‘Just tell me one thing before I go,’ she said.
‘What?’ he snapped, scowling over at her.
‘If you never loved me, and didn’t believe I loved you, then why did you marry me? You could have had me without marrying me. You did have me without marrying me!’
His sardonic laugh increased her confusion, and her pain. ‘So I did. And you were enchanting, my dear. So enchanting that I thought I wanted you in my bed for forever and exclusively. I was even prepared to let you have a child to keep you there. Foolish of me, I realise. But even a mature man can be made a fool of when in the grip of a sexual obsession. Frankly, I was still quite enamoured of your charms when fate stepped in and sent you racing off to Campbell Court, which is why I reacted so poorly to finding you in Damian Campbell’s bedroom.’
‘But I wasn’t sleeping in there!’ she cried. ‘How many times do I have to tell you that I never went to bed with Damian?’
‘As I said before, dear heart,’ Nathan drawled, ‘I no longer care whether you did or not. My maniacal appetite for youth and innocence seems to have been cured somewhere along the line. Perhaps you saw the cure yourself with me earlier? She’s thirty-three, blonde and very, very inventive.’
Gemma stared at him before shaking her head in a blank and bleak disbelief. ‘I never really knew you, did I?’ she said dazedly. ‘Damian did. He said you were bad. I should have believed him.’
Angry grey eyes snapped back to hers. ‘Why didn’t you, then?’
‘Because I stupidly believed you loved me,’ she countered, her agony switching to outrage. ‘I stupidly believed in you!’
‘Yes, that was stupid, I’ll grant you that.’
Gemma could only keep shaking her head at him. ‘You don’t have any conscience at all where women are concerned, do you? You’re like that hero in your play. Sex and lust are all there is for you. You probably did sleep with Irene as Damian said you did.’
Nathan smiled a smile that sent a shiver down Gemma’s spine.
‘You know, some day that bastard is going to get his just deserts.’
‘I suppose you’re going to say he’s lying about that as well,’ she said bitterly.
‘Not if agreeing I went to bed with Irene will get you out of that door and out of my life.’
Gemma blinked her shock.
‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ he swept on irritably. ‘Of course I didn’t sleep with that pathetic bitch. Give me some credit for taste! But I dare say you won’t believe me. If you did, that would mean your precious uncle must have lied to you.’
‘I...I suppose Irene could have lied to him about it,’ Gemma said hesitatingly.
‘Good thinking, Gemma,’ he praised, but in a mocking tone. ‘Amazing how one and one doesn’t always make two, isn’t it? Sometimes you have to look outside the dots.’
Gemma frowned. ‘And should I look outside the dots with you, Nathan? Could you be driving me away because you think it’s for my own good, that you’re no good for me?’
His laughter was dark but not without humour. ‘That’s so splendidly noble, I wish I could embrace it! But that would be lying, my darling,’ he said, walking towards her with such a wicked glitter in his eyes that she shrank back against the wall next to the door.
‘Don’t touch me,’ she whispered.
Nathan’s raised eyebrows were pure sarcasm. ‘Don’t touch you? A few minutes ago you were dying for me to touch you. What’s happened to change that, I wonder? Are you beginning to doubt my sense of honour? Are you afraid that at any moment I might change into the animal of the other day?’
‘I’m not afraid of you, Nathan,’ she lied bravely.
‘Then you should be,’ he warned in a raw whisper. ‘Because if you stay here any longer, Gemma, my sweet, I might set about really corrupting you, just for the hell of it!’
Gemma stared at him, appalled at this dark stranger who had been her husband but whom she did not know.
‘Too late,’ he mocked. ‘I withdraw the offer. Besides, I just remembered I promised Jody a night of indefatigable energy. If I use some of it up on you, darling, I just won’t have enough to go around.’
Gemma’s hand came up and slapped him. His head jerked back and a red mark immediately stained his cheek, but he made no move to retaliate, merely rubbed his cheek and smiled a faintly wry smile. ‘Feel better now?’ he taunted softly.
‘I hate and despise you, Nathan Whitmore,’ Gemma rasped, her voice shaking. ‘How you can look yourself in the mirror in the morning, I have no idea. I came here to this party tonight hoping that we could get back together again. I was prepared to forgive you everything because I thought you loved me, and because I loved you. But I don’t love you any more. I refuse to love someone so unworthy of being loved.’
‘You’ve no idea how pleased I am to hear that, Gemma. Because I don’t want your love. It’s the last thing I want from you.’
Gemma could no longer deny the harsh sincerity behind the chillingly delivered words. But oh, dear God...what was going to become of her...without Nathan...without her dreams...? What point was there in going on?
‘So why are you still standing there?’ he jeered. ‘What more is there to be said? You’re free, Gemma. Free of our marriage. Free of loving me. Free of me. I’d say you’re one lucky girl, wouldn’t you? Now leave me be,’ he bit out savagely, and turned his back on her.
Gemma somehow made it out of the room and back to Celeste, who took one look at her and called for Byron to take them both home.
CHAPTER THREE
LIFE went on.
Gemma would not have believed it could after her traumatic meeting with Nathan. Surely she must die from the pain and the hurt that was consuming every fibre of her being? Nathan didn’t love her; had never loved her. All her dreams and hopes for the future were obliterated by that one cruel admission. As for the past...it was almost as painful to look back as it was to look bleakly forward. Her marriage had been a mockery, doomed from the start. Why hadn’t she heeded the signs? Why had she stubbornly refused to see what others saw?
Because you are a naïve silly bitch, that’s why, an angry inner voice kept telling her. Or you were!
It was this angry inner voice that sustained her through the following day, refusing to let her break down totally, although there were frequent bouts of weeping, as well as long hours of deep depression. But in the end anger, plus a healthy dose of burgeoning bitterness, stopped Gemma from succumbing to total despair.
When she woke on Sunday to the news that Nathan had delivered her car during the night—complete with the rest of her belongings—leaving again without speaking to anyone, her sense of outrage knew no bounds. What had happened to the man she had first met and fallen in love with? Where was this wicked stranger coming from? Had he always been there, hiding behind that cool conservative façade, that seemingly decent persona? He must have been, she supposed, her bewilderment almost as great as her disillusionment.
Still, she wasn’t the only one to be fooled. Byron had clearly been taken in, as had Lenore. Ava and Melanie, however, had clearly had their misgivings about him all along. Jade had been ambivalent, warning her off Nathan at first before unexpectedly coming round to believe in his love for Gemma almost as much as she had.
But he hadn’t been