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The Billionaire's Marriage Bargain
Carole Mortimer
Kenzie is determined to walk away from Dominick Masters.He never loved her, or wanted a child. But now she needs a favor from her estranged husband. In return for his help she must spend a weekend at his country mansion – at his bidding! Kenzie has no choice but to agree, but finds being alone with Dominick a delicious temptation – though stolen passion has its price. How will Dominick react when he hears Kenzie's important news?
Carole Mortimer
THE BILLIONAIRE’S MARRIAGE BARGAIN
TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON
AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG
STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID
PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
DOMINICK scowled HIS displeasure as the intercom on his desk buzzed, totally interrupting his train of thought. He should have told his secretary he didn’t want to be disturbed for a couple of hours. After four months of careful planning, he was now on the brink of achieving his goal, and had been sitting behind his desk in his penthouse office overlooking the Thames, relishing that thought in peace and solitude.
Four months. It had seemed longer. Much longer. But to have rushed in four months ago, without giving the problem his usual careful attention, wouldn’t have made the revenge he was now planning half as sweet.
Revenge, he had once been told, was a dish best eaten cold. He was cold now, icily so, and intended savouring every minute of the downfall of the man who had wounded his pride four months ago, when he had taken Kenzie from him.
Dominick turned his chair from the magnificent view outside to press the intercom, the irritation audible in his transatlantic drawl. �Yes?’
�Mrs Masters on line one, Dominick,’ Stella, his stalwart secretary informed him, totally unconcerned by his obvious impatience with her interruption.
His mother was phoning him?
Although why the hell she still called herself Masters, when she had been married—and divorced—twice more after divorcing his father thirty years ago, Dominick had no idea!
�Tell her I’m busy,’ he rasped.
�I did,’ Stella came back unruffled. �But she says it’s urgent.’
He sighed his annoyance. �Remind me to forget your Christmas bonus this year,’ he muttered, cutting off Stella’s knowing chuckle as he accepted the call. �Mum,’ he greeted tersely. �Whatever it is, can you make it quick? I have—’
�Dominick.’
Everything stopped. Movement. Breathing.
Just his name, uttered in that sexily husky tone, was still enough to bring his well-ordered world briefly to a halt.
He hadn’t seen or spoken to Kenzie in four months, and he had no idea why she should be telephoning him now. Although the coincidence of it, when he was so close to exacting his revenge, didn’t escape him…
�Dominick?’
Not his mother, after all.
But the woman whom until recently, he had called his wife. Who was still his wife. Even if she had left him to be with another man. The man Dominick was so relishing bringing to his knees.
He drew in a sharp breath, and his dark gaze narrowed. �Kenzie,’ he acknowledged abruptly.
Kenzie easily recognized that coldly forbidding tone. The ice man was what she had called him during the argument that had preceded the end of their brief marriage.
Argument?
No, there hadn’t been an argument, she acknowledged heavily, only Dominick’s coldness and her own disbelief at his accusations.
Her hand tightened defensively about her mobile. She hadn’t wanted to make this call. She would rather have done anything than make the first move after these months of silence, aware that Dominick had hated her when she’d left, and knowing him well enough to realize that his hatred would only have increased during that time.
�Well?’ he snapped his impatience with her silence.
It was the same old Dominick, she thought. He was always impatient, always caught up in some business deal or other, never having the time to listen, to even try to understand her.
Her shoulders tensed before she quickly shook off these negative thoughts. There was no point in going there. Nothing had changed. She hadn’t. And Dominick certainly hadn’t.
She hadn’t been absolutely sure when she’d made the call that he was in London at the moment, but she could picture him now, sitting behind the glass-topped desk in his luxurious ultra-modern office. The building he worked in was sumptuous recognition of the highly diversified multimillion-pound Masters empire Dominick had made. As well as owning his own airline, a television company and a casino in the South of France, he also had exclusive hotels in all the major capitals of the world.
Yes, she could picture her husband now, with his dark, slightly overlong hair, brooding brown eyes that could turn black during strong emotion, arrogant slash of a nose, and fine chiselled lips above a squarely determined jaw. His wide shoulders, tapered waist and long, long legs would be dressed in one of the expensively tailored suits he bought from Italy, while his shoes would be handmade from the same country.
Just thinking of the way Dominick looked was still enough to make her heart beat erratically and the palms of her hands become damp—
�Either tell me why you called, Kenzie, or get off the damned line; I have work to do,’ Dominick barked uncompromisingly.
�So what’s new?’ she retorted.
�Well?’ His impatience was barely suppressed now as he refused to respond to her sarcasm.
But hearing Kenzie’s voice again like this, completely out of the blue, was not conducive to pleasant conversation.
Not that there had been any chance of that anyway where Kenzie was concerned. None of his emotions had ever been lukewarm where Kenzie was involved. Fierce desire the first time he looked at her. Cold fury when she walked out of his life into the arms of another man.
�I—need to talk to you, Dominick,’ she told him quietly.
His mouth twisted. �Isn’t it a little late for talking? I received the divorce papers a month ago,’ he added harshly.
He had received them, and put them away in his desk drawer unanswered.
But maybe that was what she wanted to talk to him about…
Was she really in so much of a hurry, so desperate to legally end their marriage, that she was even willing to speak to him personally in order to get a positive response?
Because she already had husband number two lined up…?
