Page 30 of His Wedding Day Revenge

‘No, you’re not.’ Except in the field of driving him slightly crazy. What was it about her? He watched through dark hooded eyes as her hand went to the base of her throat and he remembered kissing the blue-veined pulse point.

His desire for her had never made any logical sense. It had always been consuming, and he had always vowed not to be consumed by a woman.

‘Did you want me to make a fool of myself tonight?’

The charge dragged him from his contemplation of the sliver of midriff where the pale skin glowed with an opalescent sheen against the vivid brightness of her shirt.

‘Why would I want that?’ he asked slowly.

‘Maybe a bit of payback...?’

‘A boring evening and finding yourself out of your depth hardly compares with being left standing at the altar.’

The guilty heat flew to her cheeks and her antagonism melted into remorse—not that she regretted her decision; she knew it had been the right one, but she wished that she had made it earlier.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Sorry?’ He considered the word. ‘Oh, that makes it all right, then,’ he drawled. ‘Did you save the article with my face attached on coercive control?’

‘What?’ Her eyes flew wide with horror. ‘But that’s not true! And your press release.’ Not that it had been his—mysterious sources had managed to subtly distance Draco from the entire event. The story was then buried by a convenient good news story—who doesn’t love a royal baby?

‘When did the truth get in the way of a good story or, in that particular instance, innuendo?’ he said, sounding to her ears astonishingly casual about the whole thing. ‘The mutual agreement story was not universally accepted. I suppose I should consider myself lucky no one asked you to contribute to the debate.’

‘No one found me and I would never have called you a bully!’ she exclaimed indignantly.

‘You did earlier.’

She conceded the point with an uncomfortable shrug. ‘Well, that was different. I nearly ran you over. I was...you were...’

He arched a brow.

‘Impossible!’ she burst out. ‘I know you are rather overbearing and you treat women with the sort of respect you show your suits, but you are not a bully, no way, and—’

His slow whistle cut across her. ‘I really know where to go for a character reference should I need one!’

‘Nobody ever found me, but if they had I would not have contributed to a character assassination!’ she exclaimed indignantly. ‘And you were not at fault, I was, and I never meant to hurt you, Draco, truly I didn’t, but it was the right thing, you know that, outside the bedroom,’ she said, immediately wishing she hadn’t voiced the thought, or at least the bedroom part, because his eyes darkened instantly and the tension in the air made the fine hairs on her nape lift.

‘We didn’t have a thing in common.’

‘Outside the bedroom,’ he inserted provocatively.

‘That doesn’t last. We would have split up by now.’

‘I lack your ability to see into the future, especially a future that never happened.’

She sighed out her frustration. This was going around in circles. ‘Look I don’t see any point in post-mortems. You are angry, I behaved badly, and you deserved an apology, more than just a note.’

‘A note!’ He shook his dark head. ‘There was no note.’

Jane began to rub her bare finger. ‘I put it in with the ring—you got the ring?’ The idea that the valuable item had gone astray filled her with horror, as did the idea he might think she had kept it, or sold it.

He nodded. ‘I read the delivery note. I was aware of the parcel but I did not open it.’

‘Oh, right... Well, I wrote a note to say that I was sorry.’

‘It was a long time ago. There is no need for an orgy of remorse. We have both moved on.’

She lowered her eyes and nodded. ‘I know.’

---