The anger sparking her deep blue eyes drew a striking resemblance to the Seaborn sapphires her mine was famous for. Probably the reason for her name, too.
Sapphire Seaborn was just as beautiful as her sister, but he could see glimpses of the stress she'd been under: the faint shadows under her eyes, the dull hair, the jut of collarbones under too-tight skin.
He didn't want to fight her, didn't want to exacerbate her stress, but no way would he stand for being bullied by a woman, frail or otherwise, jumping to conclusions.
Taking a step back, he held up his hands. Yeah, as if that would stop her, with that wild glint in her eyes.
"I didn't gut anything. Our mines are in healthy competition. Yours is struggling, I get that, but if you're the astute businesswoman I've heard you are, you'd realise Maroney Mine is only a minor part of a larger problem."
To her credit, she nodded, and he continued. "I came to Melbourne to propose a takeover—"
"Instead, you proposed to my sister," she spat out, making it sound as if he'd abducted Ruby and forced her into matrimony at gunpoint.
"Actually,sheproposed tome."
Her head snapped up. "What?"
"Your sister's quite the resourceful, forward thinker."
Never in a million years would he have come up with such a preposterous way to mutually solve their problems, but he had to admire Ruby for doing so.
"Crazy kid," she muttered, the corners of her mouth showing signs of tilting up before she pinned him with a gaze that could flay a man alive. "Just so you know, it's what Ruby always does. Throws herself headlong into any situation, giving one hundred per cent, living in the moment without thought for the future."
Unsure why she told him this, he opened his mouth to respond when she continued. "So listen up. Don't mistake her gung-ho nature for anything it's not."
Ah… now he understood. She was warning him not to hurt her sister. He admired her for it. He valued loyalty, considering his parents had none: to their friends, to each other, or to him.
They'd fleeced fortunes from people who'd cared for them, then his mother had left his father to cop the blame, and they'd both deliberately turned their backs on their only kid by not giving a fuck about the consequences of their actions.
With Sapphire glaring at him, hands on hips, protective of her younger sister, she shot up in his estimation tenfold.
"This marriage is a business arrangement, nothing more."
She hesitated, glancing over his shoulder as if toying with how much to say, before eyeballing him again.
"Maybe for you, but I know Ruby. You'll spend time together, having to act all lovey-dovey, so it stands to reason something might happen between the two of you."
She snapped her fingers under his nose in a ballsy gesture that would've raised his ire if she’d been a man. "Just remember it doesn't mean anything, merely her way of proving to you and everyone else she can make a go of it."
"I understand."
More than she thought. There was something in the way Sapphire Seaborn looked at him, as if he was batting above his average in hooking up with her sister.
Maybe her warning was underscored with'it doesn't mean anythingbecause a girl like Ruby couldn't fall for a guy like you.'
Not that he wanted her to, far from it, but that niggle of inferiority, a result of being shunned by people he admired because of his birthright, rose its ugly head at inopportune moments. This was one of them.
Had his father felt the same way with his mother? Not that he cared about his dad's feelings, not anymore, but he didn't like the possible resemblance, the thought that people might say Ruby was slumming it by marrying him.
He turned away, surprised when she laid a hand on his shoulder.
"One more thing."
He swung back to face her. "What?"
“If you hurt her, there won't be a mine big enough in the whole damn outback for you to hide in." Her eyes narrowed, doing little to diminish her fierce protectiveness.
"Don't worry. This marriage will be beneficial to us both."
