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“Then why haven’t you proven it?”
“What’s the point? You made sure I knew the score on our wedding night, as if I had any illusions about it. You were going to use me—my body until the debt is paid in full.”
“And as delightful as you are it will take years of service to get us back to where we were, but if you were to return say half,” Luke stated making her brow lift curiously. “Perhaps we could call it good and though I will miss using your body whenever I wish you can take the other half as payment and go.”
“Now why would I want to do that for? You’ve already cut it down to half in three years Luke. I can handle the disappointing sex for a bit longer until it wears you down completely.”
“Disappointing sex? I don’t think so dearsweetDanielle, you can’t fool me with your responses.” Luke bit back anger. He wanted to throttle his wife half the time while the other half he wanted to sweep her into the bedroom, keep them there until neither of them could move. Until she was really his.
“That has far less to do with you than you know Luke, most of the time my body’s still humming from the last man to leave our bedroom,” she threw out without caution. He wouldn’t kill her here; there’d be too many questions.
“You better be lying Danielle because if I find out that you’ve been screwing anyone, I will make sure your easy little life ends swiftly,” he stated making her fair complexion fade further. “No, I won’t kill you like Chance, but by the time I’m done with you you’ll wish I had.”
“I already do, Luke. After all I’m just the body you screw whenever you want. But you’re forgetting one little thing, you divorce me, and you’ll no longer be protected by spousal privileges. Now I may get thrown into jail for…liberating money from you but I’ll get off when it comes to light that the only reason we were ever married is because you threatened to end my life the exact same way you ended Chance’s. I don’t think there’s a lawyer out there who could get you off for that, now is there?”
“Always have an answer don’t you Dani? You’ll regret pushing me,” he warned crossing over to her and grasping her bare shoulders. “You know I don’t put up with that so go to the bedroom, take that excuse of a dress off and be naked by the time I’ve finished my calls or else you’ll find out how I’ll punish you if you so much asthinkabout screwing another man.”
“Careful Luke,” she said as his hands bit into her arms painfully. She purposely blanked her face refusing to admit he was capable of hurting her—how much this whole situation truly affected her. “You know how easily I bruise; you don’t want the tabloids calling you abusive again do you?”
He instantly let go cursing himself for letting her get to him again. “Go to hell Dani.”
“No need,” she stated as she made her way from the room. “I’m already there.”
Dani kept walking until she reached the bathroom, turning the lock on the door as she slipped the dress over her head. She knew she’d squashed his desire the moment she tossed out the line about being abusive. Luke might be a callous ass who’d forced her to marry him, but he wasn’t cruel…at least not in that way.
He used sex as leverage, trying to get her to admit the truth but there was no way he’d ever turn it into the punishment he’d threatened. He wasn’t that sort of man and in truth, he liked losing himself in her body too much to end their arrangement.
Dani turned on the tap filling the tub, sprinkling the bath salt liberally before she sank into it, closing her eyes to the sigh that left her lips. She hated Luke. Hated that she’d been forced to marry him, hated that despite everything she knew she still enjoyed the sex. Mostly though, she hated that he would never—could never love her after all the lies she’d been forced to tell.
Her phone rang lightly, and she dug through the purse until she found it. There were only two people who had this number and one only used it in an absolute emergency.
“Hey pretty girl,” the voice on the other end said bringing tears to her eyes. God, she missed him so much.
“Hi…”
“Happy birthday Dani.”
“You too Dean,” she whispered trying to control the emotions flooding through her. She wished she could tell them the truth. It would make things so much easier for her to have someone to confide in, but if they knew that she’d lied to them for the last three years, that she wasn’t the blissfully happy bride they’d come back instantly and risk their lives to get her out of this mess.
“You okay there, Sis?” Dean asked and she had to count to five before she could answer.
“Aren’t I always? I’m just a bit tired. Luke surprised me with a trip to London for my birthday. We just got in a few hours ago and went out to a huge meal.”
“Dani come on, it’s me, your other half—we shared a womb together for nine months. I can tell when you’re holding something back from me.”
God, she hoped not because it’d mean he’d willingly let her be miserable for the last three years. “Okay, maybe we had a little fight a few days ago and this is supposed to be his way of apologizing. He flew off the handle the other night at a dinner party. One of his business associates got a bit friendly and Luke nearly clocked him.”
“Which led you to an argument over the Chance situation again? Dani, I would have done the exact same thing to the bastard if I’d been there.”
“It’s different Dean. You know the truth, the whole truth as to why Chance came after me, Luke doesn’t.”
“Then maybe you should tell him, admit why violence scares you so much.”
“I can’t do that without revealing you Dean. I’ve covered things—what you did and we’re in the clear but if he finds out about you, he’ll wonder why you’re not around. How you managed to disappear, and he’ll figure out you’re the one…”
“Who stole his fortune and if you reveal you know who took it, he’ll hate you. Okay, forget I said anything; just tell me you’re happy Dani that you still love him, that he still loves you unconditionally.”
“Of course, he does, why do you think he’s so over the top when it comes to other guys being near me?” she asked in a fully light-hearted tone that took every bit of strength to pull out.
