Two-Week Wife

by Miranda Lee

  ‘I have no intention of going anywhere, Bianca. This is my home, and you’re my wife. I’m back and I won’t be leaving again.’

  To give her credit, she didn’t turn a hair at his counter-attack. He had to admire her spirit. Bianca never knew when she was beaten.

  ‘Really?’ she snorted. ‘Might I ask what happened to cause this change of heart? Last weekend you told me you were leaving me for good. You even said you were going to marry that Sophie person. Though God knows why. Men don’t marry women like Sophie, you know. They just screw them.’

  Adam heard Bianca’s mother gasp of shock but he didn’t think Bianca had. Her blood was too far up. He couldn’t make up his mind whether she was mad at being found out in more lies, or just mad at being thwarted. He decided to thwart her some more. He liked seeing her like this. It was almost as if she cared about him.

  ‘Why should you care what I do, Bianca? You never loved me. You only married me to make your mother happy. Why don’t you admit it?’

  ‘Is that true, Bianca?’ her mother intervened, her expression and her voice holding intense shock and disapproval.

  ‘No!’ Bianca denied hotly.

  Adam wasn’t going to let her get away with that. ‘Then you’re telling me you do love me?’

  ‘I’ve always loved you, Adam,’ she insisted, a guilty red heightening the colour in her cheeks.

  He knew she was playing with words, using the love she felt for him as a friend to mean another kind of love—the only kind he wanted from her. Her lie infuriated him. ‘No kidding?’ he said coldly. ‘Did you love me when you went away to a motel last weekend with another man?’

  ‘Bianca!’ her mother gasped, looking totally appalled now. ‘You didn’t!’

  ‘Oh, yes, she did,’ Adam swept on while Bianca’s mouth flapped open. ‘His name is Derek. He’s a professional weight-lifter. Wall-to-wall muscles. You must know your daughter’s predilection for beefy men, May. She’s never hidden it.’

  ‘I...I thought she was over that. I thought she’d finally seen some sense.’

  ‘Who are you to talk?’ Bianca burst in. ‘You with your busty blondes. Sophie wasn’t the only one, Mum. There’s been a whole line of overblown blonde bimbos before her!’

  ‘You mean you noticed?’ Adam tossed back with blithe indifference.

  ‘Hard not to when you paraded them through here for me to see.’

  His laugh was harshly dry. ‘Careful, Bianca, or I’ll begin to think you’re jealous.’

  ‘Over you?’ she sneered.

  Adam hadn’t thought she could hurt him any more than she already had. But he’d been wrong. He looked at her now and hated her—hated her with a passion which was as annoyingly sexual as his love had been.

  ‘She’s exaggerating, May. They were just students I was giving some extra tutoring to.’

  ‘What in?’ Bianca scoffed. ‘The Kama Sutra?’

  ‘No. I leave those particular lessons up to you,’ he countered icily, glad to see shamed colour sweep up her neck. ‘I swear to you, May, that I haven’t been unfaithful since my marriage to your daughter.’

  Which was technically true, since Bianca had only announced their married state last weekend. He hadn’t taken Sophie out all week. She’d wanted to get her beauty sleep for tonight’s première. Neither had they made love tonight. He’d left her at the post-première party, making eyes at an American director.

  ‘Not that I haven’t been tempted,’ he added snakily. ‘My loving wife hasn’t been giving me any attention lately. It’s been so long since she slept with me, I can’t remember what it was like.’

  Bianca’s eyes narrowed to savage slits. ‘Hard to sleep with you when you’re hardly ever home!’

  ‘I’m home now,’ he said coolly, and watched with bitter amusement as Bianca struggled to control her temper.

  ‘Are you saying that you still love me?’ she asked archly. ‘That all those other women meant nothing to you? Sophie included?’

  ‘Absolutely nothing. It’s always been you, Bianca,’ he said, hating himself as his voice shook slightly. ‘You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved, or ever will love.’

  He cursed himself when her eyes widened, as did her mouth. Slowly. Smilingly. Damn, but she was actually looking smug now. Adam’s teeth clenched down hard in his jaw. He was going to wipe that triumphant smirk off her face if it was the last thing he did.

