‘Iris? I don’t believe you. She did not know.’
‘Yes, she did. She heard her parents talking in the car on the way back from our engagement party. How ironic is that?’ She felt him stiffen, his hand falling from her hair—though he still kept hold of her arm. Shaking her head, she eyed him contemptuously. ‘And she told me a lot more. The day you threw me out you told her never to speak to me again, but she did. Jason was her boyfriend. Iris had told him to follow her up to her bedroom—right at the top of the stairs. But he was drunk. He turned left and passed out in my bed. I never knew he was there because I’d gone to bed early with a couple of strong painkillers.’
Selina was on a roll. Everything Rion had denied her the right to tell him came spilling out with a vengeance.
‘Iris knew the truth. Jason told her he’d heard a noise in the hall, woken up. He saw red hair on the pillow and realised his mistake. Horrified, he dashed out of the bedroom. I begged her to tell you, but she was too frightened of what her bossy older brother would do. Knowing you, I can’t say I blame her—and in fact, as it turned out it was lucky for me. She told me about the marriage deal and what a womaniser you are. Who did you think showed me the shots of you and your lady friends on the computer? I didn’t have one at the time. Who do you think told me the woman you really loved and wanted to marry was Lydia, but she married someone else?’
Shocked rigid, Rion stared down into angry golden eyes glinting with shards of green and knew she was telling the truth. The story was so bizarre it had to be true. That Iris, his half-sister whom he had always protected, had been dating the boy and had known the truth all along and refused to tell him horrified him. All this time he had thought Selina had betrayed him, and she hadn’t …
A great wide chasm opened up in his mind, filled with memories he had banked down for years. The innocence Selina had gifted him, their wedding day when he had watched her walk down the aisle and thought her the most beautiful bride he had ever seen, the love she had given him unconditionally and he had taken for granted. How could he have been so arrogant, so stiff-necked with pride as to throw her out? What did that make him? And he had taken one look at Selina on the beach at Letos the night before the funeral and wanted her so badly he had blackmailed her into his bed.
‘Why didn’t you—?’
‘Tell you?’ Selina jeered, cutting him off. ‘You refused to see me, speak or listen to me, remember …?’ She saw him flinch. He had a right to. He didn’t like the truth. ‘Then you had the audacity to try to name me as the adulterous party. What a joke, given your reputation. I told Beth what had happened and thanks to her and her dad I fought you and won. It was the best thing I ever did. Beth reckoned you got off lightly. I should have demanded more money. But it was enough for me to get my self-esteem back, and the whole affair taught me a lesson I will never forget.’
‘What would that be?’ Rion asked not sure he wanted to know the answer. But he wanted to keep her talking while his mind grappled with the enormity of what she had revealed. What had he done?
‘To work hard, get a career and never count on a man to take care of me. With the shining examples of my biological father, my grandfather and my ex-husband I find it remarkably easy to remember,’ she said sarcastically. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I am leaving.’ And, tightening her grip on her satchel, she pulled her arm free.
‘No, not yet.’ Thinking fast for a reason to make her stay, he said, ‘I have not given you the salary you’ve lost for the last two weeks. I said I would.’
‘Forget it. I have.’
‘No. What I am trying to say is I owe you an apology, Selina—more than an apology. I don’t expect you to forgive me for not trusting you when we were married, but you have to admit finding a half-naked man dashing out of our bedroom looked bad.’
Selina couldn’t help it—she laughed … if a little hysterically. Rion could not be contrite in a million years. ‘Even when you try to apologise you still have to qualify it with your opinion. You could have asked.’ She put a finger on her chin and flashed him a pseudo-pensive glance. ‘Oh, no, you couldn’t. You wouldn’t speak to me!’
His lips twisted. ‘Cute, Selina. But please listen. I am serious. I have done you a terrible injustice—more than one.’ Grasping her shoulders, he held her still. ‘I want to make it up to you any way I can.’
She looked up and caught the grim urgency in his expression, the sincerity in the dark eyes that bored into hers—and the underlying gleam of awareness in the glittering depths. His great body was too close. She felt the pressure of his strong hands, the flexing of his long fingers on her arms, and knew she had to get out of here fast—before her traitorous body succumbed once again to the wonder of his.
‘More money? Forget it.’ She had to get away with her pride intact. It was all she had left.
‘No … yes. I mean I will marry you again—have a home, children.’ Rion was almost as shocked as Selina looked by what he’d said. Then like a lightning strike, electrifying in its intensity, it hit him. He actually meant every word …
During the time he had spent with Selina on the yacht he’d been more relaxed, more alive, and had more genuine fun than at any other time in his life. But it wasn’t just sex. It had never been just sex with Selina, but love. He had made love to her, and been too blinkered, too arrogant to see it until now. He loved Selina …
Selina’s lips parted in shock and for a moment her foolish heart leapt. Then reality clicked in. Nothing had changed. Rion didn’t love her.
‘Marry you again …? Are you mad …?’
She recognised his proposal for what it was. For once in his life the great Orion Moralis was feeling guilty. Well, he could drown in that for all she cared. He had made her feel guilty even when she had done nothing wrong. If he thought he could salve his conscience by marrying her again he was in for a big surprise. She was amazed he had the cheek to ask. In fact she was insulted and, feeling about him as she did, it hurt. And he had hurt her enough already to last a lifetime …
‘As for a home and children—you have to be joking. I don’t like the company you keep.’
‘A simple no would have sufficed. And what the hell do you mean by “the company I keep”?’ Rion demanded, his grip tightening.
For an instant she felt afraid. But she refused to be intimidated by a man—any man …
‘Bratchet for one,’ she sneered. Rion led a gilded life, and it was time he learnt not everyone was so fortunate. ‘I know you didn’t believe me, but I did give your money to a children’s charity. A charity that is needed because of depraved perverts like him, who put a boy of eight in hospital. It made my flesh crawl to shake his hand.’
She looked Rion straight in the eyes and told him about the charity Beth and Trevor ran, of which she was a silent partner and one of the main supporters. She felt him tense but spared him nothing, telling him the painfully tragic details with all the passion of a caring woman committed to the cause.
Rion let his hands fall from Selina’s shoulders. He could not believe what he was hearing. Of course he had heard as much as any normal person about the trade in child sex, but as he listened to her with growing horror his face paled. He was appalled at what she told him, and appalled at how badly he had misjudged her and how spectacularly he had failed to protect the innocent girl he had married from ever having to come into contact with such a sick, depraved side of life.
‘I had no idea,’ he murmured.
‘Why would you? In your world business and money is God,’ she said flatly. ‘Though you would be surprised how many very wealthy men like Bratchet use and abuse children. Perversion cuts across all levels of society and it costs money to fly to Cambodia,’ she opined cynically.
‘And you compare me with Bratchet?’ Rion queried hollowly.
‘No.’