The Millionaire's Snowbound Seduction
‘Uh-huh.’Alone, too, he almost said…but she didn’t ask. Why didn’t she ask?
‘I don’t know how anybody stands the pace.’ Holly added the other blankets, smoothed them neatly and folded back a corner. ‘I mean, whenever I fly down to visit Belinda, my agent, or my publisher—’
‘Your what?’ he said, as if she’d suddenly told him she paid visits to a psychic.
‘Belinda, my agent, or my publisher.’ She turned towards him, her hands on her hips. The look on his face said it all. He knew nothing about her career. Well, why would he? Just because she knew all about his… ‘My publisher,’ she said again, with a little smile. ‘I write cookbooks.’
Nick’s brows lifted. ‘You?’
‘Me.’ Holly folded her arms. ‘I know you never figured I could do more than boil water—’
‘That’s not true. You were great.’ He grinned. ‘All those ways you came up with to cook hamburgers.’
‘Be honest, Nick. You hated every last one of them.’
‘That’s not true. I just figured—’
‘You figured I was playing house.’
‘Look, I knew you’d never been inside a kitchen in your life, until we got married. It wasn’t fair to ask you to take on—’
‘No.’ Holly’s tone was polite, but her eyes were cool. ‘You’re right. It wouldn’t have been fair to ask. But I didn’t need to be asked. I was your wife, Nick. And wives cook. They clean. They iron. Wives do lots of things…but not your wife.’
‘I don’t believe this.’ Nick folded his arms over his chest. ‘Six years, and it’s still the same old thing. Well, you’re right. I didn’t marry you for free maid service.’
Holly picked up the pillow and hurled it onto the sofa.
‘You know something?’ She spun towards him again, her eyes dark with anger. ‘I never really figured out why you did marry me. I used to think it was for sex, but it wasn’t that, was it? It didn’t have to be, considering that I fell into bed with you days after we met.’
‘Are we back to that, too? Listen, baby—’
‘Don’t call me that! I am not your baby. I am not anybody’s baby.’
‘One argument at a time, okay?’ Nick slapped his hands on his hips. ‘I married you, dammit, because I loved you! Because I wanted to give you everything you deserved, everything you wanted…’
‘Bull! What an incredible ego you have, Nicholas Brennan! How could you possibly have known what I wanted?’
‘A man knows, that’s all. When he loves a woman—’
‘On the other hand,’ Holly said coldly, ‘what you wanted was no secret.’
‘Oh, yeah?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Well, I’m waiting.’ Nick’s jaw shot forward. ‘Tell me what I wanted, since you know so much about it.’
‘You wanted success. Recognition.’ She threw her arms wide. ‘You were determined to show them all that they were wrong!’
Nick laughed. ‘Who’s this “them”? What in hell are you talking about?’
‘You know exactly what I mean, Nick. You wanted just what you got. Your name in headlines. A fat bank account.’
‘Ah, the horror of it all.’ He shook his head and put on a mournful face. ‘To think of it, that a guy would want to make good in this world. Lord, what a tragedy.’
‘Don’t laugh at me!’ Holly stamped her foot. ‘You and that—that monster-sized chip you wore on your shoulder—’
‘Chip?’ His voice rose as he stomped towards her. ‘Hey, baby, I’m not the one with the chip. While I was out there, working my butt off, there you were, just waiting for me to come in the door at night so you could pounce on me and tell me about all the mistakes I was…Holly? Holly!’ Holly had turned and was striding away. Nick followed her to the foot of the stairs, watching as she began climbing them. His voice rose, along with his temper. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’
She swung around and glared at him, cheeks pink with anger.
‘I never pounced on you when you came through the door, and you know it!’
‘You damn well did. Everything got the Holly Cabot Brennan vote of disapproval. The people I knew. The places I went. The things I did…’
‘You know, I used to think we never quarrelled. Even just a little while ago, I was thinking about how—how civilized our divorce had been. Some tears, some polite conversation, and it was over.’
‘What’s your point?’