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      Until now.

      Trying not to think about that, Regina headed for the door, calling goodbye. Dell slipped around her and held the door. He followed her outside into the fading sunshine, then handed her into a limo that seemed to appear by magic. But then, Dell had always been a man in control of every situation. Unlike herself.

      “Thank you for taking me to dinner,” she managed to say. “I have to say, though, that it was unlike you to just show up.” Dell was a man who always lived on a schedule.

      He nodded. “Yes, but then we’re in somewhat uncharted territory right now, aren’t we?”

      “What do you mean?”

      “I’ve never been a real husband,” he said in that deep, low voice that made her think about what real husbands did. All the things real husbands did. Like sleeping naked with their wives.

      Okay, she was definitely going to have to stop those kinds of thoughts. “Well, I’ve never been a real wife.”

      “That’s why we’re going to talk. We left things rather open-ended last night. We need a plan.”

      Dell’s deep voice rolled over her and Regina’s palms began to tingle. She had never been good at plans. That was part of the reason she had done stupid things and Dell had been forced into marriage with her. Dell was very good at plans. He was the one who had proposed that they marry.

      Unable to stop herself, Regina folded both palms across her heart, trying to calm herself down.

      “Regina?” he asked, his voice filled with concern.

      “We’ll make a plan,” she agreed.

      “Good,” he said with a smile that did awful, wonderful things to her insides. “I’m going to do my best to be the perfect husband.”

      Oh, no, don’t do that, she wanted to say. This is a marriage of convenience. I don’t even want to risk feeling more, a move that could be disastrous. But…

      “I’ll try to be a model wife, too,” she said weakly. If only she could figure out how to do that while keeping this marriage risk-free. “Dell?”

      “Yes?”

      “What exactly is a model wife in the O’Ryan world?”

      A look of dark amusement filled his eyes and he took her hand, running his thumb over the gold and diamond band that circled her ring finger. “Let’s go to dinner,” he said.

      But he hadn’t answered her question, had he? Maybe her answer wasn’t important. He probably knew she wasn’t capable of being a true O’Ryan. He had wed her out of pity and duty and honor and now he was stuck with her, a poor substitute for Elise Allenby who really would have been a model O’Ryan wife.

      A slim and unfamiliar thread of pain ran through Regina followed immediately by a very familiar sense of indignation. She had spent her life trying to please and falling short, and had promised herself never to go that route again. Yet she hadn’t said no to this marriage or this plan.

      Well, Dell was the one who had opted to extend their wedding. He knew what he had for a wife.

      Or did he?

      Maybe I can be the perfect O’Ryan bride, Regina thought. But she didn’t pursue that thought any further. Some things couldn’t bear up under too much scrutiny, could they?

      Sometimes a woman just had to fly on faith and hope for a miracle.

      CHAPTER THREE

      DELL watched Regina pick at her food. Had he been bullying her? Probably. He’d spent a lifetime learning to be an O’Ryan and sometimes it was difficult to remember that he didn’t have to be that way with his wife.

      His wife. How had that happened?

      “Regina, before we begin, I want to say that I’m sorry for everything that’s happened.”

      She stopped toying with her food and looked up, those deep caramel eyes studying him carefully. Regina had the most amazing eyes, clear and utterly transparent. He had startled her and now she was nervous. “I shouldn’t have thrown you together with Lee,” he clarified, then realized that it was the first time his cousin’s name had been mentioned in a long time.

      She shook her head. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”

      “And if I insist it was?”

      “You don’t get to say.” Regina speared a piece of asparagus. “What happened with Lee is on my head.”

      But she was wrong. That day when Regina had shown up with his mail had happened at a time when he was worrying about Lee, because Lee, orphaned young and raised with Dell, had been like a brother, a wild and socially awkward brother who had not been a hit with women. Regina’s unexpected appearance and cheerful disposition had seemed like a gift, a woman who could give Lee the confidence he needed to take his place in the O’Ryan empire. So Dell had sacrificed her to his cousin, and everything that had happened afterward was on his conscience.

      He opened his mouth to tell her so.

      Instantly she leaned closer. “Don’t do that O’Ryan thing,” she told him.

      Dell blinked. “Excuse me?”

      Regina placed her palms on the burgundy tablecloth. “Dell, I know how much responsibility you have. The O’Ryan Gemstone Gallery is only one arm of O’Ryan Enterprises and it must take an amazing amount of work to manage something like that. You don’t have to take responsibility for my problems, too. What happened to me this year wasn’t your doing.”

      He drew his brows together, preparing to object.

      “I need to get past it myself,” she continued, not allowing him to cut in.

      “All right, we’ll drop that subject.” Dell blew out a breath and sat back in his chair. Not that he was agreeing with her, but if she needed to claim responsibility, he would allow her to do that. This time.

      Silence set in. Regina looked around her, surveying the elegant surroundings, the tapestries on the walls, the string quartet playing softly, the tuxedoed waiters. She fidgeted with her spoon and squirmed on her chair. “This is nice,” she said.

      Dell noted that she still hadn’t eaten much. He smiled. “Not your style?”

      “It doesn’t have to be my style. It’s your style. I don’t really have a style, so at least one of us should have one,” she said.

      Dell couldn’t help chuckling at that.

      Regina smiled. He realized then that he hadn’t seen a genuine smile on her face since their whole fiasco of a marriage had begun. And it had been her sunny disposition that had first told him she would be right for Lee.

      Dell brushed that thought aside, but his gaze drifted to her lips nonetheless. She had pretty lips, plump but not overly so. The kind of lips a man would like to feel beneath his own. He could see why Lee had let things СКАЧАТЬ