‘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 effectively 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 love-making 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 to 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.
Love!
That was for people like Kenzie, not him. It was for people who hadn’t had the notion of love kicked out of them by their own parents’ infidelities when they were a kid. Because loving someone, one person, for a lifetime, simply didn’t exist.
But what about Nancy and Donald? an annoying little voice asked inside his head.
An exception, not the rule, he told himself firmly. One successful marriage didn’t make up for the fact that almost one in two marriages ended in divorce nowadays.
Love wasn’t to be trusted, he had learnt at a very early age. It only made fools of everyone—and he had no intention of ever joining the ranks of the foolish!
‘WHAT did you and Dad talk about while you were out?’ Kenzie prompted curiously as she came back from preparing for bed in the adjoining bathroom.
The two men had disappeared together for over an hour earlier once Dominick had come back downstairs, and Kenzie had been unable to stop feeling anxious the whole time they’d been gone. She wondered what two such different men could possibly have found to discuss for that length of time, and her look of concern had earned her quite a lot of teasing from her sisters as they had mistaken that anxiety for missing Dominick.
Her family obviously had no idea, but she had got used to missing Dominick during their months of separation. She had never quite accepted it, but at the same time she knew there was no point in pulling herself to emotional shreds over something she, and her love, couldn’t change. Dominick couldn’t ever change.
So she had smiled good-naturedly through her sisters’ teasing, the pressure having eased off by the arrival of Colin and Neil, which had been quickly followed by her father and Dominick’s return. The nine of them—Kathy’s fiancé Derek had been banned from seeing his bride until the wedding tomorrow—had then all sat down to the meal the women had prepared in the men’s absence.
Now was the first opportunity this evening Kenzie had had to talk to Dominick privately.
She needed to talk, to cover the awkwardness she felt in coming back to the bedroom wearing only peach-coloured silk pyjamas. Dominick was sprawled out on one of the beds still fully dressed, his gaze hooded as he straightened up on the pillow to look at her.
‘Very sexy,’ he murmured as he scrutinized her slowly up and down. ‘As I recall you always slept naked; how long have you been wearing those passion killers?’
Her eyes glittered angrily. ‘Since I knew I had to share a bedroom for the night with my ex-husband!’ She had slept naked during their marriage because there had been little point in her wearing anything—Dominick had always thrown it off within minutes of their getting into bed.
‘Almost ex-husband,’ Dominick corrected grimly, straightening to get a better look at her. ‘I haven’t decided whether or not to sign the papers yet,’ he added distractedly, revising his initial impression of the pyjamas now that he could see the way the silky material fell smoothly over the pertness of Kenzie’s breasts. He noticed that her nipples hardened under his gaze.
In arousal.
So she wasn’t as sexually immune to him as she wanted him to believe, after all …
Kenzie avoided meeting his eyes. ‘You didn’t answer my question about what you and my father talked about while you were out,’ she reminded him, determined to stay clear of any conversation that might cause an argument.
He shrugged, slowly sitting up. ‘This and that,’ he dismissed, his gaze unwavering on her. ‘Nothing of importance.’
Unless you counted Donald’s satisfaction in knowing that, after tomorrow, all of his girls would be happily married and settled.
It was a sentiment that gave Dominick an insight into the difficulty Kenzie must have felt in breaking the news of their separation to her family—he hadn’t felt in a position to disappoint the older man either!
‘You never did tell me how Jerome Carlton rates as a lover?’ he looked up as he challenged her.
Dominick had realized the last few days that he still couldn’t stand the thought of anyone else touching her silken curves, and all those secret, erotic places only he had known. He still hated the idea of someone else hearing her little cries of pleasure as she reached the pinnacle of her sensual enjoyment. And the thought of Kenzie kissing and caressing any other man in the way she had him still had the effect of making his stomach clench into knots!
Kenzie studied Dominick for several seconds, wondering if he actually cared if she’d had another lover, and whether it had been jealousy all along that had caused him to cut her out of his life with so much finality.
But the glittering of his dark eyes and the tightness of his jaw were evidence of cold anger rather than the jealousy she had been hoping for. By bringing Jerome back into the conversation at all he was just spoiling for another fight.