Jerome Carlton, of course, the man she had left him to be with, who was no doubt willing to give her everything Dominick couldn’t. Was Kenzie actually thinking of marrying another man before the ink was dry on their own divorce papers?
He should never have actually married her, having never thought marriage was in his plans for the future at all until he met her.
After witnessing the mess his parents had made of their own marriage, plus their subsequent ones, Dominick had never considered getting married himself, and had certainly never wanted to bring a child into that minefield of emotions. His own childhood had been a nightmare of pseudo stepfathers and stepmothers, none of which had lasted very long.
But around fourteen months ago he had met Kenzie at a party in London to celebrate the opening of yet another Masters hotel, and it had taken just one look at the tall, beautiful, internationally famous model for him to decide he was going to have her in his bed. Her beauty was dazzling, her sensuality enough to send his pulse racing and, as a woman reputed to remain aloof from any sort of affair, she had been a challenge.
Dominick had wined and dined her, becoming more and more intrigued by her every time he had seen her. As he had got to know her better—and desire her to the point of madness—he had also come to realize the reason for her lack of physical involvements. Despite Kenzie’s glamorous, high-profile lifestyle as one of the highest paid models in the world, underneath it all she was still just the girl from the small village in England where her parents still lived and Kenzie and her three sisters had been born and grown up. The sophistication was just a façade, and what she believed in, and was waiting for was that elusive happy-ever-after.
It was a fact that had been completely borne out when he had tried to make love to her and discovered that she had still been a virgin, and saving herself for Mr Right. She had had no intention of becoming involved in a short-term affair, with him or any other man.
Quite what madness had possessed Dominick when she’d told him this, he still wasn’t sure. Perhaps it had been a need to possess, to have someone who was unique in his previous world of transient relationships that meant nothing to him or the women involved, a need to know that no other man had had, or ever would have, Kenzie. All he knew for certain was that the burning need for Kenzie to be his had intensified to the point that even his business had suffered from his lack of attention as he had seemed to think of taking her to bed day and night—something he had never allowed to happen before!
It had been a situation he had known couldn’t continue.
Which had left him with one solution.
Marriage…
Why not? he had reasoned once he’d got over the initial shock that he had even been considering such a move. He would never be stupid enough to fall in love, and so leave himself open to the pain and disillusionment his parents had inflicted on each other over the years of their marriage and since.
He was thirty-seven years old, he had reasoned at the time, and taking a wife, especially a beautiful and accomplished one like the international model Kenzie Miller, as well as putting her in his bed, could also be an astute business move. The fact that he wasn’t in love with Kenzie, and that he was determined never to love any woman, had never come into his calculations.
It was something he had come to regret only nine months after they were married when Kenzie had left him for a man who obviously could give her what she wanted!
For her part, Kenzie was glad this conversation was taking place over the telephone, relieved Dominick couldn’t see the pallor of her face, and the strain about her eyes and mouth created just from talking to him again.
She had taken one look at Dominick and fallen in love with him, and had been completely knocked off her feet when he had returned that interest. The two of them had been inseparable for the next few weeks, before Dominick had totally surprised her by whisking her off to Las Vegas in his private jet and marrying her.
She had felt a momentary flash of regret at the time that her parents and sisters couldn’t be at the wedding, knowing that her family would be disappointed too. She was sure her parents had always thought she would have a similar traditional white wedding, to those her two younger sisters had had when they married.
But she had been so much in love with Dominick, and had secretly longed to be his wife, that she had quickly forgotten those regrets in the wonder of having her dream come true as they had spent two weeks completely alone on the Caribbean island that he owned.
What she had failed to realize for some months after they were married was that although Dominick had asked her to marry him he didn’t actually return her love. He had only fallen in lust with her, and considered her a business asset as much as anything else.
And none of these painful memories was helping her situation now!
�I didn’t call to talk about the divorce, Dominick,’ she told him softly.
�No?’ he came back scathingly. �It’s been four months, Kenzie. Haven’t you persuaded Jerome Carlton into proposing yet?’
She flinched at his sarcasm, wondering how she could ever have fooled herself into believing this man was in love with her. But she also had no intention of getting into any sort of slanging match where Jerome Carlton was concerned; Dominick had refused to believe in her innocence four months ago where the other man was concerned, and from his tone of voice now she knew he still didn’t believe her.
�I’m still married to you, Dominick,’ she reminded him wearily.
�Only just,’ he reminded her tersely.
Only just, yes. Once those divorce papers had been signed and witnessed, and there was a legal recognition of their parting, maybe she might be able to once again get on with her life.
Although that idea certainly didn’t involve marrying anyone else.
How could she when she had never stopped loving Dominick?
She loved him but knew she was unable to live with him when he could never feel the same love for her. As his wife she had only ever been an ornament in his well-ordered life, an accessory.
�I need to talk to you properly, Dominick, and I can’t do it over the telephone—’
�You aren’t suggesting the two of us meet?’ he snapped, the derision clear in his voice now.
Kenzie sighed, feeling no more eager to see him again than he obviously was her. It would be so painful to see Dominick again and know that he never had loved, and never would love, her in the way she loved him.
But she knew Dominick’s reluctance to see her again was vastly different from her own. She represented the one failure he had had in his life. And failure, as she knew only too well, was something Dominick Masters refused to recognize.
In fact, she had been waiting the last four months for some move of retribution on his part for her ever having dared to leave him!
