CHAPTER TWO
‘BUTYOUCHOSEnot to be my wife, remember?’ Lincoln said, with an edge of bitterness that even after all these years he couldn’t quite quell. Nor did he want to. His bitterness had fuelled the phenomenal success he’d achieved in the seven years since Elodie Campbell had left him standing at the altar.
He would never admit it to her, but she had actually done him a favour by jilting him. It had galvanised him, motivated him to build an empire that rivalled some of the largest in England, if not the world. He had quadrupled his income, built his assets into an enviable portfolio that gave him the sort of security most people only dreamed about. Aiming for success had always been his passion, a driving force in his personality, but her rejection had amped up his drive to a whole new level. Everything he touched turned to gleaming gold. He made it do so. Nothing stood in his way when he was on a mission to achieve a goal.
Nothing and no one.
But seeing her again stirred other feelings in him that were equally difficult to ignore. Feelings he had squashed, buried, disposed of with ruthless determination.
Her beauty had always been captivating. Her long wavy red-gold hair hung halfway down her back like a mermaid’s. Her heart-shaped face with its aristocratic cheekbones, retroussé nose and uptilted bee-stung mouth gave her a haughty, untouchable air that had drawn him from the first moment he’d met her. Her body was slender, and yet her feminine curves made him ache to skim his hands over them as he’d used to do.
She was strong-willed and feisty, passionate and impulsive, and no one had ever excited him or stood up to him as much as her. He had never forgotten the thrill of arguing with her. A fight with her had not been just a fight—it had been a full-on war that always ended explosively in bed. He got hard just thinking about it.
No one had ever pushed back against him the way Elodie did.
And no one had ever humiliated him the way she had.
The business proposal he was offering now was his way of ruling a line underneath their relationship. If she accepted his terms he would be the one to end their relationship this time. He had loved her and lost her, and he would never give her, or indeed anyone, the power to make a fool of him again.
Elodie moved away from the chair she was holding on to and wrapped her arms around her middle. ‘It seems my decision to jilt you was the right one.’ She threw him a glance so frosty he wished he hadn’t taken off his jacket. ‘How could you have withheld something so important from me?’
Lincoln shrugged one shoulder. ‘It wasn’t something I talked about to anyone.’
‘But why? Were you ashamed of it? Were you upset at being relinquished as a baby?’
‘I was neither ashamed nor upset.’
Lincoln had known since he was old enough to understand the concept that he had been adopted. His adoptive parents had been loving and supportive parents and his childhood mostly happy. He had also known his younger brother and sister were his parents’ biological children. But instead of feeling pushed aside and less important, he had been reassured by his parents that he was the reason they had been able to have their own biological children. That their love and nurturing of him had unlocked their unexplained infertility.
‘But while we’re on the subject of withholding information—why did you choose to run away on our wedding day instead of talking to me about your concerns? You’ve never adequately explained your actions, and nor have you apologised to me face to face.’
Twin circles of colour bloomed in her cheeks and her gaze slipped out of reach of his. ‘I’m sorry if you were embarrassed. I—I just couldn’t go through with it.’
Lincoln let out a stiff curse. ‘The least you could have done is told me to my face. It would have saved a lot of unnecessary expense.’
‘Oh, so it was the money angle that upset you the most?’ Her voice had a cutting edge, her blue gaze flashing fire. ‘You were the one who wanted a big wedding and insisted on paying for everything.’
‘Only because I didn’t want to put that sort of load on your mother. I knew your father wouldn’t help out.’
Elodie bent down to pick up her purse off the floor near her chair, her long glossy hair momentarily hiding her expression. She straightened and shook her hair back over her shoulders. ‘I have to go.’
He ached to run those silken strands through his fingers, to lift handfuls of her fragrant hair to his nose and breathe in her exotic scent. It had taken him months to get rid of the smell of her perfume in his house, even though he had instructed his housekeeper to remove every trace of Elodie. Every room had seemed to hold a hint of her distinctive scent, lingering there to silently mock him.
Look what happens when you fall in love. You are left with nothing but memories to taunt you.
‘I want your answer by five p.m. tomorrow.’
Her defiant gaze met his and a lightning bolt of lust slammed into his groin. ‘I gave you my answer. It’s an emphatic, don’t-embarrass-yourself-by-asking-me-again no.’
Lincoln leaned his hip against the corner of his desk and folded his arms across his chest. He hadn’t expected her to say yes at the first meeting. It wasn’t in her nature to do anything without a fight and, frankly, he admired that about her. But seeing her again had proved to him she wasn’t immune to him, and that gave him the assurance that she would eventually agree to his terms.
That he wasn’t immune to her was an issue he would have to address at some point. He would not allow her the same sensual power she’d had over him in the past. The sensual power that had made him propose marriage within a couple of months of meeting her. The stunning physicality of their relationship had blindsided him to the reality of her using him, rather than loving him. She had said the words but she had still bolted. That was not love—that was betrayal of the highest order. And he would not allow it to happen again.
‘Don’t let your emotions get in the way. I can help you achieve your dream. It can be a win-win for both of us.’
‘Why are you doing this?’
‘I told you—I need a temporary wife.’
‘But marrying someone you don’t love and who doesn’t love you is hardly honouring your biological mother in the final weeks or months of her life. Won’t she be able to tell it’s not a love match?’
‘Nina Smith knows you jilted me seven years ago. She’s a hopeless romantic who believes I’ll never be happy until we get back together. She disapproves of my playboy lifestyle and wants to see me settled before she passes on.’ His mouth stretched into a cynical smile and he added, ‘You were good at pretending to love me in the past. I’m sure you’ll do an excellent job this time around—especially given the amount of money I’d be paying you.’
Her lips were tightly compressed. ‘If—and it’s a big if—if I accept your offer, I won’t sleep with you.’
Lincoln pushed himself away from his desk and picked up the sheaf of papers, held them out to her. ‘You won’t be required to. It’s written in the contract. You’ll find it on page three.’
She took the papers from him as if he was handing her a dangerous animal. She laid them on the desk and began to read painstakingly through the pages. Then her eyes rounded and she lifted her gaze back to his. ‘A paper marriage?’
Lincoln smiled a victor’s smile. ‘Won’t that be fun?’