She raised her chin defiantly. ‘As it isn’t gentlemanly of a man to tell tales out of the bedroom, I’m sure it isn’t ladylike for a woman to do so, either—Dominick, what are you doing?’ she demanded incredulously as he sprang up off the bed to grasp her by the tops of her arms. ‘Let me go!’ she instructed impatiently, glaring up at him. ‘You don’t really care whether or not Jerome and I have been lovers—’
‘Don’t I?’ he grated.
She shook her head, her hair silky about her shoulders. ‘You have to feel love to care, Dominick!’
He became suddenly still, maintaining a firm hold of her arms, his face only inches from her own. ‘Perhaps I’m just wondering how your parents would feel if they knew their little Kenzie had been sleeping around.’
She glared at him. ‘I thought what we were discussing had nothing to do with sleeping!’
‘You little—’ He broke off abruptly, drawing in deep, controlling breaths as he continued to scowl down at her.
Kenzie was tall and usually found herself on a level with most men, but Dominick had always been four or five inches taller than her, and that impression of height, along with the powerful width of his shoulders, became even more apparent as he strove to regain control of the anger she had deliberately incited.
‘But you don’t care, Dominick,’ she taunted coolly, determined to meet the furious glitter of his eyes. ‘You never did. Because you don’t believe in love, remember?’ she mocked, recalling the painful disillusionment the moment she had realized that.
No, he didn’t believe in love, Dominick acknowledged, and he had no idea what he felt for Kenzie at that moment, only that the thought of her in Jerome Carlton’s arms was once again driving him crazy.
There hadn’t been any other women in his life during the four months of their separation. Having Kenzie walk out on him in that way, leaving him for another man, seemed to have killed all desire for sex in him.
Until the second he had seen Kenzie on Wednesday evening …
Since then he had been filled with nothing but a desire for sex. But only with Kenzie.
But not here. And not now. That would happen on his terms. For his pleasure.
His hands dropped abruptly to his sides as he released her. ‘I don’t believe in love,’ he said abruptly. ‘I’ll go and use the bathroom myself now. And I didn’t make provision for sharing a bedroom for the night with my ex-wife, so, if you don’t want to be shocked out of your romantic little mind, I should turn over and go to sleep before I get back!’ He strode over to the adjoining room and pulled the door shut firmly behind him.
Kenzie stared at the closed door, blinking back the tears that threatened to fall. She knew there was no hope for her and Dominick, no common ground of conversation even. There was just anger and misunderstanding on Dominick’s part, and love, still love, on hers …
‘For God’s sake settle down and go to sleep, will you?’ Dominick snapped softly in the darkness of the bedroom. Kenzie became still in the adjoining bed. ‘Sorry. I didn’t think you were awake,’ she muttered, having had no idea he had been aware of her restless movements for the last hour as sleep had eluded her.
He gave a heavy sigh. ‘You may think I lack a certain—insight where emotions are concerned, Kenzie, but I can assure you there is absolutely nothing wrong with my memory!’
And what was that supposed to mean?
That he was still thinking about her with Jerome Carlton?
Or something else …?
‘I can’t sleep,’ she sighed.
‘I think that’s pretty damned obvious!’ he bit out tersely. ‘Unfortunately, now neither can I!’
‘Sorry,’ she muttered again.
Dominick sat up in the bed, swinging his legs to the floor as he pushed the duvet aside.
He could see very little of Kenzie in the moonlight shining in through the window, only the paleness of her face and the dark cloud of her hair spread out on the pillow beside her.
‘Do you want me to come over there?’ he taunted.
No, of course she didn’t!
Did she …?
There was no denying that she was totally aware of him, and had been so since he’d called at her apartment earlier this afternoon. Sharing this bedroom with him, even in separate beds, was absolute torture to her senses.
She hadn’t thought it would be like this. Yes, she still loved Dominick, and, yes, she was still very aware of his physical attractiveness, but she had thought his total distrust of her, and his lack of love for her, would have killed all the sexual desire she had once felt for him.
In the last hour while she had lain here unable to sleep, she had been all too conscious of Dominick in the adjoining bed: of the even tenor of breathing, the slightly elusive tang of his aftershave, and of the heat of his body. All of which had shown her that she ached for him just as much as she ever had.
‘No, of course I don’t want you to come over here,’ she answered without conviction.
