Sale or Return Bride

Registering that announcement, Sebastien stood in rigid stillness, every muscle in his powerful body tense as he watched her. ‘Just what exactly are you saying?’ he asked hoarsely and she felt a lump building in her throat as she forced the words out.

‘I can’t give you children, Sebastien. Ever. It isn’t possible.’

He inhaled deeply. ‘And your grandfather somehow knew this?’

She nodded bleakly. ‘My grandfather knows everything—’

Sebastien gave a harsh laugh and ran a hand over the back of his neck in a visible effort to relieve the tension. ‘This, then, was his latest revenge. To deprive my parents of the grandchildren they long for so badly and to deprive me of a child.’ He paced the length of the room one more time and made a sound of disbelief before he turned and fastened her with incredulous eyes. ‘And you agreed to this? Your grandfather is renowned as an evil, manipulative man with no morals. But you? For the right sum of money, you were prepared to go ahead with this deception?’

Alesia shrank inside herself and stared at the floor in utter misery.

What could she say? The answer was quite obviously yes and she wasn’t in a position to explain why the money had been so very important to her.

He made a sound of derision. ‘Whatever my family may have done to yours, there is no excuse for that level of dishonesty.’ His voice was thick with barely contained anger, streaks of colour accentuating his fabulous bone structure. It was as if something was about to explode inside him. ‘How could I ever have thought a relationship was possible? Not only are you a gold-digger but you are also a liar and a cheat.’

‘You can divorce me,’ she whispered in anguish and he turned on her, raw anger blazing from his dark eyes.

‘I cannot divorce you,’ he contradicted her savagely, one lean brown hand slicing through the air to emphasize his point. ‘Your scheming grandfather ensured that. The contract we both signed binds us together until you produce a child.’

Alesia swallowed painfully. ‘I know I did wrong, but you have to understand—’

‘Understand what?’ He cut through her whispered attempt to defend herself with ill-concealed derision. ‘That I married a woman completely bereft of human decency? I should have been more wary of your lineage. The Philipos blood runs in your veins and you have clearly inherited his complete lack of moral code.’

Driven by disgust that he didn’t even attempt to hide, he strode out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him, leaving Alesia numb with horror.

CHAPTER NINE

ALESIA spent a sleepless night feeling sicker and sicker and totally miserable. Remembering what the doctor had said about her swallowing water when she’d fallen in the swimming pool, she assumed the nausea would go away at some point and tried to ignore it.

She longed to find Sebastien but she had no idea where to look for him and she wouldn’t have known what to say even if she found him.

She was guilty as charged.

She had deceived him. She had lied. She had married him for money.

He was right. How could she possibly defend the indefensible?

His opinion of her shouldn’t have mattered, but somewhere along the way she’d fallen crazily in love with him and the knowledge that he clearly hated her depressed her in the extreme.

The situation was irretrievably bad and she’d already decided that she might as well leave and go back to London when he stalked into her bedroom, dressed in a sleek designer suit, looking every inch the successful billionaire businessman that he was.

Struggling with nausea that refused to shift, Alesia sat up in bed, trying not to let the longing show in her face. The fact that she wanted him so badly that she ached wasn’t relevant. He didn’t want her.

‘I’ll leave today,’ she said shakily, unable to hold that penetrating dark gaze for more than a few painful seconds. ‘You can’t divorce me but you don’t have to live with me and I promise I’ll—’

‘I came to apologize,’ he muttered stiffly, cutting through her awkward attempt to bridge the silence between them with his customary impatience. ‘Last night I lost my temper. There’s no excuse for that.’

He was apologizing to her?

She blinked. ‘You have every right to be angry—’

‘Last night you looked very ill—’ His gaze swept over her and a frown touched his bronzed forehead. ‘You still look ill.’

She gave a wan smile. ‘I think it was just swallowing the water—I feel a bit sick, but I’m fine—’

His eyes slid back to hers but the frown remained. ‘Today you must rest. Spend the day in bed,’ he ordered, his tone cool and formal. ‘We’ll talk later.’