Greer shifted her weight as if to sit higher but he held her foot firmly, running both thumbs up the centre of her sole until she sighed and sank back.
‘I did. But I also wondered if you thought I wouldn’t make the grade in public as a rich man’s wife. My background is so different.’
Shock gripped him. ‘You thought I was ashamed of you?’
She looked away. ‘I didn’t know. You said it was to protect me but I couldn’t help wondering. I’m your PA, remember? We come from different worlds.’
Conall stared, trying to process the idea. ‘You’re the most phenomenal person I know.’ Her gaze locked on his and hefelther surprise. ‘How could I be ashamed of you?’
But not everyone had been raised to believe the world was theirs for the taking. Greer wasn’t shy or self-effacing. She seemed comfortable dealing with everyone, from colleagues to wealthy and powerful business contacts.
Yet one of her core competencies was the ability to hide her thoughts and feelings. He’d only learned recently how much she hid behind an air of calm.
‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured. ‘I shouldn’t have read anything else into your actions. But you took me by surprise when you suggested marriage. Everything happened so fast and I was playing catch-up.’
He exhaled. He remembered only too well her reticence about marrying and his secret indignation that she didn’t immediately say yes.
For him their marriage couldn’t have come fast enough. When Greer became pregnant and spoke of keeping the baby, maybe giving up her job to care for it alone, he’d realised how much he needed her in his life. He couldn’t watch her walk away, especially with his child.
Conall knew what it was like to be young and vulnerable, without a protector. When his mother died he’d been shunted into his father’s so-called care. If anything happened to him he wanted Greer and their child to have every legal and financial protection.
‘I’ve never been ashamed of you, Greer, and I never will. Ihavewanted to keep you safe.’ He shook his head. ‘I should have explained better, especially about my family.’
‘I’m listening.’
‘My father has five children by four women and Jason’s probably the worst, if you don’t count my father.’
‘Jason said you were used to him taking things from you.’
‘Not for a very long time.’ At her enquiring gaze he continued. ‘The last one was my first serious girlfriend, when I was eighteen.’
‘But he’s years older than you!’
‘Twelve years.’ At her horrified stare he shrugged. ‘I’m the youngest and there’s a gap between me and the rest. But we were taught to be competitive at everything. Besting one of our siblings at something was applauded. Losing was weakness.’
‘What did she see in him? She had you and he was so much older. And why would he do such a thing?’
Conall smiled, warmed at Greer’s astonishment that any female would prefer Jason. ‘I was a kid, albeit a kid with big plans. He was already established and very wealthy.’
Still Greer stared.
‘My family isn’t like others. When we were young our father never gave us support or love. He made the rules and we obeyed. People talk about strict disciplinarians but he was in a league of his own.’ Conall had no intention of going into detail.
‘For him, life is about winning at all costs. Triumphing over everyone else. Wielding power and accruing wealth. But he’s short on ethics, happy to bribe or browbeat people. He moulded us into mini versions of himself.
‘He supported all of us until we finished our education. But meanwhile we spent every vacation working without pay, and I do mean working. Jason was a jackaroo on a cattle station my great-grandfather established. I was a chainman for a surveyor working on a new road through the Pilbara.’ It had been one of the harshest yet most beautiful environments he’d ever experienced.
‘He wanted to toughen us up and above all he fostered competition between us. People ask who will inherit his business. What no one outside the family knows is that it will go to the one who has the most net wealth. Everyone’s scrambling to make their own business bigger and better. He set up a perpetual competition between us and believe me, it’s dog eat dog.’
Conall had never shared that with anyone. But it felt good, telling Greer, as if he bared some shameful secret he’d been too scared to reveal, only to find she didn’t judge him for it.
For instead of retreating, she slid her feet out of his hold and moved to sit beside him. ‘You’re in competition with each other? All the time?’
‘For years I was. That was drummed into me—succeed at all costs, beat everyone else, come out on top. It was a way of life for all of us. But a couple of years away from the old man and things changed.Ichanged.’
Conall watched her closely, wondering if she’d believe him. ‘I realised I have no interest in inheriting his money. I know some of the rules he broke, the palms he greased and the people he took advantage of to get that money. I opted out. I go my own way.’
‘But your siblings don’t?’