When it hadn’t happened she had decided that perhaps his inactivity was his retribution, with Dominick quite capable of imagining her apprehension—and relishing the fact!
�I need to see you—to ask you—something,’ she amended carefully. Despite their situation, she ached to see him, but not the coldly distant man, the ice man, of their last meeting, the man she could tell, just from the tone of his voice, that he still was. �I need to—ask a favour, Dominick,’ she expanded slightly breathlessly, wincing at the admission.
�From me?’ Dominick couldn’t keep the surprise from his voice.
He clearly remembered Kenzie assuring him, on the day she walked out of his life, that their marriage was over, and she would never ask him for anything ever again!
Except for a divorce, of course.
His mouth tightened. �You have a damned nerve thinking that you can just waltz back into my life after four months and ask me for anything—’
�Dominick, please—’
�No—you please!’ he cut in forcefully. �You walked out on me, Kenzie. On our marriage. Straight into the arms of another man! And now you want me to do you a favour?’
�I did not leave you for another man!’ she came back just as strongly, knowing he didn’t believe her, that he never had, but determined never to stop claiming her innocence.
�I happen to know differently,’ Dominick rasped.
�You don’t know the first thing about me, Dominick.’ She sighed. �You never did.’
The first shock of hearing from her had passed now, her conversation such that Dominick was pretty sure this call was just a coincidence. After all, Kenzie had no idea that the sword of Damocles—a blow entirely of Dominick’s devising!—was about to drop on her lover’s head.
�I’m not—the favour I have to ask isn’t for me, Dominick,’ she came back sharply. �Well…not really,’ she amended impatiently. �Maybe,’ she muttered uncomfortably.
�Perhaps you had better let me be the judge of that, Kenzie,’ he decided tersely. �Tell me what it is you—need, from me—’ he used the word deliberately �—and I’ll tell you if I’m willing to give it.’
�Not over the telephone,’ she insisted determinedly. �I need to explain a few things to you first, to help you understand—Dominick, could you meet me for lunch?’
His brows rose at the suggestion. Talking to her on the telephone was one thing, but actually seeing her again, being close to her long-legged beauty, was something else. �Today?’
�Well, of course—’ She broke off her impatient response. �Yes, today,’ she resumed more reasonably. �If that’s possible,’ she added abruptly.
Dominick looked at the open diary on his desk-top, unnecessarily so, already knowing that he was free for lunch today.
�I’m afraid it isn’t,’ he told Kenzie smoothly, totally ignoring the blank space in his diary. �But I am having dinner at Rimini’s at eight o’clock this evening, if you would care to join me there?’
Kenzie winced her dismay at the thought of having dinner with Dominick, tonight or any other time. It meant none of the informality of a crowded lunchtime restaurant that she had been going to suggest, but instead dinner at one of the exclusive restaurants that they had quite often gone to together as husband and wife…
�Couldn’t I just meet you for a drink in a bar or something before you go on to dinner?’ she suggested, frowning. �What I have to ask will only take a few minutes, and—’
�Scared, Kenzie?’ Dominick interrupted tauntingly.
She bristled. �Of you? Hardly!’ she dismissed scathingly, knowing that wasn’t quite true. Although she wasn’t scared of Dominick himself, she knew that, with his wealth and power, the sort of retribution he was capable of could be immense! �I just don’t see the point of completely ruining both our evenings, that’s all.’
�Just mine, hmm?’ he mused scornfully. �You’re the one that asked for this meeting, Kenzie, not me,’ he reminded her. �In the circumstances, I believe I’m allowed to set the terms for that meeting. In which case, it’s dinner this evening or nothing,’ he stated.
She’d had a feeling he was going to say that!
�Then I suppose I will have to agree to that, won’t I?’ she snapped, the hours, instead of minutes, she would now have to spend in Dominick’s company looming before her like a deep, dark chasm.
�Don’t sound too eager, Kenzie,’ he taunted. �I might get the wrong idea.’
�I wouldn’t if I were you!’ she came back tartly. �Nothing has changed. I just need to talk to you, that’s all,’ she added huskily.
�It must be something really big, Kenzie, if you’re willing to see me again,’ he mused, finding himself smiling at Kenzie’s obvious frustration with the situation.
It was the sort of relaxed smile he hadn’t given for months. Four months, in fact. Since Kenzie had left him…
His smile evaporated as quickly as it had appeared.
Kenzie had left him, had walked out on their marriage, because, she had claimed, he was incapable of feeling the love for her that she had for him, and after only nine months of being married she simply couldn’t live with him any more.
But her claims that it had been his lack of love for her that had ended their marriage had all been a lie, a fabrication, in an effort to hide the affair she was embroiled in with Jerome Carlton.
He sobered completely at the thought of the other man in Kenzie’s life, and in her bed. He knew that, despite all the things she had said about the fidelity of love and marriage, she had been involved with another man for weeks before their marriage had finally come to its bitter end!
But now, it seemed, she wanted something from him, a favour, she said.
The retribution he had planned was for Jerome Carlton alone, but he knew that the shock waves of the other man’s fall from power would ultimately shatter Kenzie’s world too.
But now Kenzie had brought herself willingly back into his life.
It was like the spider and the fly…
CHAPTER TWO
KENZIE had no idea what she was doing sitting in a restaurant waiting to have dinner with Dominick Masters, her almost ex-husband.
