Free The Billionaire's Ruthless Revenge by Clare Connelly

mutinously, her eyes sparking with his.
    He dragged his eyes over the black yoga pants and skimpy singlet. “Fine. You’ll freeze to death but I don’t know if I give a rat’s ass. Get your bag or whatever and let’s go.”
    She shook her head belligerently. “I’m not coming with you.”
    “Yeah you are. And do you want to know why?” At her silence he continued coldly. “Because you are in no position to refuse. It’s the first rule of business. Learn what cards you have to play and play them wisely.” His smile was one of impatient derision. “You, Mrs Anderson, don’t have any cards to play. Not a one.” He brought his head closer to hers, so that she could see the dramatic flecks of colour in his eyes.
    His words were made of shrapnel and they were puncturing her heart and soul. “How can you speak to me like that?”
    He spun away from her, his chest lifting with the force of his ragged breaths. How could he make her understand how devastated he’d been? How a man who’d grown up as a boy shunned and unloved had been made to feel all of those things again?
    “You agreed to this. If you don’t like the state of affairs then you can leave me again,” he said with a shrug, as though he wasn’t walking in a constant fear of her doing just that.
    “My God.” She walked to him unsteadily. He didn’t look at her so she stepped around his frame to face him. He dropped his eyes to hers and she barely recognised him, so loaded with hatred was his expression. “Kyle, what’s happened to you?”
    His voice was low. “I met you.”
    She swallowed; the lump in her throat was painful. “Don’t say that.”
    “You reminded me that marriage is just like business. It’s a negotiation. A constant power-struggle. You proved the ultimate power you have is to walk away.” He ran a finger down her cheek, looking at her as though for the first time. “I’m not going to live with that threat hanging over my head.”
    She stared at him aghast. It took her a moment to corral her thoughts. “And so you want to keep me here by force?”
    “Not by force,” he disputed. “By agreement.” He shrugged. “You can go any time.”
    “And if I do?”
    His eyes were dark. “And if you do?” He prompted, wondering at the turn of this conversation. There was a part of him that was shouting at him to stop, to shut the hell up and put the spade down, but the greater part of him seemed determined to keep digging the hole, deeper and deeper.
    “You’ll what? You’ll actually turn my brother in?”
    He shifted his weight almost imperceptibly. “I won’t stand in the way of his idiocy being discovered,” he promised.
    She was shaking. She spun away from him, wrapping her arms around her waist and staring out at the glorious snow that glowed in the moonlight. “I’m trapped.”
    The words brought a wave of hopelessness crashing down around him.
    There could be no forgiveness. Not by either of them.
    And yet Kyle could never let her go. His love for her was darkly obsessive. Even he was surprised by it.
    “Do you need a coat?” His words had any emotion flattened out of them.
    She blinked back tears. “I’ll get changed.” She walked silently to the bedroom and clicked the door shut behind herself. He heard the lock slide into place and felt an answering finality inside of him.
    Annie had packed clothes from her Old Life. A collection of fashionable couture hung in the wardrobe. She ran her fingers over the dresses with a growing sense of loss. None of these things were right for who she really was. They were expensive and designer and Annie was a girl who’d been known for her ability to climb trees and run as fast as the leaves tumbling in the autumnal breeze. She lifted a black Vera Wang from the hanger and pulled it on quickly.
    The effect was instantaneous. Bit by bit, she was morphing back into Mrs Kyle Anderson. What a lonely life that was!
    The thought of him waiting outside for her was far more