Welcome to Mills & Boon. Jennifer Rae

that was all. And who knew patience better than him? The man who’d spent his life waiting to belong, for a place in the family, to be trusted with the business. He was so close now and he couldn’t let his libido screw that up for him.

      ‘I was thinking that there could be certain perks to this being married thing,’ Helena went on, and Flynn focused very hard on not imagining those perks.

      ‘I’m not sure—’

      ‘I mean, we have this great opportunity to get to know each other better, for one thing.’ Helena folded her legs up under her so she could lean over the arm of the chair, bringing her closer to him. He could smell her skin. She smelt like roses, and it was going to kill him.

      ‘I’ve known you since you were born,’ Flynn pointed out. ‘I think we know each other pretty well.’

      ‘Maybe.’ Helena’s answering smile was brief, and shaded. Almost sad. Flynn frowned; he’d known earlier, talking with her father, that he was missing something about Helena’s past. That sad smile just made him want to know what even more. ‘But we’re different people now.’

      ‘Than when we were children?’ Flynn laughed, but he knew it sounded forced. ‘I should hope so.’

      ‘We’re different people than we were this morning, Flynn,’ Helena said, her beautiful face suddenly serious. ‘You’re a husband now, and I’m a wife. I’m Mrs Flynn Ashton now, remember?’

      Sobered, Flynn nodded his agreement. ‘I know. And that’s...it’s a big change for both of us. And that’s why I think we need to spend some time figuring out what that means, for our futures, not just the family or the business.’

      Helena blinked and sat back a little. ‘I’m glad you feel that way.’

      ‘What did you expect?’ Flynn asked, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.

      ‘Well, you disappeared from our wedding to hole up with my father and yours—presumably to discuss how our marriage impacts on the shareholders or something.’ Helena shrugged. ‘You can understand my belief that the human part of this marriage comes second.’

      ‘It’s not that,’ Flynn assured her. ‘But our parents are flying out tomorrow morning and I wanted to deal with them before they go. So that we don’t have to think about them at all while we enjoy our honeymoon.’ Instead, he could focus on getting Helena to sign the blasted marriage agreement so that when they got back to London he could put his energies into taking over as CEO of Morrison-Ashton, rather than firefighting whatever actions his father decided to take to solve the problem.

      ‘Our honeymoon...’ Helena’s tongue darted out to lick her lips and Flynn’s mind flew from business back to their first kiss. The way she’d melted against him, how his hands had clenched at her hips. How all he’d wanted in the world was to draw her closer and closer to him...

      Not helping.

      ‘I had some ideas about our honeymoon,’ Helena went on. ‘And getting to know each other better during it.’ She leant in again and Flynn forced himself to pull back, to keep a distance between them, even if it was somehow actually physically painful.

      ‘I had some thoughts too,’ he said. ‘I think the first thing we need to do is get the paperwork sorted.’

      Helena blinked at him then shifted back, away. ‘Paperwork.’

      ‘I think it’s important that we both know where we stand in this marriage.’ He kept his gaze fixed on hers as he spoke. He wasn’t hiding away from her, or pretending he didn’t know what she was offering. But he needed to be plain about the way things were going to be.

      No sex until they had the papers signed. Even if it felt as if it might kill him.

      ‘You mean your father wants to make sure I’ve signed away my rights to anything worthwhile before I get my feminine claws into you.’ Helena got to her feet, shaking her head. ‘You know, he really doesn’t have to worry. I don’t want your money or your business. I don’t even want this stupid ring, but I can’t get it off my fat finger.’ She waved her left hand in front of his face and Flynn reached out to grab it.

      ‘You agreed to this marriage.’ He ran his finger over the band, soothing the red skin there, and after a moment she stopped trying to pull it away again. Progress. ‘You even pushed this ring into place. Nobody forced you into anything, and the only thing you signed before we said our vows was a meaningless invitation.’

      ‘I know that.’ She sounded irritable now. Flynn never imagined that could be a step up from seductive but, under the circumstances, he was happy to go with it. ‘And I know we need the paperwork so that we can get out of this whole mess neatly when the time comes—’

      ‘That’s not why.’ They were married now. It was time to disabuse her of any notion that this marriage was a temporary thing for him. ‘We need it so that you can be my wife, completely, without any of this confusion or people talking about us. We need it to make us official. Legitimate.’

      Helena’s eyes narrowed and she pulled her hand from his, but he could still feel the phantom memory of the cool metal of her ring against his fingertips.

      ‘You mean to make you legitimate,’ she said, her glare accusing. ‘You need the paperwork to prove you’re really part of the family. You think it’ll make it easier for you as CEO when your dad steps down, now Zeke’s gone.’

      ‘That’s part of it,’ Flynn allowed. ‘But not all.’

      Helena stood, shifting so her weight was on one leg and her hip cocked out for her hand to rest on it. It emphasised the curve of her waist in a way Flynn really shouldn’t be thinking about right now, and he tried to focus on the unhappy curl of her lips rather than anything below them.

      ‘Really?’ she asked, sounding unconvinced. ‘Then tell me this. If you’d married Thea today, would you be down here drinking brandy alone? Or would you be in bed with her right now?’

       CHAPTER FIVE

      HELENA ALMOST DIDN’T want to hear the answer. It was a stupid question—one that neither of them could escape from now it’d been asked. Maybe that was for the best. If things had gone to plan, Flynn would have married her sister today. She knew that Thea hadn’t loved him, but she’d never really given much thought to how Flynn felt about Thea. She’d just assumed, given his usual pragmatic, spreadsheet-based approach to the whole thing, that it was a business convenience.

      She’d even wondered idly once or twice if Flynn was gay and his marriage to Thea an elaborate cover to hide the truth from Ezekiel. Heaven knew the old man was hidebound and rigid about everything else. No reason to assume that he’d deal with a son who liked men any better than he’d dealt with a son who ran out and abandoned the family business like Zeke had.

      Flynn wasn’t gay. No gay guy could have kissed her the way he had at the reception. And, besides, she knew when a guy wanted her—and Flynn’s eyes when she’d walked in had spoken volumes. Lusty volumes of erotic poetry.

      He wanted her. But he wasn’t going to take her, even offered up on a plate. In Helena’s experience, there were limited reasons for that sort of restraint—and they usually came down to being faithful to someone else.

      What if Flynn had really loved Thea? What if he was heartbroken right now, drowning his sorrows in brandy while she swanned in wearing white satin and tried to seduce him?

      Could she have made a bigger mess of this? But there was no going back now. She needed to know the truth.

      ‘Tell me honestly, Flynn. Would you have slept with Thea tonight?’ she asked again, and Flynn’s gaze slipped away from hers.

      ‘Probably.’ His shoulders lifted slightly then slumped. ‘We’d talked about...well...getting to know each other as man and wife, from the start.’