THE BRAVO BILLIONAIRE Page 7

  "So. She hasn't left the mansion since Blythe passed away."

  He granted her the tiniest, most disinterested of shrugs.

  She told him, "That little girl is not going to spend her whole life on a hill in Bel Air. Starting today, she's gettin' out now and then."

  He muttered, very softly, "Damn you, Emma Hewitt."

  And she laid it right out for him. "I'm sorry, but I am not going to budge on this one. We are driving back to Angel's Crest now, and we are picking up that little girl. Because as far as I'm concerned, Jonas Bravo, if we don't, we are lookin' at a deal-breaker here."

  His eyebrows rose and he gave her another absolutely icy look. "Oh, are we?"

  "That's right. No Mandy, no marriage."

  * * *

  Chapter 8

  «^»

  Mandy babbled all the way to the airport and then conked out during the flight. The private jet, which was done up like somebody's living room – a living room with all the furniture bolted to the floor – was pretty quiet after that.

  The two bodyguards Jonas had insisted must go with them didn't have a lot to say. And Mandy's nanny, Claudia, was very sweet and very shy. She sat over in a corner, thumbing through a magazine, looking up and muttering something prayerful in Spanish every time the jet hit a little turbulence.

  Jonas, wrapped in a silence both brooding and grim, sat in a big leather chair by a window and looked out at the high, white clouds rearing up below them and the limitless blue sky above. Emma left him alone. She sat in another leather chair on the other side of the plane and she looked out her own window and told herself that her bridegroom would lighten up eventually.

  When they touched down at McCarran International, a car was waiting to take them straight to one of the new hotels on the strip, where glass sculptures adorned the lobby ceiling and exotic plants grew everywhere. They were shown to a five-room suite with a view of a manmade lake several floors below.

  Ambrose McAllister was waiting for them in the suite. He had the marriage license with him and he also had the prenuptial agreement all ready for signing.

  Emma sat down and read the agreement. It gave her five million dollars, should the marriage end, and made it clear that she agreed she would receive nothing more.

  Emma said – to Mr. McAllister, since Jonas wasn't speaking to her – "I don't want a red cent when this is over. I told Jonas that."

  The attorney explained that the law contained within it certain assumptions of fairness. If she didn't take the five million, she would be in a position to sue for even more, as it could be construed as unfair that she got nothing when the marriage ended.

  "Mr. McAllister. I am not suing anybody. I make my own money and I don't want any of his."

  Jonas, who'd been standing at the window staring out at the Las Vegas skyline and the mountains beyond, turned around and glared at her. "Oh for God's sake, Emma. Will you sign the damn thing and let's get on with this?"

  Emma thought, well what do you know? It can talk. She glared right back at him. "I told you—"

  "Sign it," he said again, then added bleakly, "Please."

  The "please" kind of did it. She said, without heat this time, "Is it so hard for you to take a person at her word?"

  "This isn't about taking you at your word. As Ambrose just told you, it's about fairness. When this is over, you will know that you were fairly treated. We'll avoid resentments, which can become damned expensive."

  "Fairness," she echoed.

  "Yes."

  "And this is really what you want, for me to sign this?"

  "Yes, Emma. It is."

  "Sign right here." Mr. McAllister was holding out a gold pen.

  Shaking her head, Emma took the pen. In one year, she would be a multimillionaire. Imagine that. It didn't seem real. She wished she could feel a little better about the whole thing. But then she glanced over at the far side of the, room, where Mandy sat on her nanny's lap, chattering away.

  For Mandy's sake, she thought, and she signed with a flourish.

  A few minutes after Emma had signed the agreement, there was a knock at the door. One of the bodyguards let in a tall man in a gray suit. A justice of the peace.

  Emma turned to Jonas, who had stopped looking out the window and stepped forward to shake the justice's hand. "We're getting married right here, in the hotel room?"

  He actually answered her, but what he said was so nasty, she almost wished he hadn't. "Is that going to be another deal-breaker for you?"

  She smiled – very sweetly, she thought. "No, not at all. I'm ready. Let's do it."

