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She’d taken him away in a limo the next day, and he’d never looked back.

‘I’m not talking about me,’ he said dismissively. ‘Regardless of what you believe, that’s what Neve believed. There are no loopholes in her will, so if I want to inherit, a marriage it is.’

Liberty was still frowning. ‘Do you really need all those companies? Don’t you have plenty of your own?’

Of course, she wouldn’t understand. He was the only one who did. He was the only who’d ever understood Neve herself. ‘They’re not just companies,’ he said coldly. ‘Like I said, they’re Neve’s legacy. They are her empire and I can’t let them fall into someone else’s hands to carve up and sell off.’

Something ghosted across her face that he couldn’t read. She opened her mouth as if to say something then, clearly thinking better of it, she looked down at her eggs and began to eat. After a few bites, she said, ‘If I’m going to be here for Christmas then, I want a Christmas tree.’

Kaius was momentarily taken off guard by the sudden subject change. ‘A Christmas tree?’ he echoed.

She looked up at him and, oh, yes, he could see it now, the steady burn of determination, of will. She was more formidable than he’d first thought, and something in him heated in response.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘And I want decorations, too.’

A tree. Decorations. He had neither of those things, and he’d told her that she couldn’t leave, which meant he could hardly have them flown in. ‘I don’t have a tree or any decorations,’ he said.

‘Yes, you do.’ She waved at the windows and snowy forest beyond with her fork. ‘There are plenty out there. And as for decorations, we can make some.’

‘Make some?’

‘We made some one Christmas.’ Her gaze suddenly met his. ‘Out of cardboard and glitter. Stars and snowflakes, and you drew an angel for me, to go on the top of the tree.’

As she spoke, a memory hit him, coming out of nowhere. Of sitting at a table strewn with glue and scissors and paper and crayons and felt tips. Of a little girl sitting opposite him. A little girl with golden hair, who’d asked him to draw her an angel and he had. He’d drawn her face on it, too.

Kaius blinked and his breath caught, and across the table, that little girl, who was now a beautiful woman, smiled the most incredible smile. ‘You remember that, don’t you?’

But that was the issue. Neve had told him to forget the home, forget his past, forget everything. That his life started with her and from then on, he should only look forward, not back. So that’s what he’d done. He’d rid himself of the memories of his childhood, made them so hazy in his mind that he couldn’t remember the details even if he’d wanted to.

But he didn’t want to. The past was gone and he didn’t want to return to it.

‘No, I don’t remember,’ he lied curtly. ‘There will be no tree, Liberty, and that’s final.’

Chapter Five

KAIUS SAT ACROSS the table from her, his expression hard, his gaze all ice. Yet just for a moment she’d seen something else in his eyes when she’d mentioned making decorations. A hint of something softer, warmer. He did remember, she was sure of it, but when she’d pointed that out, the warmth in his eyes had drained away, the ice taking its place once again.

Upstairs, as she’d dressed in the clothes she’d retrieved from the laundry, she’d been thinking hard about silver linings, about being here and not at Worthington for Christmas, and the thing she’d hit on was that while she couldn’t buy a tree or decorations, there were a whole lot of trees outside that surely could be Christmas trees. And she could make decorations. He’d have some office supplies, too, so she could make some paper chains at least.

She wanted a tree, dammit, and she would have one, and she didn’t care if he said no.

‘If we don’t have a tree or decorations, I’m not marrying you,’ she said.

His expression didn’t even flicker. ‘Then you won’t get the money for your home.’

Bloody hell. No wonder he had such a reputation for ruthlessness. There was no give in his face at all, though she did wonder why he felt so strongly about not having a tree. ‘It’s just a Christmas tree, Mr. Frost,’ she said with a touch of her own cool. ‘Not the end of the world.’

His gaze narrowed. ‘Why do you want one?’

Did she really have to state the obvious? ‘Because it’s Christmas and I like having a Christmas tree.’ She paused, then added, ‘If I did agree to marry you, would you at least consider a Christmas tree?’

His gaze narrowed still further. ‘But I’m already offering to keep your home running indefinitely.’

‘Yes, but it’s a Christmas tree.’ She gave him an exasperated look. ‘It won’t kill you. It won’t even cost you any money, not if we take a tree from your property.’

He abruptly looked down at his half-finished breakfast, and she wondered for a moment if he wasn’t going to say anything at all. But then he said, ‘I will allow a Christmas tree and decorations on one condition.’

Of course there was a condition. Everything was a business proposition for him, wasn’t it? Well, whatever it was, it couldn’t be too bad.