Page 13 of A Nine-Month Deal With Her Husband

‘Olivier is working from home and he’s suggested a video call. We can talk about legalities when we get back to my place. He’s annoyed because he wanted to meet you in person.’

‘Why?’ Millie asked, confused.

‘Because he’s been your trust’s lawyer for over eight years, Millie.’

Oh, right.Olafson.She’d seen correspondence from his law offices many times over the years. He’d answered many of her legal questions and she wanted to meet him, too. ‘Maybe we could all have lunch when I come back on the twenty-second.’

‘I’m not going to be in the country, I’m flying to St Barth’s that day for an old friend’s stag weekend,’ Benedikt told her. Oh. Well, that answered the question about whether he’d be attending the gala concert or not.

‘We’ll video call him when we get home,’ Benedikt said, standing up. ‘We do need to get going, I do not want to be driving when the storm hits.’

She was going home with him and they would be alone.

Millie picked up her bag, feeling tired, out of her depth and emotionally drained. She looked around. ‘I don’t know where my luggage is, Benedikt,’ she told him.

‘For goodness sake, call me Ben,’ he told her, gesturing for her to leave his office in front of him. He flipped off some light switches. ‘And Einar transferred your luggage to my car.’

Millie followed Ben to the lifts and stepped into one that was empty. In the confined space, she inhaled Ben’s cologne, a fresh scent that made her want to bury her nose in his throat, and lick her way across his collarbone.

Once more she was bombarded with thoughts of how Ben would look naked, whether that sensual mouth delivered wicked kisses and what it would feel like to have his broad, masculine hands moving over her skin. She hadn’t felt this attracted to a man in...ages. Truthfully, she’d never felt this much this quickly. Nobody ever had her mentally undressing him, thinking about his mouth and his hands...

She wanted him and shesodidn’t want to want her husband. And she could never, ever let him suspect she was attracted to him.

This marriage of convenience was now very inconvenient indeed!

Ben’s car was a four-wheel drive Range Rover with all the bells, whistles and, best of all, heated seats. The wind had picked up and it was snowing quite hard but, because she knew Ben had been driving in extreme conditions for twenty-plus years, Millie settled back in her seat.

As they drove through Reykjavik she noticed the exquisite shops, decorated for Christmas, and an abundance of white fairy lights. She had hoped to take a tour of Reykjavik to see the city decorated with its Christmas lights, but she didn’t know if she’d manage it this trip. Twelve years ago, she’d felt like a local, now she was a little better than a tourist.

Millie looked at Ben behind the wheel and took in his strong profile. He’d draped his wrist over the steering wheel and she’d felt a buzz of lust between her legs. She’d been in Iceland for just a few hours and spent a lot of that time thinking about his hands and how they would feel on her bare skin.

She’d spent almost as much time imagining his mouth, how he would taste...how amazing he would look naked. He had an athlete’s build, tall, rangy and muscled, and she suspected that a few of his muscles had muscles of their own.

They stopped at a traffic light and Ben reached across her legs to open the glove compartment, his hand brushing her knee and her thigh. He murmured a quick apology as he pulled out a phone charger, the side of his hand skimming over the top of her hand.

He plugged his charger in and Millie noticed a muscle ticking in the side of his jaw. The atmosphere in the car turned heavy and sultry, wickedly intense. He looked at her and they exchanged another of those I-can’t-believe-how-much-I-want-you glances.

Then the traffic light changed to green, Ben hit the button to let in a gust of fresh, snow-tinged air and the moment passed. It was, she supposed, a viable alternative to a cold shower.

Her unexpected attraction to him was both tiresome and problematic. Millie wiggled in her seat and slipped out of her coat. She’d never before thought of Ben in terms of sex or being stripped of his clothes. Up until yesterday, he’d been the name at the end of infrequent email messages.

Most days, and for most of their marriage, she rarely thought of him and she never, not once, found her marriage to him any sort of handbrake. The terms of their engagement were clear: it was a business deal and their lives were never, in any way, to be impacted by it. They both had the freedom to see other people, sleep with other people, and do what they wanted when they wanted.

She had no idea how many lovers Ben had had—she’d seen the occasional picture of him with some socialite or celebrity at fancy functions over the years—but she knew he’d been anything but a monk. Neither had she been a nun. She’d had two relationships at university, neither of which panned out—she wouldn’t let them—and another two lovers since then.

The thing was, while she could never see herself getting married and settling down—if she couldn’t trust her mum, the person she loved the most and whom she always believed loved her, to tell her the truth about her biological father, how could she trust anyone? Ever? And love and trust went hand in hand. Neither was she cut out for casual sex and random affairs. They were fine for a lot of women, but sharing her body was an intimate act and sex with a stranger made her feel a little ick.

So she was stuck in no man’s land. Because she didn’t like hurting guys and didn’t like to lead them on, she always laid her cards on the table. If she liked a guy enough after a couple of months of dating, she made it clear she wasn’t interested in a long-term relationship. Some stuck around, mostly because they thought they could change her mind, but most didn’t. She kept a close eye on the ones who stayed. If she thought their feelings for her were deepening, she called it quits.

But she’d never had such an intense reaction to a man, ever. Something about Benedikt called to her and she was both mentally and physically curious. She wanted to know why he’d stayed married to her for so long, why he was so anti settling down, why he was such a lone wolf. She wanted to know his likes and dislikes, what made him laugh, and the things that caused him to feel mad, sad and frustrated. But most of all, she wanted to know how good he was in bed.

She thought he’d be excellent, even brilliant. Possibly,probably, mind-blowing.

Millie looked out the window and told herself to get a grip. She was in the country for, at most, the next thirty-six to forty-eight hours and nothing could, or would, happen. They’d get divorced, pretty quickly because they’d been separated for ever and because it was something they both wanted. They weren’t going to fight over assets or money or kids and, in a couple of months, she’d be free of her husband on paper, the man she married but didn’t know.

In January, she’d make a concerted effort to wrap her head around a sperm donor. She’d find somebody nice, smart and, hopefully, sexy. And in a year or two, she’d go back to the same donor to try for a sibling for her toddler. She’d been an only child and hated it, and desperately wished she had someone who knew her and her backstory, someone to whom she could talk about her parents and the past.

Millie crossed her legs as they passed through a pretty neighbourhood with old houses. ‘Where do you live?’ she asked Ben.

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