Free Too Proud to be Bought by Sharon Kendrick

time.’
    ‘Oh.’ In the distance, she caught a glimpse of his pale rose mansion and knew they couldn’t be that far from his estate. And suddenly, she felt a sense of disappointment that this sunlit car ride was going to come to an end. Did she communicate something of that disappointment to him—and was that why he shot her another swift glance?
    ‘Do you want to see something beautiful?’ he questioned suddenly.
    Zara hesitated. But she had handled him okay so far, hadn’t she? Had refused to react to his murmured little innuendos and had somehow remained calm. And when would she ever get another chance like this—to see the beautiful south of France through an insider’s eyes?
    ‘Yes, please.’
    He drove the car around several more bends, before bringing it to a smooth halt on a natural rocky viewing point, which jutted out from the winding road. ‘Take a look at that,’ he said softly.
    For a moment Zara said nothing as she gazed down at bright turquoise sea which glittered in the afternoonsunlight. The little coves which edged it were fringed with fine silver sand and there were green lines of parasol pines which looked like giant umbrellas. It was so beautiful that for a moment she struggled to find words which would do it justice. ‘Oh, it’s amazing,’ she breathed. ‘So…so
blue
—and there’s so
much
of it.’
    ‘The area is on a natural peninsula,’ said Nikolai. ‘Which is why the water seems to surround us. We have some of the best beaches along the Côte d’Azure—but we don’t have the massive tourist influx of Nice and Cannes, and we’re only a short drive from Italy.’
    ‘You sound like you’re selling real estate.’
    ‘Oh, believe me—I’ve done that before,’ he commented wryly.
    She stared down at the sea—at the darker shades of rippling sapphire where the waters grew deeper. And she tried to imagine somebody actually living with this kind of beauty—waking up and seeing it every morning for the rest of their lives, if they wanted to. ‘You’re very lucky,’ she said, without thinking.
    The word ‘lucky’ jolted Nikolai from his guided tour and brought reality crashing in like the waves on the rocks below. For a moment he forgot the fact that her hair gleamed like gold and that her sun-warmed body was just crying out to be touched.
Lucky.
He swallowed a bitter laugh. That was what people always said. What they always presumed about him when they saw the houses and the cars and the priceless antiques in the properties he had dotted around the globe. How he hated the word with all its random associations. As if he had been bestowed with precious gifts at birth—handed wealth and privilege—when nothing could be further from the truth. Sometimes he wondered what the reaction might be if he came right out and told it as it really was.
    Was it ‘lucky’ to be abandoned like a feral animal and left to fend for yourself? And then to discover that you meant nothing to the woman who had given birth to you? That the supposedly most powerful bond of love which existed between mother and child had as much substance as a puff of smoke.
    His mouth hardened as forbidden memories broke free like black clouds which swarmed into his mind and darkened it. Until he reminded himself that bitterness was a waste of time and energy. It had all turned out right for him in the end, hadn’t it? Even if the price he had paid had been an inability to trust anyone ever again. He couldn’t change the past—nobody could—but he could capitalise on the present and enjoy it. Because a man had to make his own luck in life …
    ‘Do you know that, right now, I feel like the luckiest person in the world,’ he said softly.
    Unable to stop herself, Zara slowly turned her head to look at him, even though she knew that he was probably spinning her a line. Just as she knew he was going to kiss her and she wasn’t going to lift a finger to stop him. Because who could fail to be captivated by the