Men of Power
Yes, but—
No buts. She had said that, and that was exactly what he had done. Was it any wonder that he now wanted payment?
‘Sorry,’ she muttered between stiff lips. ‘What is it you want from me, Dominick?’
‘Well, let’s get one thing straight from the first, shall we?’ He put his coffee cup down to sit forward in his chair, his expression intent, his gaze narrowed as he looked deep into her eyes. ‘I have never been into taking unwilling women into my bed!’
He had never needed to, she thought. Before the two of them had met Dominick had been known for his numerous affairs with glamorous, beautiful women, affairs that he had always ended rather than the other way around. In fact, she was probably the first woman to ever walk away from him!
Which was the reason for Dominick’s anger, of course…
But they couldn’t just—she couldn’t just—
Going to bed with Dominick in that way, so cold and calculated, was completely against the way she had lived her life so far. But all of Dominick’s comments so far over the course of the weekend seemed to suggest that was exactly what he was going to demand.
Kenzie willed herself to calm down, to settle into the mental relaxation she often escaped to during the long, interminable waits she experienced between photographic shoots. She tried to breathe deeply and evenly, and was able to meet Dominick’s gaze quite calmly when she looked at him.
After all, hadn’t he just told her that he wouldn’t take an unwilling woman to his bed?
She would just have to try to ensure, no matter what the provocation, that she was never willing!
Dominick stood up abruptly, moving over to look at the bookcase along one wall of the room. ‘You obviously like to read.’ He nodded at the well-thumbed rows of paperbacks lined on the shelves.
‘Yes,’ she acknowledged quietly, slightly thrown by his change of subject.
He nodded. ‘So do I. In fact, I’ve read most of these titles, too.’
Her eyes widened in spite of herself. ‘I never remember you reading anything but contracts and the business section of the newspaper when we were together!’
He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘That’s probably because we always found plenty of other things to do when we were together other than reading fiction books.’
Like making love.
How strange that she should learn now, after living apart for months, that the two of them actually had a similar taste in reading.
What else was there about him, other small personal details, that she hadn’t had the opportunity to learn during their nine months of marriage? All they had been able to think about at the time, all that had interested either of them when they hadn’t been caught up in their individual business commitments, was being with each other…
Dominick could see the surprise, and the puzzled interest, in Kenzie’s eyes, and decided that he had probably gone far enough for one day. The best way to succeed in anything, he had learnt over the years, was to always walk away leaving the other person wanting more, wondering…
And he did intend succeeding where Kenzie was concerned. In not only getting her back into his bed, but getting her there willingly. Willingly was the most important part, if she did but know it!
He bent to put his empty cup on the low coffee-table before straightening. ‘Are you free next weekend?’
‘I—yes, I think so,’ Kenzie confirmed vaguely, obviously surprised by the question as she stood up to follow him to the door.
Dominick paused in the open doorway. ‘Then keep it free, hmm?’
‘Why?’ she said sharply.
He shook his head. ‘I have—some details, to finalize, before I can confirm that. Perhaps we could have dinner together one night in the week—’
‘Dinner?’ she repeated in frustration, shaking her head. ‘Dominick, I’m not going out on a date with you!’
‘—so that we can discuss this further,’ he finished pointedly, his brows rising over reproving brown eyes.
‘But—’
‘In the same way that we met for dinner last week when you wanted to discuss your sister’s wedding with me, remember?’ he reminded, in a mocking tone.
‘Oh. Yes.’ She looked uncomfortable now.
‘Although I would like the two of us to actually eat something this time!’ he added derisively.
‘Don’t take me to Rimini’s, then,’ Kenzie told him firmly. ‘It would remind me too much of when we used to go there together when we were married,’ she added dismissively as he gave her a questioning look.
When they were married?
They were still married, damn it!
But if it meant Kenzie would relax a little, he was quite happy to fall in with her suggestion that they go somewhere else. Somewhere new, perhaps, where the restaurant didn’t remind either of them of someone else.
His mouth thinned as he thought of Kenzie’s ‘someone else’.
‘Or when you went there with Jerome, perhaps?’ he asked impatiently.
