The Billionaire's Marriage Bargain

by Mortimer, Carole

  ‘It must be something really big, Kenzie, if you’re willing to see me again,’ he mused, finding himself smiling at Kenzie’s obvious frustration with the situation.

  It was the sort of relaxed smile he hadn’t given for months. Four months, in fact. Since Kenzie had left him…

  His smile evaporated as quickly as it had appeared.

  Kenzie had left him, had walked out on their marriage, because, she had claimed, he was incapable of feeling the love for her that she had for him, and after only nine months of being married she simply couldn’t live with him any more.

  But her claims that it had been his lack of love for her that had ended their marriage had all been a lie, a fabrication, in an effort to hide the affair she was embroiled in with Jerome Carlton.

  He sobered completely at the thought of the other man in Kenzie’s life, and in her bed. He knew that, despite all the things she had said about the fidelity of love and marriage, she had been involved with another man for weeks before their marriage had finally come to its bitter end!

  But now, it seemed, she wanted something from him, a favour, she said.

  The retribution he had planned was for Jerome Carlton alone, but he knew that the shock waves of the other man’s fall from power would ultimately shatter Kenzie’s world too.

  But now Kenzie had brought herself willingly back into his life.

  It was like the spider and the fly…

  Chapter 2

  Kenzie had no idea what she was doing sitting in a restaurant waiting to have dinner with Dominick Masters, her almost ex-husband.

  He was late.

  Deliberately so, she was sure, in an effort to unnerve her.

  As if she didn’t feel nervous enough about this meeting already!

  A fact Dominick would be well aware of. Just as he had to be aware that any situation serious enough for her to have the need to call him in the first place had to be such that she couldn’t just walk out of here before he deigned to arrived.

  Which was why, she was sure, he was purposely keeping her waiting.

  Much to the interest of the other diners, not that they expressed it overtly.

  The face of Kenzie Miller was well known from her catwalk days, and more recently from the advertisements she appeared in on worldwide television as well as billboards and promotions in stores. Kenzie Miller, the face of Carlton Cosmetics.

  Kenzie Miller, international model, sitting on her own for the last fifteen minutes at a table set for two, obviously having been stood up by her date for the evening!

  No doubt this was Dominick’s idea of a joke, a minor vengeance for her having walked out on him, but, favour or no favour, if he didn’t turn up in the next three minutes she was walking out of here—

  He had just walked into the restaurant!

  Even if she hadn’t seen him enter Kenzie would have known of his arrival. She could feel the familiar ripple of awareness down her spine at his proximity, and the warmth of her breasts as they began to tingle, while an even hotter fire began in the pit of her stomach.

  It hadn’t gone away then, her complete physical awareness of Dominick.

  Not that she had ever thought that it would.

  It was just distressing to once again be confronted with the proof. He looked amazing, Kenzie acknowledged, in his dark tailored suit and white silk shirt.

  She imagined the long muscular length of his powerful body underneath, and watched his dark hair as his head moved, hair that she remembered burying her fingers in as she drew his head down to hers and…

  He wasn’t even looking her way, damn him. She watched him looking perfectly relaxed as he paused to talk to the maître d’.

  Her stomach felt as if it were churned up into knots, and she was suddenly struck by the enormity of what she was doing. But what choice did she have?

  Really?

  None.

  Dominick was walking over to their table now, acknowledging several acquaintainces along the way, seemingly completely unaware of her presence. Or that he was almost twenty minutes late!

  ‘I hope I haven’t kept you waiting,’ he said coolly as he took his seat opposite hers at the table, looking just as devastatingly handsome as he always had. As devastatingly handsome as she had imagined while talking to him on the telephone earlier today. ‘I was—unavoidably detained,’ he drawled.

  Dominick had seen Kenzie as soon as he’d entered the restaurant, and had been shocked how just looking at her could still render him momentarily speechless.

  His mouth had gone dry, and he had deliberately paused to talk to the maître d’ in order to give himself time to get over his initial response.

