Page 2 of Bound By Her Shocking Secret

Mia sighed. No, it wasn’t his fault. He’d never made her any promises because she’d explicitly told him that their relationship was just about the physical and the transitory. She’d put up so many walls to guard her heart against him that when they’d crumbled it had all been too late. There had been no relationship to save.

At that moment Mia heard approaching voices and straightened her shoulders. She had to go and find him now. The door opened and a couple of women came in with a flurry of overpowering perfume. Mia avoided their eyes but couldn’t fail to hear their conversation.

‘Did you see him standing up there? Like some kind of god?’

‘I’ve never seen anyone so sexy in my life...’

‘He’s divorced now...it was all over the papers. Single again...’

A sharp pain lanced Mia when she heard those words:divorced...single again. She forced the pain and sting of jealousy down. They had no place here.

She was almost at the door when her clutch bag vibrated. It could only be one person. She pulled out her phone and immediately her forehead creased in worry.

The other two women were in cubicles now, still continuing their indiscreet conversation.

Mia quickly made a call. ‘What’s wrong, Simone? Is everything okay?’

Her friend spoke on the other end and Mia’s blood ran cold. She forgot everything and had one primal response.She had to get home now.

She said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be right there.’

Terminating the call, she put her phone back in her clutch and left the bathroom, all thoughts of Daniel Devilliers eclipsed.

Daniel was doing the social rounds in the belly of the party. He could see a long line of people waiting to speak with him and swallowed a sigh of frustration. And then he berated himself. This evening was the first glittering milestone in achieving all he wanted to achieve with Devilliers. So why couldn’t he just damn enjoy it?

But the frustration prickling under his skin wouldn’t go away. Taunting him. A small voice in his head said:If you’re not satisfied with this then when will you ever feel satisfied?

It irritated him intensely, because he’d never been under any illusions that his loyalty to his inheritance was born out of sentimental emotion. The opposite, in fact. He’d always viewed it with a very dispassionate discerning eye. Any loyalty he did feel came from a sense of responsibility to the hundreds of workers behind this legacy, some of whom had worked for Devilliers over generations, and his own personal ambition to see the brand evolve and become an even bigger success.

You’re doing this for your sister too, a small voice reminded him.

A familiar tightness made Daniel absently touch his chest. Yes, if there was any sentiment attached it was for his sister, who had loved coming to thesalonas a child, staring in awe at all the sparkling gems, asking reverently, ‘Do we really own all of these?’

Daniel pushed the past aside. He found that his gaze was wandering, looking for a glimpse of tawny gold hair.

It hadn’t been her. Let it go.

Angry with himself for dwelling on a ghost from his past, he reminded himself that there were plenty of beautiful, willing women in his immediate vicinity. Not ghosts. And he didn’t need the reminder of how long it had been since he’d had a lover in his bed.

Not since her.

One was approaching him now. Blonde. Icy cool in a white dress. Blue eyes. Her throat, arms and ears literally dripped with diamonds. She was smiling with the kind of sexual confidence mixed with avarice that Daniel knew all too well. He told himself this was exactly what he was looking for, even as something inside him recoiled when she came closer.

But just before she could reach him someone else approached from the side. One of his security detail, who said, close to his ear, ‘Sorry to bother you, sir, but there’s been an incident.’

Daniel looked at him, the approaching woman forgotten. ‘Incident?’

‘A woman—one of the models—was trying to leave with her jewellery.’

Daniel raised a brow. ‘If she’s been apprehended why do I need to be involved?’

The man looked uncomfortable. ‘She’s saying she knows you and that you can vouch for her.’

A prickling sensation tickled the back of Daniel’s neck. He asked, ‘Where is she?’

‘In the security office.’

Emitting a sound of irritation, Daniel strode towards the front of thesalon. The security office was near the main entrance, its door camouflaged to look like a mirrored wall. Another security guard was waiting there for him, looking grim.

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