The Wedding Charade Read Free Page B

lovely choice of words,’ Jade said as she sashayed over to the bathroom. ‘But there will be no screwing, OK? That’s not part of the deal.’ She gave him a saucy little fingertip wave and closed the bathroom door, clicking the lock firmly in place.
    Nic let out a breath that felt as if it had come out of a steam engine. He was beyond angry. He was livid. He was furious.
    He was screwed.
    Jade had set him up and he had no choice but to go along with it. He would look a hundred times a fool if the press got wind of his grandfather’s machinations. If he had to marry her, he would do it but he would make sure he didn’t look like a pawn being pushed around.
    He clenched and unclenched his fists. He wanted to knock that bathroom door down and drag that little scheming witch out by her long black hair. He had not thought it possible to hate someone so much. Was that what his grandfather had wanted? For him to hate the very air Jade Sommerville breathed? What had he been thinking to tie them together in a mock marriage for a whole year, for God’s sake? It would be torture for him. Marriage to anyone would have been bad enough. He loathed the thought of being tied down to one person for any length of time, let alone the rest of his life.
    Look what had happened to his father. He had not been able to remain faithful after the death of Nic’s baby sister, and it had nearly destroyed his mother. Nic had been too young to remember Chiara, but he remembered the years that followed. Both his parents had been absent emotionally, cut to the core over the death of their precious daughter. Nic had run wild for most of his childhood, trying to get the assurances he needed as a young boy that he was still a much loved member of the family. But after losing one child, his parents had lived in fear of losing another and so they had held themselves aloof. Giorgio and Luca had fared better, being that bit older, but Nic knew he had missed out on what so many children took for granted.
    Being forced to marry Jade was the worst possible scenario. For one thing, there was no way she would ever stay faithful for the allotted time. No wonder she was proposing a no sex deal. He wouldn’t trust her as far as he could see her.
    If
he could guarantee she wouldn’t stray, his inheritance would be secured. But the only way to ensure that would be to sleep with her, to make the marriage a real one. To keep her so satisfied she wouldn’t be tempted to play around on him.
    He rubbed at his jaw as he thought about it. Bedding Jade would certainly be an unforgettable experience. The blood was already fizzing in his veins from her brazen display of flesh. She had no shame, no limits at all on her behaviour. He smiled to himself as he thought about taking her in a rough tumble of lust. The sexual tension between them had crackled for as long as he could remember. It would certainly be no punishment for him to bury himself deep inside her, to make herscream his name instead of some nameless guy she had picked up in a nightclub.
    Jade came out of the bathroom a long time later with her hair piled on top of her head and some damp tendrils hanging about her face. She was wearing one of the hotel’s fluffy white bathrobes. Without her make-up and high heels, she looked young and dainty, her cheeks pink-skinned from her bath. As she moved past him to access her suitcase, Nic noticed she barely came up to his shoulder in her bare feet. Her toenails were painted black. They looked stark against the porcelain white of her skin.
    ‘What happened to my massage appointment?’ he asked.
    She tucked a strand of hair behind one of her small ears without looking up from her open bag. ‘I cancelled it.’
    ‘You had no right to do that,’ he said. ‘I was looking forward to it.’
    She glanced at him as she moved with a bundle of clothes to the wardrobe. ‘I can give you one if you like,’ she said. She hung a skirt and top on the silk-padded hangers. ‘I’m