The Texas Millionaire's Runaway Wife Read Online Free

ring, file for an immediate divorce, block all his finances, and write Cassie Eden back out of his life. Yet, he found the idea very hollow. It didn’t seem like enough. Divorce. He’d offered her the world and she ran away from him. Almost like a drug addict who goes to the hospital claiming they don’t want drugs, only to get more. Was that her game? Was she just trying to get more from him? Sure, he’d needed to keep things private at first, but she wouldn’t even hear him out.
    He’d loved her. Something he’d genuinely never felt before. That was the only reason he’d wanted to protect her from his family, from the circus of his life. He didn’t think she’d be happy once she knew. Certainly not once she was dragged into it.
    It didn’t seem fair she should wander back into his life and back out again just as inconsequently as the first time. She had to know how it felt, had to experience what she’d put him through. He pulled a checkbook out of his drawer. A moment passed as he wrote out a check, then ripped it from the book and handed it over.
    Cassie glanced down and gasped. “It’s blank.”
    “I know.”
    “Why is it blank?”
    A smile that could have been mistaken by someone else as magnanimous crossed his lips. To Cassie, he hoped it reminded her that he was not a man to cross. And she’d crossed him. Twice.
    “You will use that to get Annie into the school. If you need more, you will receive that as well. I’ll make a call this afternoon to insure she receives priority admission.”
    “But...”
    “It’s going to cost you.”
    There it was again. Five words and pure painful havoc played across her middle. She stood, she couldn’t very well sit in this chair and wait to see what type of torture he planned to exact.
    “Sit, Cassie.”
    “No.”
    “Fine.” He stood as well and glanced out the window again before turning his storm-filled eyes on her.
    A chunk of black hair fell across his forehead and Cassie fought against memories of running her hands through it. She felt too emotionally drained to keep playing his game. “Please, Stephen. Stop taunting me and just tell me what you have in mind.”
    “I already did. We’re married.”
    “Yes, and?”
    He leaned against the window sill and brushed the hair away. “You are going to be my wife.”
    This was getting tiresome. “Stephen,” she sighed in exasperation.
    Any hint of a smile fell from his lips at her exclamation. His eyes locked with hers. “You said it yourself. We’re still married. I’m stuck. If I divorce you now, someone in the media will dig the dirt faster than I sign the papers. I would be a laughing stock, my family would be brought into the spotlight in a negative way and we have too many important investments going right now to risk any negative press. And no, my father most likely wouldn’t take away my business or money, thanks for trying to use that, though.”
    Guilt made her look away.
    “No, instead, I’d be putting my career, and the names of my brothers out there in a negative light. That is not something I’m willing to do.
    “But with you here now,” he continued, “we can fix this. You’ll get Annie the help she needs, but you’ll have to be my wife.”
    She looked back at him. Felt tiny. Felt powerless. “For how long?”
    A flash of something dangerous crossed through his eyes. He sat back down at his desk and leaned forwarded, elbows on the surface. “Am I so horrible to be around that you can’t imagine yourself married to me?”
    She took a step toward him. “No, that’s not what I meant.”
    He shook his head. “It is. For as long as it takes, how does that sound? You be my wife. Around my family, at my home, in society. Let people see us together, let them see that we are good and truly married. Then, you will step away. A few months will pass and after a period of separation we will divorce with irreconcilable differences.”
    A few months, possibly a lot longer. After they’ve