she said, vaguely wondering if she hadn’t completely lost the plot, ‘mainly it’s my height.’

‘What?’ Theo snapped as he whipped his head round, his deep scowl clearly indicating his displeasure at her continued presence.

‘It’s my height.’

‘What the hell does that have to do with anything?’

‘Everything.’

‘Why? Lying down—or in most other positions, for that matter—height makes absolutely no difference.’

What?

Okay...

‘Well, naturally I don’t know much about that,’ she said, hoping she wasn’t blushing quite as madly as she suspected and wishing she had stronger willpower. ‘But I hit six foot some time around my fifteenth birthday. I was lanky and clumsy and towered over the boys in my class at school. When it came to adolescent hook-ups they gave me a wide berth. There were plenty of other more normal girls to choose from.’

‘There is nothing abnormal about you,’ he said darkly, his gaze roaming all over her and setting her skin on fire.

‘Others might beg to differ,’ she said, determinedly ignoring it. ‘It was a difficult time anyway. My parents had just died and my twelve-year-old sister was in hospital, fighting for survival. Life as I knew it had shattered. Most people were kind and full of sympathy. Others, not so much. Some didn’t know how to handle it, well, me, really, and teenagers can be cruel, can’t they?’

His eyes narrowed. ‘What did they do?’

‘It was more a case of what they said,’ she said, her throat tightening as she recalled the grief, pain and confusion that had dominated her emotions during that time. ‘There were a lot of stupid, nasty rumours going round. A few bitchy comments. On one particularly memorable occasion a boy came up to me and said that my parents must have deliberately crashed because death was preferable to the embarrassment of having such a freak for a daughter.’

There was a pause, during which Theo’s jaw clenched imperceptibly and his entire body seemed to tense. ‘I literally have no words,’ he said eventually.

‘No, well, that wasn’t pleasant. It took me a while to get over it all, the loss of my parents, the new reality my sister faced, the bullying and then the guilt that my brother had been forced to leave university to come and look after me. And then when I did—which was no mean feat, I can tell you, not least because part of me was convinced that it wasn’t fair of me to live my life when Milly’s had been so devastatingly curtailed—it was to discover that even grown men are put off by my height. Apparently it’s emasculating. Not to mention intimidating.’

A tiny muscle began to hammer in Theo’s cheek. ‘That’s pathetic,’ he said grimly.

‘I know,’ she said with a casual ‘what can you do?’ kind of shrug, as if the years of bullying and rejection that had crippled her self-esteem and destroyed her sense of self-worth meant nothing. ‘But, well, it was what it was and on the upside, all that time my classmates and fellow uni students were dating I spent studying. I got a first-class degree and now have a career I love.’

‘I find your height neither emasculating nor intimidating,’ said Theo, his eyes not leaving hers for a second.

‘Why would you?’ she said as a tiny shiver raced down her spine. ‘You’re a hugely successful businessman with the world at his fingertips. I doubt you’re intimidated by anything.’ Or emasculated. He oozed such virile masculinity it simply wasn’t possible.

‘You’d be surprised.’

As his mouth curved into a faint smile, Kate thought that this was another of those occasions she wanted to look away. More than she wanted to know what intimidated him, which was saying something. The intensity of his gaze was making her skin feel all hot and prickly and yet again she was finding it oddly hard to breathe. She felt trapped. On fire. And suddenly, quite out of the blue, acutely aware of him.

Inexplicably, the tiniest of details began to register. The minute scar that bisected his right eyebrow. The slight bump on the bridge of his nose. And was that a silvery grey hair she could see at his left temple in amongst all the ebony? She rather thought it was.

And it wasn’t only the physical details that she now noticed. She could sense the tension radiating off him and the power he was keeping tightly leashed. The non-verbal signals he was emanating gave her the impression he was furious. On her behalf. And although she had no idea why that would be the case it made her go all warm and fuzzy.

What would it have been like to have had someone like him on her side when she’d been at school? she couldn’t help wondering as the silence stretching between them thickened. What would it feel like now?

Come to think of it, what would he feel like? He’d be hard and muscled, she was sure. All over. He wasn’t the type to tolerate softness. Except maybe where his lips were concerned. Those looked nice and velvety. And what about the sprinkling of dark hair she could see on the backs of his hands? Would it be rough to the touch or silky? And where else might he have it? She had no way of knowing, and now, bizarrely, that, as well as the realisation she’d never find out how soft his lips actually were, seemed a shame.

‘Anyway,’ she said, baffled by the unexpectedly carnal turn of her thoughts and suddenly really rather keen to lighten the weirdly tense atmosphere, ‘your experience of height has probably been far different from mine.’

Theo started, as if she’d jerked him out of deep thought, and his brows snapped together. ‘Has it?’

‘Has anyone asked you what the weather’s like up there?’