  So Emma and Jonas stood before the justice of the peace, who began to recite the wedding vows. He barely got started when Mandy cried, "Me, too!"

  Jonas turned to the little one. She ran to him and held out her arms.

  He scooped her up and they faced the man in the gray suit once again. Jonas and Emma repeated their vows, one and then the other. Mandy caught on and when it was Emma's turn, she giggled and sang out her own bright and happy, "I do."

  The man in the gray suit said, "Do you have the ring?"

  And Jonas pulled one from his pocket. Emma stared at it in wonder. Somehow, the man had managed to go out and get her a ring? Amazing. But on second thought, she supposed that a billionaire didn't have a lot of trouble getting anything he wanted on real short notice.

  He took her hand and slipped the ring on her finger, all in a very matter-of-fact manner, without once glancing up into her eyes. It was a whole lot of ring, a huge diamond solitaire set high in a platinum band.

  Mandy cried out in delight, "Ooh, pretty!" and reached for the glittering stone. Jonas caught the little hand and kissed it, and nodded at the justice of the peace. "Go on."

  At the end, when the justice said, "You may kiss the bride," Emma half expected Jonas to mutter, "No thanks." But he said nothing. He turned away and set his little sister down.

  Mandy laughed. "Kiss, Jonah. Kiss." She held up her little mouth and he gave her a peck.

  Then she went straight to Emma. "Kiss?"

  So Emma bent and gave Mandy a quick, fond kiss of her own.

  "Thank you," said Mandy.

  "You are most welcome."

  Mandy giggled again and toddled off, calling for her nanny. "Claudia, gimme a kiss!"

  Emma watched her, thinking that at least so far, the little sweetheart didn't seem to have been damaged much at all by her big brother's overbearing protectiveness.

  "Emma."

  Her breath caught in her throat. She turned her head and looked at him. In his eyes, behind his anger at her for forcing him to bring Mandy along, she saw last night. Vivid as a needful cry, the memory of it echoed through her. All of a sudden, she was all tangled up in yearning. Her body was hungry, her mind thick and slow.

  He took her arm. Heat sizzled where he touched her, little arrows of arousal shooting all through her, confusing her, ruining the sweet clarity she had found for a while there, while she fought to get Mandy the right to be here, while he demonstrated his cold fury with the fact that she had won.

  Maybe if she just didn't look at him…

  She jerked her gaze downward, focused desperately on the second button of his fine silk shirt. But he only put a finger beneath her chin and guided her face up to his.

  He said her name again – in a whisper, that time.

  And she whispered back, "Jonas…"

  And then he was kissing her. His tongue was inside her mouth and she was glad to have it there. She sighed as he pulled her close and deepened the kiss even more.

  The bodyguards and Mr. McAllister, the justice of the peace and the nanny and Mandy – all of them were watching. And Emma didn't care in the least. Jonas was kissing her.

  And she did not want him ever to stop.

  * * *

  Once he felt his new bride's total compliance, Jonas pulled away.

  He did it gently, and with some regret, unable to keep from thinking that this suite he had taken for t
he afternoon included a perfectly acceptable master bedroom. He could get rid of Ambrose and the justice of the peace and lead Emma to bed right here and now. Claudia would see to Mandy, and his men would go about their business doing what he paid them to do, making sure those in his care were safe.

  He did feel a certain urgency, to have her. For a number of reasons. First and foremost, she excited him. He'd accepted that fact now. He wanted her, quite powerfully.

  Beyond that, it had been a long time since he'd taken a woman to bed. He had missed the pleasure sex brought him, as well as the release. Now that he'd found a specific woman he wanted, his recent abstinence seemed to be working against him, making him more eager, more hungry for the act than was probably wise.

  Also, he'd done a little more thinking since last night. By the terms of his mother's will, he had to be married to Emma for one year. Now that they'd both agreed to go through with it, he wanted no doubt at all that it had been a true marriage in every sense of the word right from the first. And a marriage in every sense of the word included sex.

