She watched anger flare brightly into his midnight blue eyes.
“Daphne, you’ve avoided me for months. You’ve kept me dangling on a string about a divorce. You’ve had the audacity to think you can keep my children from me. As the other half of this marriage, I have some rights, too. It’s been pointed out to me that I should let your female hormones rule for the time being, but—” he caught her in a grip Daphne had no desire to shrug off “—right now, I’ve had all the advice I can take.”
With that, he slanted his mouth against hers, kissing her in a way that sent memories washing over her and desire flaming into her body.
Breathlessly, she sagged against him as he raised his head to stare at her. “No protest?”
“I’m working on one,” she said feebly. “Maybe I’ll go take a shower.”
“Good idea. I’ll help you.” Lifting her in his arms as if she were no more than a feather, Alex carried her into the bathroom.
“No! I’m not showering with you!” she cried.
“I didn’t suggest that you should.” He pulled her gown over her head, staring at her body so intensely that Daphne could only pray he wouldn’t find fault with her. “Though, as I recall, you liked it very much when I washed your back. And front. You’re so beautiful,” he told her, kissing each breast reverently. “Those little ladies of mine are going to have to learn to share.”
“Oh, Alex,” Daphne murmured, as he licked her nipples into taut, swollen eagerness. “Don’t do this to me.”
Slowly, he raised his head and moved away from her. “You’re right. I’m rushing you. I’ve thought about you day and night, Daphne. Damn it, I’ve missed you!”
“I’ve missed you, too,” she said quietly. Their marriage had been so good until she’d over heard his conversation with his father.
“So. No more talk about divorce.” He gave her a look that meant he intended to have the last word on this.
“On the contrary,” she said miserably, “I find it more necessary than ever to get a divorce. It’s even more imperative that I move out of the house. You’ve just proven to me that we can’t live together under the same roof without wanting each other. There’s no in-between for us, Alex. It’s better if I move back to my apartment as soon as possible.”
Chapter Four
Slowly, Alex reached for Daphne’s robe and helped wrap it around her. He kept his expression neutral, but his heart pounded. “Tell me what you’re so afraid of.”
She shook her head. “I’m not afraid.” But she backed up a step from him, belying her words.
“You are. You’re practically shivering now.” Even though he knew she wouldn’t like it, he reached across the space between them and took her hands in his, rubbing them gently between his palms. “All this insistence on a divorce isn’t good for us, Daphne.”
“I know,” she said, her tone miserable, “but I think it would be better than living like this.” After a second, she pulled her hands out of his and turned around.
He stared at the white, quilted material of her bathrobe, wondering how he could get her to under stand the way he felt. “I apologize for coming on too strong. I have always been greatly…attracted to you.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
“But don’t do it again?”
Her hair shook in a tantalizing fall of amber bright ness. “No, don’t do it again.”
He drew a deep breath. “Daphne, you are an amazingly beautiful woman. You are my wife. I’d have to be six feet under not to want you. But if that’s what you want, I swear on my honor not to touch you.”
They’d made so many promises to each other when they’d married. Daphne bit her lip, refusing to let the tears fall. “And you won’t fight me when I move out in fourteen days?”
“I won’t, if that’s your decision.” He’d help her, though the effort would kill him. Under no cir cum stances would his wife suffer if he could help it. “I’ll expect joint custody, however.”
She whirled, her face pale. “What does that mean?”
His shrug was dismissive, a gesture he forced. “You’re trying to separate me completely from your life, Daphne. You may be willing to live without me, but it’s a decision I don’t think our children will feel the same about.”
An exhausted breath left her. “I can’t fight with you any more right now, Alex. I’m too tired.”
Her green eyes didn’t sparkle with their usual fire. Beating her down wasn’t going to help either of them or the babies. And intimidating her wasn’t some thing he wanted to do, either. Desperation had made him speak the truth, though he’d known she wasn’t ready to hear it. He nodded and walked to the door. “Get some rest. Ring if you need anything.”
She stared at him with huge, almond-shaped eyes. He inclined his head to her before leaving the room. Brilliant move, Alex. Danita’s advice was good, but he hadn’t followed it very well. It was difficult where Daphne was concerned! She made him feel so many things all at once that it was impossible to remember he was supposed to be allowing her to be the stubborn one. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to kiss her all over that wonderful body, hear the sighs he’d missed hearing. But when she pushed him away he felt rejected. It sent some macho monster rearing inside him, which was exactly what he didn’t need right now. Daphne never responded well to hard-pressure tactics. It was a lesson he should have learned well. After all, she had moved and gotten an unlisted number to avoid him.
Completely frustrated, he sought out Sinclair. He soon located him, polishing the car Alex had driven to the store to get diapers and formula with Danita. It hardly needed sprucing up, but his faithful butler’s movements were a bit frantic.
“This is not going well, Sinclair,” he said, leaning against the car near an open can of wax.
“No, sir.”
Alex sighed. He reached for a chamois cloth and dipped it into the wax.
“Allow me, sir,” Sinclair told him. He took the chamois and put it aside.
“Trust me, I could use the work, Sinclair.”
“You don’t do it as well as I do.”
His butler’s craggy face was impassive. Alex folded his arms across his chest and looked at the sky. Daphne was telling him the same thing. Only she could raise their children the way she wanted it done. “I don’t know,” he murmured. “I have to fit in somehow.”
“You’ve got your hands full.”
The understatement of the year. Alex nodded. “How’s my father enjoying watching me struggle?”
“Mr. Banning seems quite astounded by the pandemonium which has broken out in the house. But I think he’s getting used to it. He was actually talking about buying Miss Daphne a gift.”
“Hope he does better than I did with the pearls.”
“Miss Daphne did not receive them well?” Sinclair raised his brows.
“She hardly received them at all. I think they’re still lying on the dresser in their pouch,” Alex said, his tone rueful.
“I see.” Sinclair rubbed harder at an in visible spot on the car. “Perhaps there’s some thing Miss Daphne would like better.”
“I don’t know what,” Alex replied heavily, “unless it’s a divorce. She mentions that quite frequently.”
“I’m positive it will come to you, sir.”
“What