The Tycoon′s Trophy Wife
The Tycoon's Trophy Wife
Miranda Lee
Reece knew that Alanna would make the perfect trophy wife! Stunning and sophisticated, she wanted nothing more than a marriage of convenience. And that was fine by Reece!But suddenly, their comfortable life together was turned upside down when Reece discovered that his wife had a dark past. But, he realized, he wasn't prepared to lose Alanna – even if the only thing they shared was passion…
“You’re Alanna Diamond,” Reece said as he slipped off the stool and stood up. “My wife.”
His wife.
Alanna swallowed, her gaze dropping away from his handsome face as those feelings swamped her again, feelings that made her face grow hot and her skin tingle all over.
Alanna’s head spun with the intensity of her desire, every muscle in her body stretched tight as a drum.
Try to relax, he’d said.
No way was she ever going to relax whilst in his presence. She had to find some excuse to leave him. To be alone.
When a wealthy man wants a wife, he doesn’t always follow the rules!
Welcome to Miranda Lee’s stunning, sexy new trilogy—
Meet Richard, Reece and Mike, three Sydney millionaires with a mission—they all want to get married…but none wants to fall in love!
Bought: One Bride
Richard’s story:
His money can buy him anything he wants… and he wants a wife!
August 2005
# 2483
The Tycoon’s Trophy Wife
Reece’s story:
She was everything he wanted in a wife…
’til he fell in love with her!
September 2005
#2489
A Scandalous Marriage
Mike’s story:
He married her for money—her beauty was a bonus!
October 2005
#2496
Miranda Lee
The Tycoon’s Trophy Wife
ISBN: 978-1-408-94080-8
THE TYCOON’S TROPHY WIFE
© Miranda Lee 2005
First Published in Great Britain in 2005
Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
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Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
EPILOGUE
COMING NEXT MONTH
PROLOGUE
Sydney. September. Spring.
ALANNA hesitated at the entrance to the cemetery, dismayed to find that her stomach had begun to churn.
Just butterflies, she reassured herself, and forged on.
The churning increased by the time she stood in front of his headstone. But she remained determined to do this. To say what she had come to say. To find closure once and for all.
‘It’s been five years since I stood here,’ she said to the man buried there. ‘Five long, incredibly difficult years. I’ve come here today to tell you that you didn’t win, Darko. I have survived.
‘Time does have amazing healing powers and I finally found the will to go on, a will much stronger than I ever believed I had. I have taken my life in my hands. My hands,’ she repeated quite forcefully as those same hands gripped her handbag in front of her.
‘I’ve remarried, Darko. Yes, you heard me. I am now another man’s wife. How you must be turning in your grave to hear that,’ she bit out between clenched teeth.
‘Of course, I did not choose a love match. Would I be so foolish as to marry another man who loved me? But we like and respect each other, Reece and I. Best of all, Reece doesn’t try to own me, or control me. He trusts me and wants me to be happy. He doesn’t mind if I go out with my girlfriends. He doesn’t mind if I wear sexy clothes. He even buys them for me. He bought me the suit I have on today. It’s the kind of outfit you would have ripped off me. But Reece loves me to wear clothes like this.’
With a defiant tilt of her head, she spread her arms wide and turned around, showing off her eye-catching figure, encased that day in a cream silk suit that had a short, tight skirt and a figure hugging jacket with a deep V neckline.
‘Did I mention that my husband is a very rich, very handsome man?’ Alanna went on. ‘Very sexy, too. He might not be crazy in love with me, but he wants to make love to me almost every night. To satisfy me. Which he does. Do you hear me, Darko?’ Alanna threw at the headstone in a challenging tone, which didn’t totally mask the underlying hurt and pain that twisted at her heart.
Tears threatened but she dashed them away. The time for tears had long gone.
‘One final thing before I go,’ she continued more calmly. ‘Reece and I are going to try for a baby. Not every man is like you, Darko. Reece won’t see a child as competition. Or something else to be suspicious of. Or jealous over. Reece doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body.
‘You will say that means he doesn’t care about me. But you know what? I don’t want to ever be cared for the way you cared for me. And you’re wrong, anyway. Reece does care for me in his own way. And I care for him. He makes me feel good, something you never did for all your supposed loving.’
Alanna scooped in a deep breath before letting it out slowly, relieved to find that the churning in her stomach had finally subsided. ‘My mother said I should forgive you, that there were excuses for your behaviour. But I can’t do that. What you did was unforgivable. I am going now, Darko, and this time, I am never coming back. You are now firmly consigned to the past. And I will do my best not to think of you any more.’
CHAPTER ONE
THE organ player breaking into the wedding march signalled the bride was ready at last. She was only fifteen minutes late, Reece realised as he glanced at his gold Rolex. Long enough, however, for the groom next to him to get fidgety.
‘It’s showtime!’ Reece said, smiling over at Richard who’d gone ramrod straight at the change of music, his hands clasped tightly in front of him.
‘Have you got the rings?’ Richard whispered out of the side of his mouth.
Reece patted the right pocket of his black dinner jacket. ‘Of course. Relax, Rich,’ he said, and reached out to touch him reassuringly on the arm. ‘I’ve done this before.’
‘So has he,’ Mike muttered under his breath from the other side of Reece.
Reece’s head whipped round to throw him a reproachful glare. Mike was a good bloke at heart, but his eternal cynicism over romance and relationships could be exasperating. It was also out of place today. Blind Freddie could see that Richard and Holly were deeply in love. This would be a much better marriage than the one Richard had had with Joanna, who, quite frankly, had not been Mrs Perfect.
Reece would never forget the night she’d made a play for him, something he’d never told Richard, but which had bothered him greatly at the time.
He’d avoided Joanna after that.
When she’d been killed in a car accident a couple of years back, he’d felt very sorry for Richard. But Reece sometimes wondered if it was a case of fate being cruel to be kind.
Whatever, Richard’s first marriage was past history. Today was a new day and Reece finally felt optimistic for his best friend’s choice for his second wife.
Despite an initial concern that Holly, at twenty-six, was too young and naive for a man of Richard’s age and status—Richard was thirty-eight and the CEO of a merchant bank—Reece could now see that Holly was exactly what Richard needed after Joanna. She was a genuinely sweet, caring, loving girl. Very pretty, too.
She was going to make a lovely bride.
Reece’s eyes narrowed as he peered down to the back of the church, curious to see what the girls were wearing. But the church doors were open and the late-afternoon light was streaming in. All he could see were silhouettes.
The first bridesmaid eventually came into view, looking elegant in a long, straight red dress and carrying a bouquet of white roses. She was tall, with auburn hair, a nice enough figure and an attractive face.
Reece didn’t know her. She was a florist friend of Holly’s. In her thirties. And married, Alanna had told him last night.
Reece hoped happily so, given she was being partnered by Mike today.
Reece glanced to his left at Mike, who was looking surprisingly debonair, a far cry from his usual dishevelled self. Amazing what a haircut, a shave and a tuxedo could achieve. Most days, Mike looked as if he’d walked out of a spaghetti western. Acted like that, too. Very tough and gruff.
Strangely, some women seemed to fancy him like that. Lord knew why. Reece thought Mike’s clean-cut image today was infinitely more attractive. But what was one woman’s trash was another woman’s treasure, he supposed.
On Mike’s part, he went for any good-looking female who made the chase easy for him and who agreed with his rules, his rules being he would take her out for one reason and one reason only. Sex. There would be no real relationship. No romance. The only promise he gave was not to be a two-timer.
But when it was over—meaning when he got bored—it was over.
Mike was an obsessively compulsive computer genius with a very low boredom threshold. His last girl friend…an exotic dancer…had lasted all of a month.
It still never failed to astonish Reece just how many takers Mike got. And how many of his ex-girlfriends remained friendly with him, afterwards. Damned if it made sense to him.
‘Behave yourself with your partner today,’ he whispered in Mike’s direction. ‘She’s married.’
‘That never seems to stop them,’ Mike returned drily. ‘But don’t worry. I avoid married women like the plague. They’re nothing but trouble.’
‘Sounds like you’ve had some experience.’
‘Only once. It was a close call, but I managed to escape.’
‘Anyone I know?’
‘I don’t think this is the time to discuss it,’ he bit out.
Reece stared at Mike, who gave a slight nod in Richard’s direction. Fortunately, Richard wasn’t taking any notice of them, his eyes fixed straight ahead.
‘Joanna?’ Reece whispered.
‘Yep.’
‘She hit on me, too,’ Reece admitted.
‘No kidding. What a bitch.’
‘Stunningly beautiful, though.’
‘It’s always the stunningly beautiful ones you have to worry about,’ Mike muttered.
Just then, the chief bridesmaid came into view, dressed exactly the same as the girl walking a few metres in front of her.
Every male hormone in Reece moved from stationary into overdrive. Now that was one stunningly beautiful woman.
But, of course, he already knew that. He’d been married to her for nine months.
Reece struggled with a perverse jab of jealousy as he watched the eyes of all the male wedding guests slavishly following Alanna’s graceful progress down the aisle.
Perverse, because he’d never felt jealous before, not even when she was showing off her model-slim figure in one of the revealing evening gowns he liked her to wear.
By comparison, Alanna was very modestly dressed today. Yet for some reason, the effect was sexier. Maybe it was true that what was hidden and hinted at was more provocative than what was on open display.
Or maybe it was the colour.
Alanna had never worn red before. She preferred softer, paler shades. But Holly had chosen red for the bridesmaids for some sentimental reason. Something to do with a bunch of red roses having brought her and Richard together.
The colour actually looked magnificent against Alanna’s porcelain skin and creamy blonde hair.
The style was quite simple. A full-length sheath, it skimmed rather than hugged Alanna’s figure. The neckline was wide. Almost off the shoulder, but not low-cut. The sleeves were straight and long, no doubt in deference to the weather. It was, after all, June. And June in Sydney was wintertime.
The day outside was pleasant enough, but inside this rather old church the air was crisp and cold.
The first bridesmaid reached the end of the aisle and turned away to the side, giving Reece an even better view of his wife, especially her face.
And what an exquisite face it was. Classically sculptured, with a delicately pointed chin, high cheekbones and a fine, fair complexion. Her eyes were a smoky green, almond-shaped and lushly lashed. Her nose was small and straight with an elegant tip. Her mouth was full, her lips looking even fuller painted scarlet.
Reece’s gaze moved down further, his mind stripping her of that dress and seeing her as he liked seeing her best of all.
Alanna had the kind of body that had always attracted and aroused him. Slender and firm, with long legs, a tight butt and small, high-set breasts.
Body-wise, she was very similar to Kristine.
That was one of the reasons Reece has chosen Alanna for his wife. He would never have considered marriage to a woman he wasn’t physically attracted to, regardless of his motivations. The other, more vengeful reason for choosing Alanna was that she was even more beautiful than his ex-fiancée.
Her willingness to have his children was merely a bonus.
As these thoughts tumbled through Reece’s head he tried to revive the vengeful feelings that had inspired his marriage to Alanna last year.
But astonishingly, they just weren’t there!
Reece’s shock was soon replaced by an overwhelming sense of relief as he realised he didn’t give a damn about Kristine any more.
Let the devil take her, which he would.
The only woman he cared about these days was the woman in red, coming down the aisle. His wife. The stunningly beautiful, extremely enigmatic, very intriguing Alanna.
A few years ago, Reece might have believed his uncharacteristic jealousy a minute ago meant he’d fallen in love with Alanna.
But Reece had turned thirty-six this year, past the age when an intelligent man mistook male possessiveness for love. He did like and respect Alanna. A lot. But love?