He was late.
Deliberately so, she was sure, in an effort to unnerve her.
As if she didn’t feel nervous enough about this meeting already!
A fact Dominick would be well aware of. Just as he had to be aware that any situation serious enough for her to have the need to call him in the first place had to be such that she couldn’t just walk out of here before he deigned to arrived.
Which was why, she was sure, he was purposely keeping her waiting.
Much to the interest of the other diners, not that they expressed it overtly. The face of Kenzie Miller was well known from her catwalk days, and more recently from the advertisements she appeared in on worldwide television as well as billboards and promotions in stores. Kenzie Miller, the face of Carlton Cosmetics.
Kenzie Miller, international model, sitting on her own for the last fifteen minutes at a table set for two, obviously having been stood up by her date for the evening!
No doubt this was Dominick’s idea of a joke, a minor vengeance for her having walked out on him, but, favour or no favour, if he didn’t turn up in the next three minutes she was walking out of here—
He had just walked into the restaurant!
Even if she hadn’t seen him enter Kenzie would have known of his arrival. She could feel the familiar ripple of awareness down her spine at his proximity, and the warmth of her breasts as they began to tingle, while an even hotter fire began in the pit of her stomach.
It hadn’t gone away then, her complete physical awareness of Dominick.
Not that she had ever thought that it would.
It was just distressing to once again be confronted with the proof. He looked amazing, Kenzie acknowledged, in his dark tailored suit and white silk shirt. She imagined the long muscular length of his powerful body underneath, and watched his dark hair as his head moved, hair that she remembered burying her fingers in as she drew his head down to hers and…
He wasn’t even looking her way, damn him. She watched him looking perfectly relaxed as he paused to talk to the maître d’.
Her stomach felt as if it were churned up into knots, and she was suddenly struck by the enormity of what she was doing. But what choice did she have?
Really?
None.
Dominick was walking over to their table now, acknowledging several acquaintainces along the way, seemingly completely unaware of her presence. Or that he was almost twenty minutes late!
�I hope I haven’t kept you waiting,’ he said coolly as he took his seat opposite hers at the table, looking just as devastatingly handsome as he always had. As devastatingly handsome as she had imagined while talking to him on the telephone earlier today. �I was—unavoidably detained,’ he drawled.
Dominick had seen Kenzie as soon as he’d entered the restaurant, and had been shocked how just looking at her could still render him momentarily speechless. His mouth had gone dry, and he had deliberately paused to talk to the maître d’ in order to give himself time to get over his initial response.
Kenzie looked beautiful this evening. Stunningly so, with her long dark hair loose down her spine, the figure-hugging green strapless dress she wore revealing bare satin shoulders and the creamy swell of her breasts. The dress was an exact match in colour for the emerald of her eyes, eyes surrounded by the darkest, longest lashes Dominick had ever seen, and her full lips held the promise of a passion he had come to know intimately.
But Kenzie wasn’t just beautiful; she had something else, a grace, an inborn sensuality that was apparent even in stillness, like now.
The first time he had looked at her he had felt as if someone had punched him in the solar plexus. Today, under totally different circumstances, he felt the same painful blow as he studied her beneath hooded lids.
None of that emotion showed in the harsh arrogance of his face as he looked across at her. �You’re looking well, Kenzie,’ he told her distantly as he nodded his thanks to the wine waiter who was pouring two glasses of the wine Dominick always ordered when dining here. �Obviously taking a lover suits you,’ he added harshly.
�Letting your overactive imagination run away with you again, Dominick?’ she bit out tartly, firmly pushing away her awareness of him as she tossed the long length of her hair back over her bare shoulders to meet his gaze firmly.
She had dressed carefully for their meeting this evening, choosing to wear her hair down the way she knew Dominick preferred it, and a clinging green dress that showed off the perfection of her figure.
She was going to need every weapon she could find to withstand the scorn Dominick now felt for her, and she had decided that she wouldn’t try to detract from the beauty of the face and figure with which she had made her fortune, but emphasize them instead. If only to show Dominick what he had given up when he had chosen to let her walk away rather than sitting down with her and sorting out their differences.
But the coldness of his dark gaze, as it moved slowly from the top of her head to the slenderness of her waist, didn’t show any regret for that loss!
Twenty-seven and a successful model for the last eight years, she never had been able to withstand the coldly analytical gaze that gave away none of Dominick’s thoughts or emotions.
If he had any emotions.
Besides physical desire, that was.
She had certainly never seen love shining in those dark depths, not for her or anyone else.
�I prefer not to imagine anything where you and Jerome Carlton are concerned,’ he snapped now as he picked up his glass to take a sip of his white wine. �I was merely stating that the demise of our marriage doesn’t seem to have affected your beauty!’
�Oh, let’s be precise,’ Kenzie muttered with inward resentment for his cool control. If Dominick had seen her a month ago as she had sat for hours by her father’s bedside at the hospital, just willing him to live, then he would have seen that she didn’t always look beautiful, that sometimes she just looked emotionally distraught.
�Fine,’ she dismissed tersely. �If I could just explain to you why I need to talk to you—’
�I would like to order my food first, if that’s okay?’ he cut in with smooth determination, his tone of voice telling her it wasn’t a question at all but a statement of intent.
