Page 12 of Untamed Billionaire's Innocent Bride
Because like hell would he go begging for scraps.
“You must let me kiss you whenever I wish,” he said, keeping his voice mild so she wouldn’t see that driving need for her inside him, greedy and focused. “That’s it. That is my price. Agree and I will go wherever you wish for me to go and do whatever you wish me to do.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
He could tell she thought he was kidding, because she didn’t bother to sit up straight. Her cheeks didn’t flush, and she was still smiling at him as if he was a fool. He felt like one. But that didn’t make him want to take back what he’d said.
Especially when he could see the truth all over her, where she couldn’t smile it away.
“This fairy tale obsession of yours has gone too far, I think. Let’s return to the real world, which I understand is hard out here in an enchanted cottage in the deep, dark woods.”
“The first thing you will learn about me is that I’m never ridiculous,” Dominik told her, his voice low. “And when I make a promise, I keep it. Will you? You must let me kiss you whenever I like. However I like. This is a simple request, surely. Particularly for a person such as you who doesn’t care one way or the other about kissing.”
“I already told you, I know how this goes.” She’d lost that smile, and was frowning at him then. “You say kissing, but that’s not what you mean. It always goes further. There’s always a hand.”
“I do have a hand, yes. Two, in fact. You’ve caught me.”
“One way or another it always leads back to the same discussion. When we can just have it now.” She shook her head. “I’m just not sexual. That’s the beginning and the end of it.”
“Marvelous. Neither am I, by your definition.” Dominik gazed at her, and hoped he didn’t look as wolfish as he felt. “Let’s be nonsexual together.”
She blinked at him, then frowned all the more. “I don’t think...”
“We can make rules, if you like.” It was his turn to smile, and so he did, all the better to beguile her with. “Rule number one, as discussed, you must allow me to kiss you at my whim. Rule number two, when you no longer wish me to kiss you, you will tell me to stop. That’s it. That’s all I want.”
“But...” Her voice was faint. He counted that as a victory.
“And in return for this, little red, I will trot back to England on your boss’s leash and perform the role of long-lost brother to his satisfaction. What will that entail, do you think? Will it be acts of fealty in public view? Or will it simply be an appropriate haircut, the better to blend with the stodgy aristocracy?”
She looked bewildered for a moment, and if Dominik had ever had the slightest inkling to imagine himself a good man—which he hadn’t—he knew better then. Because he liked it. He liked her off balance, those soft lips parting and her eyes dazed as if she hardly knew what to do with herself.
Oh, yes, he liked it a great deal.
“I don’t understand why, when you could have anything in the world, you would ask for...a kiss.”
He could feel the edge in his own smile then. “You cannot buy me, Lauren. But you can kiss me.”
She looked dubious, but then, after a moment or two, she appeared to be considering it.
Which Dominik felt like her hands all over his body, skin to skin.
“How long do you imagine this arrangement will go on?” she asked.
He shrugged. “As long as your Mr. Combe requires I remain in his spotlight, I suppose.”
“And you give me your word that you will stop when I tell you to.”
“I would not be much of a man if I did not,” he said, evenly. “There are words to describe those who disregard such clear instructions, but man is not among them.”
“All you want from the news that you’re one of the richest men alive is a kiss,” she said after another moment, as if she was selecting each word with care. “And I suppose you can’t get much kissing out here in the middle of nowhere, so fair enough, if that’s what you like. But why would you choose me?”
Dominik restrained himself—barely—from allowing his very healthy male ego to tell her that he had no trouble finding women, thank you very much. That this cabin was a voluntary retreat, not an involuntary sentence handed down from on high. But he didn’t say that.
“What can I say? I’ve always had a weakness for Little Red Riding Hood.”
She sighed, and at the end, it turned into a little laugh. “Very well. If that’s what you want, I’ll kiss you. But we leave for England as soon as possible.”
“As you wish,” Dominik murmured, everything in him hot and ready, laced through with triumph and something far darker and more intense he didn’t want to name. Not when he could indulge it instead. “But first, that kiss. As promised.”