The Virgin's Price

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  Mia quickly averted her gaze to look at Granite Bay, a small, rocky beach below them. ‘No, why should I be? It wasn’t as if it were real. Who knows, our marriage could even be over before they get back? I could probably have got away with not telling them at all.’

  He gave her another sideways glance, a small frown settling between his brows. ‘When did you tell them?’

  She met his eyes briefly before turning to concentrate on stepping over the tree roots on the sandy pathway. ‘The day before the ceremony.’

  ‘Hardly enough time for them to get back,’ he observed. ‘Why did you leave it until then?’

  ‘I hated lying to them. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull it off in front of them on the day. A last-minute telephone conversation was much easier to handle. I figured there was no way they could get back in time and see the truth for themselves. I can act in front of strangers, even some friends, but my family is another thing entirely.’

  Bryn frowned as she walked ahead, her back stiff as she strode out to put as much distance as she could between them. His fairly limited experience of family life had made him insensitive to what she might have felt lying to her family and friends about their relationship. He’d assumed the money he was offering her would settle any of her misgivings, but it was clear she was having a hard time of it now.

  His conscience gave him another sharp nudge. He had sought a quick-fix solution to his own problems without truly considering the impact on her. Yes, he’d achieved his goal of fulfilling his great-aunt’s dream for him, also securing her considerable estate, but what about Mia’s hopes and dreams? He’d crushed them with a few ill-chosen words, got her removed from the company, dropped by her agent and practically blackmailed her into a temporary marriage with him.

  A marriage she couldn’t wait to get out of.

  He drew in a breath that felt like pain at the thought of their marriage ending soon. He’d become used to having her around to spar with him. He’d also become a little too used to having her soft mouth beneath his. But the terms he’d laid down were temporary. As soon as his great-aunt passed away Mia would be free to move on.

  But what if their marriage was no longer temporary? What if their relationship was no longer just an act, but real and vibrant and passionately fulfilling for both of them?

  She said she hated him but he knew in spite of it she was attracted to him. What would it take to get her to agree to a more permanent relationship with him?

  He lengthened his stride and caught up with her. ‘Do you remember when I said no one thought I’d ever go through with marriage?’

  She turned to look at him. ‘Yes…’

  ‘The truth is, Mia, if you hadn’t come along when you did I probably would never have married.’

  Mia wasn’t sure where this was leading. ‘You have something against marriage?’ she asked.

  ‘Not entirely,’ he said. ‘I recognise that it occasionally works, but close to fifty per cent of marriages end in divorce, often acrimoniously. I wasn’t sure I wanted to add to the stats.’

  Her forehead creased in a frown as she pointed out, ‘But you’re going to add to them anyway now that you’ve married me temporarily.’

  His dark gaze was trained on hers. ‘If we divorce we don’t have to do it acrimoniously.’

  ‘If?’ She gave him a startled look. ‘What do you mean, if?’

  ‘When you think about it there’s at least a fifty per cent chance of things working out between us,’ he said.

  ‘One has to really admire your optimism but I’m afraid in this case it’s totally inappropriate.’

  ‘What? You don’t think we could make a go of it? Arranged marriages are conducted all over the world where the couple neither like nor know each other initially and yet many of them go on to live very happy lives together.’

  ‘Arranged marriages are an insult to women!’ she said, beginning to stomp along the path once more. ‘It’s utterly barbaric to be forced into a marriage with a perfect stranger or someone decades older than you.’

  ‘Marriages have been arranged for centuries,’ he countered as he worked hard to keep pace. ‘In fact, the notion of a couple falling in love and marrying is a very recent one. Before about two hundred years ago couples married for political reasons or for the sake of securing family property and asset-building or to strengthen community relationships. Of course, affection often occurred in ages past but it wasn’t a given.’

  ‘I always knew you were living in the Dark Ages. Where exactly did you get your doctorate in chauvinism?’

