The Billionaire's Bargain (15 page)

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to know.
I merely said I’d wait until you were ready to talk. There is a difference.”
Grace took the carrot from her then handed her another one. “I feel we’re a lot
like carrots. Sometimes, with certain people, we need to peel off the bad parts
to get to the good.”

Tess listened to Grace
talk
.

“
Duncan
isn’t a bad man. I know he has his
faults. Who doesn’t? There is something between you two. I don’t think you
should leave him alone, yet.”

“I don’t know what you want me to
do?” Tess handed over the carrot.

“Be yourself, and don’t change who
you are.
Duncan
may not know it yet, but you’re different. How long have you known him?”

“Two weeks.”

“In the last two weeks he’s been
different. Think about that. Now, would you like some pancakes to put you on ‘til
dinner?”

Tess nodded.

Could
Duncan
really care about her? The way Grace
spoke it seemed he did. Was she getting mixed messages?

Tess mentally shook herself. This
had nothing to do with caring and everything to do with the fact that she’d
been a virgin and he didn’t like it. Regardless of what he said, she’d seen the
truth that night.

She recalled how humiliated she felt
last night at his horrible words and actions. She cut off her thoughts trying
to concentrate on what Grace was saying and doing.

Any misguided thoughts about her
husband caring about her welfare needed to be crushed. Otherwise that is
exactly how she’d end up if she was to start caring for her husband, crushed.

Chapter Thirteen

Later that day,
Duncan
was looking out of his study window to
see Tess walking round the grounds with his head man, Gerald. The couple were
laughing and pointing to certain plants or flowers around his garden. She
looked happier than the last time he’d seen her. Gerald bent down and picked up
a flower. He handed it to Tess. She smiled at the older man, ad then they
carried on walking.

He knew Gerald was smitten with
Tess. The older man was easily charmed. If she knew anything about flowers or
gardening she’d be his new best friend. Grace and Gerald had really taken to
her, and it had only been a day.

Last night kept running through his
mind. Even as he was finishing up a few bits of work she kept invading his
mind.

How did she do it? What was it about
her that captured him?

She seemed to be this little angel
whom everyone adored. He couldn’t find a fault with her. Everything about her
was hard to believe. He’d really spent too much time being cynical. The only
reason she’d agreed to be his wife was to protect her father.

To think they’d never have met if it
hadn’t been for her father’s greed.
Duncan
didn’t know whether to send him a gift basket or curse the man. Until she
entered his life everything was neat and organised. Now, he didn’t know what to
do with his own life.

She truly surprised him in
everything she did. Her stunning looks continued to blow him away, and to think
that with all that beauty she had still been a virgin. It was an unbelievable
combination. The more he thought about her innocence the easier it was for him
to accept it. After the shock of last night
Duncan
had found himself liking the fact Tess
had been a virgin. He’d been her first, and if it was left to him he’d be her
only lover. He needed to make a more stable position for himself in her life.
Duncan
needed to make her
love him.
For her to depend on him.

Ever since his parents’ marriage had
fallen apart he’d made sure he was in control of everything.

He glanced over at his beautiful
wife as she walked through the gardens and vowed she’d have all the romance she
needed to make her love him. She’d never be able to walk away from him. Tess
would have a wedding night to remember if it was the last thing he did. All of
his good intentions and he’d screwed up last night.
Duncan
knew what his mistakes had been. He
knew how to make them right. Soon, she’d be carrying his heir and the final
condition of his father’s
will would
be complete.

Duncan
turned away for a split second at
the thought of his father’s will. Was it even worth his time and effort?

Getting revenge had been on his mind
for so long it felt part of him. He stared at Tess as she leaned down to run
her fingers through the flowers.

Grace came through into his study.
Duncan
turned and gave
her a smile. “She came out of her room.”

The older woman sent him a glare.

“What?”

“You know what.” She put down his
coffee with a plate of biscuits. Grace stood giving him her full attention.
“That girl has been through enough. I can see it in her eyes. Whatever you’re
planning, make sure to keep her out of it.”

“Nothing is going to happen.”

“I know you, Duncan James. You’re up
to something. Please, don’t let that girl get hurt any more than she has.”
Grace stood pleading with him.

“I’d never hurt Tess. She’s safe
with me.”

Grace stared at him a few moments
longer before leaving him alone in his office. He glanced out of the window,
but Gerald and Tess were nowhere to be seen.

Tess didn’t need to know his plans.
She just needed to be part of the solution.
Duncan
stepped away from the window then went
back to his desk.
 

Duncan
picked up the phone and dialled his
secretary. He made the necessary arrangements to take his wife on a vacation.
He prepared everything with his secretary, so all he’d need to take with him
was his laptop and phone. Being in charge of so many companies meant vacations
couldn’t be without technology. As long as he had a way of communicating if
something went wrong then he’d be fine.

He couldn’t run his business and
plan the romance of the century without being present.
Duncan
hung up when he’d settled the final
detail of his arrangements. In no time at all Tess would be all his, and she
didn’t need to know how he used her.
 

