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He released her arms and trailed a single fingertip to her exposed collarbone where he made slow circles, as if her skin fascinated him—as if he couldn’t help himself. “Because they won’t believe you’re being treated as a princess, sweetness.” He seemed to be focused on the touch of his skin against hers, as he continued almost carelessly, “Of course, you’ll tell them the truth—that you’re waited on hand and foot, that you have all my money at your disposal, that I grant you your every slightest wish—but they won’t believe you—and that’s really the point to all of this. They’ll constantly worry that I’m mistreating you—and that you’re lying about it to protect them. They love you—I know this. Therefore, they will reason that their enemy is holding you against your will and, well, let’s just say, they won’t believe that I’m dealing with you fairly.”
“You are holding me against my will.”
“No, love. I’m not a monster—as I said before, the choice to remain here must be yours.”
The look in his eyes said differently—that her choice had already been made—by him. She was unable to express what she was feeling without blowing up, and when she remained silent, he continued, “If you stay here with me, choose to remain my wife, I will promise that all future hostile moves against the Rule Corporation will cease. The revenge I seek will be appeased by the doubts your family will always have about my true agenda.”
She stared at him while she took three calming breaths. He meant to worry her family for the rest of their lives, while he planned on the two of them actually having a harmonious marriage? It was a messed-up, diabolical plan—and one that was twisting her insides. “I think . . . I think you’re not a very nice man.”
His features changed instantly. “I’ve never claimed to be a nice man.” His finger slid from her collarbone to land on the top swell of her breast. His eyes trailed the movement before lifting to hers and impaling her with his heated stare. “But understand me when I say that I’m going to be very nice to you.”
At the fevered, carnal look on his face, his meaning became clear and her nerves escalated. “Now—now you’re talking about sex?”
“Correct, sweetness.” he agreed, still not releasing her. A lazy, seductive look came over his features that immediately began to mess with everything feminine in her. “Surely you can’t be worried about intimacy between us? I believe that we’ve proven that aspect of the marriage is the least we have to worry about.”
As the memory of the orgasms he’d given her deluged her mind, a heated thrill rushed up her spine that she attempted to ignore but found quite impossible. “So you intend for it to be a real marriage?” She swallowed and tacked on, “In the future?”
He stared at her sharply for a moment before narrowing his eyes. “In the future? Is that your way of asking for time to adjust?”
“I just want to know—”
“Well, let me explain. You’re my wife, Erin. If you choose to remain here as my wife, you will be the one—the only one—seeing to my sexual needs.” As his eyes held hers, his touch leisurely moved down to the hollow between her breasts. “I’m not a Neanderthal, love, if you need time, I’m sure I can allow . . . a reasonable adjustment period.”
She breathed deeply, forcing herself to hold his gaze, even though his touch was setting off lightning sparks along her sensory pathways. “How much time?”
Instead of giving her an answer, he asked a question. “Is that an agreement, amor? You are choosing to be my wife? Allowing me to keep you?”
Her heart almost jumped from under her breastbone at his choice of words. Keep her? As if she were a commodity that he very much wanted? A vision of being held beneath him clouded her mind with a frenzy of weakness. “I know that I want you to leave the corporation alone. So this would seem my only choice.” Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, Erin! You’re taking the excuse he’s giving just so you can stay in his damn bed? How freaking weak is that?
“It’s one or the other, yes. It’s as I stated—I’ll agree to leave the Rule Corporation alone if you’ll agree to stay as my wife.”
Fighting the dizzying feeling that was taking over her common sense, she asked, “If I choose this marriage, would I be allowed to change my mind later?”
“Of course. But the promises I’ve made at this time will be off the table.”
He’d go after the corporation. That’s what he meant. “Cut and dried?”
He inclined his head. “As you say.”
“So if I stay as your wife, you’ll leave the corporation alone. And at any time in the future that I choose to dissolve the agreement and go home, all bets are off and you’ll go after my brothers once again.”
