Read The Wedding Night for Free Online Page B

result of your being physically attracted to me and feeling that I’m also an extremely useful business asset."
    "Damn it, Angie…"
    She straightened her shoulders. "I have decided we should delay our wedding night until we know for certain exactly what our relationship is based on and how long it’s going to last."
    Owen set his teeth. "I see. And just where the hell do you plan to spend tonight, Mrs. Sutherland?"
    She blinked and gazed anxiously into the room behind him. "Well, this is a hotel. There should be plenty of rooms available."
    Through an extraordinary act of will, Owen managed to quash his rage. But he brought his face very close to Angie’s so that she would have no trouble seeing just how blazingly furious he was. "I’ll be damned if I’ll have my wife going down to the front desk of a Sutherland hotel on her wedding night to ask for a different room so that she won’t be obliged to sleep with me."
    Angie bit her lip. "I wouldn’t want to humiliate you, of course."
    "A very wise decision."
    "I can see where it would be a bit embarrassing to have it get out that we didn’t spend tonight together,"
    she murmured apologetically.
    "Embarrassing? I’d be the laughingstock of the entire hotel staff, not to mention the whole damn industry."
    "Yes, we must maintain appearances, mustn’t we?" she snapped. "After all, this is business. Everyone knows there are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dollars worth of Sutherland and Townsend stock about to go on the block. If you don’t mind, I’ll sleep out here on the lounger."
    "You will sleep on the damned bed," Owen said through his teeth. "And so will I. We’ll put a sword or something equally appropriate between us. Does that suit you, Mrs. Sutherland?"
    Angie eyed him cautiously, obviously aware that she was on extremely thin ice. "Yes, thank you," she said very politely.
    3
    IN THE END, they used two king-size pillows Angie discovered in the closet rather than a sword. But as she lay wide awake on her side of the huge bed, counting down the minutes until dawn, Angie
    decided the pillows might as well have been made of steel. The barrier they created between her and her husband was certainly as sharp and formidable as any sword would have been.
    She felt miserable. Guilty and hurt and angry and uncertain and just plain miserable. And the worst part was that Owen had apparently gone straight to sleep the moment his head had hit the pillow.
    I’m doing the right thing, Angie repeated to herself over and over again as the hours crawled past with painful slowness. It became a mantra. I’m doing the right thing.
    She realized she must have dozed off at some point because she came awake with a start shortly before dawn. She opened her eyes and found herself staring straight at a dull gray sea. For a few disoriented seconds she could not figure out where she was or why there was a huge white canopy overhead.
    "You awake?" Owen asked from the other side of the bed.
    Angie cringed at the coldness in his voice. Well, she asked herself, what did you expect from your new husband after a wedding night like the one we’ve just had? "Yes."
    "Good. I’ve made some plans."
    "Oh."
    "Don’t tell me you had any?" he drawled.
    "No. Not exactly. I mean, I hadn’t really thought about what we would do next. I know we’re supposed to spend a couple of weeks here."
    "That would be a bit awkward under the circumstances, don’t you think?"
    "I don’t know about that," she said, thinking it through. "It’s a lovely hotel and we’re here now. We could spend the next two weeks getting to know each other."
    "Angie, I am not about to waste the next two weeks playing the devoted bridegroom in front of a couple hundred people who happen to work for me and who will be watching us every time we leave
    this room," he stated flatly.
    "I can see where that might be difficult," she retorted. "Playing the devoted bridegroom, that is.
    Especially if you’re not. Devoted, I