Contracted: A Wife for the Bedroom Read online

  ‘Absolutely. She knows the two of us couldn’t have worked out and at the end of the day she loves her job too much to quit over something so petty.’

  Petty.

  His choice of word confirmed every idea Lily had formed about him in their few hours together. Relationships were a mere trinket to Hunter—a small, pleasurable diversion and absolutely nothing to lose a moment’s sleep over. But nothing Hunter said would convince Lily that it was so easy for Abigail. Sure, she’d never met the woman, but there was no way one could go on seeing this man every day and not want him.

  He was addictive.

  From the first second that she’d laid eyes on him, nothing else had mattered except getting more of him, not just sexually but emotionally and mentally as well. Like a fabulous book that kept one up all night, turning the pages, like a nibble of the most delectable chocolate that had you peeling back the shiny foil for just a little bit more, he consumed all thought processes, created need where there had been none. Seeing him every day and not having intimate access to him would be torture—like an alcoholic working in a bar—the fix constantly at arm’s length but utterly out of reach. And after just a single night in Hunter’s arms Lily knew it could never be that easy. That the time they had shared was going to be a memory that would linger for ever.

  ‘I guess it would be prudent to see it before I buy it.’ His words snapped her out of her daydream, but Hunter hadn’t yet finished with his ludicrous suggestions. ‘I think we should get married.’ Just like that, he said it, sort of drawled it as he if were commenting on the weather, or suggesting that they go out for breakfast. ‘What I need is a wife.’

  ‘So do I!’ Lily grinned. ‘Preferably one who loves ironing and cleaning and one who know how I like my coffee.’

  ‘No, I’ve been really thinking about it,’ Hunter pushed.

  ‘So have I,’ Lily said. ‘One sugar—it’s your turn to make it.’

  ‘Not till you answer my question.’

  ‘I wasn’t aware you asked one.’

  ‘I mean it, Lily. I’ve been lying here since the crack of dawn, going over and over it, and marriage is the perfect solution.’

  ‘To what?’

  ‘Your money problems.’

  ‘My money problems aren’t your concern.’

  ‘But I could buy your mother’s house for you.’

  ‘Why on earth would you want to do that?’

  ‘Stability.’

  Lily hadn’t actually expected an answer to her question, but if she’d tried to fathom his response, that would have been way off the list, but even before she could respond he elaborated.

  ‘Some of my major investors are starting to get testy about my lifestyle.’

  ‘Hardly surprising!’ Lily smiled, but it faded as she saw that Hunter was completely serious.

  ‘It’s not just my investors. I’m trying to get some big sponsors on board for a charity do I’m organising and it’s been suggested that I tone things down a touch, portray a more stable image.’

  ‘And marrying a girl you’ve known for less than twelve hours will achieve that?’

  ‘My PR people will take care of that.’

  ‘Hunter.’ She smiled up at him. ‘Last night was fantastic.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Completely out of character for me,’ Lily continued, ignoring his sheer lack of modesty, ‘yet utterly fabulous nonetheless. But, as strange as it might seem to you, all this talk of marriage is rather ruining my one wild night of reckless passion.’

  ‘It is the wrong way round,’ Hunter conceded. ‘I mean, normally I wake up the morning after and she’s the one asking about our future…’

  ‘She?’ Lily checked, trying and failing not to wince at his answer.

  ‘Whoever.’ He was leaning over her, one hand still on her stomach as the other fiddled with her clock radio, filling the room with traffic reports and news bulletins as Hunter bombarded her with his own headline news.

  ‘It would make my sister happy.’

  Lily blinked at him in disbelief. ‘Since when did a man marry to make his sister happy? Hunter, I thought you’d be the last person to give two hoots what people think, let alone marry for that reason. What you’re proposing doesn’t make a shred of sense.’