Kenzie gave an irritated shake of her head. ‘You know, Dominick—’ she sighed in despair ‘—one day you’re going to actually listen to me when I tell you I wasn’t involved with Jerome Carlton four months ago, and that I’m not involved with him now, either!’
‘Oh, I listen, Kenzie,’ Dominick assured her. ‘I just happen to know that you aren’t telling the truth!’
She could accept that the fact she had spent so much time in Jerome Carlton’s company just before she’d left Dominick, and that when she had left it had been to fly to America with the other man, could have all looked more than a little suspicious to Dominick’s accusing eyes.
But what she hadn’t accepted then, and still didn’t accept, was that Dominick hadn’t even attempted to believe her denials. He had seemed convinced from the outset that she was involved in an affair with Jerome, and nothing she said or did would convince him otherwise.
She certainly wasn’t convincing him now, she thought, seeing the cold scepticism in the hardness of his eyes.
‘Let me know about dinner, hmm?’ she prompted abruptly, really wanting—needing!—him to leave now, the strain she had been under this weekend definitely starting to catch up with her.
‘Oh, I’ll let you know, Kenzie,’ he assured her, seeing that strain in her eyes, and the paleness of her cheeks, his mouth twisting derisively as he knew just his presence was causing her this distress.
He’d barely begun!
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘OKAY, Dominick, that’s it! I refuse to let you play this game with me any longer!’
Dominick swivelled his chair slowly from his quiet contemplation of the river flowing smoothly beneath his office window, his eyes fixed in cool enquiry as he looked across the width of his huge oak desk at Kenzie’s flushed and angry face.
His gaze moved slightly sideways as he took in his secretary’s questioning presence in the open doorway. ‘Thanks, Stella,’ he said, nodding dismissively.
‘Play nice, you two,’ she murmured ruefully before backing out of the room and closing the door behind her.
Dominick’s gaze returned to Kenzie’s annoyed pink face. ‘You were saying…?’
Kenzie glared at him, wanting nothing more at that moment than to wipe that smile of self-satisfaction from his handsomely smug face. ‘I said I’ve had enough—’
‘I think I understood that bit,’ Dominick interrupted, relaxing back in his leather chair. He was dressed formally in a dark business suit, snowy white shirt and silver-coloured tie. ‘I’m simply at a loss to know what it is you’ve had enough of…?’
‘I’ve had enough of you playing with me,’ Kenzie bit out fiercely, thinking how arrogant her husband was.
‘I think I got that bit too—’
‘How dare you have Stella call me up and tell me to meet you at some restaurant called Tonio’s at eight o’clock this evening?’ she cut in impatiently, knowing that Dominick was enjoying her anger. Damn him!
‘Ah.’ Dominick nodded in consideration. ‘Is eight o’clock too early for you? Or too late, perhaps?’
Kenzie’s gaze narrowed dangerously. ‘It’s this evening that’s the problem,’ she snapped. ‘I haven’t just been sitting around all week waiting for you to snap your fingers so I can come running when you do!’
‘No?’ he questioned mildly. ‘Then what have you been doing?’
‘I work too, you know,’ Kenzie told him impatiently. ‘And for your information, I’m busy this evening!’ she added with satisfaction.
Even if she hadn’t been busy she would have told him she was after his high-handed behaviour.
Dominick eyed her silently for several long seconds, liking this outraged Kenzie much better than the controlled one of the weekend.
Not that her obvious anger made the slightest bit of difference to the outcome of this encounter; annoyed and incensed Kenzie only added to the challenge.
‘Why didn’t you just tell Stella that when she called?’ he prompted mildly. ‘Tomorrow evening will do just as well for what I have in mind.’
Although their present location wasn’t at all suitable for what he wanted, Dominick acknowledged self-derisively. Kenzie looked so fiercely beautiful, with her hair loose about her shoulders, her eyes blazing green, and that becoming flush to her cheeks. The fitted blouse and pencil-slim black trousers she wore clearly outlined the perfection of her body, and he wanted nothing more than to lay her naked on his desk and make love to her here and now until she cried out for mercy!
But that would not be according to his plan at all, he acknowledged ruefully.
Some of the anger seemed to drain out of Kenzie as her shoulders relaxed slightly. ‘And what do you have in mind?’ she asked, still eyeing him suspiciously.