  Kenzie looked beautiful this evening. Stunningly so, with her long dark hair loose down her spine, the figure-hugging green strapless dress she wore revealing bare satin shoulders and the creamy swell of her breasts. The dress was an exact match in colour for the emerald of her eyes, eyes surrounded by the darkest, longest lashes Dominick had ever seen, and her full lips held the promise of a passion he had come to know intimately.

  But Kenzie wasn’t just beautiful; she had something else, a grace, an inborn sensuality that was apparent even in stillness, like now.

  The first time he had looked at her he had felt as if someone had punched him in the solar plexus. Today, under totally different circumstances, he felt the same painful blow as he studied her beneath hooded lids.

  None of that emotion showed in the harsh arrogance of his face as he looked across at her. ‘You’re looking well, Kenzie,’ he told her distantly as he nodded his thanks to the wine waiter who was pouring two glasses of the wine Dominick always ordered when dining here. ‘Obviously taking a lover suits you,’ he added harshly.

  ‘Letting your overactive imagination run away with you again, Dominick?’ she bit out tartly, firmly pushing away her awareness of him as she tossed the long length of her hair back over her bare shoulders to meet his gaze firmly.

  She had dressed carefully for their meeting this evening, choosing to wear her hair down the way she knew Dominick preferred it, and a clinging green dress that showed off the perfection of her figure.

  She was going to need every weapon she could find to withstand the scorn Dominick now felt for her, and she had decided that she wouldn’t try to detract from the beauty of the face and figure with which she had made her fortune, but emphasize them instead. If only to show Dominick what he had given up when he had chosen to let her walk away rather than sitting down with her and sorting out their differences.

  But the coldness of his dark gaze, as it moved slowly from the top of her head to the slenderness of her waist, didn’t show any regret for that loss!

  Twenty-seven and a successful model for the last eight years, she never had been able to withstand the coldly analytical gaze that gave away none of Dominick’s thoughts or emotions.

  If he had any emotions.

  Besides physical desire, that was.

  She had certainly never seen love shining in those dark depths, not for her or anyone else.

  ‘I prefer not to imagine anything where you and Jerome Carlton are concerned,’ he snapped now as he picked up his glass to take a sip of his white wine. ‘I was merely stating that the demise of our marriage doesn’t seem to have affected your beauty!’

  ‘Oh, let’s be precise,’ Kenzie muttered with inward resentment for his cool control. If Dominick had seen her a month ago as she had sat for hours by her father’s bedside at the hospital, just willing him to live, then he would have seen that she didn’t always look beautiful, that sometimes she just looked emotionally distraught.

  ‘Fine,’ she dismissed tersely. ‘If I could just explain to you why I need to talk to you—’

  ‘I would like to order my food first, if that’s okay?’ he cut in with smooth determination, his tone of voice telling her it wasn’t a question at all but a statement of intent.

  He might have left her with no choice but to agree to meet him here at the restaur
ant, but she really didn’t think she could actually eat anything. Seeing him again, realizing she still loved him as much as she ever had, and knowing there was no return of love for her in his cold, unemotional gaze, was tearing her apart.

  She swallowed hard. ‘Go ahead. I won’t, if you don’t mind.’ She closed the menu she had been given without even looking at it, her dark lashes sweeping low over the paleness of her cheeks.

  Dominick studied her silently for several seconds, knowing Kenzie had never been one of those models that had to starve herself to stay thin, that her slenderness was as natural as her beauty.

  He reached out to cup her chin in his hand and lift her face so that, unless she actually closed her lids completely, her gaze had to meet his.

  She had become more adept at hiding her emotions in the last four months, he realized as she easily withstood his searching look.

  Yet as he continued to study her he could see very slight changes in her. There was a strain in her green eyes, her face seemed pale beneath her make-up, and her slenderness, now that he had the time to look more closely, bordered on fragile.

