It had all seemed so logical when Rufus had made the arrangements. So cool. So calculated. Something to be got through.
A little like a trip to the dentist!
Now all Gabriella could think of was that this wasn’t the wedding her mother had always dreamt of for her. And those thoughts of her mother, who would never be here to witness Gabriella’s real wedding, when or if it happened, only made her want to cry.
Rufus gave Gabriella a sideways glance. Were they tears he could see glistening in the smoky violet depths of her eyes?
No, he decided harshly after a second look, it was more likely a glitter of triumph than tears. Not only was she going to inherit half the Gresham millions, but Rufus had been forced into the inconvenience of marrying her at the same time!
Suitable vengeance indeed for what he had done to her five years ago.
He turned his attention back to the road, his hands tightly gripping the steering wheel. ‘I thought we might go and have a celebration drink before you leave.’ The even tenor of his voice betrayed none of his inner anger with the unpalatable situation.
Not that he hadn’t tried to get out of it, having paid a visit to his own lawyer, who had gone into consultation with David Brewster as to whether or not the will could be broken, only to be told that it couldn’t, and that David Brewster had done his job very well indeed.
But just because he had been forced into taking Gabriella for his wife didn’t mean that she could have things all her own way.
And she was his wife…
‘A drink?’ she repeated now. ‘Are you sure you have the time?’ she added sarcastically.
What had she expected, that he would take the day off, that they would drive to the register office together, be showered with confetti and good wishes when they came out, followed by a wedding breakfast at some exclusive hotel for family and friends?
The fewer people who knew about this marriage, the better, as far as he was concerned.
Although the reporters waiting outside the register office just now would probably take care of that.
He would have words with Toby about that at his earliest convenience.
‘I can make the time,’ Rufus confirmed dryly.
Gabriella gave him a searching look. Was he being kind—something she couldn’t believe where she was concerned!—or did he have another motive for wanting to spend more time with her?
He probably just wanted to give her another lecture about staying away from his daughter!
Holly would be seven years old now, and it was over five years since Gabriella had actually spoken to her. She had seen the little girl at a couple of family functions since, so she knew that she now looked exactly like Rufus, with her toffee-coloured hair and pale green eyes, but other than that Gabriella had no real knowledge of the little girl whose mother had walked out of her life when she was only a couple of months old, never to return.
That had to have been hard on Holly.
Gabriella could only hope that the little girl wouldn’t consider her the equivalent of a wicked stepmother. Although, according to Rufus, Holly was to be involved in this bogus marriage as little as possible.
‘Okay,’ she sighed, not in any particular hurry to return to Gresham House, where the housekeeper and the rest of the staff were no doubt preparing for the arrival of the new Mr and Mrs Gresham!
‘Try and sound a little more enthusiastic, Gabriella,’ Rufus taunted softly. ‘After all, this is our wedding day.’
‘Don’t remind me!’ she came back tartly.
Rufus gave a derisive smile. He didn’t need any reminding of the fact she was now his wife, either.
Gabriella looked a little alarmed when he parked the car and guided her over to a tall apartment building. ‘Where are you taking me?’
‘I keep an apartment here for whenever I’m delayed in town on business,’ he dismissed lightly, nodding to the security man on the desk before stepping into the lift and pressing the numbered security code for the top floor.
Whenever he was delayed in town on business, Gabriella echoed silently with a frown. What did that mean?
That he kept an apartment in town for when he wanted to spend the night with one of his women?
He couldn’t exactly take a stream of women back to the house he shared with Holly, now could he? He’d have to have somewhere more private for those—relationships.
And he was taking her there…
‘I don’t think this is a good idea, Rufus—’ But she didn’t get any further with her protest as Rufus pulled her close against his body, his head lowering as his mouth claimed hers.
Yes, she definitely tasted good, Rufus acknowledged distractedly as his mouth captured and plundered hers. And no doubt the rest of her was going to taste just as delectable, too.
At this moment he wanted Gabriella with a driving need he had no intention of keeping under control. Gabriella was now his wife and he intended touching and tasting every glorious inch of her.
What was Rufus doing? Gabriella barely had time to wonder before she became lost in the pleasure of the hunger of his mouth moving searchingly against hers, his tongue now caressing lightly along her bottom lip before surging into her mouth, setting a sensuous rhythm that caused a fire between her sensitive thighs.
She groaned a low murmur of capitulation as his hands moved up to capture the proud tilt of her breasts, his thumbs caressing the already hardened nipples, stroking the sensitive tips until she pressed closer against him, wanting, wanting—
She gasped as she felt her breasts released from her dress. She hadn’t even been aware of Rufus undoing the tiny buttons down the front, and there was only the thin silk of her camisole now between her thrusting breasts and the warm caress of his hands.
He dragged his mouth from hers, trailing fire down the column of her throat, holding her hands against her waist as he bent his head to claim one aching nipple through the silky material, sucking gently as his tongue moved over it in sensual demand.
She should stop him, knew in her maturity exactly where this was going, but there was no way, absolutely no way, even with that knowledge, that she could fight the emotions Rufus was arousing in her, and her back arched impulsively as his tongue flicked against her.
