The Billionaire's Marriage Bargain. Кэрол Мортимер
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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.