He slid his arms around her waist, drawing her closer. ‘Would you like me to go with you tomorrow? Help sort things out with Tony?’
‘No. This is something I should do myself.’ Her mouth curled into an ironic smile. ‘I can’t expect you to protect me forever.’
The urge to do precisely that was very strong. Max found it difficult to back off from it. Probably his intense dislike of her ex-husband was driving it. He didn’t want Chloe meeting with the slime. Yet the encounter with Laura Farrell had definitely demonstrated she could no longer be influenced into doing anything she didn’t feel was right. She was no-one’s fool anymore, and he had no right to fray her confidence in handling a situation which she saw as her business.
‘Besides, I should be perfectly safe in my lawyer’s office,’ she insisted.
‘True,’ he conceded. ‘I’m worried about when you leave it. If Tony turns nasty…’ No mental strength could fight superior physical strength. Chloe needed him to protect her.
She frowned, fretting over the very real possibility that Tony could try physical force on her until a solution struck. ‘I know. I’ll call Gerry Anderson, ask him to take me to the lawyer’s office and bring me home. Gerry’s a very good security guard.’
An independent solution.
Little by little she was separating herself from him.
Soon she wouldn’t need him at all, although wanting him was still strong. He made sure it would stay strong, pouring every bit of his sexual expertise into their love-making later in the evening. Afterwards she cuddled up to him with a satisfied sigh and murmured, ‘You know, Max, I’m not with you because I want to feather my nest with your billions. You don’t think that, do you?’
‘No, I don’t. Never would with you, Chloe.’
She snuggled down contentedly, accepting his word without question.
Max knew he couldn’t buy her.
Wouldn’t want to, either.
Her heart and mind were now geared to making the choices that felt right to her-running her own race.
To keep her he had to make himself her choice.
The hell of it was he wanted her to share everything with him, wanted to share everything with her. Running his own race into the future looked very empty without her at his side. Even Hill House felt empty without her there to come home to.
Max had never thought of his life as dark. A deep sense of purpose had driven it forward from nothing to everything he wanted. But Chloe lit him up inside with her lovely, shining, artless personality and all he had valued in the past-the brilliance of his achievements-lost its gloss compared to what she made him feel.
The plain truth was he didn’t have everything he wanted.
Chloe was slipping away from him and he wanted more of her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
DESPITE Chloe’s determination to set things right, she felt very nervous about the confrontation with Tony. He was sure to be angry and spiteful, and although their respective lawyers would be at the meeting-hopefully keeping the situation calm and orderly-having to face her husband again was not a pleasant prospect.
‘I can feel your tension, Miss Rollins,’ Gerry Anderson remarked caringly as they set out on the drive into the city. ‘Want to spell out the problem so I’ll know what to watch out for?’
He was a nice man. She had always felt comfortable with him. It was easy to tell him what had happened with Laura Farrell and the purpose of this meeting with her husband.
‘May I give you a piece of advice?’ he said when she’d finished.
‘Please do.’
‘Miss Farrell was using every angle she could to milk you. Sounds like a very practised con lady to me and I’ve had a lot of experience with that kind of person. Don’t be surprised if she’s already milked Mr Lipton for all she could get.’
‘You mean she lied to me about Tony not giving her anything?’ It was a stunning thought.
‘I’m just saying it’s a possibility. For my money, she was going after the cream with you.’ He shot her a smile of approval. ‘I’m glad you didn’t fall for it.’
Chloe grimaced. ‘I did give her five hundred dollars.’
‘Not too bad a loss. And it made you feel better, which was fair enough. I think you’ll probably have to accept it as a loss. I doubt you’ll get it back from Mr Lipton. In fact, I think you should listen carefully to his side of the situation before accusing him of anything.’ He glanced a quick appeal at her. ‘Okay?’
‘Yes. Thank you, Gerry,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘I really appreciate your advice.’
He smiled and nodded. ‘Glad to be of assistance to you, Miss Rollins.’
‘I’m glad I called you. I feel more…more prepared now.’
‘I’ll be right on hand if you run into any trouble,’ he assured her.
‘Thank you,’ she said on a sigh of relief.
Having parked the car under the Opera House, Gerry escorted her up Castlereigh Street to her lawyer’s chambers and settled himself in the legal secretary’s office, right outside the door to the boardroom where the meeting was to be held. Tony and his lawyer were already there when hers walked her in.
The men were dressed in sober dark grey suits. She’d also worn a suit-a light pink linen-and after the preliminary formal greetings, Tony complimented her on it, smiling at her as though he was delighted to be in her company again.
‘You look lovely, Chloe,’ he said, throwing her into confusion with his charming manner.
She looked at the lawyers in agitated appeal. ‘Let’s get down to business, shall we?’
They sat at a long boardroom table, each party on opposite sides.
Tony leaned forward, hands outstretched in appeal as he earnestly stated, ‘Laura lied to you, Chloe. She lied to me. She’s not pregnant. Never was. It was all a lie.’
She’d been prepared for lies but not this. Nothing like this. Her mind reeled with shock. ‘But…but I saw her. She had a baby bump. Four or five months…’
‘Clever padding, I promise you,’ Tony asserted. ‘When the other guy she’d tricked contacted me, I insisted that Laura accompany me to a doctor to have the pregnancy confirmed. She wouldn’t do it, carrying on about me not trusting her, trying to get me to back off from having proof of pregnancy. No way. She’s done this before. Blackmail and fraud.’
Chloe stared at him, barely able to take in what he was saying. She kept seeing Laura standing on her front porch in profile, her pregnancy on obvious show. Was Tony spinning a story to suit himself?