Bought: One Bride

None of their matings the previous night had been anything like this. This was wild and primitive. The sounds they both made. The lack of finesse. The roughness of it all.

He came quickly, his back arching, his mouth falling wide with a primal cry as his flesh exploded inside hers. Holly could not believe it when her body swiftly followed with a climax just as intense. She clutched at his shoulders, sobbing as the spasms twisted at her insides.

He swore and scooped her up off the desk, holding her close. Her legs automatically wrapped around his hips, her arms around his back.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “Sorry.”

She buried her face into his chest and surrendered to the need to weep.

“I’ll take you home now,” he said gently when she finally quietened.

“Yes, please,” she said, feeling calmer. And resigned.

So she loved him. There wasn’t much Holly could do about that.

She would undoubtedly continue to go out with him. And sleep with him. But she would not—absolutely not—agree to marry him!

“Do you still want me to take you somewhere nice to eat?”

No use pretending she didn’t. So she nodded and he smiled, and her fate was sealed.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“RICHARD! So it is you!”

Richard knew the identity of the woman before he lifted his eyes from the chicken and mushroom risotto he’d been thoroughly enjoying.

It had been a mistake, he accepted as he finally looked up, to bring Holly to one of the trendy eating places he and Joanna used to frequent. Despite the time lapse, he should have realised that some of his wife’s old crowd might still go to their regular haunts. The Cockle Bay Wharf at Darling Harbour was a favourite of the rich and idle on a Sunday summer’s afternoon.

“Hello, Kim,” he said.

Of all Joanna’s girlfriends, Kim was probably her closest. She’d been the chief bridesmaid at their wedding. Richard had quite liked her to begin with. Most of Joanna’s friends were of the bright, bubbly kind. Good fun to be with. But he’d changed his mind when she’d made a serious play for him one night, uncaring that she’d been in her best friend’s home, or that her own husband had been just a room away.

Since then, she had divorced that particular husband, after he’d served his purpose, of course, which was to provide her with an income for life. Kim was a bitch through and through. A beautiful bitch, though.

Birds of a feather, he now realised.

“It’s great to see you out and about again,” she gushed. “And looking so trendy! Do you know I was with Joanna when she bought you that outfit. It suits you, darling. There again, Joanna’s taste was impeccable, especially in men. But I am blathering on, aren’t I? Would you and your little friend like to join us? We’re just sitting over there.” And she indicated a long table full of people across the way. Richard glanced over but didn’t recognise anyone else from his past life.

“Holly’s not my little friend,” Richard informed her coolly. “She’s my girlfriend. And, no, thank you, Kim, we’d prefer to be alone.”

“How romantic. There again, you always were a romantic, Richard. We’ll catch up some other time, shall we?” she said, and actually had the temerity to bend and kiss him on the cheek before undulating off back to her companions.

Richard felt as if his face were suddenly carved in ice.

Poor Holly was not looking too comfortable, either.

Damn Kim for going on about Joanna and the stupid clothes he was wearing. He’d only put them on because Holly had picked them out of his wardrobe, not because Joanna had bought them for him.

But Holly wouldn’t believe that now. Which was a shame.

Less than five minutes earlier, he’d been thinking how happy she looked sitting there in her simple but very pretty lemon sundress, her skin glowing and her long brown hair gleaming in the sunshine.

“Sorry about that,” he said abruptly. “Kim’s an old friend of my wife’s. Her best friend, actually.”

Even as he said the words, a thought occurred to him. Kim would probably know the truth about Joanna. Female friends always confided in each other. But how much did she know, exactly?

Richard decided he would ask, as soon as he got the chance. He probably wouldn’t like the answers but he had to know. Had to put the past behind him once and for all.

Till then, he wasn’t going to let the memory of his wife, or her so-called friends, spoil his afternoon with Holly.

And it could, if the frown on her face was anything to go by.

“I’m not upset, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said.

Holly stared at him across the table. Who did he think he was kidding?