  ‘Darling,’ she said with simpering sweetness, and came forward to give him a mock hug and a mock kiss on the cheek.

  ‘Darling,’ he returned grittily, and, taking her chin in a forceful grip, turned her face so that he could kiss her full on the mouth.

  He wasn’t a fool, however. He kept his tongue to himself, so that she couldn’t bite it, revelling instead in the feel of her shocked lips and flinching body. God, but it felt good to be able to kiss her like this, knowing she was hating it yet unable to do a damned thing about it. Her lies held her captive beneath his lips.

  His satisfaction was savage, and he began to understand the attraction of putting a woman over one’s knee and paddling her backside. It would certainly satisfy that deeply primitive need a man had to dominate and control his woman by physical force—especially when that woman was as spirited and defiant as Bianca.

  When he lifted his mouth he was surprised to find she was looking up at him with a type of bewildered respect in her eyes. It was a look he could easily get used to, he decided, so he took her firmly by the shoulders and kissed her again. This time he even had the temerity to slide his tongue between her startled lips, hoping like hell that this uncharacteristic respect would last a few more seconds.

  Nevertheless, he kept this second kiss brief, for the feel of his own tongue in her mouth pushed him quickly to an edge of desire that was as terrifying as it was intoxicating.

  He knew then that it would not be the last time he kissed her this night. Not by a long shot.

  ‘Oh, how romantic,’ Bianca’s mother was sniffling from the sidelines as he surfaced.

  ‘Say a single word,’ he rasped, when Bianca sucked in a sharp breath, ‘and I’ll tell her the real truth. I swear it!’

  Her mouth snapped shut, but her eyes spoke volumes.

  ‘Why don’t you go to bed, May?’ he suggested, with far more calm than he was feeling. ‘You must be very tired. Bianca and I will be just fine now. I think I have your visit to thank for her finally seeing some sense where our marriage is concerned. We were heading for disaster before you arrived.’

  ‘So I can see!’

  ‘I didn’t do a thing with Derek last weekend, Mum,’ Bianca insisted, sounding like a naughty little girl trying to defend herself, despite her hand being caught in the cookie jar. Adam just stopped himself from shaking his head. Would her lies never stop?

  ‘I...I was just trying to make Adam jealous, to make him see how it felt to have someone you loved looking at someone else.’

  As if she knew what that was like, Adam thought viciously. She’d never really loved anyone in her life!

  ‘It seems you’ve been two very silly people,’ May said. ‘You’re far too old to play silly games like that.’

  ‘I couldn’t agree more, May,’ Adam said. ‘And there’ll be no more games. I promise.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear that.’ A yawn took her by surprise and she apologised.

  ‘Go to bed, May.’

  ‘Yes, I am very tired. And I took a sleeping tablet just before you came in. But no more arguing, mind. I couldn’t bear it.’

  He wrapped an arm tightly around Bianca’s shoulders, pulling her close and throwing her a sickeningly adoring look. ‘I’ll be too busy kissing her for that.’

  May smiled her approval. ‘You do that, Adam. It certainly seems to work. I don’t recall ever seeing Bianca this subdued. ’Night, darling,’ she directed at the stiffly held and no doubt smouldering female by Adam’s side. ‘I’m so happy you two have made up.’

  ‘Smile,’ he hissed under his bre
ath as he kept up his own mock adoration.

  Bianca smiled and said goodnight to her mother.

  The guest bedroom door was hardly closed when she rounded on him, wrenching out of his arms and spitting fury. ‘How dare you?’

  ‘Keep it down, Bianca,’ he drawled softly. ‘You don’t want your mother to hear, do you?’

  She took two handfuls of his lapels and dragged him into the kitchen. ‘You had no right to tell her about Derek and make it sound like I was an adulteress! I know you don’t think much of my morals but I do have some. And I would never, ever commit adultery!’

  ‘Gee whiz, I’m glad to hear that, Bianca, especially now that we’re married.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. You know we’re not really married.’

  ‘We are for the next fortnight. And I aim to enjoy the plusses as well as suffer the negatives.’

  ‘En—enjoy the plusses?’ she echoed, all the colour in her face fading. ‘What do you mean by that?’