  He smiled at her sarcasm. ‘I’m just quoting history, Mia. Our marriage has just as much chance of being successful as any other; in fact, it may even have more chance.’

  ‘I can’t imagine how you came to that conclusion,’ she said as she pushed a broken melaleuca branch out of her way. ‘I dislike you intensely and I can’t see that changing unless you undergo some sort of immediate character reconstruction.’

  ‘As I said previously—you might think differently after a few days alone with me.’

  ‘If the last twenty-four hours is any indication I’m afraid you’re in for a big disappointment if you’re expecting me to subscribe to your fan club.’

  ‘Look, Mia, I’m just asking you to try and get to know me as you would any other person. You’re so prejudiced against me you can’t see me for who I am.’

  ‘Here we go again.’ She rolled her eyes expressively as she turned back to face him, her hands on her hips. ‘The replay of the I’m-nothing-like-my-public-persona speech. Give me a break.’

  ‘Damn it, Mia,’ his voice rose in frustration, ‘why won’t you just give us a chance?’ His dark eyes held hers. ‘Will you at least consider the possibility of our marriage becoming a little more permanent?’

  ‘Define what you mean by a little more permanent. Are you talking months or years?’

  ‘I’m talking about you sleeping with me.’

  It was a moment or two before she could get her voice into gear. ‘I see.’

  ‘I want you, Mia. You know that. I’ve wanted you from the moment I met you.’

  The silence of the bush surrounded them, closing in on them until Mia felt as she was being cut off from the rest of civilisation.

  She was alone with him, alone with him and her unruly, traitorous desire for him, which was getting harder by the second to control.

  ‘You only want me because I’m the first woman to have said no to you.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ he said. ‘It’s much more than that.’

  ‘You’re surely not going to tell me you’ve suddenly discovered you’re in love with me,’ she said with a brittle look. ‘That would be about as low as anyone could go.’

  He took a moment to answer, his expression giving little away. ‘I have some feelings for you, yes.’

  ‘No doubt lust is at the top of the list.’

  ‘It’s up there, yes, but so too are admiration and respect. That’s more than I’ve felt for anyone else in the past.’

  ‘Wow, I feel really honoured,’ she said mockingly. ‘I bet you say that to all the girls when you set out to seduce them.’

  ‘I’m not trying to seduce you for the heck of it, Mia,’ he said. ‘I really want a relationship with you.’

  ‘A temporary relationship,’ she put in. ‘Where you get to wave the chequered flag when it’s all over—when you get bored or find someone else a little more interesting.’

  He didn’t answer immediately and it made Mia wonder if he did in fact care something for her. She unconsciously held her breath as his eyes shifted away from hers to stare out to sea. He turned back to her after a moment and handed her one of the bottles of water he was carrying. ‘I can’t promise you forever, no one can.’

  ‘What exactly are you offering?’

  ‘A relationship for as long as it works for us.’

  ‘So at the first rocky patch we encounter you’ll be off to find your next candidate.’
>
  ‘All I’m asking is for you to think about it, Mia. We’re in this marriage for the time being and it makes sense to put in some kind of effort to see if it could work out between us.’

  ‘I can’t see how two people who hate each other can make a go of marriage, especially considering the way ours came about.’

  ‘You don’t really hate me. I admit you’ve done a great job of acting like you do but I see the way you look at me when you think I’m not watching. You’re seriously attracted to me.’

  Her eyes shifted away from his. ‘You’re imagining it.’

  ‘Am I?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Little liar,’ he said, capturing her chin to force her to meet his eyes. ‘You want me just as much as I want you. I can see it in those big grey eyes of yours.’

  Mia could feel her heart begin to thud when he pulled her closer, his arms coming around her to hold her to his hard frame. His bare chest was hot and slick against hers as his mouth came down on hers, searing her with a kiss full of erotic promise. His tongue was hot and hard as it thrust through the shield of her lips, curling around hers and urging it into a sensual dance that was totally irresistible. A deep ache of longing pulsed low in her belly, the feel of his aroused length pressed up against her increasing her desire to a point where she completely forgot they were standing in the middle of a bush track where anyone could see them.