Gabriella clung to him weakly, completely lost at this unexpected assault on her senses, the unaccustomed ache between her thighs building to an unbearable pitch.
The lift doors opened straight into the penthouse apartment with a gentle swish, cool air washing over them, Gabriella quivering slightly as that air brushed the damp material of her camisole.
She opened pleasure-drugged eyes as Rufus raised his head to look at her, the last five years swept away in that single moment of mutual desire.
Gabriella simply didn’t want this pleasure to stop! She couldn’t stop it!
Rufus stood her beside the bed, slipping the dress down her arms and letting it fall to the floor before sitting her on the side of the bed and standing back to look at her dressed only in the cream camisole and matching silk panties.
‘Take off your top,’ he instructed huskily as he took off his jacket and dropped it to the carpeted floor beside her dress.
She wasn’t eighteen any more, but a mature woman of twenty-three, and, although she was still not experienced like Rufus, she was more than a match for Rufus’s overt sensuality.
Gabriella held his gaze with hers as she moved a shaking hand to slide first one silky strap of her camisole down her arms and then the other, the material falling down to her waist, her dark-tipped breasts thrusting proudly forward, begging for his touch.
He knelt down between her legs as he moved forward to lick her nipples into harder arousal, deliberately teasing first one, and then the other. Gabriella leant into him as she silently asked for what would drive her completely over the edge.
Rufus had no doubts that this time he would go with her, would take his fill, would keep her here with him until he had taken her in every way, give
n her every pleasure he could think of.
His lips parted and he took the hardened tip of her breast fiercely into his mouth, instantly feeling the shudders that convulsed Gabriella’s body. His hand moved to push her panties aside and touch the centre of those pleasurable convulsions, increasing the pleasure as he sought and found the sensitive nub, stroking her to a deeper and stronger climax.
When her shuddering release came to an end he moved slightly so that he could draw that last silken garment from her body before lowering his head to capture the sweet taste of her.
Gabriella was completely lost, floating in a sea of sensual pleasure, her eyes dazed as Rufus stood up to look down at her, completely and unashamedly naked, knowing she wanted him, all of him, inside her.
‘Help me undress, Gabriella,’ he encouraged throatily.
She felt a nervous fluttering in her stomach, a nervousness she instantly dismissed. She was a woman now, no longer a besotted teenager, and she expected nothing more from Rufus than the physical pleasure he could, and did, give her. A physical pleasure she intended returning.
She held his gaze with hers as she slowly unbuttoned and slipped the silk shirt from his shoulders, and then trailed her hands down the length of his chest and across his stomach. She heard his slight catch of breath as one of her hands settled on the fastening of his trousers, that breath released in a sharp hiss as she slowly slid the zip down before moving her hand against his hardness, pure instinct governing her actions now as she began to pleasure him as he had pleasured her.
His hands became entangled in her hair. ‘No, Gabriella!’ he gasped. ‘I want to be inside you. Deep inside you,’ he grated before dropping to the carpeted floor and taking her with him.
Beneath her. Pulling her on top of him. His eyes were dark as he looked up at her, arching into her as he slowly lowered her onto the long length of him, his hands reaching up to caress her aching breasts as she began to move in rhythm to his thrusts.
Gabriella ignored the initial stinging pain as Rufus entered her, and leant forward so that he could capture one hardened nipple in his mouth. She felt her own pleasure deepening, and spiralling out of control once again as Rufus kissed first one breast and then the other, all the time moving his body into hers, with his hands on her hips helping to guide her movements.
Rufus’s hands closed tightly against her when he could hold back no longer and his release began, taking her with him as they both reached a shuddering climax that seemed to rip them asunder before joining them again, making them one.
Gabriella lay collapsed on Rufus’s chest in the aftermath, their bodies slick with sweat, but soon she could feel herself tensing as she waited for the words of scorn, the mockery that was sure to come for her uninhibited response to him.
Instead there was only the sound of their ragged breathing in the otherwise silent room, steadying to a rasp, before settling into normality.
Why didn’t Rufus say something? Gabriella wondered.
Where were the accusations?
The recriminations?
Even though he had been the one to start all this, kissing and touching her in the lift on the way up here, knowing Rufus as she did she was sure he’d twist this around somehow so that she was the one who had seduced him.
As far as Rufus was concerned she had always been the one responsible for their physical encounters.
Except that this time they were married to each other…
‘It looks, Gabriella, as if when the time is up we’ll have to get a divorce rather than an annulment.’ He suddenly spoke derisively, his own thoughts obviously on their recent marriage, too.
She raised her head slowly to look at him, the tangled length of her silky hair falling over her shoulders down onto his chest. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
He smiled up at her, a hard, almost wolfish grin. ‘Merely that now I have such a sexy little hell-cat for a wife I won’t need to use this apartment again for six months.’ He flexed his shoulder where the marks of her teeth could still be seen. ‘Unless, of course, you want to come here occasionally, for a bit of variety?’
In other words, now that they were married, Rufus intended to use her in the same way he did his mistresses—purely for recreational sex…
Gabriella didn’t think so!
