Wife By Contract, Mistress By Demand

She loved this man. Had thought his response meant he’d loved her in return. But his response, it seemed, had only been physical. A physical response he’d had complete control over as he’d taken her to climax, his comments since meaning to humiliate her—and succeeding.

Worse, he had called her mother money-grasping—her wonderful mother, who had known such misery when married to Gabriella’s father, and deserved every moment of the happiness she had now found with James.

‘Rufus, you can’t seriously believe that my mother…She loves your father very much!’ she protested, wondering what that made her if Rufus could believe those things about her mother.

‘Oh, give me a break!’he scorned hardly. ‘It’s easy to love someone when they’re worth the millions my father is.’

‘But she really loves him!’ Gabriella defended heatedly.

‘Of course she does,’ he sneered. ‘Enough to accept him giving her a hundred thousand pounds to pay off her debts before they were even married, anyway. A little excessive for a dress allowance, wouldn’t you say?’ he added scathingly.

‘What?’ Gabriella gasped, standing up. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Oh, come on, Gabriella,’ he sighed wearily. ‘Just accept that I know about the money and the debts, and let’s move on, shall we?’

She really didn’t know what he was talking about, was sure there had to be some sort of mistake. Her mother would never—‘You’re just bitter and twisted, Rufus, because everyone knows that Angela only married you for—’ She broke off, realizing she had gone too far as she saw Rufus’s face darken ominously. He seemed to loom over her now, his green eyes so pale they looked silver.

‘Yes?’ he prompted softly, dangerously. ‘Angela only married me for…?’

Her mother, aware of all the details of Rufus’s marriage and divorce, had thought it best if they never talked about it, and now Gabriella had thrown it in Rufus’s own face!

But he had insulted her mother, for goodness’ sake, and his accusations were totally untrue. There was no way her mother could have had debts of a hundred thousand pounds!

She shook her head. ‘Not all women are like Angela—’

‘Aren’t they?’ Rufus cut in confrontationally. ‘Do you deny the fact that you’ve done nothing but throw yourself at me for the last year?’

Her cheeks burned at his obvious derision; she was still slightly dazed by the way he had turned on her after the physical intimacy they had just shared.

And, yes, she had been unashamedly besotted with him for the last year, from the very first moment she’d seen him, in fact, but that was because she had fallen in love with him, not for the reason he seemed to be implying.

Implying?

After the things he had accused her mother of he wasn’t implying anything, was clearly stating that her only interest in him was the same as her gold-digging mother’s had been where his father was concerned—his millions!

Rufus eyed her derisively. ‘Do you deny that you also stayed here deliberately today with the idea of seducing me?’

Gabriella knew she couldn’t deny that either, but that was only because—because—

Because he had remained totally immune to all her other attempts to show him how much in love with him she was!

And now she knew the reason he had remained immune—because he believed her mother had only married his father for his money, and believed she only wanted him for the same reason!

She shook her head firmly. ‘I don’t believe a word you’ve said about my mother.’

‘Then ask her, Gabriella,’ he challenged scathingly. ‘Just ask her.’ He gave a mocking shake of his head. ‘I have no idea why my father bothered to marry Heather at all when he was already paying for it—’ Rufus broke off abruptly as Gabriella’s hand landed hard against his cheek.

Rufus reached up and grasped her wrist, his face dangerously close to hers now, his eyes glowing with an icy heat, the mark of Gabriella’s hand starting to show red on one rigid cheek. ‘Do that again, Gabriella, and I promise you’ll regret it,’ he grated between clenched teeth.

Her eyes blazed deeply purple as she glared right back at him, breathing hard in her agitation. ‘I hate you!’

‘Good,’ he said with satisfaction. ‘Perhaps in future this will teach you to leave me out of your quest for a rich husband!’

‘I wouldn’t come near you again if you were the last man on earth!’ she assured him emotionally.

‘How original!’ Rufus scorned.

‘You bastard!’ Gabriella told him with feeling. ‘You’re an absolute bastard and I hate you!’ She turned and ran into the villa.

Rufus stood poised on the edge of the pool for several furious minutes before turning sharply and diving deep into the water, relishing the coolness as he began to swim the length of the pool.

Gabriella hated him.

Good.

So why didn’t it feel as satisfying as he’d imagined?

CHAPTER ONE

FIVE years later, as she gazed across the lawyer’s office at Rufus Gabriella knew that she still hated him!

‘If I could get straight on to the terms of Mr Gresham’s will…?’ David Brewster prompted politely once they were seated.

‘Go ahead,’ Rufus instructed tersely.

He didn’t want her here, Gabriella knew. Or his cousin Toby, if the way the two men had greeted each other a few minutes ago was anything to go by. On that she could agree with him however, after what Toby had done.

But although she knew Rufus wouldn’t believe her, she really wished she weren’t here.

Given a choice, she would rather James hadn’t died at all. She’d much rather he were still here giving her the fatherly advice and love that she had found so invaluable since her mother’s death a year ago.

James had been devastated after Heather was killed in a car crash last year, and never really seemed to fully recover from the blow. He had suffered a heart attack six months later, and then another, fatal one, a month ago.

No, given a choice Gabriella would rather have had both James and Heather still alive than being summoned to this lawyer’s office—as must Rufus and Toby have been—at this time, on this day, for a meeting about James’s will.

She and Rufus hadn’t spoken at all since they had arrived separately. As they hadn’t spoken for the last five years. As they wouldn’t ever speak again once this last link with James was severed.

David Brewster’s expression was grave as he opened the official-looking document on top of his desk to look at them over the top of the half-moon glasses he had perched on top of his nose. ‘First things first,’ he said slowly. ‘I have already informed by letter the recipients of small bequests in Mr Gresham’s will, members of the household staff and suchlike,’ he dismissed. ‘And there is, of course, a trust fund for his granddaughter Holly, to be administered by her father and myself until she is of an age to receive the bulk capital.’

‘Lucky old Holly,’ Toby said cheerfully, an actor by profession, his dark good looks unfortunately not matched in talent, meaning that he was very often ‘resting’ rather than actually working. ‘Pity she isn’t eighteen rather than seven, then I could have married her!’

‘Over my dead body!’ Rufus growled in response.

‘If necessary,’ Toby came back tauntingly.

Gabriella barely listened to the exchange, her earlier tension rising to an unbearable pitch as David Brewster dismissed so lightly those ‘small bequests’.

What did that mean?