  Still…

  There was something … too public about the situation now. Though they'd all be minding their own business, there was no getting around the fact that he'd have his sister and the nanny and two armed men hanging around right outside the bedroom door.

  He could wait.

  Until tonight, when he would join his new wife in the large and comfortable – and very private – suite of rooms that he had chosen for her at Angel's Crest.

  Waiting, though, presented one major problem: Emma herself.

  She could be damn slippery when she chose to be. Witness the week of pure hell she'd put him through making up her mind to marry him in the first place. And the way she'd dug in her heels over the issue of bringing Mandy with them today. She'd won out, too. Against his better judgment, his sister was here, in Vegas, with them. He still hadn't completely gotten past his fury over the way she'd bested him on that score.

  Emma had to be watched. He didn't dare let her out of his sight until he'd made certain she understood where she belonged – for the next twelve months, anyway. She was just hardheaded and morally upright enough to decide that sex should not be part of the contract they shared. He intended to disabuse her of that notion, and he meant to do it before the night was over.

  But in the meantime, he had to keep her close and he needed to make sure she was occupied. He didn't want to give her a lot of time to think. She'd only make up her mind to do things that didn't fit in with his plans.

  Ambrose was clearing his throat. "Ahem. Jonas. Emma. If you will step over here and sign the marriage license…"

  Jonas offered Emma his arm.

  She took it, looking up at him, her eyes soft, two charming spots of color staining her cheeks and her mouth just a little swollen from his kiss.

  Just the way he wanted her.

  Now, all he had to do was to keep her that way until tonight.

  * * *

  Starting with the kiss that sealed their wedding vows, things improved between Emma and Jonas. Enormously. Emma was so pleased.

  Jonas seemed to have let go of his anger with her. He wrapped her fingers around his arm and led her to the table where they both signed the document that declared them man and wife.

  Man and wife. She could hardly believe it. For a year, she would be Emma Lynn Bravo, wife of Jonas Bravo. It wouldn't, of course, be a marriage in the fullest sense. They did not love each other and they would not share a bed.

  But they would live together at Angel's Crest. She would be a part of his and Mandy's lives for the next twelve months. And she hoped, by the time the marriage ended, that she might at least come close to accomplishing the tough task that Blythe had set for her.

  The man in the gray suit said his goodbyes and Ambrose McAllister left, too.

  Then Jonas said, "We have a few hours before we have to fly home. Would you like to take a look around the strip?"

  Emma beamed at her new husband. "Oh, yes. Let's do that…"

  * * *

  Emma gave in when he argued that they should leave Mandy with Claudia, under the watchful eyes of his very able bodyguards. She had wanted the little one to be at the wedding. That had seemed important, somehow. But she didn't see any reason to drag her around the casinos. True, in recent years, Las Vegas had become a place where the whole family could have a great time. But Mandy was only two, a little young even for the theme park-style hotels like Treasure Island and the MGM Grand.

  They changed clothes – Jonas into chinos and a polo shirt, Emma into a cap-sleeved tee with a keyhole neckline and a nice, snug pair of white stretch pants. Then he took her down to the lobby, under that incredible sculpture made of glass, and outside, where it was hot and bright and noisy and there were people everywhere.

  They went to the New York-New York Hotel & Casino, saw the replica of the New York skyline and rode the Coney Island-style roller coaster. They visited the Mirage. Emma wanted to see the 20,000-gallon aquarium in the lobby, to have a look at the miniature ocean in there, complete with stingrays, sharks and even an octopus – not to mention the special habitat where Siegfried and Roy's white tigers lived.

  At Circus Circus, while trapeze artists and high-wire unicyclists defied death over their heads, they even did some gambling. Emma played the dollar slots and Jonas bet on the spin of the roulette wheel. Emma lost fifty dollars. Jonas won a little over a thousand.

  It was while Jonas was winning at roulette that Emma became aware of the two men watching them. One was short and round and balding, dressed in wrinkled khakis and a Hawaiian shirt. The other was tall and thin, in black jeans and a dark T-shirt, wispy hair pulled back into a ponytail. Danny DeVito and Peter Fonda, Emma thought – with cameras. They started snapping pictures soon after Emma spotted them.