  ‘It does to me. Emma needs to get on with her own life—she’s using me as an excuse not to take up a brilliant offer.’ He paused for a second, clearly debating whether to elaborate. To tell her the truth. She could feel him mentally weighing her up, and whatever test she was unwittingly taking, she must have passed, because after an age Hunter elaborated. ‘She’s a violinist—an extremely talented one. She’s got a solo part coming up in a few weeks and if that goes well, she’s tentatively been offered this huge part in a recital in London. But she’s talking about not taking it. She keeps coming up with random excuses—“We’re all that’s left of the family.” “If I travel, too, then we’ll never see each other.”’ Hunter gave an incredulous laugh. ‘She’s even got it into her head that she needs to be in Melbourne to keep an eye on me. I tell you, she’d come up with any excuse to put off going.’

  ‘You’ve really lost me now.’ Lily shook her head to clear it, but Hunter didn’t give her a chance, just bombarded her all over again.

  ‘Emma’s disabled,’ he explained. ‘She suffered spinal injuries in the same accident that killed my parents last year.’

  ‘How awful!’ He stated it in such a matter-of-fact voice that it served to exacerbate Lily’s shocked response ‘Oh, God, I think I remember reading about it. Hunter, I’m so sorry!’

  ‘Hardly your fault.’

  ‘But even so…’ Lily said, reeling at the horror of it all and confused by the blandness of his voice. ‘Hunter, it must have been a nightmare for you.’

  ‘Well, it wasn’t exactly a barrel of laughs at the time, but it was far worse for Emma.’

  ‘Your sister?’ Lily checked. ‘Is that who you were talking about last night?’

  ‘Yep.’ Hunter gave a grim nod. ‘She’s having a lot of trouble coming to terms with her injuries, but this offer’s huge—she really needs to act on it.’

  ‘Maybe she’s not ready,’ Lily ventured, but Hunter scorned her attempt.

  ‘She’s ready—she’s brilliant!’ He gave a low laugh. ‘She’s just got too much time on her hands. She’s actually starting to believe what the press says about me has a semblance of truth.’

  ‘And does it?’ Lily found she was holding her breath as his face darkened, but even as he opened his mouth to deliver a flip response he changed midway, his expression serious rather than angry, those blue eyes holding hers as he spelt out the terms of his offer.

  ‘I’ll buy the house for you and any gifts I give you naturally you can keep—believe me, I’ll be more than generous. But no one must know it was anything other than a whirlwind affair that in the end went wrong.’

  ‘Went wrong?’

  ‘I’m only asking for twelve months, Lily. Twelve months would give Emma a chance to get her life back without worrying about me, give my investors and sponsors a chance to calm down—then we both walk away with no regrets. I’ll buy you that house—’

  ‘You’re actually serious?’ Lily gaped at him, open mouthed. For most of the conversation she’d thought he’d been joking. Not about his sister, of course—there was nothing to joke about there—but it was starting to dawn on her that Hunter’s marriage proposal hadn’t entirely been a whim. Even if he’d only thought about it for five minutes, he had actually thought about it.

  ‘Oh, I’m completely serious,’ Hunter said in a voice that told her he was.

  ‘Why me?’ Lily asked.

  ‘Why not you?’ Hunter countered. ‘You’re beautiful, funny, very sexy…I can think of a lot worse ways to spend the next twelve months.’

  ‘But you could have anyone. Why not Abigail or—?’

  ‘Because they’d go and do something stupid like fall in love and think it was for ever,’
Hunter interrupted. ‘Whereas you and I know that there’s no such thing.’

  ‘Right.’ Pulling back the sheet, he climbed out of bed, leaving Lily reeling as, naked as the day he was born but infinitely more desirable, he picked up his mobile, punched in a number and promptly cancelled his appointments that day. ‘Think about it,’ he mouthed, before turning his back on her and giving an incredibly complicated list of orders for the unfortunate Abigail.

  And strangest of all—she did. As she stepped out of bed and in somewhat of a daze headed to the shower, as she massaged shampoo into her hair and hastily shaved her legs in preparation for their impromptu outing, it wasn’t the amazing night they’d shared that filled her mind. Instead, it was the amazing future Hunter was offering that consumed her.

  Not the house. Though that would be good.

  Not the car.

  Not the money.

  But him.

  Twelve, exclusive months with this enthralling, breathtaking man.

