Claiming His Wife Read online

  After thanking Sabrina for walking her to Finn’s office door, she raised her hand slowly and knocked. Why did she knock? Old habits die hard. It was something that was ingrained into her when her father was in his office. It gave too much power to that room, to her past.

  “Come in!” A male voice sounded through the door.

  ***

  In the five years of heading this company, Finn could admit that he had never waited for an appointment with bated breath before today. The call from his assistant stating that Kalilah Anderson was here to see him had shattered his morning, like cold water coming into contact with a hot glass. Instantly feeling a trickle of sweat on his nape, anger suddenly replaced a heady feeling. Anger is better, he told himself. It afforded him a level of control. At least that was something he could manage – controlling his emotions came easy because of his line of work.

  In business, it was dangerous to allow your opponents to see you sweat.

  Rebranding the company and pushing it to even greater heights had taken up a chunk of his time. Working 14- to 16-hour days helped him forget the mess he had called his life. The truth was that he had been running. The worst part about the entire fiasco was that he wasn’t guilty of anything Kalilah accused him of or believed him to be. He still didn’t understand how things had gotten so out of hand between them. He blamed himself for the chasm that now separated them. He took full responsibility for that. He should’ve tried harder to tell her the truth. Now, she was on her way to his office, and he didn’t know what to think.

  The knock on his office door further destabilized him. His spine stiffened. He masked his emotions before saying, “Come on in!” He hoped his voice sounded more confident than he felt. He rose from his chair and walked across to the glass wall which overlooked downtown Montréal. His eyes were accosted by a view he couldn’t appreciate in that moment. He had known from the moment she left Seattle and had received a call the moment her flight had landed in the Canada, yet he felt unprepared to meet her. He never expected to be her first stop. He would be lying to himself if he didn’t admit to hoping that she had returned to finally settle down here – with him.

  The door swung open and he turned to look her over.

  Cool dark eyes latched onto his own dark blue ones from across the room. There wasn’t a hint of kindness in her eyes. Her face was neutral, but her body language seemed combative. Despite her current hostile demeanor, she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and he had told her such countless times in the past. High cheekbones, which he had kissed countless times, smooth umber skin that he tasted whenever they were alone, and a slender physique that his hands used to roam. He groaned at his thoughts. He also noticed that she’d grown into her curves. Her breasts were fuller and her hips were wider. He felt the rush of blood to his manhood, so he quickly brought his eyes back to her cool glare.

  That unrelenting stare could douse the flames to even the most ferocious fire.

  Finn clenched his jaw and steadied his breathing before saying, “Hello Lilah.”

  “Hello Finn.” Her breathy voice crossed the air to hit him in the gut with a savage blow. Five years was a long time.

  “You look beautiful as always. Finally came back to take your rightful place as my wife?” He asked this in French.

  “I want an annulment,” her words fell upon him quickly, cutting off all rational thought. He was not proud of losing control but it was too late for apologies when a red haze of anger clouded his vision and primal urges surged through him. Mine.

  “Did you hear me?” Kalilah repeated.

  CHAPTER 2

  KALILAH WATCHED FINN CLENCH HIS FISTS and release them intermittently. The veins in his neck looked ready to pop. He parted his lips and clamped them shut again in as many seconds. His brows slowly slumped in the middle and rose at their ends. Unbothered by the anger she knew was currently overtaking him, Kalilah remained firm in her stance and crossed her arms over her chest. He was struggling, no doubt, and she wondered what exactly he seemed to be battling with.

  “Did you hear what I said?” she inquired, hoping to spark some response from the man. Why did he have to be so good looking?

  “Close the door and come in, Lilah, unless you need the protection that it offers.” He finally broke out his words, challenging her.

  “My name is Kalilah.” Head tilted high, she slammed the door using her foot and stalked further into his office. Challenge accepted. “I want an annulment Finn.”

  “I heard you the first time,” he bit out.

  “And?”

  “Not happening,” he replied bluntly as his tone of voice turned from thunderous to mischievous. She noticed him unclench his fists as his six-foot-four-inch frame confidently stalked closer.

  Kalilah knew what the look meant, even if it had been a long time since she saw it.

  "Please, Finn; I am not here for your games or manipulations."

  "What are you here for then?" The innuendo was obvious, and it grated on her skin.

  In a twist, she found herself both enraged and trapped in his handsome snare, which was becoming more apparent the longer she gawked at him. His perfectly chiseled jawline and neatly aligned teeth glared right back at her. She centered her gaze on his lips, and memories of him kissing her tortured her mind. She remembered how much she longed for them. The familiar scent of his cologne played havoc on her senses. Its effects on her hadn’t subsided; if anything, it made her more aware of him.

  It wasn't her damn fault that the man was annoying and attractive in equal measure. Something was different about his appearance, but she just couldn’t figure out what. Then she figured it out. It was his hair. She noticed it when she studied his haircut, now a faded crewcut, way shorter than it used to be. It didn’t take away from his raw masculinity.

