Vows & A Vengeful Groom by Bronwyn Jameson

Author:Bronwyn Jameson [Jameson, Bronwyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Diamonds Down Under, Category
ISBN: 0373768435
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2008-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

Seven

K imberley’s heart drummed like a jackhammer against her rib cage. Poor, foolish, easily swayed thing wanted to believe in his sincerity even while her brain chirped a warning to beware his motives.

“I’m not a naive twenty-one-year-old now,” she began, her voice surprisingly even given the rough cadence of her pulse. “I won’t be taken in by your sweet rhetoric and I won’t be used just because I’m Kimberley Blackstone.”“Used?” Perrini’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “I’ve never used you, Kim. Not in any sense.”

“You still don’t see that pursuing and marrying your boss’s daughter in order to secure a plum promotion—”

“Let’s get one thing straight. I always wanted you, the woman, enough that it didn’t matter that you were Kimberley Blackstone. From where I stood that was a big, fat strike against you, not just because you were the boss’s daughter but because you inherited so many of Howard’s pain-in-the-ass qualities.”

She must have looked as outraged as she felt, because he expelled a harsh-sounding laugh and shook his head.

“You said you didn’t want any of my rhetoric, so let’s try some home truths. You’re stubborn, cynical, opinionated, but on the flip side there’s your quick brain and your passion for this business, your honesty and humour and the way you lift your chin whenever you take a stance on something you believe in. Yeah, just like that,” he said in a low, rough-edged voice that resonated through her blood. “Whether it’s right or wrong, it doesn’t matter. You stand by your word and that’s one of the many reasons I pursued you. Not with any ambition other than to have you. In any and every way that I could.”

The silence following his speech crackled with the undistilled passion of his delivery. This wasn’t the smooth charmer, the slick orator, the silver-tongued lover. This was a side Perrini showed so rarely that it stunned Kimberley into silence.

“That day in the Hammond workroom,” he continued, “you said you should never have married me.”

“And you agreed.” Finally she found her voice, although it rasped with raw emotion. “You said our marriage was a mistake.”

That coldly conveyed summation had pierced her heart like a spear of ice, before shattering into a hundred frosty shards. The final, chilling end of that argument and of their union.

“It was a mistake,” he said bluntly, stunning her all over again. “I married you for the wrong reason. I thought I was calling your father’s bluff.”

“What do you mean?”

“That Christmas, before we left for our holiday in San Francisco, he had a word with me over a quiet whisky. He knew we were lovers—maybe he had all along—and he played the outraged father. Said he didn’t appreciate us creeping around behind his back and suggested, forcefully, that if I wanted to bed you, I could damn well marry you.”

That was so like Howard, Kimberley couldn’t summon a quarter-carat of shock. She’d known her father had orchestrated their marriage; she just hadn’t known the details. At the time she’d been too outraged, too shattered, too betrayed to believe any explanations.

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