Free His Until Midnight by Nikki Logan

I’d call my lawyer and let him deal with the weeping,’ he huffed, eyes rolling. ‘Do you imagine I’m so easily manipulated, Audrey?’
    No. She couldn’t imagine him falling for any of that.
    ‘So what if the woman that loved you sat you down and stoically explained how much it hurt her that you got from someone else something she couldn’t give you.’
    His pupils enlarged and then the deepest of frowns surrounded them. ‘God, Audrey...’
    Had he never thought about what it might do to the woman ‘lucky’ enough to get him? She much preferred to think that a woman he chose would select door number four. The vaguely dignified option. Of course, the alternative would be to say nothing and just ache every year as December twentieth approached.
    Yeah, that had worked really well for her.
    He blew air from between tight lips and forked his fingers through his hair.
    ‘You see my point?’ she murmured.
    ‘So you’re basically dooming me to a bachelor’s life forever, then? Because I’ve been looking, Audrey, and you’re not out there.’
    ‘I’m just saying you can’t have Frankenstein’s bride.’
    He tipped his head.
    ‘You don’t want a regular woman with flaws and room for improvement. You want the intelligence of one woman, the courage of another, the serenity of a third. And you want it all wrapped up in a beautiful exterior.’
    ‘She doesn’t have to be beautiful.’
    Pfff. ‘Yes, she does, Oliver. You only date stunning women.’ The Internet was full of pictures of him with his latest arm decoration.
    ‘You think I’m that shallow?’
    All right then... ‘When was the last time you were seen in public with a plain, ordinary woman?’ she challenged.
    And he shot back, fast and sure. ‘I have lunch with one every Christmas.’
    The air whooshed out of her, audibly. But it wasn’t indignation and she didn’t flounce out. She sat as straight and dignified as she could and opened her mouth to say something as witty as he probably expected. But absolutely nothing came to her.
    So she just closed it again.
    He swore. ‘Audrey, I’m sorry. I spoke carelessly. That was supposed to be a compliment.’
    Because he deigned to lower himself long enough to eat in public with a less than beautiful woman? ‘Your flattery could do with some refinement, then,’ she squeezed out.
    ‘You are so much more than the particular arrangement of your features. I see all the things you are when I look at you, not the things you aren’t .’
    Clumsy, but at least he wasn’t patronising her with claims of inner beauty.
    ‘Please, Audrey. You’re the last person on this planet that I would want to hurt. Or that I’m fit to judge. My social circle tends to fill with beautiful stars on the rise. I don’t date them for the pleasure of sitting there looking at them. I date them to see what else they have going for them.’
    It wasn’t all that inconceivable. She could well imagine the facility with which a stunning woman would find herself with access to the kind of people Oliver mixed with. Where else was he going to meet women? And she absolutely couldn’t blame them for being drawn to him, once there. He was Oliver Harmer.
    He took her hand across the table. ‘It’s really important to me that you don’t think I’m that kind of man.’
    And it wasn’t as if he were giving her a news flash. She detached her hand from his under the pretence of wiping her mouth with her napkin and sighed. But she wasn’t about to be a princess about this. She was a big girl.
    ‘I wake up to myself every day, Oliver. I know where my virtues lie.’ Or didn’t.
    ‘I would give every cent I have—’ The greenish-brown of his eyes focused in hard but as he spoke he turned away, so that the words were an under-breath jumble. And something in his expression made her really want to know what came next.
    ‘Every cent, what?’
    ‘For you to recognise your strengths.’
    Had even the kitchen staff stopped to listen?