  She could almost see his muscles through his designer suit. Why did he have to look so good? Why couldn’t he have had a potbelly? Why the heck was she getting turned on by just looking at him? It wasn't her fault that the ghost and dreams of her nineteen-year-old self was haunting her in full vengeance. She knew the vein in her throat was pulsing; hell, her entire body was vibrating with barely suppressed anger and something else…

  Desire? Need? She would ignore that for now. She would feed off the anger that came every time she thought of his betrayal. Anger made her remember the pain, but would her anger stop Finn Tremblay? From the look of determination on his face, she guessed not.

  Kalilah took a step back to gather her composure before she fixed her eyes on him again. She didn’t have time for this, or for whatever else the past was trying to drag back into her consciousness. She had to remember Jonathan. Her future with Jonathan was the reason she had to stand against all the bullies in her life, starting with this one.

  "I said I want an annulment," she repeated, and it felt like she was talking to an idiot.

  "And I said I have no interest in dissolving this union," he replied in the same dispassionate tone.

  "You can't stop it," she replied easily. “There is no reason to drag this on any further.”

  "But I already have," he returned with just enough mockery to sting. She felt as if she was a kid again, being toyed with. A child who was about to be denied something because of sheer adult perversity. Well, she was all grown up now, and the word ‘no’ didn’t scare her anymore; in fact, it made her work twice as hard to get what she wanted.

  The calm words inflamed her even more.

  "This is my life!" Kalilah started and took several deep steadying breaths to rein in her seething temper. "My life, not some company merger or some other office decision you have final say on. I want to be free."

  Finn winced at that, and it prompted her to savor her victory, no matter how little and brief it might be.

  "Free? You've always been free. Free enough stay away for five years and waltz back here demanding the impossible."

  "You don't understand," she returned coolly and rather oddly as she heard herself.

  "Then make me. I tried for almost one year after you left me to tell you my side of things and to make things right between us, but you refuted every effort I made," he said resolutely as he turned back to the view.

  The switch in his tone struck her in awe and caused her to mellow in resolve. She bit back her previously composed words and gulped them down in a hot, choking manner.

  "I met someone else and he proposed to me. I can’t accept his proposal until this is settled between us," she explained, ignoring everything else he had said. She wasn’t interested in revisiting the past. Whatever happened, happened, and there was nothing that could be done to change it. Nothing she wanted to do to change it either.

  She saw his body freeze, and his hands formed fists. He then turned toward her slowly and she could see the frown across his forehead. She thought she saw pain in his eyes as well, but that couldn’t be possible. There was no reason for him to be pained. Her revelation, no doubt, was shocking and had caught him off guard. She took his stunned silence as the perfect opportunity to continue her argument.

  "I care for him deeply."

  “Do you love this man?”

  “Yes, I do. Very much.”

  “Okay, you love him. But are you in love with him?”

  The question took her by surprise. How could she explain what she felt toward Jon? She didn’t love him with that all-encompassing passion she had felt toward Finn, but she did love him in a way that was sobering. She could think when she was around Jon, which was refreshing. With Finn, it was all about feeling. He was her drug and she was always high. He made her feel like she could conquer anything she wanted to and that the world belonged to her. She also realized that when you love someone so strongly, the heartbreak is ten times worse. Sh
e never wanted to feel that kind of heartbreak again.

  “I don’t owe you any explanation,” she said finally.

  He continued his intent study of her face, and the air in the room felt thinner. She felt uncomfortable under his microscopic stare.

  "So, not only do you slink back into town after four years of pretending I didn’t exist, you returned solely to collect what you need to go back into your faithless love nest? How dare you stand in front of me and demand I give you an annulment,” he said incredulously, and then took a step toward her. She stood there, unable to move, surprised by his outburst. “We are married, Kalilah, not acquaintances. Doesn’t the sacredness of the union give you pause? Have you thought thoroughly about what you’re asking of me?”

  Despite his obvious anger, she didn’t think he would become violent toward her. She knew he would never hurt her, not physically at least. She leveled her stare and responded with as much assertion as she could muster.

  “This union as you call it has been anything but sacred. I don’t know about you but I’m ready to break free from this farce. And yes, I have thought about this. I gave it five full years of thought. Now, thanks to the genuine love Jonathan has afforded me, I finally have a reason to end this marriage and I don’t give two shits if you don't like it,” she countered, her pulse pumping with barely suppressed outrage. How dare he lay the blame at her feet?

  “You think our relationship was meaningless? A lie?” he ground out; his piercing blue stare was fixated on her.

  "Yes," she responded, “and at everyone’s directing, I played my part to the very hilt. Now I’m done. Allow me to live my life and be happy with someone who loves me.”

  “You can’t possibly believe that our plans and what we shared weren’t real? I loved you and you loved me. It was me and you against the world. We made vows to love each other forever, and now you want an annulment from me, so you can marry a man you’re not even in love with?”

  Her lips parted to respond but he cut her off.

  “Don’t you dare lie to me about your feelings toward this man.”