No. Love wasn’t what he felt when he looked at her.
Which was just as well, because love hadn’t been part of their deal. In fact, it had been the one thing Alanna had been very adamant about. No love.
She’d been madly in love before, she’d explained. With her dead husband. The love of her life, killed in a tragic road accident.
She didn’t want to tread that path again.
During their first dinner date Alanna had confided that she’d once believed she would never marry again, but as she’d approached thirty she’d realised she still wanted a family. What she didn’t want, she insisted repeatedly, was romantic love, and all the emotional torment that went with it.
Which was why she’d become a client of Wives Wanted, an introduction agency that specialised in matching professional men of substance with attractive, intelligent women who were happy to be career wives. Although falling in love sometimes happened—according to the woman who ran the agency—on the whole, these were marriages made with heads and not hearts. Marriages of convenience, they were called in the old days.
A marriage of convenience was exactly what Reece had in mind when he had become a client of Wives Wanted a year ago. Love hadn’t been on his agenda, either.
At the time, he’d got exactly what he’d wanted in Alanna. The ultimate trophy wife for him to display on his arm. The perfect salve for his bruised male ego. A visible token of his professional survival as well as a none-too-subtle weapon of personal revenge.
To this end, he’d made sure that photographs of his wedding had been printed in every paper and glossy magazine in Australia.
Not a difficult thing to arrange. He was a high-profile property developer, after all. What he did and whom he married made the news. Photos of every glamorous party he’d held since his wedding—and there were many—had found their way into the media as well, with Alanna always dressed to show off her physical assets.
For quite some time it had given Reece perverse pleasure to think of Kristine thinking of him with his beautiful blonde wife whilst she was having to service her ageing sugar-daddy, the one she’d dumped him for. He liked imagining his ex-fiancée feeling regret that she’d bailed out of their relationship prematurely. No doubt she hadn’t expected him to go from near bankruptcy to billionaire status within three short years of her desertion.
Poor Kristine, came the caustic thought. If only she’d had some faith and loyalty, she could have had her cake and eaten it too. Instead, she’d thrown her lot in with an ageing playboy film producer who had a reputation for replacing his starlet girlfriends every year or so.
There’d been a time when Reece had waited to hear such news with baited breath. Somewhere along the line, however, he’d stopped thinking about—and caring about—what happened to Kristine.
In hindsight, Reece could not put a date on this miracle. But it had to be some months ago. He supposed it was difficult to keep pining for another woman when you were married to someone as fascinating as Alanna.
Aside from her breathtaking beauty, Alanna was an amazing woman to live with. She never nagged at him or questioned him. There were never any scenes when he came home late, or had to go away unexpectedly on business. She kept his house beautifully, was an accomplished hostess and never said no in bed. What more could a man in his position want? When you thought about it, their marriage was perfect.
Frankly, falling in love would have spoilt it.
But as he continued to gaze at his beautiful wife Reece recognised that he had fallen in lust with her.
He’d always desired Alanna. Right from the moment he’d set eyes on her. But his desire seemed to have taken a darker, more intense turning today.
It was that damned dress’s fault, he decided.
Not the style. The colour. It had to be the colour. Red was the devil’s colour. The colour of desire, and danger.
Whatever, Reece could not wait for Richard’s wedding to be over. Could not wait to get that dress off her.
What a pity he was the best man and she was the chief bridesmaid. They would have to attend the reception afterwards, plus stay till it was finished. There was no excuse they could give to leave early.
Not that Alanna would. She would think him mad to suggest such a thing. She’d been helping Holly with the wedding preparations for weeks and had been very excited this morning.
Another dark thought intruded. Maybe he’d be able to persuade her to slip away with him somewhere for a few minutes. A powder room perhaps?
Reece had never done anything like that with her before. Their lovemaking had always been confined to the house. Actually, now that he came to think of it, it had also been confined to their bedroom.
Time to widen their sexual horizons, Reece decided with a rush of blood. Before she got pregnant.
They’d been trying for a baby for three months now. Surprisingly, with no success. But sooner or later, he’d strike a home run.
Reece imagined that once Alanna was having a baby, she might not be overly keen on having sexual adventures.
Suddenly, Reece became aware of Alanna frowning at him as she approached the end of the aisle.
Had his darker thoughts been reflected in his face?
Probably.
He swiftly summoned up one of his warmly winning smiles, the kind he used at work every day and which had become second nature to him.
‘You look incredible,’ he mouthed to her.
When she beamed back at him, his flesh tightened further.
Reece gritted his teeth and kept on smiling till she turned away to join the other bridesmaid, at which point his sigh of relief was swiftly followed by a jab of guilt. Damn it all, he was here today to be Richard’s best man. Not to think and act like some depraved roué, consumed by uncontrollable lust.
The trouble was Reece had always been given to strong emotions. People thought he was an easygoing man, but underneath his charming fac
de he was often a maelstrom of emotion. Ever since he was a boy, his needs and wants had ruled his life. When he’d wanted something, he’d wanted it too much. When he’d fallen in love, he’d loved too much.
When Kristine had first left him, he’d gone wild with despair and jealousy. To the world, he’d presented a coolly positive, never-say-die image, whereas underneath he’d been eaten up by a compulsive need to strike back in whatever way he could; to have his revenge on the woman who’d spurned him. First, by regaining his wealth. Secondly, by marrying.
It had been sheer luck that his marriage to Alanna had worked out as well as it had. It could very well have been a complete disaster.
Now that Reece realised Kristine was out of his head and his heart for ever, no way did he want to risk spoiling things. He decided that, no matter how frustrated he was feeling at this moment, sex with Alanna could at least wait till they were home. Whether they got as far as the bedroom, however, was another question. He rather fancied the idea of undressing her in the living room. Or perhaps not undressing her at all.
He began to wonder what she was wearing underneath that red dress…
The arrival of Holly walking down the aisle was a well-timed distraction, dragging Reece’s mind back from the erotic possibilities of later tonight to the sweetly romantic present.
He’d been right. Holly did look lovely.
Hearing the groom suck in sharply at the sight of his beautiful bride brought a wry smile to Reece’s lips. Underneath his ultra conservative, buttoned-up, banker fac
de, Richard was a total softie. A romantic and an idealist.
A visionary, as well.
For which Reece was grateful. If it hadn’t been for Richard’s ability to think outside the box, he’d be stony-broke today. Richard had backed Reece when not one other financial institution would touch him. He’d given him every loan he’d needed till the slump in the real-estate market had changed to a property boom, extending his hand in friendship as well.
Reece thought the world of him.
‘I admit I was wrong, Rich,’ he murmured to his friend. ‘She’s definitely the girl for you.’
‘Too young for him, I reckon,’ Mike muttered, grunting when Reece jabbed him in the ribs.
‘Okay, okay, she does love him,’ Mike grumbled. ‘I can see that. Even worse, I think he loves her.’
‘What’s wrong with that?’ Reece said sharply.
‘Hush up, you two,’ Richard commanded. ‘I’m getting married here.’
Reece gave Mike another savage glare. Mike just shrugged.
When Richard stepped over to take his bride’s hand, Reece caught a glimpse of Holly’s face through her veil.
The expression he saw in her eyes should have pleased him. For it was undoubtedly the look of a girl very much in love. Why, then, did Reece suddenly feel out of sorts? Surely he didn’t envy Richard, did he?
Perhaps.
No woman had ever looked at him quite that way, with such gloriously blind adoration. Not even Kristine when she’d supposedly been in love with him. And certainly not Alanna.
Alanna, again…
Reece glanced over to where his wife was standing on the other side of the bride. But he couldn’t make eye contact. Holly’s veil was getting in the way.
Maybe it was just as well, he thought. Because he knew he’d never see anything like that expression in her eyes. The most he could hope for was a degree of mindless desire.
There was no doubt Alanna got carried away sometimes when Reece made love to her.
Reece vowed he would at least see that in her eyes later tonight. It wouldn’t be quite as good, but it would have to do.
CHAPTER TWO
‘YOU see?’ Alanna said, smiling up into Mike’s face. ‘You can dance. In fact, you have a great sense of rhythm.’
Alanna had become tired of Mike always making excuses not to come to their parties, having suspected it was because he couldn’t dance. When she saw him sitting down by himself at the bridal table, looking glum whilst everyone else was up on their feet, she’d decided to take matters into her own hands. So she’d sent Reece off to dance with Sara whilst she’d dragged Mike onto the dance floor.
The function centre Richard and Holly had chosen for their wedding reception was a converted Edwardian mansion that was simply huge, with polished wooden floors just made for dancing.
‘You’re a good teacher,’ Mike said, glancing up from his feet at last.
‘You’re a fast learner. Now you can take your girlfriend out dancing.’
‘Don’t have one at the moment.’
‘Oh? That’s not like you.’
‘Been working too hard.’
‘On anything special?’
‘A new anti-virus, anti-spy program. It’s going to make me a fortune. Or it will,’ he added, ‘if and when I can get the right company to market and distribute it.’
‘What about your own company?’ Alanna knew that Mike’s software company had been very successful. Reece had shares in it. So did Richard.
‘Not big enough. I need a top international company. American, preferably. With plenty of clout. I’ll ask Richard to do the negotiating for me, once I decide who to approach. He’s much better at that type of thing then I am.’
‘But he’ll be away on his honeymoon for the next month,’ Alanna pointed out. ‘He’s taking Holly to Europe.’
‘No sweat. The program’s not quite ready. It needs more testing. Make sure there aren’t any bugs.’
‘I see.’ Sort of. Alanna was no dummy, and she was competent enough on a computer. She used to use a computer every day at work. Although she’d given up her job in public relations after marrying Reece—being Mrs Reece Diamond was a full-time career—she still paid all the housekeeping bills over the Internet. Nevertheless, she had no idea how computers really worked.
‘I don’t think Reece is too happy with you dancing with me,’ Mike suddenly muttered under his breath.
‘What?’ Surprise sent Alanna’s eyes darting around the room till she found her husband, who was still dancing with Sara. Even with his back towards her, he was easy to spot with his being so tall and having fair hair. When he turned around enough for their eyes to meet, Alanna was taken aback by the angry expression on his very handsome and usually cheerful face.
‘Yep. He’s jealous,’ Mike repeated.
Alanna’s hackles rose instinctively. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snapped. ‘Reece doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body.’
‘Come on, Alanna. Get real. You are one drop-dead gorgeous woman. If you were my wife, I’d be jealous of you being in another man’s arms. Just because you two have a different sort of marriage doesn’t mean a damned thing. You’re Reece’s wife and I’m a single guy with a certain reputation. It’s only natural for him to feel threatened, even though it doesn’t say too much for our friendship. He should know that you’d be the last woman on earth that I’d hit on. You and Holly.’
Despite Mike’s explanation, Alanna still could not conceive of Reece being jealous of her in any way, shape or form. She’d danced with lots of men in front of him before, and wearing a whole lot less than she was today.
Not once had Reece ever criticised, commented, or cared.
As for feeling threatened by Mike…
That idea was equally ludicrous. Alanna had never met any man as confident or as self-assured as her husband. And he had every reason to be. Not only was he very good-looking and very successful, his personality outshone everyone else’s. When Reece walked into a room, he became the sun around which the rest of the world revolved. Frankly, Alanna had never met another man quite like him.
‘I don’t believe he’s jealous at all,’ she pronounced firmly. ‘Sara must have said something to annoy him.’
‘Want to put it to the test?’
‘What do you mean?’
Mike’s hand in the small of her back suddenly pressed Alanna close against his hard male body, making her gasp.
The reaction in her husband’s face was instantaneous.
His nostrils flared. His blue eyes narrowed.
