His deep voice rasped along her overstretched nerves. She couldn’t believe what a fool she had been! It had never occurred to her that Jake would respond to her solicitor’s formal notification of the impending divorce in person. Her brows drew together in a puzzled frown. Why on earth would he want to? They had had no contact in almost five years. Surely Jake would be as happy as her at the ending of the marriage.
‘If that frown is anything to go by, don’t bother to answer—I probably wouldn’t like your reply. Instead, let’s find somewhere to talk.’ He stepped towards her. Lexi tried to step back, his great height intimidating her, but was brought up hard against the reception desk.
‘That will not be necessary,’ Lexi managed in a taut voice. ‘We have nothing to say to each other.’ Her gaze once more met his and her violet eyes widened at the dark threat she saw in the deep blue depths of Jake’s.
‘You might find my presence abhorrent, Lexi, but I, I am not finished with you, not by a long way,’ he told her in a hateful drawl. ‘The next few weeks should be entertaining.’
‘If you were thinking of staying here, Mr Taylor...the hotel is full.’ She desperately tried to hang on to her business persona, but the shock to her system made her voice shake.
‘So you say, but...’
‘I am the manager, I know...’ Her violet eyes sparkled with barely controlled anger, as some of her self-control returned. ‘I think you should leave.’ She gestured with her hand towards the entrance, and she bit her lip as Jake’s strong hand caught her wrist in a painful grip.
‘Let me go,’ she hissed, her eyes stormy with pent-up anger as she tried to wrench her arm free.
‘Nobody dismisses me with the wave of a hand, and certainly not a merc
enary little bitch like you...’ Jake snarled. His face hardened into an expression that made Lexi wish she hadn’t tried so cavalierly to dismiss him as he continued. ‘Now, if you wish to discuss our marriage in the foyer of the hotel, I really don’t mind,’ he informed her ruthlessly. ‘I’m sure the rest of the guests will enjoy it.’
A chill shivered its way down the length of her spine as he dropped her wrist. With her other hand she rubbed where he had touched her, and what did he mean, mercenary? She didn’t have a mercenary bone in her body, and she had never taken a penny from Jake since the day she left him.
‘Is everything all right, Signorina Lexi?’ Franco’s voice intruded warily.
‘Yes. Yes, fine,’ Lexi confirmed swiftly as she glanced quickly around. Oh, God! The guests were on their way to dinner, and here she was looking like something the cat dragged in, arguing in the middle of Reception.
‘Signorina Lexi... Odd, I could have sworn you were my wife,’ Jake prompted with sardonic cynicism. ‘Still, I suppose I should be grateful you appear to be working for a living. I fully expected you to have some wealthy lover looking after you.’
Lexi’s head swung back to look at Jake, her mouth falling open in stunned amazement. ‘Why, you...’ Words failed her, which was probably just as well, she thought a moment later, remembering where she was.
‘Or perhaps you’re between keepers, hmm?’
Lexi registered the gasp of astonishment from Franco behind the desk. ‘You are married to this man?’ Franco exclaimed, and then broke out in a torrent of Italian, mostly about what Dante would say.
Lexi groaned inwardly and tried in a few words to calm her excitable assistant down. But finally she had no other course than to admit Jake was her husband.
‘When you two have quite finished.’ Jake’s curt command stopped them both, his piercing gaze fixed on Franco. ‘Perhaps you would arrange for my luggage to be taken to my wife’s suite.’
For Lexi it was the last straw; she wanted to scream at Jake to shut up, but she knew she had to get him out of the reception before the whole damn place heard his revelation. ‘Follow me,’ she snarled between clenched teeth.
‘I knew you would see it my way, Lexi, sensible girl,’ he goaded mockingly.
She was too angry to take the lift, but preceded Jake up to the third floor and along to the far end of the corridor, her rage mounting at every step. She turned the key in the lock and opened the door. She didn’t bother to look if Jake was behind her, but stormed across the room, flinging her bag on to a convenient sofa, and turned with her back to the window.
‘Now, what the hell do you think you’re playing at, Jake? How dare you come here and insinuate about my morals, or lack of them, in front of my staff and guests? Then to announce to the world we’re married! You’ve got some damn nerve.’ She was in a full-blooded fury, years of anger and frustration racing to the forefront of her mind.
‘Is it so strange that I object to hearing my wife addressed as Mi-ss...?’ Jake emphasised cynically.
‘Dear God! You’re mad. We have been separated for five years—five years, Jake. In fact, I can’t understand why you didn’t divorce me years ago, or why the hell you are here now, instead of cavorting around London with your faithful Lorraine,’ she grated furiously.
‘Then let me enlighten you, my sweet,’ Jake drawled, a thread of steel in his voice. ‘I have come to reclaim my wife.’
Her breath caught in her throat at his sheer arrogance. Her body trembling with fury, she cried, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Her voice shook with the force of her anger. ‘You can’t just walk into my life and say you’re going to reclaim it.’ She had hated this man for years; he had taken her girlish dream of love and family and forever and ground it in the dust beneath his feet. She was older now, a mature working woman, and no way would she put herself back in the subservient position of Jake’s wife. ‘I won’t tolerate it.’
Jake, his dark eyes fixed on her flushed and furious face, slowly strolled across the room to stop only inches away from her. ‘No more than I will tolerate some curt note from a solicitor telling me I am to be divorced.’ The deadly intent in his softly voiced comment was more frightening than if he had shouted at her. ‘You, Lexi, are my wife, and divorce is not an option, not now, not ever. Do I make myself clear?’ he prompted silkily.
She had taken as much as she could stand; he was much too close, much too threateningly male. Without warning, her hand flew in a wild arc towards his mocking face, and she yelped with pain as he stopped her before she could make contact. His strong hand like a manacle around her wrist, in one deft movement he forced her hand down and behind her back, bringing her slap up against his hard body. In a second he had both her hands pinned by one of his much larger ones behind her back, and his dark head was swooping down.
Lexi tried to fight, but his arm was like an iron girder around her slender waist. She attempted to kick him, but was quickly trapped between his powerful thighs. Heat, totally unexpected, flooded through her body at their intimate entwining, and she could do nothing to prevent Jake using his free hand to grasp her chin and tilt her small face up to his.