  Jonas grabbed her hand. "Time to go." He started walking fast. Emma had to run to keep up.

  The dealer called, "Sir! Your winnings…"

  Jonas didn't even pause. "Keep it. Call it a tip," he said over his shoulder.

  The dealer shouted, "Thank you!"

  Jonas didn't bother to reply. He was moving as fast as those long, strong legs would carry him. Emma hustled along at his side.

  The two men followed them back to the hotel. They managed to get into the elevator and get the door closed before the men could hop in with them. When they got off the elevator several floors up, the pair were nowhere in sight.

  "Keep moving." Jonas dragged her down the hall.

  "Who were they?" Emma asked, as Jonas used his card key to get them in the door.

  The green light blinked, Jonas turned the handle and the door swung inward. They stepped into the small entrance foyer of their suite and Jonas shut the door. "Photographers. Paparazzi. Expect to see your picture in the tabloids very soon."

  Emma bit her lower lip and wondered what kind of stories would be written about them. The tabloids were so often full of wild exaggerations and sometimes even outright lies.

  Jonas lightly touched the side of her face. "Sorry. You don't marry the Bravo Billionaire and expect to keep it out of the papers."

  She gazed up at him. He gazed back with something that almost might have passed for fondness. Her heart did what hearts only did in love songs: it skipped a beat.

  "Jonah. Emma. There you are." Mandy was standing in the arch that led to the living room of the suite, her plump hands on her two-year-old hips. "We have been waiting to fly away in the jet."

  Jonas laughed. "Don't worry, sweetheart. We're leaving right away."

  They managed to get down the back stairs and out into the five-story parking structure without incident. A limousine was waiting there, engine idling, a second, smaller car right behind it. Mandy, Jonas, Emma and one of the two bodyguards piled in and headed for the airport. Claudia and the other man went in the second car.

  They boarded the jet without any trouble. Apparently, they'd lost the two photographers at the hotel. In no time, the
y took off for L.A.

  * * *

  They got to LAX at a little after six in the evening. It took another forty-five minutes to reach the gate at Angel's Crest. Palmer, as always, greeted them at the front door. By then, Mandy was getting fussy. Claudia took her right upstairs.

  Once the nanny and the child had left them, Jonas turned to Palmer. "Are Mrs. Bravo's rooms in order?"

  Mrs. Bravo, Emma thought. That's me. How strange.

  Also, she noted, he'd said, "Mrs. Bravo's rooms." She decided that meant he wouldn't be expecting her to sleep with him – which was good. They understood each other. There might be a certain attraction between them, but Jonas must have realized that getting involved in a love affair with her would only make everything all the more complicated. And Emma certainly did not need to be his lover to teach him the things he needed to learn.

  It was all working out for the best. And she did not feel the least bit disappointed that she wouldn't be climbing all over him naked all night long.

  "The suite is ready, sir," Palmer said. "Shall I show Mrs. Bravo the way?"

  Jonas took her arm. His touch sent a hot little thrill coursing through her. "I'll take her up. She has a suitcase and a garment bag in the limo. See that they get to her room right away, will you?"

  "Immediately." Palmer turned and left them.

  Jonas wrapped her hand around his arm. She was getting kind of used to that, to her hand tucked nice and comfy around his forearm, which was warm and hard and dusted with shiny, springy brown hair. He led her up the stairs and down a couple of hallways, to a suite of rooms in the southwest corner of the house.

  She loved the rooms on sight.

  The large bed-sitting area had dove-gray walls, white woodwork and chairs upholstered in black and gold brocade. A black velvet skirt and white duvet covered the bed, which had mountains of pillows but no head or footboard. On the antique black and gold bed table stood a crystal vase filled with lush white peonies. A crystal chandelier glittered overhead and French doors led out to a terrace that overlooked the curving palm-lined drive. Farther out lay the sprawling grandeur of L.A. and beyond that, the endless Pacific.