The CEO Takes a Wife / The Throw-Away Bride. Maxine Sullivan

Olivia. It would be a real marriage.

      She swallowed hard and closed the door behind him. “Would you like a drink?”

      He stood a few feet away in the open-plan living room. “What do you have?”

      She pasted on a false smile. “Prune juice?”

      He gave a husky chuckle. “Coffee if you have it.”

      “I do.” She went to turn toward the kitchen.

      “Remember those words.”

      She stopped with a frown. “What do you—” She realized what he meant. “Oh.”

      “They sound perfect for a wedding ceremony, don’t you think?” His eyes were watchful.

      But she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of telling him her decision yet. Let him wait. He had to learn he couldn’t always get his own way. Or control people. Not her anyway.

      She turned and walked into the kitchen, then glanced up to see him following her. Ignoring him, she reached for the coffeepot but could feel his eyes looking around the apartment then on her, no doubt comparing her modest surroundings to a Hollywood lifestyle.

      Only she couldn’t explain that she lived modestly for a reason. That she’d been paying her mother’s debts off these past few years. Anyway, this was no hardship. She’d been mostly raised by her grandmother here in Sydney in a comfortable suburban house, far from the excesses of LA.

      “You enjoy being a fashion designer?”

      She poured the coffee into two mugs. “Yes. I wouldn’t do it otherwise.”

      “You never wanted to be a movie star like your mother?”

      She passed him a mug. “I can’t act.”

      He casually leaned against the door frame. “So it doesn’t run in the blood then?”

      “I’m a simple girl at heart,” she half joked, then rested against the kitchen counter and looked at him over the top of her mug. “If you’re expecting more then you’re going to be disappointed.”

      His gaze lingered on her. “No, I don’t think I will be,” he murmured, making the breath hitch in her throat.

      “I—” She wasn’t even sure what she was going to say. Something…anything…to stop the overwhelming need to step into his arms. “This is crazy,” she said.

      “No, it isn’t.”

      Realizing she was giving away too much of what she was feeling, she swung around and placed her coffee mug in the sink. Taking a calming breath, she turned back to meet his eyes. “Alex, look—”

      “What’s your decision, Olivia?”

      “I’ll marry you,” she said, seeing his eyes flare with satisfaction—mixed with something else. “On one condition. You give me half the money now.”

      Whatever that something else was that she’d seen lurking in his eyes disappeared. He gave a hard laugh as he put his mug down on the table. “I’m a businessman, Olivia. I’m not about to give you any money before you marry me.”

      She felt a spurt of anger. “My word isn’t good enough?”

      Irritation swept over his face. “Look, this isn’t about your word. It’s not personal. This is a business decision.”

      “Not personal? You want me to marry you and share your bed and you say it’s not personal?” Her brow arched. “Just when does it get personal, Alex?”

      His jaw set but he acknowledged her words with a nod. “Okay, I concede the point.”

      Olivia met his gaze levelly. “Then we have an agreement?”

      A brief hesitation as he scrutinized her, then, “Yes.”

      Relief swept through her. Relief she would get the money, not relief she was marrying him, she told herself. “Good.”

      For a moment she wondered if she should tell him about her mother’s money problems. Could she trust him? No. She didn’t know him at all. Besides, it was her mother’s secret.

      As for her own secret, she’d never tell him about that. She wouldn’t have to tell him about it, considering the briefness of their upcoming marriage.

      Suddenly he was all business. “Can you be ready in two weeks’ time?”

      Her mouth dropped open. “Two weeks?”

      “We have to do this as soon as possible. I’ve already booked the Sydney Opera House for the ceremony.”

      She swallowed, ignoring for the moment that the Opera House was one of the most beautiful venues in the world. “You were that certain of me?”

      “Yes.”

      “You’re an arrogant bastard.”

      “I believe you’ve mentioned that already,” he drawled.

      “I can’t possibly be ready in two weeks’time. I’m off to LA in a couple of days. I promised my mother I would visit with her. She hasn’t been feeling very well lately.”

      And that was an understatement. Her mother knew she couldn’t continue with her lavish parties and her high maintenance. She knew it was coming to an end unless she found herself a major role.

      All at once Alex looked thoughtful. “You know something. This could play in our favor. If you keep a low profile while you’re over there, it will add to the mystique of our wedding.”

       Our wedding.

      She sent him a cynical look. “Yes, and we definitely want mystique for those perfume sales, don’t we?”

      He glanced at her oddly, as if it was a given. “It’ll help your sales as well.”

      Okay, so he was right. But getting her mother to keep a low profile when the media were bound to be knocking at their door? Impossible! Of course, using Alex’s “mystique” angle might be the way to go. Felicia loved “mystique.” She knew the value of it.

      “What about your father?”Alex asked, drawing her from her thoughts. “Do you want him at the wedding?”

      An old heartache jarred but she quickly stomped on it. “No. He lives in Vancouver with his family and I have little to do with him.”

      He nodded with a grimace. “Some men don’t know when they’ve got a good thing.”

      She shrugged. “Owen Cannington was a B-grade actor who gave it all up years ago. He divorced my mother when I was two.”

      “She kept his name,” he pointed out.

      “Only because she was becoming well-known as Felicia Cannington.” Her lips twisted. “Mum said she may as well make some use of him.”

      “Sounds like the divorce was amicable,” he mocked.

      She couldn’t help herself. She had to smile, if only the tiniest one she could find.

      Taking her by surprise, Alex was suddenly in front of her, putting his hand under her chin. She started to speak, but his mouth closed over hers, holding her there beneath him, taking without asking, as if it was his right.

      And then his tongue dipped inside her mouth and did a sweep, exploring her, getting to know her, until she shuddered from a flood of sensation that shook her world.

      He eased back, his eyes dark with a passion that didn’t surprise her at all. “There,” he murmured huskily. “At least that’s one thing we’ve got out of the way.”

      She swallowed hard. “Um…I didn’t know it was in the way.”

      He arched a mocking brow before leaving. They both knew she was lying,