Free Twice in a Lifetime (Carina) by Kierney Scott Page B

right clutched her newly acquired store schematic.
    “They have Marks & Spencer in the UK,” he protested.
    “Exactly. I know how much things should cost there.”
    “Just buy what you want.”
    “Said the man who owns the company that runs twenty billion pounds and was eight per cent ahead of the market last year.”
    “You really did study my bio.” He did not try to stop the smile that pulled on his mouth. He had wondered many times if she regretted choosing Sam, or ever thought about what could have been. Clearly the door was not as firmly shut on the past as she wanted him to believe.
    “Of course I did. Let’s not pretend that either of us thinks I am above that.”
    “Fair point.”
    “Now help me read this map so I can figure out how to get to Marks & Spencer. Oh, look,” she exclaimed. “They have a Next too. That is me sorted.”
    “You can’t come to Dubai and buy things you could find on Princes Street.”
    “I think you will find I can,” she said as she started off in the wrong direction.
    “It is over here.”
    She scrutinised the map. “I knew that. I was testing you and you passed. And they have a Top Shop. I feel a bargain blouse coming my way.”
    “I am taking you to a proper store to get you some summer clothes.”
    “I don’t have money for that, Liam.”
    “I don’t know if you heard, but I run twenty billion pounds and I finished the year eight per cent ahead of the market.”
    She shook her head. “I am not going to let you buy me clothes. That is so
Pretty Woman
. You know I hate that film. At work I have met more than my share of real prostitutes, and none of them look like Julia Roberts and none of them are stupid enough to think a punter is going to come along and rescue them.” Her eyes widened as she realised what she had said. “God, Liam. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I can be a real ass.”
    A glacier formed in the pit of his stomach. “Don’t worry about it.” He shrugged. “It’s another life.”
    Sarah nodded and smiled but it did not reach her eyes. She reached out and tried to touch his arm but he pulled away before she could. She was looking at him with the same pity and embarrassment the social worker did when he was a kid. “Don’t look at me like that, Sarah. The past is the past. It is over. That’s not me.”
    “I’m sorry, Liam,” she said again and this time he did let her touch him. Her fingers gently caressed one of the scars from an old burn. He did not speak for a few minutes.
    “I don’t like that you know things that are not in my official bio.”
    “I know. I will never bring it up again. Not even in passing or a joke. It was really stupid of me. I just wasn’t thinking.”
    “The problem isn’t you talking about it. The problem is you knowing about it. You know everything. I don’t like that. I don’t like the way you look at me when you remember.”
    “I’m sorry,” she said again.
    “Stop apologising. And stop looking at me like that.”
    “I don’t know how I am looking at you.”
    “Like I am the scabby, lice-ridden six-year-old kid the social-work department dropped off at the scheme.”
    “That is not how I see you, Liam.”
    “That is how you look at me sometimes. Like you want to fix me but I am not broken. How much money do I need to make before you stop seeing me as that kid? I thought once we were at uni you would stop—that is what I told myself. But even now, you still look at me like you feel sorry for me. I mean, I have a fucking yacht and a private plane. I don’t need your pity.” He ran a hand through his hair.
    “I am sorry,” she said softly.
    “Just stop bloody apologizing. I get it. For the last ten years I have been pissed that you threw away what we had. But there was never anything to throw away. You were never going to see me as anything more than the kid from the scheme. So you were right—Sam did do us a favour.”
    Sarah turned away so he could not see her. It wasn’t pity she