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Chapter Fourty four
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MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fourty five
Chapter 45She swayed and gripped the door frame tighter. Nausea boiled in her stomach as each and every moment flashed like a movie in fast-forward.Alex’s angry accusation of thievery. His ordering her from their apartment, his life. Her abduction and the months she had spent in hopeless fear,waiting for Alex to answer the ransom demands. Demands he had ignored.Oh God, she was going to be sick.He had left her. Discarded her like a piece of rubbish. The half million dollars, a paltry sum to a man of Alex’s means, was an amount he had been unwilling to part with to ensure her return.Everything had been a lie. He had lied to her nonstop since she had awoken in the hospital. He didn’t love her or want her. He despised her.She hadn’t been worth half a million dollars to him.Pain splintered through her chest as she shattered. As everything she had known as true suddenly turned black. Her heart withered and cracked, falling in pieces around her.He hadn’t tried to save her. The tortu
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fourty six
Chapter 46AlexAlex paced back and forth at the foot of Maya’s bed while the hotel physician administered the sedative. She was beyond distraught, and the doctor had moved immediately to prevent further upset.As the doctor stood and backed away from the bed, he looked at Alex, a grim expression on his face.Fear tightened Alex’s chest. “Is she all right? Is the baby all right?”The doctor motioned him across the room and away from where Maya now quietly lay. “Her injuries are not physical. If they were, perhaps I would be of use. Her distress is mental. If it is as you said, and she has regained her memory,it is that which has caused her immeasurable pain.”Alex stirred impatiently. “What can be done? She cannot be left as she is. There must be something we can do.” The sight of her pale face and her eyes, so huge with devastation, twisted his gut painfully.“You should return her to your home, to a place that is more familiar. She needs a doctor, not for her physical well-being, b
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fourty seven
Chapter 47Maya.Maya was only vaguely aware of the things going on around her. After that first pass into oblivion, she registered being carried into a car. She heardAlex’s worried voice as he murmured to her, but she closed herself off from him, folding inward.When she next awoke, she knew she was in a bed. As she looked around the room, recognition sparked, and with it, a surge of fresh agony, hot and raw, seared through her body and robbed her of breath.He wouldn’t do this. Surely even he could not be so cruel as to bring her back to the place they’d shared and the place he’d brutally shoved her from.She reached for the tears, expecting them to come, but curiously all she felt was an odd detachment, a void of nothingness coupled with the need to get out of this place.When she sat up, her gaze flickered to a chair by the window occupied by Alex’s sleeping form. He was slouched against the arm, his clothingrumpled and the stubble of over a day’s beard shadowing his jaw.She wa
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fourty Eight
Chapter 48AlexAlex woke with a monster catch in his neck and shifted in the too small chair to alleviate his discomfort. He had wanted to spend the night with Maya tucked into his arms, but she had resisted his touch at every turn, becoming sodistraught that he’d had no choice but to retreat.He had taken the doctor’s advice and phoned a therapist as soon as he had returned to the apartment with Maya. The therapist was due to arrive this morning to speak with her. Alex just hoped she would be able to.His gaze moved to the bed, and when he saw it empty, he shot to his feet. He started to bolt from the room, but a glimmer of something on the nightstand caught his eye. When he saw her engagement ring lying there, dread tightenedhis chest. He ran from the room in search of her. As he went from room to room, his panic grew. She wasn’t anywhere to be found.Even as he hurled himself into the elevator, he dug out his cellular phone. As soon as the doors opened in the lobby, he ran out a
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fourty Nine
Chapter 49Maya. Maya shivered as she eased down onto the cold stone bench and clutched her arms around her trembling body. She glanced down at her feet but couldn’t summon any rebuke for having gone out in the chill without shoes or a coat. The only thought she’d had was to get away as quickly as possible. She couldn’t face Alex now.Now she knew why she’d been drawn to this place. Her thinking spot, indeed.Just hours before that last night, she’d sat here, afraid of how Alex would react to her pregnancy. She’d been right to be afraid. He didn’t trust her. Hebdidn’t love her. And he had left her to her fate with the kidnappers.She refused to allow the memories to roll back in her mind. They simply hurt too much. At least now she realized why she’d chosen to forget. All those weeks of living in fear as her kidnappers waited for their demands to be met had palednext to the betrayal Alex had handed her when he had refused.How could anyone be so cold? Wouldn’t he have been willing t
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fifty
Chapter 50 Alex Alex strode into the Imperial Park Hotel, waving off members of the staff as they hastened to greet him. The elevator was being held open for him, and he got in and rode it to the top floor. A few moments later, he walked into the luxury suite usually reserved for VIP guests. His brother met him in the sitting area, and Alex scowled furiously at him. “Why didn’t you bring her back to the apartment?” he demanded. “She became hysterical at the mere mention of it” Theron said. “She was set to run as far and as fast as she could. I had to promise I wouldn’t take her back to the penthouse.” Alex swore and closed his eyes. He brought his hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers in a weary gesture. “She’s about to break,” Theron said quietly. “Bring your therapist here to talk to her. Maybe she can help.” Alex looked sharply at his younger brother. “You seem concerned about her.” “She carries my nephew.” His lips pressed together in a gr