  The sound of approaching footsteps finally broke them apart. Mia stood flushed and unsteady on her feet before him, her eyes lowering from the heat and fire still burning in his.

  ‘We should press on,’ Bryn said, stepping back from her. ‘There are other people heading our way. We can finish this later.’

  The promise in his words left her breathless with fevered anticipation as she tried to get her legs to follow where he was leading. All her reasons for resisting him were being obliterated by her need to feel his mouth on hers again. She craved to feel his hands on her body—all of her body—his caressing touch preparing her for the most thrilling intimacy of all. She could almost feel his hard, thick presence between her thighs as she tried to negotiate the uneven path on her increasingly unsteady legs. A pulse was still beating deep inside her, made all the more insistent when she fell into step behind him as the length of his long, muscled legs and firm buttocks kept reminding her of how very male he was and how he affected her in a way no man had ever done before.

  They passed a few other hikers and just when she thought she would pass out from a combination of the heat of the sun and the burning desire he had activated, he indicated the path down to Alexandria Bay. ‘Fancy a quick swim to cool off?’

  She looked at the sparkling blue water of the bay and sighed with relief. ‘I can think of nothing better.’

  They made their way down the path to the beach, where the waves were crashing against the shore. They weren’t the only people on the beach but it took Mia a moment to realise the other sun-seekers weren’t wearing bathers.

  ‘Uh-oh,’ she said, quickly turning her back.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Bryn asked as he heeled himself out of his trainers.

  ‘Those people…’ She indicated with a quick flap of her hand behind her and whispered in an undertone, ‘They’re naked.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘You know?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said, stripping himself of his board shorts and tossing them to the sand at his feet. ‘This is an officially recognised naturist beach.’

  She forced her gaze upwards with an effort. ‘I’m not taking my clothes off.’

  ‘You don’t have to if you don’t want to.’ He strode off towards the surf while she was still standing there open-mouthed at the taut line of his back and buttocks.

  She watched as he entered the turbulent water, cutting through it effortlessly as he swam out beyond the breakers, his broad, tanned back glistening in the sun.

  She sucked in a ragged breath as the sun beat down on her, rivulets of perspiration trickling down between her breasts and thighs. The thought of dispensing with her shorts and top and even her skimpy bikini was suddenly very tempting. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t skinny-dipped before. Of course, skinny-dip-ping when you were with a group of girlfriends at a twelfth birthday party, at the dead of night in a small backyard pool when there wasn’t a male in sight wasn’t quite in the same league as this, but maybe she needed to show Bryn she wasn’t the uptight little virginal prude he thought she was.

  She stripped off her shorts and flung her T-shirt to the sand and with a deep breath reached behind her to untie her bikini top. She watched as it fell in a little heap on the sand and with another deep breath her hands went to her hips and tugged downwards…

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  THE water was like chilled champagne against her hot, sticky skin, the turbulent waves breaking over her like thousands of tiny, effervescent bubbles. The wildness of it was exhilarating and so too was the thought that nothing separated her from the feel of the ocean’s deep, rhythmic pulse on her body. Her bikini was hardly what anyone would have described as conservative, but bathing without the barrier of fabric was intensely sensual, especially knowing that Bryn was only a few metres away, and the same water that was moving against and over her body was touching him as well.

  She caught sight of him diving under a wave before resurfacing to swim out a bit further, his strong, muscled body making light work of the powerful surf.

  Mia was a confident and competent swimmer but she could already feel the heavy undertow dragging at her legs and decided against joining him. She body-surfed a few smaller waves before making her way back to her things on the sand, relieved to see the other people had moved further along the beach.

