Kelly Hunter – Single Girl Abroad: Untameable Rogue (страница 9)

‘Mr Yi,’ said Madeline, not quite concealing her surprise, though she made a creditable attempt at a polite smile.

‘Mrs Delacourte.’ The briefest of bows accompanied the statement, before the man’s gaze cut to Luke.

‘May I introduce Luke Bennett, my dining companion?’ said Madeline, responding to the unspoken cue, again with manners and caution rather than warmth. ‘Luke, may I present to you Bruce Yi, philanthropist and financier.’

Luke stood and shook hands with the man. Firm, slightly calloused grip, steady eye contact.

‘Any relation to Jacob?’ said the older man.

‘My brother.’

‘Ah.’ Hard to tell if Bruce Yi thought this was a good thing or not.

‘You know Jake?’ asked Luke.

‘I know of him,’ said Bruce. ‘Jianne Xang is my brother-in-law’s child. My niece.’

‘Ah.’ Awkward. ‘Give Ji my regards,’ said Luke quietly. He bore Ji no grudge. None of them did.

Okay, so maybe Jake bore her a tiny grudge for leaving after less than a year of marriage and taking his heart with her. Luke was still pretty sure that Jake would be the first to say that his expectations of marriage and of Ji had been too high. Had Jake ever actually talked about his ill-fated marriage to anyone, that was. Which he hadn’t.

‘Curious, don’t you think, that after all these years of separation neither Jacob nor Jianne has ever filed for a divorce?’ said the older man with the searching eyes.

‘I don’t pretend to know my brother’s mind,’ said Luke. Bruce Yi would have to look elsewhere for his answers. ‘And I certainly don’t claim to know Ji’s.’

‘One can never truly know the mind of another,’ said the older man. ‘Still, one can speculate, can they not?’

‘I’d rather not.’

Bruce Yi inclined his head and turned to Madeline. ‘My wife has a new exhibition previewing on Friday evening. A small gathering only.’

‘I’m sure Elena will put on a magnificent show,’ said Madeline. ‘She always does.’

‘I’ll add your name to the invitation list,’ said Bruce. ‘We’ll hope to see you there.’

Madeline smiled but made no comment.

‘You too, Mr Bennett.’

Madeline’s silence seemed well worth emulating.

‘Enjoy your meal,’ said the older man, and with a nod resumed his course towards the door.

‘Friend of yours?’ said Luke once he’d taken his seat.

‘No. One of Singapore’s banking elite.’ Madeline’s eyes were unhappy, her features tight with tension. ‘For the past six years, I’ve been consolidating Delacourte’s assets. Now I’m ready to grow them. I have a development proposal with Yi Enterprises that needs strong financial backing and very specific partnerships. Bruce Yi can make it happen. I thought his overture was business related. I thought it was an invitation, in typical Chinese fashion, to start dealing. It wasn’t. He’s using me to get to you. He’ll use you to get to Jacob.’

‘That’s quite an assumption,’ said Luke. ‘Given that until you introduced us he had no idea who I was.’

‘He knew,’ she said simply. ‘Maybe he noticed your resemblance to Jake and hazarded a guess, maybe he knew some other way, but he stopped by this table because of you, not me.’ She stared at him unhappily.

‘And his invitation?’

‘Should be viewed as an invitation to negotiate. I’m guessing that he wants Jianne’s divorce finalised.’

‘What’s the project?’ asked Luke. ‘The one you want Bruce Yi to finance?’

‘A Delacourte apartment-block build, our first major development in years, only this time we aim to incorporate onsite childcare, preschool, and early primary school facilities into the mix.’

‘It doesn’t sound risky to me.’

‘We also want to fit a high-grade air-filtering system that’ll give us a superior clean-air rating. They don’t come cheap.’

‘And you’ll adjust your prices accordingly. Still not seeing a problem,’ said Luke.

‘The problem is me,’ said Madeline bluntly. ‘More specifically, Bruce Yi’s perception of me. William was supposed to have had a stalwart first wife of good breeding who’d had the forethought to bear him children before being discarded. The bulk of the money would go to them. The problem being that William had no previous wife, children, or close family connections at all.’

‘So you’re the poster child for trophy wives,’ said Luke with a shrug. ‘So what?’

‘So Bruce Yi still sees me as an upstart who got lucky. He doesn’t see the businesswoman. He sees only what he wants to see.’

‘Then change his mind.’

‘How? By sacrificing you and Jacob to my ambition?’

‘No, by attending this art preview, showing Bruce Yi your stripes as a visionary developer tycoon, and letting Jake and I take care of ourselves.’

Madeline shook her head ruefully. ‘You don’t understand. Bruce Yi doesn’t need the Delacourte project. There are a dozen equally worthy proposals on his desk, all vying for his attention. He doesn’t need anything from me except access to you. He’s just made that very clear. And if I don’t bring you …’

‘Then bring me.’

‘He’s subtle.’

‘You’re annoying,’ countered Luke. Nothing but the truth. ‘Besides, I like a challenge. You said so yourself.’

‘It’ll be black tie.’

‘I’ll find one,’ he said.

‘I wouldn’t put it past Bruce to arrange for Ji to be there.’

‘And if you were trying to convince Jake to attend this function, that’d be the deal breaker. It’s not a deal breaker for me.’

‘I’d probably end up using you as a shield as well.’

‘A shield against what?’

‘Amorous intentions, mischief making, and the occasional dagger.’

‘Has anyone ever told you that you make a lot of waves?’

‘Frequently.’ And if the shadows that fell across Madeline’s eyes were any indication, it hadn’t been delivered as praise. ‘Forget it,’ she said as the waiters descended with the food. ‘You don’t have to come. It’s just a test.’

‘In my experience, when people don’t turn up for a test, they fail,’ said Luke quietly. ‘How about I put a mutually beneficial proposition to you?’

‘I’m listening,’ said Madeline, even if she wasn’t looking at him. Instead she watched the comings and goings of the boats on the water. It provided a welcome alternative to watching and wanting the man who sat opposite her. He cut straight to the heart of things, this man. Straight to the heart of her.

Everyone had thought Delacourte would be bankrupt within a year of William’s death, but Delacourte hadn’t gone bankrupt, and that was her doing. If Madeline had her way she would see Delacourte growing again. The question was … At what cost? ‘What did you have in mind?’

‘You accompany me to the art exhibition and help me find out what Yi is thinking when it comes to Jake’s affairs,’ he said. ‘If that puts you in a position to talk to him about your business initiatives, all the better. I don’t mind mixing Bennett personal business with your profitable one.’

She glanced his way again and braced hard against the impact of such beauty of face and clarity of thought. ‘Are you sure you’re not Chinese?’

‘No, but I do admire their ability to mix work and family business.’

‘It’s a skill that takes thousands of years of evolution,’ said Madeline dryly. But for the first time since Bruce Yi had stopped by their table, Madeline actually considered attending the show. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Just say yes, Maddy, then pack Bruce Yi away in a box in that very clever brain of yours until Friday.’

‘Because I don’t think you quite know what you’re in for.’

‘I get that a lot,’ he said drolly. ‘Occupational hazard. I’m still not hearing a “yes”.’

‘All right, yes, and don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now what?’

‘Now we go back to what we were doing before we were interrupted,’ said Luke way too smoothly for comfort.

‘Which was?’