Alanna’s reaction to her husband’s jealousy was also instantaneous. Chaos, inside. Chaos and panic.
‘I don’t believe this,’ she whispered shakily. ‘Reece is never jealous.’
‘He’s a man, Alanna. It comes with the territory.’ Mike abruptly lifted the pressure on his hand and Alanna moved back to a more discreet distance.
‘But he’s never been jealous before!’ she protested. ‘You’ve seen some of the dresses he likes me to wear. Would a jealous man buy such dresses for his wife?’
‘That depends.’
‘On what?’
‘On why he wanted you to wear such dresses in the first place.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Don’t you?’
Alanna was taken aback. ‘You’ll have to be a bit more specific.’
‘What do you know about your husband’s past?’ came the blunt question.
Alanna frowned. ‘A fair bit. I know he’s the eldest son of a family of three boys. I know his father died in an electrical accident when he was in high school. I know he worked weekends selling real estate from the time he was seventeen and was so successful he abandoned his plans to go to university. He told me he made his first million by the time he was twenty-one.’
‘That’s not what I meant. What do you know about his more immediate past, the years just before he met and married you?’
‘Well, I know he went through a horror patch, financially, a few years back. He told me he would have gone to the wall if Richard hadn’t helped him out. But I suppose you’re referring to his ex-fiancée, Kristine. Reece told me how she dumped him for some wealthy older guy during that time.’
Which was why, Reece had explained the first night they’d met, he was no more interested in romance than she was. He’d been madly in love, and been hurt, as she had. And he didn’t want to go there any more.
Of course, Reece thought her hurt came from her beloved husband’s tragic death in a car crash. Alanna couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth about Darko.
Which made her wonder if Reece had been totally honest with her as well. Did Mike know something she didn’t know?
‘So Reece did tell you all about Kristine,’ he said.
‘He told me everything about her.’ How beautiful she was. How she desperately wanted to be an actress. How they were only three weeks from their wedding when she left him.
‘I doubt it, Alanna. No man tells his wife everything, especially about a previous woman who did the dirty on him the way she did. Men have their pride, you know.’
So do women, she wanted to throw at him.
‘What did she do?’
‘You’ll have to ask your husband that. I’ve already said more than I should have.’
‘But I can’t ask Reece something like that. You have to tell me.’
‘Tell you what?’
Alanna whirled to find her husband standing right behind her, looking daggers at Mike.
‘Your wife wants me to explain how my new program works,’ Mike said without missing a beat. ‘But she’s much better at teaching dancing than I am at teaching computer-speak. Do you want her back now? I gather by that he-man look on your face that you do. Time for me to go, anyway. I’ll just have a word with the bride and groom first. See you around, folks. Thanks for the dancing lessons, Alanna. They might come in handy one day.’
Alanna felt new respect for Mike as he walked away. Whilst she was aware he was a genius in his field, she’d never thought much of his social skills. That little display, however, had been very clever. It wasn’t easy to think on your feet like that.
As she turned to face her husband Alanna decided to tackle his seeming jealousy head-on. She knew she would worry if she ignored it. As for her curiosity over what Kristine had done to Reece… That would have to remain unsatisfied for now. No way could she broach such a subject with Reece. He would be angry with her for discussing him with Mike behind his back. And rightly so.
‘Why were you glowering at me just now?’ she demanded to know. ‘Mike said you were jealous.’
For a moment, Reece’s face stiffened, his square jawline looking even squarer with his neck muscles all tight like that. His nicely shaped lips, usually relaxed and smiling, were pressed tautly together. As for his eyes… Alanna had never seen them so hard. And so cold.
But then he laughed, and the Reece she knew and felt safe with was back. ‘Aren’t I allowed to be a bit possessive of my beautiful wife?’
‘Being possessive is too close to jealousy for my liking,’ she chided, but gently. ‘I don’t like jealousy, Reece.’
Reece pursed his lips, but his eyes were smiling at her. ‘Don’t you, darling? Sorry. Blame that dress you have on.’
‘This dress? That’s silly. This is a very modest dress.’
‘It’s the colour. It does things to me. If you must know, I’ve been thinking wicked things ever since I watched you walk down that aisle,’ he said, his voice dropping to the low, sexy timbre that he used during foreplay.
Reece was a talker in bed, giving her head-turning compliments and calling her ‘Babe’ whilst he caressed her and turned her on.
Her breath quickened just thinking about those times. He was suddenly thinking about them, too. She could see it in his face, and in his eyes.
‘I want you badly, Babe,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘I don’t think I can wait till we get home.’
His calling her Babe at this stage was not only telling, but instantly arousing, as if he’d turned a switch on inside her. Alanna opened her mouth, then closed it again, finding herself speechless under his by now smouldering gaze.
Reece had looked at her with desire before. Many times. But this was a different type of desire tonight. Darker. And infinitely more exciting.
Suddenly, the room around Alanna began to recede, till she was aware of nothing but her husband’s eyes on her. Her lips fell slightly apart. Her mouth went dry. Her skin broke out into goose bumps.
Very dimly, she heard the music change to a slow, moody number.
Without saying another word, Reece drew her into his arms, his eyes not leaving hers as he let them do his talking for him for a while. As he pressed her stomach against his stark arousal the most exquisite sensations gripped Alanna’s body. Her nipples hardened. Her belly quivered. Her insides contracted.
Her arms slipped up around his neck and their bodies melded even closer together.
‘I need to kiss you,’ he whispered into her hair.
‘You…you can’t,’ she answered shakily. ‘Not here.’
‘Where, then?’
She knew what he was asking her. It wasn’t just a kiss he needed. The thought of him taking her somewhere relatively private sent the blood rushing to her head.
Even as she flushed possible places jumped into her mind. There were several powder rooms, a couple of them well away from everyone, on the first floor. Alanna had been upstairs with Holly the previous day, delivering her going-away outfit, so she knew the layout of the place quite well.
The temptation to go up there with Reece was acute. She wanted to. Far too much.
When she’d married Reece last year, Alanna had vowed to keep a tight rein on her highly sexed nature. No good ever came from a man thinking his wife was a whore.
She’d been quite content with their sex life so far. And happy in her marriage. Reece liked and respected her. Would he continue to respect her, however, if she let him do this? It worried her where such a surrender might lead. She wanted to be his wife and the mother of his children, not his married mistress, catering to his every sexual whim, regardless of time or place.
No. She had to resist temptation.
‘I can’t, Reece,’ she said tautly. ‘I have to go help Holly change into her going-away outfit.’
‘She’s dancing away happily at the moment,’ Reece pointed out, nodding towards the bride and groom who were wrapped in each other’s arms, gliding slowly around the dance floor. ‘Come on. Let’s go.’
‘Go where?’
‘You know where,’ he ground out. ‘I saw it in your eyes.’
She drew back and stared up at him, her heart pounding. Was she that easy to read?
‘We’re married, Alanna,’ he went on brusquely. ‘Whatever we do together is perfectly acceptable.’
‘Being married doesn’t make everything acceptable,’ she countered heatedly. ‘I’m sorry, Reece. You’ll just have to wait till we get home.’
His face darkened with frustration. ‘This is bloody ridiculous. You want to. I know you do.’
When his fingers tightened on her arm, Alanna wrenched her arm out of his hold and glowered up at him.
‘Don’t ever presume what I want to do, Reece,’ she bit out. ‘I said no. That means no. I don’t know what’s got into you tonight but, whatever it is, I don’t much like it. Now I’m going to take Holly upstairs to change. Hopefully, by the time we get home you will have gotten over your caveman impulses and gone back to being the sophisticated man I married.’
CHAPTER THREE
THE strained silence in the car during the drive home gave Reece plenty of time to wonder, and to worry. He’d soothed his earlier frustrations with the surety Alanna wouldn’t knock him back when they got home. But had his thinking been correct?
Alanna wanted a baby. Quite desperately, judging by her disappointment over not conceiving yet. She’d started reading books on the subject, and had circled the days on the kitchen calendar when she was most likely to conceive. Tonight was not optimum but it was close enough.
Back at the reception, he’d reasoned that no way would Alanna let this day end without sex, especially since they hadn’t made love last night. She’d been busy with Holly on last-minute wedding preparations whilst he’d been out having a few drinks with Richard and Mike. When he’d finally come home around one o’clock, Alanna had been in bed, sound asleep.
So he felt quite confident that some of his desires would be satisfied tonight. Although not all.
For a few seconds tonight he’d glimpsed a different Alanna, one who’d almost agreed to have a quickie. Her gorgeous green eyes had glittered wildly with the idea.
He wanted that Alanna to surface again. He also wanted a wife who didn’t lock the bathroom door after her any more. One who wasn’t so darned protective of her privacy.
Such thinking revived his frustrations. All of a sudden, he wanted to snap at her. Taunt her. Challenge her.
Do you only let me make love to you because you want a baby? he felt like flinging at her. Do you fake your orgasms? Do you care for me at all, or am I just a means to an end?
Actually, Reece didn’t believe she faked her orgasms. But there was something fake about Alanna. He just didn’t know what. Up till this point, it hadn’t bothered him how much of herself she’d kept to herself. As long as he’d got what he wanted, he hadn’t made waves.
But everything had changed tonight. Reece wanted more from Alanna now, and, by God, he aimed to get more!
Alanna sat in the passenger seat of Reece’s red Mercedes sports, her face turned away from him, her hands clasped tightly in her lap.
She knew Reece was angry with her. She could feel it. If there was one thing Alanna had become adept at over the years, it was sensing a husband’s anger.
Not that Reece’s anger was anything like Darko’s. She’d trembled with fear when he’d been angry.
Alanna wasn’t even close to trembling at that moment. But she was agitated. And upset.
She hated having made Reece angry. Hated herself for her silly overreactions. He’d hardly behaved badly. So he’d been a little possessive of her. A forgivable sin, considering he’d been turned on at the time and she’d been off teaching another man to dance.
In hindsight, however, Alanna suspected most of his anger came from the fact that he’d witnessed her momentary willingness to go along with what he’d wanted. Seen it in her eyes, he’d said.
She’d acted like a tease. Going hot, and then cold, on him. No wonder he was mad.
She should apologise. She knew she should. But the words simply wouldn’t come, and before long Reece was turning into their driveway and braking abruptly to a halt. He zapped the automatic gate-opener, then waited, his fingers tapping impatiently on the steering wheel till they opened.
Once again, Alanna tried to force herself to say something. She turned her head in his direction, but still could not find her tongue, gazing past him instead at the impressive fac
de of their home.
Every now and then—usually at the oddest moments—Alanna took a mental step back from her present life and tried to see it as others saw it.
All of her girlfriends thought her a very lucky woman. Which she was. She lived in an extremely beautiful home. Drove a snazzy car, and had a fabulous wardrobe.
But it wasn’t any of these material things that were the main subject of her girlfriends’ ‘you-are-so-lucky’ remarks.
No, it was Reece himself they envied Alanna the most. Her charismatic and very handsome husband.
Admittedly, he was a dream of a husband. Hardworking, cheerful, complimentary and generous. A great lover, too, who, till tonight, had not been at all demanding where their sex life was concerned. He seemed content with fairly straightforward lovemaking. In bed. Tonight had been the first time he’d wanted something different.
So, yes, on the surface, she was a very lucky woman.
But all that would mean nothing, she realised with a pang in her heart, if she never had a child.
Reece hadn’t been the only person to feel unexpected jealousy tonight. When she’d accompanied Holly upstairs to help her change out of her wedding dress, Holly had confided to Alanna that she was already pregnant.
