Free The Wedding Charade by Melanie Milburne Page B

housekeeper,’ he said. ‘She refuses to work for me while you are in residence. What on earth did you say to her?’
    Jade pushed her lips out in a pout. ‘She was awful to me from the moment I stepped in the door. She refused to do what I asked and she called me horrible names.’
    Nic pushed back the sheet and rose from the bed. Jade swallowed as she saw the masculine perfection of his body. He was so toned and taut, so powerfully male in every plane and contour.
    He slipped on a lightweight bathrobe and tied the ends around his waist as he looked down at her in the bed. ‘This has to stop, Jade. You can’t act like this. Don’t you understand? You have to take responsibility for your actions.’
    ‘My
actions?’ she said indignantly. ‘What about hers? She’s your employee so she should have more respect. It shouldn’t matter who you marry. She should accept your future bride without question or snide and insulting comments.’
    ‘I am afraid there are times in life when you have toearn respect,’ Nic said. ‘It doesn’t come automatically just because of whom you are married to or how much you earn or where you were born.’
    She gave him a mutinous scowl. ‘I am not going to kowtow to the cleaning staff just so they’ll be nice to me. I will do what I want.’
    Nic grasped the end of the sheet and ripped it from the bed. He smiled at her shocked expression. She looked like an outraged virgin about to be ravaged by a devilish suitor. ‘Do I have to teach you some manners myself, my naughty little wife-to-be?’ he asked as he tugged her down by one ankle until she was lying between his open thighs as he stood at the end of the bed.
    Her slim throat rose and fell and her breasts, which she had so brazenly flashed at him only days ago, she was now struggling to cover with her hands. Her cheeks were stained a delicate shade of pink and her eyes were wide and uncertain, their long dark lashes giving her a Bambi look that was totally captivating. ‘Wh… what do you think you’re doing?’ she asked in a high-pitched strained sort of voice.
    ‘I thought I might try the goods before I buy since they are right here in my bed for my pleasure,’ he said, stroking his hand up the smooth length of her leg from ankle to calf. ‘That was your intention, wasn’t it? To get my attention? Well, you got it, baby. I am here and I am all yours.’
    She tried to kick out at him but his fingers locked around her ankle. She kicked out with her other leg but he caught that slim ankle too and held it firm.
    ‘Let me go, you arrogant bastard!’ she said, struggling like a wildcat.
    ‘Manners, Jade,’ Nic said silkily. ‘You will learn to speak to me with respect.’
    Her face was a picture of rage, all flashing green cat’s eyes and white teeth bared in a snarl. ‘I’ll never forgive you for this,’ she said. ‘If you lay even one finger on me I will scratch your damn eyes out.’
    ‘I bet you say that to all your lovers,’ he said with a mocking smile.
    She fought him with a strength he didn’t realise someone of her delicate frame could possess. She bucked and arched and jerked until he had to let go in case she hurt herself. She crawled away from him like a scuttling crab, scooping up the sheet he had tossed from the bed and wrapping it around herself like a shroud before she faced him with a blistering glare. ‘If you think you can just do what you like when you like, you are sadly mistaken,’ she said.
    ‘Ditto, cara,’ he said. ‘It’s time you learned how to behave, and if I have to teach you myself I will do it.’
    Jade poked her tongue out at him.
    He laughed. ‘You are going to be absolute dynamite in bed. No wonder you have men following you with their tongues hanging out. I can’t wait to see what fireworks we set off together.’
    She gave him a cutting look. ‘If you want to sleep with me you can damn well pay for it.’
    ‘I have paid for it, Jade,’ he said as he opened the door to