Billionaire Heirs. Tessa Radley
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If she left and returned to High Ridge, she’d never see him again. Never see that slow, sexy smile light up his eyes. Never experience the heart-twisting kisses again. Did she really want to walk away from him forever?
No.
“What have we got to lose?” Zac ran his thumb along the base of her palm, and tingles ran up her spine. “We have a certain chemistry between us already.”
She blushed. “Marriage is about more than sex, Zac. It’s about common goals and values.” And most of all, it was about love. She’d always dreamed of marrying a man who loved her above all else.
“Sex is a damn good starting point.” His slow, sizzling smile made her heart turn over and her pulse rush into overdrive.
How could she resist him in this mood? Did it matter that he didn’t love her? Zac wasn’t a fortune hunter. And, despite what she’d said, he wasn’t cruel or barbaric. He loved his family. He was a good man, a man of principle, the kind of man she’d dreamed of marrying.
Could this simmering sexual connection between them be enough, as Zac had suggested? Should she take a chance and hope that he’d learn to love her?
“We’ll take it slowly, one day at a time,” Zac was saying. “And if you stay, let’s get to know each other a little more. I don’t expect you to share my bed right away.” But his gaze had dimmed a little as he’d added the final words.
“You’d do that?”
“This is important to me. Give it two weeks here on Kiranos. At the end of that time, we talk again. Nothing is lost. If you still want to go, you can walk away and go back to your life in New Zealand. I’m offering you your freedom.”
“You’d let me go?” Her heart sank. For some ridiculous reason, that wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear; she wanted him to fight for her, convince her.
“I won’t keep you against your will. I brought you here to talk, to ask if you would consider staying for a while so that we could get to know each other a little better. Unfortunately—”
“Unfortunately I told you I wasn’t a virgin.”
“That confession made things a little … difficult,” Zac admitted, his eyes hooded from her gaze. “I needed time to come to terms with your revelations.”
When his gaze met hers again, she thought she glimpsed something in the depths of his eyes, something vulnerable, uncertain. Then she dismissed it. Zac uncertain? Never!
“And what,” she asked, “if after two weeks I decide I want to … to leave?”
“We go our separate ways for a year or so and then file for a quiet, low-profile divorce. I’ll do my best to protect you from the media backlash that will follow. Being in New Zealand will help—it’s a world away.”
It sounded so simple. She could do that. Spend two weeks on Kiranos relaxing, enjoying Zac’s company.
“You’ll have no pressure of any kind. No lovemaking. Just the sun and the sea and spending some time getting to know each other all over again.” Zac echoed her thoughts. “To see if it can work.”
Except he omitted the one thing that she found herself thinking about most. His impact on her …
His touch.
His kisses.
And, above all, his lovemaking.
Disappointment curled inside Pandora. Their wedding night had been so exciting, a storm of passion. Nothing had prepared her for the wonder. The experience with Steve had not come close. Then, she’d been tipsy, filled with guilty excitement, and it had been over before it had started, leaving her feeling more than a little cheated. With Zac it had been different …
But Zac was right. A lot had passed between them. This was a chance to start over. To see what they had. All she had to do was sit it out on an island paradise and then she could walk away—if she chose to—without involving her father.
It wasn’t even as if she was at any risk. Zac had made it clear he expected nothing from her—not even sex. Nothing except to give their marriage a chance.
“Okay,” she said. “Now can I have my cell phone back?”
“Okay? Just like that?” He gave her a long look. “And why do you want your cell phone?”
She shrugged. “There’s no reception, so it won’t be much use to me. But think of it as a gesture of good faith.”
“Agreed.” A strange smile played around his mouth. He reached into his shorts pocket and drew out her small, shiny silver cell phone and held it out to her. “And now you can give me something.”
Pandora hesitated, the glint in his eyes warning her. Then she took the phone. “What do you want?”
“A kiss.” His smile widened. “Think of it as a gesture of good faith.”
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