The Billionaire’s Bride Of Vengeance Read online

  Nicole jerked back out of his arms, her eyes widening as they flashed up to his.

  ‘I dare say you’ve had many men say that to you over the years,’ he went on. ‘Please believe me when I say I don’t make a habit of such rash declarations. That’s why I was rude to you at first, because the intensity of my feelings took me by surprise. And because I was sure that a girl as exquisitely beautiful as you are would already be taken. But your being here tonight, alone, indicates that maybe I was mistaken…’ His eyebrows lifted questioningly. ‘Is there a lover or boyfriend in your life at the moment? Someone overseas perhaps?’

  Nicole still couldn’t find her tongue, but she did manage to shake her head in the negative.

  The satisfaction in his eyes was both flattering and frightening. ‘Then I’m free to tell you that seeing you again tonight has done nothing to lessen my interest. In fact I want you more than I’ve wanted any woman before in my life.’

  The passion in his voice, and in his eyes, both dazzled and dazed her.

  ‘You take my breath away,’ he ground out, cupping her chin firmly with his right hand and lifting her mouth up towards his rapidly descending lips.

  His kiss was not gentle. But she loved it, wallowing in the bruising force of his lips and the savage invasion of his tongue.

  If he’d stopped within a decent span of time, she might have had some common sense left. But he went on and on, draining her of the rest of her will, pushing her beyond any thought of where this would end, beyond everything but the need to keep on being kissed by him.

  His wrenching his lips from hers brought a soft cry of dismay.

  Russell stared down at her parted lips and dilated eyes and wondered if this was all for real—for him, Russell McClain, the man.

  Her surrender seemed amazingly quick, as though she was possessed by the same mad passion which had governed both his lust-filled words earlier and his kisses just now. But it didn’t seem logical that the coolly composed creature he’d met the other day would suddenly turn into a wanton.

  Of course, party girls like her did live a pretty fast life. For all he knew, she could be on something tonight, some recreational drug which had lessened her inhibitions and heightened her appetite. Or maybe she’d imbibed too much of the top champagne James had had flown in from France for his wedding; a few glasses of that could make a girl very amenable to a man’s advances.

  On the other hand, maybe she’d had some time to think about her changed circumstances since arriving back in Sydney. Maybe she’d decided that Daddy’s lessened wealth might not last forever and she would need a new gravy train if she wanted to continue the good life.

  Which meant this show might not be for him, Russell McClain, the man…but for Russell McClain, the potential billionaire.

  Perversely, Russell no longer cared what her motivation was for looking up at him as if she couldn’t wait to go to bed with him. All he cared about right at that moment was where she would be before this night was out. He’d never felt anything like the arousal he was feeling right now. His flesh had moved beyond pleasure and into the realms of sheer and utter pain.

  ‘So there you are!’

  Russell suppressed a groan at the arrival of the plump brunette Nicole had been sitting next to inside.

  ‘I was wondering where you’d got to,’ the girl added, her eyes avid as they flitted from one to the other. ‘Have I interrupted something, sweetie?’ she directed at Nicole. ‘If so, please just say so and I’ll go. I’m nothing if not discreet.’

  Nicole blushed furiously, surprising Russell. It was hard to fake a blush. There again, it could be a blush of guilt.

  ‘Nicole and I are just leaving,’ he stated firmly.

  The brunette seemed startled but not displeased.

  ‘Would you mind, Kara?’ Nicole said, still looking faintly embarrassed.

  ‘Of course not. Off you go and have some fun. I’ll leave a key to the back door in the usual spot. But I won’t fret if you don’t use it. If your bed’s still empty in the morning, I’ll tell Mother you’ve gone out on a breakfast date with a handsome hunk you met at the wedding. Nice to finally meet you, Mr McClain.’

  She flashed him a saucy little smile, making him wonder what Nicole had said about him to her.

  Obviously something.

  ‘Au revoir, sweetie,’ she finished up and, with a flamboyant wave, whirled around her plump but not unattractive frame to head back to the reception.

