‘I propose,’ he said tautly, ‘that you will live in this house. I want people to assume we are a perfectly normal husband and wife—’
‘That’s not likely when we’re at daggers drawn,’ she said caustically.
‘They won’t know that. Must not know that. To all intents and purposes we will seem to be on good terms,’ he snapped. ‘For our son’s sake we will be polite and courteous to one another in public. We will appear at functions together. It is not necessary that we give an impression that we lust after one another—that would be asking too much of me,’ he added scathingly, ‘but we will keep up appearances—’
‘You must be joking!’ she gasped.
‘Deadly serious. There will be no bickering, no acid-tipped remarks, and no double meanings in our conversation when Carlo or others are around.’
His eyes were frighteningly remote. Miranda shrank back, absorbing his extraordinary suggestion and the catalogue of dos and don’ts, her face pale with shock.
For several seconds he studied her, then when she said nothing but remained trembling and astonished, he firmed his mouth and continued.
‘In your private life,’ he said tautly, ‘you will be irreproachable. You will not get drunk. You will not take drugs. You will never, never,’ he roared suddenly, making her jump, ‘be indiscreet and cause a scandal by taking a lover. If you do, you’re out of here. Is that understood?’
She felt as if he’d hit her with a steam-hammer. He wanted her to live here as his wife. The thought of living with Dante and not making love with him was impossible to imagine.
‘You want me to live like a nun for the rest of my life?’ she asked slowly.
‘Too difficult?’ he scorned.
The way things were, she never wanted to commit herself to another man again. Her plush mouth thinned. Stunned and still trying to absorb his suggestion, she pretended indifference.
‘I’m just establishing the ground rules.’
‘One of which is that you will be chaste and above suspicion. That is my ultimatum. As I said, if you break it, I will throw you out to fend for yourself. And you will never see Carlo again.’
She put a hand to her temple where a pulse throbbed painfully. ‘That’s why you wanted him out of the way! If I refuse this…gross proposition, then you intend to hide him until I leave! Well, I have no intention of agreeing to your cold-blooded solution. I couldn’t possibly live with you! I won’t go, either,’ she defied. ‘I’ll stay here until—’
‘The police will escort you from the premises,’ he stated smoothly.
He smiled faintly when her shoulders dropped, a give-away, she thought in despair, that she was at the end of her tether.
‘Maybe. But I won’t go quietly! I’ll raise hell!’ she threatened.
‘Then everyone will sympathise with me about the fishwife I mistakenly married,’ he flung back. ‘Your attitude would affect your chances of access. Besides, no one will believe anything you say. I will reveal my reasons for keeping you from Carlo and the courts will uphold my request for sole custody. You will be deported as an undesirable.’
Her eyes darkened to violet. Now she was clutching at straws, searching for anything to fight him with. Tears welled up as she thought of Carlo’s unhappiness and she racked her brains for a way to gain mastery over Dante.
‘In that case, I will walk away quietly,’ she amended, ‘and stay near by. People will murmur and wonder why my son is so sad and why I stand at your gates hoping for a glimpse of him!’ she hurled.
His jaw set hard. ‘You have no money, Miranda. How will you survive? Or…is that a silly question when your assets are clearly displayed before me?’
‘You are obsessed with whoring!’ she yelled in frustration, hating the fact that he was right about her poverty and seeing no way out but to surrender. In one final stab, she snapped, ‘Strange that you were perfectly happy for me to play the whore for you in bed!’
‘And anywhere else, for that matter. You did it so well,’ he murmured, so mockingly sexy that her breath began to jerk in the furnace of her body. ‘But those days are over. And I find it interesting that you see your role in that light. I fondly imagined you were enjoying uninhibited sex with the man you loved. But of course, you had sold yourself to me, hadn’t you?’
The look in his eyes belied his remark that their physical relationship had ended. A desperate and unstoppable desire heated the air between them. Hunger was in every tense inch of his body. She had seen it too often before to doubt the evidence of her own eyes. He wanted her.
As much—heaven help her—as she wanted him. They were still physically tied and it would take a while before their passion for one another waned. The memories were too recent, too intense, and too ecstatic.
She felt hot, the electrically charged atmosphere swamping her senses. It took a huge effort of will to reject his unspoken invitation. Yet she must, because otherwise he’d destroy her.
There was something more important to consider. Carlo. She had no doubt that Dante would carry out all his threats. It seemed she had no choice.
‘If—if—I should agree to your disgusting plan,’ she croaked, ‘then I’d want your guarantee that you won’t touch me.’
How odd. Immediately after she’d made this stipulation she felt miserable…empty, at the thought of never reconciling with Dante. After all, she’d never be able to trust him again. Or to respect him. She sighed. Bodies were odd things—totally at odds with one’s brain.
Dante’s intake of breath broke the spell and he seemed to withdraw into himself, his head lifting proudly.
‘I would rather kiss a cockroach,’ he drawled.
She flinched at his vile insult. ‘The feeling’s mutual.’ Or it would be, once she’d got over him. ‘Let’s get something straight,’ she said with dignity. ‘I was ill when you abandoned me that night. I could have been seriously ill for all you knew. In fact it took days before I felt better. Not only did you take our son away—although I’d looked after him devotedly—’
‘That’s debatable—’
‘Devotedly!’ she emphasized. ‘But you scuttled away and secreted yourself away somewhere, too afraid to face me. Those are the actions of a heartless, callous man. Someone who is an abject coward, Dante! And to think I once believed you were hero material! Huh!’ she scorned. ‘I despise you. How could I possibly be polite to you when I feel hatred and loathing and contempt for you?’
His shoulders hooked up in a shrug but she could see from the tautness of his mouth that her words had struck home.
‘You must realise that I had to remove Carlo from you,’ he said in a choked tone, his eyes lowered so that she could not see if they were pained. ‘I had to give him a chance to be without you and your malign influence. I didn’t like doing it—and I don’t like doing this, Miranda. But for his sake, I must. Maybe I can wean him from you. I don’t know. But as sure as hell, you will never be alone with him!’
So he’d make her play his game of happy families—and then get rid of her! No way.
And yet he’d acted in good faith. He’d thought he was doing the right thing where Carlo was concerned. That did alter her opinion of him a little. And so she tried another tack, giving him a chance to salvage his pride and admit he’d been wrong to think he could bring up Carlo.
‘Dante. I realise this must be hard for you,’ she began more evenly.
‘Hard? That is an understatement,’