Filed to story: A Matter of Sin and Love Novel Read Free Online
Her breath came in choppy little bursts and Christian knew he’d already succeeded in distracting her. He was tempted to stride across the space separating them and tug the dress away. Give in one last time to temptation, before reality intervened.
‘You can’t just tell me there’s going to be a wedding then waltz off like that. According to my father’s note the date’s set for a few weeks from now! He must have sent out invitations, booked caterers, the whole lot! I have to get him to cancel. This has gone on long enough.’
‘You’re right. It has.’
Elena looked into Christian’s stern face and cold shivered down her spine. Cold on the outside, overheated on the inside, she felt a wave of fear.
Christian had retreated behind that old stonewalling expression she hated. She hadn’t seen it in ages and it filled her with dread.
‘Why don’t you want me to tell him there’s no wedding? Surely this game of yours is over.’ He’d even agreed to ensure Rob got his money back.
Christian stiffened, his jaw hardening. Before her eyes he turned into the man she’d met at her father’s party.
No, not him. Then at least, despite his air of superiority, there’d been heat in his gaze and a flash of humour, even if it had been at her expense.
The man she surveyed looked dead on the inside. Elena swallowed and tasted ashes on her tongue.
‘Christian, what’s going on? You’re frightening me.’ Once she’d never have admitted it. But that was when he’d been her enemy. Now he was so much more.
‘Why don’t you get changed? We’ll talk then.’ He glanced across to the drinks trolley that he so rarely touched and Elena’s heart dived. The truth was so bad he needed alcohol to deal with it?
‘I prefer to talk now.’
‘But your dress.’ He gestured and she realised the bodice had sagged to the point of indecency.
Backing to a sofa, Elena subsided with a puff of satin skirts. ‘That can wait. I want to know. Now.’ The need to understand had become urgent. She’d told herself she didn’t want to know about his business with her father, so long as her siblings were okay. She’d been a coward, sticking her head in the sand.
‘You’ve been keeping something from me, haven’t you?’ She’d known it from the first but hadn’t pushed. She’d been too caught up in dealing with her own feelings. Too busy enjoying her time with Christian.
Elena drew a fortifying breath and spread her fingers over the plush sofa. ‘Come and tell me about it.’
Instantly his head reared back in rejection.
It was an instinctive movement, too quick to be deliberate, and it cut her to the core, as if he’d taken a blade to her heart.
Elena stiffened. She’d known this dress would bring bad luck. Oh, who was she fooling? This had nothing to do with the dress. Hadn’t she known their relationship was on borrowed time? The mighty Christian Edwards with ordinary old Elena Morrison!
‘Just tell me, Christian! I can’t stand the suspense.’
His gaze slewed to the drinks trolley then away. He ripped open a button on his shirt, shoving his palm under the collar and around the back of his neck. It was a sign of stress she’d never witnessed in him. Christian Edwards ruled his world, doing what he pleased. The idea of him stressed dried Elena’s mouth.
‘If you insist.’ His tone was gravel. ‘It’s almost done anyway.’
‘What’s almost done?’ Foreboding snaked through her.
‘Your father’s destruction.’ Christian’s gaze met hers. Those deep-set eyes looked more black than indigo. And cold. So cold Elena huddled against the cushions.
‘Destruction?’ The word wobbled on her tongue as her brain seized. ‘No! You can’t mean…’ She didn’t believe it. Christian wasn’t a violent man. Not any more. Passionate, yes. Strong-willed. But not violent. He’d learned from his past.
She snatched a quick breath, trying to slow her racing pulse.
‘What have you done to him?’ She met Christian’s terrible blank look.
‘I’ve arranged his just deserts.’
‘Go on.’
‘I’ve ruined him.’
Elena slumped back, one palm to her thudding heart. She’d known Christian wouldn’t have harmed her father physically, yet relief pounded. Relief, she realised, as much for Christian as for her father.
The consequences for Christian if he’d… It didn’t bear thinking about.
‘Nothing to say, Elena?’ He looked fierce, almost predatory with that harsh expression and his scar drawn tight down one clenched cheek. Yet there was something more too. Something that made her still.
‘I’m waiting for you to explain.’
There it was again. A flicker of doubt. No, not doubt. Regret.
Elena’s stomach bottomed. This was going to get worse.
‘By the end of the day George Morrison will have nothing. The project we were negotiating will go ahead without him.’ Christian lifted his chin, daring her to protest. ‘I’ve also acquired a number of other holdings where your father had interests or, more specifically, debts.’
‘Let me guess. The debts have been called in?’
Christian nodded. ‘He’ll be declared bankrupt. His creditors and so-called friends won’t forgive him that. He’ll lose everything, including the house, the luxury cars and the cruiser.’
Strangely, Elena didn’t feel as shocked as she might have done. Her father had always lived on the edge, investing in schemes other businessmen avoided. His recent desperation told its own story.
‘You came to Sydney to destroy him.’ It wasn’t a question. It had been there for her to see from the first, if only she’d taken time to look. Christian’s thinly veiled impatience with her father had obviously been more than a sense of smug superiority.
‘I did.’
Elena swallowed, shifting in her seat, wondering what else she hadn’t bothered to notice. ‘And my brother… Rob’s money? Were you genuine about getting that to him or is it gone for ever?’
Christian’s eyebrows angled sharply down. ‘I said I would. The money is already in his account.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Relief was a wave of lightness easing her tense frame. ‘But I had to know.’
He lifted those impressive shoulders but there was nothing casual about his shrug. It spoke of leashed energies and raw tension. ‘I understand. You grew up with a man who couldn’t be relied on to keep his word.’
Elena stared, taking in the full measure of Christian’s disapproval. He really…hated her father.
‘What was I in all this?’ She waved a hand at the magnificently over-the-top wedding gown spreading like a romantic dream around her. Her nipples scraped satin where she clutched the bodice tight. ‘What was the wedding all about?’
For too long Christian held her gaze. Long enough for that little bubble of hope to surface again. The hope that what had obviously begun as a bad joke or part of a scheme had become something more. That Christian had come to care for her. That maybe he even wanted—
‘Partly it was a diversion. It kept your father so distracted he wouldn’t notice anything else.’
‘And the other part?’ Elena’s flesh tightened across her nape. This was about her, not some financial scheme.
‘It was the final touch that would seal his downfall.’ Yet there was no satisfaction in Christian’s eyes. ‘I encouraged his schemes for the most grandiose society wedding. Any last cash or credit he might have had has gone on the preparations. His social standing will be destroyed when it’s called off.’
‘And so will the suppliers who’ll be out of pocket!’ The scheme was outrageous on so many levels.
Then she read Christian’s expression. ‘You had a plan for that, didn’t you? What were you going to do? Pay them all when he couldn’t?’
‘Something like that.’
Elena supposed the cost was nothing to a man of his wealth. But this wasn’t just about money. Her mind reeled. ‘When was it going to be called off, Christian?’
He stared straight back. ‘As late as possible.’
Elena nodded. ‘For maximum impact.’
Finally she began to see. It wasn’t just her father’s money Christian wanted to take. It was his reputation, such as it was, his pride. She’d been caught up in a scheme far bigger than herself. She’d been…what was the saying?
Collateral damage.