‘Can you come up with a better idea?’ Xander snapped.
‘How about marrying someone you actually love?’
He gave her a pitying glance. ‘Don’t tell me, after seven years of marriage to a man like Sam Bridges, that you still believe in the love myth? Any more than I do after seven years of marriage to Chloe?’
Her eyes flashed deeply green. ‘I think we should leave my marriage out of this.’
‘How can we?’ Xander asked. ‘It’s because your marriage was as disastrous as mine that I believed you might be receptive to my proposal—’
‘That I might be financially desperate enough to be “receptive” to your proposal you mean, don’t you?’ Casey bridled angrily, standing up to glare at him. ‘I’m sure there must be dozens of women you could find who would marry you without the offer of financial inducement!’
‘Someone who would expect more from me than I’m willing to give, you mean?’ His mouth twisted cynically. ‘I would rather pay up front for the privilege, thank you very much. At least that way we would know exactly where we stood!’
‘I don’t need your damned charity—’
‘No—you’re managing just fine on your own, aren’t you?” he taunted. ‘You’re working at two jobs and you still don’t have enough money to feed both Josh and yourself. And from the looks of things you’ve been selling off the furniture a piece at a time, too—’
‘Get out, Mr Fraser.’ Casey cut him off with quiet determination, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. ‘Take your offer and—’
‘But you haven’t heard what my offer is yet, Casey.’
‘I don’t need to hear it—’
He ignored her protest. ‘As my stepson, Josh would go to the same private schools as Lauren. University later, too. And I would put funds in trust for him to receive when he’s twenty-one. Neither he nor you would ever have to worry about money ever again.’
‘And in return for all that, what do I give you?’ Casey asked, with more than a touch of sarcasm.
‘Just your name with mine on a marriage certificate.’
Casey shook her head. ‘I understand why you’re doing this, Mr Fraser—I really do,’ she reiterated as he gave a derisive snort; if anyone tried to take Josh away from her she would do what she had to do to keep him, too. ‘But Brad Henderson would never believe in a marriage between the two of us.’
‘You’re wrong there, Casey,’ Xander contradicted her flatly. ‘I’ve had four days to think—to worry about this—and after my seven hellish years of marriage to Chloe, I can assure you I’ve made my views on marrying again only too plain. Which is why I think a marriage between the two of us—Sam’s deserted wife and Chloe’s deserted husband—is the only one that Brad would even half believe in.’
‘If it was so hellish, why did you stay married to Chloe for so long?’ she snapped, stung by how he’d described her as deserted; he made her sound like a pair of old shoes Sam had simply laid to one side and forgotten!
‘Why did you stay married to Bridges?’ he retorted.
But Casey knew the answer to the question even before they both answered at the same time.
‘Because of Lauren!’
‘Because of Josh!’
Xander gave a mocking inclination of his head. ‘And then, as it turned out, our fears were all for nothing—because when they did both finally leave neither of them wanted Lauren or Josh! They only wanted each other.’
It was true, Casey acknowledged painfully. Whatever it was that had burnt so fiercely between Sam and Chloe—love, lust, whatever—everything else had been surplus to requirements. Including their two children.
‘All I’m asking right now is that you think about marrying me, Casey,’ Xander encouraged. ‘Think of what the two of us marrying could mean to you and Josh, of what I could give you—’
‘I said I don’t want to hear any of that!’ Casey cut in shakily, disturbed by his offer in spite of herself.
Because, the offer of financial security for herself apart, she wanted all those things he had mentioned for Josh, and she hated the fact that she was never going to be able to provide them for him.
And Xander Fraser had to have known that perfectly well when he made his outrageous offer of marriage…
Four days he had said he’d had to think about a solution to his problem, whereas she had only had a matter of minutes to accept that this man really was proposing marriage to her. That the only reason he had chosen her was because he knew she was desperately in need of the financial security he offered.
That he felt confident in making the offer to her because he knew her circumstances were such that he wouldn’t need to pretend a love for her he would never feel.
