He was taking her back to the villa, that much was obvious. Jake could make her stay, he could make her love him. She already did, and that would never change, she accepted the fact sadly; and up until tonight she had thought maybe they could make their marriage work. But now she knew categorically that she had been fooling herself; it was an impossibility.
Jake had broken her heart not once but twice. She might just be able to stick the pieces back and continue to function; she could try. But, if she stayed, his infidelities, especially with Lorraine, would chip away at her self-respect, her pride, and little by little chisel away at her bruised heart until there was nothing left but dust, nothing to mend. She couldn’t allow it to happen. She wouldn’t.
She glanced at Jake. His profile looked as though it was carved out of stone; she despised the sudden lurch in her pulse while recognising that he was a formidable man in every way. But surely even Jake could not watch her all the time. She would get her chance and run as far and as fast as she could. She had done it once and she could again. She had no other alternative...
The huge gates of the villa swung open in front of them and Lexi gave a sigh of relief; she could breathe again, the harrowing drive was over. But her relief was short-lived, as the car ground to a jarring halt at the front door, and Jake was around the car, the passenger door open, and his hand curving around her bare arm like a vice as he dragged her out.
‘I can manage,’ she said, jerking her arm free, and blindly she turned and dashed for the house and the safety of her room, but she had barely taken two steps into the hall before Jake caught her.
‘What the hell are you trying to do to me, Lexi?’ he grated, and with a savage movement swung her around to fa
ce him.
Lexi stared up at him. ‘Me, Jake?’ she screeched. She couldn’t believe his outrageous accusation—to her mind it was the other way around—but she was astounded to note the stain of red running along his high cheekbones, the taut fury in his handsome face.
‘Yes, you. Who the hell else is there?’
Lorraine for one! she almost cried, but Jake, without waiting for an answer, swept her up in his arms, and carried her straight into the salon. She lashed out at him, her hands connecting with his head and his broad back. ‘Put me down,’ she yelled furiously and he did, dropping her unceremoniously down on the velvet-covered sofa.
He towered over her, huge and menacing; she had never seen him so consumed with rage. His glittering eyes raked over her with a ruthless savagery that made her feel as if he could see through to her bones. She fumbled with the skirt of her dress that had ridden high over her thighs, exposing her shapely legs, and tried to get up.
‘Don’t bother.’ Jake lowered his body on to the sofa beside her and her attempt to sit up was blocked by his hand roughly pushing her back. His eyes flared like blue flame with rage. ‘I’ll have it off you in a minute.’ His hard body pinned her beneath him. ‘If this is the only way I can have you, so be it...’ he snarled, as his dark head bent and his mouth covered hers in a ravaging travesty of a kiss. His hand wrenched the bodice of her dress to her waist while his other hand entangled brutally in the back of her hair, insensitive to the hurt he was inflicting.
Lexi twisted and turned, her slender body bucking against him, trying to break free from his crazed assault on her susceptible senses. She reeled from the force of his kiss, then gasped as his mouth found the rosy peak of her breast. She rained blows down on his broad back, but, to her horror, long shudders rippled through her body as she felt herself succumbing to his persuasive mouth and hands.
‘No, no.’ And with one last frantic effort she grasped his head between her hands and tried to push him way. ‘I will not let you do this to me. I won’t, I swear I won’t,’ she repeated over and over again, like a sacred mantra. Tossing her head from side to side, her eyes closed tight, she screamed, ‘No! No...’
‘Stop it, stop it, Lexi.’ Jake’s voice penetrated her distraught mind and she realised she was virtually free. Jake was sitting on the side of the sofa, his face as black as thunder, but his blue eyes were strangely blank. ‘You can relax. I’m not about to assault you, though you are the most maddening, complex female it has ever been my misfortune to meet. I want some answers, and I want them now...’ The cold implacability in his tone was in direct contrast to the fierce tension she could sense in his hard body hovering over her. He had rested one arm on the back of the sofa, while with his other hand he deftly pulled her up to a sitting position and adjusted the bodice of her dress up over her breasts. ‘With no distractions,’ he murmured almost under his breath.
Lexi drew a deep, shuddering breath, her eyes clashing with Jake’s, and she knew the moment of truth had come. She had been on the very edge of hysteria, and there was nothing left in her emotional bank.
‘I thought you and I had reached some kind of understanding, a level of commitment since Pompeii, and tonight I was sure. Was I mistaken?’ Jake demanded tautly.
‘No,’ she murmured with a weary shake of her head.
‘So why the devil did you run away again?’ He sounded infuriated and almost unaware of what he was saying. ‘My first thought was, mercenary little bitch, she’s decided that flaming Arab was a better bet. But in the car coming home, when I had time to calm down, I realised I was wrong. Wasn’t I?’
‘Yes,’ Lexi confirmed quietly.
‘For five years I considered you a gold-digger of the worst kind. I told myself I was well rid of you, but it didn’t stop me wanting you. Then, when I heard the hotel where you worked was on the market, I saw a perfect opportunity to get you back but on my terms, and I took it. I’d have you as my wife again in my bed and under my control,’ he declared his eyes searching her face grimly. ‘I told myself, to hell with your mercenary tendencies, I was wealthy enough to indulge them.’
‘Gee, thanks. A girl could get a swelled head listening to you.’ The sarcasm hid the hurt his words caused her.
His gaze narrowed speculatively on her stiff, resentful features. ‘Hold your sarcasm, Lexi, I haven’t finished,’ he commanded bluntly. ‘The past two weeks I have been forced to accept that I was wrong. I discovered you’ve never touched your account in London, and you actually worked to live, not just as an excuse to meet wealthy men, and yet you said you left me for money. I have seen with my own eyes Ali, one of the world’s wealthiest bachelors, drool over you, but you were planning to marry Dante, a man I could buy and sell a million times over.’ His hand closed over hers, his thumb rubbing the glittering ring on her finger. ‘I don’t like a mystery; I want some answers and fast.’
‘Maybe I didn’t leave you because I wanted money,’ was as far as she was prepared to go in enlightening him. To reveal her real reason after seeing him with Lorraine again was not something she dared contemplate. She had her pride if nothing else...
‘I know that years ago I let you down, Lexi, and broke my promise to you, but I thought you cared enough for me, were mature enough to understand.’ Jake thrust a hand through his tumbled hair. ‘I never expected you to take off then or now... Talk to me, Lexi, make me understand.’
Lexi stared at him. He had said as much before, and she had been unable to comprehend his reasoning. Perhaps because secretly, deep in her subconscious, she had not wanted to believe she could love a man so totally bereft of any morality. Looking away from his too penetrating eyes she said, in a voice devoid of all emotion, ‘I understand I shouldn’t have run away.’ She tried to stand but Jake, with a brief tug on her hand, forced her back down beside him.
‘You’re not going anywhere until we have talked this through.’ His dark eyes held hers, an intensely speculative look in their indigo depths. ‘So, why did you run away, not once but twice?’ he prompted.
‘If I had stayed in England I could have been divorced and free within weeks. It’s my one big regret in life, apart from meeting you in the first place,’ she said curtly, an icy calm possessing her. She stared up into his harsh face. He still had her hand in his, but his other arm was curved over the back of the sofa, not touching her but effectively encircling her.
‘I very much doubt that,’ he drawled cynically. ‘But do carry on, this is beginning to get interesting.’
Interesting. He had ruined her life, and had the audacity... Suddenly all her hurt, all her anger came streaming out.