Improperly Wed (Aristocratic Grooms #3)(9)
Author: Anna DePalo

She’d been reminded time and again that her task was to carry the Wentworth standard forward for another generation. She was never unaware of her position as an only child. So far, however, she could not have made a bigger mash of things.

“I’ll deal with the marquess,” Belinda said grimly, stopping herself from her nervous habit of chewing her lip.

Somehow, she had to untangle herself from her marriage.

Three

“Thank you for meeting me today,” she said, somewhat incongruously, as she stepped into a conference room in Colin’s business offices at the Time Warner Center.

She was hoping to keep matters on a polite and productive footing. Or at least to start that way.

Colin gave a quick nod of his head. “You’re welcome.”

Belinda watched as Colin’s gaze went unerringly to her now ring-free hand.

Her heart beat loudly in her chest.

She’d wanted a meeting place that was private but not too private. She knew Colin owned a spectacular penthouse high above them in the same complex—it was one of the unavoidable pieces of information that she’d come across about him in the news in the past couple of years—but she’d shied away from facing him there. And her own apartment farther uptown was too small.

It would have been hard enough to confront Colin under any circumstances. He was wealthy, titled and imposing—not to mention savvy and calculating. But he was also her former lover and could lay claim to knowing her intimately. Their night together would always be between them. She’d seen what they could do with a hotel room… What they could do in his apartment didn’t bear thinking about. At all. Ever.

Belinda scanned him warily.

He wore a business suit and held himself with the easy and self-assured charm of a sleek panther ready to toy with a kitty. He carried the blood of generations of conquerors in his veins, and it showed.

Belinda felt awareness skate over her skin, a good deal of which was exposed. She was dressed in a V-neck belted dress and strappy sandals, having arranged to have this meeting during her lunch break at Lansing’s.

Colin gestured to the sideboard. “Coffee or tea?”

She set down her handbag on the long conference table. “No, thank you.”

He perused her too thoroughly. “You are rather even-keeled, in sharp contrast to last week.”

“I’ve chosen to remain the calm in the storm,” she replied. “The rumors have run amok, the groom has decamped for the other side of the Atlantic and the wedding gifts are being returned.”

“Ah.” He sat on a corner of the conference table.

“I hope you’re satisfied.”

“It’s a good start.”

She quelled her ire and looked at him straight on. “I am here to make you see reason.”

He was ill-mannered enough to chuckle.

“I know you’re busy—” too busy to have obtained an annulment, obviously “—so I’ll go straight to the point. How is it possible that we’re still married?”

Colin shrugged. “The annulment was never finalized with the court.”

“That’s what you said.” She smelled a rat—or more precisely, a cunning aristocrat. “I hope you fired your lawyer for the matter.”

She took a steadying breath. The lawyer she had recently consulted had confirmed that, as far as state records showed, she and Colin were still married because there was no record of an annulment or even of papers being filed.

One way or the other, she had to deal with matters as they unfortunately stood.

“It’s futile to look back,” Colin remarked, as if reading her mind. “The issue is what do we do now.”

Belinda widened her eyes. “Now? We obtain an annulment or divorce, of course. New York recently did me the enormous favor of introducing no-fault divorce, so I’ll no longer have to prove that you committed adultery or abandoned me. I know that much from some simple research.”

Colin looked unperturbed. “Ah, for the good old days when marriage meant coverture and only a husband could own property or prove adultery.”

She didn’t appreciate his humor. “Yes, how unfortunate for you.”

He lifted his lips. “There’s only one problem.”

“Oh? Only one?” She was helpless to stop the sarcasm.

Colin nodded. “Yes. A no-fault divorce can still be contested, starting with the service of divorce papers.”

She stared at him dumbly. What was he saying?

She narrowed her eyes. “So you’re saying…”

“I’m not granting you an easy divorce, in New York or anywhere else.”

“You ruined my wedding, and now you’re going to ruin my divorce?” she asked, unable to keep disbelief from her voice.

“Your wedding was already ruined because we were still married,” Colin countered. “Even if I hadn’t interrupted the ceremony, your marriage to Dillingham would have been considered void ab initio due to bigamy. It would have been as if the marriage ceremony had never occurred.”

Belinda pressed her lips together.

Colin raised an eyebrow. “I know. It’s rather inconvenient that your marriage to Dillingham would have been the one to have been declared legally nonexistent.”

“You ruined my wedding,” she accused. “You chose the precise wrong moment to make your big announcement. Why crash the ceremony?”

“Shouldn’t you be thanking me for preventing a crime from being committed?”

She ignored his riposte. “And to top it off, you ruined my marriage by not making sure the annulment was properly finalized.”

“Your marriage to whom? The one to Tod that never existed? Or ours? Most people would say that not finalizing an annulment is the way to avoid ruining a marriage.”

She wasn’t amused by his recalcitrance. She’d come here to get him to agree to a quiet dissolution of their union.

Colin rubbed his chin. “I can’t understand how you managed to keep our Las Vegas wedding a secret. Did Dillingham even know?”

Belinda reddened. “Tod is standing by me.”

“That means no.” Colin let his gaze slide over her hand. “Also, you’re not wearing his ring. Just how…closely is he standing by? Or does his support amount to waiting in the wings until this whole messy divorce business is taken care of? But just how long is he willing to wait?”

“As long as it takes,” she shot back.

They stared at each other, and Belinda forced herself not to blink. The truth was she had no idea how long or how short Tod would wait. The wedding fiasco had been quite a blow.