He shook his head, his expression still disapproving. “You’re right. It’s your money. Let’s go get some lunch. I’m hungry.”
“Okay. And thanks for…not giving me away to grandmother. I know she suspects something.” She got up, grabbed her bag, and then the laptop. She’d give her little presentation over lunch.
…
“So,” he said as they settled into a booth in what Lexi had described as her favorite pizza place. “Does your grandmother ask for money often?”
“Once a year.” She nibbled on a breadstick. “I visit once a year, and they ask once a year.”
“And you always give it to them.”
She nodded. “It’s easier. And if I do, they leave me alone the rest of the time.” She must have seen something in his expression. “She is my grandmother.”
Perhaps it wasn’t so bad not having any family. Though that wasn’t quite the truth. He had a mother somewhere, but unlike Lexi, he’d cut her out of his life. She’d tried to contact him once, but she’d eventually gone away when he’d made it clear he no longer considered her family. Then there was his sister—except he no longer had a sister. His mother had seen to that.
Which one of them was right? Him or Lexi?
It occurred to him that both of them were as screwed up in their own way by their families. After all, it was hardly normal for an eighteen-year-old to enter into a marriage of convenience with a total stranger, however much money was involved. Besides, he was starting to believe that whatever else motivated his wife, it wasn’t money. Suddenly he had an inexplicable urge to understand what made her tick.
“So tell me,” he said. “What’s with all those people at your house? Don’t they drive you crazy?”
“I love it.” At his look of disbelief she continued, “I always wanted a big family.”
“You don’t have any brothers and sisters? What about Harry and Melissa.”
She pulled a face. “Luckily, they didn’t come into my life until I was seventeen. Before that, it was just me and grandmother, and whichever husband she had at the time. She had a lot of them, and they all ended badly, so I decided a long time ago that I was never going to get married—not for real anyway. So this is my way to have a family.”
“You just collect them?”
She grinned. “Sort of. I inherited the house from my maternal grandmother, and Jean already lived there. She’s an artist and has a studio in the garage. There didn’t seem any point in asking her to move out. The others sort of…turned up. They’ll move on when they’ve got their lives together a little more.”
Their food arrived, and they were silent for a little while. Lexi attacked the pizza with enthusiasm, eating with her hands. She caught him watching her and licked some sauce from her fingers. “What?” she asked.
“You’re not what I expected.”
She picked up another slice of pizza and looked at him over it. “What did you expect?”
He shrugged. “Some little rich bitch who wanted money so she could party harder.”
“And are you so sure I don’t party?”
She certainly didn’t spend her money on clothes or jewelry. “Why did you marry me?”
She put down the half-eaten slice of pizza and stared off over his left shoulder while she gathered her thoughts. “To piss my grandmother off.”
Whatever he’d been expecting it wasn’t that. He’d be the first to admit he didn’t know his wife well, but she didn’t come across in any way malicious.
“I told myself I had all sorts of other reasons,” she continued, “but deep down, at rock bottom, I did it because it was the one thing I knew would hurt her.” She gave a rueful smile. “She was never particularly fond of me but she did like my money and while I lived with her she had access to income from my trust fund. I think she and Daniel had this weird idea that they could persuade me that marrying Harry was a good idea. They thought they had six years to wear me down.”
The thought of them pressurizing her to marry that prick had his hackles rising. “But something must have triggered it.”
A flash of real emotion crossed her face. Anger or sadness. Maybe a mix of both. “She killed my dog.”
“What?”
“She had him put down while I was in my last term at boarding school. Jasper was old—he’d been a present from my dad, the last thing he gave me before he died—but he was still healthy. I’d argued with her—she wanted me to move to New York when she married Daniel. I’d told her that I wanted to stay in England—I’d been offered a place at Oxford.”
“So she had your dog put down?” What a bitch!
“She was making a point. Unfortunately it wasn’t the point she intended. I decided then that she wasn’t having any more control over me.” She nibbled a piece of pizza. “Then Daniel suggested that he could prevent her from doing anything like that again if I was a little friendlier with him.”