  How could she not think about it?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘NICE?’

  Hunter glanced over at her and Lily gave a nod. She could literally feel the tension of the past few days seeping out of her as they left behind the city.

  Choosing what to wear for a day in the country with someone so divine was no mean feat. She’d promptly ruled out the shorts and sandals she’d usually put on, just in case Hunter decided to visit some smart restaurant on the way. After umpteen agonised combinations, finally she’d settled on a khaki skirt that zipped up at the front, a white cotton blouse that knotted at the waist and some cream espadrilles—and then had spent an inordinate amount of time applying make-up that hopefully didn’t look like she was wearing any as Hunter had drained the entire contents of her hot-water system and then had had the nerve to ask her to fetch an overnight case that he kept in his car!

  And now here she was snuggled in the soft leather seat of his car as it ate up the miles, sneaking surreptitious looks at Hunter. Out of his suit he still cut a very impressive dash—unshaven, dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt. Those piercing eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, he looked sultry and dangerous and utterly untamable. His toned body brimmed with a restless sexual energy that had Lily fluttering with awareness. Absolutely the type, Lily thought with a smile, that mothers warned their daughters about.

  ‘I needed this,’ Hunter said. ‘I haven’t had a day off in as long as I can remember. Not a real day off,’ he elaborated. ‘You know, without my computer or phone.’

  They’d left their mobile phones behind. A small detail but it had seemed so deliciously reckless at the time as they’d planned their temporary escape from the world.

  ‘I feel as if I’m playing hookey from school!’ Lily smiled, stretching out her legs in front of her and wallowing in the gorgeous feeling of elation and freedom.

  ‘Did you do that?’ Hunter asked a hint of surprise in his voice at her admission. ‘You look like such a good girl!’

  ‘I only did it once.’ Lily visited the memory and then laughed. ‘Actually, this feels nothing like playing hookey from school. You’re right, it was completely out of character for me. Some friends and I went to the movies, but I spent the entire time panicking we’d be seen or that the school would have noticed and rung my parents, so that it wasn’t enjoyable at all. I think I still dread my mother finding out! What about you?’

  ‘I did it all the time.’ Hunter shrugged.

  ‘Didn’t you worry about getting caught?’

  ‘I was always getting caught. I had endless arguments with my parents and the teachers…’

  ‘Did they suspend you?’

  ‘Hell, no. I was their top student. They didn’t want to blot their academic record by bumping me off to another school—they knew I’d come in the top one per cent of the state when I took my finals. So I had them by the balls and I knew it!’ He actually laughed, a deep, low laugh that was as rare as it was infectious, and Lily found herself grinning as he carried on talking. ‘I told them that when they had something interesting to teach me or something I didn’t already know I’d turn up, which I did, but I certainly didn’t need someone guiding me through a textbook.’

  ‘So it’s always been easy for you?’

  ‘Believe me,’ Hunter said darkly, and something in his tone caused a shiver to run through her, the easygoing conversation ending abruptly as the tension in the car rocketed, ‘it wasn’t easy.’ He frowned at the road ahead and Lily gave a small swallow as they drove in silence.

  ‘Sorry, I just—’

  ‘Assumed,’ Hunter finished for her, the harsh edge to his voice breaking the closeness they’d created, relegating her to the rest of a world he clearly thought didn’t understand him. ‘It’s a common enough assumption—people make it all the time.’ Lily turned, taking in his tense features, realising then how painful it must have just been for him to talk about his parents after such a huge loss.

  ‘You must miss them.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Your parents!’ Of course! Lily thought, but didn’t add it.

  ‘Why?’ He glanced over at her shocked expression. ‘You know the saying—you can’t choose your family.’

  ‘I guess…’

  His face was grim—his hand so tight on the steering-wheel his knuckles were white. Lily’s mind raced for something to say, to fill this impossible abyss. Clearly he didn’t want to talk about it, but in a surprising move it was Hunter who filled the strained silence, Hunter who actually revealed just a little bit more of himself.

