The Billionaire's Bargain (14 page)

Her heart ached for what had
happened. She refused to believe she could love a man who hated her innocence.
Her pillow was little comfort. As she lay on the bed, she knew there was no one
else to hold her. For the first time in her life she craved the touch of
someone else. Where was her white knight?

No answers came to her. She cried
throughout the night wondering what was wrong with her. What had she done
wrong, and why was her inexperience such a problem?

When sleep refused to come she got
up and went to the window. The moonlit sky greeted her. She held onto her
pillow hoping for peace to claim her. The stars began to disappear as she
thought about her night with
Duncan
.
In all her life she’d never behaved with such wild abandon.

It was the first time she finally
let go, and she felt as if she’d been cast aside. Tess watched the sun come up
basking in the light morning glow. She heard people moving around the house,
but she didn’t want to see or speak to anyone; so she stayed sitting in her
robe looking over the grounds.

Vibrant flowers in a variety of
colours covered the gardens. It was a summer wonderland, the smells so
wonderful and romantic. She saw a patio in the middle of so much beauty. She
thought it would be the perfect location for a wonderful romantic meal for
two.
  

Romance
, she
thought.

Something she wouldn’t be
experiencing for some time.

She laid her hand against the window
pain. The hours passed by. Tess refused to move from the spot. Her pillow was
her only lifeline.

Chapter Twelve

When
Duncan
had woken the following morning, he’d
walked past his bedroom and gone straight to his office. He’d struggled to
sleep after the nightmare the night before. Tess didn’t make an appearance, and
he left her. At around lunchtime his housekeeper, Grace, walked in. She slammed
his coffee tray down on the desk.

“What’s the matter?” he asked not
taking his eyes away from the screen.

“What’s the matter? You’ve been
married less than twenty-four hours, and you’ve managed to ruin that poor girl
upstairs.” Grace had her hands on her hips.

“Tess is fine. Feed her something.”
He shook his hand at her dismissing her.

“She’s not come out of your room.
The gardener has come to the kitchen to tell me a black haired woman is sitting
in a robe at the bedroom window. She’s holding a pillow.”

Duncan
stared at Grace. “She hasn’t come
out of the room at all?”

“No. She doesn’t even respond to the
knocks on the door.”

He ran fingers through his hair.

“I’ll go and talk to her.”

“You’d better. She’s not like your
usual women. You treat this one with care. I don’t care how much it takes. I’ve
got a sixth sense for this kind of thing. Treat her well, and you’ll reap the
benefits. Do you understand?”

Grace had been one of the few women
who refused to be pushed around by him. He adored her loving nature and the way
she wasn’t afraid to say what she thought.
Duncan
found her briskness refreshing after
spending quite a bit of time with men who liked to kiss his ass.
Duncan
nodded his head
then made his way up to the bedroom. He saw it was lunchtime already.
 

He opened the door to his bedroom.
Tess sat at the window, the pillow clutched in her fingers. She looked smaller
than the night before. One of her legs peeked out of the end of the robe. For
several minutes he looked at her leg remembering the feel of her underneath
him. Then her scream permeated his mind cutting off his thoughts. He closed the
door noisily making her aware of his presence.

He saw her stiffen, but she remained
sat looking out the window.

“You’ve not been down for
breakfast,” he said, folding his arms. She kept her gaze out the window.
 

“I’m not hungry,” she said, pulling
her robe more tightly around her.

Duncan
was entering new territory, and he
didn’t like it. She didn’t acknowledge his presence at all.
 

“Starving yourself is childish and
ridiculous.” He didn’t know what else to say.

“I’m not hungry. If I were, then I’d
eat, but I’m not hungry.” Her attention remained out of the window.
 

He rubbed his eyes. He didn’t know
what to do. Last night had been one of the worst night’s
sleep
he’d ever experienced. Her cry of pain still echoed around his head. His
beautiful wife, a virgin—he still found it hard to believe.

They’d been close last night. The
chemistry had burned brighter between them. Yet, all that passion was dead at
the moment. He felt lost with the way she blanked him.

“We need to talk about last night,”
he said as he moved closer to where she sat at the window. The closer he got
the tenser she became. Her fingers were white-knuckled on the pillow she held
in her hands.

“No, we don’t need to talk about it.
I was a virgin last night. Then you pushed inside me, and now I’m not. You
didn’t like it, so you left.
Fine.
There is nothing
else to discuss.” She kept her head turned away from him. He couldn’t see what
she was thinking about or how his reactions last night had affected her. Her
voice held all the hurt.

She thought he didn’t like it. It
was far from the truth. He’d liked her innocence too damn much.

“I reacted too harshly,” he said. Tess
snorted interrupting him.
 

“Don’t worry about it. They say when
you lose your virginity it should be a memorable night. I can promise you last
night will be hard to forget.”

He physically winced at her words.
All his lovers had praised him on his skills in the bedroom.
Duncan
had spent years learning the art of
love. He liked being a generous, considerate lover. For the first time ever the
woman who happened to be his wife had commented on his lack of skill.

Duncan
knew he’d need to make it up to her.
She deserved to have a night to remember. First, he needed to build their
relationship. There was no way he was letting her go. He’d taken one of the
most precious things a woman had to offer. For the rest of his and her life
he’d make it up to her.

