Men of Power
Before, he had managed to achieve what he had because he had never allowed emotions to overrule his head.
Until he had met and married Kenzie…
A chink in his armour.
But a chink, once he’d had her safely installed in his life as his wife, that he had kept under perfect control.
Until she’d begun to question why he never told her he loved her.
Until she’d begun to talk about them having a baby together.
Kenzie had insisted that the child the two of them had together wouldn’t experience the emotionally battered upbringing he’d had. But Dominick had remained adamant against that argument, a development that had obviously caused Kenzie deep unhappiness.
As far as Dominick had been concerned though, there had been no reason for them to have children. They had been happy as they were, so why rock the boat?
Kenzie hadn’t seen it that way, and things had become incredibly strained between them, with their lovemaking no longer the pleasure it had once been, and a barrier seeming to come down between them.
When Carlton Cosmetics, in the guise of Jerome Carlton himself, had begun to spend a lot of time with her in an effort to persuade her into accepting a lucrative contract to be the face of their new product, that estrangement had deepened.
Quite to what extent Dominick hadn’t been made aware of until he’d spoken to Jerome Carlton some weeks later.
And by then it had been too late. Kenzie had made her choice, and it hadn’t been him or their marriage.
She had accepted the contract Jerome Carlton had offered on behalf of Carlton Cosmetics—and Carlton’s more personal offer that she move into his life!
Kenzie breathed a sigh, and stood up, the movement bringing Dominick’s attention away from his thoughts. ‘The bathroom is through there.’ She pointed to an adjoining door. ‘Take as long as you like. Don’t come down again at all, if you would rather not. I’m sure my family will accept that you’re tired after working all day and then having to drive here.’
‘I’m thirty-eight, Kenzie, not eighty-eight!’ he rasped impatiently. ‘And I seem to remember being perfectly capable of going in to work the next morning as usual after some of our more—strenuous sexual marathons,’ he added tauntingly.
Kenzie paused in the doorway, her expression pained. ‘And there you have the difference between us in stark reality, Dominick,’ she told him sadly. She knew that difference was everything, and that it always had been, only she had been too much in love with Dominick, too blind to see it, at the time. ‘You see, I thought the two of us were making love,’ she explained at his scowl, ‘not having a “sexual marathon”!’
His mouth twisted scathingly. ‘You always did like to pretty things up in rose-coloured glasses!’
‘Whereas you,’ she murmured softly, ‘have always worn blinkers and so see nothing at all except what’s directly in front of your nose, giving you an extremely narrow view of the world!’ She closed the door softly behind her as she left, knowing there was nothing more to be said, and that she couldn’t reach Dominick this way. She never had been able to.
She blinked back the tears as she moved hurriedly back down the stairs to rejoin her family, eager to be back amongst their warmth and love.
Dominick gazed after her with pitying derision.
Love!
That was for people like Kenzie, not him. It was for people who hadn’t had the notion of love kicked out of them by their own parents’ infidelities when they were a kid. Because loving someone, one person, for a lifetime, simply didn’t exist.
But what about Nancy and Donald? an annoying little voice asked inside his head.
An exception, not the rule, he told himself firmly. One successful marriage didn’t make up for the fact that almost one in two marriages ended in divorce nowadays.
Love wasn’t to be trusted, he had learnt at a very early age. It only made fools of everyone—and he had no intention of ever joining the ranks of the foolish!
CHAPTER FIVE
‘WHAT did you and Dad talk about while you were out?’ Kenzie prompted curiously as she came back from preparing for bed in the adjoining bathroom.
The two men had disappeared together for over an hour earlier once Dominick had come back downstairs, and Kenzie had been unable to stop feeling anxious the whole time they’d been gone. She wondered what two such different men could possibly have found to discuss for that length of time, and her look of concern had earned her quite a lot of teasing from her sisters as they had mistaken that anxiety for missing Dominick.
Her family obviously had no idea, but she had got used to missing Dominick during their months of separation. She had never quite accepted it, but at the same time she knew there was no point in pulling herself to emotional shreds over something she, and her love, couldn’t change. Dominick couldn’t ever change.
