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“By getting in my way?”
“I have a proposition for you.”
The tiny hairs on the back of my neck rise in a silent warning and I know I’m not going to like what he says next. “Not interested.”
Moving to the small table with a selection of crystal decanters, he pours himself a drink and lifts it up to me. I shake my head, the last thing I need is to have my head scrambled with alcohol when I’m dealing with him.
“I’ll give you the money you need, or would have made from the auction, and in exchange, you’ll marry me.”
My eyes bug out and my jaw drops open as I stare at him. “Have you lost your mind?”
He smirks and lifts his eyebrows as if he isn’t so sure about the answer himself. “No, I’ll pay you two million dollars to be my wife for one year.”
“Why would you do that?”
My brain swims with the number he just said. It might be a drop in the bucket for a man like him but for Eric and me, it’s life-changing. I could settle our debts and find us a nice house to live in where we could be happy and still have some left for any medical problems that might arise for Eric in the future.
“I need to force my father to retire, and there’s a stipulation in his contract that says if I marry, the position of CEO at Kennedy Enterprises passes to me, plus the board would rather see a married man take over than a single one. We can marry for a year and then we get a quick divorce and we both come out of this with what we want.”
My stomach churns at the mention of his father, a hateful bully who I detest, and so did Linc and Clark. I can’t be around him, and I won’t have him anywhere near Eric. “Where would I live?”
“With me at my penthouse on Central Park.”
“Would I get my own room?”
Am I really considering this?
Lincoln moves toward me, and I fight the urge to step back from him and show weakness. I once loved this man with my whole heart and he stomped on it like it was nothing. I wish I could say the hate I feel toward him now is all I feel. But he terrifies me because I know he could make me love him again and I wouldn’t survive him a second time.
His hand lifts and he runs his knuckles down my jaw, pausing as it flitters over the pulse in my neck, before skimming the edge of my bra, lightly caressing the swell of my breast. I should stop him, but I feel paralyzed, caught in the tangle of seduction he’s weaving around me.
“No, my sweet Lottie, if I’m paying two million dollars, I want to enjoy every inch of your delectable body.” His voice is like gravel on my skin, and my nipples bead at the suggestion.
“Three million.”
His fingers pause and he cocks his head to meet my eyes. I don’t know why I made the demand, two million was ridiculous already, but the need to fight him and not give in makes me counter.
“Three million is a lot of money.”
“One for the marriage, one for my virginity, and one for the right to fuck me afterward. Then I get my divorce after a year and I’m free of you.”
My heart is almost beating out of my chest, and I’m seconds away from caving into his touch when he steps away.
“Deal, I’ll have the contract drawn up.”
Shock fills me but so does relief. I think of Eric and know I can do this. I can survive a year with this man, as long as I steel my heart and don’t let myself fall for him again. Sex is sex. It doesn’t have to involve emotion or love. Plenty of my friends from school had sex without love and so can I.
I hope.
I stick out my hand to shake his and he looks at it and then back to my face before his hands go to his belt. The clink of the metal is like thunder in the silence, and I feel electricity zip through my body as my heart beats out a wild rhythm.
“On your knees. Let’s see if I’m going to get my money’s worth.”
Lincoln unzips his pants, and shoves his boxers down, exposing the hard, red, angry-looking head of his cock. I’ve never seen one up close and personal before. We never went this far when we were teens, just kissing and touching over the clothes. He’d always insisted we wait until I was eighteen before we had sex.
“I said. Get. On. Your. Knees.” His voice is a dark command and I find myself sinking to my knees, so I’m face to face with his hard cock, the veins running up the length making me want to trace them with my tongue. A bead of pre-cum sits on the end and I find myself wanting to taste him.
Firm fingers tip my head up so I can see into the desire-filled pools of his eyes. His thumb traces my bottom lip, tugging it down as I flick my tongue out to wet my dry lips, finding his thumb instead.
