The Millionaire's Convenient Bride (2 page)

Louisa sat for a moment after he left, one hand absently on her face. It felt as if her cheek burnt from the heat of his lips
, but the skin was as cool as the air around it.

Sliding her legs over the side of the bed she moved with purposeful care to the bathroom that she knew joined the two guest rooms. They had placed her in her old room. The memory stung
. Even the smell of the wood smoke from the fireplace brought back painful memories of better times. She was shaken from her reminiscing by the image that greeted her in the large mirror over the vanity. A gash as long as her finger ran the length of her hair line with an angry blue bruise spreading around it. Blood coated her hair, her face and pale skin covered in dirt and mud. 

Someone had been in recently to fill the bath
. The steam rising from the water tempted her in, wincing as her aching muscles protested. She was careful not to get shampoo into the gash on her head as she rinsed the blood and dirt from her thick hair. She must have fallen asleep in the steaming water because when she opened her eyes the view out of the small window was dark whereas it had been late afternoon when she had first woken. Louisa shivered in the now lukewarm water.

Pain flared in her side as she tried to ease herself up out of the bath. She tried again using her legs to push her up but was met with the same stabbing pain. Tears welled in her eyes
. She dashed them away with the back of her hand. Her phone was in the other room on the night-stand where someone had left it for her. She was too proud to call out for help, afraid that it might be Dominic who answered her calls. Her stomach churned in panic as she let the overwhelming emotions she had been trying so hard to suppress overcome her. A soft voice called out from the bedroom like a welcome breeze.

“
Louisa?”

She knew that voice and breathed a sigh.

“I’m in here,” Louisa called back trying to hide the slight hitch in her voice.

Dominic’s sister
, Sophie, came into the bathroom. Unlike her brother, Sophie looked as Louisa remembered her, pale skin, short dark hair, and such a neat petite figure just like her mother. Realising the problem straight away, she helped Louisa from the tub and helped her to dress in some of her own clothes, as Louisa’s were too soiled to wear.

“
How are you feeling?” Sophie asked as she served the tea that she had brought up once Louisa was settled.

“
Battered.” Her head was starting to throb, and her ribs stabbed with pain every time that she moved despite the calming effects of the bath.

“
Dominic has called for the doctor, but he is away at the moment with an urgent call back in town. He won’t be here until the snow has cleared I’m afraid.”

Louisa nodded, the action sending blood throbbing through her aching skull. Her condition must have been plain on her face as Sophie called for the butler to bring some more pain killers before helping Louisa to lie back on the pillows. The other woman’s pale skin shone in the firelight
. Louisa didn’t want to think of what she looked like in her too small clothes. Sophie was petite to Louisa’s hour glass, and with no makeup and her hair matted and wet down her back she knew she was nothing to look at right now.

To take her mind off her situation she tried to focus on why she was there in the first place. Her mind was still fogged around the edges
, yet she could remember the core problem that had her travel across the country. Remembering back to the car accident Louisa found her hands shaking. She closed her eyes and clenched them until they stilled again. The heavy floral of Sophie’s perfume hung in the air around them like a warm blanket making Louisa feel warm and safe. She focused on that as she realised she would need to request replacement papers from her office. If the front windscreen had been broken by the deer’s body, as she suspected, the papers on the passenger seat would have been soaked by the falling snow.

“
Louisa, what’s bothering you?” Sophie asked.

She would like to have a copy of the documents she needed to show Sophie, and now Dominic also, in case they didn’t believe her. She would need to get things moving as soon as possible.

“Would it be too much to ask for a laptop or computer?” she asked.

“
Of course not, just a moment.” Sophie smiled and shook her head at Louisa’s apparent eagerness to get back to work and left to retrieve the laptop from her office.

“
Will this suffice?” she asked returning with a small silver laptop.

“
Thank you, this shouldn’t take long.” Smiling at the younger woman Louisa booted up the laptop then typed the email to her assistant. Sophie waited as she typed. Louisa had the feeling she had been told not to leave her alone.

The McKillips were one of the wealthiest families Louisa had ever heard of. Their money came from generations of brilliant businessmen. This generation
had been headed by Dominic’s father until he died. His empire was now in the hands of Dominic, being the only one of his children left that his father hadn’t written out of the business contract. Sophie had studied hard to support her brother, but when their father died she was not yet out of college and Dominic and his brother, Cole, had decided that she was too young to take over. Cole was the eldest brother but had decided to start his own business several years ago, which angered his father and led to him writing him out of the business contract, and his will. Dominic had of course overridden his father’s wishes and given Cole his inheritance, which was what had brought her to the lodge in such spectacular style this evening.

“
Why is Dominic here?” Louisa asked, hating herself for needing to know.

“
You don’t remember?” Sophie asked with concern. “He came down to sign the papers in person to ensure Cole was not left waiting. You remember Cole is trying to buy out another business to merge with his own?”

“
Yes, I remember.” It was the reason she had been willing to try to get here last night. The company had given him a deadline that was much too close for her liking, and he would need his inheritance money to seal the contracts.

Whilst going through the
will, Louisa had found another clause that was meant to prevent all of his children from inheriting and spending the money unwisely. Louisa hadn’t informed them yet, and was eager to finalise it.

“
I need to speak to him, and you, as soon as possible if that’s okay?” Louisa hit send on the email to her assistant, asking for the documents to be faxed to the lodge. She hoped the snow storm hadn’t knocked out the line.

Sophie looked concerned by her request but didn’t hesitate as she rose to fetch her brother.

“It would be best to do this in the office actually, Sophie.”

“
You shouldn’t be walking around, Louisa. You need to rest.”

