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going to take you to bed—it’s going to be on my terms, and when I choose. Tonight was just to see if you’re as immune to me as you claimed to be when you walked out on me.’ His teeth gleamed in the moonlight as he smiled. ‘You aren’t immune at all, Kenzie,’ he taunted.
    No, she wasn’t. But this wasn’t the way. This would never be the way…
    ‘Please don’t do this, Dominick,’ she warned breathlessly. ‘Don’t destroy what feelings of respect we have left for each other—’
    ‘Me destroy those feelings?’ He surged to his feet to stand darkly forbidding beside the bed as he looked down at her with hard, glittering eyes. ‘You did that when you walked out the door four months ago!’
    Yes, she had walked out—and, although Dominick might not believe it, it had almost killed her to do it.
    Did Dominick really imagine that it had been easy for her to leave, to give up on the hope that he would one day love her as she loved him? Because if he really thought that—
    ‘Straight into Jerome Carlton’s arms and bed!’ he added harshly.
    Jerome Carlton again.
    It always came back to Jerome.
    Kenzie had no idea why Dominick was so convinced she’d had an affair with the other man.
    All that Jerome had done was offer her a contract with his company, and had been there for her when she’d sat beside him on the plane to America, still slightly shell-shocked from the last argument with Dominick. Jerome had obviously not known exactly why she was so unhappy, but he had been there for her anyway, and he had continued to be attentive during the weeks she’d spent in America when she had seemed so unhappy.
    He had asked nothing in return.
    But Dominick wouldn’t understand that. He didn’t understand that there could be just friendship between a man and a woman. He didn’t understand love between a man and a woman, so how could he possibly understand friendship?
    ‘Please, don’t do anything that is going to make me hate you, Dominick,’ she pleaded forcefully, not sure she would be able to bear that when she loved him so much.
    He gave a humourless laugh. ‘Why not? They say that hate is akin to love! Either emotion has to be an improvement on that coolness you showed me for the month before you ended the torture of our marriage. It has to be better than the distant politeness with which you’ve been treating me all evening!’
    But that distant politeness was her protection, Kenzie thought. It was the only thing she had to stop this man from making her suffer more than he was already.
    She couldn’t let Dominick hurt her all over again; she had barely survived the first time!
    ‘Get some sleep, Kenzie,’ he advised harshly as he began to pull on his clothes.
    ‘Where are you going?’ She frowned.
    ‘I have no idea,’ he grated after pulling his tee shirt on over his head. ‘But don’t worry, Kenzie, I’m not leaving.’ He paused to look down at her. ‘I don’t like weddings, but I’ve said I’ll fulfil my half of the bargain, and so I will. Just be prepared, when the time comes, to fulfil yours!’
CHAPTER SIX
    KENZIE had no idea where Dominick had spent the night, only knowing that he hadn’t come back to the bedroom they should have shared.
    She knew he hadn’t returned because she had spent most of the night awake, too troubled, and too disturbed by what had happened, to be able to fall asleep.
    A fact that the bathroom mirror had all too readily confirmed when she went through to shower and dress this morning, dark circles under her eyes, and her face pale.
    A great glowing bridesmaid she was going to make, she thought as she put on enough make-up to cover up her pallor.
    Just the thought of facing Dominick again, after the intimacies they had shared during the night, wasn’t something she relished.
    Although she knew it was something she wasn’t going to have a choice about. Dominick had said he wouldn’t leave, and she knew him well enough by now to know that when he said