Page 11 of His Innocent Unwrapped In Iceland

The print of Orion’s agreement blurred in front of her as she remembered again the heat of his mouth and the taste of him, a hot, dark flavour with a spice to it that had taken her utterly by surprise. She hadn’t known she’d find the taste of a man delicious. She hadn’t known that the stroke of his tongue and the touch of his fingers could make her tremble.

Gianni, of course, had kissed her, but they hadn’t slept together and neither of them had been in a hurry to do so. She’d been fine with that. In fact, she’d been relieved that she hadn’t felt that same restlessness, that same electricity, around him that she felt when she was around Orion. It was dangerous that electricity. It made her feel out of control, made the flame in her heart burn hot, made her feel...hungry.

She didn’t want to feel like that, especially now when she had most of the things she’d once hungered for. A home. A purpose. A future.

Not a family, though. Not someone who cares for you. Not someone to belong to.

She gritted her teeth, ignoring that betraying little thought. This was about Orion and nothing else. Anyway, she’d kissed him because he’d demanded it and because she wasn’t going to get into any ridiculous bargaining nonsense. A kiss was nothing and if it meant she’d get the agreement he’d promised her then what of it?

That it hadn’t been nothing was immaterial. The less said about it the better and anyway, it wasn’t going to happen again. He might be her husband, but it was in name only and that’s how it would stay.

Once she’d finished going over the agreement, Isla rose from her seat and went down the back of the plane. Orion was sitting at a table covered in papers, a sleek laptop open, and he was studying the screen with the same intensity of focus that he’d directed at her just before.

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...

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