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I can feel him watching me like a warmth running up my side.
“I agree. Miss Miller doesn’t have to fulfill any other duties, except to be available to me sexually and to sell our marriage as a happy one to friends and family, including public functions.”
We carry on this way for thirty minutes as Hudson lists my demands and Linc counters until we’re at the last one.
“Finally, Miss Miller will not live in the property known as The Kennedy Estate.”
“Everybody out of the room. Now.” Linc bangs his hand on the desk, and I jump as the silence re-settles. Linc stands and leans across the table at Hudson. “I said get the fuck out.”
Hudson stands and I can see this is seconds away from getting out of hand as Linc’s lawyer hesitates in the doorway waiting to see if his client will snap.
“It’s okay, Hudson. Give us a minute.”
Hudson pulls his locked glare away from Linc and looks at me with a question, so I give a small nod.
My nerves are fraught and I’m exhausted from running on fumes, but I can handle this conversation because it’s the one thing I won’t back down on. The Kennedy Estate holds too many memories, and I won’t have them choking me at every turn for the next year.
As the door clicks closed, Linc spins my chair to face him, trapping my knees with his muscular thighs. The suit he’s wearing today is dark navy with a white shirt and deep red tie. He looks every inch the billionaire tycoon that the magazines love and I hate it.
“Why won’t you live at Kennedy?”
I don’t want to tell him that my heart beats faster just thinking of what that place meant to me. Of how I dreamed it would be my home forever with him beside me as we built a life and a family. I don’t want to tell him it’s the scene of the worst night of my life and I still wake with nightmares from what happened that final night. So, I lie. “I need to be closer to the city.”
Linc cocks his head and swallows. He knows I’m lying and I silently beg him to let me have this one thing.
He leans closer, resting his hands on my thighs and caressing the skin of my inner thigh with his thumb, moving the cheap fabric of my skirt higher and higher. “Liar.”
Heat rushes through me pooling in my belly as I fight the reaction his touch has on me. “I’m not lying.”
“Lottie, Lottie, don’t you remember how well I know you? I can always tell when you’re lying to me.”
“You used to know me, Lincoln. Now we’re nothing but strangers to each other.”
“Don’t fucking lie to me.”
His anger wasn’t something I expected, but it shows a chink in his armor that I wasn’t expecting. “I’m not lying, Lincoln. There was a time when I thought I knew your every thought and feeling but it turns out it was all deceit for your amusement. I won’t make the same mistake again of believing I know you or letting you know me.”
His thumbs don’t move closer to where I want them but keep circling and tormenting me until I stand and move away from his addictive touch.
“Is that why you won’t live at Kennedy? You think it’s all lies, that everything that happened back then was an illusion?”
I spin away not standing to look at him any longer. “Yes. It has nothing but bad memories for me.”
I feel his heat as he stands behind me, not touching me but dominating me anyway as if him merely being close controls my thoughts and feelings.
“I’m sorry you feel that way because Kennedy has all my best memories and most of them involve you.”
I spin to face him as I step back, putting some space between us again so I can think. “Don’t, Linc. I don’t want to talk about the past or what happy memories you have or anything that happened before. In fact, I want it added to the contract.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
His disdain and the curl of his lip make me angrier than a wet cat. “Oh, so I’m ridiculous, but you paying three million for a fuck, when you can probably get any woman you want is perfectly acceptable behavior?”
“Firstly, don’t cuss.”
“Why not?” I challenge as I step up to him.
He grabs me by the upper arms and hauls me closer to him, so our bodies are touching.
