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Coffee, for two, a plate of the little sweet cakes that were so delicious she was developing a needing-to-be-watched passion for them, the never absent small posy of flowers, and a bowl of fresh fruit.
She tensed. Speechless. Now was the perfect opportunity to put him in the picture regarding her set-in-stone decision to end their marriage. But the words wouldn’t come. Her mind was in chaos.
When he sat on the end of the lounger she moved her legs sideways at the speed of light. Physical contact would make the chaos worse!
Turning to her, the force of his steely will holding her unwilling sapphire eyes, he stated flatly, ‘Our child is no longer in any danger. That being the case, we have to talk. And I want the truth—the whole truth. I’ve been too blinkered to want to hear it. But now it’s time.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
MADDIE’S heart leapt like a landed fish. Her hand lifted automatically to her breast, where she could feel it bumping through the fine white organza of her sleeveless top.
Why now, when everything was over between them? When she could walk away with some dignity, without laying her broken heart before him, suffering his scorn or—heaven forbid—his pity?
Yet—her brow furrowed with indecision—maybe telling him what she knew, had known for ages, would be a catharsis, a cleansing. Keeping it locked inside her, where it would fester for the rest of her life, would do her no good at all, deny her any kind of closure.
‘Maddie?’ he prompted. His voice was gentle. ‘Tell me what made you demand a divorce all those weeks ago.’
A muscle in her throat jerked and her eyes slid away from his.
Dimitri knew he couldn’t take it if she refused to give him any explanation, or told him that his suspicions had been right all along.
Whatever—he had to know why she was determined to end their marriage. ‘When we agreed to make a fresh start, after we discovered you were carrying my child, I wouldn’t let you tell me why you’d left me. I was wrong to insist that the slate had to be wiped clean. It was a form of cowardice and I’m not proud of that. I was desperate to keep you, to make you happy. I just wanted to start over.’
A sigh was wrenched from him before he stated, ‘But the slate isn’t clean, is it? Again you threaten to leave me, so the stain must still be there. So tell me. Is it money? I need to know.’
He enclosed her hand in his lean, bronzed one and his touch was fire in her veins. Maddie swung her feet to the ground and shot upright, dragging her hand from his.
She didn’t need this! This instinctive reaction to his touch!
And she didn’t want a pay-off. How could he think that? His wealth had never interested her. And now this demeaning physical reminder of the way he could make her feel, the agony of loving, wanting and needing him that she couldn’t shake off—no matter how often and how staunchly she informed herself that she hated and despised him!
The trouble was, she knew herself too well. With him she had always found it so easy, so imperative, to give of herself, to respond. But she was not going to let herself fall into the abyss of blind love and yearning again!
She turned back to face him. He was standing now, and his tall, powerful physique gave her the feeling of being overwhelmed. Wrapping her arms self-protectively around her midriff, she met his eyes, determination in the sparkling blue.
But her mouth shook a little when she got out, ‘We’d been married for just a few days when Irini told me exactly why you’d picked me.’
‘And?’ His hands came down on her rigid shoulders.
He looked bemused. His strongly marked brows drawn together in a slight frown of incomprehension. Her spine stiffened until she thought it might splinter.
‘Big hips, humble background. No-account,’ she supplied, on a hiss of breath. ‘The sort of dumb-cluck who wouldn’t know how to fight you when you did what you meant to do.’
‘Pethi mou—’
‘Don’t!’ She wrenched away from him. Empty endearments she could do without! Fat tears scalded her face. With one swift movement he captured her waist and drew her back to him.
‘Irini made these insults?’
His eyes challenged her, as if he believed she was lying. Or perhaps as if he couldn’t believe his lover’s stupidity in showing her hand so early in the game?
‘Who else?’ Maddie ground out, frustrated at his pretence of not knowing what she was on about. ‘And for good measure she told me the rest of it! You’re madly in love with each other but can’t marry because she can’t give you the heir you need!’
She was almost yelling now, incensed by the hurt she’d been dealt. ‘So bingo! You’d get yourself a no-account wife, get her pregnant, and as soon as the child was born you’d take it and dump her. Goodbye, and thanks a bunch! And, hey! Know what? You’d be able to take the wife you really loved and wanted! So it’s no good you trying to pretend you want me for anything other than the baby!’
Suddenly the fight drained out of her. She felt limp and utterly wretched.
Her head drooped. His hands tightened about her waist as he moved her back to the lounger. ‘Sit. Before you fall down.’
