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

Dominick paused in the open doorway. ‘Then keep it free, hmm?’

‘Why?’ she said sharply.

He shook his head. ‘I have—some details, to finalize, before I can confirm that. Perhaps we could have dinner together one night in the week—’

‘Dinner?’ she repeated in frustration, shaking her head. ‘Dominick, I’m not going out on a date with you!’

‘—so that we can discuss this further,’ he finished pointedly, his brows rising over reproving brown eyes.

‘But—’

‘In the same way that we met for dinner last week when you wanted to discuss your sister’s wedding with me, remember?’ he reminded, in a mocking tone.

‘Oh. Yes.’ She looked uncomfortable now.

‘Although I would like the two of us to actually eat something this time!’ he added derisively.

‘Don’t take me to Rimini’s, then,’ Kenzie told him firmly. ‘It would remind me too much of when we used to go there together when we were married,’ she added dismissively as he gave her a questioning look.

When they were married?

They were still married, damn it!

But if it meant Kenzie would relax a little, he was quite happy to fall in with her suggestion that they go somewhere else. Somewhere new, perhaps, where the restaurant didn’t remind either of them of someone else.

His mouth thinned as he thought of Kenzie’s ‘someone else’.

‘Or when you went there with Jerome, perhaps?’ he asked impatiently.

Kenzie gave an irritated shake of her head. ‘You know, Dominick—’ she sighed in despair ‘—one day you’re going to actually listen to me when I tell you I wasn’t involved with Jerome Carlton four months ago, and that I’m not involved with him now, either!’

‘Oh, I listen, Kenzie,’ Dominick assured her. ‘I just happen to know that you aren’t telling the truth!’

She could accept that the fact she had spent so much time in Jerome Carlton’s company just before she’d left Dominick, and that when she had left it had been to fly to America with the other man, could have all looked more than a little suspicious to Dominick’s accusing eyes.

But what she hadn’t accepted then, and still didn’t accept, was that Dominick hadn’t even attempted to believe her denials. He had seemed convinced from the outset that she was involved in an affair with Jerome, and nothing she said or did would convince him otherwise.

She certainly wasn’t convincing him now, she thought, seeing the cold scepticism in the hardness of his eyes.

‘Let me know about dinner, hmm?’ she prompted abruptly, really wanting—needing!—him to leave now, the strain she had been under this weekend definitely starting to catch up with her.

‘Oh, I’ll let you know, Kenzie,’ he assured her, seeing that strain in her eyes, and the paleness of her cheeks, his mouth twisting derisively as he knew just his presence was causing her this distress.

He’d barely begun!

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘OKAY, Dominick, that’s it! I refuse to let you play this game with me any longer!’

Dominick swivelled his chair slowly from his quiet contemplation of the river flowing smoothly beneath his office window, his eyes fixed in cool enquiry as he looked across the width of his huge oak desk at Kenzie’s flushed and angry face.

His gaze moved slightly sideways as he took in his secretary’s questioning presence in the open doorway. ‘Thanks, Stella,’ he said, nodding dismissively.

‘Play nice, you two,’ she murmured ruefully before backing out of the room and closing the door behind her.

Dominick’s gaze returned to Kenzie’s annoyed pink face. ‘You were saying …?’

Kenzie glared at him, wanting nothing more at that moment than to wipe that smile of self-satisfaction from his handsomely smug face. ‘I said I’ve had enough—’

‘I think I understood that bit,’ Dominick interrupted, relaxing back in his leather chair. He was dressed formally in a dark business suit, snowy white shirt and silver-coloured tie. ‘I’m simply at a loss to know what it is you’ve had enough of …?’

‘I’ve had enough of you playing with me,’ Kenzie bit out fiercely, thinking how arrogant her husband was.

‘I think I got that bit too—’

‘How dare you have Stella call me up and tell me to meet you at some restaurant called Tonio’s at eight o’clock this evening?’ she cut in impatiently, knowing that Dominick was enjoying her anger. Damn him!

‘Ah.’ Dominick nodded in consideration. ‘Is eight o’clock too early for you? Or too late, perhaps?’

Kenzie’s gaze narrowed dangerously. ‘It’s this evening that’s the problem,’ she snapped. ‘I haven’t just been sitting around all week waiting for you to snap your fingers so I can come running when you do!’

‘No?’ he questioned mildly. ‘Then what have you been doing?’

‘I work too, you know,’ Kenzie told him impatiently. ‘And for your information, I’m busy this evening!’ she added with satisfaction.

Even if she hadn’t been busy she would have told him she was after his high-handed behaviour.

Dominick eyed her silently for several long seconds, liking this outraged Kenzie much better than the controlled one of the weekend.

Not that her obvious anger made the slightest bit of difference to the outcome of this encounter; annoyed and incensed Kenzie only added to the challenge.

‘Why didn’t you just tell Stella that when she called?’ he prompted mildly. ‘Tomorrow evening will do just as well for what I have in mind.’

Although their present location wasn’t at all suitable for what he wanted, Dominick acknowledged self-derisively. Kenzie looked so fiercely beautiful, with her hair loose about her shoulders, her eyes blazing green, and that becoming flush to her cheeks. The fitted blouse and pencil-slim black trousers she wore clearly outlined the perfection of her body, and he wanted nothing more than to lay her naked on his desk and make love to her here and now until she cried out for mercy!

But that would not be according to his plan at all, he acknowledged ruefully.

Some of the anger seemed to drain out of Kenzie as her shoulders relaxed slightly. ‘And what do you have in mind?’ she asked, still eyeing him suspiciously.

He smiled as he gave a mocking shake of his head. ‘Dinner and a chat, actually,’ he said nonchalantly. ‘Unless you can think of anything else we can do to fill the evening?’

The anger snapped back into her deep emerald eyes. ‘I told you I refuse to be played with any longer, Dominick,’ she said impatiently. ‘And now that I’m here, obviously available for that chat, I can’t see any reason why we need to have dinner together at all!’

A valid point, he acknowledged—except that it meant Kenzie was taking control of this situation, and that was something he didn’t intend letting her do!

Having once allowed circumstances with Kenzie to get out of control enough to find himself marrying her, he had no intention of losing the power a second time.

‘My plans still aren’t finalized yet, Kenzie,’ he told her abruptly. ‘But I’m hoping they will be by this evening.’