The Billionaire's Marriage Bargain

‘You did that on purpose!’ she told him fiercely once she could speak, her cheeks red, and her eyes glowing deeply green with anger.

‘More brandy?’ he offered wryly as he took the empty glass from her unresisting fingers.

‘No, thank you,’ she snapped. ‘This was a mistake—’

‘How do you know that when I haven’t even given you my answer yet?’ he challenged huskily.

She shook her head. ‘You’re just playing with me, Dominick. You’re taking some sort of perverted pleasure in making me squirm, when all the time you know you’re going to say no—’

‘I don’t know that,’ he cut in softly. ‘And neither do you,’ he added.

Kenzie sighed in frustration. ‘I don’t know why I ever thought appealing to your better nature would work—’

‘Considering we both know I don’t have a better nature?’

Dominick put in scornfully.

That wasn’t true. Dominick had his faults, but she could never have fallen in love with him if he didn’t have a softer, more charming side to him.

But being with him again now she realized what a fool she had been to ever hope that Dominick would want her back, and to believe that she was the one woman that Dominick could love, when it was obvious he had never been in love before. Yes, she had been a fool. A silly, romantic fool.

And she hadn’t seen that softer, more charming side to him since that day, four months ago, when she had told him she had decided to accept the offer from Carlton Cosmetics, an offer that would take her to America for a month.

They had been going through a difficult patch in their marriage, and she had thought that month apart would give them a breathing space away from each other, for them both to sit and reflect, and perhaps to come to some sort of compromise concerning their differences over the subject of having children.

Instead Dominick had accused her of being involved with Jerome Carlton personally rather than just his company, of having an affair with the other man, refusing to believe her denials.

‘You weren’t sarcastic and hurtful like this when we met, Dominick.’ She gave a pained frown.

‘Maybe I was just being charming then because I wanted to get you into bed?’ he derided. ‘Or maybe it’s just that having your wife leave you for the bed of another man has this effect on you! Tell me, Kenzie, is he a good lover?’ He studied her between narrowed lids. ‘A better lover than me?’

Just the thought of Kenzie in the arms of the charismatically handsome Jerome Carlton had driven Dominick to say things, do things, he might otherwise not have done. But having said them, there had been no going back.

The arrival of the divorce papers three months after their separation only confirmed her intention to marry the other man as far as Dominick was concerned.

‘I hope he found me a satisfactory teacher!’ Dominick bit out harshly at her continued silence at his taunt, determinedly ignoring the way her cheeks had paled at his words.

He still couldn’t bear the thought of any other man touching her and caressing her in the way he liked to.

Was he going insane? He groaned inwardly as he turned away abruptly. Had seeing Kenzie again driven him over the edge of some precipice he had been fighting against for the last four months as he had considered his plans of retribution?

That had to be it.

There could be no other explanation for the jealousy he felt.

‘Look, Dominick.’ She spoke woodenly. ‘Other than continuing to assure you that Jerome and I have never been lovers, not when the two of us were married, or since, I don’t have any other way of convincing you that you are completely wrong about my involvement with him!’

Assurances that were a complete waste of time when her lover had no such qualms about acknowledging their involvement!

Besides, it was too late for that. It had been too late the very first moment Kenzie had responded to Jerome Carlton’s seduction.

Dominick had believed that Kenzie’s lack of physical involvement with men before their marriage meant that the least he could expect from her was fidelity. Knowing of her affair with Jerome Carlton just made her as untrustworthy as every other woman, including his own mother, he had ever been close to.

‘I think perhaps I should leave now, Dominick,’ Kenzie said softly. ‘Before this conversation becomes any more insulting!’

They were deliberately hurting each other, he knew, and he forced the tension to leave his shoulders as he turned back to face her, coming to his decision. ‘What time is Kathy’s wedding on Saturday?’ he prompted abruptly.

Kenzie’s eyes widened. ‘Why do you want to know…?’ she asked warily.

Dominick’s mouth twisted derisively. ‘It’s hardly going to serve its purpose if I arrive too late for the wedding, now, is it?’

He was going to help her out, after all? He was going to help her protect her father from the truth, in this charade that she should have ended long ago and now couldn’t find the right words, or time, in which to do so?

She swallowed hard. ‘If you’re serious—if you’re really willing to do this—my parents are expecting us both down for a family dinner on Friday evening,’ she told him, frowning.

‘Kenzie, you said you wanted me to accompany you to the wedding, and presumably you would expect me to stay on for the reception afterwards. Isn’t wanting me to go to your parents’ home on the Friday evening, as well, a little above and beyond…?’ he mocked scathingly.

She grimaced. ‘It’s worse than that, I’m afraid; we’re expected to stay overnight at my parents’ house on the Friday evening, too.’

Which, if Dominick agreed, she had already known was going to be something of a problem. Although not an insurmountable one. All three of her parents’ guest bedrooms had twin beds, so they wouldn’t actually be sharing a bed, just the room.

Although Dominick’s cool control, and her own quivering response just to the touch of his hand on her arm and back, said she was the one in more danger of finding their proximity overwhelming…

Dominick continued to look at her for several long seconds, his expression guarded as he took in her silken hair, before his gaze shifted slightly to her face, and then he wished it hadn’t as he felt almost as if he were drowning in the depths of her eyes, those incredible, emerald-coloured eyes.

Deceptively honest eyes, he reminded himself with cold determination, thinking of how she continued to lie about her involvement with Jerome.

But now Kenzie was here, however briefly, and was willingly, if unwittingly, putting herself back in his power…

‘I’m sure staying over won’t be a problem, Kenzie,’ he accepted dismissively.

She eyed him thoughtfully, at last seeming to realize something of what she was doing. ‘It won’t?’

‘Not at all,’ he drawled with satisfaction. ‘We shared a bed for nine months, I’m sure we can share a bedroom again for a single night only.’

Kenzie felt knocked slightly off balance by his sudden acquiescence, as she had been sure she would have to do some more quick talking once Dominick knew the full extent of the commitment she was asking him to make.

‘I—fine,’ she accepted awkwardly, too relieved right now that he had agreed to come to the wedding with her to want to stand and dissect his response. No doubt she would have plenty of time to reflect on that later! All that was important at the moment was her father’s continuing peace of mind. ‘We’re expected in Worcestershire for about seven o’clock…’

‘I’ll drive us there.’ He nodded. ‘Does a four o’clock departure suit you?’

‘Perfect.’ She nodded, still frowning, but unable to read any of Dominick’s own thoughts from his deliberately closed expression.

‘My address in London is—’

‘I know your address, Kenzie,’ he cut in disparagingly.

He knew where she lived…? He knew of the apartment she had bought and moved into when she’d returned from the States?