no broken engagements or heart-rending tales of thwarted love. When they had been dating, during that brief window when she had actually believed that he was interested in her for herself, he had laughed when she had asked him whether he had ever been in love.
Dio might have used her, and certainly did not feel anything for her, not even affection—but he would still have no problem getting into bed with her because, as far as he was concerned, that was part of the marriage contract which he had been denied and, besides, he didn’t think she was half bad-looking.
It was slowly dawning on her that she might hate him for stringing her along—might hate that core of coldness inside him that had allowed him to be the kind of man who could do that—but there was still something deep in the very heart of her that wasn’t quite as immune to him as she would have liked to be.
She would rather have chewed her own arm off than ever admit that to him.
‘Why not?’ she asked.
Dio frowned. Their marriage had been little more than a business transaction and he wasn’t sure why he now found her attitude unsettling.
‘I was young when I married you, Dio. I’m only twenty-four now. Before you came along, I was totally wrapped up doing my maths degree and it didn’t leave a whole lot of time for men.’
‘You mean I was the first guy you really ever fancied...’
‘You’re a good-looking man.’
To his ears, that sounded like agreement, which made him wonder why she had retreated to her ivory tower the second the ring was on her finger.
‘Then why wait until now?’
‘Because maybe I’ve discovered that I’m more like you than I wanted to admit, even to myself.’ She breathed with the panicked sensation of someone treading on thin ice.
So much safer when she had been able to keep her distance and set aside all the uncomfortable thoughts now besieging her.
‘Now that we’re going to be getting a divorce—’
‘That’s a matter that’s still up for debate...’
‘I know the conditions and I accept them,’ Lucy told him bluntly. And then she added for good measure, for just that little bit of protection, ‘And you’re right—I can’t see a way forward if I leave this marriage with nothing. I’ve never known what it was like to be broke.’
‘Because Daddy protected you even when he was going under and all but waving a white flag...’
‘Whatever.’ She took a deep breath and did her utmost to disconnect from the contempt she felt for a man who had betrayed her mother and herself for pretty much all of his life. ‘Now we’re going to part company for ever in a couple of weeks’ time, why deny the fact that I find you an attractive man? It makes sense to sleep with you, Dio. Like you said to me, it won’t be a hardship.’
Pretty much everything she said got on Dio’s nerves even though there was not a single thing he didn’t agree with, not a single thing that shouldn’t have eased his conscience.
‘And what if I told you that you could have the money you want without the sex?’ he heard himself ask.
Lucy looked at him, surprised.
‘You mean that?’
‘What if I told you that I did?’ For a man who didn’t deal in hypotheses, he discovered that he was a dab hand at dishing them out. He had seen nothing wrong with going after what he wanted, what he was owed, and likewise he had seen nothing wrong in using whatever tools were at his disposal to get there. After all, he owed nothing to a woman who had been his wife in name only for reasons that had suited her at the time. Why should he care about a woman who had turned out to be no better than a gold-digger?
Annoyingly, it now irked him to think that she was only going to hop into bed with him because he had dangled that money carrot in front of her. So she fancied him. Big deal. From the age of thirteen he had known what it was like to be fancied by the opposite sex. But did she fancy him enough to sleep with him if she didn’t think that it made financial sense?
He loathed the direction his thoughts were taking but seemed unable to stop the flow now that it had begun.
‘Are you? Because, if you’re just speculating, then I don’t want to be having this conversation. You’re free to walk away cash in hand, Lucy, and you don’t have to sleep with me as part of the deal.’ He flung himself onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. If this was what it felt like to be the good guy, then he could say in all honesty that he’d felt better.
‘Really?’
‘Feel free to show your true colours, my beloved wife,’ Dio said acidly, still staring up at the ceiling but conscious of her naked, sexy body next to his with every treacherous pore of his being.
‘I meant what I said when I told you that I want to sleep with you—money doesn’t have anything to do with it.’
Dio inclined his head to look at her. He couldn’t credit the soar of triumph that greeted her unsteady admission.
‘Is that the sound of you telling me that you’re using me...?’ He shifted so that he was lying on his side and lost himself in a shameless observation of her beautiful body, even though it was costing him not to touch that beautiful body. Yet.
‘And what would you say if I told you that I was?’
‘I’ll live with it,’ he murmured. ‘Now, lie back. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much talk before sex in my life before.’
Lucy’s eyelids fluttered and she obeyed, sprawling with feline satisfaction, arching slightly so that her small breasts were pushed up.
With an unsteady groan, Dio planted a trail of kisses along her neck, then lower across her collarbone. He found heaven when he finally took one nipple into his mouth. It was sweet and succulent and he suckled on it, feeling it tighten in his mouth and hearing her moan as he swirled his tongue across the sensitive surface before drawing it long and deep into his mouth once again.
Gently he cupped her other breast, massaging it, and then rolling his fingers over her nipple, a warm-up for his mouth.
It was pure agony taking his time but he refused to let himself forget that she was a virgin. His virgin. His virgin bride. The thought of that fired him up on all fronts and appealed to the very essence of his masculinity.
He took his time as he straddled her, pushing her legs wide open to accommodate him, and gently stilling her instinct to snap them shut.
He was so aroused that he could scarcely breathe. If he began telling her what he wanted to do with her, he knew that he would find it impossible not to come.
This was a first for her and in some ways it was a first for him as well. The slight tremble which he knew she was trying hard to contain gentled his natural raw instincts.
Her other nipple was waiting for him and he took it gently into his mouth and teased and licked and sucked until she was writhing underneath him, arching up, her fingers curled into his hair so that she could push him down against