  By this time, Russell and Nicole weren’t alone on the deck, several more people having made their way outside.

  ‘Come on,’ Russell said, sliding a captive arm around her waist and guiding her along the deck towards a set of steps which would take them down to the car park.

  ‘Where…where are we going?’ she asked breathlessly as he hurried her towards his car.

  ‘Not to a club, that’s for sure.’ Or to his apartment, despite it being the closer of his two current residences. He’d moved a few things into the Belleview Hill mansion yesterday and slept in Alistair Power’s king-sized bed for the first time last night. Once again, however, the experience had lacked the feeling of satisfaction he’d been anticipating.

  Russell could see, however, that sleeping there tonight with his enemy’s daughter by his side would be a whole different ball game. Now, that would feel like real revenge, of the highly personal kind that he’d always coveted.

  He zapped the car unlocked, reefed open the passenger door and had her inside in record time.

  ‘This is crazy,’ she said after he’d climbed in behind the wheel. ‘We hardly know each other.’ And she shot him an oddly fearful look which didn’t compute with her being drunk, or drugged, or directed by materialistic ambition.

  She seemed genuinely alarmed at her own behaviour, which was as puzzling as it was a possible problem. Russell didn’t want her having second thoughts at this stage.

  He shoved the key in the ignition, then leant over the gear stick to take her face in his hands once more.

  ‘What is there to know but this?’ he murmured, and kissed her again. Softly this time and seductively, savouring the low moan of surrender she made when her lips flowered open under his.

  Now that he had her where he wanted her, Russell wasn’t about to let her get away. He pressed her hard against the leather seat and kept on kissing her, at the same time letting his right hand slide slowly down her neck till it reached the valley between her breasts.

  Once there, he quite deliberately lifted his mouth away so that he could watch her eyes when his hand moved underneath her dress and over her naked breast. He wanted to see her reaction, wanted to watch for signs of anything fake.

  Not that it really mattered. If she was pretending desire for the sake of greed, then the outcome would not change: he would still bed her tonight.

  But having Nicole Power mindless with desire for him would be an added bonus. How ironic would that be? How brilliantly satisfying!

  His hand moved and her eyes flung wide open, her back stiffening when his fingers found their goal.

  Her nipple was hard, like a river pebble.

  ‘No, don’t,’ she whimpered when he rolled it round and round with his fingertips.

  He ignored her feeble protest and kept doing it till her mouth gasped open and her eyes glazed over. At that point he pushed the silky green material aside to totally expose her breast, then bent his head to put his mouth where his fingertips had been.

  Her practically jackknifing from the seat told Russell all he needed to know. There was absolutely no pretence in her responses. She was his, to do with as he pleased. His to explore and exploit. His to win and maybe even to wed.

  Did he want to go that far? Did he want to see her walk down the aisle in white the way Megan had that day? Did he want to see blind adoration in her eyes as well as the mindless desire he’d just glimpsed in her beautiful green eyes?

  There was only one answer to those questions.

  An unequivocal yes
.

  CHAPTER NINE

  NICOLE squeezed her eyes tightly shut against the sensations bombarding her body.

  Oh, yes, she thought wildly when he sucked harder on her nipple. Yes!

  Her hands closed into tightly balled fists by the sides of the seat, her bag having long slipped out of her grasp. She pressed her back against the leather and lifted her chest higher for him, inviting his mouth to take in more of her breast.

  His sudden desertion dragged a groan from deep in her throat, her eyelashes fluttering open to stare up into the darkly silhouetted face looming over her.

  ‘As much as I’d like to ravage you right here and now,’ he said thickly, ‘I think it best that we wait till I get you home.’

  A stunned Nicole just sat there as he returned to the driver’s seat and started up the engine, several seconds passing before she realised her left breast was totally exposed, its peaked nipple still glistening with his saliva.

  ‘Leave it like that,’ he growled when her hand moved to cover herself up.