  Adam wasn’t sure himself, but he was getting some pretty exciting ideas. ‘What do you think I mean? I might not still be in love with you, Bianca, but I still fancy you. Since I can’t have Sophie or any of my other “blonde bimbos” while your mother’s here, I’ll make do with you.’

  He rather enjoyed her look of stunned amazement. At least it wasn’t revulsion. ‘You wouldn’t dare,’ she croaked.

  Wouldn’t he?

  Too damn right he would.

  His laugh was low and dark. ‘Try me.’

  ‘I won’t let you.’

  ‘Won’t you?’ He arched an eyebrow and boldly stroked a slow hand down over her left breast.

  She jumped back, but not before he felt her bare nipple peak hard against her blouse. Bianca rarely wore a bra. Her involuntary response sent an electric charge all through him, despite the fact that he knew it wasn’t for him especially. He’d always known she was a highly sexed creature.

  She was staring at him again as though she didn’t recognise him. ‘I...I don’t want you like that,’ she said, as though trying to convince herself.

  Adam merely smiled. She no longer had the power to hurt him with that silly statement. He’d crossed back over the line from love to hate once more, and he was finding that a much more daring and quite ruthless emotion. He could make her want him. He felt sure of it.

  But he knew if he said as much to her she would fight her feelings. And him. Bianca was as stubborn as she was proud.

  His shrug was nonchalant. ‘No matter. Just lie back and think of your mother’s health and happiness. Or think of mine. After all, I’m your best friend, aren’t I? And you love me to death. Or so you’ve told me often enough. You wouldn’t want me to suffer because of your lies, would you?’

  ‘Suffer?’ she echoed blankly.

  ‘Contrary to your popular opinion of me, I am a highly sexed man who views a whole fortnight’s celibacy with something akin to horror. If you wish to stop me straying, you’ll have to keep me happy in bed.’

  ‘I should have told Mum the truth,’ she wailed.

  ‘Perhaps,’ he agreed. ‘But it’s too late now.’

  ‘It’s never too late,’ she pouted.

  His eyes dropped to her lips and he began thinking of all the ways he wanted them.

  ‘Oh, I think it is, Bianca,’ he said. And, drawing her forcefully into his arms, he started on the first one.

  CHAPTER SIX

  BIANCA could not believe what was happening. Adam was kissing her and she was enjoying it. No, not enjoying. That was the wrong word. She felt too confused for real enjoyment.

  But there was no denying that her body was responding to the hungry passion of Adam’s lips and the steely embrace she was wrapped in. It was automatically melting into him, avidly welcoming the invasion of that demanding tongue and even wanting more.

  He whirled her in his arms, lifting her feet slightly off the floor as he strode back into the lounge room and pulled her down with him onto the large sofa, kissing her all the while.

  Bianca felt dazed and dazzled by this new and very exciting Adam. She had never dreamt he could be like this. And, while her mind was still struggling to come to terms with this unexpected side to his character, her body kept responding with instinctive delight. She’d always loved forceful men, loved it when they took charge of lovemaking, sweeping her along with the strength and power of their male passions.

  He angled her body beside him, her back pressed into the squashy leather of the sofa. His mouth on hers continued its hungry demands, making her blood sing and her head whirl. Desire for more contact had her lifting her right leg up to lie along his. When one of his hands started sliding up that leg all she could think about was how far it was before he reached its zenith.

  Every ounce of her concentration was soon focused on that travelling hand as it moved slowly up her thigh. She moaned softly when his fingers finally fluttered against the lace edge of her panties. His mouth burst from hers and they both drew in deep, ragged breaths. Breathing heavily, he buried his face in her neck and his hand moved on.

  It was under the elastic now, finding moist folds and electric places. Bianca began quivering with pleasure and expectation. Yes, touch me there, she willed him. And there. Oh, yes, that’s it. Keep doing that. She moaned her excitement, plus her frustration.

  Please don’t let him stop, she prayed wildly. Please...

  He stopped, his hand withdrawing as he rolled from her and stood up, coolly arranging her clothes before raking his own ruffled hair from his face. ‘Not here,’ he said, his eyes oddly cold as they moved over her flushed and flustered face. ‘And not like this.’

