“What can I say, Uncle?” sighed Nick. “That I had one drink too many?” He shrugged. “I really wish that was the case. I won’t go into details but I have to confess that the woman who kissed me had every cause to do so.”
Yep, she had. If he hadn’t butted into her affairs – and if he had stopped her from making a fool of him instead of kissing her right back like a starved goon, he wouldn’t be in this colossal mess…
“I see,” Luca said heavily, and then turned away. “I had hoped I could try and win you back into Rachel’s good favor, but now I see I really shouldn’t bother. It’s obvious you don’t love my daughter and never did. It was your father’s and my fault, throwing you two together since you were younger in the hope that you’d have a future with each other. And now, well…” The old man shrugged, a resigned look on his face.
Nick felt a small sigh escape him – could it be relief? To his surprised, he suddenly didn’t consider it such a disaster if Rachel wasn’t going to marry him.
“You do realize what this means?” the other man asked Nick soberly as both men stood face to face. Though Luca was tall he had grown stocky, his hair thinning at the sides yet not detracting from his darkly handsome looks that sat well on the fifty-six year old man.
Nick wasn’t sure how to respond so he waited for Luca to continue as he said, “Rachel told me that she wasn’t going through with the wedding, not after your little aberration. I think she felt more insulted than anything else. Still, she’s upstairs in her bedroom, if you want to talk with her. You’re the only one who can salvage this situation, Nick. But remember…”
Nick had already been making to leave the room, and paused in the doorway to turn and regard Luca quizzically. Luca added, “If she doesn’t agree to marry you, you’ll have to find someone who will.”
And you know exactly why, Luca’s eyes seemed to say solemnly, and Nick gave him a terse nod. Oh, I know.
He was going to lose his billion dollar inheritance if he didn’t.
Nick spent the next several days working – and planning – hard. Now seated behind the massive oak desk in his well-appointed, expansive office that might soon no longer be his, he went over the bitter argument he’d had with Rachel that last time, up in her bedroom suite.
She started raining abuses at him the moment he entered her sitting room area – right before she flung his ring at him. Okay, so he’d always known she was the violent type but she’d really taken it too far this time, thought Nick. The enormous diamond stud had barely missed his right eye, and the duck he’d made couldn’t have come a second sooner. And yet her next words made his lips twitch wryly even as she stomped into the adjoining bedroom while Nicholas followed. He saw the open bags and luggage and his eyebrows shot up.
“Don’t even bother trying to explain,” Rachel snapped, her blonde ponytail swaying as she began to throw clothes into the open case on her bed. “I’m leaving tomorrow for a much-needed vacation – which obviously means I’m not going to marry you. The wedding's off. I knew you never had any true feelings for me, but this is the last straw. In a day or two the whole world is going to hear about how I jilted you. You hear me?” she added on a scream.
Rachel’s creamy, tanned complexion had gone red with her fury as Nick stared at her expressionlessly.
“It was you who cheated on me, and it was I who called off the wedding,” she said with deep satisfaction as she shoved a finger in his suited chest. She swung away and went on with her packing while seething. “That means no wife for you, Nick – and possibly no inheritance.”
Nick's lips twisted at her malicious, mocking words. “That really would please you, wouldn’t it?” he murmured calmly. “You surprise me. I’d have thought that the opportunity of marrying an heir to over a billion dollars would be very tempting.”
“Well you can go to hell with your billions, Nick,” she snapped, turning on him again as her teeth bared in a snarl, her blue eyes flashing. “And you can go back to your sexy slut.”#p#分页标题#e#
At that Nick felt his anger snap out of its leash as he grabbed her shoulders in a hard grip. “You just watch your mouth, young lady,” he gritted, stressing the last word ironically. “If you must know, I find her more of a woman than you ever could be.”
And with a jolt, Nick realized that was true. He’d known Rachel since she was barely seventeen and he twenty-three. As they’d grown older and their parents began to push them together, he’d tried to look at her beyond her silly, over-pampered heiress façade. But he’d come to discover there wasn’t much there. Rachel was beautiful, entitled, a snob, and far from matured enough to handle his masculine needs. Now that she was almost twenty-four, he’d managed to convince himself that she’d improve with time and molding once she became his wife.