Alanna had done her best to express delight at the news, but, down deep, she’d been worried. Reece had been making love to her very regularly since she’d come off the pill three months ago, but still no baby. Was there something wrong with her? It was possible. You couldn’t throw yourself out of a speeding car and not sustain some internal damage.
The doctors had assured her that she would be fine, that her recovery would be complete in time.
But maybe they were wrong.
Perhaps she should go for some tests…
‘I presume you are coming inside.’
Reece’s sharp words snapped Alanna back to the present, where she was surprised to see they were already parked in the garages, the door had shut be hind them and Reece had taken his keys out of the ignition.
‘Yes, of course,’ she said, and opened her door with a weary sigh. Clearly, Reece was still angry with her. ‘I was daydreaming,’ she added as she levered herself up onto her red high heels.
‘What about?’ he asked as he climbed out also, banging the car door after him. ‘Becoming a dancing teacher?’
His nasty crack shocked Alanna. He was never like this. ‘You’re not still going on about that, are you?’
‘Why not? A man doesn’t like his wife to enjoy another man’s company more than his own.’
She stared at Reece over the roof of the Mercedes. ‘I usually don’t. But if you keep acting like this, I just might in future.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Nothing,’ she muttered. ‘I meant nothing.’
When she came round the front of the car and went to walk past him, heading for the internal access to the house, Reece grabbed her arm and spun her round to face him.
‘I won’t tolerate you sleeping around on me, Alanna,’ he ground out. ‘We might not love each other but we promised before God to be faithful.’
‘I would never break my marriage vows,’ she denied fiercely. ‘But I might ask for a divorce if you keep manhandling me.’
He didn’t let her go. Just glared down into her face, his own flushed and frustrated-looking.
‘That won’t get you a baby,’ he snapped. ‘Which is the only reason you married me, isn’t it?’
‘It was one of the reasons,’ she threw at him. ‘I told you I wanted a family.’
‘What were the other reasons? My money, I presume.’
‘I wanted security. Yes. But if you must know, I had no idea you were as rich as you were when I agreed to marry you. Now let go of my arm.’
He did so, but remained standing in front of her, blocking her way. When she stepped back a little, the front bumper bar of the car contacted her calves.
‘What about sex?’ he ground out. ‘You said at our first meeting that you discovered you weren’t cut out for celibacy. You implied you wanted a man in your bed every night for the pleasure he could bring you. Have I brought you pleasure, Alanna?’ he demanded to know.
When she went to move sidewards, his hands shot out to grab her shoulders, holding her and forcing her to look up at him.
‘Have I, Alanna?’ he repeated harshly, giving her a little shake.
‘You know you have,’ she choked out.
It was cold in the garages, but her sudden shivering had nothing to do with the air temperature.
He yanked her hard against him, his blue eyes blazing like a pitiless summer sky. His mouth was just as pitiless.
Reece knew exactly the kind of kissing she liked. Right from their wedding night she hadn’t been able to resist his kisses. By the time his head lifted, she was no longer shivering.
‘Lie back across the bonnet of the car,’ he commanded, his voice rough and thick.
Her eyes flared wide with shock. ‘But…’
‘Damn it, don’t argue with me,’ he ground out, then kissed her some more till all her defences were gone.
No protest came from her lips when he lowered her back across the engine-heated bonnet and started pushing her dress upwards. Up. Up to her waist.
Her heart pounded. Her skin flamed. Her head spun.
‘Oh, Babe,’ he groaned when he saw what she was wearing underneath her dress.
A red strapless corselette, with suspenders holding up her stockings, and only a wisp of a red lace covering her.
Her underwear had been a present from the bride. Not that she didn’t like sexy underwear. She did. She just didn’t usually buy red.
Reece ripped the lacy thong off her with a single yank, leaving her totally exposed. When he pushed her legs apart and leant forward, Alanna bit her bottom lip and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.
She tensed in anticipation of his mouth making contact, but it was his hands she felt first, touching her, exploring her, teasing her.
‘So wet,’ she heard him say, and knew it was true.
He made her wet so easily. Made her want to be made love to, even when she thought she didn’t.
His fingers continued to play with her till she almost cried out to him to stop. She wanted his lips. And his tongue.
When he finally did what she wanted, her head twisted from side to side, her face grimacing as the exquisite sensations he evoked brought with them an equally exquisite tension.
His sudden abandonment had her eyes flying open.
‘You…you can’t just stop!’ she cried out.
He laughed as he scooped his hands under her bottom and swept her up from the bonnet. ‘Oh, yes, I can.’
‘You bastard.’
His eyes glittered wildly down at her, his smile devilishly sexy. ‘Tch tch. You’re a lady, remember?’
‘I don’t feel much like a lady at this moment.’ Her frustration was at fever pitch, making her almost violent with need.
‘Tell me what you feel like,’ he challenged her as he carried her inside the house. ‘Tell me what you want me to do to you.’
Her already heated face must have gone bright red.
‘You can say it,’ he whispered wickedly in her ear. ‘There’s no one here to hear you but me. And I want you to say it, just the way you’re thinking it right now. Go on. Say it!’
She said it.
‘Don’t worry, Babe,’ he muttered, his arms tightening around her as he began mounting the stairs that led up to their bedroom. ‘It’ll be my pleasure to do that, and more.’
CHAPTER FOUR
REECE stared down at his still-sleeping wife, in two minds whether to wake her or not. It was Sunday and they had nothing planned for the day, knowing that they’d be tired after Richard’s wedding.
But it was approaching noon, and she’d been asleep for a good eight hours.
Reece wanted her company.
Wanted her, too. The new her. The one who’d emerged last night.
His flesh prickled at the memory of the woman he’d unleashed with that episode in the garage. She’d become quite aggressive after they’d reached the bedroom, stripping him of his clothes almost angrily, wanting to be on top, wanting all sorts of things.
They’d had their first shower together some time later—now that had been a mind-blowing experience!—after which he’d refused to let her grab a towel, or a nightie, to cover her beautiful body. After a momentary hesitation, she’d stayed naked for him.
But it was like having sex with a stranger. She was nothing like the Alanna he’d become used to, his elegant and coolly composed wife who had to be almost seduced at times. This Alanna had been totally different. Which Alanna would it be, he wondered, who woke up this morning?
Maybe last night was a temporary aberration. Maybe she’d had more to drink at that wedding reception than he’d realised. The champagne had been flowing and there’d been a lot of toasting.
Reece didn’t like to think her passion had been alcohol-induced. He’d really enjoyed her reaching for him so avidly. He’d been thrilled that she’d kissed him for a change, and had wallowed in watching her make love to him with her mouth.
Damn, but he had to stop thinking about that. If he didn’t, he’d be jumping back onto that bed with her.
Possibly, she wouldn’t object if he did. But maybe she would. Reece’s well-honed people instinct warned him to take it easy with her today; not to presume that there would be more of the same just yet. Alanna could be surprisingly touchy. She hated him to presume anything about her.
No, best he get himself out of here and go have some breakfast. The sun was up and it would be pleasant out on the back terrace at this time of day.
Rather reluctantly, Reece picked up the top sheet from where it was scrunched up at the foot of the bed and pulled it up over his wife’s beautifully bare body. Very reluctantly, he let it drop onto her shoulders. A sigh whispered from his lungs as he wrapped his heavy towelling robe more tightly around his own naked body, then headed for the kitchen.
Alanna’s first thought on waking was how great she felt.
Then she remembered. Everything.
‘Oh, God,’ she groaned aloud, clutching at the sheet as she glanced around the bedroom, wondering where Reece was.
Shock joined her agitation when she saw the time on the bedside clock. Twelve-fourteen! It was afternoon! She’d never slept in so late in all her life.
Admittedly, it had to have been the early hours of the morning by the time she’d passed out last night. Through utter exhaustion.
Alanna grimaced, then shuddered. What on earth had she been thinking about to act the way she had?
Of course, she hadn’t been thinking at all. That was the problem. For the first time since their marriage Reece had broken through all her personal and sexual defences, whisking her away to that wild, wanton place that a much younger Alanna had enjoyed so much, but which she had subsequently learned could be a dangerous place for a wife to go.
When she’d married Reece, she’d vowed not to make the same mistake twice. Any man could fall victim to sexual jealousy, she’d worried, even a laid-back husband who wasn’t in love with you.
And she’d been right! Look what had happened with Mike at the wedding reception. Reece had reacted, if not jealously at that stage, then very possessively. And that had been before her performance last night.
What would he start thinking now? Might he start imagining she was having affairs behind his back. She did have a lot of spare time with Reece working such long hours.
Alanna groaned aloud. What a fool she was to have let her husband open her Pandora’s box. A stupid, stupid fool.
Alanna shook her head in dismay over the possible consequences of last night. No way could she live with any man who started acting even remotely like Darko. If Reece began questioning her about her movements, or doubting her word, or—God forbid—having her followed, then their marriage was history.
Maybe it was as well she hadn’t fallen pregnant yet. She was still a couple of days away from entering her most fertile time so she doubted last night would have changed the status quo.
As much as the thought of leaving Reece distressed Alanna terribly, she refused to tolerate any scenario where her hard-won self-esteem and much valued in dependence was threatened. She’d come too far back from the abyss to be propelled back in that direction again.
But maybe she was worrying for nothing. Maybe Reece would be quite happy with the way things had turned out last night. After all, he was totally opposite to Darko, both in looks and personality. And he didn’t profess to love her.
Now why didn’t she find that last thought comforting?
Shaking her head, Alanna tossed back the sheet and made a dash for the bathroom. Afterwards she wrapped a towel around herself and returned to her walk-in wardrobe where she gathered together some clothes. Just jeans and a light jumper today. They weren’t going out anywhere. Or entertaining, which might be good news or bad news, depending on Reece’s reaction to her this morning.
Fifteen minutes later—Alanna never bothered with makeup or an elaborate hairstyle when alone at home—she was showered, dressed and on her way downstairs to the kitchen for some much-needed coffee. At the bottom of the stairs she made a brief detour to peek in Reece’s study, but he wasn’t in there. Possibly he was out on the back terrace. That was his favourite place when the sun was shining.
As soon as Alanna entered the foyer, she could see that she was right. Reece was out on the terrace, semi-reclining on a banana chair, wrapped in his white towelling robe, sunglasses on, sipping a glass of orange juice and reading the Sunday paper. At his elbow sat an empty cereal bowl and spoon, along with the various inserts from the paper.
Alanna momentarily toyed with the idea of boldly going out there and saying good morning to him as if nothing had changed. But she was low on boldness this morning. She must have used all of her boldness quota last night.
Her stomach tightened as another memory assailed her. Had she really said those words to Reece when he’d first carried her from the garage to the bedroom?
Oh, yes, she definitely had. Maybe it was a rebellion thing. Darko would have washed her mouth out with soap. Literally.
But Reece had just laughed. Oh, how she loved him for that laughter.
Reece must have finally sensed her standing there, watching him, for his golden head suddenly whipped round. He waved the glass of juice up at her, then waved at her to come outside.
Taking a gathering breath, Alanna proceeded down the wide step that separated the foyer from the living area, bypassing the kitchen on the right as she headed for the sliding glass doors, and the terrace.
‘Have a good sleep?’ Reece asked as soon as she stepped out onto the flagstones.
‘Wonderful, thanks. And you?’ Oh God. She sounded awfully polite. As if they were hotel guests, meeting over breakfast.
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Miranda Lee
Reece knew that Alanna would make the perfect trophy wife! Stunning and sophisticated, she wanted nothing more than a marriage of convenience. And that was fine by Reece!But suddenly, their comfortable life together was turned upside down when Reece discovered that his wife had a dark past. But, he realized, he wasn't prepared to lose Alanna – even if the only thing they shared was passion…
“You’re Alanna Diamond,” Reece said as he slipped off the stool and stood up. “My wife.”
