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Beth stood up, her green eyes flashing. ‘You and I don’t have a future together. We never did. I’m going to bed.’
Dante had seen the angry sparkle in her eyes and knew he was getting through to her. ‘I’ll walk you to your room.’
Where had she heard that before?
Beth remembered and felt a slight flutter in her tummy—which wasn’t helped by Dante’s strong arm curving around her waist. The numbness that had protected her was fading fast, but she didn’t want to be aware of him again, and said, ‘You are hurting my back.’ She spun out of his arm and out through the door.
Dante was going to follow her, but hesitated. She had suffered a traumatic shock with the miscarriage. He could wait until tomorrow. Because he had sensed when he held her the ice had broken. He was winning her over. He simply had to persevere a little longer.
Beth undressed and got into bed, but she couldn’t sleep. She heard Dante walk upstairs and the door of his room open and close. She heaved a sigh of relief tinged with regret for what might have been if she had not lost her baby....
By the time Beth crawled into bed on Thursday night she could no longer pretend she was immune to Dante. On Wednesday she had tried to avoid him by working in her study. But as the study looked out over the back garden she had caught sight of Dante, stripped to the waist, helping the builders. She had not been able to tear her gaze away from him, and suddenly the unseasonably warm weather had felt even hotter. And this morning when he’d slipped his arm around her waist she had trembled. She had blamed it on the cut on her back.
‘Back still sore, Beth? I thought the stitches dissolved in seven days,’ Dante had drawled mockingly. He’d known perfectly well she was faking it, and exactly how he affected her....
This evening had been the final straw. He had insisted on taking her to the pub for a meal, saying she needed to get out. She had watched him, looking devastatingly attractive in blue jeans and a grey sweater, laughing and talking with easy charm with the other customers, thinking of how patient he was being with her when she had expected him to be long gone. She knew she was in big trouble. She loved him and it terrified her.
Beth had told herself so often that she hated him, but her heart told her something else. He said he didn’t want a divorce and would like another child. If she actually was the type of woman he thought she was it would be easy to stay married to him—handsome, rich and good at sex. She stirred restlessly in the bed. But she wasn’t that type of woman.
She loved him, and staying married to him would destroy her. He was convinced she was guilty of a heinous crime and that would never change. He wanted her and he felt affection for her—he’d proved that by staying and caring for her this week—but there could never be any equality in their relationship. She would always be the guilty party, inferior in his mind and not really to be trusted, and she could not live with that. Without trust there was nothing. She had fought long and hard to be a successful woman in her own right and she was not prepared to be an appendage to Dante’s life.
When Beth finally fell asleep her decision was made.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BETH OPENED HER EYES and glanced sleepily at her alarm clock. Nine o’clock. She blinked and studied the clock again. She must have slept through the seven o’clock alarm.
She stretched luxuriously beneath the covers and then pushed them back so she could get up. When the door opened and Dante walked in her first instinct was to dive back under the covers, but that would be childish, so she settled for sitting up and pulling her nightshirt down her legs.
‘Good morning, Beth. Did you sleep well?’
‘Yes, thank you. Did you?’
Their eyes met briefly. ‘Not as well as I would have done with you,’ he said.
He was wearing black jeans and a sweater and he was smiling down at her. Suddenly she was filled with the most intense sensual message, and though outwardly motionless she quivered inside.
‘I was about to get up,’ she said hastily.
‘So I see.’ He sat down on the side of the bed and wrapped his hand around her wrist. ‘But I need to talk to you first. The manager of my New York office called me when we got back last night in something of a panic. I have to be at an emergency meeting there tomorrow. It’s all going to be a bit of a rush. Our flight is booked for five this afternoon from Heathrow, so we will have to leave soon.’
‘We?’ Beth interjected. ‘Why? This has nothing to do with me.’
Suddenly he lifted her wrist and wrapped his arm around her to draw her close. His mouth covered hers, his tongue stroking and delving into the sensitive interior. All her logic of last night was forgotten as she was swept up to the dizzy heights of passion by his kiss.
‘That is why,’ Dante rasped, looking into her eyes. ‘I want you with me.’
Beth was almost convinced by the taste of him on her lips and the tight knot of desire in her stomach—until he added, ‘I spoke to the builder when he arrived this morning and you don’t have to be here. If he needs to get in the house he can get the keys from Janet or her father. And Janet has agreed to take the cat for the three or four weeks we will be away. All you need to do is pack a few things.’
Beth was stunned. From dizzy heights back to earth in one moment. Dante really had thought of everything—except asking her first. She’d been right. She was just an appendage to his life.
Withdrawing her hand from his shoulder, she eased away from him. ‘Just one query.’ She raised a delicate eyebrow. ‘Do you want me with you for sex, or because you are madly in love with me?’ she asked, putting him on the spot. She noted the hint of colour that accentuated his high cheekbones and saw the answer in his eyes.
‘I want you with me because you’re my wife.’
Clever sidestep, worthy of a good lawyer, Beth thought, and was amazed at how quickly passion could fade. Sliding her legs over to the opposite side of the bed, she stood up and turned to look at him. He was the most handsome man she had ever seen, and she loved him so much. But a one-sided love was a recipe for disaster, and she had had enough of those in her life already.
‘I want to stay here and get a divorce. So I guess we will have to agree to differ,’ she said with a nonchalance she didn’t feel.
