‘Chance has nothing to do with it. The way I feel right now it would be more an assault than making love.’ The harsh, guttural comment froze her blood. ‘That’s what you drive me to, you little witch.’
Lexi gasped, and clenched her hands together at her breast in a futile gesture of self defence. Jake’s glance dropped to her hands, and his mouth twisted in a bitter cynical curve.
‘Don’t worry, Lexi, you have nothing to fear. I will not sully the anniversary of our son’s death by taking you in anger.’
‘You remembered...’ she whispered, stunned to realise that Jake had actually known this was the anniversary of her miscarriage, and, even more surprisingly, he had known the lost child was a boy. Her gaze flew to his dark, forbidding face, and she realised he had controlled his earlier rage.
Hooded lids dropped over his deep blue eyes, masking his expression as, with a negligent shrug of his broad shoulders, he said ‘Of course, that’s the main reason I’m here.’
Lexi didn’t understand any of this. She supposed she should be thankful he was not going to share her bed. ‘But...’ she began, only to have the question stop in her throat as Jake went on.
‘I want the child you owe me, but I also intend to make sure it’s mine.’
He could not have hurt her more if he had tried. Once she would have given anything to have his child, but now... ‘No...never...’ She murmured the words more to herself than to him. She found it incredible that he could be so arrogant, so lacking in any moral conscience.
‘Yes, my dear Lexi, though in the present circumstances I am going to have to wait a few weeks to be assured of the parenthood,’ he said cynically ‘I have no intention of being stuck with your boyfriend’s offspring...’
‘Why, you...’ Lexi leapt to her feet as the meaning of his words hit her. ‘I...’
‘Not again, Lexi.’ His arms swept around her and held her hard against him. ‘Tomorrow you are coming with me, and I intend to watch you every minute of every day until the time is right, and then, my dear Lexi, you and I will resume our marriage fully. Understood?’
‘You can’t make me.’ Though once more held firmly in his arms, she had a horrible feeling he probably could.
‘If I let you go, will you endeavour to behave like a lady for a change and listen?’ He smiled mockingly down into her once again flushed and furious face.
‘Yes,’ she got out between clenched teeth: she would do anything to escape his all too familiar embrace.
‘Good.’ And, lifting her off her feet, he deposited her once more on the sofa and sat down beside her, his hard thigh pressing lightly against her slender limbs. She eased along the sofa putting a little space between them. He shot her a cynically amused glance and then, leaning back in the seat, he steepled his long fingers in front of him, for all the world as if he was about to give a lecture.
‘It is really quite simple, dear Lexi. I have bought this hotel. You are now employed by me.’
She couldn’t believe it. ‘You own... Then I’ll resign...’
Ignoring her comment, he continued in a voice devoid of all emotion, ‘Unless you do as I say, I will cancel the sale, and Signor Monicelli will not get the money, and his son will not recover.’
Her head spun as the implications of his words sank in. She flashed him an angry glance, hating him in that second more than she had in all the years they had been apart. ‘There are other people in the world who might buy the hotel,’ she shot back sarcastically. ‘You are not the only businessman on the planet, even if you like to think you are,’ she lashed out in fear. She did not like where the conversation was going.
‘True,’ he agreed silkily, his gaze never wavering from her taut, rebellious features. ‘But aren’t you forgetting an important factor?’ he prompted smoothly, but the underlying steel in his tone was unmistakable. ‘Time is of the essence for young Marco. This place has made only a modest profit in the last couple of years and I have the power to make it known that it is not a viable proposition,’ he elaborated cynically. ‘If young Marco’s trip to America is delayed or cancelled, who knows?’ He turned his hands palms up in a negligent gesture. ‘It will be a great shame if he is condemned to a wheelchair all his life, simply because the money is not available for his treatment.’
Lexi stared in horror at his hard, chiselled features. Not a flicker of compassion lightened his indigo eyes. No! her mind screamed silently, she couldn’t do it, tie herself to this man once again when she knew there was only hatred between them. ‘Why—why me?’ she asked dazedly. It didn’t make any kind of sense...
One eyebrow arched sardonically. ‘You’re my wife. I’m a very wealthy man, I need an heir and I don’t believe in divorce. Nor do I appreciate hearing my wife is thinking of marrying another man.’
He might as well have added so there, Lexi thought in stunned amazement. Obviously it must have been a blow to his pride to discover she had a boyfriend. How typically chauvinistic. It was all right for Jake to have an affair with his PA but the slightest rumour that his estranged wife might do the same and he was hot-foot to Italy to put a stop to it. Talk about double standards! But why was she so surprised? she asked herself sadly. This was the same man who had broken his marriage vow to her and then expected her to toast him and his girlfriend in champagne. The so-called civilised sophisticates, but Lexi had never been one of them.
With a jerky movement she staggered to her feet and walked across the room to gaze sightlessly out into the dark night. How could she be responsible for Signor Monicelli’s losing the sale? For young Marco’s perhaps being tied to a wheelchair for life? She spun around.
Jake had followed her and was standing a step away. She looked up at him, and it was a stranger’s face she saw. ‘Would you really condemn a man...?’
‘Believe it.’ Jake brutally cut her off, and she did... It was there in his mocking smile and the ruthless glint in his eyes. ‘Technically, Lexi, it is only you who can condemn the man to his chair, not I,’ he said callously, adding, ‘Yes, or no, Lexi?’
It wasn’t fair, she raged inwardly, Jake must know damn fine there was no way she could let the Monicellis down; they had virtually saved her sanity five years ago, and she owed them. Why now, she fumed, just when she had got her life in order? Dante...Dante; she had today promised to marry him.
‘Dante... What can I tell him?’ she cried in dismay, unconsciously giving her answer.
She did not see the flash of triumph in Jake’s eyes before his expression hardened fractionally. ‘You can ring him before we leave in the morning, but I will not allow you to see him,’ he warned icily.
‘Leave? I can’t leave, I have my job...’