His wife.
Alanna swallowed, her gaze dropping away from his handsome face as those feelings swamped her again, feelings that made her face grow hot and her skin tingle all over.
Alanna’s head spun with the intensity of her desire, every muscle in her body stretched tight as a drum.
Try to relax, he’d said.
No way was she ever going to relax whilst in his presence. She had to find some excuse to leave him. To be alone.
When a wealthy man wants a wife, he doesn’t always follow the rules!
Welcome to Miranda Lee’s stunning, sexy new trilogy—
Meet Richard, Reece and Mike, three Sydney millionaires with a mission—they all want to get married…but none wants to fall in love!
Bought: One Bride
Richard’s story:
His money can buy him anything he wants… and he wants a wife!
August 2005
# 2483
The Tycoon’s Trophy Wife
Reece’s story:
She was everything he wanted in a wife…
’til he fell in love with her!
September 2005
#2489
A Scandalous Marriage
Mike’s story:
He married her for money—her beauty was a bonus!
October 2005
#2496
Miranda Lee
The Tycoon’s Trophy Wife
ISBN: 978-1-408-94080-8
THE TYCOON’S TROPHY WIFE
© Miranda Lee 2005
First Published in Great Britain in 2005
Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, including without limitation xerography, photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This ebook is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated, without the prior consent of the publisher, in any form or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All characters in this work have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II B.V./S.à.r.l.
® and TM are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.eharlequinuk.co.uk
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
EPILOGUE
COMING NEXT MONTH
PROLOGUE
Sydney. September. Spring.
ALANNA hesitated at the entrance to the cemetery, dismayed to find that her stomach had begun to churn.
Just butterflies, she reassured herself, and forged on.
The churning increased by the time she stood in front of his headstone. But she remained determined to do this. To say what she had come to say. To find closure once and for all.
‘It’s been five years since I stood here,’ she said to the man buried there. ‘Five long, incredibly difficult years. I’ve come here today to tell you that you didn’t win, Darko. I have survived.
‘Time does have amazing healing powers and I finally found the will to go on, a will much stronger than I ever believed I had. I have taken my life in my hands. My hands,’ she repeated quite forcefully as those same hands gripped her handbag in front of her.
‘I’ve remarried, Darko. Yes, you heard me. I am now another man’s wife. How you must be turning in your grave to hear that,’ she bit out between clenched teeth.
‘Of course, I did not choose a love match. Would I be so foolish as to marry another man who loved me? But we like and respect each other, Reece and I. Best of all, Reece doesn’t try to own me, or control me. He trusts me and wants me to be happy. He doesn’t mind if I go out with my girlfriends. He doesn’t mind if I wear sexy clothes. He even buys them for me. He bought me the suit I have on today. It’s the kind of outfit you would have ripped off me. But Reece loves me to wear clothes like this.’
With a defiant tilt of her head, she spread her arms wide and turned around, showing off her eye-catching figure, encased that day in a cream silk suit that had a short, tight skirt and a figure hugging jacket with a deep V neckline.
‘Did I mention that my husband is a very rich, very handsome man?’ Alanna went on. ‘Very sexy, too. He might not be crazy in love with me, but he wants to make love to me almost every night. To satisfy me. Which he does. Do you hear me, Darko?’ Alanna threw at the headstone in a challenging tone, which didn’t totally mask the underlying hurt and pain that twisted at her heart.
Tears threatened but she dashed them away. The time for tears had long gone.
‘One final thing before I go,’ she continued more calmly. ‘Reece and I are going to try for a baby. Not every man is like you, Darko. Reece won’t see a child as competition. Or something else to be suspicious of. Or jealous over. Reece doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body.
‘You will say that means he doesn’t care about me. But you know what? I don’t want to ever be cared for the way you cared for me. And you’re wrong, anyway. Reece does care for me in his own way. And I care for him. He makes me feel good, something you never did for all your supposed loving.’
Alanna scooped in a deep breath before letting it out slowly, relieved to find that the churning in her stomach had finally subsided. ‘My mother said I should forgive you, that there were excuses for your behaviour. But I can’t do that. What you did was unforgivable. I am going now, Darko, and this time, I am never coming back. You are now firmly consigned to the past. And I will do my best not to think of you any more.’
CHAPTER ONE
THE organ player breaking into the wedding march signalled the bride was ready at last. She was only fifteen minutes late, Reece realised as he glanced at his gold Rolex. Long enough, however, for the groom next to him to get fidgety.
‘It’s showtime!’ Reece said, smiling over at Richard who’d gone ramrod straight at the change of music, his hands clasped tightly in front of him.
‘Have you got the rings?’ Richard whispered out of the side of his mouth.
Reece patted the right pocket of his black dinner jacket. ‘Of course. Relax, Rich,’ he said, and reached out to touch him reassuringly on the arm. ‘I’ve done this before.’
‘So has he,’ Mike muttered under his breath from the other side of Reece.
Reece’s head whipped round to throw him a reproachful glare. Mike was a good bloke at heart, but his eternal cynicism over romance and relationships could be exasperating. It was also out of place today. Blind Freddie could see that Richard and Holly were deeply in love. This would be a much better marriage than the one Richard had had with Joanna, who, quite frankly, had not been Mrs Perfect.
Reece would never forget the night she’d made a play for him, something he’d never told Richard, but which had bothered him greatly at the time.
He’d avoided Joanna after that.
When she’d been killed in a car accident a couple of years back, he’d felt very sorry for Richard. But Reece sometimes wondered if it was a case of fate being cruel to be kind.
Whatever, Richard’s first marriage was past history. Today was a new day and Reece finally felt optimistic for his best friend’s choice for his second wife.
Despite an initial concern that Holly, at twenty-six, was too young and naive for a man of Richard’s age and status—Richard was thirty-eight and the CEO of a merchant bank—Reece could now see that Holly was exactly what Richard needed after Joanna. She was a genuinely sweet, caring, loving girl. Very pretty, too.
She was going to make a lovely bride.
Reece’s eyes narrowed as he peered down to the back of the church, curious to see what the girls were wearing. But the church doors were open and the late-afternoon light was streaming in. All he could see were silhouettes.
The first bridesmaid eventually came into view, looking elegant in a long, straight red dress and carrying a bouquet of white roses. She was tall, with auburn hair, a nice enough figure and an attractive face.
Reece didn’t know her. She was a florist friend of Holly’s. In her thirties. And married, Alanna had told him last night.
Reece hoped happily so, given she was being partnered by Mike today.
Reece glanced to his left at Mike, who was looking surprisingly debonair, a far cry from his usual dishevelled self. Amazing what a haircut, a shave and a tuxedo could achieve. Most days, Mike looked as if he’d walked out of a spaghetti western. Acted like that, too. Very tough and gruff.
Strangely, some women seemed to fancy him like that. Lord knew why. Reece thought Mike’s clean-cut image today was infinitely more attractive. But what was one woman’s trash was another woman’s treasure, he supposed.
On Mike’s part, he went for any good-looking female who made the chase easy for him and who agreed with his rules, his rules being he would take her out for one reason and one reason only. Sex. There would be no real relationship. No romance. The only promise he gave was not to be a two-timer.
But when it was over—meaning when he got bored—it was over.
Mike was an obsessively compulsive computer genius with a very low boredom threshold. His last girl friend…an exotic dancer…had lasted all of a month.
It still never failed to astonish Reece just how many takers Mike got. And how many of his ex-girlfriends remained friendly with him, afterwards. Damned if it made sense to him.
‘Behave yourself with your partner today,’ he whispered in Mike’s direction. ‘She’s married.’
‘That never seems to stop them,’ Mike returned drily. ‘But don’t worry. I avoid married women like the plague. They’re nothing but trouble.’
‘Sounds like you’ve had some experience.’
‘Only once. It was a close call, but I managed to escape.’
‘Anyone I know?’
‘I don’t think this is the time to discuss it,’ he bit out.
Reece stared at Mike, who gave a slight nod in Richard’s direction. Fortunately, Richard wasn’t taking any notice of them, his eyes fixed straight ahead.
‘Joanna?’ Reece whispered.
‘Yep.’
‘She hit on me, too,’ Reece admitted.
‘No kidding. What a bitch.’
‘Stunningly beautiful, though.’
‘It’s always the stunningly beautiful ones you have to worry about,’ Mike muttered.
Just then, the chief bridesmaid came into view, dressed exactly the same as the girl walking a few metres in front of her.
Every male hormone in Reece moved from stationary into overdrive. Now that was one stunningly beautiful woman.
But, of course, he already knew that. He’d been married to her for nine months.
Reece struggled with a perverse jab of jealousy as he watched the eyes of all the male wedding guests slavishly following Alanna’s graceful progress down the aisle.
Perverse, because he’d never felt jealous before, not even when she was showing off her model-slim figure in one of the revealing evening gowns he liked her to wear.
By comparison, Alanna was very modestly dressed today. Yet for some reason, the effect was sexier. Maybe it was true that what was hidden and hinted at was more provocative than what was on open display.
Or maybe it was the colour.
Alanna had never worn red before. She preferred softer, paler shades. But Holly had chosen red for the bridesmaids for some sentimental reason. Something to do with a bunch of red roses having brought her and Richard together.
The colour actually looked magnificent against Alanna’s porcelain skin and creamy blonde hair.
The style was quite simple. A full-length sheath, it skimmed rather than hugged Alanna’s figure. The neckline was wide. Almost off the shoulder, but not low-cut. The sleeves were straight and long, no doubt in deference to the weather. It was, after all, June. And June in Sydney was wintertime.
The day outside was pleasant enough, but inside this rather old church the air was crisp and cold.
The first bridesmaid reached the end of the aisle and turned away to the side, giving Reece an even better view of his wife, especially her face.
And what an exquisite face it was. Classically sculptured, with a delicately pointed chin, high cheekbones and a fine, fair complexion. Her eyes were a smoky green, almond-shaped and lushly lashed. Her nose was small and straight with an elegant tip. Her mouth was full, her lips looking even fuller painted scarlet.
Reece’s gaze moved down further, his mind stripping her of that dress and seeing her as he liked seeing her best of all.
Alanna had the kind of body that had always attracted and aroused him. Slender and firm, with long legs, a tight butt and small, high-set breasts.
Body-wise, she was very similar to Kristine.
That was one of the reasons Reece has chosen Alanna for his wife. He would never have considered marriage to a woman he wasn’t physically attracted to, regardless of his motivations. The other, more vengeful reason for choosing Alanna was that she was even more beautiful than his ex-fiancée.
Her willingness to have his children was merely a bonus.
As these thoughts tumbled through Reece’s head he tried to revive the vengeful feelings that had inspired his marriage to Alanna last year.
But astonishingly, they just weren’t there!
Reece’s shock was soon replaced by an overwhelming sense of relief as he realised he didn’t give a damn about Kristine any more.
Let the devil take her, which he would.
The only woman he cared about these days was the woman in red, coming down the aisle. His wife. The stunningly beautiful, extremely enigmatic, very intriguing Alanna.
A few years ago, Reece might have believed his uncharacteristic jealousy a minute ago meant he’d fallen in love with Alanna.
But Reece had turned thirty-six this year, past the age when an intelligent man mistook male possessiveness for love. He did like and respect Alanna. A lot. But love?
No. Love wasn’t what he felt when he looked at her.
Which was just as well, because love hadn’t been part of their deal. In fact, it had been the one thing Alanna had been very adamant about. No love.