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fifty one
Alex paced the confines of his New York office as he waited for Roslyn to arrive. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be with Maya . Theron had stayed with her, and Alex simmered with impatience. Her condition hadn’t changed. Even when she’d awakened, she’d been distant, unfocused,there but not there. It was as if she’d gone to a place where he couldn’t hurt her anymore.He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the task at hand. When he heardZuri enter, he stiffened. It was all he could do not to rage at her, not to breakbher skinny neck. It took everything he had to smile and act as though nothing was wrong, as though he didn’t loathe the very ground she walked on.“You wanted to see me?” Zuri said breathlessly.“I did,” Alex murmured. He let his gaze run suggestively over her body even as his flesh crawled.Her eyes brightened, and her stance immediately became suggestive.“I’ve only just become aware of the lengths to which you went to try and get my attention,” he said with a
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fifty two
Maya was dimly aware that she was being carried yet again. It wasn’t Alex . She was intimately familiar with his touch. For a moment she panicked, and then she heard comforting words being spoken in Greek and then in English.“Rest easy, little sister. You are safe.”“Where are we going?” she asked weakly.“Someplace safe,” he soothed. “Alex won’t allow anything to happen to you.”She wanted to protest that Alex wouldn’t do anything for her, but she couldn’t muster the energy. At some point, she heard Alex , and she cursedthe fact that she immediately felt safer and that some of the panic abated.She felt the brush of lips against her forehead and then firm hands tucking her into bed. Fingers stroked through her hair, and warmth enveloped her.“You are safe, . I’ll never allow anyone to hurt you again.”“Don’t call me that,” she cried. “Never again.” But she held to Alex ’s promise even as her heart screamed in protest. He’d lied to her. She couldn’t believe anything he said. And yet
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MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Epilogue
“No.” Alex shook his head, his face contorting with agonized concentration as he recalled every detail of the last time he had seen his daughter. “At least, I don’t think so.”“You don’t think so?” the policeman pushed, and Emma could have slapped him for his insensitivity. But Alex was calmer, explaining Alex’s problem in ameasured voice, but his voice was loaded with pain.“My daughter has problems—behavioural problems.” Katrina opened her mouth to argue, but Alex stood firm, shaking his head at Katrina, clearly indicating that now wasn’t the time for futile denial. “She doesn’t react in theusual way—you never really know what she’s thinking. Look, you have to tell your colleagues that they could be just a metre away from her, could be callingher name, and she won’t answer them, she won’t call out...” His voice broke for about asecond and Emma watched as he attempted to recover, his eyes closing for an agonising second as he forced himself to continue. “You have to tell them that
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter sixty two
She gave tiny gasps in her throat as her fingers knotted together in his hair, as still he teased her more, histeeth grazing the silk, his tongue moistening her more, and even if it was everything she wanted, it still wasn’t enough. Realisation hit her that, despitewhat had taken place in the garden, she’d never seen him naked. Need propelling her, she pulled back a touch, saw the question in his eyes as slowly he stood up. Her fingers, nervous at first, but bolder as desire took over, wrestled with thebuttons of his shirt, pushing the sleeves down over his muscular arms. Closing her eyes in giddy want, her pale breasts pressed against his chest. She felt thenaked silk of his dark skin against her, skin on skin, as she opened his belt and unzipped his shorts. She held her breath in wonder as Alex now shed thegarments that stood between them, and if he’d been beautiful before, he was stunning now.Never had she seen a more delicious man, his body toned and muscular, his dark, oliv
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter sixty one
“It would have,” Emma said softly, watching his wince of regret at her refusal to accept it, actually grateful when Katrina and Hugh ducked inside theemerald canopy and broke the painful moment, because whatever Alex was trying to say it was too little, too late—even a garden full of flowers wasn’tgoing to fix this.“Join us for a drink,” Hugh offered. “Alex’s just about to put Alex to bed...”“I’ve got too much to do here.” Emma smiled as she shook her head. “But thank you for the offer.”“I think we might have to stay over.” Katrina pretended to grimace. “Hugh’s had a couple too many champagnes to drive.”“I’ve had one,” Hugh said, but Katrina had clearly already made up her mind.Emma was tempted to tell her that she needn’t bother, that Alex didn’t need to be guarded on her final night here, but instead she offered her goodnights andheaded to the mountain of tools that needed to be sorted.“You really ought to think about finishing up,” Alex called. “There’s a storm brewing and
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter sixty
