Husband By Request

She heard his sharp intake of breath. “No. You can’t,” he responded with quiet savagery. “For a very long time I was so enraged I frightened myself. I wasn’t fit company for anyone. But that period is behind me, thank God. If you wanted to impress on me that you’re now a whole woman, capable of attracting the attention of every male in sight, the gesture wasn’t necessary. To be honest, I preferred the vulnerable young beauty whose violet eyes once looked into mine as if I were her heart and soul. That woman is gone, but I salute the new Ms. Ainsley.

“Whatever you want, tell Paul. I’ll send him to you in the morning so you can sign the papers. I hope I’ve made it clear that I have no desire to see you again. Yeasas, Dominique.”

CHAPTER TWO

WITH his adrenalin surging, Andreas needed someplace to go to deal with the force of his chaotic emotions. But the last thing he wanted was members of his crew speculating on the situation Dominique had created by appearing like some bewitching ghost from the past.

Though he’d damned her to hell every day and night for the last twelve nightmarish months, there was no denying he was happy for her continuing triumph over a disease that could have killed her.

There’d been times during their separation when he’d feared her cancer might have come back, and that was the reason she hadn’t tried to contact him.

When Olympia had informed him she was on board he’d been incredulous.

After flinging open the guest cabin door, he had still been disbelieving, seeing the lamplight reveal the gossamer gleam of her hair splayed around her like a princess in a fairy tale.

His heart had skipped a dozen beats as he took in the sight of her beautiful filled-out body lying unconscious on the bed, without her wedding ring, wearing the kind of bathing suit she wouldn’t have been caught dead in once upon a time.

After being roused from sleep, the picture she’d made, with those dark-lashed eyes of amethyst fastened on him, was indelibly impressed in his mind.

Damn you, Paul.

Anger drove him down the hall to the other man’s cabin. He rapped on the door.

“Come in. I’ve been expecting you.”

Paul was seated at a table, doing some work on his laptop. He removed his glasses and looked across the room at Andreas, who shut the door before leaning against it.

He understood Paul well enough to know the other man hadn’t approved of his marriage to Dominique, though he’d never said the words aloud. Paul didn’t have to. They read each other easily—or so Andreas had thought.

“How come she’s on board, Paul?”

“She’s still your wife and she asked for my loyalty.”

Struggling for breath, Andreas advanced toward him. “What made you give it?”

“After you ignored her wishes for a divorce, it seemed a small thing to grant.”

Andreas’s mouth tightened. “There were consequences. Olympia found her holding Ari.”

Paul shut the laptop. “Since you’re divorcing Dominique, what difference does it make?”

Damn you again.

“First thing in the morning I want the papers signed and her escorted off the yacht. When she’s gone, bring them to me. Is that too much to ask?”

His friend eyed him critically before he said, “No.”

Long after Andreas had disappeared, Dominique could still feel the cabin sizzle with the white-hot heat of his fury.

She ran to the shower and turned it on full blast. Hopefully no one would be able to hear her initial paroxysm of tears. They’d blend with the stream of water.

Once she’d washed her hair, she toweled off and slipped on the robe she’d purchased. Wide awake and restless, she found herself at the porthole, staring blindly at the water.

Andreas had found no pleasure in looking at her tonight. His mind’s eye had been searching for the old Dominique he’d rescued after a freak accident in front of his villa on Zakynthos.

Twenty-six months ago she’d just finished her junior year at New York University, and had gone into the clinic for a routine checkup and mammogram. It had revealed she had cancer. Immediately she’d undergone surgery, followed by chemo and radiation therapy.

When she’d been well enough to travel, she and her mom had joined her father in Sarajevo, where he worked for the US state department.