So she had smiled good-naturedly through her sisters’ teasing, the pressure having eased off by the arrival of Colin and Neil, which had been quickly followed by her father and Dominick’s return. The nine of them—Kathy’s fiancé Derek had been banned from seeing his bride until the wedding tomorrow—had then all sat down to the meal the women had prepared in the men’s absence.
Now was the first opportunity this evening Kenzie had had to talk to Dominick privately.
She needed to talk, to cover the awkwardness she felt in coming back to the bedroom wearing only peach-coloured silk pyjamas. Dominick was sprawled out on one of the beds still fully dressed, his gaze hooded as he straightened up on the pillow to look at her.
‘Very sexy,’ he murmured as he scrutinized her slowly up and down. ‘As I recall you always slept naked; how long have you been wearing those passion killers?’
Her eyes glittered angrily. ‘Since I knew I had to share a bedroom for the night with my ex-husband!’ She had slept naked during their marriage because there had been little point in her wearing anything—Dominick had always thrown it off within minutes of their getting into bed.
‘Almost ex-husband,’ Dominick corrected grimly, straightening to get a better look at her. ‘I haven’t decided whether or not to sign the papers yet,’ he added distractedly, revising his initial impression of the pyjamas now that he could see the way the silky material fell smoothly over the pertness of Kenzie’s breasts. He noticed that her nipples hardened under his gaze.
In arousal.
So she wasn’t as sexually immune to him as she wanted him to believe, after all…
Kenzie avoided meeting his eyes. ‘You didn’t answer my question about what you and my father talked about while you were out,’ she reminded him, determined to stay clear of any conversation that might cause an argument.
He shrugged, slowly sitting up. ‘This and that,’ he dismissed, his gaze unwavering on her. ‘Nothing of importance.’
Unless you counted Donald’s satisfaction in knowing that, after tomorrow, all of his girls would be happily married and settled.
It was a sentiment that gave Dominick an insight into the difficulty Kenzie must have felt in breaking the news of their separation to her family—he hadn’t felt in a position to disappoint the older man either!
‘You never did tell me how Jerome Carlton rates as a lover?’ he looked up as he challenged her.
Dominick had realized the last few days that he still couldn’t stand the thought of anyone else touching her silken curves, and all those secret, erotic places only he had known. He still hated the idea of someone else hearing her little cries of pleasure as she reached the pinnacle of her sensual enjoyment. And the thought of Kenzie kissing and caressing any other man in the way she had him still had the effect of making his stomach clench into knots!
Kenzie studied Dominick for several seconds, wondering if he actually cared if she’d had another lover, and whether it had been jealousy all along that had caused him to cut her out of his life with so much finality.
But the glittering of his dark eyes and the tightness of his jaw were evidence of cold anger rather than the jealousy she had been hoping for. By bringing Jerome back into the conversation at all he was just spoiling for another fight.
She raised her chin defiantly. ‘As it isn’t gentlemanly of a man to tell tales out of the bedroom, I’m sure it isn’t ladylike for a woman to do so, either—Dominick, what are you doing?’ she demanded incredulously as he sprang up off the bed to grasp her by the tops of her arms. ‘Let me go!’ she instructed impatiently, glaring up at him. ‘You don’t really care whether or not Jerome and I have been lovers—’
‘Don’t I?’ he grated.
She shook her head, her hair silky about her shoulders. ‘You have to feel love to care, Dominick!’
He became suddenly still, maintaining a firm hold of her arms, his face only inches from her own. ‘Perhaps I’m just wondering how your parents would feel if they knew their little Kenzie had been sleeping around.’
She glared at him. ‘I thought what we were discussing had nothing to do with sleeping!’
‘You little—’ He broke off abruptly, drawing in deep, controlling breaths as he continued to scowl down at her.
Kenzie was tall and usually found herself on a level with most men, but Dominick had always been four or five inches taller than her, and that impression of height, along with the powerful width of his shoulders, became even more apparent as he strove to regain control of the anger she had deliberately incited.
‘But you don’t care, Dominick,’ she taunted coolly, determined to meet the furious glitter of his eyes. ‘You never did. Because you don’t believe in love, remember?’ she mocked, recalling the painful disillusionment the moment she had realized that.