  ‘What’s happened, Kenzie?’ he demanded as he released her chin to sit back in his seat. ‘Surely Jerome Carlton hasn’t failed to live up to your exacting expectations, too?’ he scorned.

  She gave a weary sigh. ‘Why haven’t you ever believed me when I tell you I have never been involved with Jerome on a personal level?’ She shook her head.

  Why? Because Dominick knew exactly how the other man had pursued her five months ago, desperate to get Kenzie as the ‘face’ for his company’s new line in beauty products.

  And with the chasm that had recently developed in their marriage, Dominick knew it had been all too easy for Jerome Carlton to seduce Kenzie, and to persuade her into being a part of his life as well as contracted to his company.

  He knew all these things because Jerome Carlton had personally taken delight in relating them to him!

  ‘Where does Jerome think you are this evening?’ he challenged. ‘Not out to dinner with me, I’m sure?’ he taunted.

  She drew in a sharp breath before releasing it in a sigh. ‘I haven’t come here to discuss Jerome with you. I—actually I haven’t seen him for several weeks. My father has been ill, you see, and—’

  ‘Donald has?’ Dominick echoed sharply, waving away the waiter who came to take their food order, too interested in what Kenzie was saying to even think about food. Especially the part where she said she hadn’t seen Jerome for several weeks…

  He also wanted to hear more about Donald. He had only found the time to meet the older man three times during his marriage to Kenzie, but he had liked him and had to admire the easy way he had survived being the only male member of a household dominated by his wife and four daughters.

  Kenzie swallowed hard. ‘He wasn’t feeling well for some months, and then a month ago he had a heart attack—’

  ‘Why the hell didn’t you let me know?’ Dominick questioned immediately.

  She blinked across at him in surprise. As she had learnt to her cost, Dominick didn’t ‘do’ family. Coming from a family that had been split apart when he was only eight, and then presented with a series of stepmothers and stepfathers, he could perhaps have welcomed the close-knit family Kenzie had brought into their marriage. But he hadn’t, he didn’t trust or want a family, and had kept his emotional as well as physical distance from all of them.

  And only his emotional distance from Kenzie, she remembered achingly.

  ‘Why on earth would I do that?’ she prompted incredulously. ‘You never showed any interest in my family when we were married, so why would you want to be bothered now that we’re divorced?’

  ‘Separated,’ Dominick corrected harshly. ‘I haven’t signed the divorce papers yet,’ he reminded her.

  No, he hadn’t, although Kenzie didn’t understand why not. She had thought he would be glad to get rid of her and the marriage he wished had never happened.

  But weeks after they had been sent, as far as she knew the papers remained unsigned as well as unreturned.

  In the circumstances, perhaps that was as well…

  It certainly made it a little easier to come here and talk to him this evening.

  A little…

  ‘A technicality,’ she accepted heavily. ‘I—’ She broke off as a waiter put a plate of hors d’oeuvres in the centre of the table before making a discreet exit.

  Dominick turned to give the waiter a rueful smile, appreciative of the fact that the other man had realized the tension bouncing off this table meant there would be no meal ordered here this evening. Or perhaps he was just another person who found Kenzie’s ethereal beauty enthralling…

  Kenzie seemed to have been momentarily knocked off balance too. ‘How are your own parents?’ she prompted awkwardly.

  He gave a rueful shake of his head. Kenzie had met both his parents only once, separately of course, in which meetings his father had been leeringly flirtatious and his mother had been interested in learning what beauty products Kenzie used to maintain her natural loveliness.

  Kenzie had dealt with those meetings with teasing laughter for his father, and warm interest for his mother.

  She had impressed Dominick at the time, he grudgingly acknowledged, particularly considering that neither of his parents had been overly interested in his marriage, even when he had told them he and Kenzie had separated.

  ‘The same,’ he answered dismissively. ‘And stop trying to change the subject, Kenzie. Tell me about your father.’

  She absently picked up a prawn confection from the plate and popped it into her mouth before answering him.

