Convenience

Part 26

Their marriage was not typical. They did not need to know details about each other. There was no need to know anything. It wasn't as if this marriage was intended to last. They were married on paper only. A simple matter of expedience. Nothing more. Why did it matter whether he knew her birthday? He muttered to himself.

Time to stand his ground, he thought. "Your grandfather, in essence, paid me to marry you!" He pointed out bluntly.

His reference to the terms of their marriage had her bristling with indignation.

"I'm fully aware of that fact." Beatrice replied coolly, now even more certain that she was doing the right thing. Ending this farce. Finally. She should have done it years ago. Spared her the self-inflicted ridicule when she read about him and his girlfriends. Her temper started to rise. "So he paid you to marry me, right?"

David nodded, and knew, given recent experience and conversation with Beatrice that her question was a trap. He wasn't wrong.

"What does that mean exactly?" She asked quietly as if it was a simple matter up for discussion. As if they were looking for a shared definition of terms to something of little consequence. She sounded far from annoyed.

Which was in direct contrast to David as he snapped, "What?"

"I asked you, what does that mean exactly?"

"It means I married you in return for a sum of money!" Blunt, direct, candid. David figured those were his best weapons at the moment. Nothing seemed to shake her.

Most women he knew would have taken umbrage at being reminded they were simply terms in a financial contract. Nothing more than a financial transaction.

Beatrice nodded. "That much I understand. I'm more interested in what you think the word marry entails?" Beatrice said frostily understanding his intent to offend her. Jerk! He folded his arms. David snapped, "Why?"

Her eyes remained frosty. "Let's see if I can clarify it further." She tapped a forefinger to her lips, pretended to ponder and then asked with a silkiness that hid the cut she inflicted when she asked her rhetorical questions, "That you can marry someone and then ignore them? That you can date other women while still being married to me?" She poked her tongue in her cheek as she took a moment. She noted almost absently that the muscle at David's jaw was now hammering. Her gaze did not shift. Beatrice wanted David to read her thoughts and her impression of his behaviour, "Is that what a marriage of convenience means? Convenient for whom?"

David's eyes flashed with banked temper. "You don't expect me to know dates and details for ..."

Beatrice was ready to lynch the man. Jerk. She fought to hold onto her temper. The trouble was that this man really did not know her. David didn't know that his ignorance of what she considered basic information relating to them, was as far as Beatrice was concerned like setting light to a truck load of dynamite.

"Like a business merger?" Beatrice interrupted without hesitation.

The heat was back in her eyes. David found himself hooked. Again. Simple eye contact had his brain failing to take control of the situation. Once again it struck him that he had seriously misjudged this woman. When they married she had stood quietly and meekly by his side. Here, she was far from meek, and she looked as if she couldn't wait to put some distance between them.

"Exactly!" David snapped.

Beatrice's lips narrowed. She fought off an escalation of temper. "Yet, I bet you know more than the basic details for the mergers you've negotiated." She corrected him flatly without any regard for his standing or status as a high profile businessman.

"Yes, so?" David challenged, knowing as he did that she was setting him up for a big hit once again. "Hardly the same thing." He grumbled.

"Exactly the same thing!" Beatrice corrected instantly. Her inky black eyes went molten. "I was part of a business deal. My grandfather's money for my security." She reminded him pointedly making no bones of the fact she knew she was part of a transaction.

His eyes narrowed at her blunt point. Of course she was drawing attention to the fact that he had not upheld his side of the deal. "Yes." David barked. "Exactly!"

David was starting to realise just how little he knew about his wife. He had seriously underestimated this woman, taken the quiet, demure façade she had presented when they had first met, to be the woman. A sheep fleece concealed a tiger.