  ‘My father had MS—multiple sclerosis,’ he explained. ‘From the day he was diagnosed he just gave up. He actually wasn’t that bad, well, not compared to some, but instead of fighting it, instead of dealing with it, he immersed himself in his own misery and tried to take everyone down with him. He made my mother’s life a living hell. I can still hear his stick banging on the bedroom floor when he wanted something—still see my mother running up the stairs to reach him before he banged again. I don’t know why she didn’t leave him.’

  ‘Maybe she—’

  ‘Loved him,’ Hunter broke in. ‘We’ve already established there’s no such thing. I asked her why she didn’t just go, why she didn’t just leave him to wallow in his own misery.’

  ‘You actually asked her?’ Lily reeled at his boldness.

  ‘Yep. She pointed out that we had a beautiful home, her children went to the best schools, that even though he was sick he was still earning good money—he invested in real estate,’ Hunter added. ‘She also pointed out that without her help he wouldn’t be able to work, that all the luxuries would disappear—she said it was her duty to stay.’ He let out a low mirthless laugh. ‘She never understood that I’d have lived in a bloody tent to get away from it all.’ He didn’t elaborate further, just stared fixedly at the road ahead, locked in his hellish memories for a moment. Sensing he’d said enough, after a rather more amicable silence, it was Lily who steered the subject back to the original, rephrased the question that had annoyed him in the first place.

  ‘So…’ Lily said slowly, watching his hands tighten further on the steering-wheel as she spoke, ‘were you always this arrogant and confident?’

  For a moment he didn’t answer, but finally he turned briefly and gave her a very nice smile that promptly melted not just the black atmosphere but another little piece of her heart. ‘Always.’

  Leaving behind the last dregs of civilization as they delved further into the wilderness, the winding road bathed in cool green light as the trees canopied overhead, Lily felt a surge of excitement as they neared the house. Hunter turned the car into the overgrown driveway and she turned her head to him and watched his reaction. Watched that haughty, impassive face actually soften as he glimpsed it for the first time.

  ‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ Lily took in the view and as always it was even more beautiful than the last time she’d seen it, a huge rambling white weatherboard home, smothered in wist
eria, tall trees behind and to the side, wrapping protective arms around the building, while in front the lush grass gently rolled downwards, drawing the eye to the endless views below.

  He didn’t answer in words, instead opening the door of the car and climbing out, pulling off his sunglasses and standing stock still.

  ‘I can see how you don’t want to lose the place.’ Eventually he spoke. ‘And I’m the least likely person to be impressed by a view. I rarely set foot out of the city—any city!’

  ‘Because you don’t get the time?’

  ‘A bit.’ Hunter shrugged. ‘And because I’ve never felt the need. If I need to relax I’ll get a massage or…’ He didn’t finish his sentence, but turned his head towards the house and craned his neck upwards, staring at the mountainside, squinting into the sunlight.

  ‘Come and see inside,’ Lily suggested.

  ‘See what I’m buying?’

  ‘I haven’t said yes.’

  ‘Yet.’

  She didn’t respond, just guided him toward the house. Pulling out her keys, she almost tripped over a large picnic basket on the verandah.

  ‘How on earth did this get here?’

  ‘Abigail.’ Hunter shrugged. ‘I told her to arrange lunch for us.’

  ‘But how did you know the address?’ Utterly perplexed, she led the way as he carried the basket and followed her through to the kitchen.

  ‘Mortgagee’s auction in Red Hill in two weeks—that’s more than enough information for Abigail.’

  ‘She’s efficient, then,’ Lily said, giggling a bit as Hunter rolled his eyes.

  ‘So she keeps telling me.’ They were wandering through the house, Hunter’s knowing eyes taking in every detail as he chatted. ‘She wants me to change her job title from Personal Assistant to Personal Secretary and Diary Planner.’

  ‘And what did you say?’

  ‘I didn’t say anything—I haven’t told you the best bit yet. She didn’t ask! She actually wrote a letter and—wait for this—she posted it to me. We see each other for twelve sometimes eighteen hours a day and now she’s posting me letters! She must have thought I’d take it more seriously if it was a formal request.’