  Once she was back in her bikini she sat watching the pounding surf, her thoughts drifting to her earlier conversation with Bryn. His shock announcement about their marriage continuing for an unspecified period of time had thrown her completely. He had made his motives very clear; he wanted her—but for how long? He hadn’t put an exact time frame on it, probably because he couldn’t see their relationship lasting longer than a week or two; a month if she was lucky. He would no doubt slake his lust for her and within weeks she would be left with nothing but the memories and heartbreak.

  She frowned as she thought about his past, how losing his parents so young had made him wary of committing himself emotionally, as his great-aunt had indicated the day Mia had visited her.

  Would it be possible to remove the armour from around his heart? Was she in fact the special woman Agnes Dwyer already believed her to be?

  She suppressed a deep sigh of remorse over the deception she had been complicit in. She had always hated all forms of deceit, it went against everything she’d been taught. And certainly lying to an old lady seemed particularly immoral, but what if she could change that right now? All she had to do was agree to make their marriage a real one. The lies she’d told her parents and sisters would no longer be lies. What had begun as a lie would now be the truth. She loved him and, while he was uncertain about his feelings for her, perhaps in time she could teach him that loving someone wasn’t always painful and unpredictable.

  She watched as he came out of the water to join her, his tall naked body making her breath hitch in her throat. How could she have ever thought she would be able to resist him?

  ‘Did you enjoy your swim?’ he asked, showering her with droplets of sea water as he sat down next to her on the sand.

  She kept her gaze averted and toyed with the sand near her toes. ‘Yes, I did.’

  He brushed one finger along the heightened colour of her cheek. ‘You’re blushing.’

  ‘I’m not used to sitting next to naked men.’

  He lay back on the sand and closed his eyes against the glare of the sun. ‘You never know, you might get used to it in time.’

  Mia sneaked a look at him, her belly doing a little flip-flop all over again. His abdominal muscles were sculptured to perfection; they were lik
e tight rods of steel under the smooth tanned skin, the sprinkling of masculine dark hair that spread from his belly button over his pelvis and down his long strong legs making her skin crawl with the need to feel it rasping against her smoother softness.

  He opened one eye and caught her staring at him but before she could turn away he caught her hand and brought it to his chest. She could feel the deep thud of his heart beneath her palm and her own heart started to race when he began to move her hand downwards.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she gasped and tried to jerk away.

  He held her firm, his gaze locking with hers. ‘I want you to feel what you do to me.’

  She swallowed as her palm came over his growing hardness, the feel of him swelling beneath her tentative touch making her stomach flutter and her legs go weak. She heard him suck in a sharp breath as she began to explore him and another wave of deep longing rushed through her. His erection was like satin-covered steel, the pulsing heat in her hands making her feel powerful in a way she had never felt before. She looked down at him encased in her slim fingers, the latent power of his body totally under her command. She saw the tiny, pearly bead of moisture starting to pool at the head and her entire body shivered with a thousand tickling fingers of desire.

  He let out another deep groan, removed her hand and brought it above her head as he turned her on her back so he could lean over her, his head blocking the sun as his lips found hers.

  It was a deeply sensual kiss, unhurried, lazy almost, but no less enthralling. Mia could feel the delicious tension building in her body, the sun’s warm rays on her legs and arms making her feel increasingly uninhibited as she responded to each slow-moving glide of his tongue against hers. She sighed with pleasure when he released her bikini top, his warm hand taking the weight of her breast, his thumb rolling over the already puckering nipple.

  He lifted his mouth from hers to kiss his way down her neck to each breast, his lips and tongue inciting her desire for him to an almost unbearable level. He suckled and kissed each breast in turn, his teeth grazing her sensitised flesh, making her wriggle until she was beneath him properly, the pressure of his weight as his legs entrapped hers in a steely embrace sending her senses skyrocketing. His erection probed against the barrier of her bikini bottoms, the sensation of him being so intimately close but blocked by just a tiny scrap of fabric making her want him all the more.