Читать книгу In Bed With...Collection - Emma Darcy, Emma Darcy - Страница 32

MARRIED!

Bryce had been going to marry this woman?

Even as Sunny’s mind jammed with shock, her eyes swiftly took in everything there was to take in about his first choice—very, very classy with her polished blond hair falling in smooth perfection to her shoulders and cut to feather inwards from her ears to her throat, a stylishly artful frame for a face that was classic model material.

So was her body, though she wasn’t quite as tall, nor as long-legged as Sunny. In fact, she was much better proportioned, her figure looking very sexy in a straw linen wrap-around dress and lots of gold accessories—chain belt, sandals, bag, bangles, necklace—all shouting the kind of money Sunny had never had at her disposal.

Bryce’s contemptuous comment had acted like a smack on the face, but the jolt of it only lasted a few seconds. The pent-up fury was unleashed again, propelling the woman forward, her arm upraised to deliver a very physical slap to Bryce’s face.

He caught her wrist before violent contact was made, holding it in a vice-like grip. ‘Back off, Kristen!’ he commanded in his steely voice, lowering her arm and slowly releasing it as he emphatically asserted, ‘It’s over. I told you it was finished this morning.’

This morning? Sunny glanced sharply at Bryce. Before or after she had agreed to marry him? There was a very disturbing question of integrity here.

He sensed her glance, caught the worry in it, and instantly answered, ‘Before you woke up, Sunny.’

Even so, he had gone to bed with her first. Had he been testing her out before giving up Kristen?

‘Damn you, Bryce!’ his ex-fiancée stormed. ‘I would have backed down if you’d given me the chance.’

‘No chance.’ He released Sunny’s hand to put his arm around her shoulders in a very possessive and reassuring hug. ‘I now have the wife I want.’

‘A bargain basement bride, no doubt,’ Kristen jeered, switching her gaze to Sunny, her grey eyes blazing scorn. ‘You didn’t even have the sense to marry him in the State of California.’

Which totally bewildered Sunny. What did California have to do with getting married?

‘I’m sure it’s beyond your comprehension, Kristen,’ Bryce bit out coldly, ‘but Sunny didn’t marry me with an eye to a divorce settlement. Nor did she put a price on having a child.’

Money? Was that the currency of marriage in California?

‘Then more fool her, with your record of using women as you please. Sucked her right in, did you, Bryce?’ Kristen mocked savagely.

Sunny’s mind whirled around this hasty marriage in Nevada—all Bryce’s doing…except for her consent…which he’d started working for as soon as he’d had sex with her!

‘I think women tend to draw from men what they put out themselves,’ Bryce commented coldly. ‘Users do get used, Kristen. It so happens Sunny is a different breed to you.’

‘And such a convenient windfall for you,’ she flashed back at him. ‘Except this cheap move of yours is going to cost you, Bryce. Cost you big!’

A windfall…Derek’s blow-up…her hasty consent…

‘Go ahead and sue me, Kristen. Buying you out of my life will be worth every cent I have to pay.’

She bared her teeth, hissing, ‘I’ll take you down for as much as I can.’

‘Your demonstration of greed in the prenuptial agreement leaves me in no doubt you’ll money-grub as far as you can.’

Sunny’s mind boggled over a prenuptial agreement. She’d always thought such things horribly cynical with their implication that the marriage commitment was inevitably a transitory thing and a division of property had to be worked out beforehand. If Bryce had even mentioned one, she would have backed off so fast…yes, she was a different breed. A convenient windfall?

‘It’s a straight breach of promise,’ Kristen argued in fierce resentment, again sneering at Sunny as she added, ‘throwing me over for her.’

‘Oh, I think any judge would find good reason for that,’ Bryce drawled, hugging Sunny even closer. ‘My wife is such a warm contrast to you, Kristen…’

‘I’m a Parrish!’ she declared with belligerent arrogance. ‘That name means something. I’ll be listened to, Bryce Templar!’

‘Yes, you undoubtedly will be,’ he agreed uncaringly. ‘The media will gobble up every bit of it as you prove you’ve been badly done by, revealing your avaricious little soul to the whole world in a public courtroom. You think you’ll win their sympathy?’

Angry heat speared across her cheekbones. ‘So…you figure you’ve got all the angles covered so you can cheat me.’

The words were flying so fast and furiously, Sunny was only catching the fact that Kristen was a gold-digger. Big time! Despite the name she set such store by.

‘No agreement was reached, Kristen,’ Bryce stated bitingly. ‘You weren’t content with what was offered.’

‘What about this agreement?’ She thrust her left hand up in a clenched fist, showing off the huge diamond ring on her engagement finger. ‘It shows something.’

‘Yes. It shows my good will, which you proceeded to flout.’

She tossed her head defiantly. ‘Well, don’t think you’re getting it back!’

‘I don’t want it back. I don’t want anything remotely associated with you. We have nothing left to say to each other.’

‘Except through our lawyers!’

‘Agreed. Now if you don’t mind…’

Sunny was subjected to a scathing look. ‘Congratulations! You’ve got yourself a cold, calculating pig and you’re welcome to him!’

Having delivered her best exit line, Kristen Parrish flounced a quick about-turn and strode out of the chapel, her stiff back eloquently denying any wounds whatsoever.

Just like Derek, Sunny couldn’t help thinking. Rejection was never a palatable situation, but rejection in favour of someone else…that could definitely bring out the worst in some people.

Both she and Bryce had been badly misled in choosing their first partners for marriage. The question was…had they made the right choice now?

Sunny hoped so. With all her heart she hoped so. Yet she couldn’t shake the feeling they had both been driven into this choice by a rebound effect…Bryce seemed to be everything Derek wasn’t…and she was a warm contrast to Kristen Parrish.

A windfall marriage…

She shivered.

Bryce’s arm instantly tightened around her. ‘I’m sorry you were subjected to that, Sunny,’ he said ruefully. ‘My big mistake…’

She sighed, lifting her gaze to his in anxious query. ‘Am I a windfall, Bryce?’

‘Yes.’ His eyes simmered with hot possessiveness. ‘The best windfall that’s ever come my way and I consider myself the luckiest man alive to have you as my wife, Sunny.’

Instead of Kristen, she thought.

‘And I need, very much, to be alone with you,’ he added softly.

He drew her with him, out of the chapel, into the elevator, back to their suite, and while Sunny took comfort from his desire for her, she couldn’t stop the questions whirling around in her mind.

When had he calculated the difference between her and Kristen?

When had he decided to marry her instead?

And the bottom line—marrying to please his father—was she simply a better candidate? A cheaper candidate? The bargain basement bride?