  ‘I…I can’t,’ she said, shocked by the suggestion. ‘Someone might see me.’ And she quickly pulled her dress back into place.

  ‘As you wish, beautiful,’ he said as he sped off.

  As I wish?

  Nicole’s eyes darted across to the man behind the wheel, her gaze landing on his hands first. Big they were, and strong.

  What she wished was that they were on her body again. His mouth, too, on her breasts and between her legs.

  Nicole shuddered at how thrilling she found that thought. How thrilling she found him, wickedly thrilling.

  Oh, yes, he was wicked all right.

  But oh, so passionate. The things he’d said to her back at the yacht club, the things he’d done to her just now in this car…

  She was still thinking about those things when his car zoomed down into the harbour tunnel and she realised where he was taking her: to her old home in Belleview Hill. But now it had become his, for twenty million dollars…

  This last thought brought her back to some semblance of sense, reminding Nicole of her recent vow never to have anything to do with rich men. Not only were a lot of them corrupt and amoral, but most were also arrogant and spoiled and far too used to getting their own way.

  Russell McClain was undoubtedly all of those things. Just look at the company he kept! Hugh Parkinson was a roué, if ever there was one. As for James Logan… Nicole hoped Megan would be happy with him, but she doubted it.

  So what on earth was she doing going home with him?

  Nicole had never been a one-night-stand kind of girl. In the past, she’d thought of herself as a prize for the man who was pursuing her, a prize worth waiting for. She’d been taught by her once-bitten mother to put tickets on herself in that regard, to not give herself cheaply and easily.

  Which she hadn’t.

  She’d dated David for two months before they’d slept together.

  Still, David had never made her crave him the way she was craving Russell McClain right at this moment. She could not stop thinking about it, could not wait to feel again what this man could make her feel.

  His being rich was irrelevant at this moment. No doubt she would regret her impulsive behaviour in the morning. But future regrets had no chance of making her do or say anything to stop the man sitting next to her from having his wicked way with her tonight.

  By the time Russell arrived at his destination, the demands of his cruelly frustrated body threatened to override his need to control this situation, himself, and her.

  Nicole’s silence during the drive had given him far too much time to think about the rest of the evening, his desire for her body, plus the anticipation of finally getting even with Alistair Power through his daughter, proving an intoxicating mix. He could not wait to take her, to watch her come apart in his arms.

  But that would only happen if he could control his own excruciating need for release.

  Not an ideal situation.

  But still his priority remained to whip her up to Power’s master bedroom, where the greatest revenge of all could begin.

  ‘You don’t have a girlfriend tucked away somewhere, do you?’ Nicole suddenly asked as he drove through the gates. ‘Or a wife?’

  Russell’s eyebrows lifted. Hardly the question a totally turned-on girl would ask.

  But typical of women like Nicole Powers. They always had their eyes on the ball.

  ‘Of course not,’ he said truthfully.

  ‘You…you wouldn’t lie to me, would you?’

  Something in her voice pricked his conscience.

  ‘Why would I do that?’ he answered a little gruffly.

  ‘To get me into bed.’

  He parked at the base of the front steps and turned off the engine before facing her. ‘I’ve never had any trouble getting women into my bed before, Nicole. And I haven’t had to lie.’

  He reached out and touched her flushed cheek before trailing his fingers over to her mouth. Slowly, he traced her lips with a single fingertip till her mouth fell open on a low moan. He might have inserted his finger for her to suck if he hadn’t already been on a dangerous edge himself.

  ‘There’s no need for me to lie to you,’ Russell lied as he let his hand drop away. ‘You’re an adult woman, Nicole. You’ve come here with me willingly, so let’s not play games with each other. Let’s just enjoy tonight for what it is. A man and a woman totally in tune with each other. Come on, let’s get out of here and go somewhere a lot more comfortable.’

  She didn’t protest when he took her hand and led her up the curving staircase into the master bedroom. But she did look a little shell-shocked, her eyes widening when they landed on the bed, which he’d fortunately had the foresight to make that morning, complete with its French lace duvet.

