Well, the truce hadn't lasted long. 'Now look, Zac—'
'No, you look, Victoria,' he said sharply, straightening up abruptly and causing her to shrink back against the chair before she checked herself and raised her chin, staring back into his angry face bravely. 'There is absolutely no need for you to work; you know it and I know it. I'm quite prepared to pay you a set amount until the divorce goes through and the financial side of things is settled.'
'Why?' She hadn't meant to ask, but she had been astounded when the cheque had arrived in the first place, and now his insistence that he support her and perhaps— if he was saying what she thought he was saying—pay her some generous maintenance when they were divorced was confusing her still more.
As far as Zac understood she had got pregnant by William Howard and was going to have his baby. And Zac Harding was not a magnanimous man at the best of times. This just didn't make sense but she couldn't work out what he was up to.
'Why?' He shrugged broad, powerful shoulders, and then, as his eyes flickered, stood abruptly and walked across to the small sash window where he stood looking out into the quiet, sun-dappled mews, his hands resting on the wide wooden windowsill and his back towards her. 'Because you are my wife, you are entitled by law to a part of my estate of course,' he said flatly. 'Why else?'
'I don't want it,' she said, and now her voice was very firm. By law? She didn't want a penny off him, not a penny.
'That's ridiculous and you don't really mean it,' he said flatly without turning round. 'You'll need the money.'
'It is not ridiculous, and I do mean it,' she shot back quickly. 'We were only married for twenty-four hours, not even that, and I don't consider myself married in the true sense.'
'But the marriage was consummated, Victoria.' He turned, and the inflexion in his voice brought hot colour surging up into her face until it reached her hair. 'You haven't forgotten that, have you?' he taunted softly, his face hard and merciless.
'Of course I haven't forgotten.' Her voice was stiff, but the images in her mind were breathtakingly vivid. Her cheeks were burning as she recalled how it had been, and partly because of the devastating vulnerableness she was feeling, and also because of the love and hurt and pain that were making her ache as she looked at him, she said something unforgivable. 'But you don't have to pay me indefinitely for one night of sex, Zac.'
He was quite still for an endless moment, and then his voice was a soft snarl as he said, 'What a fool I was. I never really knew you, did I?'
She was appalled at what she'd said, but she wasn't going to admit it as she stared at him,
her face scarlet.
'Is that all it was to you, Victoria? An initiation process into sex? What happened? Did you suddenly realise you had married the wrong man? Was that it? Was that why you ran to him the next morning?' Zac asked with grim control.
'It wasn't like that,' she protested shakily. 'You know it wasn't. And I only left because of you and Gina—'
'Leave Gina out of this,' he rasped bitterly. 'The facts are that you left my bed and went to his within—as you have so succinctly pointed out—twenty-four hours. You knew he was crazy about you, you've probably enjoyed the thrill of keeping the poor dumb clown dangling on the end of a string for years, and you knew exactly what would happen when you turned up on his doorstep like a maiden in distress. It's the classic come-on.'
'I was a maiden in distress!' It was a ridiculous turn of phrase but it didn't occur to either of them. 'And how can you say 'leave Gina out of this' when you…when…?' Oh, she didn't want to cry, she didn't, Victoria thought wildly as her lips began to quiver so much she couldn't go on.
'Damn it all.' Zac had moved across the room and pulled her up out of the chair before she realised what was happening, his face black with rage as he shook her slightly. 'How can you be so many different women in as many minutes?' he growled resentfully. 'Who are you? What are you? You've turned my life upside down, you tell me black is white and white is black—'
'I don't, I don't. And don't you dare blame me!'
And then he kissed her, a dark, angry, savage kiss, his body as hard as steel and his arms unrelenting as he ground her into him until she could hardly breathe and her head was spinning.
Her tears were vanquished by the shock of it, by the age-old challenge his body was throwing out to hers, and, to her eternal shame, she responded like a thirst-crazed mortal being offered life-giving water as a desire that was elemental gripped her.
His tongue was firing the nerves all over her body, and now, as she began to kiss him back with total abandon, he groaned deep in his throat, his hands exploring the full ripeness of her breasts through her thin summer dress, their points hard and straining against the hindrance of the soft, flimsy material.
She felt the already overloaded buttons pop as his hands sought mote intimacy, and then he had peeled back the upper part of her dress, imprisoning her arms as he did so, and moved the straps of her bra down her arms as he took the voluptuously swollen weight of her breasts in his hands, his eyes devouring her.
Victoria thought she would faint at the sensations that were shooting through her body, and then, as his mouth claimed what his hands had already aroused, she gasped helplessly.
'Zac, Zac…' She moaned his name in an agony of need.
Her legs were trembling so much she could hardly stand and she could feel the tremors that were shaking his body, and she knew that in another moment he would lower her onto the carpet and take her, right here, in the tiny sitting room. And she wasn't going to stop him—couldn't stop him…
And then the telephone rang. And continued to ring.
It was Zac who took control of himself first, raising his head and pulling her bra into place as he said, his voice belying his command of himself, 'You'd better answer that.'
Victoria couldn't move for a moment, her head swimming and a dizziness making her ears ring, and then she slowly straightened her dress as she walked across to the telephone in one corner of the wall unit. She had to breathe deeply for a moment or two before she could pull herself together and lift the receiver.
It took all her will-power to speak normally, but even then her voice must have sounded strange as she gave the number, because William's deep tones were anxious as he said, 'Victoria? That is you, isn't it? Is anything wrong? Are you all right?'