Bought For The Billionaire's Revenge. Clare Connelly
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Название: Bought For The Billionaire's Revenge
Автор: Clare Connelly
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon Modern
isbn: 9781474052788
isbn:
He shrugged insolently. ‘In five years we will either have found a way to live together with a degree of harmony, or we will hate one another and have long since divorced. It gives us time to see what’s what. No?’
She nodded jerkily. He was right. She knew he was. But as she signed her name on the bottom of the page she felt as if she was strangling a large part of herself.
‘Next?’ She forced a tight smile to her lips; her tone was cool.
‘A simple confidentiality agreement. Our business is our own. The press has a fascination with you, and I have often thought, despite what you say, that you court their interest.’
‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ she interrupted sharply. ‘I go out of my way to stay off their radar.’
‘Which in and of itself only heightens their attention and speculation.’
‘So I flirt with the press by hiding from them?’ She crossed her legs beneath the table. ‘That’s absurd.’
‘You are “Lady Heiress”. They call you that because of your behaviour—’
‘They call me that,’ she interrupted testily, ‘because I refuse to engage with them. After Libby died they were everywhere. I was only seventeen, and they followed me around for sport.’
She didn’t add how horrible their comparisons to the beautiful Libby had made her feel. How Marnie’s far less stunning looks had drawn the press’s derision. She had refused to court them in order to create the impression that she didn’t care, but each article had eroded a piece of her confidence until only the ‘Lady Heiress’ construct had remained. Being cold and untouchable, a renowned ice queen, was better than being the less beautiful, less popular, less charismatic sister of Lady Elizabeth Kenington.
He shrugged. ‘You will not be of such interest in Greece. Here you are a society princess. There you will be only my wife.’
Why did that prospect make everything inside her sing? Not just the prospect of marrying him, but of escaping it all! The intrusions and invasions. Freedom was a gulf before her.
‘Your parents are included in this agreement. They are to believe our wedding is a real one.’
‘Oh? I would have thought you’d like to throw the terms of our deal in Dad’s face, just to see him suffer,’ she couldn’t help snapping.
‘Perhaps one day.’ His smile tilted her world off-balance. ‘But that is my decision. Not yours.’
She furrowed her brow. ‘This agreement doesn’t apply to you?’
‘No. It is a contract for you. So you understand what is expected of you.’
‘That definitely isn’t fair.’
He laughed. ‘Perhaps not. Do you want to walk away, Marnie?’
The sting of tears was back. She lowered her eyes in an attempt to hide them and shook her head. But when she put her signature to the bottom of the page she added something unexpected.
A single teardrop rolled down her cheek and splashed onto the white paper, unconsciously dotting the ‘i’. It was the perfect addition to the deal—almost like a blood promise.
She closed the contract and pushed it across the table.
It was done, then, and there was nothing left to do but marry the man. Except, of course, to break the news to her parents.
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