Hugh had admitted that he hadn’t been instantly smitten with her. Kathryn could only imagine that she’d become some kind of perverse challenge; that she’d sparked his interest because she’d shown none of her own.
It was all very confusing. But perversely flattering too. She would have to watch herself. The last thing she wanted was to stupidly fall in love with him.
‘I’m not going to live with you,’ she said sharply.
‘Fine.’
‘And I’ll be filing for divorce as soon as I take possession of this house. I still have plans to have a family, you know. And I’m not getting any younger.’
‘Fine.’
‘I’ll be resigning then, as well. You do realise that.’
‘Yes,’ he said without turning a hair.
He doesn’t care about me at all, she suddenly realised. Either as a person, or his PA. He just wants to screw me silly, then send me on my merry way.
His ruthlessness should have appalled her. It did appall her. But it turned her on at the same time.
‘Till that happens, however,’ he added, his eyes quite hard as they held hers, ‘I expect you not to reject me sexually.’
Kathryn’s head spun at his coolly delivered demand.
What on earth was she getting into here?
‘I won’t be a party to anything kinky,’ she said, then wished she hadn’t. Did sex on his desk count as kinky?
‘I give you my word that I won’t expect you to do anything you don’t like.’
Kathryn didn’t feel all that comforted by this assurance. She suspected that she might like just about anything with this wicked devil of a man.
‘So where are we going to get married?’ she went on in a desperate attempt to get her mind off the subject of sex. ‘Still the registry office?’
‘No, I’ve changed my mind about that. I have a minister friend who won’t say a word to the Press, and who won’t ask any awkward questions. We’ll have a private little ceremony at my place, with my golfing buddies as witnesses. They won’t breathe a word to anyone, either.’
‘But surely they’ll ask questions?’
‘Undoubtedly,’ he said rather drily.
‘What will you tell them?’
‘The truth. To a degree. I’ll leave out the sex part. They’ll think I’m mad.’
‘You are mad.’
His smile was wry. ‘We’re both mad. You, about this house. And me about you.’
Kathryn still could not come to terms with his confessed desire for her. It seemed unbelievable. But if it got her Val’s house, then she couldn’t regret the fact that she’d somehow piqued Hugh’s interest. Coming here today had reaffirmed what this place meant to her. Without it, she’d be lost. She’d have done practically anything to get it. Hugh was right. She wouldn’t have said yes to Daryl’s proposal if marriage to him hadn’t secured Val’s house for her.
It was why she was saying yes to Hugh’s much less conventional proposal.
That was the only reason, wasn’t it, Kathryn? she asked herself as she glanced over at his handsome face.
His eyebrows suddenly drew together into a frown. ‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘What’s wrong?’
Kathryn did her best to clear whatever it was he’d seen in her face. ‘I was just thinking,’ she said, valiantly ignoring the panic which her thoughts had produced.
‘About what?’
‘Practicalities.’
He sighed. ‘I should have been expecting this, I suppose. And what practicalities would that be?’
‘Birth control, for starters.’
‘You want me to use protection.’
Did she? ‘Well, I um I am on the Pill. And I made Daryl get checked out when we got engaged. He was clear, but ’
‘Don’t worry. I never rely on the Pill. I’ll come well-prepared.’
Kathryn winced at his rather evocative turn of phrase. She shouldn’t have started this conversation right now. It made her think about having sex with him again, though this time not on a desk, but in a bed—all night long.
‘You’ll have to organise that pre-nup for me to sign this week,’ she swept on, annoyed at her one-track mind. ‘How are you going to do that without more people finding out we’re getting married?’
‘Our family lawyer spends half his life writing up prenups. Henry won’t say a word to anyone, if I ask him not to. He’s paid extremely well to keep the Parkinson family’s secrets. Anything else, Kat, darling?’