The Texas Millionaire's Runaway Wife (3 page)

“We’re married.”

This time, instead of sweat breaking on her upper lip, her lips went numb. That word. That word again. She’d run away from it the first time, and now he wanted to use it against her. “Not really. I left you.”

“Yet you haven’t filed for divorce.” He tsked as he turned and sat behind his desk once again. “I like the view, by the way.”

“You didn’t file for divorce either, and you certainly have the means.” His last statement slowly sank in. She arched her brow, then realized how she’d been sitting. Leaning forward like that gave Stephen a perfect view of her breasts in the low-cut white blouse. So much for using the cleavage to her advantage. She sat up straight and pulled her blouse up higher before answering. Crossing arms she gave in and rubbed away the cold. “You didn’t want me as your wife.”

“I took you on what you thought was an impromptu trip to Vegas yet brought my grandmother’s ring, how can you think I didn’t want you?”

“Maybe because you wanted to hide me from your family, your friends, your society. Remember?” She felt bitter, the words stung. Shaking her head, she pushed forward. No reason to dwell on something that couldn’t be changed or fixed. He might have wanted to marry her, but he also sought to hide her. What kind of marriage is that? “I wanted to return the ring.”

“Yet you didn’t.”

“No.”

He waited.

She waited. Calmed the emotions swirling just below the surface.

It played out like a short game of cat and mouse. Cassie was the bug the mouse had eaten for dinner earlier that evening. She had no fight left. No high ground and nothing to stand on. “You can have the ring,” she said, finally. “I’ll find some other way. I don’t know how—I mean, I do: I’ll sell my business and hope the sale comes quickly, but I’ll do it.” She moved to stand, but he motioned for her to sit.

It intrigued him. That she’d gone to such great lengths to get his attention, the bit about her niece, the business. Even the ring. There had to be something more. Every woman he’d ever been with had wanted him for his money. He shouldn’t have imagined she’d be different.

Tapping his pen against the edge of his desk, he knew what he should do. Take the ring, file for an immediate divorce, block all his finances, and write Cassie Eden back out of his life. Yet, he found the idea very hollow. It didn’t seem like enough. Divorce. He’d offered her the world and she ran away from him. Almost like a drug addict who goes to the hospital claiming they don’t want drugs, only to get more. Was that her game? Was she just trying to get more from him? Sure, he’d needed to keep things private at first, but she wouldn’t even hear him out.

He’d loved her. Something he’d genuinely never felt before. That was the only reason he’d wanted to protect her from his family, from the circus of his life. He didn’t think she’d be happy once she knew. Certainly not once she was dragged into it.

It didn’t seem fair she should wander back into his life and back out again just as inconsequently as the first time. She had to know how it felt, had to experience what she’d put him through. He pulled a checkbook out of his drawer. A moment passed as he wrote out a check, then ripped it from the book and handed it over.

Cassie glanced down and gasped. “It’s blank.”

“I know.”

“Why is it blank?”

A smile that could have been mistaken by someone else as magnanimous crossed his lips. To Cassie, he hoped it reminded her that he was not a man to cross. And she’d crossed him. Twice.

“You will use that to get Annie into the school. If you need more, you will receive that as well. I’ll make a call this afternoon to insure she receives priority admission.”

“But...”

“It’s going to cost you.”

There it was again. Five words and pure painful havoc played across her middle. She stood, she couldn’t very well sit in this chair and wait to see what type of torture he planned to exact.

“Sit, Cassie.”

“No.”

“Fine.” He stood as well and glanced out the window again before turning his storm-filled eyes on her.

A chunk of black hair fell across his forehead and Cassie fought against memories of running her hands through it. She felt too emotionally drained to keep playing his game. “Please, Stephen. Stop taunting me and just tell me what you have in mind.”

“I already did. We’re married.”

“Yes, and?”

He leaned against the window sill and brushed the hair away. “You are going to be my wife.”

This was getting tiresome. “Stephen,” she sighed in exasperation.

