Page 125 of Tuxedos and Tinsel
Still, she couldn’t help wondering how he could have chosen a ring so absolutelyher.
‘I’ve been thinking about our getting-to-know-each-other session,’ she said. ‘Why don’t we each ask the other three questions?’
‘Short and to the point,’ he said with obvious relief.
‘Or longer, as needs might be. I want to be the best fake fiancée I can. No way do I want to be caught out on something important I should know about you. I didn’t like the feeling this morning when I froze as Karen questioned me about our wedding plans.’
Dominic drank from his iced tea. To give himself time to think? Or plan evasive action? ‘I see where you’re going. Let’s see if we can make it work.’
Andie settled back in the chair. She didn’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved there was a small table between her and Dominic. She would not be averse to his thigh nudged against hers—at the same time, it would undoubtedly be distracting. ‘Okay. I’ll start. My Question Number One is: How did you get from street kid to billionaire?’
Dominic took his time to put his glass back down on the table. ‘Before I reply, let’s get one thing straight.’ His gaze was direct. ‘My answers are for you and you alone. What I tell you is to go no further.’
‘Agreed,’ she said, meeting his gaze full-on. ‘Can we get another thing straight? You can trust me.’
‘Just so long as we know where we stand.’
‘I’m surprised you’re not making me sign a contract.’ She said the words half in jest but the expression that flashed across his face in response made her pause. She sat forward in her seat. ‘You thought about a contract, didn’t you?’
With Dominic back in his immaculate dark business suit, clean-shaven, hair perfectly groomed, she didn’t feel as confident with him as she had this morning.
‘I did think of a contract and quickly dismissed it,’ he said. ‘I do trust you, Andie.’
Surely he must be aware that she would not jeopardise Timothy’s treatment in any way? ‘I’m glad to hear that, Dominic, because this won’t work if we don’t trust each other—it goes both ways.Let’s start. C’mon—answer my question.’
He still didn’t answer. She waited, aware of the palm leaves above rustling in the same slight breeze that ruffled the aquamarine surface of the pool, the distant barking of a neighbour’s dog.
‘You know I hate this?’ he said finally.
‘I kind of get that,’ she said. ‘But I couldn’t “marry” a man whose past remained a dark secret to me.’
Even after the question-and-answer session, she suspected big chunks of his past might remain a secret from her. Maybe from anyone.
He dragged in a deep breath as if to prepare himself for something unpleasant. ‘As I have already mentioned, at age seventeen, I was homeless. I was living in an underground car park on the site of an abandoned shopping centre project in one of the roughest areas of Brisbane. The buildings had only got to the foundation stage. The car park was...well, you can imagine what an underground car park that had never been completed was like. It was a labyrinth of unfinished service areas and elevator shafts. No lights, pools of water whenever it rained, riddled with rats and cockroaches.’
‘And human vermin too, I’ll bet.’ Andie shuddered. ‘What a scary place for a teenager to be living—and dangerous.’
He had come from such a dark place. She could gush with sympathy and pity. But she knew instinctively that was not what he wanted to hear. Show how deeply moved she was at the thought of seventeen-year-old Dominic living such a perilous life and he would clam up. And she wanted to hear more.
Dominic’s eyes assumed a dark, faraway look as though he was going back somewhere in his mind he had no desire to revisit. ‘It was dangerous and smelly and seemed like hell. But it was also somewhere safer to sleep than on the actual streets. Darkness meant shadows you could hide in, and feel safe even if it was only an illusion of safety.’
She reached out and took the glass from his hand; he seemed unaware he was gripping it so tightly he might break it. ‘Your home life must have been kind of hellish too for you to have preferred that over living with your aunt.’
‘Hell? You could say that.’ The grim set of his mouth let her know that no more would be forthcoming on that subject.
‘Your life on the streets must have been...terrifying.’
‘I toughened up pretty quick. One thing I had in my favour was I was big—the same height I am now and strong from playing football at school. It was a rough-around-the-edges kind of school, and I’d had my share of sorting out bullies there.’ He raised his fists into a fighting position in a gesture she thought was unconscious.
So scratch the elite private school. She realised now that Dominic was a self-made man. And his story of triumph over adversity fascinated her. ‘So you could defend yourself against thugs and...and predators.’
Her heart went out to him. At seventeen she’d had all the security of a loving family and comfortable home. But she knew first-hand from her foster sisters that not all young people were that fortunate. It seemed that the young Dominic had started off with loving parents and a secure life but had spiralled downwards from then on. What the heck was wrong with the aunt to have let that happen?
She reached over the table and trailed her fingers across his scarred knuckles. ‘That’s how you got these?’ It was amazing the familiarity a fake engagement allowed.
‘I got in a lot of fights,’ he said.
‘And this?’ She traced the fine scar at the side of his mouth.
