Elise turned away from the door the instant the car’s tail-lights cleared the gates, acutely conscious of Alejandro’s actions as he re-set the alarm system.
Apprehension prickled at the back of her neck as she made for the stairs. The anger that had lain dormant since this afternoon rose to the fore, darkening her eyes and reining her mouth into a firm line.
Entering the bedroom, she slipped off her shoes, then reached for the zip-fastening at the back of her dress.
Alejandro came into the room as she began a third fruitless attempt to slide the fastener down, and she didn’t utter a word as he crossed to complete the task.
With extreme care she stepped out of the dress and placed it over a nearby chair, watching out of the corner of her eye as he discarded his jacket and removed his tie.
‘When did it happen?’
His voice was quiet, deadly, and she turned slowly to face him, unwilling to prevaricate.
Eyes as dark as onyx were filled with a chilling intensity, and her chin tilted fractionally as she prepared to oppose him.
‘This afternoon. In the obstetrician’s waiting-room.’ Her eyes sparked with green fire. ‘A photograph of Savannah in a magazine acted as the trigger, giving me total recollection in slow motion.’
His expression darkened fractionally, and he reached out a hand, catching hold of her chin between thumb and forefinger, tightening his grasp when she attempted to wrench it away.
Elise’s eyes flared a brilliant topaz-flecked emerald in unspoken challenge. ‘Why?’ she demanded. ‘Why did you deceive me?’
He held her effortlessly, his expression an inscrutable mask. His silence angered her immeasurably.
‘Dammit, answer me!’
His eyes became bleak, and his voice sounded as dark as the depths of his black soul. ‘When would you have had me reveal facts?’
She suffered his raking scrutiny with angry defiance as she waited for him to continue.
‘While you lay in a hospital bed injured and afraid?’ he pursued relentlessly. ‘When you first came home?’ His eyes dared her to refute him. ‘Should I have destroyed your trust? Refused you reassurance and affection?’
‘You took advantage with a calculated play on my emotions,’ she cried, raw with pain.
‘We made love,’ Alejandro corrected harshly.
‘We had sex.’
‘A carnal coupling?’ His voice was lethal. ‘Based on greed and the gratification of a primitive urge?’
Dear God, it hadn’t been like that. Ever. No matter how hard she fought, she had been entrapped from the moment of confrontation in his office. One look, and she’d been shaken to the very roots of her being by the mesmeric quality of his masculinity. Aware, with the depth of selfknowledge, that Alejandro Santanas possessed the ability to render her helpless as no other man could. She had hated him for it, hated herself for her own vulnerability. But, most of all, she had hated the circumstances that bound her to him.
She wanted to cry out a rejection, but the words choked in her throat. ‘The night of the accident,’ she revealed bleakly, ‘I’d decided to leave you.’
His eyes speared her. ‘How long did you imagine it would take before I tracked you down?’
‘I intended to see a lawyer and file for separation.’
His features hardened measurably. ‘You hate me so much that you would attempt to deny me knowledge of your pregnancy, my child’s existence?’ His voice lowered to a dangerous silkiness that sent tiny shivers along her spine. ‘Or did you plan an abortion?’
‘No,’ she jerked out in shocked denial, reasserting in a hushed tone, ‘No.’ The thought had never entered her head.
He was silent for several interminable minutes, and when he spoke his voice was hard and held unaccountable bleakness. ‘The child you carry is as much mine as yours. Uniquely ours. Our son or daughter deserves to be more than someone we fight custody for in a law court.’
‘I married you because I couldn’t stand by and see my father emotionally and financially beaten. It would have killed him.’ She had to take some consolation from the knowledge that the last few months of his life had been happy. ‘You engineered a diabolical game,’ she accused him fiercely. ‘I should have damned you to the depths of hell and walked away.’
He regarded her steadily for what seemed an age. ‘Yet you didn’t,’ he reminded her, his gaze alert beneath partly lowered lids. ‘You accepted the arrangement as a challenge, and attempted to score against me.’
That had been her intention. At first, she had fooled herself that she was succeeding. Except that somewhere along the way she had fallen in love with him.
‘Displaying beautiful manners in public,’ he went on in musing reflection, ‘while behaving like a virago when we were alone.’
Her eyes were dark and accusing. ‘A fact you deliberately withheld from me.’
‘If you remember,’ Alejandro pursued, ‘I made no pretence that we shared an idyllic relationship.’
‘You said we argued occasionally!’ Elise flung, hating his skilful employment of words.
‘Frequently,’ he corrected. ‘The resolving of such arguments was always——’ he paused deliberately ‘—satisfactory, wouldn’t you say?’
That was an understatement. In bed, they had always been in perfect accord. In the beginning it had been a source of anguish, for she found it difficult to condone the degree of her emotional involvement with a man she professed to hate.
‘Our marriage breaks all the rules,’ she offered wretchedly, her eyes stormy with anger, and her hand shook as she lifted it to push hair back from her face.
‘The reason for its existence remains the same,’ he said in a hard voice.
She looked at him carefully, aware of his immense strength of will, the arresting elemental quality that made her feel suddenly afraid. ‘You can’t mean for the marriage to continue?’
‘Indeed,’ Alejandro declared inflexibly. He subjected her to a long, level appraisal. ‘What is more, I insist that you honour the two-year term listed in our pre-nuptial agreement.’
Anger emanated from every pore in her body. ‘That’s barbaric!’
‘Perhaps.’ His smile was a mere facsimile, his eyes dark and forbidding.
‘You expect me to act a part?’ She felt like screaming with indignant resentment. ‘Pretend?’
His expression was resolute, and his voice held infinite mockery. ‘You have managed admirably for the past seven months.’
‘Six,’ she flung back angrily, incensed by his imperturbability. ‘I cannot be held responsible for the past one and a half.’
He lifted a hand and brushed light fingers along the edge of her jaw. ‘Relieved of the barriers of your animosity for a few short weeks,’ he said, ’there was no reason to generate hatred for your Spanish esposo.’
She closed her eyes, then slowly opened them again. ‘There wasn’t meant to be a child!’ It was a cry from the heart.
His voice gentled as he caught hold of her chin and tilted it towards him. ‘Nevertheless, there is. Its unexpected existence is something I refuse to consider as anything other than a very special gift.’ His thumb lightly caressed the lower edge of her lip. ‘For several weeks we were able to dispense with any hostility.’ His eyes darkened measurably.