LITMIR.BIZ

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what?”

      “The cooking and the cleaning. The sex. Did you think you could manipulate me?”

      Her heart sank. What was she going to tell him? No? Lie to him again? She had done that, just not in the way he thought. Not so sneaky and underhanded. “It wasn’t like that, I swear. I wanted you to see that I could be a good wife.”

      He looked so disgusted with her, so…violated. “I didn’t marry you so I could have a wife. I only did it for your father’s support.”

      And that was her life in a nutshell. She was only as useful as her political connections. No words could have cut deeper or stung more.

      “Does Lance know?” he asked.

      Lance? Why would he think that she would go running to his brother? “No, of course not.”

      “And he never can,” Mitch said.

      His words took her aback. What the hell was that supposed to mean? How could he not find out, eventually? Did Mitch expect her to give the baby up, or even worse, terminate? Was he that cold and heartless, or so arrogant that he believed the choice was his alone?

      What did his brother have to do with this, anyway? This was between her and Mitch. “Who cares if Lance does find out? What’s he going to do about it?”

      The veins at his temple pulsed. “You can’t mess with people’s emotions that way, Lexi. He and Kate are happy. Something like this could tear their marriage apart. I refuse to let that happen.”

      How could she and Mitch having a child ruin Lance’s marriage? This didn’t make any sense. “What are you asking me to do, Mitch?”

      “We’ll raise the baby as mine,” he said.

      Then it dawned on her. Their odd and confusing conversation suddenly made sense. He thought it was Lance’s child. Lance, who she had barely kissed, much less slept with. It had never even occurred to Mitch that the baby was his.

      Did he honestly believe that she would jump from Mitch’s bed right into his brother’s? Did he really have such a low opinion of her?

      Obviously, he did. This past week, all the time they had shared, it meant nothing to him. He was using her for a good time, because he apparently believed that was all she was good for.

      Her stomach lurched and she had to fight to keep from vomiting again. How had she gotten into this mess? Married to a man who considered her a garden-variety slut, one who jumped from one brother to the next as casually as she changed shoes. Even if she did try to tell him the truth, she doubted he would listen, or believe her. Or care.

      She had been hoping they might have a real marriage. Not just hoping, but longing for it. She desperately wanted someone to really see her. To love her. But it was clear that Mitch would never be that man. He could never respect or love her, and all the pretending, all the seducing in the world would never change that. It would never alter the preconceived notion he had of her.

      First rejected by her father, then by her husband. As long as she lived, she would never trust any man ever again.

      Using the wall for support, she pulled herself to her feet. She swayed unsteadily for a second, then straightened her spine and faced Mitch. “If you’ll excuse me,” she said, brushing past him, but he grabbed her by her upper arm to stop her.

      “From now on, I would appreciate it if you kept your hands to yourself.”

      She lifted her chin and met his eyes, so he wouldn’t see how humiliated and cheap he’d just made her feel. “The truth is, you were hardly worth the effort. Looks like I married the wrong brother.”

      She could see that her arrow had hit its mark, but for some reason it only made her feel worse.

      She yanked her arm free and stalked from the room. She was stuck with a man who was arrogant, coldhearted and just plain mean.

      On the bright side, she could spend the rest of her life making him as miserable as she was.

      Mitch watched Lexi strut from the room, feeling more betrayed and disillusioned than he ever had in his life. He’d honestly believed that they had connected, that the dynamics of their relationship had shifted. He’d let himself consider that their marriage might be more than a business deal. But it had all been an act. She had used him.

      How could he have been so foolish? How could he have let his guard down when all along he knew the kind of woman that she was? Because he had been thinking with something other than his brain, that’s how.

      Alexis Cavanaugh was a spoiled, heartless viper and that would never change.

      At least now he knew why she had so readily agreed to marry him, and he was thankful that she had. Lance and Kate were happy and he refused to let Lexi’s selfishness—her lack of concern for anyone but herself—ruin that. For all he knew, she might have conceived on purpose. Maybe she felt she needed a bargaining chip, a way to guarantee her marriage to Lance, but he had broken the engagement and married Kate. Mitch could only imagine what Lexi’s next move would have been had he not offered to marry her, instead. Blackmail, maybe? Extortion?

      He wondered what the senator would think if he knew what his daughter had been up to. Of course, for all he knew, she learned this sort of behavior from him. But Mitch couldn’t let himself forget the old man’s threat. If you hurt my daughter, I’ll ruin you. He didn’t have a choice but to make this work. For the company’s sake.

      She was his wife, God help him, and he was going to raise his brother’s child the way he would his own, with the best of everything. He had never imagined being a father, especially at his age, but he didn’t seem to have much choice. He had no reservations about running a multimillion-dollar company, but the responsibility of shaping a child’s life terrified him. Probably because his own father had done such a bang-up job with him and Lance.

      When Lexi grew bored and left them, which he had little doubt she would eventually do, he would reject everything he had learned from his own father and be the best single parent possible. He owed the kid that much. Someday, when the time was right, he would tell Lance and the child the truth, but until then, no one but he and Lexi would know.

      That wasn’t even the worst part. To keep up the ruse, so Lance didn’t suspect the truth, Mitch and Lexi had no choice but to make their marriage look like a real one.

Chapter Eight

      The trip home was the longest and most miserable in Lexi’s life. It was raining as they boarded the ferry to the mainland and the ride was a choppy one, launching her already questionable stomach into turmoil. The first leg of their flight was delayed due to weather and they missed their connecting flight. They were stuck in the London airport for six hours waiting for the next available departure, and when they finally took off for Texas, the flight was so turbulent she spent most of it in the bathroom in a scene straight out of The Exorcist.

      The entire time, Mitch didn’t say a single word to her.

      When they reached Houston, she was so relieved she felt like dropping to her knees and kissing the ground. She just wanted to go home and crawl into her own bed. But as they were climbing into the limo, Mitch reminded her that all of her things had been moved into his townhouse and that was her home now. On the bright side, he didn’t seem any happier about it than she was. Her misery wasn’t as hard to swallow when she knew he was right there with her.

      Located on a golf course in what was by far the most affluent neighborhood in Maverick County, Mitch’s townhouse was anything but small. The front door opened into a foyer and spacious living area. It smelled of furniture polish and faintly of Mitch’s aftershave. The decor, to her surprise, was very homey and welcoming. Not what she would expect from a house occupied exclusively by a man.

      There was a formal dining room and enormous kitchen with every modern device known to man.

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