Last night would be forever seared
in his mind. His lack of finesse wasn’t surprising as he’d never taken a virgin
to his bed.

He needed to make it up to her for
now. Everything else would fall into place. At the moment he needed to repair
the damage of his words. He knelt at her feet waiting for her to turn and
acknowledge his closeness. She kept her body averted from him. Even when she’d
gone to beg for his help with her father she’d been more open than now. In the
end he cupped her cheek and turned her face to look at him.

Tears fell from her eyes cutting him
to the core.

“I’m sorry I hurt you last night. I
never expected to be given such a gift. I should never have reacted like that.
I feel the world I live in has made me cynical about the opposite sex.”

“That’s not fair,
Duncan
. I have nothing to do with your life.
I’m not some woman who wants this lifestyle. I only agreed to this to save my
father.” He watched as she tried to pull away from him. Her tears falling
thicker and faster as his words hurt her.

“I know you’re not like anyone else.
We’ll get through this. Please, forgive me.” He’d never begged a woman for
anything in his life. Not even
his own
mother. She
stared at him then nodded her head. He watched as she took a deep breath
closing her eyes for a second.

“All right, I’m fine.”

“So can we start over?” he asked.

****

Tess nodded her head. What else
could she do? He was giving her a peace offering. If she didn’t agree, she
risked living a life filled with unhappiness, or she walked away causing
problems for her father. This marriage had been her decision. She wasn’t
prepared to live her marriage hating every second of it.

She’d been right to keep her
virginity. Next time she wouldn’t let passion get in the way. No man was going
near her again.

“I can start over.”

“Great.” He went to touch her knee,
and she pulled away. The less he touched her, the better she’d be. She lifted
her leg under the robe. He remained by her side kneeling. “Will you join us
downstairs?” he asked. “Grace is having a fit at your lack of presence.”

“Who’s Grace?”

“The housekeeper.
I guess last night was rushed, and
she missed the introductions.”

“I guess.”

“Well, Grace is my housekeeper, and
Gerald is the older guy who handles everything else.”

Tess nodded her head. “I’ll get
dressed and follow you down.”

He cupped her cheek. “I really am
sorry.”

She waited unsure what to say to
ease his mind.

Once
Duncan
had left Tess allowed herself to have
a long, leisurely shower. She needed to scrub the pain from the night before
away. Her heart ached in ways she’d never expected.

The hot water cascaded over her. It
was wonderful. The water sprayed over the top of her giving her time to ease
her mental pain. While she listened to the water fall she washed her body.

Once the tension eased out of her
and she began to relax Tess got out of the shower washing down the walls before
she left the bathroom. She went in search of some clothes. Grace had told her
Duncan
had purchased
plenty of clothes for her to use when Grace had shown her to her room. She went
to the wardrobe to find her stuff. His clothes hung at one end of the closet
while hers hung on the opposite side. Tess dressed in casual jeans and a plain
T-shirt.

They fit snugly. She didn’t want to
think of him knowing her size.

It was around one when she finally
made it downstairs to the kitchen to see Grace standing with a bowl at the
kitchen counter. She was peeling some vegetables.

Tess watched her for several moments
before making her presence known. She’d not seen another woman working a
kitchen.

“You’re finally awake,” Grace said
before Tess made a move.

“How did you know I was standing
there?” she asked moving into the kitchen.

“I know a lot of things, Tess. Come
in, sit.”

Tess suppressed her wince. Grace
obviously thought her lack of presence at breakfast had something to do with
her being a recently married couple. She didn’t have the heart to tell the
other woman she’d in fact been up all night dealing with the bitter rejection
of her husband after he had found out he’d married a virgin and not an
experienced woman.
 

“Sorry I missed breakfast—” Grace
cut her off with a wave of her hand. The older woman gestured to the seat in
front of her.

“Nonsense, love.
I didn’t expect you down
immediately this morning anyway.
Duncan
said that you’d probably skip breakfast and have a late lunch instead.” The
rest of Grace’s words were drowned out by the pounding in Tess’s head. There
were so many lies in place Tess didn’t know how she’d be able to keep on top of
all of them. Why had
Duncan
come for her if he’d already told his housekeeper that she wouldn’t be down?
None of it made any sense.

So why did he come to seek me out?

“You and Duncan are not fooling
anyone,” Grace said.

Tess looked up. The older woman
picked up a carrot and offered it to her along with a peeler. She took them.
“What do you mean?”

“Don’t look so scared.” Graced
turned her back to grab another peeler. “I’ve known
Duncan
all my life. He’s never been good at
keeping secrets. Gerald and I know this isn’t a love match.”

She tucked a strand of her hair
behind her ear. “How do you know?”

“When a woman is married and on her
wedding night spends most of the night and early part of the day crying into
her pillow, it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. I’m happy to play along
though.”

Tess swiped the peeler down the
carrot. She didn’t say a word.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything,
sweetie. Just by looking at you I feel you’ve not had a decent break.” Tess
kept her eyes down. If she gave in to more tears she’d break. “I’m not going to
pry. Even if I want to know what’s going on inside that mind of yours.”

“You’re the first person to not want
to know.”