No, he didn’t believe in love, Dominick acknowledged, and he had no idea what he felt for Kenzie at that moment, only that the thought of her in Jerome Carlton’s arms was once again driving him crazy.
There hadn’t been any other women in his life during the four months of their separation. Having Kenzie walk out on him in that way, leaving him for another man, seemed to have killed all desire for sex in him.
Until the second he had seen Kenzie on Wednesday evening…
Since then he had been filled with nothing but a desire for sex. But only with Kenzie.
But not here. And not now. That would happen on his terms. For his pleasure.
His hands dropped abruptly to his sides as he released her. ‘I don’t believe in love,’ he said abruptly. ‘I’ll go and use the bathroom myself now. And I didn’t make provision for sharing a bedroom for the night with my ex-wife, so, if you don’t want to be shocked out of your romantic little mind, I should turn over and go to sleep before I get back!’ He strode over to the adjoining room and pulled the door shut firmly behind him.
Kenzie stared at the closed door, blinking back the tears that threatened to fall. She knew there was no hope for her and Dominick, no common ground of conversation even. There was just anger and misunderstanding on Dominick’s part, and love, still love, on hers…
‘For God’s sake settle down and go to sleep, will you?’ Dominick snapped softly in the darkness of the bedroom.
Kenzie became still in the adjoining bed. ‘Sorry. I didn’t think you were awake,’ she muttered, having had no idea he had been aware of her restless movements for the last hour as sleep had eluded her.
He gave a heavy sigh. ‘You may think I lack a certain—insight where emotions are concerned, Kenzie, but I can assure you there is absolutely nothing wrong with my memory!’
And what was that supposed to mean?
That he was still thinking about her with Jerome Carlton?
Or something else…?
‘I can’t sleep,’ she sighed.
‘I think that’s pretty damned obvious!’ he bit out tersely. ‘Unfortunately, now neither can I!’
‘Sorry,’ she muttered again.
Dominick sat up in the bed, swinging his legs to the floor as he pushed the duvet aside.
He could see very little of Kenzie in the moonlight shining in through the window, only the paleness of her face and the dark cloud of her hair spread out on the pillow beside her.
‘Do you want me to come over there?’ he taunted.
No, of course she didn’t!
Did she…?
There was no denying that she was totally aware of him, and had been so since he’d called at her apartment earlier this afternoon. Sharing this bedroom with him, even in separate beds, was absolute torture to her senses.
She hadn’t thought it would be like this. Yes, she still loved Dominick, and, yes, she was still very aware of his physical attractiveness, but she had thought his total distrust of her, and his lack of love for her, would have killed all the sexual desire she had once felt for him.
In the last hour while she had lain here unable to sleep, she had been all too conscious of Dominick in the adjoining bed: of the even tenor of breathing, the slightly elusive tang of his aftershave, and of the heat of his body. All of which had shown her that she ached for him just as much as she ever had.
‘No, of course I don’t want you to come over here,’ she answered without conviction.
‘Are you sure?’
She bristled at his mocking tone of voice. ‘Of course I’m sure!’
‘You didn’t sound very sure,’ Dominick mused.
‘I’m not going to deny that this situation is—difficult,’ she told him quietly.
‘How difficult?’ he challenged, standing up, his lithe nakedness visible in the soft light.
Kenzie stopped breathing, her eyes wide as she looked at him. This was not a good idea. Not a good idea at all.
‘Look, Dominick,’ she told him quickly. ‘I’m sure we could quite easily make love together, here and now—’
‘We could?’ he derided.
‘Yes,’ she bit out awkwardly. ‘Statistics show that the majority of married couples who have separated have sex together at least once after that separation before they actually divorce. It’s usually a disappointment to both parties, and only serves to reaffirm their decision—’
‘I’m not interested in statistics, Kenzie,’ he dismissed impatiently. ‘And you have never disappointed me in bed, any more than I believe I have ever disappointed you, either—’
‘You’re talking about sex again, Dominick,’ she cut in frustratedly.
