Winning Back His Bride. Teresa Southwick

the water.

      That was unacceptable. He was stuck with her, and he’d realized it when he’d decided to go forward with the deal. But he’d had a year to prepare himself. It should have been enough.

      He’d expected to feel nothing and hadn’t been ready for the grinding knot of need at his first glimpse of Geneva. He wouldn’t make the same mistake.

      He’d deliberately waited a week to see her again, giving her time to squirm and wonder what he was up to. The meeting of his operations team had just ended. He hadn’t missed the fact that Geneva sat in the chair closest to the door—and farthest from him.

      So what else was new? She’d left him at the altar. Like an idiot, he’d actually thought about going after her. Before making a fool of himself he realized there was nothing to talk about. She’d said she couldn’t marry him. End of story.

      As she walked toward him now, his gaze settled on her mouth and a jolt of awareness arced through him. End of attraction? Not so much.

      She stopped two feet away from him, at the head of the long, mahogany conference table. “Yes?”

      “Something’s come up,” he said.

      “Don’t tell me. You changed your mind.”

      “About?”

      “Firing me.” She lowered her voice and glanced over her shoulder at the group of executives milling around talking. Then she met his gaze again. “You wanted more witnesses when you made the announcement.”

      “And why would I want that?” He was irritated when he caught himself staring at her mouth again.

      “An eye for an eye.”

      “You still think I’m after revenge.”

      “A natural assumption considering you once told me your philosophy. And not the one about forgiving your enemies.”

      She shrugged and tried to look as if she didn’t give a damn. It didn’t work. One of the things he’d instantly liked about her was that everything she was thinking showed on her face. She couldn’t hide what she was feeling. Then she’d proven him wrong by blindsiding him the day he’d planned to make her his. And it had been very public. Especially for a man who didn’t like getting blindsided at all.

      The day she’d left him at the altar had been the second worst day of his life. It was only topped by the day he’d found out his parents were killed in a plane crash.

      He forced the thoughts away and struggled to focus. “I have another philosophy?”

      “Don’t get mad. Get even,” she reminded him. “And stay on top.”

      “Ah.” He nodded. “That one.”

      Getting mad didn’t help. He’d tried that first. He’d also considered backing out of the hotel deal after she’d backed out of their wedding. But he refused to let her win. He also couldn’t fire her. Getting even? The thought held some appeal.

      “So am I canned?” she asked.

      “No.”

      “Then what did you want to talk to me about?” she asked guardedly.

      “Teri is getting married.”

      “Please convey my congratulations to your sister.”

      “You can do it yourself. You’re going to plan the engagement party and wedding.”

      She stared at him for several moments. “Isn’t this where you say ‘gotcha?’”

      “I couldn’t be more serious.”

      She shook her head in disbelief. “Your sister could elevate grudge-holding to an art form. The Teri Sullivan I know would take her vows at city hall and meet at Fat-burger for the reception before letting the same woman who left her brother at the altar plan her wedding.”

      “Maybe. But Teri still wants you.”

      Struggling for indifference, Michael slid his hands into his pockets. How the hell could he still want her after all this time? After what she’d done? But he knew. He’d never quite been able to stop wanting her. Or stop missing the feel of her in his arms at night. And he was having trouble getting the “hands off” message from his brain to the appropriate body parts. At least he could explain that. It was a purely physical reaction to a strikingly beautiful woman.

      Everything else was more complicated. He’d told himself it was just business, but two meetings with Geneva had shown him that seeing her every day would be an unexpected complication. He didn’t like complications.

      But sometimes to get the job done you had to piss people off, even if that person was yourself. Success didn’t come without a price and he was determined that the cost wouldn’t be more than he could pay.

      Geneva shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

      “My sister’s a team player.”

      Questions simmered in her eyes. “And, pray tell, why is her wedding a team event?”

      “Let’s call it one part of the marketing strategy. A celebrity wedding will generate media attention and get the word out to our target buyer. I paid the idea guys a lot of money for their expertise and it would take a special kind of stupid to ignore them.”

      “What aren’t you telling me, Michael?”

      If he didn’t know better, he’d think that was concern in her eyes. But he did know better. “I need to secure the rest of the financing for Sullivan Towers. We have enough to break ground and build a shell, but not to finish. That would make it a very public failure. Been there. Done that. Don’t want to go there again.”

      She caught the corner of her top lip between her teeth. “If you’re talking about the wedding, I had reasons for calling it off—”

      “It’s not about you.” He wouldn’t let it be. And he didn’t want to hear her excuses now any more than he had then. Her actions had told him everything he needed to know. “That’s ancient history.”

      “But it was my public failure, not yours.”

      “Yes, and your failure will help me get my financing. The press will dig into everything about Teri and me and you. They write about everything we Sullivans do and the public reads it.”

      “I remember,” she said.

      “The only thing that generates more publicity than a high profile wedding is one that doesn’t happen.” Their fiasco had fueled a reporter feeding frenzy. “The day you walked out we were the lead story on the news, beating out the president’s summit on the global economy.”

      “Yeah. For months afterward they hounded me for a comment.”

      Which she’d stubbornly declined to make. He respected her discretion even though he didn’t want to respect anything about her. “I got the same treatment. So imagine a Sullivan business venture combined with a Sullivan wedding… Picture the headlines—millionaire developer gains luxury high-rise and loses sister to matrimony. Wedding to be planned by his runaway bride. The perfect storm of publicity.”

      “I see your point,” she said.

      “I thought you would.”

      “But I can’t do it.” She folded her arms beneath her breasts.

      He couldn’t stop himself from noticing the interesting things the movement did to her curves and memories of soft skin and twisted sheets jumped into his mind. He forced himself to look away. When he glanced around the room, he saw that it was empty except for him and Geneva. Where had everyone gone? More to the point—when had they gone and why hadn’t he noticed? Damn it.

      Clearly she didn’t want to be here. Tough. He didn’t want to be here, either, let alone asking her to do anything more than her job required. But he and Teri were determined to