“You lied to me?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it a lie…” Naturally Lucas had expected surprise, incredulity even, but at the end of the day the ski instructor had been swapped for a billionaire. He had taken it as a given that his newfound status would have done its usual job and brought a smile of servile appreciation to her lips. It hadn’t.

“Well, I would.” Milly was struggling to contain her anger. How dare he? How dare he play her for a complete fool?

“You made false assumptions,” Lucas told her with barely concealed impatience. “I chose not to set you straight.”

She sprang to her feet and stormed over to the window, stared out for a little while and then stormed back toward him, hands on her hips. “Why didn’t you just tell me who you were?”

Because I was enjoying the novelty of being with someone refreshingly honest… Because in a world where wariness and suspicion are bywords, it had been a holiday not having to guard every syllable, watch every turn of phrase, accept instant adulation without being able to really distinguish what was genuine and what was promoted by a healthy knowledge of how much I was worth…

“When you’re as rich as I am, it pays to be careful.”

“In other words, I could have been just another cheap, tacky gold digger after your money!”

“If you want to put it like that…”

His dark eyes were cool, assessing, unflinching. She could have hit him.

But there was no denying that she still wanted to kiss him.