She’d been madly in love before, she’d explained. With her dead husband. The love of her life, killed in a tragic road accident.
She didn’t want to tread that path again.
During their first dinner date Alanna had confided that she’d once believed she would never marry again, but as she’d approached thirty she’d realised she still wanted a family. What she didn’t want, she insisted repeatedly, was romantic love, and all the emotional torment that went with it.
Which was why she’d become a client of Wives Wanted, an introduction agency that specialised in matching professional men of substance with attractive, intelligent women who were happy to be career wives. Although falling in love sometimes happened—according to the woman who ran the agency—on the whole, these were marriages made with heads and not hearts. Marriages of convenience, they were called in the old days.
A marriage of convenience was exactly what Reece had in mind when he had become a client of Wives Wanted a year ago. Love hadn’t been on his agenda, either.
At the time, he’d got exactly what he’d wanted in Alanna. The ultimate trophy wife for him to display on his arm. The perfect salve for his bruised male ego. A visible token of his professional survival as well as a none-too-subtle weapon of personal revenge.
To this end, he’d made sure that photographs of his wedding had been printed in every paper and glossy magazine in Australia.
Not a difficult thing to arrange. He was a high-profile property developer, after all. What he did and whom he married made the news. Photos of every glamorous party he’d held since his wedding—and there were many—had found their way into the media as well, with Alanna always dressed to show off her physical assets.
For quite some time it had given Reece perverse pleasure to think of Kristine thinking of him with his beautiful blonde wife whilst she was having to service her ageing sugar-daddy, the one she’d dumped him for. He liked imagining his ex-fiancée feeling regret that she’d bailed out of their relationship prematurely. No doubt she hadn’t expected him to go from near bankruptcy to billionaire status within three short years of her desertion.
Poor Kristine, came the caustic thought. If only she’d had some faith and loyalty, she could have had her cake and eaten it too. Instead, she’d thrown her lot in with an ageing playboy film producer who had a reputation for replacing his starlet girlfriends every year or so.
There’d been a time when Reece had waited to hear such news with baited breath. Somewhere along the line, however, he’d stopped thinking about—and caring about—what happened to Kristine.
In hindsight, Reece could not put a date on this miracle. But it had to be some months ago. He supposed it was difficult to keep pining for another woman when you were married to someone as fascinating as Alanna.
Aside from her breathtaking beauty, Alanna was an amazing woman to live with. She never nagged at him or questioned him. There were never any scenes when he came home late, or had to go away unexpectedly on business. She kept his house beautifully, was an accomplished hostess and never said no in bed. What more could a man in his position want? When you thought about it, their marriage was perfect.
Frankly, falling in love would have spoilt it.
But as he continued to gaze at his beautiful wife Reece recognised that he had fallen in lust with her.
He’d always desired Alanna. Right from the moment he’d set eyes on her. But his desire seemed to have taken a darker, more intense turning today.
It was that damned dress’s fault, he decided.
Not the style. The colour. It had to be the colour. Red was the devil’s colour. The colour of desire, and danger.
Whatever, Reece could not wait for Richard’s wedding to be over. Could not wait to get that dress off her.
What a pity he was the best man and she was the chief bridesmaid. They would have to attend the reception afterwards, plus stay till it was finished. There was no excuse they could give to leave early.
Not that Alanna would. She would think him mad to suggest such a thing. She’d been helping Holly with the wedding preparations for weeks and had been very excited this morning.
Another dark thought intruded. Maybe he’d be able to persuade her to slip away with him somewhere for a few minutes. A powder room perhaps?
Reece had never done anything like that with her before. Their lovemaking had always been confined to the house. Actually, now that he came to think of it, it had also been confined to their bedroom.
Time to widen their sexual horizons, Reece decided with a rush of blood. Before she got pregnant.
They’d been trying for a baby for three months now. Surprisingly, with no success. But sooner or later, he’d strike a home run.
Reece imagined that once Alanna was having a baby, she might not be overly keen on having sexual adventures.
Suddenly, Reece became aware of Alanna frowning at him as she approached the end of the aisle.
Had his darker thoughts been reflected in his face?
Probably.
He swiftly summoned up one of his warmly winning smiles, the kind he used at work every day and which had become second nature to him.
‘You look incredible,’ he mouthed to her.
When she beamed back at him, his flesh tightened further.
Reece gritted his teeth and kept on smiling till she turned away to join the other bridesmaid, at which point his sigh of relief was swiftly followed by a jab of guilt. Damn it all, he was here today to be Richard’s best man. Not to think and act like some depraved roué, consumed by uncontrollable lust.
The trouble was Reece had always been given to strong emotions. People thought he was an easygoing man, but underneath his charming fac
de he was often a maelstrom of emotion. Ever since he was a boy, his needs and wants had ruled his life. When he’d wanted something, he’d wanted it too much. When he’d fallen in love, he’d loved too much.
When Kristine had first left him, he’d gone wild with despair and jealousy. To the world, he’d presented a coolly positive, never-say-die image, whereas underneath he’d been eaten up by a compulsive need to strike back in whatever way he could; to have his revenge on the woman who’d spurned him. First, by regaining his wealth. Secondly, by marrying.
It had been sheer luck that his marriage to Alanna had worked out as well as it had. It could very well have been a complete disaster.
Now that Reece realised Kristine was out of his head and his heart for ever, no way did he want to risk spoiling things. He decided that, no matter how frustrated he was feeling at this moment, sex with Alanna could at least wait till they were home. Whether they got as far as the bedroom, however, was another question. He rather fancied the idea of undressing her in the living room. Or perhaps not undressing her at all.
He began to wonder what she was wearing underneath that red dress…
The arrival of Holly walking down the aisle was a well-timed distraction, dragging Reece’s mind back from the erotic possibilities of later tonight to the sweetly romantic present.
He’d been right. Holly did look lovely.
Hearing the groom suck in sharply at the sight of his beautiful bride brought a wry smile to Reece’s lips. Underneath his ultra conservative, buttoned-up, banker fac
de, Richard was a total softie. A romantic and an idealist.
A visionary, as well.
For which Reece was grateful. If it hadn’t been for Richard’s ability to think outside the box, he’d be stony-broke today. Richard had backed Reece when not one other financial institution would touch him. He’d given him every loan he’d needed till the slump in the real-estate market had changed to a property boom, extending his hand in friendship as well.
Reece thought the world of him.
‘I admit I was wrong, Rich,’ he murmured to his friend. ‘She’s definitely the girl for you.’
‘Too young for him, I reckon,’ Mike muttered, grunting when Reece jabbed him in the ribs.
‘Okay, okay, she does love him,’ Mike grumbled. ‘I can see that. Even worse, I think he loves her.’
‘What’s wrong with that?’ Reece said sharply.
‘Hush up, you two,’ Richard commanded. ‘I’m getting married here.’
Reece gave Mike another savage glare. Mike just shrugged.
When Richard stepped over to take his bride’s hand, Reece caught a glimpse of Holly’s face through her veil.
The expression he saw in her eyes should have pleased him. For it was undoubtedly the look of a girl very much in love. Why, then, did Reece suddenly feel out of sorts? Surely he didn’t envy Richard, did he?
Perhaps.
No woman had ever looked at him quite that way, with such gloriously blind adoration. Not even Kristine when she’d supposedly been in love with him. And certainly not Alanna.
Alanna, again…
Reece glanced over to where his wife was standing on the other side of the bride. But he couldn’t make eye contact. Holly’s veil was getting in the way.
Maybe it was just as well, he thought. Because he knew he’d never see anything like that expression in her eyes. The most he could hope for was a degree of mindless desire.
There was no doubt Alanna got carried away sometimes when Reece made love to her.
Reece vowed he would at least see that in her eyes later tonight. It wouldn’t be quite as good, but it would have to do.
CHAPTER TWO
‘YOU see?’ Alanna said, smiling up into Mike’s face. ‘You can dance. In fact, you have a great sense of rhythm.’
Alanna had become tired of Mike always making excuses not to come to their parties, having suspected it was because he couldn’t dance. When she saw him sitting down by himself at the bridal table, looking glum whilst everyone else was up on their feet, she’d decided to take matters into her own hands. So she’d sent Reece off to dance with Sara whilst she’d dragged Mike onto the dance floor.
The function centre Richard and Holly had chosen for their wedding reception was a converted Edwardian mansion that was simply huge, with polished wooden floors just made for dancing.
‘You’re a good teacher,’ Mike said, glancing up from his feet at last.
‘You’re a fast learner. Now you can take your girlfriend out dancing.’
‘Don’t have one at the moment.’
‘Oh? That’s not like you.’
‘Been working too hard.’
‘On anything special?’
‘A new anti-virus, anti-spy program. It’s going to make me a fortune. Or it will,’ he added, ‘if and when I can get the right company to market and distribute it.’
‘What about your own company?’ Alanna knew that Mike’s software company had been very successful. Reece had shares in it. So did Richard.
‘Not big enough. I need a top international company. American, preferably. With plenty of clout. I’ll ask Richard to do the negotiating for me, once I decide who to approach. He’s much better at that type of thing then I am.’
‘But he’ll be away on his honeymoon for the next month,’ Alanna pointed out. ‘He’s taking Holly to Europe.’
‘No sweat. The program’s not quite ready. It needs more testing. Make sure there aren’t any bugs.’
‘I see.’ Sort of. Alanna was no dummy, and she was competent enough on a computer. She used to use a computer every day at work. Although she’d given up her job in public relations after marrying Reece—being Mrs Reece Diamond was a full-time career—she still paid all the housekeeping bills over the Internet. Nevertheless, she had no idea how computers really worked.
‘I don’t think Reece is too happy with you dancing with me,’ Mike suddenly muttered under his breath.
‘What?’ Surprise sent Alanna’s eyes darting around the room till she found her husband, who was still dancing with Sara. Even with his back towards her, he was easy to spot with his being so tall and having fair hair. When he turned around enough for their eyes to meet, Alanna was taken aback by the angry expression on his very handsome and usually cheerful face.
‘Yep. He’s jealous,’ Mike repeated.
Alanna’s hackles rose instinctively. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snapped. ‘Reece doesn’t have a jealous bone in his body.’
‘Come on, Alanna. Get real. You are one drop-dead gorgeous woman. If you were my wife, I’d be jealous of you being in another man’s arms. Just because you two have a different sort of marriage doesn’t mean a damned thing. You’re Reece’s wife and I’m a single guy with a certain reputation. It’s only natural for him to feel threatened, even though it doesn’t say too much for our friendship. He should know that you’d be the last woman on earth that I’d hit on. You and Holly.’
Despite Mike’s explanation, Alanna still could not conceive of Reece being jealous of her in any way, shape or form. She’d danced with lots of men in front of him before, and wearing a whole lot less than she was today.
Not once had Reece ever criticised, commented, or cared.
As for feeling threatened by Mike…
That idea was equally ludicrous. Alanna had never met any man as confident or as self-assured as her husband. And he had every reason to be. Not only was he very good-looking and very successful, his personality outshone everyone else’s. When Reece walked into a room, he became the sun around which the rest of the world revolved. Frankly, Alanna had never met another man quite like him.
‘I don’t believe he’s jealous at all,’ she pronounced firmly. ‘Sara must have said something to annoy him.’
‘Want to put it to the test?’
‘What do you mean?’
Mike’s hand in the small of her back suddenly pressed Alanna close against his hard male body, making her gasp.
The reaction in her husband’s face was instantaneous.
His nostrils flared. His blue eyes narrowed.
Alanna’s reaction to her husband’s jealousy was also instantaneous. Chaos, inside. Chaos and panic.
