The Tycoon's Red Hot Marriage Merger Read Online Free Page B

need rushing through her.
    She’d saved her virginity for love. But right now she’d hand it over to Marco without a second thought to end the unbearable aching between her legs—to bring relief to the need swirling through her fevered senses.
    Cassandra twined her hands around his neck, pressing closer. She felt his erection grow larger. An electrical current traveled into her most intimate places, sparking a dangerous desire. To know that he wanted her was thrilling. He’d seen something more in her and had gone after it with a vengeance.
    Her body. Not her. Her logical brain was quick to assert the difference.
    Marco had no use for her other than as a fast reentry pass into the regatta world. She was merely a conquest in his bed for bonus points. And a mother to the children he claimed he wanted her to bear. Cassandra internally calculated a difficult quantum mechanical theory to restrain her traitorous hormones, then wrenched her face from his.
    “Stop,” she said, panting. “I really don’t want to test my equipment on the dance floor.”
    The corner of his lip lifted in a half smile. He caressed her cheek with his broad palm. “Privacy sounds great. The sooner the better.”
    Heat filled her cheeks. “Not until after we’re married, and once I have your guarantee in writing that I have the chief operating position at Nelson Industries.” She deserved both contracts, especially the position she had bargained her body for and for which her body was quite incredibly happy to comply. But rebelling hormones or not, she also had a right to more than a cheap start to this sham marriage. No matter what internal forces had driven her to propose marriage to her father’s enemy.
    Marco edged her out of the crowd, and the heat, and the insanity of the dance floor, escorting her with a skillfulness only he could command. A skillfulness he would no doubt wield in the bedroom.
    Her stomach did a sudden pitch and roll. Would he be gentle? Giving? Patient? Or would he be ruthless? Savage? Wild? Or would he give her the exhilarating combination of both? The question teased her with the prospect of its tantalizing outcome.
    He caressed her back and waist, keeping her near him while he returned them to his office. An office that suddenly seemed far too small for two people now that she had experienced the intensity of his passion unleashing her suppressed sensuality. Her libido had awakened with a violent need. A need to be claimed by the one man who had set out to destroy her world and had brought her to this untenable place.
    She cleared her throat. Stay firm. Calm. Confident. “Does that mean you’ll give me the contract?” she asked. He still hadn’t granted her the position. Controlling the company meant ensuring that no future mistakes would be made that could ruin lives again.
    “You have both.” His touch, thought feather light, ignited sparks. “Do you want to seal the deal with another kiss?”
    She shook her head. In this instance, two plus two could yield a dangerous sum. “There’ll be no more kissing—or anything else for that matter—until I have a wedding certificate, too.”
    He held out her chair. “Then we should get married immediately.”
    She sat, digging into her purse for another elastic to bind her hair into a proper ponytail and create a semblance of emotional distance and asked, “How soon?”
    “My private jet will be ready in less than an hour.” He checked his watch. “We’ll fly to Vegas tonight to expedite the ceremony.”
    Panic seized her, balled in her throat, making it difficult to speak. Vegas? Expedite? Tonight? She tucked her legs underneath her chair, glancing left and right again, unable to formulate a counter strategy to Marco’s rapid-fire approach to their quickie wedding. He made it impossible to think, to rationalize, to stay mentally on top of her game.
    He grasped her hands between his broad ones and brought them to his lips, kissing her knuckles with the same