Torn between the urge to run for her life and the equally pressing urge to beseech her husband to deny all she had just uncovered, Ariana did neither, merely staring at him in bewildered silence.
“Poor misty angel,” Trenton droned, his husky tone alluding to something that could have been either tenderness or derision, “you look like a terrified doe.” Ignoring the inadvertent stiffening of Ariana’s body, he slid his hand around her nape, stroking softly, running his fingers through the thick waves of her hair. “Frightened at last?” he taunted.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Should I be?”
His grip tightened. “What did Caldwell tell you?”
She paled. “Tell me?”
“Ah, what an atrocious liar you are,” Trenton mocked, drawing her nearer. “As I said, your brother has done his job well.”
“Please, Trenton …” She flattened her palms against his chest, staving him off.
“Please … what?” The question was a tantalizing caress, completely belied by the furious sparks flaring in his e
yes.
Apprehension constricted Ariana’s chest. “Let go of me,” she commanded, softly at first, then insistently, struggling to free herself. “Let me go!” She jerked loose of his grasp, retreating backward a dozen paces.
Trenton made no move to follow but held his arms rigidly at his sides, fury radiating from his massive frame. “How much do you want?”
“What?” Ariana was lost … lost and afraid.
“How much did he tell you to ask for, dammit!” Trenton sliced the air with his open palm, knocking over an entire line of geraniums, sending ruined flowers scattering at Ariana’s feet.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” she cried.
“Your brother…” Trenton ground out between clenched teeth. “He wants money … as always. How much did he tell you to bleed me for?”
Ariana straightened, her own eyes smoldering as comprehension dawned. “Money? Baxter and I never discussed money!”
Trenton threw back his head and laughed: an eerie, disbelieving laugh. “Never? I find that dubious, at best. Jewels, then? Or valuable paintings? Or perhaps every bloody treasure Broddington has to offer?”
“Baxter and I want nothing from you!” she shot back, the emotional impact of the day converging to explode inside her. “You got what you wanted when you coerced me to marry you! Now all I want is for you to leave me alone!”
“Leave you alone?” Trenton’s laughter faded, replaced by a forbidding stillness that was far more frightening. “Funny, that’s not the plea I recall hearing in our bed last night. Or was that coercion too, my indignant wife? Did I coerce you to give me your beautiful body, not once but countless times? Did I take you against your will, command you to lie with me? Did I, Ariana?”
Ariana’s lips trembled, but she didn’t flinch. “No,” she said in a tiny voice, admission and sadness reflected in her magnificent turquoise eyes, “that I did on my own.” With heartwrenching candor, she added, “And I don’t regret a single moment of it.”
A muscle flexed in Trenton’s jaw and he dragged his gaze from the honest emotion in hers. “If you and your brother didn’t discuss wresting my sizable fortune, what did you discuss?”
“Vanessa.”
A deafening silence.
“I read her suicide note.” Ariana raised her chin, valiantly confronting Trenton with the truth. “I never knew it existed.”
Shutters descended over Trenton’s eyes, and his lips curled sardonically. “Well, well. Caldwell was even busier than I anticipated.”
“You and I have to discuss—”
“No.”
Ariana’s chin came up. “Let me clarify my statement. We must discuss Vanessa’s death; there is no longer any alternative.”
“I will not speak of your sister,” Trenton growled. “Not now … or ever. Listen to me, Ariana, and heed me well. Do not pursue this matter. You don’t know what you’re talking about … or what the consequences could be.”
Prickles of fear ran up Ariana’s spine as she studied the biting hatred on her husband’s face. Fox. a fleeting instant she saw Trenton as Vanessa must have: as a man who was, beyond the shadow of a doubt, capable of murder.