Marrying the Enemy Read Free Page B

business.’
    The thing was, whenever he’d followed his dad, Denver didn’t mind. He’d been proud of his son, would clap him on the back and ruffle his hair and cuff him playfully.
    Most of his mates had envied him, having a dad so cool. And he’d idolised Denver, loved everything about him from his raucous belly laughs to his booming voice, his unerring ability to command a room just by being in it to his generosity with money.
    He’d only learned later it was easy to be generous with money that wasn’t yours.
    And their close father-son bond only made what his dad had done all the harder to accept.
    He released her, annoyed she hadn’t lost the horrified look.
    ‘That’s not very charitable. How did we go from coffee to get out ?’
    She gnawed on a gloriously full bottom lip, eyeing him as if she half expected he’d ransack the entire showroom contents and abscond.
    ‘On second thoughts, you’re coming with me.’ She grabbed his arm and dragged him towards a black filigree wrought-iron door with a winding staircase behind it. ‘You need your butt kicked and I’m just the woman to do it.’
    For someone who hadn’t had much to smile about lately, he found himself unable to stop the slow grin stretching his disused facial muscles.
    He’d like to see her try.
    * * *
    Ruby was a spontaneous, roll-with-the-punches kinda gal but dragging Jax Maroney up the stairs and into her apartment for interrogation threw her.
    From all accounts the guy had fled Melbourne years ago, eager to escape the fallout from his father’s incarceration.
    While there’d been no hint of criminal behaviour tainting Jax, how much had he seen and done?
    Rumours had been rife during the trial. Had Jax known about the embezzlement? Had he laundered money like his dad had? Had he stashed away a small fortune untouchable by the law? Had he helped his mum disappear?
    She hadn’t followed the news but her mum had been outraged by the thought of a renowned criminal like Denver Maroney having access to high-society money, friends’ money, and swindling the lot.
    As for Jackie, Jax’s mum, Mathilda Seaborn had raised her nose in the air and forbidden either of her daughters to speak of her again. Being duped by a criminal was one thing. Being betrayed by one of their own another.
    How Jax had ended up CEO of a profitable mining company in Western Australia, a mining company driving her family business into the ground, was what she had every intention of finding out.
    Learning his identity, she now understood the hint of danger emanating from him—and understood her unlikely attraction.
    She’d always had a thing for bad boys.
    She unlocked the door to her apartment and flung it open, giving him a none too gentle shove inside before slamming it and whirling to face him.
    Stepping into her sanctuary comforted her: the funky Indian floor cushions in turquoise and tangerine, the fresh fuchsia gerberas stuck in mismatched coloured bottles serving as vases, the aromatherapy candles littering every available surface.
    Not tonight. Tonight, she had every intention of screwing over Jax Maroney the same way he’d been doing to her family business.
    ‘If that’s how you treat all your guests I’ll pass on the coffee—’
    ‘Zip it.’ She pointed at the lowest chair, wanting him at a height disadvantage. ‘Take a seat. I’ll be back.’
    He shrugged and surprisingly did as instructed, folding his six-three frame into the soft chintz. ‘Just for the record, I don’t take kindly to orders.’
    His gaze started at her feet and swept upwards, deliberately lingering in places it shouldn’t. ‘But considering you’re about to slip into something more comfortable, it may be worth my while staying around.’
    ‘You’re obnoxious,’ she said, the sting taken out of her words by an irrepressibly smug grin at his backhanded compliment.
    ‘And you’re spectacular.’
    Wow.
    That zing of attraction between them? Zapped her in a big way.
    Annoyed