“No.” His single word hurt her even more, if that were possible, his refusal to soften it cheapening her more than she’d thought possible.“So what was that all about?” Emma asked, gesturing to where they had lain, where he’d found her, held her, made love to her, forcing the confrontation,steeling herself to hear the confirmation of her worst fears. “What just happened there, Alex?”“Sex.” Black eyes stung her, a warning note in his voice telling her she’d crossed the line. His lips set in a rigid line as she shook her head, refused histake on the history they’d so recently created.“It was more than that and you know it,” Emma rasped, shocked by his callousness, reeling from the ferociousness of his sparse summing-up, yet refusing to buy it, because she knew there was more to him, had witnessed the real Alex only moments before, and all she knew was that she wanted himback. “Alex, please, don’t do this...” Emma attempted, her hand reaching out for his arm, but he recoiled as if s
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fifty nine
Only now did his lips release hers. Any sooner and she would have begged him to stop, would have halted things.But now she was putty in his skilled hands, pliable, warm, willing to move, to let him do with her what he wanted, and, oh, how he did—kissing the pulseleaping in her throat as she wriggled out of her top. The second her breasts were free, his tongue paid them the attention they deserved, tender attention, kissingthe swollen, needy tips in turn, his finger retracing his steps, working downwards now. Her stomach tightened in renewed tension as he slid down the zip of her shorts, but for the first time since contact he spoke, the liquid deep tones of his voice not breaking the spell but somehow deepening it.“Don’t hold onto those thoughts, bella, just let them come and go.” Repeating the words she had said to him, but with entirely different meaning this time. Andshe tried, really tried to just relax as his hand cupped her bottom and lifted her enough to slip off the shorts
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fifty eight
What?” One eye peeped open.“Abdominal breathing,” she explained, but from the two vertical lines appearing over the bridge of his nose Emma knew she was talking to the hopelessly unconverted.“You don’t move your chest,” Emma explained. “Remember when Alex wasa baby and you watched her sleep?”The frown faded a touch, a small smile lifting one edge of his mouth.“Babies know how to relax,” Emma said. “They instinctively know how tobreathe properly.” “Like this?” Alex asked, dragging in air, and Emma watched as he struggled with the concept. His stomach was moving but so too was his chest.“Almost. Look, I’ll help you. Just push against my hand.” Sitting up slightly, she instinctively moved to correct him. She’d shown this to numerous friends,knew how to show him simply, but her movements were hesitant, her hand tentative as it reached out towards him, hovered over the flat plane of his stomach, knowing, knowing where this could lead, wanting to pull back, to endthis dangerous game,
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fifty seven
***Six years laterI’m sorry to have disturbed you.”“It’s fine.” Emma attempted, struggling to sit up, slightly disorientated andextremely embarrassed that Alex had found her in the middle of the day, hot and filthy in nothing more than the skimpiest of shorts and a crop top, lying on a blanket with her eyes closed. Absolutely the last person she was expecting to see at this hour, he was dressed in his inevitable dark suit, but there was a slightlymore relaxed stance to him. He held a brown paper bag in one hand and he didn’t look in his usual rush—his usually perfectly knotted tie was loosened, the top button of his shirt undone. But his dark eyes were shielded with sunglasses making his closed expression even more unreadable if that were possible.“You’ve done a lot.”“It’s getting there.” Emma nodded. “And if I keep going at full speed, I could still be done by early next week.”He didn’t say a word, he didn’t have to. Just a tiny questioning lift of his eyebrow from behind his
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fifty six
Ironically enough, Maya discovered she was in labor halfway down the stairs.Alone. She gripped the banister and doubled over as a contraction rippled acrossher abdomen. Wasn’t labor supposed to start out slow?She wanted to laugh at the fact that fate was obviously cursing her for trying to sneak down the stairs without Alexknowing. While he’d relented abouther taking the stairs in the earlier stages of her pregnancy, now that she was so close to her due date he’d once again insisted she not walk the stairs alone. He’d go insane now that she was nine months pregnant and, if the pain ripping out her insides was any clue, about to deliver.She stood on the step, holding on to the railing and taking deep breaths. She’d have called out if she weren’t so busy sucking air through her nose. Besides,Alexwas busy with endless calls as he and Theron worked out Theron’s relocation to the New York offices. Theron was taking over operations there soAlexcould remain in Europe. They had been ti
MY CONTRACT MARRIAGE Chapter Fifty five
Alex wasted no time in finalizing plans for their wedding and preparing for them to travel to the island. He single-handedly rearranged his business schedule, made sure everything Maya could possibly need was purchased, though they’d already shopped for her wedding gown. She stood in awe of all hecould accomplish in such a short time.The authorities questioned her now that she’d regained her memory, and she spent several exhausting hours providing them with the few details she couldremember. The kidnappers hadn’t harmed her and had actually shown her consideration when her pregnancy became obvious. They had watched her,knowing she was close to Alex , and had struck when the opportunity arose. They’d asked for a small ransom, certain they would get it with no fuss.When no ransom had been forthcoming, they abandoned the kidnapping andarranged for Maya to be found.It was the realization that Alex had ignored the ransom that had pushedMaya beyond her limits. It was that moment in
