Brides for the Billionaires: The Billionaire's Marriage Bargain / The Billionaire's Marriage Mission / Bedded at the Billionaire's Convenience

So she had smiled good-naturedly through her sisters’ teasing, the pressure having eased off by the arrival of Colin and Neil, which had been quickly followed by her father and Dominick’s return. The nine of them—Kathy’s fiancé Derek had been banned from seeing his bride until the wedding tomorrow—had then all sat down to the meal the women had prepared in the men’s absence.

Now was the first opportunity this evening Kenzie had had to talk to Dominick privately.

She needed to talk, to cover the awkwardness she felt in coming back to the bedroom wearing only peach-coloured silk pyjamas. Dominick was sprawled out on one of the beds still fully dressed, his gaze hooded as he straightened up on the pillow to look at her.

‘Very sexy,’ he murmured as he scrutinized her slowly up and down. ‘As I recall you always slept naked; how long have you been wearing those passion killers?’

Her eyes glittered angrily. ‘Since I knew I had to share a bedroom for the night with my ex-husband!’ She had slept naked during their marriage because there had been little point in her wearing anything—Dominick had always thrown it off within minutes of their getting into bed.

‘Almost ex-husband,’ Dominick corrected grimly, straightening to get a better look at her. ‘I haven’t decided whether or not to sign the papers yet,’ he added distractedly, revising his initial impression of the pyjamas now that he could see the way the silky material fell smoothly over the pertness of Kenzie’s breasts. He noticed that her nipples hardened under his gaze.

In arousal.

So she wasn’t as sexually immune to him as she wanted him to believe, after all …

Kenzie avoided meeting his eyes. ‘You didn’t answer my question about what you and my father talked about while you were out,’ she reminded him, determined to stay clear of any conversation that might cause an argument.

He shrugged, slowly sitting up. ‘This and that,’ he dismissed, his gaze unwavering on her. ‘Nothing of importance.’

Unless you counted Donald’s satisfaction in knowing that, after tomorrow, all of his girls would be happily married and settled.

It was a sentiment that gave Dominick an insight into the difficulty Kenzie must have felt in breaking the news of their separation to her family—he hadn’t felt in a position to disappoint the older man either!

‘You never did tell me how Jerome Carlton rates as a lover?’ he looked up as he challenged her.

Dominick had realized the last few days that he still couldn’t stand the thought of anyone else touching her silken curves, and all those secret, erotic places only he had known. He still hated the idea of someone else hearing her little cries of pleasure as she reached the pinnacle of her sensual enjoyment. And the thought of Kenzie kissing and caressing any other man in the way she had him still had the effect of making his stomach clench into knots!

Kenzie studied Dominick for several seconds, wondering if he actually cared if she’d had another lover, and whether it had been jealousy all along that had caused him to cut her out of his life with so much finality.

But the glittering of his dark eyes and the tightness of his jaw were evidence of cold anger rather than the jealousy she had been hoping for. By bringing Jerome back into the conversation at all he was just spoiling for another fight.

She raised her chin defiantly. ‘As it isn’t gentlemanly of a man to tell tales out of the bedroom, I’m sure it isn’t ladylike for a woman to do so, either—Dominick, what are you doing?’ she demanded incredulously as he sprang up off the bed to grasp her by the tops of her arms. ‘Let me go!’ she instructed impatiently, glaring up at him. ‘You don’t really care whether or not Jerome and I have been lovers—’

‘Don’t I?’ he grated.

She shook her head, her hair silky about her shoulders. ‘You have to feel love to care, Dominick!’

He became suddenly still, maintaining a firm hold of her arms, his face only inches from her own. ‘Perhaps I’m just wondering how your parents would feel if they knew their little Kenzie had been sleeping around.’

She glared at him. ‘I thought what we were discussing had nothing to do with sleeping!’

‘You little—’ He broke off abruptly, drawing in deep, controlling breaths as he continued to scowl down at her.

Kenzie was tall and usually found herself on a level with most men, but Dominick had always been four or five inches taller than her, and that impression of height, along with the powerful width of his shoulders, became even more apparent as he strove to regain control of the anger she had deliberately incited.

‘But you don’t care, Dominick,’ she taunted coolly, determined to meet the furious glitter of his eyes. ‘You never did. Because you don’t believe in love, remember?’ she mocked, recalling the painful disillusionment the moment she had realized that.

No, he didn’t believe in love, Dominick acknowledged, and he had no idea what he felt for Kenzie at that moment, only that the thought of her in Jerome Carlton’s arms was once again driving him crazy.

There hadn’t been any other women in his life during the four months of their separation. Having Kenzie walk out on him in that way, leaving him for another man, seemed to have killed all desire for sex in him.

Until the second he had seen Kenzie on Wednesday evening …

Since then he had been filled with nothing but a desire for sex. But only with Kenzie.

But not here. And not now. That would happen on his terms. For his pleasure.

His hands dropped abruptly to his sides as he released her. ‘I don’t believe in love,’ he said abruptly. ‘I’ll go and use the bathroom myself now. And I didn’t make provision for sharing a bedroom for the night with my ex-wife, so, if you don’t want to be shocked out of your romantic little mind, I should turn over and go to sleep before I get back!’ He strode over to the adjoining room and pulled the door shut firmly behind him.

Kenzie stared at the closed door, blinking back the tears that threatened to fall. She knew there was no hope for her and Dominick, no common ground of conversation even. There was just anger and misunderstanding on Dominick’s part, and love, still love, on hers …

‘For God’s sake settle down and go to sleep, will you?’ Dominick snapped softly in the darkness of the bedroom. Kenzie became still in the adjoining bed. ‘Sorry. I didn’t think you were awake,’ she muttered, having had no idea he had been aware of her restless movements for the last hour as sleep had eluded her.

He gave a heavy sigh. ‘You may think I lack a certain—insight where emotions are concerned, Kenzie, but I can assure you there is absolutely nothing wrong with my memory!’

And what was that supposed to mean?

That he was still thinking about her with Jerome Carlton?

Or something else …?

‘I can’t sleep,’ she sighed.

‘I think that’s pretty damned obvious!’ he bit out tersely. ‘Unfortunately, now neither can I!’

‘Sorry,’ she muttered again.

Dominick sat up in the bed, swinging his legs to the floor as he pushed the duvet aside.

He could see very little of Kenzie in the moonlight shining in through the window, only the paleness of her face and the dark cloud of her hair spread out on the pillow beside her.

‘Do you want me to come over there?’ he taunted.

No, of course she didn’t!

Did she …?

There was no denying that she was totally aware of him, and had been so since he’d called at her apartment earlier this afternoon. Sharing this bedroom with him, even in separate beds, was absolute torture to her senses.

She hadn’t thought it would be like this. Yes, she still loved Dominick, and, yes, she was still very aware of his physical attractiveness, but she had thought his total distrust of her, and his lack of love for her, would have killed all the sexual desire she had once felt for him.

In the last hour while she had lain here unable to sleep, she had been all too conscious of Dominick in the adjoining bed: of the even tenor of breathing, the slightly elusive tang of his aftershave, and of the heat of his body. All of which had shown her that she ached for him just as much as she ever had.

‘No, of course I don’t want you to come over here,’ she answered without conviction.

‘Are you sure?’

She bristled at his mocking tone of voice. ‘Of course I’m sure!’