He might have left her with no choice but to agree to meet him here at the restaurant, but she really didn’t think she could actually eat anything. Seeing him again, realizing she still loved him as much as she ever had, and knowing there was no return of love for her in his cold, unemotional gaze, was tearing her apart.
She swallowed hard. �Go ahead. I won’t, if you don’t mind.’ She closed the menu she had been given without even looking at it, her dark lashes sweeping low over the paleness of her cheeks.
Dominick studied her silently for several seconds, knowing Kenzie had never been one of those models that had to starve herself to stay thin, that her slenderness was as natural as her beauty.
He reached out to cup her chin in his hand and lift her face so that, unless she actually closed her lids completely, her gaze had to meet his.
She had become more adept at hiding her emotions in the last four months, he realized as she easily withstood his searching look.
Yet as he continued to study her he could see very slight changes in her. There was a strain in her green eyes, her face seemed pale beneath her make-up, and her slenderness, now that he had the time to look more closely, bordered on fragile.
�What’s happened, Kenzie?’ he demanded as he released her chin to sit back in his seat. �Surely Jerome Carlton hasn’t failed to live up to your exacting expectations, too?’ he scorned.
She gave a weary sigh. �Why haven’t you ever believed me when I tell you I have never been involved with Jerome on a personal level?’ She shook her head.
Why? Because Dominick knew exactly how the other man had pursued her five months ago, desperate to get Kenzie as the �face’ for his company’s new line in beauty products.
And with the chasm that had recently developed in their marriage, Dominick knew it had been all too easy for Jerome Carlton to seduce Kenzie, and to persuade her into being a part of his life as well as contracted to his company.
He knew all these things because Jerome Carlton had personally taken delight in relating them to him!
�Where does Jerome think you are this evening?’ he challenged. �Not out to dinner with me, I’m sure?’ he taunted.
She drew in a sharp breath before releasing it in a sigh. �I haven’t come here to discuss Jerome with you. I—actually I haven’t seen him for several weeks. My father has been ill, you see, and—’
�Donald has?’ Dominick echoed sharply, waving away the waiter who came to take their food order, too interested in what Kenzie was saying to even think about food. Especially the part where she said she hadn’t seen Jerome for several weeks…
He also wanted to hear more about Donald. He had only found the time to meet the older man three times during his marriage to Kenzie, but he had liked him and had to admire the easy way he had survived being the only male member of a household dominated by his wife and four daughters.
Kenzie swallowed hard. �He wasn’t feeling well for some months, and then a month ago he had a heart attack—’
�Why the hell didn’t you let me know?’ Dominick questioned immediately.
She blinked across at him in surprise. As she had learnt to her cost, Dominick didn’t �do’ family. Coming from a family that had been split apart when he was only eight, and then presented with a series of stepmothers and stepfathers, he could perhaps have welcomed the close-knit family Kenzie had brought into their marriage. But he hadn’t, he didn’t trust or want a family, and had kept his emotional as well as physical distance from all of them.
And only his emotional distance from Kenzie, she remembered achingly.
�Why on earth would I do that?’ she prompted incredulously. �You never showed any interest in my family when we were married, so why would you want to be bothered now that we’re divorced?’
�Separated,’ Dominick corrected harshly. �I haven’t signed the divorce papers yet,’ he reminded her.
No, he hadn’t, although Kenzie didn’t understand why not. She had thought he would be glad to get rid of her and the marriage he wished had never happened. But weeks after they had been sent, as far as she knew the papers remained unsigned as well as unreturned.
In the circumstances, perhaps that was as well…
It certainly made it a little easier to come here and talk to him this evening. A little…
�A technicality,’ she accepted heavily. �I—’ She broke off as a waiter put a plate of hors d’oeuvres in the centre of the table before making a discreet exit.
Dominick turned to give the waiter a rueful smile, appreciative of the fact that the other man had realized the tension bouncing off this table meant there would be no meal ordered here this evening. Or perhaps he was just another person who found Kenzie’s ethereal beauty enthralling…
Kenzie seemed to have been momentarily knocked off balance too. �How are your own parents?’ she prompted awkwardly.
He gave a rueful shake of his head. Kenzie had met both his parents only once, separately of course, in which meetings his father had been leeringly flirtatious and his mother had been interested in learning what beauty products Kenzie used to maintain her natural loveliness.
Kenzie had dealt with those meetings with teasing laughter for his father, and warm interest for his mother.
She had impressed Dominick at the time, he grudgingly acknowledged, particularly considering that neither of his parents had been overly interested in his marriage, even when he had told them he and Kenzie had separated.
�The same,’ he answered dismissively. �And stop trying to change the subject, Kenzie. Tell me about your father.’
She absently picked up a prawn confection from the plate and popped it into her mouth before answering him.
Dominick found his attention caught by the fullness of her lips, lips that he had kissed, lips that had kissed him and pleasured him to new heights.
God, how he still wanted her!
And how dearly he wished that he didn’t…!
Her tongue moved to moisten those lips now, her gaze once again shadowed. �He had a heart attack,’ she repeated evenly.
Dominick knew what a blow that must have been for the Miller women, for Nancy, his wife of thirty years, for the youngest daughter Kathy, for Carly and Suzie, and for the eldest daughter, Kenzie. Donald was adored by all of them.
The eldest daughter Kenzie…Who had once been Dominick’s wife. Who had come to him now to ask for his help in some way, albeit reluctantly. But what help could he possibly be to her? Kenzie was extremely rich in her own right, and could afford to give her father the best medical care available, so what could Dominick possibly give her that she didn’t already have?
