The Billionaire's Wife by Ava Lore Read Free Book Online Page B

of
insight, I realized that he hadn't told me how to dress because he wanted to
see what I would do, not just exerting power over me.
    For a brief moment I felt ashamed.
"Was this just a test?" I asked.
    He tilted his head. "It was
what it was. I now know more about you than before. That is enough for
me." A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. I wished I could punch it
and not get my name in the papers. I wondered if paparazzi were taking pictures
of us right now. The thought was so humiliating that I swept my hair over my
face and looked down at my plate and its lovingly arranged asparagus.
    "But we are here to talk about
the contract, yes?"
    I nodded. "Yeah." The
asparagus languished in front of me, begging to be eaten, but I had lost my
appetite.
    “Let me see it.”
    With clumsy fingers, I extracted
the rewritten agreement from my purse and handed it across the table. Waters leaned
back and began to flip through it as though he had all the time in the world.
Ms. Gray had highlighted the changes in the contract to make them easy to find,
and he lingered over each one, sipping his wine as he did so. Occasionally he
glanced up at me.
    At last he sat back. “None of these
changes are very drastic,” he said. “Are you sure this is all you want?”
    I'd been staring at my asparagus
salad, trying to ignore him and make a decision about what part of my bounty to
attack first, but at this I looked up in surprise.
    “I, uh, didn't know I could ask for
more.”
    He speared his tomato and popped it
into his mouth. “You may ask for anything you like. Whether or not I will grant
it is another matter entirely.”
    God, I hated him.
    Thoughtfully, he chewed and
swallowed. “Your changes are minimal. The major changes appear to be a
requirement to revisit and renew the contract after one year. That is fine with
me. And you wish for the medical clause to go into effect immediately upon
signing.” For a long moment, he regarded me, then signaled a passing waiter who
snapped to attention.
    “May I borrow a pen?” he asked.
    The blood drained from my face.
Surely he didn't mean to...?
    But he did. The waiter whipped a
ballpoint pen from his pocket, and right in front of me Anton Waters initialed
and signed each clause and page, and then signed and dated it.
    He pushed it across the table.
    I stared at it.
    It stared back at me.
    I willed it to go away.
    It didn't.
    I reached out and drained my glass
of wine.
    “Are you not prepared to sign
today?” Waters asked.
    I swallowed. “I...” My thoughts
ricocheted inside my head. All it would take was a flourish of a cheap Bic
ballpoint and my life would change. I would be bound to marry this man that I
didn't even know, my father would be back in business, and my mother would be
in chemo.
    The world darkened at the edges of
my vision. I tried to take a deep breath, but it seemed like something heavy
had settled on my chest.
    “Miss Dare?”
    A movement across from me caught my
attention. Waters had risen from his seat.
    I didn't know how to react, but
then I felt the booth dip and he slid in next to me, looping an arm around my
shoulders, shielding me from the rest of the dining room.
    God, he felt good, warm and
strong. If circumstances had been different, and if he had been less of a
douche, I might have enjoyed the intimacy. I might have been able to lean into
him and taken comfort from his strength. I might have been able to
wholeheartedly let him take my burdens from me.
    But all it did was make me
skittish. My pulse picked up the pace.
    "Let's not pretend," he
said. Reaching out, he poured me another glass of wine. "You need me, and
I want you."
    "You don't want me," I
said. "You want a woman who needs you."
    "To me, those are one and the
same at the moment." He lifted the wine and brought it toward me, urging
me to drink. I took the glass from his hand and set it on the table.
    From the corner of my eye, I saw
him shake his head. "I like to watch you fight it," he