Made For Each Other by Parris Afton Bonds Read Free Book Online

the bed. “No doubt we’ll be
besieged by reporters as soon as this storm lets up,” he said
grimly before turning away.
    Her gaze followed him into the living
room, where the darkness swallowed him up. Her mind was a whirlwind
of discordant, disconnected thoughts. Miserable, she pushed herself
from the bed. Obviously the wisest thing would be for her to leave
before they arrived. Perhaps Nick could take her into Ruidoso and
let her out somewhere, though she doubted that her absence would
halt the scandalous headlines.
    She paused at the doorway, gathering
her courage to ask him. He stood before the hearth, one hand
resting on the mantel. The fire’s light silhouetted the powerful
lines of his masculine body.
    As if he sensed her presence, he said
quietly, never turning around, “I suppose the only answer to save
your virtuous reputation and my career is to marry you.”
    She blinked, not quite certain she had
understood. When nothing more followed, she crossed to stand at his
side. Nick looked down at her; then his gaze dropped, and she
realized that she had forgotten to button the shirt, that his gaze
was plundering the treasures of her exposed breasts. Quickly she
pulled the shirt closed. “Would you mind repeating what you just
said?”
    “Do you have a better suggestion?” he
asked, fully aware she had heard him correctly the first
time.
    “Of all the arrogant, conceited, self-
centered—” Her hand lashed out, and Nick caught it in midflight
before it reached its target. “You’re hurting me,” she
gasped.
    “Then listen to me—quietly.
We can cross over the border at El Paso and be married at Judrez
before the night is over. A few dollars given to the alcalde —the justice of
the peace,” he translated for her—“and our marriage certificate
will be dated the night of your accident.”
    “What makes you think I’d want to be
married to—to you?” Her voice grew louder the angrier she got.
“Marriage with you is the last thing I’d want! I’d rather be known
as a call girl than married to you!”
    “Mark my words—you will be known as
one if you don’t marry me.” Her hand went limp, and Nick continued.
“You don’t have long to consider my offer. ”
    She stood there, trying to sort out
her feelings. She hated Nicholas Raffer and all he stood for; not
just some of his political views, but his arrogance, his wealth,
his free- swinging life style that gave no consideration to the
female sex.
    Yet she had to admit she was strongly
attracted to him. “It’d never work,” she whis-pered. “The way we
detest each other. My idea of a marriage is like my parents’—a
marriage of trusting, of love,” she said slowly, trying to
formulate her thoughts into words. “Our marriage would be a
disaster. We’d both be miserable.”
    “I didn’t say we had to stay married
the rest of our lives.”
    She tried to make out in the light of
the fire what lay behind Nick’s dispassionate expres-sion. “For six
months or so, you mean?”
    “Something like that—until this
incident blows over.”
    “What do you get out of all this?” she
asked suspiciously. “I can’t believe you’re generous enough to
sacrifice yourself on the marriage altar with what Santa Fe society
would call a nobody!”
    Nick’s hand crept out to run its
fingers through her feathery curls. She tensed at his touch,
waiting. After a moment he said casually, “Protection. If I hope to
be reelected to my senate seat next year I can’t be worried about
the next edition of some tabloid. And in turn you would have the
protection of my good name in marriage. It would be a marriage of
mutual benefits.”
    “Oh,” she murmured. And with that
utterance went all the fantasies of her youth . . . the beautiful
wedding in white, the adoring bridegroom, the happy-ever-after
fairy tale.
    “Wow. I love all the romance and
flowers you come bearing. All right,” she said wearily. But the old
spark of high spirit reignited, and her