‘Are you sure?’
She bristled at his mocking tone of voice. ‘Of course I’m sure!’
‘You didn’t sound very sure,’ Dominick mused.
‘I’m not going to deny that this situation is—difficult,’ she told him quietly.
‘How difficult?’ he challenged, standing up, his lithe nakedness visible in the soft light.
Kenzie stopped breathing, her eyes wide as she looked at him. This was not a good idea. Not a good idea at all.
‘Look, Dominick,’ she told him quickly. ‘I’m sure we could quite easily make love together, here and now—’
‘We could?’ he derided.
‘Yes,’ she bit out awkwardly. ‘Statistics show that the majority of married couples who have separated have sex together at least once after that separation before they actually divorce. It’s usually a disappointment to both parties, and only serves to reaffirm their decision—’
‘I’m not interested in statistics, Kenzie,’ he dismissed impatiently. ‘And you have never disappointed me in bed, any more than I believe I have ever disappointed you, either—’
‘You’re talking about sex again, Dominick,’ she cut in frustratedly.
He gave a shake of his head, moving until he sat on the edge of her bed. ‘And talking has never solved anything between us, has it?’ he acknowledged ruefully, one of his hands moving up to smooth the creamy contour of her cheek. ‘The truth is, I would much rather show you what you threw away four months ago than talk about it!’ His head lowered before his lips captured hers.
Kenzie fought against the desire that quickly rose within her, pushing at the bareness of his chest as she wrenched her mouth from his. ‘No—’
‘Yes, Kenzie!’ he insisted gruffly. ‘Neither of us is going to find a moment’s rest until we get this out of the way!’
‘But it won’t solve anything—’
‘It will prove that you still want me!’ he grated. ‘Because you do still want me, don’t you, Kenzie?’ he encouraged huskily as his fingers trailed down her neck to the hollows of her throat.
Kenzie quivered with an awareness she was unable to hide. ‘You’re just trying to punish me, Dominick. Wreak some sort of revenge because I dared to leave you—’
‘Oh, no, Kenzie, a brief time together at the home of your parents isn’t going to be nearly enough recompense for that,’ he assured her grimly. ‘But a little down payment might not be a bad idea in the circumstances. And you do owe me, remember …?’
Oh, she remembered, all right. She also had a pretty good idea now of exactly what he was going to want in ‘payment’ for being here with her this weekend!
‘Dominick—’
‘Not now, Kenzie,’ he dismissed, his hand moving down to cup her breast, his thumbtip caressing the hardened tip as he bent his head to reclaim her lips.
Kenzie felt the heat in her body, wanting to continue fighting him, but knowing that her body betrayed her. She melted through her enjoyment of the feel of Dominick’s lips on hers as he began to kiss her, and found she was unable to stop herself from reaching up to entangle her fingers in his hair as she tasted him in return.
His hands moved restlessly across her back, moulding her body to his, and crushing her breasts against the hardness of his chest as they continued to kiss hungrily.
Kenzie groaned low in her throat as Dominick sat back slightly to push the gaping neckline of her top to one side, one hand finding her naked breast, while the other moved to unfasten the buttons down the front of the silky garment.
She felt the cool air on her bare flesh as Dominick cleared the material from her body, his lips leaving hers now so that he could feel the thrust of her breast with his mouth. As he drew the aching nipple into the heated moisture between his lips, the pad of his thumb moving across its twin, Kenzie dropped weakly back onto the pillow as she arched in pleasure.
She could feel his arousal pressed against her, an ache between her own thighs matching that need.
Her fingers tightened in his hair as she pulled him even closer, feeling the rasp of his tongue now, circling and flicking the tip of her breast, before drawing it into his mouth to suck rhythmically.
The heat was rapidly building inside her as she reached out to touch him, her fingers closing about him, revelling in the wild pulsing. She moved her hand along the length of the hardened shaft, knowing, as she always had, how to pleasure him.
He lifted his head, his eyes glittering in the darkness. ‘Do you want me to take you, Kenzie?’ he asked. ‘Do you want me inside you?’
‘Yes! Oh, God, yes!’ she groaned, completely, mindlessly, aroused.
‘How much do you want me, Kenzie?’ His hand lightly touched her breast. ‘Tell me how much!’
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