The Wedding Charade Read Online Free

told I’m very good.’
    ‘I am sure you are,’ Nic said, watching her move back to her bag.
    She held up two dresses against her chest. ‘Which one do you think? ‘
    Nic had to give himself a mental shake. She was doing it again: sideswiping him with her rapid change of demeanour. One minute the raging virago, the next a little girl playing at dress up. There would be another tantrum soon enough, he thought. ‘The red one,’ he said, striding over to the champagne sitting in the silver icebucket. He poured himself a glass and sipped from it as he watched her dress.
    She did it as if it were a strip show in reverse. She had slipped out of the bathrobe while he had been pouring his drink, but now she was stepping into a pair of black and red lacy French knickers that were gossamer-thin, so thin he could see the waxed clear feminine cleft of her body. His blood pounded all over again, making him uncomfortably stiff. He took another deep draught of champagne but he couldn’t bear to drag his eyes away from her. She picked up a matching push-up bra. Not that she needed any mechanical help in showcasing her breasts. They were beautifully shaped, full and yet pert with rosy-red nipples. She adjusted the creamy globes behind the lace and then shook her head so her hair cascaded down over her back and shoulders.
    Nic was fit to explode and he hadn’t even touched her.
    ‘Aren’t you going to shower and change?’ she said as she moved past him with her make-up bag.
    He caught her arm on the way past, his fingers fizzing with the stun-gun effect of her warm flesh under his. He locked his eyes on her sea-glass green ones. ‘How about that massage you promised?’ he said.
    She gave him a sultry look from beneath her lashes. ‘Later,’ she said. ‘Dinner first. If you’re a good boy I might give you a rub down when we get home.’
    He tightened his hold when she made to pull away. ‘Is this how you get every man to do what you want? To make them beg like starving dogs for your favours? ‘
    She tossed her head again, making her hair swing back over her shoulders. ‘You won’t have to beg, Nic,because there will be no favours,’ she said. ‘This is going to be a paper marriage.’
    Nic laughed out loud. ‘Oh, come on, Jade. How long do you think that’s going to last? You are a born sybarite.’
    She glared at him as she tugged at his hold. ‘I am not going to sleep with you.’
    ‘Then what was the little tease routine for?’ he asked.
    She gave him a haughty look. ‘You can look but you can’t touch,’ she said. ‘That’s the deal.’
    Nic dropped her arm. ‘There is something you need to learn about me, Jade,’ he said. ‘I choose my own sexual partners. I do the chasing. And I do not beg. Ever.’
    She turned away and sat at the dressing table, opening various pots as she applied moisturiser and make-up. ‘We’ll see,’ she said, meeting his eyes in the mirror.
    Nic clenched his teeth and strode into the bathroom.
We’ll see, indeed,
he thought as he turned on the shower full blast.
    When Nic came out, Jade was sipping more champagne. She had her face on—the face he was used to seeing: heavy smoky eye-shadow and eyeliner, scarlet lipstick and a brush stroke of bronzing powder to highlight her model-like cheekbones. She was back in another pair of heels, even higher than the previous ones, and she had dangling earrings on that sparkled now and again behind the dark screen of her loose hair. She had a sulky look about her mouth, however, which warned him there might be another scene on its way.
    He had thought through his options in the shower.
    He would marry her because he didn’t really have a choice, but he would dictate the terms. She thought she had manipulated him into agreeing to it but he wasn’t doing it for her, but for his family.
    ‘Before we go to dinner I want to lay down some ground rules,’ he said as he reached for a fresh shirt.
    She crossed her legs and swung one