He gave a shake of his head, moving until he sat on the edge of her bed. ‘And talking has never solved anything between us, has it?’ he acknowledged ruefully, one of his hands moving up to smooth the creamy contour of her cheek. ‘The truth is, I would much rather show you what you threw away four months ago than talk about it!’ His head lowered before his lips captured hers.
Kenzie fought against the desire that quickly rose within her, pushing at the bareness of his chest as she wrenched her mouth from his. ‘No—’
‘Yes, Kenzie!’ he insisted gruffly. ‘Neither of us is going to find a moment’s rest until we get this out of the way!’
‘But it won’t solve anything—’
‘It will prove that you still want me!’ he grated. ‘Because you do still want me, don’t you, Kenzie?’ he encouraged huskily as his fingers trailed down her neck to the hollows of her throat.
Kenzie quivered with an awareness she was unable to hide. ‘You’re just trying to punish me, Dominick. Wreak some sort of revenge because I dared to leave you—’
‘Oh, no, Kenzie, a brief time together at the home of your parents isn’t going to be nearly enough recompense for that,’ he assured her grimly. ‘But a little down payment might not be a bad idea in the circumstances. And you do owe me, remember…?’
Oh, she remembered, all right. She also had a pretty good idea now of exactly what he was going to want in ‘payment’ for being here with her this weekend!
‘Dominick—’
‘Not now, Kenzie,’ he dismissed, his hand moving down to cup her breast, his thumbtip caressing the hardened tip as he bent his head to reclaim her lips.
Kenzie felt the heat in her body, wanting to continue fighting him, but knowing that her body betrayed her. She melted through her enjoyment of the feel of Dominick’s lips on hers as he began to kiss her, and found she was unable to stop herself from reaching up to entangle her fingers in his hair as she tasted him in return.
His hands moved restlessly across her back, moulding her body to his, and crushing her breasts against the hardness of his chest as they continued to kiss hungrily.
Kenzie groaned low in her throat as Dominick sat back slightly to push the gaping neckline of her top to one side, one hand finding her naked breast, while the other moved to unfasten the buttons down the front of the silky garment.
She felt the cool air on her bare flesh as Dominick cleared the material from her body, his lips leaving hers now so that he could feel the thrust of her breast with his mouth. As he drew the aching nipple into the heated moisture between his lips, the pad of his thumb moving across its twin, Kenzie dropped weakly back onto the pillow as she arched in pleasure.
She could feel his arousal pressed against her, an ache between her own thighs matching that need.
Her fingers tightened in his hair as she pulled him even closer, feeling the rasp of his tongue now, circling and flicking the tip of her breast, before drawing it into his mouth to suck rhythmically.
The heat was rapidly building inside her as she reached out to touch him, her fingers closing about him, revelling in the wild pulsing. She moved her hand along the length of the hardened shaft, knowing, as she always had, how to pleasure him.
He lifted his head, his eyes glittering in the darkness. ‘Do you want me to take you, Kenzie?’ he asked. ‘Do you want me inside you?’
‘Yes! Oh, God, yes!’ she groaned, completely, mindlessly, aroused.
‘How much do you want me, Kenzie?’ His hand lightly touched her breast. ‘Tell me how much!’
‘Dominick…?’ She looked up at him, feeling dazed.
‘How much, Kenzie?’ His voice hardened slightly.
‘Dominick, what do you want from me?’ she moaned, the desire he had aroused completely confusing her.
‘Right now?’ he considered as he sat up to move away from her. ‘Nothing else for now,’ he murmured with satisfaction. ‘When I next take you to bed, Kenzie—and I am going to take you to bed—it’s going to be on my terms, and when I choose. Tonight was just to see if you’re as immune to me as you claimed to be when you walked out on me.’ His teeth gleamed in the moonlight as he smiled. ‘You aren’t immune at all, Kenzie,’ he taunted.
No, she wasn’t. But this wasn’t the way. This would never be the way…
‘Please don’t do this, Dominick,’ she warned breathlessly. ‘Don’t destroy what feelings of respect we have left for each other—’
‘Me destroy those feelings?’ He surged to his feet to stand darkly forbidding beside the bed as he looked down at her with hard, glittering eyes. ‘You did that when you walked out the door four months ago!’