He smiled as he gave a mocking shake of his head. ‘Dinner and a chat, actually,’ he said nonchalantly. ‘Unless you can think of anything else we can do to fill the evening?’
The anger snapped back into her deep emerald eyes. ‘I told you I refuse to be played with any longer, Dominick,’ she said impatiently. ‘And now that I’m here, obviously available for that chat, I can’t see any reason why we need to have dinner together at all!’
A valid point, he acknowledged—except that it meant Kenzie was taking control of this situation, and that was something he didn’t intend letting her do!
Having once allowed circumstances with Kenzie to get out of control enough to find himself marrying her, he had no intention of losing the power a second time.
‘My plans still aren’t finalized yet, Kenzie,’ he told her abruptly. ‘But I’m hoping they will be by this evening.’
Kenzie had been doing nothing all week but trying to think what his ‘plans’ could possibly be—except to know by his comments that those plans seemed to imply he intended taking her to bed at some time in the near future!
Just thinking about that the last three days had been enough to fray her already jangling nerves, until Stella’s telephone call earlier today had jettisoned her into doing something about it.
Coming to Dominick’s office and confronting him with the situation had seemed to be the answer.
Except it was getting her precisely nowhere. As it was designed not to do, she was sure.
‘Have you kept the weekend free as I asked you to do?’ he asked.
‘Ordered me to do,’ she corrected firmly. ‘But I don’t intend going anywhere with you until I know where and why.’
Dominick put his elbows on his desk, and rested his chin on his laced fingers as he contemplated her through narrowed lids. It was a gaze she easily withstood, her chin raised defiantly. ‘You don’t seem quite so willing to keep your side of the bargain now that your sister’s wedding is over,’ he finally murmured dryly.
Kenzie gave a shrug, her head tilted challengingly. ‘Maybe I’m not.’
His mouth hardened. ‘And maybe I’ll just go down and visit your parents tomorrow and explain to them what a sham the two of us being together last weekend actually was!’
Kenzie searched his face, seeing only cold implacability in his hard gaze, his mouth a thin, uncompromising line.
‘You would do that too, wouldn’t you?’ she accepted heavily as she dropped down onto the chair that faced his desk, the anger draining out of her.
She had thought about all of this long and hard since he’d left her apartment three days ago, and had decided that there was no way Dominick could force her into anything, least of all going to bed with him. Even if he had already made it clear that force wasn’t what he had in mind at all where that was concerned!
Somewhere in all her thinking she had forgotten how ruthlessly determined Dominick could be when he felt the situation warranted it. Like now…
‘You know that I would,’ Dominick confirmed as he saw that knowledge in the pallor of her cheeks. ‘Why are you really here, Kenzie?’ he prompted with interest, becoming more and more convinced that there was more to her anger than pique over Stella’s telephone call.
Kenzie gave him a startled look, like a fawn caught in the headlights of a car. ‘I already told you—’
‘I heard you,’ Dominick cut in dismissively, getting up to come round the desk to stand next to her chair, reaching out to place his hand beneath her chin and lift her face up to his. ‘Why, Kenzie?’ he repeated harshly, sure that he already knew the answer to that question, but determined to hear her say it nonetheless.
Kenzie tried to move away from the hand beneath her chin, but failed as Dominick’s fingers tightened in determination. ‘I told you, I don’t like being played with—’
‘You also told me that you’re busy this evening,’ he rasped. ‘Could I take a guess as to who you’re going to be busy with?’ he added.
She frowned at him, wondering how he had known, how he could have guessed—
‘How could you possibly know Jerome is coming to England?’ she said slowly.
Because she was sure that he did know; she could see it in his coldly glittering eyes…
It had been far from ideal timing when Jerome had telephoned her yesterday to inform her he would be arriving in England later today. He wanted to see her this evening to discuss when she would be returning to the States to fulfil her contract for Carlton Cosmetics.
Not having heard from Dominick at the time, and knowing that as he was her current employer she would obviously have to see Jerome some time while he was in England, she had reluctantly agreed. At the same time she had known that it was not a good idea for her to see Jerome at all when Dominick was back in her life, however briefly.
