Wife By Contract, Mistress By Demand

‘I advise you to stop right there, Rufus.’ The ice in Gabriella’s voice was definitely genuine this time, her chin raised in warning as she looked at him with sparkling violet eyes. ‘I tell you what, Rufus, how about we make a deal?’

she continued scathingly. ‘You leave my mother out of this and I won’t comment on your own deficiencies where parental guidance and care for your daughter are concerned, either—how does that sound?’

Like a backhanded insult, Rufus realized with a frown.

Six months of sharing a house with this woman were going to seem much longer than that!

Gabriella picked up her watch where she had taken it off before her shower, glancing down at it pointedly. ‘If you don’t leave now you won’t have time to spend that half an hour with Holly before dinner.’

‘Do I take it that you’ll be in for dinner this evening, too?’ He raised dark blond brows, deciding to ignore the intended criticism this time. Gabriella was spoiling for a fight, and he didn’t have time for it right now.

‘And why wouldn’t I be?’ she came back tartly.

Rufus shrugged. ‘I thought you worked in a bistro or something in the evenings?’

‘Not any more,’ she dismissed. ‘I finished working at the bistro yesterday, Rufus. As from Monday I shall be starting the refurbishment to Gabriella’s,’ she reminded him sweetly.

Damn! After everything that had happened today he had forgotten he would be sharing a workplace with her, too!

‘The minutes are ticking away, Rufus,’ she said tauntingly. ‘You really shouldn’t keep Holly waiting.’

Toby had been right, Rufus told himself angrily as he turned and walked away; he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to stand six hours in the same house as Gabriella, let alone six months!

‘Where’s your wedding ring?’

Gabriella looked across the dinner table at Rufus with deliberate coolness as the two of them sat in the small family dining-room where their dinner had been served fifteen minutes earlier. Not that either of them had eaten too much so far, the melon starter having been sent back almost untouched, the salmon not faring much better. Gabriella had no idea why Rufus wasn’t eating, but she was far too aware of him sitting opposite her to be able to eat.

She had thought this situation through before coming downstairs for dinner, knowing that after this afternoon she had to retrench, and had decided that cool was how she had to be to deal with Rufus in future. If nothing else it stopped him from reading her other emotions, and it had the added bonus of infuriating him at the same time!

Her anger got her nowhere because Rufus simply turned it back on her. And he could be much more insulting than she ever could!

Being pleasant just wasn’t an option after Rufus’s suggestion earlier today that they could share a bed—and their bodies—for the next six months.

And ignoring him was a complete non-starter when she was so aware of him!

So she was left with cool. Which was actually quite hard work when she was naturally gregarious and chatty.

But anything she chatted to Rufus about he was likely to turn back on her, so she had simply decided not to talk to him unless he spoke to her directly.

As now.

‘I took the ring off earlier when I had a shower,’ she answered dismissively. ‘I didn’t want my finger to turn green!’

Besides, it felt like a dead weight of ownership on her finger…

‘And what the hell is that supposed to mean?’ he demanded incredulously, putting down his knife and fork to look at her. ‘Do you think I’ve given you some cheap piece of metal and glass as a wedding ring—is that it?’

Her eyes widened. ‘You aren’t telling me the diamonds and gold are real?’

They hadn’t actually talked about exchanging rings during the wedding service—they hadn’t really talked about anything much at all in the ten days before the wedding, with Gabriella just receiving telephone instructions from Rufus as to when and where. So she had been a little surprised when Rufus had produced the thin gold-coloured band studded with what she had assumed were pieces of glass, at the appropriate moment in the service, and slipped it on her finger.

‘You’re saying they are real?’ she repeated with a frown as Rufus continued to look at her disbelievingly.

They made a strange newly married couple, she was sure, sitting politely across the dinner table from each other, both having dressed for dinner, with Gabriella in a fitted black knee-length dress and Rufus in a formal shirt and trousers.