‘I don’t believe this,’ she whispered shakily. ‘Reece is never jealous.’
‘He’s a man, Alanna. It comes with the territory.’ Mike abruptly lifted the pressure on his hand and Alanna moved back to a more discreet distance.
‘But he’s never been jealous before!’ she protested. ‘You’ve seen some of the dresses he likes me to wear. Would a jealous man buy such dresses for his wife?’
‘That depends.’
‘On what?’
‘On why he wanted you to wear such dresses in the first place.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Don’t you?’
Alanna was taken aback. ‘You’ll have to be a bit more specific.’
‘What do you know about your husband’s past?’ came the blunt question.
Alanna frowned. ‘A fair bit. I know he’s the eldest son of a family of three boys. I know his father died in an electrical accident when he was in high school. I know he worked weekends selling real estate from the time he was seventeen and was so successful he abandoned his plans to go to university. He told me he made his first million by the time he was twenty-one.’
‘That’s not what I meant. What do you know about his more immediate past, the years just before he met and married you?’
‘Well, I know he went through a horror patch, financially, a few years back. He told me he would have gone to the wall if Richard hadn’t helped him out. But I suppose you’re referring to his ex-fiancée, Kristine. Reece told me how she dumped him for some wealthy older guy during that time.’
Which was why, Reece had explained the first night they’d met, he was no more interested in romance than she was. He’d been madly in love, and been hurt, as she had. And he didn’t want to go there any more.
Of course, Reece thought her hurt came from her beloved husband’s tragic death in a car crash. Alanna couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth about Darko.
Which made her wonder if Reece had been totally honest with her as well. Did Mike know something she didn’t know?
‘So Reece did tell you all about Kristine,’ he said.
‘He told me everything about her.’ How beautiful she was. How she desperately wanted to be an actress. How they were only three weeks from their wedding when she left him.
‘I doubt it, Alanna. No man tells his wife everything, especially about a previous woman who did the dirty on him the way she did. Men have their pride, you know.’
So do women, she wanted to throw at him.
‘What did she do?’
‘You’ll have to ask your husband that. I’ve already said more than I should have.’
‘But I can’t ask Reece something like that. You have to tell me.’
‘Tell you what?’
Alanna whirled to find her husband standing right behind her, looking daggers at Mike.
‘Your wife wants me to explain how my new program works,’ Mike said without missing a beat. ‘But she’s much better at teaching dancing than I am at teaching computer-speak. Do you want her back now? I gather by that he-man look on your face that you do. Time for me to go, anyway. I’ll just have a word with the bride and groom first. See you around, folks. Thanks for the dancing lessons, Alanna. They might come in handy one day.’
Alanna felt new respect for Mike as he walked away. Whilst she was aware he was a genius in his field, she’d never thought much of his social skills. That little display, however, had been very clever. It wasn’t easy to think on your feet like that.
As she turned to face her husband Alanna decided to tackle his seeming jealousy head-on. She knew she would worry if she ignored it. As for her curiosity over what Kristine had done to Reece… That would have to remain unsatisfied for now. No way could she broach such a subject with Reece. He would be angry with her for discussing him with Mike behind his back. And rightly so.
‘Why were you glowering at me just now?’ she demanded to know. ‘Mike said you were jealous.’
For a moment, Reece’s face stiffened, his square jawline looking even squarer with his neck muscles all tight like that. His nicely shaped lips, usually relaxed and smiling, were pressed tautly together. As for his eyes… Alanna had never seen them so hard. And so cold.
But then he laughed, and the Reece she knew and felt safe with was back. ‘Aren’t I allowed to be a bit possessive of my beautiful wife?’
‘Being possessive is too close to jealousy for my liking,’ she chided, but gently. ‘I don’t like jealousy, Reece.’
Reece pursed his lips, but his eyes were smiling at her. ‘Don’t you, darling? Sorry. Blame that dress you have on.’
‘This dress? That’s silly. This is a very modest dress.’
‘It’s the colour. It does things to me. If you must know, I’ve been thinking wicked things ever since I watched you walk down that aisle,’ he said, his voice dropping to the low, sexy timbre that he used during foreplay.
Reece was a talker in bed, giving her head-turning compliments and calling her ‘Babe’ whilst he caressed her and turned her on.
Her breath quickened just thinking about those times. He was suddenly thinking about them, too. She could see it in his face, and in his eyes.
‘I want you badly, Babe,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘I don’t think I can wait till we get home.’
His calling her Babe at this stage was not only telling, but instantly arousing, as if he’d turned a switch on inside her. Alanna opened her mouth, then closed it again, finding herself speechless under his by now smouldering gaze.
Reece had looked at her with desire before. Many times. But this was a different type of desire tonight. Darker. And infinitely more exciting.
Suddenly, the room around Alanna began to recede, till she was aware of nothing but her husband’s eyes on her. Her lips fell slightly apart. Her mouth went dry. Her skin broke out into goose bumps.
Very dimly, she heard the music change to a slow, moody number.
Without saying another word, Reece drew her into his arms, his eyes not leaving hers as he let them do his talking for him for a while. As he pressed her stomach against his stark arousal the most exquisite sensations gripped Alanna’s body. Her nipples hardened. Her belly quivered. Her insides contracted.
Her arms slipped up around his neck and their bodies melded even closer together.
‘I need to kiss you,’ he whispered into her hair.
‘You…you can’t,’ she answered shakily. ‘Not here.’
‘Where, then?’
She knew what he was asking her. It wasn’t just a kiss he needed. The thought of him taking her somewhere relatively private sent the blood rushing to her head.
Even as she flushed possible places jumped into her mind. There were several powder rooms, a couple of them well away from everyone, on the first floor. Alanna had been upstairs with Holly the previous day, delivering her going-away outfit, so she knew the layout of the place quite well.
The temptation to go up there with Reece was acute. She wanted to. Far too much.
When she’d married Reece last year, Alanna had vowed to keep a tight rein on her highly sexed nature. No good ever came from a man thinking his wife was a whore.
She’d been quite content with their sex life so far. And happy in her marriage. Reece liked and respected her. Would he continue to respect her, however, if she let him do this? It worried her where such a surrender might lead. She wanted to be his wife and the mother of his children, not his married mistress, catering to his every sexual whim, regardless of time or place.
No. She had to resist temptation.
‘I can’t, Reece,’ she said tautly. ‘I have to go help Holly change into her going-away outfit.’
‘She’s dancing away happily at the moment,’ Reece pointed out, nodding towards the bride and groom who were wrapped in each other’s arms, gliding slowly around the dance floor. ‘Come on. Let’s go.’
‘Go where?’
‘You know where,’ he ground out. ‘I saw it in your eyes.’
She drew back and stared up at him, her heart pounding. Was she that easy to read?
‘We’re married, Alanna,’ he went on brusquely. ‘Whatever we do together is perfectly acceptable.’
‘Being married doesn’t make everything acceptable,’ she countered heatedly. ‘I’m sorry, Reece. You’ll just have to wait till we get home.’
His face darkened with frustration. ‘This is bloody ridiculous. You want to. I know you do.’
When his fingers tightened on her arm, Alanna wrenched her arm out of his hold and glowered up at him.
‘Don’t ever presume what I want to do, Reece,’ she bit out. ‘I said no. That means no. I don’t know what’s got into you tonight but, whatever it is, I don’t much like it. Now I’m going to take Holly upstairs to change. Hopefully, by the time we get home you will have gotten over your caveman impulses and gone back to being the sophisticated man I married.’
CHAPTER THREE
THE strained silence in the car during the drive home gave Reece plenty of time to wonder, and to worry. He’d soothed his earlier frustrations with the surety Alanna wouldn’t knock him back when they got home. But had his thinking been correct?
Alanna wanted a baby. Quite desperately, judging by her disappointment over not conceiving yet. She’d started reading books on the subject, and had circled the days on the kitchen calendar when she was most likely to conceive. Tonight was not optimum but it was close enough.
Back at the reception, he’d reasoned that no way would Alanna let this day end without sex, especially since they hadn’t made love last night. She’d been busy with Holly on last-minute wedding preparations whilst he’d been out having a few drinks with Richard and Mike. When he’d finally come home around one o’clock, Alanna had been in bed, sound asleep.
So he felt quite confident that some of his desires would be satisfied tonight. Although not all.
For a few seconds tonight he’d glimpsed a different Alanna, one who’d almost agreed to have a quickie. Her gorgeous green eyes had glittered wildly with the idea.
He wanted that Alanna to surface again. He also wanted a wife who didn’t lock the bathroom door after her any more. One who wasn’t so darned protective of her privacy.
Such thinking revived his frustrations. All of a sudden, he wanted to snap at her. Taunt her. Challenge her.
Do you only let me make love to you because you want a baby? he felt like flinging at her. Do you fake your orgasms? Do you care for me at all, or am I just a means to an end?
Actually, Reece didn’t believe she faked her orgasms. But there was something fake about Alanna. He just didn’t know what. Up till this point, it hadn’t bothered him how much of herself she’d kept to herself. As long as he’d got what he wanted, he hadn’t made waves.
But everything had changed tonight. Reece wanted more from Alanna now, and, by God, he aimed to get more!
Alanna sat in the passenger seat of Reece’s red Mercedes sports, her face turned away from him, her hands clasped tightly in her lap.
She knew Reece was angry with her. She could feel it. If there was one thing Alanna had become adept at over the years, it was sensing a husband’s anger.
Not that Reece’s anger was anything like Darko’s. She’d trembled with fear when he’d been angry.
Alanna wasn’t even close to trembling at that moment. But she was agitated. And upset.
She hated having made Reece angry. Hated herself for her silly overreactions. He’d hardly behaved badly. So he’d been a little possessive of her. A forgivable sin, considering he’d been turned on at the time and she’d been off teaching another man to dance.
In hindsight, however, Alanna suspected most of his anger came from the fact that he’d witnessed her momentary willingness to go along with what he’d wanted. Seen it in her eyes, he’d said.
She’d acted like a tease. Going hot, and then cold, on him. No wonder he was mad.
She should apologise. She knew she should. But the words simply wouldn’t come, and before long Reece was turning into their driveway and braking abruptly to a halt. He zapped the automatic gate-opener, then waited, his fingers tapping impatiently on the steering wheel till they opened.
Once again, Alanna tried to force herself to say something. She turned her head in his direction, but still could not find her tongue, gazing past him instead at the impressive fac
de of their home.
Every now and then—usually at the oddest moments—Alanna took a mental step back from her present life and tried to see it as others saw it.
All of her girlfriends thought her a very lucky woman. Which she was. She lived in an extremely beautiful home. Drove a snazzy car, and had a fabulous wardrobe.
But it wasn’t any of these material things that were the main subject of her girlfriends’ ‘you-are-so-lucky’ remarks.
No, it was Reece himself they envied Alanna the most. Her charismatic and very handsome husband.
Admittedly, he was a dream of a husband. Hardworking, cheerful, complimentary and generous. A great lover, too, who, till tonight, had not been at all demanding where their sex life was concerned. He seemed content with fairly straightforward lovemaking. In bed. Tonight had been the first time he’d wanted something different.
So, yes, on the surface, she was a very lucky woman.
But all that would mean nothing, she realised with a pang in her heart, if she never had a child.
Reece hadn’t been the only person to feel unexpected jealousy tonight. When she’d accompanied Holly upstairs to help her change out of her wedding dress, Holly had confided to Alanna that she was already pregnant.
Alanna had done her best to express delight at the news, but, down deep, she’d been worried. Reece had been making love to her very regularly since she’d come off the pill three months ago, but still no baby. Was there something wrong with her? It was possible. You couldn’t throw yourself out of a speeding car and not sustain some internal damage.