  He was gone before she could assemble her thoughts into words, stalking off down to the master bedroom. Bianca scrambled off the sofa, her heart still thudding heavily, her body screaming with thwarted desire.

  She chased after him, only to find him taking off his expensive jacket and hanging it carefully in the wardrobe. He looked totally unconcerned about what had just transpired between them, as though it were nothing out of the ordinary.

  Yet it was. It was very much out of the ordinary—both his actions and her reactions.

  ‘Adam, I...’ She hesitated, distracted by the sight of him flicking open the buttons of his white dress shirt then stripping it back off his shoulders. Nicely tanned and very broad shoulders, she noted, attached to an equally broad chest which looked toned beneath the smattering of dark curls.

  He walked over and threw the shirt in the cane clothes basket in the corner, the movement highlighting the rippling muscles in his back and arms.

  ‘Have you been doing weights?’ she asked abruptly, her voice sounding almost resentful, as though he had no right to be doing things like that behind her back.

  A wry smile hovered around his nicely shaped mouth as he turned to look at her. ‘Glad to see you still have your priorities right, Bianca. But, yes, I’ve been doing weights. And working out. I have been on a regular basis for over ten years now.’

  ‘Oh,’ was all she could say, her gaze genuinely admiring as he walked towards the en suite bathroom.

  ‘Care to join me?’ he drawled, sending a cool glance over his shoulder at her.

  Bianca blinked. Did she? Her head was pounding, as was her heart. Suddenly she didn’t know where she stood with Adam any more, either with her own feelings or his. He was like a stranger to her...a very sexy stranger who was throwing her for a loop.

  She wanted him. Oh, yes, she wanted him like mad.

  But where would it all end? An affair with the Adam she’d used to know—or thought she had—would probably have headed towards marriage and babies, to a secure relationship with love and commitment. Because that old Adam had really, truly loved her.

  But this new, totally alien Adam was a different prospect indeed. There was a coldness about him, a hardness which she couldn’t explain or understand. Had Sophie thrown him over for someone else tonight? Turned him into an instant womanhater? Bianca could hardly
believe how ruthlessly he’d turned this sham of a marriage against her, using it to force kisses on her and then force himself on her.

  Oh, come now, Bianca. The voice of brutal honesty intruded. Force? He wasn’t forcing you out there on that sofa. You’d have let him do damned well anything and begged him for more.

  What a mind-blowing realisation! How had Adam suddenly captured her sexual interest? Where had the spark come from? The chemistry?

  It was this new and insidiously compelling chemistry which drew her into the bathroom. She stood there, watching him strip off to total nudity, a lump forming in her throat as she saw why perhaps he’d hurt her so much all those years ago. Yet he wasn’t even aroused!

  That stunned her. How could he not be aroused after what he’d done to her out there?

  ‘Like what you see, Bianca?’ he drawled from across the room.

  ‘Yes...’ It wasn’t in Bianca’s nature to be sexually coy, but the admission was made on a husky note, forced out of dry lips from a very dry throat.

  A coldly rueful smile gave his mouth a strange look as he slowly crossed the distance between them. ‘Then what are you waiting for, darling?’ he asked, in a mockingly sardonic voice which scraped across every nerve-ending she owned. ‘I’ll bet you weren’t this slow to get out of your clothes your first time with dear old Derek. Or is it that you want me to undress you? Do you have a fetish for your lovers stripping you? Is that it?’

  Bianca had never felt more torn. She wanted to tell him to go to hell, show him she wasn’t going to let him get away with treating her like this. Instead, she slid her arms up around his neck, reached up on tiptoe and kissed him, pressing herself against his splendid nakedness.

  ‘Yes,’ she breathed against his suddenly frozen lips. ‘Yes, I have a fetish for my lovers stripping me.’

  Adam swore under his breath as his flesh leapt. Damn, but she was trying to turn the tables on him, trying to take control. He wasn’t having any of that.

  Dampening down his desire with another supreme effort of will, he extricated her arms from around his neck and stepped back slightly so that he could begin on the buttons of her blouse.