A Perfect Husband Read Online Free PDF Page B

Although my mother didn’t have a clue about my father’s family history.” He turned away. “Finish your drink. I’l take you back to your hotel.”
    She fol owed Zane to the sideboard and set her empty brandy glass down. She noticed the glint of the seal ring on the middle finger of Zane’s left hand. “Your ring looks identical to the one in the painting.”
    “It is.” His reply was clipped, and she wondered what she had said to cause the cool distance.
    Suddenly she understood and busied herself extracting her cel from her clutch. She knew only too wel what it was like to be an il egitimate child and excluded from her father’s family. As much as she had tried to dismiss that side of the family from her psyche, they stil existed and the hurt remained.
    “You don’t have to take me back to the hotel. I can cal a cab.” Unfortunately, the screen of her cel was cracked and the phone no longer appeared to work. It must have happened when her purse had gone flying.
    Zane checked his watch. “Even if the phone worked, you wouldn’t get a cab after midnight on Medinos.”
    Her stomach sank. She was a city girl; she loved shops, good coffee, public transportation. Al the good-natured warnings friends had given her about traveling to a foreign country that was stil partway buried in the Middle Ages were coming home to roost. “No underground?”
    A flash of amusement lit his dark gaze. “Al I can offer is a ride in a Ferrari.”
    Her stomach tightened on the slew of graphic images that went with climbing into a powerful sports car with Zane Atraeus. It was up there with Persephone accepting a ride from Hades. “Thanks, but no thanks. You don’t need to feel responsible for me.”
    Zane’s expression hardened. “Lucas won’t be taking you back to the hotel.”
    Her chin jerked up. “I did get that part.” She had been stupidly naive, but not anymore. “Okay, I’l accept the lift to my hotel, but that’s al .”
    Zane’s fingers brushed hers as he took her empty glass.
    “Good. Don’t throw yourself away on a man who doesn’t value you.”
    “Don’t worry.” She stepped back, unnerved by how tempted she was to stay close. “I know exactly how much I’m worth.”
    She realized how cool and hard that phrase had sounded. “I didn’t mean that to sound…like it did.”
    His expression was neutral. “I’m sure you didn’t.”
    Another memory surfaced. Two weeks after “the kiss,” at another function, Zane had found her politely trying to fend off her friend and escort’s boss.
    She could stil remember the hot tingle down her spine, the sudden utter unimportance of the older man who had decided she was desperate to spend the night with him.
    For an exhilarating moment she had been certain Zane had fol owed her because he wanted to fol ow up on the shattering connection she had felt when they had kissed.
    Instead, his gaze had flowed through her as if she didn’t exist. He had turned on his heel and left.
    In a flash of clarity she final y understood why she had agreed to travel to Medinos with a man she barely knew.
    The date had been with Lucas, but it was Zane she had always wanted.
    In her search for Mr. Dependable she had somehow managed to fixate on his exact opposite.
    Lucas had been an unknown quantity and out of her league, but he was nothing compared to Zane. With Zane there would be no guarantees, no safety net, no commitment. The exact opposite of what she had planned for and needed in her life.

    Four
    Ten days later, Zane stepped into the darkened offices of The Atraeus Group’s newest acquisition, Ambrosi Pearls in Sydney. He took the antique elevator, which matched the once-elegant facade of the building, to the top floor.
    It was almost midnight; most of the building was plunged into darkness. Zane, who was more used to mining and construction sites and masculine boardrooms, shook his head in bemusement as he strol ed into Lucas’s office. The air was perfumed; the decor