Page 9 of Fake Engagement Arrangement (Wilde Billionaire Brothers #1)

Mollie was tempted to open her banking app on her phone just to see the money in her account that Jago had transferred earlier.

If she could get through the coming weekend with him at his grandmother’s birthday party, she wouldn’t need to return to the beauty clinic at all.

She could set up her own business in a nicer area.

Her flagging dream took in a deep lungful of air, inflating Mollie’s hopes to the point where she began to feel light-headed and giddy with the possibility of success at last.

Jago proceeded to do an inspection of her flat like he was some sort of structural engineer. His expression grew all the more thunderous as he tapped against the walls and turned the tiny kitchen’s taps on and off. Mollie folded her arms and watched him with a bored teenager look on her face.

Finally, he turned and faced her. ‘You’re not staying here another minute.’

She arched her brows in an imperious manner. ‘Excuse me?’

He blew out an impatient breath—one with a thick curse word attached on its backdraft. ‘You can’t possibly live like this. It’s practically a hovel.’

‘I’ve lived in far worse.’ Mollie could have bitten off her tongue as soon as the words were out.

She had told Jago nothing of her chaotic and disadvantaged childhood.

She had removed all trace of her past, changing her name and her accent in order to take herself as far away from it as possible.

And she had mostly done so…except Eliot kept pulling her back like a towrope she could not and would not sever.

Jago’s blue eyes narrowed, his frown forming two deep pleats between his eyebrows. ‘Worse?’ His voice had a probing quality to it. He reminded Mollie of a detective who had picked up a significant detail of evidence everyone else had missed.

‘Not everyone grows up in an Elizabethan manor house with its own country park, Jago. Not everyone flies in private jets for their holidays or has chauffeurs driving them to and from boarding school each term,’ Mollie said with scorn dripping from every word.

Or maybe it was jealousy. Who wouldn’t be jealous of the Wilde lifestyle?

‘Yeah, and not everyone loses their parents in a plane crash when they’re five years old,’ Jago said with a thickness in his voice she had never heard in it before. ‘No amount of money or property can compensate for that.’

There was a silence so intense only the sound of the kitchen tap’s leak could be heard. Plop… Plop… Plop…

Mollie had never heard him mention his parents before.

She had read about the light-plane crash that had tragically killed his father and mother, but she had never heard Jago refer to them.

Not once, even though she had been engaged to him, shared his bed, his life, his world.

She hadn’t pushed him to talk about them because she had ghosts of her own she preferred to keep well hidden.

But it was her scornful words now that had triggered him to speak of his heartbreaking loss, and she was ashamed of herself.

Deeply ashamed. It was a cheap shot and cruel of her, given all she knew about being an orphan.

Yes, he’d been fortunate enough to have grandparents to step in and raise him and his brothers, but Mollie had good cause to wonder if Maxwell Wilde had been an ideal parent substitute.

She thought of Jago, the middle of the Wilde brothers, only five years old.

Old enough to know what had happened and to feel gut-wrenching grief and despair, and yet so young, so terribly young.

Mollie swallowed against a stricture in her throat. ‘I’m sorry…’ She moistened her dry lips and continued in a scratchy voice. ‘You’re absolutely right. No amount of money could ever make up for such a tragic loss.’

Jago moved back to the kitchen sink and tightened the tap until there were no more drips. ‘That should stop it for now.’

So there was to be no acknowledgement of her apology and no further conversation about his parents. But Mollie could sense the tension in him, the tightness of his expression and the shadows in his eyes hinting at deeply suppressed emotions.

‘But I won’t be able to turn it on again,’ Mollie said, glancing at the tap he had just tightened.

An implacable look came into his eyes. ‘You won’t be turning that tap on again. You’re coming with me. Now.’

Mollie’s eyes widened in alarm. ‘Now?’

‘Go pack a bag. There’s no way I’m allowing you to come back here. Not even after the weekend.’

‘But I have a lease that’s—’

‘I’ll sort out the lease.’

Mollie’s pride brought her chin up to a defiant height. ‘What gives you the right to tell me where I can live?’

He took her left hand in his and held it up so the fake engagement ring glinted. ‘This.’

Mollie snatched in a breath at the feel of his fingers wrapped around hers.

His hold was gentle, and yet she suspected if she pulled away, he would tighten his grip.

But strangely, she didn’t want to pull away.

She was a tiny iron filing, and he was a powerful magnet, drawing her closer, closer, closer.

She could feel her heart rate pick up, a hectic pace that made her feel dizzy.

Or maybe that was because she was only a few centimetres from his rock-hard chest and strongly muscled thighs.

The desire to close the gap was almost unbearable, every muscle and sinew in her body wanted to feel him against her.

All of him. Her body recognised him, the heat and smell of him, the strength and power of him an aphrodisiac she had no immunity against.

‘We both know that’s just a fake ring,’ Mollie said, trying but failing to stop from glancing at his mouth.

His mouth kicked up at one corner in a wry smile, his eyes sexily hooded as his gaze drifted to her lips.

‘That may not be real, but this is, isn’t it?

’ And his mouth came down to just above hers, hovering there as if he knew every cell in her body was throbbing with the need to feel his lips against hers.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.

’ Mollie tried to keep her voice even but her increasing breathing rate betrayed her.

It was so damn hard to resist him. Her lips were tingling with anticipation, her legs feeling as if the bones had turned to liquid.

She still hadn’t pulled her hand out of his, still hadn’t stepped back from the scorching temptation of his masculine body that called out to her with a primitive energy she could feel in her most feminine flesh.

‘I think you do.’ His mouth came even closer, his warm minty breath wafting across her lips, making them tingle all the more. ‘You want me to kiss you, to see if the magic is still there.’

Ironic that he should speak of magic for Mollie’s eyelids lowered like she was being cast under a spell.

Her senses were intoxicated by his proximity, every cell of her body aching for him to crush her mouth beneath his.

She swept the tip of her tongue over her lips, her heart kicking like a wild animal against her breastbone, her body tilting towards him as if she had no power to stop it.

But then she didn’t. Jago Wilde was her kryptonite: he could get her to do anything with the sensual power he had over her.

She gave him an upwards glance to see the glinting intent in his midnight blue gaze.

Something tilted sideways in her stomach like a bowl of liquid threatening to spill over.

Moist heat throbbed between her thighs, and she closed the distance between their bodies, her breasts pushed up against his chest, her free hand going to the front of his shirt, fisting in it to bring his mouth down to hers.