Page 5 of Untamed Billionaire
“I’d better go into the kitchen and ask the servants to clean up the mess.” She stepped back and smiled up at Marco, wishing she could remain on his arm. However, if she didn’t go in and ask the servants for help, her mother would demand that Chloe clean up the mess. That wasn’t going to happen so she beat a hasty retreat in order to absent herself from the area.
Chloe went into the kitchen and quickly spoke to the cleaning crew. The very efficient woman assured Chloe that the mess would be taken care of, probably with a very large charge for that extra effort. She felt bad that the servants would have to clean up the mess from Mr. Bingly.
With that assurance firmly in her mind, Chloe walked down the long hallway towards what used to be the music room and ducked inside for ten minutes. By that time, she suspected that she was safe enough, however she still moved through one of the other rooms and snuck out to the side yard and circled her way back toward the back patio, safe from her mother’s acid tongue. At least for the moment, she thought. The whole time, she wondered about Marco. What was he thinking now? Had some of the other ladies cornered him? She hoped not, but why wouldn’t they? He was an extremely attractive man and all of those muscles and dark, sexy beard made him unique and interesting. Any woman would be thrilled to have even a few moments of his attention!
Chloe accepted a cup of tea from one of the servants, shook her head at the offer of dessert, then moved towards the darkness of the patio. She needed a bit of time alone before she rejoined the fracas inside. Everyone would remain in the living room until well past midnight. Since it was merely eleven o’clock, and she’d been up since well before dawn, Chloe was more than ready to head to her bedroom and crash against the pillows.
“You didn’t eat very much tonight,” a deep, male voice commented.
Chloe was so startled by the sound, she almost dropped her cup. As it was, she would have spilled the hot liquid onto her hands if strong fingers hadn’t stopped the forward momentum of her cup of tea.
“You okay?” Marco asked, keeping hold of her hands.
“Yes,” she whispered. No, she wasn’t fine. This man, his touch…it sent shock waves through her. She wasn’t supposed to actually feel anything towards this man! He was a means to an end! A very nice means, she thought, surveying his broad, yummy shoulders.
“You are truly lovely,” he said.
Despite herself, Chloe was startled by his words. Charmed even. No one had ever told her that she was lovely.
“Thank you,” she replied, but since she couldn’t see his eyes in the dim light, she lowered her own, not wanting to reveal too much to this man.
“You should get away from them.”
Chloe’s heart skipped a beat. Get away from her family? Oh, what a wonderful idea. If only…! “I’m sure that I don’t know what you mean.”
“Your mother insults you, your brother diminishes your intelligence, and your father barely acknowledges your existence.” He paused, letting those words sink in before he said, “Why do you continue to live here when they treat you like this?”
Chloe pressed her lips together. It was the perfect opening for what she needed to say to him. But now that the opportunity was here, she was struggling to say the words.
“Well, it’s…complicated,” she finally explained. Or…didn’t explain.
She couldn’t see his blue eyes clearly with only the moon for illumination, but she suspected that they were burning and intense. “Why don’t you uncomplicate it for me?”
Chloe laughed, shaking her head. “There are issues at play that you….well, suffice it to say, there are issues that I need to resolve.”
There was a long silence, then he said, “They have some sort of control over you.”
It wasn’t a question and Chloe was so startled, she couldn’t answer immediately. Finally, she straightened her shoulders and went right to the point. “I’d like to…”
“Chloe!” her mother called out. Seconds later, the click-click of her mother’s Jimmy Choo heels echoed on the slate patio stones. “Chloe, dear,” she said, laying a hand briefly on Chloe’s shoulder, “Daniel Everard is asking about you. He needs to leave, but I promised him that you’d speak to him before he leaves.”
“I’ll be right there,” Chloe replied, cringing inwardly because Daniel was going to ask her out. Again. Ick! The man was creepy.
When Chloe hesitated, still trying to figure out a way to say something to Marco, her mother’s impatience thinned. “Now, dear,” Jocelyn commanded, pulling her mouth back into a semblance of a smile. But the expression was reminiscent of a panther ready to tear into flesh.
Chloe glanced at Marco, then sighed. “Yes. Of course.”
Before she could take a second step towards the patio doorway, a deep, firm, wonderful voice halted her momentum. “I’ll meet you at my office tomorrow at eleven thirty,” Marco announced. “Our conversation can be finished then.”
Chloe’s startled eyes lifted to his, but she still couldn’t clearly see him in the moonlight. She suspected that he could read her, but he was so tall he had to look down at her, casting his face in shadow and keeping the moon from revealing anything.
She doubted he’d reveal anything anyway. So instead, she nodded. “That would be perfect, Mr. Hudson,” she said, using his last name to soothe her mother’s concern.
With that, she turned on her heel and headed towards the door. And Daniel. Double ick!
Marco watched Chloe walk away and wondered what she’d been about to say. There had been a strange light in her eyes, a light he couldn’t interpret. Did he want to? Hell, Marco knew that he wanted to understand every damn thing about Chloe Forsythe.
Turning, he set the glass of scotch on the stone table beside him and moved off down the steps. He’d go around the back instead of heading inside again. There wasn’t anyone in that house that he needed to speak with. Social events like this were easy ways to conduct business, but from what he’d gathered tonight, there wasn’t anyone here who could help him in any sort of business capacity. They were all has-beens. Most of them he knew were on the brink of bankruptcy and those that weren’t, they were struggling to keep their businesses afloat. They were hanging onto the old ways, thinking their knowledge superior. In reality, their ways of doing business were ancient and ineffective in today’s market.
