“What’s the point?” Given how angry she was, she was likely to push him over the rail of the yacht he was planning to get her.
“Gavin, she’ll probably forgive you if you grovel a bit. She’s too soft and gentle to hold a grudge.”
“She’s the one who brought up lawyers.”
“If she really wanted to divorce you, she wouldn’t have come for lunch or asked you about what you were up to yesterday. Okay? And you really don’t want to lose her. She’s good for you. You actually look relaxed around her. You weren’t like that with Catherine…or anyone else you dated, for that matter.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Success and wealth drew women like roses did honey bees. Gavin had learned the lesson the hard way over and over again, starting when he had been just thirteen. Jacob had swooped in and taken a girl Gavin had harbored a major crush on for months. Older and more sophisticated, Jacob had faced no trouble getting the girl. When Gavin had confronted his older brother, Jacob had laughed.
“What? I didn’t see your name tattooed on her anywhere.”
Gavin had bristled. “You knew.”
“And I promised to teach you an important lesson.” Jacob had smiled. “She turned you down because you didn’t have anything to offer that I couldn’t top. I have more experience, more money, more confidence and more success. Plus I’m taller.”
“She said she liked me!”
“So? Unless she’s spreading her legs for you while she’s saying it, it’s all negotiable. Women’ll latch onto somebody else who is ‘more’ than you just like they’ll toss a sweater back in the bargain bin because they found another one that was a better deal.”
Gavin had never forgotten Jacob’s words. His life experience merely confirmed Jacob’s harsh lesson.
When women said, “It’s not you, it’s me,” they really meant, “I found a guy with more money and more success than you.”
So Gavin had done everything in his power to make sure he was more than others, even though he’d suffered another loss to Jacob when Catherine had decided to become Mrs. Jacob Lloyd.
At least that had been a blessing in disguise. In hindsight, it was obvious he and Catherine were incompatible. Gavin had been more in love with the idea of marrying a beautiful girl from a respectable family and having a proper wife than the girl herself.
He considered Amandine’s behavior. She’d appeared in his bed at Catherine’s wedding. Then afterward, she’d tiptoed out of his room and returned to her life in L.A. Gavin had chalked it up to a one-night stand. She had, after all, been drunk, and he was experienced and jaded enough to know his oldest brother was wrong about one thing: women could spread their legs for a guy without really liking him. Still, something about the encounter had bothered him. Women didn’t generally run from him. He’d never really had to chase any of them…until Amandine.
He might have never seen her again—and would’ve done his best not to think about her—if she hadn’t worked at the Art4Kids Foundation as an art teacher. It was one of his pet charities, and he checked in periodically to make sure everything was being taken care of.
“Hello, Amandine,” he’d said at the end of his visit with one of the foundation’s classes.
“Gavin,” she’d said, her eyes slightly wary.
“How are you?”
“Good! Thank you.”
“I believe you’re done for the day?”
“Um…yeah, actually, I am.”
“Excellent. How about dinner?” he’d asked, his mouth moving almost on autopilot, shocking him. Maybe his subconscious had known then she was the one for him.
“I, uh…”
“Say yes.”
She’d looked at him for a long moment, worrying her lower lip, then nodded.
A year later, they’d gotten married in an elaborate ceremony. Everyone from their families and friends had been invited, and no expense had been spared. He’d wanted to give her the fairytale wedding all women dreamed of.
Being with him had given her access to his social circle, which teemed with the kind of successful, wealthy men any woman would love to get her clutches on. Who was she moving on to after getting rid of him?
Normally he wouldn’t have cared. Women were everywhere, but he didn’t want Amandine to hook up with someone she’d met through him.