Baby for the Billionaire(143)

“Do I understand you correctly?” He drew a deep, audible breath. “If we take sex out of the equation you’d marry me?”

“Maybe …” It was a croak of sound. But her body was urging more, more, more.

“This is no time for maybe, Victoria. Yes or no?”

They weren’t touching. Yet over the gap that separated them she could feel the heat of his body, the force of his power.

Victoria started to tremble. She was ready to say anything to stop the sizzle.

“Yes,” she sighed.





Nine




Connor discovered over the next few days that getting married solely for Dylan’s sake wasn’t what he wanted. He wasn’t that noble. He wanted more.

She was driving him crazy. Once or twice as she sashayed past he considered yanking her off her feet, into his lap, and repeating the experiment.

Their no-sex agreement had to be the most idiotic thing he’d ever done. Hell, she was going to wear his ring. That would brand her his for the world to see. Yet he wouldn’t be allowed to touch. Sooner or later something was going to have to give—and it would be Victoria. He was quite confident that he would achieve that. She would come around. He’d see to it because he sure as hell had no intention of sticking to their stupid pact.

In the meantime, he made up for it by looking. Surreptitiously, carefully and at every opportunity he got.

It was torture.

Several times each day he would call Victoria at work—ostensibly to talk about Dylan. But he found himself looking forward to those segments of time when her husky voice came over the line, especially when he managed to get her to laugh.

Lust had turned him into something pathetic.

It was a sign of how entangled he’d become with his new life that, when Iris came into his spacious corner office with his coffee and announced that she’d heard Dana and Paul were getting married, Connor felt one brief flare of resentment and then … nothing.

The lack of turmoil and emotion was liberating. He stood staring at Iris until she said, “Connor, are you okay?”

He gave his assistant an unabashed grin. “I’m better than okay—I’m great.”

She snorted. “Because Dana and Paul are getting married?”

“Yep.” His grin widened. “Makes me feel much better than I thought.”

A wave of relief crashed over him that there was no need for anger, or to exact further revenge. That phase of his life was over.

What he had now was so much better.

Iris straightened the papers on his desk into a neat pile. “There’s a rumor that Dana’s pregnant.”

Even that didn’t disturb him. He grinned at her over the top of the coffee mug. “I should’ve anticipated that. Poor Paul.”

“You had a lucky escape.”

“I certainly did.” Setting the mug down on a wooden coaster, he tipped his head sideways and studied Iris as she slit his correspondence with a letter opener. “You never indicated you didn’t like Dana.”

“Wasn’t my place—you seemed happy enough with her.”

His gaze paused on her pursed mouth. “You’re not the only one. Michael never liked her, either, nor did Brett.” His brother had been open in his reservations about Dana after their first meeting. Of course, Dana hadn’t cared for Brett either—she’d been relieved that he lived in London.

There was a scrape as Iris shredded the empty envelopes. “Dana was always good at her job, and she knew who to impress. But she’d clamber over anyone in her way to get what she wanted.” Iris turned back to face him.

Leaning back in his executive chair, Connor folded his arms behind his head. “It wasn’t easy for her. People are always harder on women who are successful in business.” He thought of Victoria. “Even me.” He couldn’t help wondering what Iris would make of Victoria.

“It had nothing to do with Dana’s successes, just the way she went about achieving them.” Disapproval came off Iris in waves. “And you shouldn’t be defending her.” With that, she bustled out of his office, pausing at the doorway to say, “Don’t forget you have a meeting at noon.”

Connor nodded, then swiveled his chair to look out the window at the knot of gum trees that flourished beside a pond. A pair of ungainly blue-and-black pukekos minced on orange webbed feet along the bank of the pond, picking for food.