  Dominick found his attention caught by the fullness of her lips, lips that he had kissed, lips that had kissed him and pleasured him to new heights.

  God, how he still wanted her!

  And how dearly he wished that he didn’t…!

  Her tongue moved to moisten those lips now, her gaze once again shadowed. ‘He had a heart attack,’ she repeated evenly.

  Dominick knew what a blow that must have been for the Miller women, for Nancy, his wife of thirty years, for the youngest daughter Kathy, for Carly and Suzie, and for the eldest daughter, Kenzie. Donald was adored by all of them.

  The eldest daughter Kenzie…Who had once been Dominick’s wife. Who had come to him now to ask for his help in some way, albeit reluctantly. But what help could he possibly be to her? Kenzie was extremely rich in her own right, and could afford to give her father the best medical care available, so what could Dominick possibly give her that she didn’t already have?

  Kenzie knew it was time to stop prevaricating, that Dominick would either help her or he wouldn’t. It was better to know sooner rather than later.

  She drew in a deep breath. ‘My sister Kathy is going to be married on Saturday.

  Kathy wanted to cancel the wedding until my father is feeling better, but he’s adamant that those arrangements not be changed.’

  Dominick frowned. ‘And you want me to send her a wedding gift…?’

  ‘No, of course not,’ she sighed impatiently; if only it were that simple!

  ‘You surely don’t want me to give Kathy away in your father’s stead?’ he taunted.

  ‘You’re being ridiculous now!’ Kenzie said, exasperated. ‘What I want, what I need from you—This isn’t easy for me, Dominick!’ She groaned, her eyes, those incredible green eyes, filled with tears now.

  He gave a shake of his head, his brown gaze guarded. ‘I’m afraid I can’t help you there,’ he rasped.

  No, he couldn’t, could he?

  During the months they had been apart Kenzie had had plenty of time to realize that it wasn’t completely Dominick’s fault that their marriage had been such a disaster.

  He had never lied to her, having always been completely honest about his feelings for her, and had never once, either before or after they were married, said that he was in love with her, or that it was ever more than her body
that held him in thrall. It had only been her own deep love for him, she had come to realize, her romantic ideal of what marriage should be, that had convinced her otherwise.

  Until faced, irrevocably, with the painful truth…

  She swallowed hard. ‘The thing is—Dominick, what I do need is for you—for you to come to Kathy’s wedding with me on Saturday!’ She looked up at him now, needing to see his reaction.

  To say he was stunned was an understatement, although he quickly masked the emotion, his gaze once again narrowing, questioningly now. And all the time his razor-sharp brain was working behind his guarded appearance, evaluating, assessing.

  But this time not reaching a logical conclusion…

  Dominick gave a shake of his head. ‘Why?’ he prompted economically.

  This was so like Dominick. Blunt. To the point.

  And it would be better if Kenzie answered him in the same way. ‘Because they all expect you to be there!’

  ‘Why?’ he repeated tautly.

  ‘Because—because I’ve never told my family that we’re separated!’ The words came out in a rush, her face once again pale as she looked at Dominick.

  Dominick frowned. Kenzie’s family didn’t know their marriage was over, that it had been so for four months?

  The newspapers, thankfully, didn’t seem to have picked up on the rift in the marriage yet. The fact that both of them often travelled abroad, necessitating lengthy partings, probably accounted for that. But why hadn’t Kenzie told her family at least?

  What possible reason could she have for not telling them?

  Considering Kenzie had left him to go to another man this oversight didn’t make a lot of sense to him.

  Her father had had his heart attack a month ago, Kenzie had said, which was before or after she’d had the divorce papers sent to Dominick?

  After, he would hazard a guess, otherwise she would surely have told her family the truth by now.

  Kenzie couldn’t meet the intensity of Dominick’s gaze now, knowing that not telling her family of their estrangement was stupid, and that her hope that their separation wouldn’t last had been even sillier.