Page 50 of 2 Books in One Bundle

Isla was white beneath her veil, but he could see her pretty mouth. The lipstick she had on today was a soft pink, highlighting the lush fullness of her lips. ‘A honeymoon? You can’t be serious.’

‘Of course I’m serious.’ He’d already planned it out in the hours before the wedding, because he was nothing if not prepared. ‘We will need a honeymoon to let the dust settle here and so we can discuss our arrangement.’ And so he could discover his own peculiar fascination with her.

She was staring at him now as if she’d never seen him before in all her life. ‘So let me get this straight,’ she said slowly. ‘If I don’t marry you today, now, you’ll remove me as CEO and break Kendricks’ up?’

‘Correct.’

‘But that’s blackmail.’

He lifted a shoulder. ‘I prefer to think of it as an incentive.’

‘But you’re not giving me a choice.’

‘Naturally, you have a choice. You can choose not to marry me. I’m not forcing you into anything.’

Her gaze behind her veil was very dark, her posture stiff, and he could feel the tension in her arm.

Time was passing and they’d been standing there too long, and if he waited any longer, her shock would wear off and she would start thinking clearly and logically, and his window of opportunity would be gone. He couldn’t let that happen.

‘Come,’ he murmured. ‘We can’t stay here too much longer. People are getting impatient. You can refuse, in which case I’ll leave, then take the company anyway, removing you as CEO and your father gets nothing. Or you can agree, in which case your father gets the nice little windfall from the sale of the company he was expecting, you get to remain as CEO and I get to keep the company intact for the year that I promised. You might even convince me to keep it intact longer than a year.’

She was trembling slightly. ‘You’re a bastard.’

Unperturbed, Orion inclined his head. He’d expected her anger. ‘Indeed. Though, I’ve been called worse.’

‘Doesn’t it matter to you at all that you paid my fiancé off? That you—’

‘Enough with the outrage,’ he interrupted mildly. ‘You didn’t love him, as I already pointed out. You don’t love me either, so really, all you’re doing is swapping one means to an end with another. It’s no big deal.’

The blush in her cheeks burned more intensely, which intrigued him. He’d assumed that her tremble was fear, and though he hadn’t wanted to frighten her, he’d accepted that she might be afraid. However, that blush wasn’t fear, that was anger.

Good. Anger was better than fear. It was certainly more powerful.

‘No big deal?’ she hissed. ‘Are you mad?’

‘Isla,’ he murmured. ‘Yes or no.’

For a second he thought she might refuse and his muscles tensed in response.

Then she tore her arm from his grip. Yet instead of heading out of the church and escaping, she marched straight over to the big oak double doors that led to the church proper. She stopped in front of them, clutching the remains of her peonies in a white-knuckled grip. ‘Come on then,’ she said, not looking at him. ‘Let’s get this over with.’

Orion smiled. She had more spirit than he’d expected, a lot more, in fact. And he liked that. He liked it very much.

So he came over to where she stood, and pushed open the doors, and let the strains of the wedding march fill the church.

CHAPTER TWO

ISLAIGNOREDTHEstares of the guests as she and Orion stepped through the doors. She ignored her father standing there, and the look of relief on his face.

Anger seethed in the pit of her stomach, and it was only sheer force of will that was preventing her from flinging her bouquet in Orion’s stupid, smug face, kicking her father in the shins, then running straight out the doors and never coming back.

But anger wouldn’t help, it never did, and she had no choice now but to hold tight to her bouquet and act as though the change of groom had been her idea all along.

Firstly she could barely believe Orion had gone to her father and done this apparent deal for her behind her back, without even a word to her. Secondly, she could barely believe her father had agreed to it.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t so difficult to believe. Orion’s reputation as a businessman who got what he wanted was well-known, and as for her father, Kendricks’ and its legacy was the only thing that mattered to him. That’s why he’d adopted her, to take over the helm once he was gone. He certainly hadn’t cared who her groom was as long as it was someone. And from a business perspective selling Kendricks’ made sense—the board was unhappy and the company had been underperforming for years—and extracting a promise from Orion to keep it intact had been a good move. As had making sure she stayed on as CEO in order to retain the illusion of family control.

Yet she was furious all the same that David hadn’t said anything to her, leaving her to have to deal with Orion turning up just before she had to walk down the aisle.

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