Any hint of a smile fell from his lips at her exclamation. His eyes locked with hers. “You said it yourself. We’re still married. I’m stuck. If I divorce you now, someone in the media will dig the dirt faster than I sign the papers. I would be a laughing stock, my family would be brought into the spotlight in a negative way and we have too many important investments going right now to risk any negative press. And no, my father most likely wouldn’t take away my business or money, thanks for trying to use that, though.”

Guilt made her look away.

“No, instead, I’d be putting my career, and the names of my brothers out there in a negative light. That is not something I’m willing to do.

“But with you here now,” he continued, “we can fix this. You’ll get Annie the help she needs, but you’ll have to be my wife.”

She looked back at him. Felt tiny. Felt powerless. “For how long?”

A flash of something dangerous crossed through his eyes. He sat back down at his desk and leaned forwarded, elbows on the surface. “Am I so horrible to be around that you can’t imagine yourself married to me?”

She took a step toward him. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

He shook his head. “It is. For as long as it takes, how does that sound? You be my wife. Around my family, at my home, in society. Let people see us together, let them see that we are good and truly married. Then, you will step away. A few months will pass and after a period of separation we will divorce with irreconcilable differences.”

A few months, possibly a lot longer. After they’ve convinced the world they’re married. He wanted to stretch this out, he could make it last a few years, she realized. The pain of being in the same room was acute and nearly unbearable and she’d be forced to play house with him indefinitely? “I can’t do that,” she whispered, backing away.

His eyes darkened. “You can and you will.”

“How?”

“It doesn’t matter. If you want to help your niece, you will be my wife until I don’t need you to be any longer.”

Scandal. That’s what this whole thing about. Never about her.

Cassie knew if she didn’t help him, she would lose her business, and possibly still lose Annie. All she had to do was wait this out and she wouldn’t lose either.

In the end, the decision was made for her. “When do we start?”

****

The intercom on his desk sounded, taking Stephen out of his thoughts for a second. Had so much time passed already? “Mr. Sands, Mr. Giles is on the phone. He said he needs to move his three-thirty appointment back a few minutes but he’s on his way.”

“Thank you, Gayle. Tell him that will be fine.”

In the weeks since Cassie left he’d wondered what it would be like to get revenge against the woman who’d broken his heart. Oh, this was so much better. He’d get his revenge, get his divorce and never have to think about Cassie Eden again in his life. No. Sands. “We start now,” he answered her finally.

“First,” he said, “you will use my name. No more Eden. Any checks you have, credit cards you use, they’re all gone as of this moment, Cassie. You are now truly and fully Cassie Sands.”

Her skin blanched as she bit her lip, nervousness visible in her every twitch.

“You will move your belongings into my house this afternoon.”

“I have plans.”

“Not any more. Now you’re an excited newlywed eager to start life with her husband.” God this felt great. The power, the control. He’d been head of the largest acquisitions firm in Texas for years now yet had never felt a surge of raw strength as electric as what he felt now. “You will move your belongings in. I have a dinner engagement at the Travis Building tomorrow night and you will accompany me, as my wife.”

She ceased biting her lip. “Shall I wear chains or will the ring suffice?”

“The ring will be fine.”

“Stephen. This can’t work. How do you plan to pull this off? We’ve been married for a month now, you don’t think anyone noticed? It isn’t as if we can pretend I’ve been away on business or anything. Someone will figure this out and expose us.”

She looked so hopeful. And so beautiful. Her auburn hair framing her face in wispy curls. Small lines creased around her emerald eyes. That white blouse and skirt made things really uncomfortable for him when she’d walked into his office, but definitely reminded him of the chemistry they shared.

The light on his phone blinked as a message went to voice mail. “None of that is your concern,” he answered, finally.

She stood.

“One more thing,” he said. “If you are going to be my wife, you will be my wife in every sense of the word.”

Her fingers quivered near the clasp of her purse. “What do you mean?” she asked, her eyes darkening.

He walked toward her. “Every sense, Cassie.”

She backed away, suspicion ripe in her every step.

“We will touch.”

Her eyebrow quirked. “Not likely.”

He nodded. “Yes. You will make this believable. You will not act like a stranger around me.”