Kenzie knew it was time to stop prevaricating, that Dominick would either help her or he wouldn’t. It was better to know sooner rather than later.
She drew in a deep breath. �My sister Kathy is going to be married on Saturday. Kathy wanted to cancel the wedding until my father is feeling better, but he’s adamant that those arrangements not be changed.’
Dominick frowned. �And you want me to send her a wedding gift…?’
�No, of course not,’ she sighed impatiently; if only it were that simple!
�You surely don’t want me to give Kathy away in your father’s stead?’ he taunted.
�You’re being ridiculous now!’ Kenzie said, exasperated. �What I want, what I need from you—This isn’t easy for me, Dominick!’ She groaned, her eyes, those incredible green eyes, filled with tears now.
He gave a shake of his head, his brown gaze guarded. �I’m afraid I can’t help you there,’ he rasped.
No, he couldn’t, could he?
During the months they had been apart Kenzie had had plenty of time to realize that it wasn’t completely Dominick’s fault that their marriage had been such a disaster.
He had never lied to her, having always been completely honest about his feelings for her, and had never once, either before or after they were married, said that he was in love with her, or that it was ever more than her body that held him in thrall. It had only been her own deep love for him, she had come to realize, her romantic ideal of what marriage should be, that had convinced her otherwise.
Until faced, irrevocably, with the painful truth…
She swallowed hard. �The thing is—Dominick, what I do need is for you—for you to come to Kathy’s wedding with me on Saturday!’ She looked up at him now, needing to see his reaction.
To say he was stunned was an understatement, although he quickly masked the emotion, his gaze once again narrowing, questioningly now. And all the time his razor-sharp brain was working behind his guarded appearance, evaluating, assessing.
But this time not reaching a logical conclusion…
Dominick gave a shake of his head. �Why?’ he prompted economically.
This was so like Dominick. Blunt. To the point.
And it would be better if Kenzie answered him in the same way. �Because they all expect you to be there!’
�Why?’ he repeated tautly.
�Because—because I’ve never told my family that we’re separated!’ The words came out in a rush, her face once again pale as she looked at Dominick.
Dominick frowned. Kenzie’s family didn’t know their marriage was over, that it had been so for four months?
The newspapers, thankfully, didn’t seem to have picked up on the rift in the marriage yet. The fact that both of them often travelled abroad, necessitating lengthy partings, probably accounted for that. But why hadn’t Kenzie told her family at least?
What possible reason could she have for not telling them?
Considering Kenzie had left him to go to another man this oversight didn’t make a lot of sense to him.
Her father had had his heart attack a month ago, Kenzie had said, which was before or after she’d had the divorce papers sent to Dominick?
After, he would hazard a guess, otherwise she would surely have told her family the truth by now.
Kenzie couldn’t meet the intensity of Dominick’s gaze now, knowing that not telling her family of their estrangement was stupid, and that her hope that their separation wouldn’t last had been even sillier.
But for weeks she had hoped. She had simply refused to believe that Dominick couldn’t return at least some of the love she felt for him, and that once they were apart he would come to realize how much he really did love her. She also hoped he would acknowledge that his accusations concerning her sexual involvement with Jerome Carlton were completely untrue.
It was because she had longed for a reconciliation, that she had decided there was no reason to tell her family of the estrangement yet.
It hadn’t been all that difficult to keep it from them either. She had been away in America for almost a month after she and Dominick had parted, and redirecting her mail, using her mobile whenever she called them, had been an easy way of concealing her change of address. None of her family had questioned why Dominick wasn’t with her when she’d visited, her family knowing how busy he was and how much he travelled on business. Her explanation that he was in Australia when her father had become ill had been easily accepted by all of them.
But she had waited in vain for Dominick to realize he cared for her after all, even the serving of the divorce papers eliciting no response from him, at which point she had had no choice but to accept that he really had never loved her, and that their marriage really was over.
Which was when she had known she had no choice but to tell her family the truth.
But before she had been able to do so her father had had his heart attack, and for the last month she had forgotten everything but willing him to get better.
Which he had. And the doctors were hopeful that, with time, and no undue stress, he would make a full recovery.
In the meantime, her sister’s wedding was on Saturday, and her family still had no idea that she and Dominick were no longer together.
No undue stress, the doctors had said her father needed.
It was definitely not the time for him to learn that the marriage of his eldest daughter was going to end in divorce!
Which was why she had no choice but to ask Dominick if, for one day only, he would agree to pose as her husband.
The real question was, would he agree to do it…?
CHAPTER THREE
�WHY didn’t you tell them, Kenzie?’ Dominick demanded. He hadn’t exactly gone around shouting about the failure of their marriage either, but he would have thought Kenzie would have at least told her own family…
She glared at him, tears still in her eyes, precariously balanced on those long, dark lashes. �And admit what an idiot I had been ever to have thought—Tell them that our marriage had lasted only nine months?’ she amended with a self-derisive shake of her head. �I was going to tell them—I had every intention of telling them—but everyone was so wrapped up in the plans for Kathy’s wedding! And then Carly announced that she’s expecting a baby, closely followed by Suzie announcing she was too. And I couldn’t—I just couldn’t—’
�Kenzie—’
�Don’t!’ She glared across the table at him, her face very pale. �You made your feelings about “bringing children into this world” perfectly clear five months ago!’