Xander watched the conflicting emotions flickering across Casey’s face, realising she was both tempted and repelled by his offer.
He had no idea which emotion was going to win…
CHAPTER FOUR
SHE needed time to think about this, Casey decided. She needed to sit down and think rationally about all that Xander Fraser was offering her.
She no more wanted to marry again than he obviously did—had been just as soured by her unhappy marriage to Sam as he had by his ‘hellish’ marriage to Chloe.
But that wasn’t all that was at stake here, was it? She had Josh’s welfare to consider. And, as his stepfather, Xander could give him all the advantages in life that she knew she would never be able to provide for him.
But before making any decision—was she actually considering his proposal?—despite his earlier comment, she really needed to know exactly what he would want from her in return.
She looked across at him warily, once again jolted by his sheer physical magnetism. He was an extremely handsome man, his dark good-looks more wild and rugged than the smoothly golden Adonis Sam had been. Yes, Xander was certainly much more vitally physical. That very ruggedness suggested an enjoyment of all the sensual pleasures…
‘You said your marriage proposal was a purely business proposition…?’ she asked slowly.
He easily returned her gaze, dark brows rising even as a wicked little smile curved his lips. ‘Casey, why don’t you just come right out and ask whether the marriage would include us sleeping together?’
Colour warmed her cheeks even as she glared at him. ‘Well, would it?’
Xander knew he could have continued to play with her. That he would have enjoyed teasing her a little. That he liked the way she blushed when she was embarrassed, resembling a soft, fluffy kitten when it felt itself cornered.
But the situation was too serious for him to prolong this particular conversation. Brad’s threats were too painful. He was sure the older man would ultimately lose, but at what cost to Lauren’s already delicately balanced emotions?
So instead he shrugged. ‘I’ll go along with whatever you want.’
‘Whatever I—?’ She broke off incredulously, her eyes wide with shock. ‘Are you saying that if I decided I wanted to—wanted to—?’
‘To go to bed with me,’ Xander inserted helpfully.
She nodded. ‘That if I wanted that, you would be willing to—to—?’
‘Go to bed with you,’ he finished softly. ‘Yes, I’d be willing to do that.’
She looked totally stunned now, and Xander realised just how young she was. Perhaps not in years—twenty-seven really wasn’t that young—but most definitely in experience, if she didn’t know that she could enjoy physical pleasure without being in love with the person she was making love with.
‘Why not, Casey?’ he added. ‘After all, it would be perfectly legal.’
He had a feeling it would be something he would enjoy too. There could be depths to this woman’s emotions that she hadn’t even discovered fully for herself yet. Yes, he might enjoy administering that TLC he had thought her in need of earlier on…
‘It being legal has nothing to do with it!’ Casey said indignantly. ‘I couldn’t just—just go to bed with you because a piece of paper says I can!’
‘Why couldn’t you?’ He came across the room to stand only inches away from her, one of his hands rising to lightly cup the side of her face as his thumb moved caressingly across the fullness of her lower lip. ‘You’re a very beautiful woman,’ he murmured huskily, his gaze roaming over her suddenly pale face. ‘Would you find it such a hardship to go to bed with me?’ he asked.
Casey found herself mesmerised by those gorgeous firm lips only inches away from her own. What would it be like to feel them moving searchingly against hers? To have him kiss and caress—?
No!
‘You would,’ Xander said regretfully as she flinched back from him. ‘Casey, thousands of people go to bed together every day for no other reason than that piece of paper.’
‘Not me!’ she assured him firmly, very aware of the way she still trembled from his light caress, and wondering if she was being truthful—to Xander or herself…
She had been in love with Sam when they’d first married. Or at least she had thought she was. It hadn’t been long before she had understood that, at only twenty years old, she had probably been too young to realise she was just dazzled by the fact that someone so good-looking and charming as Sam should have fallen in love with her. But by then it had been too late. They had already been married a year, Josh had been a baby only two months old, and her father had recently died.