Bond of Hatred

Sarah appraised his darkly handsome features, an odd tugging pulling at the pit of her stomach and interfering wi

th her thought processes. But his gesture of cynical rebellion against the expectations of his servants made her want to throw something at him. The staff were not to know that this was not a normal wedding night, and the exquisite flowers adorning the table made it obvious that Alex’s staff, presumably encouraged by Vivien, had gone to a lot of effort.

Alex took one outraged look at the oyster starter delivered and swore only half under his breath. Oysters were supposed to be an aphrodisiac, Sarah reflected, her fine complexion wreathed by sudden colour. She wondered if Alex was thinking what she was thinking. Vivien had been very busy. Not that she could eat the oysters anyway. Sarah had once had a very strong allergic reaction to seafood and she hadn’t touched shellfish since.

‘How does it feel to be my wife?’

It was a rough demand. Startled, Sarah glanced up from her untouched plate. She was shaken by the seething quality of his glittering golden eyes. They seemed to reach down the table and threaten to go for her throat. All of a sudden she was very grateful that they were seated a ludicrous distance apart.

‘How?’ he prompted with lethal persistence.

‘Alex...I don’t feel like your wife, so don’t let it worry you,’ she responded with a forced laugh. ‘All I want to be is the best mother I can be for Nicky. I have no intention of interfering in your life in any other way.’

‘Soft words,’ Alex countered with rich derision. ‘You seem to have been in the process of retreat ever since you got that ring on your finger.’

‘I don’t know where you got that impression.’

‘You told me that what I deserved was a wife who made my life a living hell. A real bitch—I believe that was your expression,’ he drawled. ‘But now you appear to be changing your game plan...playing the devoted mother to the best of your severely limited acting ability—’

‘I wasn’t acting! I love Nicky!’

‘He was your passport to another world. You used him,’ Alex condemned in a low growl. ‘You used him to get what I denied your sister!’

‘That is not true. Yes, OK, I wanted revenge but I never dreamt you’d agree!’ Sarah protested fiercely. ‘Then when you did I saw that our marriage was the best possible solution for Nicky’s needs—’

‘You forced yourself on me.’ His striking dark features set with angry distaste. ‘I did not believe that any woman could be that shameless.’

‘You must have led a very sheltered life.’

‘Wealth and status were your price. You sold Nicky to me.’

Aghast by the charge, Sarah plunged upright. ‘How dare you accuse me of that?’ she gasped.

‘Not that I expected anything more from the harridan who had the effrontery to face me in my office five months ago—’

‘Who are you calling a harridan?’ Sarah spat with disbelief, her green eyes firing with outrage.

‘Neither you nor your wretched sister gave a damn about Androula. What kind of reception did you expect from me?’ Alex demanded very drily. ‘Damon already had a wife and a family and you knew that from the beginning of their sordid affair!’

Her eyes were huge pools of emerald in her hectically flushed face. Slowly, painfully slowly, the pink began to drain from below her skin. ‘A wife and a f-family...then?’ she stammered out, her tongue feeling too clumsy to assist her speech accurately. ‘You are telling me that five months ago Damon had been married long enough to have a child? I don’t believe you!’

‘This pretence of ignorance will gain you nothing,’ Alex stressed with stinging contempt. Your sister met Androula and my nieces before she worked her way into my brother’s bed. The babysitter...hmm? Your sister was the babysitter from hell!’

Sarah was shaking so badly she had to set her wine glass down. ‘You are lying. You are making up this crazy story to desecrate my sister’s memory!’ she accused unsteadily. ‘She could never have met your sister-in-law...she couldn’t even have known she existed! Callie did not know that Damon was married and neither did I.’

‘Of course you knew.’

‘But Damon asked Callie to marry him. He even gave her an engagement ring!’

Alex uttered a very rude word, signifying his disbelief.

Sarah flew tempestuously upright again. ‘Don’t you dare use language like that in front of me!’ With a trembling hand, she braced herself on the chair behind her and vehemently shook her head, a cascade of silver hair shimmering round her in a luxuriant curtain. ‘I don’t know what you think you’re playing at with these lies.’

Alex was lounging back in his carved chair, disturbingly still, dangerously silent with his night-dark eyes trained intently upon her distressed and defensive face.

Sarah thumped the table with a clumsily coiled fist, barely able to think straight. ‘There is no way, absolutely no way my sister would have knowingly become involved with another woman’s husband!’

She knocked over her wine glass as she lifted her hand again. Stinging tears lashed her shocked eyes. She dashed them away with furious fingers, sending him a glimmering look of naked reproach and condemnation.