The Billionaire's Marriage Bargain

by Mortimer, Carole

‘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 4

  ‘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.

  ‘Dominick…?’ She put her hand on his arm to stop him picking the bags back up and striding towards the house.

  He looked down pointedly at her hand touching his arm. ‘What?’

  Her mouth twisted ruefully as she let her hand fall back to her side, aware of a slight tingling in her palm just from their brief contact. ‘You’re right; neither of us exactly has the look of a happily married couple!’

  Dominick smoothed his overlong hair back with impatient fingers. ‘I’m not sure I know how that’s supposed to look!’

  Kenzie frowned. ‘Maybe if you could just try looking a little less—remote—’

  ‘A little less remote…’ he echoed thoughtfully, a look of intent suddenly crossing her face.

  Kenzie’s eyes widened as she saw that look, taking a slight step backwards.

  ‘Dominick—’ She didn’t get very far before Dominick took a firm grasp of her arms and pulled her in tight against him, making her aware of every hard muscle and sinew of his body before his head lowered and his lips captured hers to kiss her.

  Thoroughly.

  Punishingly.

  Passionately!

  After his uncommunicative silence on the drive up here this was the last thing that Kenzie had been expecting, and she was too surprised to do anything more than grasp the width of his shoulders for support as her lips parted beneath his and his mouth continued to plunder hers.

  At last he raised his head to look down at her, dark gaze triumphant as he did so. ‘Better?’ he taunted huskily.

  Much better.

  Too much better.

  She didn’t like that look of victory in his eyes, either, and moved quickly away from him as she pulled out of his arms. ‘I don’t think there was any need for you to go that far—’

  ‘Weddings always have this effect on me too!’ her father interrupted cheerfully as he strolled down the driveway to join them.

  ‘We’ll discuss this later,’ Kenzie muttered softly.

  ‘Maybe,’ Dominick murmured softly, his arm about Kenzie’s shoulders as they turned to look at Donald.

  And so the pretence began, Kenzie acknowledged agonisingly…

  She gave a light laugh as she turned to greet her father, the move e
ffectively taking her out of Dominick’s reach.

  Dominick stood silently as father and daughter hugged, able to see an unfamiliar fragility to Donald Miller. There was a slight greyness to his face that spoke of recent illness, and his clothes were a little loose on him where he had lost weight.

  But the older man’s handshake had been firm enough when he had greeted Dominick, and his green eyes warm and welcoming, so unlike his eldest daughter’s had been when Dominick had called at her apartment to collect her a couple of hours ago.

  ‘It’s good to see you again, Dominick,’ Donald told him with genuine pleasure.

  ‘Sir,’ he replied with studied politeness; he had never got particularly close to Kenzie’s family, and he certainly didn’t intend doing so now, either! ‘I’m only sorry that work commitments have prevented me from coming to see you before.’

  ‘Oh, we know how busy you are. Besides, I’m perfectly fine now,’ Donald dismissed with a wave of his hand. ‘Come inside and say hello to Nancy. She’ll be so pleased you’re here.’

  Kenzie’s family, Dominick had learnt on being introduced to them, was nothing like his own dysfunctional one. Donald and Nancy, despite having been married for thirty years, were obviously still deeply in love with each other, and their four daughters were also wrapped unpossessively in that closeness.

  The hug Nancy gave him, her real pleasure in seeing him again, was also in sharp contrast to the stiffness and suspicion with which Dominick always greeted visits from his own parents. The Millers’ obvious genuine warmth in seeing him again didn’t sit too comfortably with his decision to take advantage of Kenzie’s dilemma and exact revenge on her for ever daring to cheat on him.

  Kenzie’s sisters Kathy, Carly and Suzie, the latter both in varying stages of pregnancy, hugged him just as happily, while the two middle sisters informed him that their husbands, Colin and Neil, hadn’t returned from work yet but would be along later.

  The four Miller sisters all shared an incredible dark-haired, green-eyed beauty, and it was overwhelming when confronted with all four of them together, Dominick acknowledged. He was relieved when mother and daughters launched into a discussion about the dresses they were wearing for the wedding tomorrow.

  ‘Our cue to beat a hasty retreat, I think,’ Donald told him ruefully. ‘Dominick and I are just going to take the dog for a walk,’ he said, raising his voice so he could be heard over the women’s chatter.

  His wife turned to give him a knowing look, the startling beauty of her four daughters obviously inherited from her. ‘We don’t have a dog, Donald,’ she told him dryly. ‘And you know you aren’t allowed to go to the pub, if that’s where you’re sneaking off to,’ she added reprovingly.

  ‘I take exception to the word “sneaking”,’ her husband teased back. ‘And I’m allowed to go in the pub. I just can’t have the pint of beer I would like to have while I’m in there!’

  ‘Well, I’m sure Dominick has absolutely no interest in going to the pub…do you, Dominick?’ Nancy looked at him enquiringly.

  No, he didn’t have any interest in going to a pub, or in being alone with Kenzie’s father. But neither did he want to stay here to watch Kenzie as she relaxed in the company of her close-knit family.

  Kenzie had asked him to do something for her, and he had agreed, and in return she would give him exactly what he wanted. Getting involved in the intimacy of her family was not part of that bargain.

  Kenzie had turned to look at him now, the sharpness of her gaze obviously seeing his lack of enthusiasm for any father/son chats that might occur between the two men once they were alone at the local pub.

