Page 54 of 2 Books in One Bundle

The thought wound through her, a small thread of jagged ice. David had certainly been pleased with her when he’d first adopted her. He’d been satisfied with her excellent marks at school and the reports detailing her potential, as well as her polite manner and how articulate she was. Smart, he’d called her, and she’d been thrilled. She hadn’t cared that he was the Christmas magnate and he’d adopted her to be his heir. She’d just been happy someone had wanted her, and she’d been excited to be part of a family again.

She’d thought he wanted a daughter, but it soon became apparent that David had no use for daughters, and what he actually wanted was a business protégé, an employee he could mould into his perfect successor. He found her emotional needs tiresome, frequently telling her that he hadn’t adopted her because he wanted hugs and family time. He’d adopted her because her school marks were excellent and she had potential. A potential she knew she hadn’t lived up to.

But she didn’t want to think about that. The only thing that mattered right now was getting answers from Orion North.

Ignoring the heat in her cheeks and the electricity in her bloodstream, Isla forced herself to hold his gaze. ‘So, Mr North,’ she said flatly. ‘You promised me Kendricks’ would remain intact for a year if I married you, and that I would be CEO. So now I have, in fact, married you, I want that promise in writing and I want it now.’

Orion contemplated the new Mrs Isla North with not a little bit of satisfaction.

She looked like a snow maiden, all swathed in white, and yet there were so many delicate colours to her. Colours he’d never noticed before. The angry sapphire of her eyes and her full, pink mouth. The rose petal stain of a blush on her cheeks and the golden curls escaping from her careful bridal up-do and falling down around her ears.

His wife now.

Even though marriage had never been his intention—or at least not until a week earlier—he found the thought of her being his wife very satisfying. He’d promised Kendrick he’d stay married to her for a year, not that he cared overmuch about time frames since it probably wouldn’t take all that long to get to the bottom of his fascination with her. And once he had, he’d already decided that they’d lead separate lives until the year was up and then he’d divorce her.

He had no need for a wife and a family was not on his list of things to accomplish. He had no things to accomplish, not since he’d already accomplished everything he’d set out to do. All except one, of course. But that was something that would remain undone.

However, now Isla was his, he could take some time to find out exactly what it was about her that drew him so intensely.

Certainly he’d admired her poise back in the church. She’d been furious, but she’d taken him and his threat seriously and hadn’t balked when he’d promised to carry it through if she didn’t agree to be his wife. And, of course, a written agreement was exactly what he’d demand if he was in her shoes.

Which was why he’d already had his legal department draw one up.

‘Funny you should ask.’ He lifted a hand. Obligingly, the stewardess came over with the agreement that she’d just finished printing out and handed it to him.

He took it and held it out to Isla. ‘I trust this will suffice.’

The look she gave him was deeply suspicious as she reached for the papers, and became even more so when he didn’t let them go.

The colour of her eyes was so very pretty. A deep, endless blue, like a summer sky at midnight. He’d liked it when he’d lifted her veil by the altar and had looked down into them, seeing all those challenging, glittering sparks.

It wasn’t the same as when she’d talked to him about that Van Gogh painting and she’d become so luminous he hadn’t been able to look away, yet it was similar.

You want her to come alive for you too.

Maybe he did. He certainly didn’t need to hold on to the papers the way he was doing now, but he was and purely to see that hot blue flame burn in her gaze.

‘I don’t know if it will suffice,’ she said. ‘Not if you don’t let me look at it.’

Really, she was quite delicious like this, all pink and white and furious. If he’d known, he’d have somehow engineered things so he could have married her sooner. Either that or he’d have seduced her. Though, he could still seduce her. He’d told her in the church it would be a marriage in name only, but that had been before he’d got close to her. Before he’d touched her silky skin and kissed that soft pouty mouth in front of the altar.

In fact, he was starting to think that perhaps he might want a wedding night, and perhaps she might agree. After all, she wasn’t unaffected by him, not given the way she was blushing now.

Clearly it was time to test that.

‘Say please,’ he murmured.

She blinked. ‘Excuse me?’

‘I think you heard.’ He smiled. ‘Politeness is key to any business negotiation.’

More anger glittered in her eyes and he liked it. He liked it far too much. She’d been so very contained in all those business meetings he’d had with her and her father, and yet he’d had the sense that her control was imperfect. Sometimes her fingers would drum on the desk or she’d tap her foot on the floor. Or she’d shift minutely in her seat, as if she couldn’t sit still.

She seemed like a champagne bottle that had been shaken with the cork still in it, all the liquid fizzing and seething inside just waiting for a chance to explode.

Perhaps he might see that explosion now.

The thought made him catch his breath.

---