Yes, she had walked out—and, although Dominick might not believe it, it had almost killed her to do it.
Did Dominick really imagine that it had been easy for her to leave, to give up on the hope that he would one day love her as she loved him? Because if he really thought that—
‘Straight into Jerome Carlton’s arms and bed!’ he added harshly.
Jerome Carlton again.
It always came back to Jerome.
Kenzie had no idea why Dominick was so convinced she’d had an affair with the other man.
All that Jerome had done was offer her a contract with his company, and had been there for her when she’d sat beside him on the plane to America, still slightly shell-shocked from the last argument with Dominick. Jerome had obviously not known exactly why she was so unhappy, but he had been there for her anyway, and he had continued to be attentive during the weeks she’d spent in America when she had seemed so unhappy.
He had asked nothing in return.
But Dominick wouldn’t understand that. He didn’t understand that there could be just friendship between a man and a woman. He didn’t understand love between a man and a woman, so how could he possibly understand friendship?
‘Please, don’t do anything that is going to make me hate you, Dominick,’ she pleaded forcefully, not sure she would be able to bear that when she loved him so much.
He gave a humourless laugh. ‘Why not? They say that hate is akin to love! Either emotion has to be an improvement on that coolness you showed me for the month before you ended the torture of our marriage. It has to be better than the distant politeness with which you’ve been treating me all evening!’
But that distant politeness was her protection, Kenzie thought. It was the only thing she had to stop this man from making her suffer more than he was already.
She couldn’t let Dominick hurt her all over again; she had barely survived the first time!
‘Get some sleep, Kenzie,’ he advised harshly as he began to pull on his clothes.
‘Where are you going?’ She frowned.
‘I have no idea,’ he grated after pulling his tee shirt on over his head. ‘But don’t worry, Kenzie, I’m not leaving.’ He paused to look down at her. ‘I don’t like weddings, but I’ve said I’ll fulfil my half of the bargain, and so I will. Just be prepared, when the time comes, to fulfil yours!’
CHAPTER SIX
KENZIE had no idea where Dominick had spent the night, only knowing that he hadn’t come back to the bedroom they should have shared.
She knew he hadn’t returned because she had spent most of the night awake, too troubled, and too disturbed by what had happened, to be able to fall asleep.
A fact that the bathroom mirror had all too readily confirmed when she went through to shower and dress this morning, dark circles under her eyes, and her face pale.
A great glowing bridesmaid she was going to make, she thought as she put on enough make-up to cover up her pallor.
Just the thought of facing Dominick again, after the intimacies they had shared during the night, wasn’t something she relished.
Although she knew it was something she wasn’t going to have a choice about. Dominick had said he wouldn’t leave, and she knew him well enough by now to know that when he said something he meant it. He intended staying for the wedding.
If only so that he could collect on his half of their bargain.
Exactly what sort of revenge did Dominick intend exacting?
Although after what he had said last night, and the way he had so deliberately kissed and caressed her, she didn’t really need to ask that!
But could he really want to take her like that, to make love to her and know that she hated every minute of it?
Except she so obviously wouldn’t…!
After her response last night Dominick couldn’t be in any doubts about that, either.
His revenge, she was sure, would be to make love to her and show her exactly how little will-power she really had where he was concerned. He wanted to prove that she still wanted him, in spite of herself.
When and where he intended this to take place, she had no idea, but she knew that it wasn’t going to be here.
It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop, although it was a little hard to place the vengeful Dominick she’d seen last night in the man she discovered in the kitchen a few minutes later. He was with her mother, trying on the bow-tie that matched the deep green colour of the bridesmaid dresses that he was expected to wear as her partner at the wedding.
It was a little unnerving to hear Dominick’s throaty laughter and her mother’s girlish chuckles when Kenzie had been steeling herself to face her arrogant and demanding husband of last night.
Admittedly Dominick did look slightly ridiculous with the bow-tie around his neck above the black tee shirt, but Kenzie didn’t think it was funny enough for this amount of hilarity…
She stood in the kitchen doorway simply staring at the two of them, marvelling at this slightly softer Dominick, and wondering if he was actually aware of how relaxed he looked. Probably not.