Duncan
opened the file he’d obtained of
his father’s Italian villa. It looked exactly how he remembered from his
childhood. His heart ached when he thought of everything he’d lost. He hadn’t
been able to say goodbye to his father.

You don’t need that. You need to put your mother in her rightful place.
Miranda is the woman who ruined everything.

He shook off his concerns slamming
the file closed. Vengeance would be his in a matter of weeks. He smiled to
himself, pleased that there was no way that this could fail. He shut his
computer down, switched off the power, and went looking for the woman he was
about to dedicate all of his time to making fall in love with him.
   

****

Tess sat at the kitchen counter
enjoying a delicious bowl of tomato soup. She’d spent most of the afternoon
listening to Gerald discuss his garden. The older man had a passion for flowers
and the earth. She loved hearing him talk. He held so much knowledge. Tess
listened to Gerald and Grace
banter
about their youth.
Grace handed her some bread to dip in her soup. The tomato and garlic flavour
worked really well. She watched the couple smile at each other sharing small
touches. The love between them was clearly seen just by looking at them. Tess
smiled when they told something funny about their life. They were wonderful
people. There must be a side to
Duncan
she’d never seen because this couple had been with him for some time.

“He went and knocked the man out
because he’d said hello to me,” Grace said.

“Why did you hit him?” Tess asked.

“No one says a word to my woman.”
Gerald kissed Grace on the head.
 

They were still so much in love.
Time hadn’t changed their feelings for one another.
 

It made Tess’s heart ache. She’d
never have that with
Duncan
.
He wouldn’t allow her to get that close. What she witnessed with the older
couple was the same thing she wanted to feel with her own man one day.
A love more powerful than anything else.
She’d only read it
in books, but now she was witnessing it for the first time.

Her time with
Duncan
would be short. He wasn’t the type of
man to settle for one woman for any length of time. She had no plans to marry
again. The only way she’d marry would be for love, nothing else.

At that moment
Duncan
walked in as if her thoughts alone had
made him appear.

She saw him stop while processing
the scene in front of him as if it was a spreadsheet filled with numbers.

Everything was a plan to him.
Something to take charge of and control.
Didn’t he ever want
to see beyond control?
 

People were not numbers. Not
everything in his life could be organised to fit into a neat little box.

Tess ignored him and dunked more
crusty bread into her soup. She closed her eyes enjoying the best tomato soup
she’d ever tasted. Tess was taken aback when
Duncan
took the seat next to her at the
counter. There were at least four other seats available to him. He was close to
her. She smelt the scent of his cologne.

She breathed deeply, loving the way
the smell seemed to consume her. His closeness made her nipples harden and her
pussy grow wet. Even after everything that had happened between them she was
still turned on by him.
 

His arm brushed hers as she picked
up some more bread to dip into the soup. Her hands shook, but she ignored him.
Or ignored him as best as she could with his body in such close
proximity.

She noticed him making a circle with
his finger against the counter, his large fingers gentle on the surface.
Watching his hand reminded her of the way he’d touched her clit the night
before, with the gentleness that had threatened to send her over the edge. What
would it have felt like if they’d gotten the chance to go further?

The pain of his penetration had
wiped all pleasure from the equation. Surely pain wouldn’t happen during every
sexual interlude, otherwise women wouldn’t love sex. She knew they did. Some of
the women who worked at the library talked about it constantly. Her nipples
grew harder as her thoughts went deeper. In her mind she saw him sucking on her
body, his tongue lathering down the valley between her breasts, over her tummy
to her clit.

She bit her lip squeezing her thighs
together as cream leaked out of her cunt.
 

“Is the soup good?” Tess turned
abruptly as his words filled her mind. She pulled out of her fantasy feeling
the blush spread up her neck and into her cheeks.
 

“Y-yes, it tastes really good.” She
cleared her throat trying to rid all of her thoughts of his tongue and body
from her mind. “It’s the best I’ve ever tasted,” she said. It was then she
noticed that Gerald and Grace had left them alone together at the kitchen
counter, sipping soup.

Duncan
tore off a piece of bread and
dipped it into her bowl. He took a bite then moaned. “You’re right. It tastes
good.”

“Where have Gerald and Grace gone?”
she asked.

“They’ve gone to take a walk in the
garden. They think we need to spend more time together. You don’t have to be
afraid of me, Tess. I want you as much as you want me.”

“What are you talking about?” She
hunched over her bowl hoping not to look at him.

“Your flushed
cheeks.
Your
nipples are rock hard like bullets. I bet your pussy is soaking wet with your
cream.”

How did he always know what she was
thinking? They’d barely known each other, and he read her like an open book.

“How do you know what I’m thinking?”

“Because I feel
it, too.”
She
dropped her spoon then turned to stare at him.

He took her hand to press against
his crotch. “No matter what happened between us. You still affect me.”

She felt his cock pressing hard and
thick against his pants. “But you hated me because of my, well,
erm
—”

“Your virginity?”

Tess nodded unable to say the word.
She removed her hand from him, but the heat of him still burned her palm.