In Bed With...Collection

‘Yes,’ she muttered, keeping her eyes shut, not wanting to look at him.

As he had in the plane, he took her hand, interlacing their fingers in a possessive grip. Sunny raised her lashes a little to stare down at the linked hands, at the emerald ring glinting up at her. She was married to this man, committed to having a family with him. If she didn’t have his love, at the very least she needed honesty from him.

‘I thought the day went well,’ he commented.

‘Yes, you handled my family brilliantly.’

It was what he’d said of her meeting with his father. He’d probably handled her brilliantly, too, all along, from the moment he decided she should be his wife instead of Kristen.

‘It wasn’t hard. They’re nice people.’

‘I’m glad you think so.’

‘Need some quiet time now?’

‘Yes.’

He said nothing more until they walked into their hotel suite and the door was closed behind them. Sunny was working herself up to confront him with what Nadine had told her when he softly asked, ‘Want to tell me what’s wrong?’

The question hit all the raw places in Sunny’s heart. She swung on him, words shooting out of her mouth in a bitter spurt. ‘What? So you can fix it, Bryce?’ Her eyes hotly accused as her tongue ran on. ‘You’re very good at that, aren’t you? Fixing things to be how you want them.’

‘And you, Sunny,’ he said in a calm, quiet tone. ‘I care very much about how you want them, too.’

‘You have no right to decide that for me, Bryce,’ she retorted fiercely, inflamed by his air of unshakeable control.

He lifted his hands in appeal. ‘What have I decided without discussing it with you?’

‘Derek! You stopped him from seeing me and didn’t even tell me he’d come to try for a reconciliation.’

His face visibly tightened. The green eyes flared with violent feeling. ‘You throw him up at me? A man who knew you so little he could abuse you in terms that I knew were false on just one day’s acquaintance with you?’

‘How do I know you didn’t give him reason to think those things, Bryce? To get rid of him so you’d have a clear running track for what you wanted.’

‘Your relationship with him was finished.’ He hurled an arm out in savage dismissal. ‘You acted on that. Why wouldn’t I act on it?’

‘He came to see me. Not you. You had no right to…’

‘You gave me the right by being in my suite, my bath…’ His eyes glittered with angry possessiveness as they raked her up and down. ‘…my bed!’

Sunny clenched her hands, fighting the sexual power he projected. ‘You didn’t own me, Bryce.’

‘You were with me,’ he asserted, his eyes burning that undeniable truth straight through her defences. ‘Why would I let a drunken fool whom you had rejected, violate the intimacy you were sharing with me?’

Her mind spun on one point she hadn’t known. ‘He was drunk?’

‘And creating trouble.’

‘Trouble because you wouldn’t let him see me,’ she shot at him, determined not to get distracted from the main issue here.

‘He had lost the right to demand anything of you, Sunny.’

The mention of rights exploded any gain he’d made with his picture of a drunken Derek. She stormed around the suite, putting distance between them, seething at his arrogance in making that judgment. Which he’d clearly made to suit his purpose.

Never mind that she’d been hurt by her belief that Derek seemingly hadn’t even noticed her absence that night. Bryce hadn’t cared about her feelings, except in so far as making them more positive towards him. She swung around to accuse him of it, noting he hadn’t moved. He stood tautly watching her, channelling all his energy into working out how to achieve his ends this time.

‘The truth is…you weren’t going to give him any second chance, were you, Bryce?’

‘He’d had his chance with you and blew it,’ he grated.

‘That was for me to decide.’

She saw him gather himself, shoulders straightening, his formidable chest lifting, strength of mind emanating powerfully from him as he stepped towards her, his gaze holding hers with mesmerising intensity.

‘What are you telling me, Sunny? You would have had him back?’

It was a pertinent question, challenging where she stood as he closed on her. Sunny’s chin lifted defiantly. Just because she had married him didn’t mean she would overlook how he had dealt with possible opposition.

‘I’ll never know now, will I?’ she flung at him. ‘I didn’t hear what he had to say.’

Bryce kept coming, relentlessly determined on his will prevailing. ‘You heard him the next morning,’ he pointedly reminded her.

‘Yes, I heard him.’ Her heart was pounding. He was so big, so indomitable, and one perverse side of her liked the fact he wouldn’t be beaten. Yet he shouldn’t have taken her choice out of her hands. ‘And I wonder now what you said to him the night before.’

‘I told him we were negotiating a new position for you in Los Angeles and I didn’t care to have our discussion interrupted,’ came the imperturbable reply.

‘Did he fight that?’ she instantly queried, knowing she would have fought, as she was fighting now for integrity in her relationship with Bryce.

‘Yes.’ Contempt flashed into his eyes. ‘He lied, claiming you were his fiancеe, which I knew you no longer were. I faced him with the lie and told him you were free to contact him at any time…if you wanted to.’ His hands curled around her upper arms, pressing his truth. ‘But you didn’t want to, Sunny. You wanted to be with me.’

‘I thought there was nothing left with Derek,’ she argued, resenting the way he was boxing her into a corner.

‘He’s not worth the candle you’re burning for him, and you know it,’ he insisted. ‘You liked what you had with me. You wanted it.’

Her eyes warred with the blazing certainty in his, yet she couldn’t deny the wanton desire he stirred in her. ‘What I’ve learnt from this, Bryce, is that you play to win,’ she bit out angrily. ‘Whatever it takes, you play to win.’

‘You’re right. I do play to win,’ he conceded with ruthless intent. One hand slid up and tangled in her hair at the nape of her neck. ‘That’s the kind of man you married, Sunny.’

She couldn’t bring herself to move or even protest. Her mind screamed it was wrong to feel excited by the electric energy swirling from him, yet her whole body was tingling, and when he spoke again, his voice seemed to throb through her bloodstream.

‘I wanted you as my wife. I got you as my wife. And I’ll do everything in my power to keep you as my wife.’

Then he kissed her.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#ud535c0fb-8216-5cc4-a273-7d8e9771b73f)

BRYCE lay awake in the darkness long after Sunny had fallen asleep in his arms. She had responded to him as she always did, caught up in the storm of desire that raged through them, demanding every possible satisfaction. His mind kept hotly buzzing she was his. But a more chilling section of his brain acknowledged he had made her his.

He had blocked Marsden out and seized the advantage of the rebound effect, refusing to believe that such a stupid loser could possibly be the better man for Sunny. He still didn’t believe it. Yet why relationships worked for the people involved was often perplexing to an outside viewpoint. Needs could go right back to a person’s roots and seem totally illogical to anyone who hadn’t lived that life.