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‘Just let me explain.’
‘Explain what? How you seduced me to get your hands on the McKenzie money? What were you thinking when you were making love with me? Were you closing your eyes and thinking about how you would dupe me into putting the inheritance money into a joint bank account once we were married?’
‘No, I wasn’t thinking that.’
She didn’t believe him. ‘I don’t care anyway.’ Her chin slanted up as she met his eyes fiercely. ‘Making love didn’t mean anything to me—you don’t mean anything to me.’
But she was lying. Even as she looked at him and hated him she still felt her heart twist with desire—with feelings for him that were so deep that they cut. Tears prickled perilously close to the surface and she swallowed them down hastily, furious with herself. ‘I suppose you asked me here thinking that the lure of beautiful surroundings would act as a smokescreen when you asked me to marry you—would make up for the fact that you have no feelings for me whatsoever. Well it wouldn’t have worked.’ She almost spat the words at him. ‘Because my answer would still have been no; I would never have married you. Never.’
‘Catherine, let’s calm down and talk about this.’ His voice was unwavering and rational and somehow that just made everything worse. He didn’t need to calm down—he was perfectly in control because he didn’t give a damn.
‘Go to hell, Nicholas.’ She turned and headed blindly down the hallway towards the front door.
‘Where are you going?’
She was vaguely aware that Nicholas was calling after her but she ignored him and kept on going out of the front door and down on to the drive. She had no idea where she was going. All she knew was that she had to get away from him before she broke down into a million pieces. She may have foolishly lost her heart to him but she was damned if she was going to lose her pride as well.
The sun seared down on her from a clear azure sky. The only sound was the waves on the shore and the insistent hum of the cicadas. She wore no shoes and she was just in her bikini top and shorts with no sunscreen, but she didn’t care. The heat of the road was burning the soles of her feet so she walked instead along the rough parched grass.
The sound of a car coming along the road behind her made her quicken her pace and start to run; that was when she caught her foot on the uneven ground and tumbled down. The fall winded her and for a second she couldn’t move.
‘Catherine, are you OK?’ She heard a car door slam and a few seconds later Nicholas was crouching down beside her. ‘Have you hurt yourself?’
‘Go away.’ She rubbed at her ankle; her eyes were blurred with tears and she couldn’t even look at him.
‘Come on, let’s get you back to the house.’ He touched her shoulder and she flinched.
‘Leave me alone, Nicholas.’
‘I know you are angry with me and you have every right to be.’ His voice softened. ‘But I can’t leave you here. You’ve hurt yourself. You are miles from even the nearest village.’
She bit down on her lip.
‘Let me take you back to the house and we’ll sort this out—we’ll talk and—’
‘We can’t sort this out, Nicholas.’ She looked up at him then and her eyes were shadowed with emotion. ‘I’m not one of your business deals that’s gone wrong.’
‘If it’s any consolation, I never thought of you as a business deal.’
‘You’re right—it’s no consolation. And I don’t want to go back to your house. I wouldn’t go back there if it was the last building left standing.’
Cat struggled to get onto her feet and that was when the world seemed to tip and tilt on its axis as dizziness set in. ‘Nicholas …’ She breathed his name in panic before the world just blacked out.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
NICHOLAS’U voice seemed to be coming from a long distance away yet when she opened her eyes he was holding her close. She could smell the scent of his cologne, feel the heat of his body against hers.
She tried to think straight but the world felt fuzzy.
‘Catherine, are you all right? Talk to me.’ He stroked a hand along the side of her cheek and the tender touch made her recoil instantly.
‘You passed out.’
‘I know I passed out; just get away from me.’
He totally ignored her and the next moment he was scooping her up into his arms and carrying her back towards his car.
‘Put me down, Nicholas!’ Although her anger and the need to get away from him were strong, she felt too weak to struggle and she was forced to give herself up to the indignity of leaning her head against his shoulder. ‘I don’t want to go back to your house.’