  ‘You can’t expect me to sleep with you in my mother’s bed,’ she choked out, her bag clutched defensively in front of her.

  ‘My bed now,’ he said, removing that infernal bag and tossing it onto the bedside table before pulling her into his arms again. She went, but rather reluctantly, which was not what he wanted. He wanted her mindless, as she’d been back in his car.

  ‘Come, now, Nicole, you’re…how old?’

  ‘Twenty-five.’

  ‘Old enough not to worry about such things, then. Your mother is a woman of the world. Do you really think she’d care?’ he finished as his head began to descend.

  No, Nicole realised just before he kissed her. She probably wouldn’t. All her mother cared about these days was the good life. It didn’t even bother her that her husband was unfaithful.

  But still…being in her bed didn’t feel right.

  Any qualms she had about where Russell made love to her, however, were obliterated within seconds of his lips meeting hers, that incredible craving returning with an urgency which brooked no excuses or objections. Soon, all she cared about was that his mouth was back on hers again. His hands, too.

  A small degree of panic resurfaced when he stopped kissing her long enough to turn back the duvet. She whispered a feeble protest when Russell started undressing her, but he just said, ‘Don’t be silly,’ and kept on stripping her till she was totally naked, except for her jewellery.

  His stepping back and just staring at her at that stage brought a rush of dark excitement, the like of which she’d never known before. Although not in any way ashamed of her body, Nicole had never been an exhibitionist. Having Russell’s hungry eyes raking over her bare skin, however, sent her head spinning, her nipples peaking under his hot gaze, her belly tightening with the most delicious tension.

  ‘Take the jewellery off,’ he commanded in a desire-thickened voice.

  She managed to unhook the drop earrings and put them on the bedside table, but fumbled with the clasp of the pendant.

  ‘I’ll do it,’ he ground out, and strode round behind her.

  She shivered when his fingers grazed the nape of her neck.

  ‘Was this a present?’ he
asked as he slid the released necklace from around her throat.

  ‘Yes,’ she choked out.

  ‘From a besotted admirer, no doubt. No, don’t bother to answer that. I haven’t brought you here to discuss your past conquests,’ he said as he dropped the necklace next to the earrings then turned her round to face him.

  ‘Frankly, I prefer you without adornment of any kind,’ he said, his eyes narrowing as they travelled slowly over her totally exposed body.

  Nicole didn’t know what to say or do. So she just stood there and let him look at her, her mouth bone-dry, her heart racing behind her ribs.

  He didn’t make any move to touch her, just continued to stare at her till the air in the room grew a lot warmer and her head a lot lighter. When she swayed, he caught her by her shoulders, spun her round then yanked her hard against him. Once there, he released her shoulders and snaked his left arm tightly around her waist, holding her solidly captive while his other hand was left free to do as it pleased.

  And it finally pleased to touch her, his widely splayed palm rubbing back and forth over her fiercely erect nipples till she didn’t think she could bear any more.

  ‘Oh, please,’ she whimpered.

  A flash of lightning accompanied by a huge clap of thunder brought a different cry to her lips.

  That tantalising hand stopped abruptly, the room suddenly very quiet except for his heavy breathing. Nicole stiffened when another loud clap of thunder rocked the room.

  ‘You’re frightened of storms?’ he asked, his mouth hot against her ear.

  ‘Yes,’ she choked out.

  ‘I love them.’

  ‘What’s there to love about them?’

  ‘They usually herald rain. Farmers’ sons love rain.’

  When his hold on her suddenly slackened, Nicole wriggled round in his arms and looked up into his flushed face.

  ‘You’re a farmer’s son?’ How did you become one of the most successful real-estate agents in Sydney? she thought.

  ‘Once upon a time,’ he said wryly, his eyes growing distant as they turned away to glance around the room. When they eventually returned to hers, his face had cooled, his expression no longer that of a man in the throes of passion.