The uncertainty in her eyes faded slightly. “That’s reasonable.” Her voice deepened into a throaty whisper.

He took a step toward her. “We will hold hands.”

“Yes.”

His lips wet in thought of what was to come next. “You will kiss me, Cassie.”

The suspicion returned and her back pressed against the door. “I can’t. I—”

Leaning in, Stephen captured her against his lips. His hand splayed across the back of her neck and the other balanced against the door. She stood stiff against him at first. Then her body relaxed and her hand snaked forward, touching his chest. Lips parted as she allowed him to explore her mouth. Their tongues danced as if no time had passed. His fingers curled into the base of her hair, his other hand captured the curve of her bottom.

He whispered against her lips. “We will kiss a lot, Cassie.”

He’d expected her to fight, to tell him no. But instead, the kissing intensified. As if the last month hadn’t passed. Memories of their earlier kisses flooded, melting into this one as if a continuation of a timeline not the start of a new era. The way her lips melded against his. The way her fingers pressed and played with the buttons of his shirt, stroking up and down his tie. The soft, sexy mewing sounds she made as their tongues twisted together.

Fully aroused, he pressed against her, savoring the feel of her softness, wishing away the barriers of their clothes.

“One more thing.” He pulled away.

Her fingers reached up to touch her swollen lips Her eyelids fluttered open and a look of confusion crossed through those liquid green orbs as she waited for him to continue.

“We will make love.”

They darkened. She slapped him faster than he could reach her hand. “Bastard,” she hissed.

He cocked a smile as he leaned over her on the door. Her tiny frame fit nicely beneath his. Always had. “And you will ask me for it.”

Lips pursed, she turned to open the door, but he held it shut. “Stephen Sands, I will not have sex with you. I will not be your whore, or whatever sick, twisted thing you have in mind. God, what makes you th—”

He leaned in and his lips fastened against hers again. This time she did push at him. For a moment. But the pushing gave way to her hands raking against his back. He pulled away, satisfied with the look of pure arousal on her face. “You will ask me for it.”

Frustration replaced the arousal as she turned her face away. Good.

He’d had enough frustration and anger. Cassie owed him. She’d vowed to be his wife, then ran away.

He wouldn’t push, though. She would give him what he wanted and more. Their chemistry would insure that. Taking a step back, he finally let her reach for the door. “Cassie. Go to your apartment. Do as I told you. We will talk about the rest of this later.”

She leaned forward, her lip barely caressing his ear as she spoke, “Stephen, you can play with me. You can try to twist things around and make me do as you wish. I will be your wife in public.” Her voice gained power as she moved back. “But understand this, because I will say it only one time. I will never be yours. You may do to me whatever you wish, but you will never make me yours. I am not something you can acquire. And when I leave this time, you will never see me again.”

“You will do everything I tell you.” He opened the door for her, leaned down and whispered close to her ear, insuring she alone would hear what he had to say. “And you will be mine.”

****

Cassie beat her steering wheel and let out a frustrated scream as she sat in her car. That bastard! That angry, entitled, arrogant, jerk of a man. How dare he think he can take from her? And telling her they’d make love. Though to be honest, making love had never been their problem. Honesty, integrity, actual emotional discourse—that’s what broke them into a million pieces. To imagine making love with him after everything he put her through made her stomach knot into a molten hot ball. “Argh!” she screamed again as she slammed the key into her ignition.

He might have her for now. He might be able to use Annie, but he would never truly have her.

Her cell phone rang. “Hello!” she barked.

“Will you be there?”

Liz.

She never told her sister about how things ended with Stephen, or that he wasn’t who he’d said he was. Only that things ended.

Liz didn’t know she was married. A sharp pain quickly replaced the anger and frustration. “I will, but I can’t stay. Liz, I have the money.”

Her sister let out a ragged sigh of relief. “Oh, Cassie Cakes, I knew you could do it. I told you if you marched up there and told him you’d be good for the job he’d take you. I’m so proud. So relieved. No one can deny your talent. Especially after you made that amazing cake for his wedding, and did such a bang up job I might add.”