Knowing what Dominick believed her relationship with Jerome to be, the last thing she needed was for the two men to accidentally meet at her apartment of all places!
Stella’s phone call earlier this morning, when Kenzie had already agreed to meet Jerome this evening, couldn’t have come at a worse time!
Dominick’s lips pinched together. ‘Just a lucky guess,’ he growled, releasing her chin to move back behind his desk. ‘Do you still deny that the two of you are involved?’
‘Yes, of course I deny it!’ Kenzie snapped impatiently. ‘Jerome is coming to England on business, and dinner with me this evening is just incidental.’
Dominick looked at her from behind his hooded eyelids, wondering how anyone so beautiful, so innocently beautiful, could at the same time be so deceitful.
‘Really?’ he questioned scathingly.
‘Yes—really!’ she echoed irritably. ‘Not that I expect you to believe me.’ She shook her head. ‘You seem to take some sort of delight in not believing me!’
‘I don’t take delight in it at all, Kenzie,’ he said bitterly. ‘I had believed there was honesty between us if nothing else. Obviously I was proved wrong,’ he added harshly, very aware of just how wrong he had been.
Kenzie had lied to him, had deceived him with another man—with Jerome Carlton, a man who had taken great delight in not lying to Dominick when he had confronted the other man over the affair. Both of them had made a fool of him. And that was something Dominick simply couldn’t allow to go unchallenged.
He was so hard, so implacable, Kenzie realized achingly as she looked at Dominick’s unyielding expression. Had he always been this way? Possibly. Except in the past that hard implacability hadn’t been directed at her. But now it most assuredly was.
She sighed. ‘I don’t think discussing the past solves anything, Dominick—’
‘I agree,’ he said brusquely, straightening. ‘We should forget dinner this evening and discuss the arrangements for this weekend now.’ His tone was completely businesslike. ‘I’ll call at your apartment for you at three o’clock on Saturday afternoon. You can expect to be away until Sunday.’
Kenzie gave a pained frown. ‘But—I haven’t—exactly where are we going, Dominick?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t think you really need to know that—’
‘Oh, yes, I do,’ she assured him forcefully.
He raised his dark brows. ‘Frightened that I might hide the body where no one can find it?’ he taunted.
Kenzie stood up impatiently. ‘You’re being ridiculous now—’
‘Am I?’ He looked across at her carefully. ‘Haven’t you realized yet, Kenzie, that no one crosses me and just walks away?’
She felt a shiver of apprehension down her spine. ‘It’s been four months, Dominick—’
‘I’m well aware of how long it’s been, Kenzie,’ he said grimly.
Kenzie looked at him in frustration, wishing for just a glimpse of the softer, more indulgent Dominick that she had seen during their marriage, and on occasion during last weekend at her parents’ house. She knew the latter, at least, had all been an act for her family’s benefit, an act that had put her totally in Dominick’s debt. If Dominick felt any emotion towards her at all now, it was hate.
But he had given her a weekend, and now she owed him a weekend in return…
She drew in a determined breath. ‘What sort of clothes will I need to bring with me?’
He shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Something to wear for Saturday evening. A swimming costume, perhaps. Or not,’ he added throatily as he moved his gaze deliberately down the length of her body.
Kenzie withstood his examination with a determined rise of her chin, although she was a little puzzled as to where he could be taking her if she was going to need an evening dress and a swimming costume—the two didn’t seem to go together somehow.
‘Dominick, I know you accompanied me to the wedding last weekend, but I really don’t think I’m up to a weekend being social with business acquaintances of yours.’
His mouth twisted humourlessly. ‘I assure you, Kenzie, the only person you’re going to be social with this weekend is me.’
Kenzie was more puzzled than ever. But at the same time she could see by his uncompromising expression that Dominick didn’t intend telling her any more than he already had.
‘Okay, Dominick, if that’s the way you want it,’ she agreed abruptly.
‘It is.’ He nodded.
‘I’ll leave you to get back to your—work, then,’ she said dryly, aware that he hadn’t been working at all when she had entered his office uninvited a few minutes ago, but staring out of the window instead.
‘And I’ll leave you to get back to yours.’’ He gave a mocking inclination of his head. ‘Oh, and, Kenzie…?’ he added as she reached the door.