“
It can’t wait, Sophie, I’m sorry.” Louisa hated to push the younger woman, who was very soft spoken because of having to live with her father for longer than her brothers. He had been a loud and demanding man, the reason both of her brothers had left home in their teens.

Louisa hoped that Sophie understood that she snapped because it was a matter of importance. She helped her from the bed and placed an arm around her waist to help her to the office on the far side of the lodge. She could feel the strain in Sophie’s muscles from her nervousness about the situation.

“It’s okay. It’s just a little more paperwork than I had anticipated,” Louisa said, trying to calm the other woman.

“
Thank you, but I know my father. He was not happy unless he could control everyone’s lives. If it’s something to do with the will, I can’t say I’m surprised that something’s gone wrong.”

Louisa considered trying to settle her fears again but thought better of it
. She knew that Sophie was a strong woman under her delicate exterior. She had to be to have lived with her father for so long. The silence as they walked to the back of the lodge gave Louisa unwanted time to think. The thought of seeing Dominic again made her stomach clench in a way that had nothing to do with her injuries. His image swam in her mind’s eye. The smell of his cologne was everywhere in the house even though he didn’t spend much time there. His scent was so familiar to Louisa that it was ingrained in her mind, a mix of the spice of varnished wood, dust, and expensive cologne. Louisa shivered. The house was warm, yet still a chill crept through her skin, raising goose pimples on her exposed flesh. She tried not to think of how his lips had run along her skin that night, his breath warm as it trailed down her stomach, over her hips as he focused his mouth there. A harsh breath escaped her lips as she struggled to suppress the memory. If Sophie heard it, she didn’t comment. 

****

Dominic reviewed the papers strewn on the mahogany desk. Many were figures for the year that he should have gone over last week, but he had been too busy helping his brother with the merger to even glance at them. Dominic had aged beyond his years since his father had died. The lines in his face had deepened far more than his twenty-nine years should have allowed, and he found more grey hairs by the day.

Snow swirled outside the window, the icy cold causing frost to collect on the glass. The mountains that he knew were beyond their estate, visible even at night as dark looming masses on the horizon, were now blanked out by the white
sheet. His mind was elsewhere, on the touch of Louisa’s skin as he had pulled her from that car. He’d thought she was dead, her lifeless body hanging limp against him as he’d placed her on the ground. A handful of snow had cleared her head of the blood that had run down her cheek from the cut on her forehead. The cold had seemed to revive her, and his whole body had slumped, the tension that built in his chest gone in a rushed breath of relief. She was alive. He’d smiled down at the woman who meant so much to him once upon a time. Yet there was still that memory, the sting that she left him with. He had known that her strong will wouldn’t allow her to give in to a man who would lead her to a life where she stayed at home and he ran the business. Of course she had the option of helping him, but she chose to leave him instead. Now look where he had gotten her. If she had died it would have been his fault for being too damn proud to have not stolen her back years ago.

Back then he was arrogant as well as proud. He could still remember how he stopped her again and again from leaving the lodge to go on trips with Sophie. He had been jealous of his own sister. Then, on a night much like this one, he had woken to nothing more than a note on the pillow next to him, saying she had gone to see the world. He had closed his heart to her and some said to every woman since. He could have given her the world, but she wanted to take it for herself. He damned her independence, and his own stupidity at thinking he could tame her.

It was because of her mother, he knew. Her father was never known, but when her
mother died she became restless. She had gone from home to home, friends and distant relatives taking her in, then shipping her off when she became too much to handle. She hadn’t changed when she grew older. She ran her business just as she ran her life, too busy to get to know anyone enough to care for them.

He had insisted on carrying her to the car after the accident, not bearing to have another man’s hands on her, even if he was an aged servant. He’d cradled her head in the warm car, his arms wrapped protectively around her, urging the driver to go faster. As he placed her on the bed, Sophie had rushed in behind him having heard about the accident. He had run his hand down Louisa’s flushed cheek before leaving Sophie to care for her. He couldn’t be in that room any longer with a woman he knew didn’t care for him as he did for her. He wouldn’t allow himself to be weakened by her again.

A knock at the door brought Dominic back to his surroundings. Sophie came in supporting a battered Louisa at her side. He rose and helped her to lower Louisa into a chair. He scowled at his sister, hoping to transfer his annoyance at her for letting Louisa out of bed when his instructions had been the opposite.

He had hoped it was just concern that his made his heart beat faster when they had come across her car moments after the accident. Now seeing her again he realised that it was more than that. It was a thought that he pushed to the far edge of his mind. He couldn’t let himself go down that path again.

“I assume this is an important matter for you to have come down here?” he asked both women.

“I found a clause when reviewing the inheritance section of your fathers will
.”

Her voice
was strained, as if she were trying to make it steadier and stronger than it should be. 

He looked at Sophie as Louisa spoke. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Louisa after he had caused her injuries. He should have flown to her office, as Sophie suggested, instead of dragging her up here in the snow, but he had wanted to go somewhere where they would have others around them, where he wouldn’t be tempted. With Sophie in the house it felt more like when they were younger again, plus there was little chance of Louisa wanting to stay. She was not fond of the snow. The sun and surf held no appeal to her either. She was a moderate woman, one who liked things perfect, warm weather, cool breezes, overcast so that she wouldn’t get burnt. She was one of a kind, never running with the pack. She knew what she liked or didn’t, and what she didn’t like was him. The thought made him frown, instantly despising himself for already letting her get to him. He couldn’t blame her. Louisa hadn’t expected him to be there. It must have been as much of a shock to her as it had been to him to see her again. She had looked so confused to see him for the brief few moments that afternoon when she had woken, that he knew that Sophie hadn’t mentioned his coming to meet her when she spoke to her on the phone.