The Billionaire's Marriage Bargain. Carole Mortimer

Dominick had never considered getting married himself, and had certainly never wanted to bring a child into that minefield of emotions. His own childhood had been a nightmare of pseudo stepfathers and stepmothers, none of which had lasted very long.

      But around fourteen months ago he had met Kenzie at a party in London to celebrate the opening of yet another Masters hotel, and it had taken just one look at the tall, beautiful, internationally famous model for him to decide he was going to have her in his bed. Her beauty was dazzling, her sensuality enough to send his pulse racing and, as a woman reputed to remain aloof from any sort of affair, she had been a challenge.

      Dominick had wined and dined her, becoming more and more intrigued by her every time he had seen her. As he had got to know her better—and desire her to the point of madness—he had also come to realize the reason for her lack of physical involvements. Despite Kenzie’s glamorous, high-profile lifestyle as one of the highest paid models in the world, underneath it all she was still just the girl from the small village in England where her parents still lived and Kenzie and her three sisters had been born and grown up. The sophistication was just a façade, and what she believed in, and was waiting for was that elusive happy-ever-after.

      It was a fact that had been completely borne out when he had tried to make love to her and discovered that she had still been a virgin, and saving herself for Mr Right. She had had no intention of becoming involved in a short-term affair, with him or any other man.

      Quite what madness had possessed Dominick when she’d told him this, he still wasn’t sure. Perhaps it had been a need to possess, to have someone who was unique in his previous world of transient relationships that meant nothing to him or the women involved, a need to know that no other man had had, or ever would have, Kenzie. All he knew for certain was that the burning need for Kenzie to be his had intensified to the point that even his business had suffered from his lack of attention as he had seemed to think of taking her to bed day and night—something he had never allowed to happen before!

      It had been a situation he had known couldn’t continue.

      Which had left him with one solution.

      Marriage…

      Why not? he had reasoned once he’d got over the initial shock that he had even been considering such a move. He would never be stupid enough to fall in love, and so leave himself open to the pain and disillusionment his parents had inflicted on each other over the years of their marriage and since.

      He was thirty-seven years old, he had reasoned at the time, and taking a wife, especially a beautiful and accomplished one like the international model Kenzie Miller, as well as putting her in his bed, could also be an astute business move. The fact that he wasn’t in love with Kenzie, and that he was determined never to love any woman, had never come into his calculations.

      It was something he had come to regret only nine months after they were married when Kenzie had left him for a man who obviously could give her what she wanted!

      

      For her part, Kenzie was glad this conversation was taking place over the telephone, relieved Dominick couldn’t see the pallor of her face, and the strain about her eyes and mouth created just from talking to him again.

      She had taken one look at Dominick and fallen in love with him, and had been completely knocked off her feet when he had returned that interest. The two of them had been inseparable for the next few weeks, before Dominick had totally surprised her by whisking her off to Las Vegas in his private jet and marrying her.

      She had felt a momentary flash of regret at the time that her parents and sisters couldn’t be at the wedding, knowing that her family would be disappointed too. She was sure her parents had always thought she would have a similar traditional white wedding, to those her two younger sisters had had when they married.

      But she had been so much in love with Dominick, and had secretly longed to be his wife, that she had quickly forgotten those regrets in the wonder of having her dream come true as they had spent two weeks completely alone on the Caribbean island that he owned.

      What she had failed to realize for some months after they were married was that although Dominick had asked her to marry him he didn’t actually return her love. He had only fallen in lust with her, and considered her a business asset as much as anything else.

      And none of these painful memories was helping her situation now!

      ‘I didn’t call to talk about the divorce, Dominick,’ she told him softly.

      ‘No?’ he came back scathingly. ‘It’s been four months, Kenzie. Haven’t you persuaded Jerome Carlton into proposing yet?’

      She flinched at his sarcasm, wondering how she could ever have fooled herself into believing this man was in love with her. But she also had no intention of getting into any sort of slanging match where Jerome Carlton was concerned; Dominick had refused to believe in her innocence four months ago where the other man was concerned, and from his tone of voice now she knew he still didn’t believe her.

      ‘I’m still married to you, Dominick,’ she reminded him wearily.

      ‘Only just,’ he reminded her tersely.

      Only just, yes. Once those divorce papers had been signed and witnessed, and there was a legal recognition of their parting, maybe she might be able to once again get on with her life.

      Although that idea certainly didn’t involve marrying anyone else.

      How could she when she had never stopped loving Dominick?

      She loved him but knew she was unable to live with him when he could never feel the same love for her. As his wife she had only ever been an ornament in his well-ordered life, an accessory.

      ‘I need to talk to you properly, Dominick, and I can’t do it over the telephone—’

      ‘You aren’t suggesting the two of us meet?’ he snapped, the derision clear in his voice now.

      Kenzie sighed, feeling no more eager to see him again than he obviously was her. It would be so painful to see Dominick again and know that he never had loved, and never would love, her in the way she loved him.

      But she knew Dominick’s reluctance to see her again was vastly different from her own. She represented the one failure he had had in his life. And failure, as she knew only too well, was something Dominick Masters refused to recognize.

      In fact, she had been waiting the last four months for some move of retribution on his part for her ever having dared to leave him!

      When it hadn’t happened she had decided that perhaps his inactivity was his retribution, with Dominick quite capable of imagining her apprehension—and relishing the fact!

      ‘I need to see you—to ask you—something,’ she amended carefully. Despite their situation, she ached to see him, but not the coldly distant man, the ice man, of their last meeting, the man she could tell, just from the tone of his voice, that he still was. ‘I need to—ask a favour, Dominick,’ she expanded slightly breathlessly, wincing at the admission.

      ‘From me?’ Dominick couldn’t keep the surprise from his voice.

      He clearly remembered Kenzie assuring him, on the day she walked out of his life, that their marriage was over, and she would never ask him for anything ever again!

      Except for a divorce, of course.

      His mouth tightened. ‘You have a damned nerve thinking that you can just waltz back into my life after four months and ask me for anything—’

      ‘Dominick, please—’

      ‘No—you please!’ he cut in forcefully. ‘You walked out on me, Kenzie. On our marriage. Straight into the arms of another man! And now you want me to do you a favour?’

      ‘I did not leave you for another man!’ she came back just as strongly, knowing he didn’t believe her, that he never had, but determined never to stop claiming her innocence.

      ‘I