‘No.’

‘Suggested a career in basketball?’

‘No.’

‘I bet you haven’t ever had to put up with tiny little aeroplane seats and bashed knees.’

‘I have a private jet.’

Of course he did. ‘I always wanted a little zippy convertible,’ she said with a whimsical sigh. He nodded and she thought for a nanosecond that maybe he did understand after all. ‘Being hugged is a problem.’

‘Is it?’

‘Yes,’ she said with a nod, although it wouldn’t be a problem if it was Theo doing the hugging, would it? Her head would tuck into his neck perfectly. Her body would fit against his beautifully. And then she’d know exactly how hard and muscled he was...

‘Doorways.’

What? Oh. ‘Pendant lights.’

‘Hotel showers.’

Not helping. But what was going on? Why was she so flustered by the thought of Theo in the shower? Why was she even thinking about Theo in the shower? And why did she get the impression he was thinking about her in the shower? Unanswerable questions all of them, so she put them out of her mind and focused. ‘Much of the world is structurally tallist, don’t you think?’ she said, thankfully sounding more in control than she felt.

‘It is,’ he said with the glimmer of a smile so fleeting the minute it was gone she thought she must have imagined it.

‘Sleeves?’

‘My clothes are tailor-made.’ Naturally. ‘Shoes?’

‘Nightmare,’ she said. ‘I’m a size nine. And I never wear heels. You?’

‘Heels have never been my thing,’ he said, that faint smile back again.

Kate nearly fell off her chair because, good heavens, was that a joke? Crikey.

‘It’s hard to be inconspicuous.’

He arched an eyebrow. ‘Is that a negative?’

It was for her. She’d been taller than her contemporaries since the moment she’d learned to walk. Throughout her childhood barely a week had passed without someone commenting on it. She couldn’t remember a time she hadn’t felt different, and not in a good way. No amount of positive parental input had helped. She’d just wanted to be the same as everyone else. To fit in. Subsequently she’d spent so much of her childhood and teenage years hunching her shoulders and trying to appear shorter than she was her posture was abysmal. ‘I imagine that depends who you are.’

‘You command attention.’

Obviously he was using the ‘you’ in the general sense, not referring to her in particular, but nevertheless she weirdly found herself sitting up a bit straighter. ‘Possibly,’ she hedged.

‘And statistically, taller people tend to earn a higher salary.’

Her eyebrows lifted. ‘Really?’ That was interesting.

‘So I once read.’

‘I must remember that at my next performance review.’

‘I would.’ He paused, then said, ‘Light bulbs.’

‘Maxi-dresses,’ she batted back.

‘You never have a problem reaching for something from a high shelf.’

‘And you can always spot friends in a crowd.’

‘Quite,’ he said. ‘Definite pluses.’

His words were spoken evenly enough, but something flickered across his expression and the smile faded, and it suddenly occurred to her that while she’d assumed he was too uptight and aloof to do friends, maybe it wasn’t just that. Maybe it was more that it was lonely at the top. And so maybe he was as lonely as she was...

Or not.

The strangely electric heat surging through her dissipated and she went cold, because what planet was she on? A man like Theo would never be lonely. He certainly wouldn’t lack for female companionship. Just because nothing appeared about him in the gossip columns didn’t mean he was a monk. And a moment or two of banter did not make him a kindred spirit. She must have been mad to imagine he ever could be. And to think she’d even harboured the vague hope that he might have some advice for her about how to deal with an excess of centimetres. Of course he wouldn’t. He clearly had no hang-ups about anything at all, and why would he? He was a god and she was about as far from goddess-ness as it was possible to get. She and Theo were poles apart in virtually every way. She had to be even more starved of attention than she realised if she was deluding herself with the idea that they somehow shared something unique. And as for the inappropriate little fantasies about hugging and showers, what had she been thinking?

The setting sun was casting an oddly seductive golden glow across his office and the sense of intimacy it created was messing with her head. That was the trouble. It spun a sort of web that rendered reality all blurry. That was why she found it so easy to talk to him. Why she’d been all of a flutter when he’d so casually mentioned the many sexual positions he’d obviously experienced.

The sooner she could get out of here, the better. If she stayed, who knew what else she might reveal? She’d already humiliated herself quite enough. Once she’d started talking she hadn’t shut up. Besides, what with the rolling of her stomach and the bizarre way she kept going hot and cold at the same time, she was beginning to feel very peculiar indeed.

‘So, anyway,’ she said with a feebly bright smile. ‘There you are. The reasons why I’m still a virgin. Basically no one wants me. And on that pretty mortifying note I should definitely go. I’m sure you have plenty to be getting on with and I’ve taken up more than enough of your time. So, sorry for the firewall breach thing and, uh, thanks for everything... I’d best be off. Unless, of course, there’s anything else?’

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