Page 12 of Bought For The Marriage Bed

Nina hadn’t known that little detail and wondered why her sister hadn’t mentioned it.

‘So?’ She made her voice sound as unconcerned as possible even though her stomach was rolling in consternation.

‘Daniela was understandably upset at what had gone on whilst she had been in Milan visiting her family the first time,’ he said. ‘She was threatening to call off the wedding altogether but Andre was adamant that his involvement with you had ceased. She knew about the baby and it caused a great deal of trouble between them, as she was concerned about him having further contact with you. She lived long enough after the accident to tell me that Andre had been on edge when he arrived to pick her up, as you had visited him the night before making your usual outrageous demands. He had not slept well after you left and his concentration was all over the place. A truck ran a red light and he did not have the necessary reaction time to avoid the collision.’

‘And you think that’s my fault?’ Nina asked tightly. ‘I wasn’t driving the truck!’

‘You might as well have been, as far as I am concerned. Andre was deeply ashamed of himself for getting involved with you. It almost destroyed his relationship with Daniela.’

‘He should have thought about the consequences before he gave me the come-on,’ she threw back.

‘Have you not got that the wrong way around?’ he asked with a flash of black eyes. ‘It was not Andre who was lying naked in the hotel bed that first night—it was you.’

Nina did her best to hide her shock at his statement. There was so much she didn’t know and the further she became embroiled in this farce the harder it was to maintain her cover. Nadia had told her virtually nothing, which meant she now had to lie her way through this emotional minefield.

Lie after lie after lie.

She’d read somewhere that if a person were to tell one lie they then had to go on and tell thousands to keep that single one in place. Now she could well believe it.

‘So?’ She tried the casual tone again. ‘He could have said no.’

‘There are very few men who could say no when such temptation is dangled in front of them,’ he said, raking his gaze over her once more.

Nina tilted her head at him provocatively. ‘So you admit to being a little tempted yourself?’

His hand left the doorknob as he strode back across the room to stand in front of her, his expression so full of hatred she had to force herself not to step backwards to escape the heat of it coming off him in scorching waves.

His eyes burned down into hers forcefully, the inky depths glittering as if he was only just managing to keep his temper under control.

‘You might have the body of a goddess and the face of an angel but I would not touch you even if you held the key to life itself,’ he ground out heavily.

Injured feminine pride made Nina hitch up her chin another fraction, her eyes issuing him a challenge she knew deep inside she should not be issuing but she just couldn’t help it. How dare he dismiss her so confidently?

‘Want to lay a bet on that, big boy? Put your money where your mouth is—so to speak.’

The line of his mouth grew even tighter until his lips appeared almost white. Nina could tell she had taken things a little too far but it was too late to back out now.

‘All right.’ He finally released his breath. ‘I will lay a bet on it. If I touch you other than in the most casual way during our marriage, you win the bet. I will double your allowance on the spot.’

She suddenly realised that Nadia would have asked how much he intended giving her by now but it simply hadn’t occurred to Nina to do so.

‘Um…how much are you intending to pay me?’

‘Much more than you are worth, I can assure you.’

Her eyes burned with seething hatred at his denigration, everything inside her quaking with anger until she could barely stand still. She felt it rumbling in her stomach, flash-flooding her veins as it was carried to every single cell of her body.

‘That remains to be seen,’ she said in Nadia’s confident flirty tone even though her teeth were being ground to powder behind her seductive smile.

His midnight eyes gleamed with confidence as he looked down at her, the small smile that was playing on his lips a combination of both mockery and challenge.

‘Go ahead, Miss Selbourne, go ahead and make me pay.’

She opened her mouth to respond but before she could get the words out the door opened under his hand and he stepped through and closed it behind him with an ominous click of the lock as it fell back into place.

She stared at the door for a moment or two, her stomach in tight knots of panic, her head throbbing with tension and her legs trembling at the thought of what she’d just done.

She turned and leaned heavily on the arm of the old sofa, her frazzled brain trying to find a satisfactory way out of her predicament.

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