She turned back reluctantly. ‘Yes?’ she prompted warily.
‘Enjoy your dinner this evening,’ he said softly.
Kenzie searched his face for several long seconds, but once again Dominick made sure she could read nothing from his mocking expression as he steadily returned her gaze.
‘Three o’clock on Saturday,’ she repeated firmly before making good her escape.
All the humour left Dominick’s face once he was alone, his breath leaving him in a shuddering sigh.
Four months since they parted, Kenzie had said.
The same four months it had taken for him to devise a suitable retribution that would include Kenzie as well as her lover. But it was all coming together now, and it would very shortly be over.
The fact that Kenzie had amazingly come to him last week, needing something from him that only he, as her husband, could give, and therefore putting her totally in his debt, only added to his feelings of satisfaction.
He would take settlement this weekend slowly and leisurely, knowing every caress and pleasure that made Kenzie wild and wanton in his arms. It was a pleasure he intended drinking to the full, a pleasure that would be all the sweeter to him when she returned to her lover after the weekend knowing that she had come to him willingly.
Then Jerome would no doubt inform her of exactly what retribution Dominick had taken on both of them.
Now Dominick waited until he was sure Kenzie had passed through the outer office before sitting forward to press the intercom on his desk. ‘Stella, put a call through to Caroline Carlton in New York, will you?’ he instructed before sitting back to wait for the connection, his smile of satisfaction not reaching the hard determination of his eyes as he resumed his sightless staring out of the window.
CHAPTER NINE
DOMINICK gave Kenzie a glance from behind dark sunglasses on Saturday afternoon as he drove them to their destination, having picked her up from her apartment almost an hour ago.
As usual Kenzie looked stunningly beautiful as she sat beside him in the car dressed in an emerald-green sundress and high-heeled sandals, the thin straps of the dress showing off her bare shoulders and the creamy swell of her breasts, and her deep green eyes hidden behind the shield of her own sunglasses.
Yes, Kenzie looked stunningly beautiful—and extremely remote, he thought, realizing that since her initial greeting she hadn’t spoken a single word.
Now who was the one playing games? Dominick wondered with a hard grin as he returned his attention to the road in front of him. It felt good knowing how easily he could break her cool control.
He decided to do exactly that. ‘How was your dinner with Carlton on Wednesday evening?’ he enquired mildly, immediately sensing Kenzie’s sudden tension.
Kenzie turned to look at him for several long, probing seconds. ‘Why do you ask, when you can’t possibly be interested?’ she finally sighed.
‘Oh, but I am, Kenzie,’ Dominick assured her lightly. ‘Did you and Carlton have an emotional reunion?’ His voice had hardened perceptibly.
‘As it happens, we didn’t have a reunion of any kind,’ she bit out. ‘Jerome had to cancel his trip for a couple of days,’ she explained as Dominick seemed to be waiting for her to say something else.
‘Something more important came up, obviously,’ he drawled derisively.
Jerome had telephoned her late on Wednesday to cancel their dinner engagement in the evening, explaining that he had to delay his arrival in England until Saturday because of a pressing business matter that prevented him leaving New York at the moment.
As his dinner with her had also been a business engagement Kenzie hadn’t been particularly concerned, the two of them making arrangements to meet on Monday instead once Kenzie had explained she would be away over the weekend. She hadn’t told Jerome whom she was going away with though; despite what Dominick chose to believe to the contrary, her private life really wasn’t any of Jerome Carlton’s business.
‘I guess it did,’ she acknowledged dismissively.
‘Poor Kenzie,’ Dominick murmured. ‘I seem to remember you accused me of putting business first, too,’ he reminded her as she looked at him with a frown.
Kenzie didn’t even qualify that remark with an answer; her relationship with Jerome was nothing like her marriage to Dominick, so there was no point in comparing the two.
‘Are we nearly there?’ she asked instead, the last hour having taken them out of London and into the Hampshire countryside.
‘Not long now,’ Dominick confirmed with satisfaction, wondering what Kenzie was going to make of Bedforth Manor. Not that it really mattered; she would never be going there again. But it would still be interesting to see her reaction.