  She snapped her mouth shut. Let him think what he wants, she thought. She didn’t want to think about those girly fantasies and promises either. That naïve girl had disappeared a long time ago, along with those hopes and dreams.

  She was relieved when he turned. Good. He must have realized that she meant what she said.

  "Tell me about this bastard who wants to come between a man and his wife." He said ‘wife’ possessively and turned to face her again, his voice tight.

  It broke her heart that what he mourned was not her; he probably saw all his ambitious dreams slipping away. I don’t care, she said repeatedly in her mind. No matter how much she said it though, it didn't stop the bruise on her heart from widening.

  “He isn't a bastard,” she snapped. “He is twice the man you'll ever be and I can't wait to be his.” She was deliberately being vindictive, to hurt him how he had hurt her. She suspected she didn’t miss her mark. His face turned a stony mask at her declaration. His blue pools turned darker and colder than she had ever seen them.

  “No matter how much you deny it, the truth remains that you are my wife, and that’s how it’s going to remain.”

  "It’s hardly been a marriage, and besides – it hasn't been consummated," she replied noncommittally. She cursed inwardly for bringing their sex life (or lack thereof) into the mix.

  "That’s my fault." His words sounded weak and she knew what he was implying.

  When they had started dating, years before, he didn’t do much more than kiss her. He claimed it was because she was much younger than him, and because she was his boss’s daughter and he didn’t want to cross a line that they’d never be able to uncross. At the time, he was twenty-five and she was nineteen. She had fallen head over heels for him. She had tried to seduce him many times, but he always refuted her advancements at the last minute. She believed that to be one of the two reasons he’d proposed to her six months after they’d started dating. He had fooled her into believing that he had wanted to do things the “right” way with her. But now she knew better. He was only using her to get promoted within the company, without doing anything that may hurt his chances. Not that anything would; her father would’ve sold her off to him anyway.

  “And I’m willing to fix that issue immediately if you so wish.” Finn’s words jolted her from her runaway thoughts. “We can go home,” he said in an exuberant tone. “After all, it is your home as well, and I am a gentleman and will not make any unwanted moves until you ask me to. It’ll be an interlude to erase all others.”

  Kalilah caught the emotion laced in his voice, and she swallowed before she responded. Her body was heated; not from anger, but from erotic images of how she would feel in his strong arms. She found it very unsettling, so she swallowed, blinking when she suddenly remembered the times they hid away, trying to keep their relationship from being discovered by her parents. They had taken pleasure in discovering the passions found in different types of kisses.

  Vexed by the images that were trying to betray her will, she blurted out, “An oversight for which I am now grateful. Now release me from this farce you call a marriage."

  "Forget it." The hopeful look was gone. The stony-faced capitalist was back.

  "Oh, no you don't! You married me to get this company and now you have it. I'm happy that one of us got what they wanted out of life, Mister Chief Operating Officer, but now it's my turn now," she pronounced firmly. “I have never asked you for anything, and I don’t need anything else from you. Get your lawyer to contact mine and sign the papers.” Under Quebec law, a marriage that was contracted by force is eligible for an annulment. She felt proud of herself. Before coming back to Montréal, she'd stayed up every night for the past month doing her research on divorce proceedings when she realized that her marriage was eligible for an annulment instead.

  Her lawyer agreed.

  "I didn’t get everything that I wanted,” Finn replied. “Do you know what I really want, still want?” The calm man was now back in control.

  But Kalilah was a woman on a mission.

  "I don’t care about what you want. Give me the one thing I want, the only thing I’ll ever need from you."

  "You're asking for a lot – too much. I can’t do it," he said as if the decision was final. He said the most unreasonable things in that logical tone and she wanted nothing more than to slap the calmness from his handsome face.

  "Finn Tremblay!" Her control shot to pieces at his constant rebuffs. Her heart had begun to ram hard against her ribcage and her knees threatened to fail her.

  "Yes, Mrs. Tremblay." His mocking smile was now back in place. She would never be able to take his name as long as they lived here. Women in Quebec were not able to take their husband’s last name, and he knew that. She thought of how desperately she had wanted his name when they first spoke of marriage. She couldn’t believe how naïve she’d been to believe they’d live happily ever after. She had her father’s name and she didn’t think it was a better choice either. It was the worst choice. It served to remind her that she was all by herself. Alone. Single, although married – for now.

  “My name is Kalilah Anderson." She gritted her teeth. “Enough with your schemes. Just agree to the annulment so that we can both move on with our lives. We both know that the only reason you’re saying no is because I’m the one who wants this annulment.”

  “Schemes?”

  It was obvious that he liked toying with her, enjoyed her acute discomfort and would continue to say no until kingdom come just because he had the power to do just that.

  “I didn’t stutter, did I?”

  "I see," he returned.

  "Do you really?" She countered in a brisk tone.

  "I assure you that I do."

  "Will you give me what I want?” The words were out before she realized how loaded it was with double innuendoes. And he caught it, his eyes flickering indication. "We can’t continue as we’ve been doing."

  "What exactly do you want?" he asked suggestively totally ignoring her last sentence.