Miranda Lee - The Tycoon's Trophy Wife

Which was just as well, because love hadn’t been part of their deal. In fact, it had been the one thing Alanna had been very adamant about. No love.

She’d been madly in love before, she’d explained. With her dead husband. The love of her life, killed in a tragic road accident.

She didn’t want to tread that path again.

During their first dinner date Alanna had confided that she’d once believed she would never marry again, but as she’d approached thirty she’d realised she still wanted a family. What she didn’t want, she insisted repeatedly, was romantic love, and all the emotional torment that went with it.

Which was why she’d become a client of Wives Wanted, an introduction agency that specialised in matching professional men of substance with attractive, intelligent women who were happy to be career wives. Although falling in love sometimes happened—according to the woman who ran the agency—on the whole, these were marriages made with heads and not hearts. Marriages of convenience, they were called in the old days.

A marriage of convenience was exactly what Reece had in mind when he had become a client of Wives Wanted a year ago. Love hadn’t been on his agenda, either.

At the time, he’d got exactly what he’d wanted in Alanna. The ultimate trophy wife for him to display on his arm. The perfect salve for his bruised male ego. A visible token of his professional survival as well as a none-too-subtle weapon of personal revenge.

To this end, he’d made sure that photographs of his wedding had been printed in every paper and glossy magazine in Australia.

Not a difficult thing to arrange. He was a high-profile property developer, after all. What he did and whom he married made the news. Photos of every glamorous party he’d held since his wedding—and there were many—had found their way into the media as well, with Alanna always dressed to show off her physical assets.

For quite some time it had given Reece perverse pleasure to think of Kristine thinking of him with his beautiful blonde wife whilst she was having to service her ageing sugar-daddy, the one she’d dumped him for. He liked imagining his ex-fiancée feeling regret that she’d bailed out of their relationship prematurely. No doubt she hadn’t expected him to go from near bankruptcy to billionaire status within three short years of her desertion.

Poor Kristine, came the caustic thought. If only she’d had some faith and loyalty, she could have had her cake and eaten it too. Instead, she’d thrown her lot in with an ageing playboy film producer who had a reputation for replacing his starlet girlfriends every year or so.

There’d been a time when Reece had waited to hear such news with baited breath. Somewhere along the line, however, he’d stopped thinking about—and caring about—what happened to Kristine.

In hindsight, Reece could not put a date on this miracle. But it had to be some months ago. He supposed it was difficult to keep pining for another woman when you were married to someone as fascinating as Alanna.

Aside from her breathtaking beauty, Alanna was an amazing woman to live with. She never nagged at him or questioned him. There were never any scenes when he came home late, or had to go away unexpectedly on business. She kept his house beautifully, was an accomplished hostess and never said no in bed. What more could a man in his position want? When you thought about it, their marriage was perfect.

Frankly, falling in love would have spoilt it.

But as he continued to gaze at his beautiful wife Reece recognised that he had fallen in lust with her.

He’d always desired Alanna. Right from the moment he’d set eyes on her. But his desire seemed to have taken a darker, more intense turning today.

It was that damned dress’s fault, he decided.

Not the style. The colour. It had to be the colour. Red was the devil’s colour. The colour of desire, and danger.

Whatever, Reece could not wait for Richard’s wedding to be over. Could not wait to get that dress off her.

What a pity he was the best man and she was the chief bridesmaid. They would have to attend the reception afterwards, plus stay till it was finished. There was no excuse they could give to leave early.

Not that Alanna would. She would think him mad to suggest such a thing. She’d been helping Holly with the wedding preparations for weeks and had been very excited this morning.

Another dark thought intruded. Maybe he’d be able to persuade her to slip away with him somewhere for a few minutes. A powder room perhaps?

Reece had never done anything like that with her before. Their lovemaking had always been confined to the house. Actually, now that he came to think of it, it had also been confined to their bedroom.

Time to widen their sexual horizons, Reece decided with a rush of blood. Before she got pregnant.

They’d been trying for a baby for three months now. Surprisingly, with no success. But sooner or later, he’d strike a home run.

Reece imagined that once Alanna was having a baby, she might not be overly keen on having sexual adventures.

Suddenly, Reece became aware of Alanna frowning at him as she approached the end of the aisle.

Had his darker thoughts been reflected in his face?

Probably.

He swiftly summoned up one of his warmly winning smiles, the kind he used at work every day and which had become second nature to him.

‘You look incredible,’ he mouthed to her.

When she beamed back at him, his flesh tightened further.

Reece gritted his teeth and kept on smiling till she turned away to join the other bridesmaid, at which point his sigh of relief was swiftly followed by a jab of guilt. Damn it all, he was here today to be Richard’s best man. Not to think and act like some depraved roué, consumed by uncontrollable lust.

The trouble was Reece had always been given to strong emotions. People thought he was an easygoing man, but underneath his charming fac de he was often a maelstrom of emotion. Ever since he was a boy, his needs and wants had ruled his life. When he’d wanted something, he’d wanted it too much. When he’d fallen in love, he’d loved too much.

When Kristine had first left him, he’d gone wild with despair and jealousy. To the world, he’d presented a coolly positive, never-say-die image, whereas underneath he’d been eaten up by a compulsive need to strike back in whatever way he could; to have his revenge on the woman who’d spurned him. First, by regaining his wealth. Secondly, by marrying.

It had been sheer luck that his marriage to Alanna had worked out as well as it had. It could very well have been a complete disaster.

Now that Reece realised Kristine was out of his head and his heart for ever, no way did he want to risk spoiling things. He decided that, no matter how frustrated he was feeling at this moment, sex with Alanna could at least wait till they were home. Whether they got as far as the bedroom, however, was another question. He rather fancied the idea of undressing her in the living room. Or perhaps not undressing her at all.

He began to wonder what she was wearing underneath that red dress…

The arrival of Holly walking down the aisle was a well-timed distraction, dragging Reece’s mind back from the erotic possibilities of later tonight to the sweetly romantic present.

He’d been right. Holly did look lovely.

Hearing the groom suck in sharply at the sight of his beautiful bride brought a wry smile to Reece’s lips. Underneath his ultra conservative, buttoned-up, banker fac de, Richard was a total softie. A romantic and an idealist.

A visionary, as well.

For which Reece was grateful. If it hadn’t been for Richard’s ability to think outside the box, he’d be stony-broke today. Richard had backed Reece when not one other financial institution would touch him. He’d given him every loan he’d needed till the slump in the real-estate market had changed to a property boom, extending his hand in friendship as well.