She had made the effort more for the sake of the household staff than she had for Rufus, and she was sure he had done the same; after all, neither of them was particularly interested in impressing the other!

‘Well, of course they’re real,’ Rufus came back impatiently. ‘Do you honestly think I would give my wife an imitation ring?’

‘Why not? It’s an imitation marriage!’ she dismissed. ‘Or is it just that Rufus Gresham couldn’t be seen to give his wife an imitation ring?’ she scorned.

She was still spoiling for a fight, Rufus decided. And he would still like nothing better than to oblige. But at the same time, he didn’t feel much like giving Gabriella anything she wanted tonight…

‘That about sums it up.’ He nodded. ‘I only asked, Gabriella. Do what you like with the damned thing.’ He shrugged, resuming eating his salmon.

Two could play this particular game. But they would play by his rules or not at all.

‘How was Holly?’ Gabriella prompted after a couple of minutes’ silence.

‘Fine,’ he dismissed tersely. ‘Still a little bemused by the fact that her aunt Gabriella is now her stepmother, but, other than that, just fine,’ he added with a steely edge to his voice.

‘Perhaps you shouldn’t have told her—’

‘Oh, yes—’ Rufus gave an impatient sigh ‘—you would rather she found out when some unsuspecting member of the household staff turned around and called you Mrs Gresham, is that it?’

Gabriella put her knife and fork carefully down on her plate, picked up her napkin and delicately pressed it against her lips before answering him. ‘The household staff all call me Miss Gabriella,’ she told him evenly. ‘I trust you told Holly that the stepmother thing is only a temporary arrangement? That it won’t interfere at all with your own—relationship, with her?’

God, he hoped they weren’t going to have too many dinners alone like this—he wasn’t sure his digestion could take it!

He put his own knife and fork down noisily on his plate this time, the salmon, like Gabriella’s, only half eaten. ‘I’m not in the habit of explaining myself,’ he bit out tautly.

She gave a cool inclination of her head. ‘To anyone, it seems.’

‘Oh, to hell with this!’ He threw his napkin on the table before standing up. ‘Thank goodness I’m going to New York next month for a few days—it can’t come soon enough for me!’

Outwardly Gabriella remained unmoved by his outburst, but inwardly she was plagued by totally differing emotions. She was relieved that his totally disturbing presence was to be removed for several days. And she was dismayed at the hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of his not being here for the same length of time.

She was relieved, she told herself firmly. That feeling in the pit of her stomach was merely indigestion from having to try to be polite to him at the same time as she was trying to eat.

That was all it was.

‘Well?’ he challenged, looming large in the small room. ‘Don’t you have a comment to make about that, too?’

She met his angry gaze straight on. ‘Have a good trip…?’

He drew in a deeply controlling breath as he continued to glare down at her, knowing she was deliberately baiting him. ‘I meant with regard to Holly!’

She grimaced. ‘But you’ve told me not to make any more comments about your relationship with your daughter.’

‘And I take it this is one of those occasions where you choose to do as you’ve been told?’

‘Exactly!’ she confirmed sweetly.

Rufus gave an impatient shake of his head, badly needing to get out of here. Before he shook her rather than his head! This certainly wasn’t his usual time of relaxation at home after a day at work. Gabriella had him wound up so tight he was in danger of exploding. And, as he knew from past experience, that explosion could take many forms.

‘Maybe there will be some sort of emergency that will keep me in New York for a month instead of a few days!’ he bit out forcefully. ‘It would be four weeks less that I would have to try living in the same house as you!’

Not by so much as the twitch of a facial muscle did Gabriella show that his remark wounded.

Because why should it?

She had known from the onset that the last thing Rufus wanted to do was share a house with her, to be married to her, so why should she care when all he was doing was once again verbally confirming those feelings?

She cared because of what had happened between them this afternoon…

She really hadn’t expected to end up in bed with Rufus immediately after their wedding. In fact, it had been the very last thing she had expected to happen. But now that it had, she couldn’t get it out of her mind.