The question of children had never arisen when they had been just seeing each other, and when they had been newly married—a constant source of amazement to the jaded Dominick!—he had given little thought to the subject, either. So it had come as a complete surprise to him after they had been married for eight months that Kenzie had brought up the idea of them having a baby together.
Kenzie had seemed to draw away from him after his refusal to even contemplate the thought, and soon she had been no longer the fiery lover and the laughing companion of their first months of marriage. Then she had come to him a month later and told him she had decided to take up Jerome Carlton’s offer to work exclusively for Carlton Cosmetics, and that she was leaving for America the following week.
At which point Dominick had probably made the biggest mistake of his life, by issuing the ultimatum that if Kenzie left she needn’t bother coming back…!
Not only had she left, but Jerome Carlton had been standing smugly at her side when she had!
Carlton Cosmetics, Dominick now knew, was a family run company, Jack Carlton having retired several years ago to leave the running of the business to his eldest son Jerome. There was also a younger brother and sister, Adrian and Caroline, who were significant shareholders.
Dominick knew this because over the course of the last four months he had made it his business to know!
�I—you do see my problem, Dominick?’ Kenzie looked at him anxiously.
�Oh, I see your problem, all right, Kenzie,’ he admitted coldly. �In the circumstances, it wouldn’t do at all to turn up at Kathy’s wedding with your lover in tow, now would it?’
Kenzie could feel herself trembling now. �That was never an option,’ she told him flatly. �I do intend telling my family the truth, Dominick, I—just not now. So…’ she breathed deeply, her gaze challenging �…will you come to the wedding with me on Saturday or not? For my father’s sake, if nothing else,’ she added persuasively.
�That’s emotional blackmail, Kenzie, and you damn well know it!’ he replied harshly.
Was it? Probably. But it wasn’t for her own personal gain; it was only to help her father.
Although it was obvious Dominick didn’t see it that way!
�I know it’s a lot to ask, and I really wouldn’t have bothered if I didn’t think it was important. I would be very grateful if you would do this for me, Dominick,’ she added quietly.
If anything his expression became even colder, his eyes so dark now the black of the iris wasn’t distinguishable from the brown. �Tell me if I’m mistaken, Kenzie,’ he murmured, scowling darkly, �but it sounds very much to me as if you’re offering yourself up to me as some sort of human sacrifice in order to coerce me into agreeing to be your husband again for a day?’
�Of course I’m not!’ She gasped, staring at him incredulously. �I didn’t mean—That wasn’t what I meant at all—Oh, this is hopeless!’ She threw up her hands in frustrated anger. �Forget I asked! Forget I even told you any of this! I’ll find some other way of solving the problem!’ she added determinedly.
Dominick looked at her long, slender hands, the hands that used to touch and caress him…
Hands that he knew had been touching and caressing another man for the last five months!
It was obvious now why Kenzie hadn’t seen Jerome Carlton for several weeks—she could hardly drag her lover along to visit her father in hospital when her family weren’t even aware she had a lover!
�What are you going to do, Kenzie, tell them that I’m too tied up on business to attend Kathy’s wedding?’ he scorned.
She had already tried that. Last weekend when she had gone home to visit, in fact. To which her father had assured her that of course Dominick would be back from his business trip to Australia in time for Kathy’s wedding, that he was probably going to surprise her by arriving back unexpectedly.
Something she knew there was no chance of Dominick doing. Ever.
She shook her head impatiently. �I’ve already told them you’re away in Sydney on business, but my father is absolutely certain that you will make the effort to be back in time to attend your own sister-in-law’s wedding.’
�It’s nice to know that one member of the family has a little faith in me!’ Dominick’s expression was bleak and unapproachable.
Kenzie opened her mouth to protest. And then shut it again. What could she possibly say that wouldn’t make this situation worse?
�This isn’t the place for this conversation,’ Dominick told her grimly, picking up his wineglass and throwing the contents to the back of his throat before standing up. �Let’s get out of here,’ he muttered, taking her arm as she stood up to join him.
Kenzie forced herself not to tremble as he touched her, determined not to let him see how he still affected her.
Dominick kept his hand lightly under her elbow as they made their way through the crowded tables, nodding his thanks to the maître d’ as he passed. He had an account with the restaurant, and he would make sure he tipped the man very generously when he settled the bill at the end of the month.
�Where are we going?’ Kenzie prompted stiffly once Dominick had flagged down a cab, very aware of the light brush of his hand against her spine now.
�My apartment,’ he bit out dryly.
Kenzie held back from getting inside the cab. �Your—the apartment where you—where we—’
�Lived after we were married?’ he finished coldly. �But of course that apartment, Kenzie. It’s been my English home for over five years; why would I have bothered to move?’
Why indeed? Kenzie accepted heavily as she got into the back of the taxi, shooting over to the far side of the seat so that not even their thighs could come into accidental contact.
Dominick, she had discovered during their nine months of marriage, didn’t particularly like change, and, for all that he had business dealings all over the world, he had homes in all those countries too, apartments that were always kept ready for his use, disliking intensely the need to stay in hotels. Even his own.
