Cathy Williams - Bought To Wear The Billionaire's Ring

Sammy hesitated. He wasn’t going anywhere. The wretched man was going to stay put until he had said what he had come to say—the whole speech and nothing but the whole speech.

Why waste time arguing?

She perched on the edge of the chair and waited for him to continue.

He was truly a beautiful human being, she thought. All raven-black hair and piercing black eyes and fantastically chiselled features. It was hardly the time to be thinking this, but she just couldn’t help herself.

Was it any wonder that there weren’t many women between the ages of twenty-one and ninety-one who wouldn’t have crashed into a lamp post to grab a second look?

She tried to imagine one of those women he dated trying to pass herself off as a suitable bride-to-be and, whilst it certainly worked from the gorgeous couple aspect, the whole thing fell apart the second a little girl was put in the equation.

‘Your mother hasn’t been well,’ Leo said quietly. ‘I’m sorry that this is the first time I’ve...commiserated.’

‘She’s going to be fine.’ Sammy tilted her chin at an angle but, as always when she thought about her mother, the tears were never very far away.

‘Yes. I’ve been told the chemotherapy has been successful and that the tumour has shrunk considerably. You must be relieved.’

‘I don’t understand what my mother has to do with any of this.’

‘Then I’ll come straight to the point.’ He hadn’t felt a single qualm when he had considered using money as leverage in this bartering process. This was the world he occupied. It was always a quid pro quo system.

Now, however, he was assailed by a sudden attack of conscience. Something about the way her eyes were glistening and the slight wobble of her full pink lips.

No wonder she and his father got on like a house on fire, he thought. They were equally sentimental.

It was yet another reason why the arrangement would work for them because her emotionalism was guaranteed to get on his nerves. There would be no chance of any lines between them getting blurred.

‘It would appear,’ he said heavily, ‘that there’s a problem with the mortgage repayments on the house your mother’s in.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘The same way you seem to have great insight into my personal life,’ he returned coolly. ‘Our respective parents seem to do an awful lot of confidence sharing. At any rate, the fact is that there is a real threat of the bank closing on the house if the late payments aren’t made soon.’

‘I’ve been to see the bank.’ Sammy’s skin burnt because she hated this sliver of her life being exposed. It was none of his business. ‘Mum’s had to give up her job, with all the treatment, and I’ve had to move to a different, more expensive place here because the landlord in my last place wanted to sell. Plus there’ve been all the additional costs of travelling back and forth every weekend, sometimes during the week, as well. I haven’t been able to contribute as much as I would have liked to the finances but they said they understood at the bank.’

‘Banks,’ Leo informed her kindly, ‘have never been noted for their understanding policies. They’re not charitable organisations. The most sympathetic bank manager, under instruction, will foreclose on a house with very little prior warning. I also appreciate that it costs you dearly to be working so far from your mother at a time when she needs you to be on hand.’

‘Your dad had no right to tell you all that stuff...’

‘Was any of it confidential information?’

Sammy didn’t reply. No, none of it was confidential, although sitting here right now and listening to him explain her life to her made her think that perhaps it ought to have been.

Naturally, he would never understand what it might be like to really have to count pennies and to struggle against all odds to meet the bills. He had been born into money and, even in the village, his name was legend as the guy who had built his own empire and turned it into a gold mine.

‘Didn’t think so. I know he offered to give your mother money to help her out of this little sticky patch but she refused.’

‘And I don’t blame her,’ Sammy said, her cheeks dully flushed. ‘There’s such a thing as pride.’

‘Yes. It usually comes before a fall. No matter. I get it. But the fact remains that you are both facing considerable financial challenges, so here is my proposal.’ He allowed anticipation to settle before continuing. ‘In return for your services, so to speak, I will settle all outstanding money owing on your mother’s house.’ He raised one hand as though she had interrupted although, in fact, she couldn’t have uttered a word if she’d wanted to. She was mesmerised by him. By the movement of his mouth as he spoke, by the steady flex of muscle discernible under his clothing, by the elegance of his gestures and the commanding timbre of his voice.

‘Furthermore,’ he continued, ‘I understand that your dream is to work freelance. Your degree was in graphic art and, whilst you do as much freelance work as you can get your hands on, it’s impossible to make the jump because you need to have a steady income.’

Sammy paled. ‘Now that,’ she burst out, ‘definitely was confidential!’

‘Is that some of your work over there?’ Leo nodded to a desk by the window and the layers of stiff board piled to one side. Without giving her time to answer, far less swoop to the rescue of the job she was currently trying to find the time to work on, he began rifling through the illustrations she had so far completed while she remained frozen to the spot, mouth open.

‘They’re good.’ Leo turned to face her. He was genuinely impressed. ‘Don’t glare at me as though I’ve exposed state secrets,’ he said drily. ‘This is the second part of my proposition. Not only am I willing to settle the debt on your mother’s house but I will also get builders in to construct a suitable extension at the back of the property.’

‘A suitable extension?’ Sammy said faintly.

‘To accommodate this—’ he gestured to the desk and the artwork he had just been rifling through ‘—you setting up your own business where your mother is. No more commuting. No more wasting money on rent you can barely afford. And not only that, Sammy, but I will immediately instigate a steady income that will cover the transition period between you giving up your teaching post here and establishing yourself in your field.’

Sammy was beginning to sympathise with anyone unfortunate enough to have been run over by a steamroller. ‘It’s a ridiculous suggestion...’ she protested, but she could hear telltale signs of weakness in her voice. ‘Go to Melbourne...? Pretend to be engaged to you...? It’s crazy.’

‘Perhaps if you just had yourself to consider,’ Leo pointed out with inexorable, irrefutable logic, ‘you could spend the next hour talking about your pride or maybe just chuck me out of here immediately, but this isn’t just about you. Your mother’s future is involved here, as well.’

‘And it’s not fair of you to drag her into this.’

‘Who said that life was fair? If life was fair, that harridan wouldn’t be trying to hang on to a granddaughter she probably doesn’t even want for the sake of what she thinks she might be able to coerce out of me. Agree to my proposal and I could have builders at the house first thing in the morning to ascertain what needs to be done. All you would have to do is hand your notice in and look forward to a life of no stress, close to your mother.’

Sammy thought of the amount of time she had spent trying to get the books to balance and trying to work out how many more hours she could put into her illustrations so that more income could be generated.