The doctors had assured her that she would be fine, that her recovery would be complete in time.
But maybe they were wrong.
Perhaps she should go for some tests…
‘I presume you are coming inside.’
Reece’s sharp words snapped Alanna back to the present, where she was surprised to see they were already parked in the garages, the door had shut be hind them and Reece had taken his keys out of the ignition.
‘Yes, of course,’ she said, and opened her door with a weary sigh. Clearly, Reece was still angry with her. ‘I was daydreaming,’ she added as she levered herself up onto her red high heels.
‘What about?’ he asked as he climbed out also, banging the car door after him. ‘Becoming a dancing teacher?’
His nasty crack shocked Alanna. He was never like this. ‘You’re not still going on about that, are you?’
‘Why not? A man doesn’t like his wife to enjoy another man’s company more than his own.’
She stared at Reece over the roof of the Mercedes. ‘I usually don’t. But if you keep acting like this, I just might in future.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Nothing,’ she muttered. ‘I meant nothing.’
When she came round the front of the car and went to walk past him, heading for the internal access to the house, Reece grabbed her arm and spun her round to face him.
‘I won’t tolerate you sleeping around on me, Alanna,’ he ground out. ‘We might not love each other but we promised before God to be faithful.’
‘I would never break my marriage vows,’ she denied fiercely. ‘But I might ask for a divorce if you keep manhandling me.’
He didn’t let her go. Just glared down into her face, his own flushed and frustrated-looking.
‘That won’t get you a baby,’ he snapped. ‘Which is the only reason you married me, isn’t it?’
‘It was one of the reasons,’ she threw at him. ‘I told you I wanted a family.’
‘What were the other reasons? My money, I presume.’
‘I wanted security. Yes. But if you must know, I had no idea you were as rich as you were when I agreed to marry you. Now let go of my arm.’
He did so, but remained standing in front of her, blocking her way. When she stepped back a little, the front bumper bar of the car contacted her calves.
‘What about sex?’ he ground out. ‘You said at our first meeting that you discovered you weren’t cut out for celibacy. You implied you wanted a man in your bed every night for the pleasure he could bring you. Have I brought you pleasure, Alanna?’ he demanded to know.
When she went to move sidewards, his hands shot out to grab her shoulders, holding her and forcing her to look up at him.
‘Have I, Alanna?’ he repeated harshly, giving her a little shake.
‘You know you have,’ she choked out.
It was cold in the garages, but her sudden shivering had nothing to do with the air temperature.
He yanked her hard against him, his blue eyes blazing like a pitiless summer sky. His mouth was just as pitiless.
Reece knew exactly the kind of kissing she liked. Right from their wedding night she hadn’t been able to resist his kisses. By the time his head lifted, she was no longer shivering.
‘Lie back across the bonnet of the car,’ he commanded, his voice rough and thick.
Her eyes flared wide with shock. ‘But…’
‘Damn it, don’t argue with me,’ he ground out, then kissed her some more till all her defences were gone.
No protest came from her lips when he lowered her back across the engine-heated bonnet and started pushing her dress upwards. Up. Up to her waist.
Her heart pounded. Her skin flamed. Her head spun.
‘Oh, Babe,’ he groaned when he saw what she was wearing underneath her dress.
A red strapless corselette, with suspenders holding up her stockings, and only a wisp of a red lace covering her.
Her underwear had been a present from the bride. Not that she didn’t like sexy underwear. She did. She just didn’t usually buy red.
Reece ripped the lacy thong off her with a single yank, leaving her totally exposed. When he pushed her legs apart and leant forward, Alanna bit her bottom lip and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.
She tensed in anticipation of his mouth making contact, but it was his hands she felt first, touching her, exploring her, teasing her.
‘So wet,’ she heard him say, and knew it was true.
He made her wet so easily. Made her want to be made love to, even when she thought she didn’t.
His fingers continued to play with her till she almost cried out to him to stop. She wanted his lips. And his tongue.
When he finally did what she wanted, her head twisted from side to side, her face grimacing as the exquisite sensations he evoked brought with them an equally exquisite tension.
His sudden abandonment had her eyes flying open.
‘You…you can’t just stop!’ she cried out.
He laughed as he scooped his hands under her bottom and swept her up from the bonnet. ‘Oh, yes, I can.’
‘You bastard.’
His eyes glittered wildly down at her, his smile devilishly sexy. ‘Tch tch. You’re a lady, remember?’
‘I don’t feel much like a lady at this moment.’ Her frustration was at fever pitch, making her almost violent with need.
‘Tell me what you feel like,’ he challenged her as he carried her inside the house. ‘Tell me what you want me to do to you.’
Her already heated face must have gone bright red.
‘You can say it,’ he whispered wickedly in her ear. ‘There’s no one here to hear you but me. And I want you to say it, just the way you’re thinking it right now. Go on. Say it!’
She said it.
‘Don’t worry, Babe,’ he muttered, his arms tightening around her as he began mounting the stairs that led up to their bedroom. ‘It’ll be my pleasure to do that, and more.’
CHAPTER FOUR
REECE stared down at his still-sleeping wife, in two minds whether to wake her or not. It was Sunday and they had nothing planned for the day, knowing that they’d be tired after Richard’s wedding.
But it was approaching noon, and she’d been asleep for a good eight hours.
Reece wanted her company.
Wanted her, too. The new her. The one who’d emerged last night.
His flesh prickled at the memory of the woman he’d unleashed with that episode in the garage. She’d become quite aggressive after they’d reached the bedroom, stripping him of his clothes almost angrily, wanting to be on top, wanting all sorts of things.
They’d had their first shower together some time later—now that had been a mind-blowing experience!—after which he’d refused to let her grab a towel, or a nightie, to cover her beautiful body. After a momentary hesitation, she’d stayed naked for him.
But it was like having sex with a stranger. She was nothing like the Alanna he’d become used to, his elegant and coolly composed wife who had to be almost seduced at times. This Alanna had been totally different. Which Alanna would it be, he wondered, who woke up this morning?
Maybe last night was a temporary aberration. Maybe she’d had more to drink at that wedding reception than he’d realised. The champagne had been flowing and there’d been a lot of toasting.
Reece didn’t like to think her passion had been alcohol-induced. He’d really enjoyed her reaching for him so avidly. He’d been thrilled that she’d kissed him for a change, and had wallowed in watching her make love to him with her mouth.
Damn, but he had to stop thinking about that. If he didn’t, he’d be jumping back onto that bed with her.
Possibly, she wouldn’t object if he did. But maybe she would. Reece’s well-honed people instinct warned him to take it easy with her today; not to presume that there would be more of the same just yet. Alanna could be surprisingly touchy. She hated him to presume anything about her.
No, best he get himself out of here and go have some breakfast. The sun was up and it would be pleasant out on the back terrace at this time of day.
Rather reluctantly, Reece picked up the top sheet from where it was scrunched up at the foot of the bed and pulled it up over his wife’s beautifully bare body. Very reluctantly, he let it drop onto her shoulders. A sigh whispered from his lungs as he wrapped his heavy towelling robe more tightly around his own naked body, then headed for the kitchen.
Alanna’s first thought on waking was how great she felt.
Then she remembered. Everything.
‘Oh, God,’ she groaned aloud, clutching at the sheet as she glanced around the bedroom, wondering where Reece was.
Shock joined her agitation when she saw the time on the bedside clock. Twelve-fourteen! It was afternoon! She’d never slept in so late in all her life.
Admittedly, it had to have been the early hours of the morning by the time she’d passed out last night. Through utter exhaustion.
Alanna grimaced, then shuddered. What on earth had she been thinking about to act the way she had?
Of course, she hadn’t been thinking at all. That was the problem. For the first time since their marriage Reece had broken through all her personal and sexual defences, whisking her away to that wild, wanton place that a much younger Alanna had enjoyed so much, but which she had subsequently learned could be a dangerous place for a wife to go.
When she’d married Reece, she’d vowed not to make the same mistake twice. Any man could fall victim to sexual jealousy, she’d worried, even a laid-back husband who wasn’t in love with you.
And she’d been right! Look what had happened with Mike at the wedding reception. Reece had reacted, if not jealously at that stage, then very possessively. And that had been before her performance last night.
What would he start thinking now? Might he start imagining she was having affairs behind his back. She did have a lot of spare time with Reece working such long hours.
Alanna groaned aloud. What a fool she was to have let her husband open her Pandora’s box. A stupid, stupid fool.
Alanna shook her head in dismay over the possible consequences of last night. No way could she live with any man who started acting even remotely like Darko. If Reece began questioning her about her movements, or doubting her word, or—God forbid—having her followed, then their marriage was history.
Maybe it was as well she hadn’t fallen pregnant yet. She was still a couple of days away from entering her most fertile time so she doubted last night would have changed the status quo.
As much as the thought of leaving Reece distressed Alanna terribly, she refused to tolerate any scenario where her hard-won self-esteem and much valued in dependence was threatened. She’d come too far back from the abyss to be propelled back in that direction again.
But maybe she was worrying for nothing. Maybe Reece would be quite happy with the way things had turned out last night. After all, he was totally opposite to Darko, both in looks and personality. And he didn’t profess to love her.
Now why didn’t she find that last thought comforting?
Shaking her head, Alanna tossed back the sheet and made a dash for the bathroom. Afterwards she wrapped a towel around herself and returned to her walk-in wardrobe where she gathered together some clothes. Just jeans and a light jumper today. They weren’t going out anywhere. Or entertaining, which might be good news or bad news, depending on Reece’s reaction to her this morning.
Fifteen minutes later—Alanna never bothered with makeup or an elaborate hairstyle when alone at home—she was showered, dressed and on her way downstairs to the kitchen for some much-needed coffee. At the bottom of the stairs she made a brief detour to peek in Reece’s study, but he wasn’t in there. Possibly he was out on the back terrace. That was his favourite place when the sun was shining.
As soon as Alanna entered the foyer, she could see that she was right. Reece was out on the terrace, semi-reclining on a banana chair, wrapped in his white towelling robe, sunglasses on, sipping a glass of orange juice and reading the Sunday paper. At his elbow sat an empty cereal bowl and spoon, along with the various inserts from the paper.
Alanna momentarily toyed with the idea of boldly going out there and saying good morning to him as if nothing had changed. But she was low on boldness this morning. She must have used all of her boldness quota last night.
Her stomach tightened as another memory assailed her. Had she really said those words to Reece when he’d first carried her from the garage to the bedroom?
Oh, yes, she definitely had. Maybe it was a rebellion thing. Darko would have washed her mouth out with soap. Literally.
But Reece had just laughed. Oh, how she loved him for that laughter.
Reece must have finally sensed her standing there, watching him, for his golden head suddenly whipped round. He waved the glass of juice up at her, then waved at her to come outside.
Taking a gathering breath, Alanna proceeded down the wide step that separated the foyer from the living area, bypassing the kitchen on the right as she headed for the sliding glass doors, and the terrace.
‘Have a good sleep?’ Reece asked as soon as she stepped out onto the flagstones.
‘Wonderful, thanks. And you?’ Oh God. She sounded awfully polite. As if they were hotel guests, meeting over breakfast.
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Miranda Lee
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
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О книге: Reece knew that Alanna would make the perfect trophy wife! Stunning and sophisticated, she wanted nothing more than a marriage of convenience. And that was fine by Reece!But suddenly, their comfortable life together was turned upside down when Reece discovered that his wife had a dark past. But, he realized, he wasn′t prepared to lose Alanna – even if the only thing they shared was passion…