He gave her a fleeting glance. ‘Which remark?’
‘About the publicity.’
Leon shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘I don’t mind it being known I’m attracted to a very lovely lady.’
Helen sighed. ‘I didn’t mean you, I meant what did you mean by asking if I could stand the publicity?’ She gave him a searching look, but could tell nothing from his expression.
He frowned. ‘I thought may be you wouldn’t like me to cause trouble at your place of work.’
’Is that all?’ she probed suspiciously.
They were heading out of town now and Leon turned to look at her momentarily. ‘What else could I have meant?’
Helen evaded those searching tawny eyes. ‘You tell me.’
He shook his head. ‘I have no idea.’
‘You—you really don’t know?’
‘Know what, for God’s sake?’ he demanded impatiently. ‘Do you have some murky secret in your past that you don’t want people to know about?’ he teased.
Helen drew a ragged breath. ‘Don’t joke about it, Leon.’
‘You mean you do have a secret?’
‘It wasn’t such a secret a couple of years ago, and I just couldn’t bear for it all to be raked up again.’
‘For what to be raked up? Come on, Helen, you might as well tell me now you’ve gone this far.’
Her hands twisted nervously together in her lap. ‘My—my husband was Michael West.’ She looked at him searchingly, watching for the recognition, for the disgust.
‘So? What does—Michael West?’ he queried softly.
She bowed her head. ‘Yes.’
‘Of West Hotels?’
‘That’s his father, actually.’
‘You were married to Mike West?’ He sounded incredulous.
‘Yes,’ she admitted chokingly.
‘Then you must be—’
‘I’m the girl who married him, lived with him for only two days before walking out, and was called a fortune-hunter by the press for weeks afterwards.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘BUT you can’t be!’ Leon denied, glancing at her again.
She gave a bitter smile. ‘But I am.’
‘You’re the girl who stayed with him just long enough to consummate the marriage? The girl everyone said had only married him for what she could get out of the divorce settlement?’
Helen bit her bottom lip to stop it shaking. ‘That’s right.’
Leon gave her a scathing look. ‘I don’t believe you. You’re making this up. What are you, some sort of sensation-seeker?’ he rasped.