Kenzie had put this need down to the fact that his childhood had been so erratic, no one place ever really becoming home as he’d ping-ponged between his parents’ houses after their divorce. His mother had retained the family home, but had moved in a constant stream of husbands and lovers, while his father, after an unsuccessful second marriage, had entertained various women in his city apartment.
She didn’t relish the idea of going to Dominick’s apartment, the home she had shared with him as his wife, as she remembered all too clearly the intimacies they had shared there, as well as that last terrible scene before she had left him.
She might not like it, but, until Dominick had said a definite no about accompanying her to the wedding on Saturday, she was willing to continue this conversation wherever Dominick decided.
At least he was still listening to her.
�Drink?’ he offered once they were in the apartment, holding up the brandy decanter before pouring a measure of the dark gold liquid into a glass.
Would brandy make any difference to the trepidation she felt? she wondered ruefully. Probably not, but it might help to calm her nerves a little. �Yes. Thank you,’ she accepted as he handed her the glass before pouring another one for himself.
Dominick watched the slender arch of her throat as she took a swallow of the brandy, the creamy softness of her skin, while at the same time inwardly acknowledging that he had missed her in his life this last few months, and not just in his bed. Sometimes he had ached with wanting her to talk to, to laugh with.
�So—’ his voice was harsher than ever as he determinedly squashed down his thoughts �—I believe we were discussing what sacrifice you’re willing to make in order to persuade me to accompany you to Kathy’s wedding on Saturday…?’
Kenzie had been about to swallow another sip of brandy, but instead gasped at the outrageousness of Dominick’s remark, gulping too quickly in the process, and starting to cough as the fiery liquid took her breath away.
�Careful!’ Dominick moved to pat her on the back.
A little too enthusiastically, as far as Kenzie was concerned; she was sure there was no need for him to be quite so heavy-handed!
�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?
�It was on the divorce papers,’ Dominick reminded her grimly, all teasing gone now. �Now, if you wouldn’t mind…?’ he added tersely. �I’ve already wasted enough time on this subject this evening. I have some work I need to do.’
Her creamy brow cleared of its frown as she gave a derisive smile. �Of course you do,’ she accepted ruefully, turning to leave.
�Oh, and, Kenzie…?’ He stopped her before she had taken two steps.
She turned back slowly, warily. �Yes…?’
His mouth twisted mockingly. �I’ll let you know what I want in return for—helping you out, in this way.’
Kenzie felt the colour drain from her cheeks. �What you want in return…?’ she repeated carefully.
�Of course,’ Dominick replied. �You didn’t seriously think I was going to inconvenience myself in this way for nothing?’
She hadn’t had any thoughts at all beyond getting him to agree to come to the wedding on Saturday!
He shook his head as he stared at her. �How naïve you still are, Kenzie,’ he taunted. �I’ll give it some thought in the next few days and let you know what I decide is an appropriate payment.’
And until then she would have to be satisfied, Kenzie accepted wearily as she collected her clutch bag from the table in the hallway and let herself into the lift. She didn’t doubt that the payment Dominick would extract from her would be something she didn’t want to give.
Or worse, it would be something she did want to give, but would be opening herself up to all sorts of pain if she did so!
CHAPTER FOUR
�CHEER up, Kenzie,’ Dominick said, turning in his car seat to look at her, having parked his black Ferrari in the driveway behind her father’s more sedate Mercedes. �For God’s sake, smile!’ he added impatiently. Instead of appearing excited and happy to be home for her sister’s wedding, Kenzie had the look of a prisoner about to be taken to the gallows. �I’m willing to do my part to convince your family that we’re still a happily married couple, but I’m going to be wasting my time if you continue to look like a whipped puppy!’ He scowled.
Heaven knew he was already finding this much more difficult than he had thought it was going to be.
He had viewed with cool detachment several photographs of Kenzie in magazines or on billboards the last four months—it was impossible not to see photographs of her when she was the face of the moment!—but those photographs had been studied perfection, and, while showing a beautiful woman, also gave her an air of untouchability.
He had forgotten just how sexy she looked with her hair wild down her back, and wearing the minimum of make-up. She was dressed in a tight white tee shirt, and faded jeans that fitted low down on her slender hips, their fashionable raggedness only adding to the air of sensuality around her.
An air he had been very much aware of as she sat beside him in the car on the two-hour drive they had just taken together!
Not that he had any intention of letting Kenzie see how much her appearance affected him, talking to her only when necessary, and then only tersely as he’d asked to be reminded of the directions to her parents’ home.
�Sorry.’ Kenzie grimaced in apology now for her air of preoccupation. �I was miles away,’ she added, knowing by the way Dominick’s expression tightened that he wasn’t pleased at being told this.
No doubt he imagined she was thinking about her supposed lover, Jerome, and that she was eager to have this weekend over so that she could return to the other man’s arms!
The truth was she could think of nothing but Dominick, of how aware she was of him, of how just being with him again like this set her senses tingling.
No doubt Dominick would be extremely amused if he knew how his close proximity had been disturbing her the last two hours, the black tee shirt and faded jeans he wore giving him a much more approachable air—a sexually approachable air!—than his usual formal business suits.
She also couldn’t stop thinking, as she hadn’t been able to the last couple of days, of what he was going to demand from her in return for being here with her this weekend.
She wondered when he intended exacting that payment!
Dominick gave her one last impatient glance before getting out of the car, having already taken their bags and put them down on the driveway by the time he opened Kenzie’s car door and she scrambled out to join him.
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