Miranda Lee - Seduction - The Billionaire's Bride of Vengeance

‘I don’t get it,’ Hugh grumbled as they made their way down the fairway. ‘I would have thought you’d have seriously disapproved of this marriage. You’re always going on about honesty being the best policy.’

‘There’s honesty and honesty, Hugh,’ Russell replied. ‘Sometimes a little white lie doesn’t do any harm. James will make a good husband and father. Megan will never know that his heart is elsewhere.’

‘Don’t be too sure about that. Some day, someone is going to say something. Jim should have told her the truth from the start. She would still have married him.’

‘I doubt that. A girl as sensitive as Megan wouldn’t like being short-changed in the love department.’

Hugh sighed. ‘Marriage is a trap for all players, especially when big money’s involved. I don’t want anything to do with it.’

‘You’ve certainly made no secret of that.’

‘One has to learn from experience,’ Hugh pontificated. ‘And from history. I’m just like my father. I need variety when it comes to women. My boredom threshold is spectacularly low. What I don’t need, however, is a string of ex-wives, like dear old Dad has acquired. He’s damned lucky that none except my mother produced offspring, or he’d be broke by now.’

Russell laughed. ‘Broke? The man’s a billionaire ten times over!’

‘That’s beside the point. For an intelligent man, Dad is extremely thick about his sex addiction. I’ve learned the difference between love and lust, and I live accordingly.’

‘Give the man a medal.’

Hush’s bedroom-blue eyes shot daggers at Russell. ‘You can be a judgemental bastard, do you know that?’

‘Yes.’

‘Hypocritical as well. You criticise my sex life yet you’re doing pretty much the same.’

‘We’re both bad bastards when it comes to the fairer sex.’

‘Not as bad as Jimmy-boy. I have a dreadful feeling about this marriage, Russ. Do you think it’s too late to talk him out of it?’

‘I’ve already tried.’

‘And?’

‘You know James. He’s as stubborn as a mule. Now, let’s stop this futile conversation and play golf.’

Hugh shrugged resignedly. Russ was right. Jim was not good at taking advice. But it was a shame, he thought. Megan was a darling. Not his type, of course. He liked women with spirit.

Thinking of women with spirit reminded him of the one woman in his life who had too much spirit—his PA, Kathryn.

What a slave-driver! She actually expected him to go to the office every day, and made her disapproval loud and clear when he didn’t. Lately he’d found himself actually going to work most mornings, just to shut her up. It was no wonder Russ was beating him today. Hell, he hadn’t played golf in over a week!

The situation could not continue. He’d have to get rid of her. But how? She’d never given him any cause to fire her. She was perfection as an employee. Capable and conscientious, never taking a day off, never arriving late or leaving early.

Her fiancé had his pity. She was going to make a dreadful wife. A real nag, keeping tabs on him every minute of the day and always wanting everything to be just so.

Of course, there would be some compensation for a husband putting up with her unrelenting standards. She was, without doubt, one of the sexiest women he’d ever met.

Not pretty, or beautiful.

Sexy.

‘You’ve just walked right past your ball,’ Russell pointed out.

‘What? Oh, yeah … right.’

‘I can see now why I’m winning. Your mind is elsewhere. So what’s the problem? A woman?’

‘Got it in one.’

‘Can’t get her into bed, is that it?’

A light went on in Hugh’s brain. He hadn’t realised up till this moment why he’d hired Kathryn Hart in the first place, and why he was now thinking about firing her.

‘You’ve hit the nail right on the head, Russ,’ he muttered. Damn, why hadn’t he realised this earlier?

‘You’ll find a way, mate,’ his friend said drily. ‘You always do.’

NICOLE’s gasp of shock sent Kara’s head whipping round to face her friend.

‘What is it? What’s wrong?’

‘It’s him,’ was all Nicole could manage.

‘Who?’ Kara frowned as she followed the direction of Nicole’s stunned gaze to the three men who stood at the head of the church aisle. ‘You can’t mean the groom. And you certainly can’t mean the best man. That’s Hugh Parkinson. Everyone in Sydney knows Hugh Parkinson. So you must mean the groomsman. I don’t recognise him.’

‘You said the odds of my running into him again were zero,’ Nicole muttered under her breath.

‘That’s Russell McClain of McClain Real Estate?’

‘The one and only.’ Looking sinfully sexy in a sleek black dinner suit.

‘He’s better-looking than I thought he’d be.’

‘He’s had a haircut and he’s wearing a tux. All men look good in tuxes.’

‘No, not all men. Though Leyton does, don’t you, darling?’ Kara said, hooking arms with the man by her side.

Leyton was Kara’s latest in a long line of boyfriends. Kara was inclined to be on the fickle side and Nicole didn’t even try to keep up with the passing parade of pretty boys her friend had dated over the years.

‘Don’t I what?’ Leyton replied a little vacantly.

Intelligence was not something Kara valued in a man, unlike Nicole, who could not abide stupidity.

‘Never mind,’ Kara said, patting Leyton’s hand.

The bride’s arrival put paid to any further conversation over the amazing coincidence of Russell McClain being at this wedding. Though it wasn’t till the bride started walking down the aisle that Nicole managed to drag her attention back to the present.

Megan still looked like Megan, Nicole thought as the bride moved past her pew. There’d been no radical makeover. Though she did look truly lovely in a strapless ivory dress which had a tightly boned and heavily beaded bodice and a huge gathered skirt. Under the long veil—which was held in place by a simple coronet of tiny roses—her dark brown hair was tightly pulled back from her beautifully made-up face, an exquisite pearl necklace adorning her slender neck.

‘Doesn’t she look fabulous?’ Kara gushed.

‘Absolutely gorgeous,’ Nicole concurred.

Unfortunately, once the bride had passed by, Nicole’s mind returned to the third man at the head of the aisle. Why, oh, why, did fate have to be this cruel?

Fortunately, he wasn’t looking down into the congregation, so he hadn’t seen her. Still, it was just a matter of time.

Nicole shuddered at the thought of meeting him again.

The ceremony was simple and very traditional. It was also quite short and soon the wedding party moved off into the vestry, presumably to sign the register. It wouldn’t be long before they’d be walking back down the aisle, right past where Nicole was sitting.

‘Just going outside for some fresh air,’ Nicole said. ‘It’s very stuffy in here.’ Before Kara could stop her she jumped up and slipped out the back, heading straight for the oak tree in the corner of the churchyard.

It was the perfect hiding place, the tree’s large trunk keeping her out of sight whilst its huge canopy of leaves provided shade from what was an unseasonably hot day for early November. Although it was getting on for five in the afternoon, it was still extremely warm and surprisingly humid for this time of year. A storm was predicted for later in the evening but not soon enough to spoil the wedding. At the moment, there wasn’t even a cloud in the clear blue sky.

A sudden burst of noise and laughter indicated that the ceremony was over, a glance around the trunk confirming that the wedding party had emerged from the church, followed by waves of guests, most of them armed with digital cameras and photo-taking phones.