Chapter 4
‘Where the hell did you disappear to this afternoon?’
Gabriella looked at Rufus’s reflection in the bathroom mirror as he stood behind her in the doorway, and felt grateful that he hadn’t arrived seconds ago before she had wrapped a towel around her after her shower. She wasn’t sure she could have dealt with talking to him while completely naked!
Not that he really needed an answer to his question; it must have been pretty obvious to Rufus that she had taken the opportunity of his going to take a shower to make good her escape from the apartment. The apartment where they had just made love. The apartment where Rufus took all his mistresses, it seemed…
He hadn’t exactly chased after her, had he? Seven o’clock, she had been informed by her scornful new stepdaughter, was ‘the usual time Daddy came home from work’. And it was just after seven now.
Gabriella made no effort to turn and look at him, preferring to look at his reflection in the mirror instead. She picked up a bottle of her favourite scented lotion, and tipped some into her hands before smoothing it over her arms.
‘I thought we had finished with each other for the day,’ she said derisively.
His mouth twisted. ‘Did you? Or did you just run out like the little coward that you are?’
‘Would you please leave my bathroom, Rufus?’ she said coldly, her eyes challenging as she looked up to find him watching her movements, his gaze dark with a desire she had no intention of acknowledging. ‘Your rooms are further down the hallway, I believe.’
He leant nonchalantly against the doorframe. ‘And what are you going to do if I don’t leave? Call for help?’
Probably a futile gesture, she acknowledged; he was the new master of the house, after all…
But then, it also reasoned that she was the new mistress of the house, too. ‘If necessary,’ she confirmed coolly, smoothing the scented lotion over her shoulders now.
Rufus drew in a ragged breath, deeply irritated by her coldness after the pleasure they had shared that afternoon. Gabriella had been like fire in his arms earlier, totally wanton and abandoned. Why the sudden change?
If they were to live together for six months, then Rufus fully intended to share his wife’s bed for that length of time! Considering her behaviour in Majorca, and her response to him today, he had thought she would want the same.
Gabriella certainly couldn’t claim she wasn’t attracted to him.
So why, earlier this afternoon, when they had just enjoyed each other so much, had she taken advantage of his brief absence to disappear back here to Gresham House?
‘I asked you to leave, Rufus,’ she repeated coldly, not even looking at him but concentrating on rubbing lotion onto the creamy swell at the top of her breasts now.
Breasts he wanted to kiss and caress as he took her once again with the wild abandon of earlier today that had driven him completely out of his mind.
Her long dark hair was secured loosely on top of her head, exposing the vulnerable column of her throat and shoulders, her skin creamy and soft, skin he—
She glanced up at him irritably as she obviously sensed his heated gaze. ‘Still here?’
He drew in a harsh breath. ‘I live here, too!’
‘And as I’ve already said, your bathroom and bedroom are further down the hallway,’ she snapped.
‘Perhaps I like this one better than mine?’ he taunted.
‘In that case we can swap rooms.’ She shrugged.
This was a different Gabriella from the one Rufus had previously known, different from both the eager teenager five years ago, and the woman who had been so wild in his arms this afternoon. This was a cooler, more self-contained Gabriella
.
‘I’ve been informed that dinner is at eight o’clock,’ he bit out tersely.
Gabriella gave a cool inclination of her head. ‘That’s the time I instructed the housekeeper earlier.’
Rufus gave a humourless smile. ‘You don’t mind taking on some of your wifely duties, then!’
She continued to look at him steadily. ‘Some of them.’ She gave a gracious inclination of her head. ‘But I’ll choose for myself which ones they will be, Rufus,’ she added firmly.
Sharing his bed for the next six months wasn’t one she ‘chose’ to take on, apparently.
Damn!
This afternoon it had seemed the perfect solution to the constant hunger he had to possess her. It would be a mutual satisfaction that required no commitment from either of them, no false promises, and would give him exactly what he wanted when he wanted it.
Gabriella in his bed.
Having her now play hard to get didn’t fit in with that idea at all.
‘Shouldn’t you be going to see Holly now?’ Gabriella prompted pointedly. ‘She informed me when I spoke to her earlier that you always spend half an hour with her before she goes to bed.’
Rufus frowned darkly as he straightened. ‘Do I sense criticism in your voice, Gabriella?’
‘I don’t know—do you?’ she came back softly, coolly holding the reflection of his pale green gaze with hers.
Inside she trembled, the memories of their lovemaking clearly etched in her mind, remembering how she had completely lost control in Rufus’s arms.
It should never have happened, but it had been so unexpected, so instant, that she simply hadn’t had the strength or will-power to resist knowing Rufus intimately to see if she still felt that same desire for him.
Which she did. More than ever, it seemed…
But by giving in to that weakness she had put herself in a vulnerable position from the onset of this bogus marriage, a position she intended reversing as quickly, and abruptly, as possible. By whatever means possible.
Rufus’s mouth thinned. ‘My relationship with my daughter is none of your damned business!’
Wife By Contract, Mistress By Demand Page 5