  ‘How about Dominick and I take our things up to our room and freshen up first?’ She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm even as she smiled brightly at her family. ‘You can “walk the dog” just as easily in half an hour or so, can’t you, Dad?’ she teased.

  ‘Half an hour, an hour, as long as I can escape from this chatter about weddings for a while!’ Her father nodded, his grin belying his words.

  Kenzie could feel Dominick’s tension as they left the room together and walked up the stairs. She knew that he had always found the easy affection of her family slightly overwhelming. And that it was something he wanted no part of.

  It was understandable in a man who hadn’t grown up in a loving and stable family, but it also made his agreement to come here this weekend all the more surprising. And the payment he would demand more worrying…

  ‘I’m sorry about that.’ She grimaced as she sat down on one of the twin beds in the room her mother had told her she and Dominick were to use for the night. ‘Do you think you’ll be able to stand a whole weekend of it?’ She frowned as she looked at him.

  ‘Oh, I think I’ll probably survive,’ he drawled, thrusting his hands into the pockets of his denims as he moved restlessly around the room. ‘What’s the prognosis on your father?’ he asked as he remembered, despite Donald’s cheerfulness, those tell-tale signs of recent illness in the older man.

  ‘Good.’ Kenzie nodded, dark lashes fanning down over her cheeks as she looked towards the floor. ‘It was more—frightening, than anything else, I think.’ She glanced up at him, her eyes bruised and shadowed. ‘The doctors say it’s a warning for him to slow down, that’s all, that he can return to work at his estate agency in a couple of months’ time. But my mother wants him to sell up and take early retirement,’ she added ruefully, aware that she was talking too much in her nervousness of being alone with Dominick. She was sure he didn’t really want to hear all this, and that his interest had just been idle conversation on his part.

  Dominick nodded. ‘And?’

  She shrugged. ‘He says he isn’t sixty yet, and he hasn’t earnt enough money to retire. But they won’t accept any help from me,’ she added with a sigh.

  He could see how Nancy and Donald would baulk at accepting financial security from their eldest daughter. But what—

  Damn it, he had no intention of being sucked into this warmly loving family!

  It was against every principle of aloof self-containment he had lived his life by since he had been able to completely escape his parents’ influence twenty years ago.

  Despite having the grades, he had chosen not to go to college, and instead had worked in a hotel, working his way up from lowly Porter to Assistant Manager, and then Manager by the age of only twenty-three. Then he had gone completely out on a limb to finance the buying of the hotel and had completely turned it around into a profit-making concern.

  That first hotel had only been the start, and now he owned hotels and apartments all over the world, amongst other things.

  Very shortly, when his four months of planning came to fruition, he intended owning a cosmetics company too…

  Before, he had managed to achieve what he had because he had never allowed emotions to overrule his head.

  Until he had met and married Kenzie…

  A chink in his armour.

  But a chink, once he’d had her safely installed in his life as his wife, that he had kept under perfect control.

  Until she’d begun to question why he never told her he loved her.

  Until she’d begun to talk about them having a baby together.

  Kenzie had insisted that the child the two of them had together wouldn’t experience the emotionally battered upbringing he’d had. But Dominick had remained adamant against that argument, a development that had obviously caused Kenzie deep unhappiness.

  As far as Dominick had been concerned though, there had been no reason for them to have children. They had been happy as they were, so why rock the boat?

  Kenzie hadn’t seen it that way, and things had become incredibly strained between them, with their lovemaking no longer the pleasure it had once been, and a barrier seeming to come down between them.

  When Carlton Cosmetics, in the guise of Jerome Carlton himself, had begun to spend a lot of time with her in an effort to persuade her into accepting a lucrative contract t
o be the face of their new product, that estrangement had deepened.

  Quite to what extent Dominick hadn’t been made aware of until he’d spoken to Jerome Carlton some weeks later.

  And by then it had been too late. Kenzie had made her choice, and it hadn’t been him or their marriage.

  She had accepted the contract Jerome Carlton had offered on behalf of Carlton Cosmetics—and Carlton’s more personal offer that she move into his life!

  Kenzie breathed a sigh, and stood up, the movement bringing Dominick’s attention away from his thoughts. ‘The bathroom is through there.’ She pointed to an adjoining door. ‘Take as long as you like. Don’t come down again at all, if you would rather not. I’m sure my family will accept that you’re tired after working all day and then having to drive here.’

  ‘I’m thirty-eight, Kenzie, not eighty-eight!’ he rasped impatiently. ‘And I seem to remember being perfectly capable of going in to work the next morning as usual after some of our more—strenuous sexual marathons,’ he added tauntingly.

  Kenzie paused in the doorway, her expression pained. ‘And there you have the difference between us in stark reality, Dominick,’ she told him sadly. She knew that difference was everything, and that it always had been, only she had been too much in love with Dominick, too blind to see it, at the time. ‘You see, I thought the two of us were making love,’ she explained at his scowl, ‘not having a “sexual marathon”!’

  His mouth twisted scathingly. ‘You always did like to pretty things up in rose-coloured glasses!’

  ‘Whereas you,’ she murmured softly, ‘have always worn blinkers and so see nothing at all except what’s directly in front of your nose, giving you an extremely narrow view of the world!’ She closed the door softly behind her as she left, knowing there was nothing more to be said, and that she couldn’t reach Dominick this way. She never had been able to.

  She blinked back the tears as she moved hurriedly back down the stairs to rejoin her family, eager to be back amongst their warmth and love.

  Dominick gazed after her with pitying derision.