Page 57 of 2 Books in One Bundle

She put the agreement down on the table and clutched her shawl more closely around her shoulders. ‘I’ve looked over it,’ she said crisply. ‘You can send that to Kendricks’ legal department for them to study too.’

Orion glanced up from his screen and raised one black brow. ‘You don’t trust my word that it’s fine?’

‘No. I wouldn’t trust you as far as I could throw you.’

‘A wise decision.’ He glanced back down at his computer screen in obvious dismissal. ‘I’ll send it to them.’

‘Why did you want to marry me?’ she asked abruptly, since it was time he started answering some of her questions and she was tired of being in the dark. ‘Because if it was Kendricks’ you wanted, you could have just taken it.’

He didn’t look up. ‘I didn’t, because it wasn’t Kendricks’ I wanted.’

Her. He’d wantedher.

A tiny shock arrowed down her spine. ‘That’s not an answer.’

‘Sadly, it’s the only one you’re getting. I’m extremely busy, Snow White. Why don’t you go back to your seat and read a magazine or something.’

Isla gritted her teeth. ‘Snow White? Really?’

His gaze remained on the screen and he said nothing, but his mouth quirked. She couldn’t help looking at it. His bottom lip was full and beautifully carved. It had felt soft on hers and yet there had been a firmness to it, an insistent demand...

The electricity that hummed beneath her skin turned into a wash of heat, making her breath catch. Why had he wanted her? What was it that had made him promise to buy an entire company just so he could marry her?

‘If you’re not going to read a magazine,’ Orion murmured, ‘you’re quite welcome to stand there for the rest of the flight looking at my mouth. I don’t mind. Though I warn you, I might expect something for the privilege.’

The heat reached her cheeks, making her blush, and she suddenly wanted to shake him in some way, make him as restless and unsettled as he made her. It had been going on for months now and she was tired of it. Except she didn’t know how she could. He was one of the most successful corporate raiders in the world, a stone-cold, razor-sharp businessman, while she was only the adopted daughter of the Kendricks’ Family Christmas CEO. The adopted daughter who’d been all potential and nothing else.

David should have returned you. That’s what he should have done.

No, she could still realise that potential. Orion had promised she’d be CEO. She could still show David that his decision to adopt her thirteen years ago had been the right one. She just had to stop letting her more...intense feelings get in the way of making decisions that were good for the business. Being sympathetic to unhappy staff working long hours on a minimum wage and wanting to help them was all well and good, but paying more meant more expenses for the company, which the board didn’t like. They hadn’t been happy either with her informing her father that while the factory that made the Christmas decorations might have been cheap, it also contravened several labour laws and put people’s lives in danger, and so they needed to change to a different supplier. Yes, it was more expensive, but could you really put a cost on people’s lives?

Apparently you could and they hadn’t liked her arguing with them about it.

So now that’s what she needed to learn. To put her sympathies aside. To become harder, colder. To become more ruthless.

You could try learning from him.

Now,thatwas a good idea. He was certainly hard and cold, not to mention extremely ruthless. She didn’t like the thought of admitting that she needed to learn anything from him, but if she wanted to make her father proud, she had to do something.

She very much wanted to shock Orion in some way before that, though. He’d been in charge from the moment he’d walked into the church and she was tired of it.

‘If you want another kiss,’ he murmured without looking up. ‘Please don’t hesitate to ask. Though, as I said, I’ll probably want something more in return for one this time.’

Something more...

Another wash of heat swept through her, her mind reeling at the thought of the ‘more’ he might want. But no, thinking those things was reckless of her, dangerous even.

To stay in control of herself, she had to take control of the situation, not let him get the upper hand. And well, he was a man who took what he wanted, or so he’d said, so why couldn’t she? Why couldn’t she take from him? Give him a taste of his own medicine? Had anyone ever done that to him? She was thinking not.

‘Orion,’ she said softly.

And was gratified when he looked up. In the dim lighting of the plane, his dark golden eyes met hers and they gleamed. As if he knew already what she was about to do.

He didn’t, though, she was sure. He was far too satisfied with himself, far too pleased that his little threat had worked. He thought he had her exactly where he wanted her, and well, she’d show him.

Isla reached down and grabbed him by the tie, then she bent and kissed him.

He stiffened in surprise, but didn’t pull away. His mouth was firm and warm and within moments she was already half-desperate for the taste of him again. She touched her tongue to his lips the way he had with her not an hour or so ago, wanting entry.

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