Читать книгу The Venadicci Marriage Vengeance - Melanie Milburne, Melanie Milburne - Страница 8

CHAPTER THREE

GABBY looked at the amount written there and felt a shockwave of so many emotions rocketing through her that she felt her face fire up. Each one of them stoked the furnace, although shame had by far the most fuel. But then anger joined in; she could feel it blazing out of control, and not just on her cheeks, but deep inside, where a cauldron of heat was bubbling over, making her veins hot with rage.

Vinn had deliberately made her feel like a high-end prostitute—a woman who would do anything for a price. But Gabby wasn’t going to be bought. She had been a fool before where a man was concerned, allowing duty and blinkered emotions to cloud her judgement. This time things would be different. If Vinn Venadicci thought he could lure her between the sheets of his bed with a bank vault full of dollar bills, he was in for a big surprise.

With a coolness she was nowhere near feeling, Gabby picked up the cheque and, with the tip of her tongue peeping through her lips as she concentrated, she folded it, fold by meticulous fold, until she had made a tiny origami ship. She held it in the palm of her hand for a moment as she inspected it, and once she was satisfied she had Vinn’s full attention she reached for the glass of full-bodied red wine the waiter had recently set down beside him. She dropped her handiwork in, watching in satisfaction as it floated for a second or two, until the density of the wine gradually soaked through the paper and submerged it halfway below the surface.

Gabby met Vinn’s grey-blue gaze across the table with an arch look. ‘I was going to say you could put your cheque in your pipe and smoke it, but then I realised you don’t smoke.’ She smiled a cat’s smile and added, ‘Salute.’

Vinn’s lips twitched, but even so his eyes still burned with determination. ‘You might like me to swallow my offer, but I can guarantee you are going to be the one eating your words in the not so distant future, cara,’ he warned her silkily.

She rolled her eyes and picked up her second cocktail. ‘I will go as far as marrying you to save my family’s business, but I am not going to be your sex slave, Vinn. If you have the urge to satisfy your needs I am sure there are plenty of women out there who will gladly oblige. All I ask is for you to be discreet.’

He leaned back in his chair and surveyed her features for a beat or two. ‘Is that the arrangement you made with your late husband?’ he asked. ‘Or did you see to his needs quite willingly all by yourself?’