“No reason.” I glance down to hide my smile, picking an invisible piece of lint from my shirt.
“I swear the shirt you went out in was white.”
“I don’t regret you, and this shirt wasn’t white.”
“Yet. You don’t regret me yet.”
“You’re hoping to drive me to the edge of my sanity?”
“It’ll be too late for you to change your mind, then. Your darling wife will have emptied your bank accounts and shoved you in a lunatic asylum as quick as that.” She clicks her middle finger and thumb together. “One with barbed wire fences and doors with padlocks.”
“Gothic. You like to read?”
“Mostly romance novels.”
She seems almost to dare me into commenting, but we just stare at each other instead.
“It’s beautiful here,” she says after that pleasant pause. “So peaceful.” Her chest rises as she inhales a deep breath.
“That’s because I bought the neighboring properties and knocked them down.”
“Really?” She sounds amused. “Do you always just… do what you want?”
“Not always. Sometimes I do the right thing, and other times…”
“You do the wrong thing?”
I nod.
“For the right reason?”
“Not often,” I say, reaching back to link my fingers behind my head.
She angles her gaze away. “Do you spend much time here?”
“Not these days.” It is beautiful. The view. The house. The stark ruggedness of the peninsula. But the country is small. Too small. And the memories are not so good. I have other bases in far lovelier places.
“Is Gibraltar a tax haven?”
“Why, are you looking for one?”
“Maybe I’m thinking ahead,” she replies.
“I think you’d prefer Monaco.”
She laughs softly as her gaze falls. “You’re funny. And you can dance,” she says as though these make her unhappy.
“I’m good at other stuff too, princess.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.”
“So much truth. Maybe you’ve had too much to drink.”
“I hope not. Drinking for twelve months straight seems like a poor fall-back plan.”
“I guess so,” I answer with a chuckle.
“I’m sure I’ll find some other way.” Her gaze flicks over me. Critically or with consternation? Probably both. But there’s interest in those blue eyes, too.
