style="font-size:15px;"> ‘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!’
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.
Dominick didn’t let his guard down often. And last night he had made it pretty plain that with her he didn’t intend letting his barriers down at all.
Nevertheless, it was still a little unnerving to see Dominick so relaxed and at ease with her mother. Unless it was all an act? Was this all an effort on his part to show he was keeping to his side of their bargain?
That was probably nearer the truth!
‘Am I interrupting something?’ Kenzie finally murmured.
Dominick’s laughter faded quickly, his expression mockingly questioning as he turned to look at her.
Confirming to Kenzie that he really was just continuing the act, and that he intended giving her no reason whatsoever to complain about his behaviour in front of her family.
Her mother continued to smile. ‘Dominick and I were just thinking he looks like one of those male strippers—just before he whips his clothes off and leaves on only the bow-tie.’
Kenzie deliberately didn’t look at Dominick again as her dark brows raised towards her mother. ‘And when did you last see a male stripper?’
The last time Kenzie had seen Dominick, he had actually been naked so there was no way she could meet his gaze at the moment!
‘Never.’ Her mother gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment.
‘Mother!’ Kenzie chuckled affectionately.
Nancy shook her head ruefully as she gave a smile that encompassed Dominick as well as Kenzie. ‘That’s the trouble with you youngsters—you think you were the first to discover the attractions of the naked body!’
‘Not me,’ Dominick drawled, having discovered this morning that, in spite of his usual reticence, he actually liked this older version of Kenzie. He was finding it very hard to remain aloof from the happiness this family felt on the day of the youngest daughter’s wedding. ‘It’s obvious that you and Donald discovered it at least four times in the last thirty years!’ he teased.
Nancy gave a becoming blush. ‘I guess I deserved that one!’ She grinned. ‘Kenzie, I have to go and telephone the florist and find out why the flowers haven’t arrived yet, so I’ll leave you to get Dominick some breakfast.’ She gave her daughter an affectionate pat on the cheek as she moved to the door. ‘Don’t forget we’re leaving for the hairdresser’s in half an hour,’ she reminded her before going to make her call.
Now Dominick and Kenzie were alone in the kitchen, although it was obvious from the closing of doors overhead, and the sound of loud voices, that they were far from the only people in the house.
Dominick reached up and unfastened the bow-tie from around his neck to hold it loosely between his fingers as he looked across at Kenzie.
She looked about sixteen this morning, dressed in those jeans and a fitted green tee shirt the colour of her eyes, the silky length of her hair secured in a band.
She raised her long dark lashes and met his gaze, memories of their time together last night deep in their depths.
They were the same memories that had haunted Dominick for the rest of the night as he’d sat down here in the kitchen drinking coffee. Half of him had wanted to go back upstairs and finish what they had started, but the other half of him had known this wasn’t the time or the place. What happened between him and Kenzie in the future had to be on his terms. Anything else was unacceptable.
Kenzie had walked out on him, and he didn’t intend letting her get away from him again until he had exacted his pound of flesh in payment for that.
Literally!
In the meantime he was determined to keep strictly to his side of the bargain,
