The Billionaire's Scandalous Marriage. Emma Darcy

beautiful women, yet her smile for Mark Freedman illumined her own unique attraction, making it immeasurably stronger. The graceful turn of her long bare neck struck his eye. Her throat was bare of jewellery and its nakedness somehow evoked a vulnerability that stirred some very primitive instincts. The aggressive hunter and the protector leapt to battle readiness inside him and Damien knew he wouldn’t step back from involving himself with Charlotte Ramsey.

      His gaze skated down the dress she had chosen for tonight. It was bright orange—a colour not many women could wear successfully, a colour that reinforced his initial impression that she was confident about herself.

      Challengingly confident.

      The style was a simple sheath attached to a beaded yoke. Very elegant. Again not overtly sexy yet all the more alluring because it subtly skimmed her curves instead of flaunting them in his face. Damien decided she was a woman who cared more about being seen as a person rather than a sexual object.

      Had Mark Freedman played that card to win her?

      “Countdown to the fireworks is starting,” Peter said, waving Damien to join him at the deck railing as other guests automatically moved to make space for them.

      Millions of voices around the harbour rose in the chant, “Ten, nine, eight…”

      Charlotte broke apart from her fiancé to swing around and face the famous coat-hanger bridge that would obviously form the centrepiece of the display. Mark Freedman turned, as well, sliding his arm around her waist to hold her close. Damien stepped up between Peter and Charlotte, determined on making her aware of him whether she liked it or not.

      “…three, two, one…”

      The great arch of the bridge was brilliantly outlined as white fireworks sprayed up from the entire span.

      The start of something big, Damien thought, the excitement of this first explosive burst fuelling anticipation for what was to come. It reflected precisely how he was feeling about Charlotte Ramsey. One way or another he would take her from Mark Freedman, free her of a bad mistake.

      Free her for himself.

      CHAPTER THREE

      THE night sky bloomed with magnificent bursts of colour, erupting over the spectacular white sails that roofed the opera house and above the great sandstone pylons of the bridge. The massive cascades of light were beautiful, awesome, yet the joy Charlotte had expected to feel in them was somehow sucked away by the presence of Damien Wynter.

      Which was totally, totally wrong.

      And upsetting.

      Mark was holding her. Mark was talking to her, sharing his delight in the fantastic display, pointing out the marvellous special effects that particularly impressed him. Mark should have her undivided attention. And she tried to give it, tried to respond as she should be responding quite naturally.

      Yet she was still bridling over how Damien Wynter had been looking at her just before the countdown started, taking in every detail of her appearance as though measuring it against some standard in his mind. She told herself he probably did the same to any woman who came into his firing line and it was totally irrelevant how he scored her in his estimation of female attraction. What he thought simply didn’t matter. Which made it all the more intensely irritating that he’d set her nerves so much on edge.

      Even his voice distracted her from what Mark was saying, her ears suddenly super-sensitive to the deep timbre of it as he made comments to Peter, comments that told her he was enjoying the show.

      And why not?

      No other city in the world had a more fabulous setting for such a night as this and the Sea Lion gave them a dress-circle view of everything. She was probably the only spectator wishing for the end of the fireworks. Only then would her brother lead Damien Wynter away and she’d be rid of this horribly acute awareness of him.

      A crescendo of rockets built up to the fifteen-minute finale. A golden rain fell from the bridge and just below the centre of the arch, a huge red heart appeared, pulsing with graduations of light.

      “The heart of Sydney,” she murmured appreciatively.

      “The heart of love,” Mark breathed into her ear.

      Which should have made her own heart beat with happiness, but her mind was too busy being sceptical about how much heart Damien Wynter had. No doubt he gave a sizeable slice of his wealth to charities, as a tax deduction, which didn’t actually mean caring. Did he care about anything beyond staking out his territory and increasing it at every opportunity—all he could get?

      “That’s it for now,” Peter told him. “There’ll be a bigger show at midnight.”

      “Hard to top that,” Damien commented. “Leaving the heart glowing is a nice touch.”

      “Yes, it really stands out in the darkness,” Peter replied.

      “A reminder to give,” Charlotte couldn’t resist tossing at them.

      A mistake.

      Damien Wynter’s dark eyes instantly locked onto hers, glittering with speculative interest. He smiled, slowly and sensually, his teeth so white, the old saying, all the better to bite you with, slid straight into Charlotte’s mind.

      “Instead of to get?” he asked, provocatively raising her issue with him.

      She tried to shrug it off, inwardly cursing herself for opening another conversation with him. “The two should go hand in hand, don’t you think?” she answered blandly.

      “Yes, I do.” The quick agreement was instantly followed by a challenge. “Does that surprise you, Charlotte?”

      Peter saved her from answering, chiming in with, “Damien gives an enormous amount to self-help development programs for Africa.”

      It surprised her enough to ask, “Why Africa?”

      “Have you been there?” Damien queried.

      “No. I’ve always thought of Africa as a scary, violent place, best avoided.”

      “Then let me take you. You’d be safe under my protection and you could see for yourself how I do my giving.”

      A part of her actually wanted to. Dangerous curiosity, she told herself, and retreated to safe ground. “Thank you for the invitation but Mark and I are getting married in a couple of weeks…”

      “And I understand you’re busy right now, but when it’s convenient…” He smiled at Mark. “Would touring Africa as my guest appeal?”

      “Absolutely,” Mark rushed in, without discussing the choice with her.

      They didn’t know the man. Why would Mark want to be his guest on a tour through Africa? It wasn’t on. Not with Damien Wynter. It felt wrong. Apart from anything else, no way could she feel comfortable in his company.

      “You’d better take Damien down to the saloon if you’re playing poker with Dad, Peter,” she reminded her brother, wanting this encounter ended.

      “Are you playing, Mark?” Damien asked, apparently happy to have her fiancé included in the poker party.

      Charlotte resented the gambit to separate them as though she didn’t count. Mark wouldn’t desert her for some all male fun. Certainly not on the first New Year’s Eve they were spending together.

      “Not my game, I’m afraid,” he said, which wasn’t as positive about remaining with her as she would have liked. In fact, Mark had sounded downright rueful over missing out.

      Damien’s compelling dark eyes targeted her again. “What about you, Charlotte?”

      The impertinence of the question left her momentarily speechless. As if she would when Mark couldn’t!

      Peter laughed, clapping his friend on the back. “Believe me, Damien, you don’t want to play with Charlotte.”