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Zander’s hard mouth tightened. ‘I want you to tell me exactly what I said when I was in the shower.’
‘I—I don’t know—’
‘Well, think!’ His tone was thickened and pulsing with urgency. ‘I want you to remember what I said. It’s important.’
She looked at him with a total lack of comprehension. How could it possibly be important? What did it matter what he’d said? He’d slept with the woman. ‘I—I think you were saying something about a guest list.’ She frowned and then nodded. ‘Yes, you told her to leave the guest list on the table.’
His jaw tensed. ‘And then what happened?’
‘The shower stopped and I looked at her—’ Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat. ‘She—she—’
‘She what?’ His voice was rough and Lauranne took a step backwards.
‘She smiled. She obviously wanted me to catch the two of you together.’
‘But we weren’t together, were we, Lauranne?’ he said savagely, taking a step towards her, his eyes fixed on her pale face. ‘I was in the shower and she was in my office.’
‘She was naked!’
‘Was she?’
She stared at him, heart pounding. ‘You know she was—’
‘No, I don’t,’ he said, speaking deliberately so that there could be no misunderstanding. ‘I remember her coming to my office that evening and I remember being intensely irritated and concerned that she was becoming so overt in her attempts to seduce me. I made quite sure that I didn’t leave the shower until my office was empty. I certainly didn’t know that you were there.’
Lauranne froze, her brain suddenly confused as she ran through the events of that night a further time, this time applying a different interpretation. Was he seriously suggesting that nothing had happened?
‘Attempts to seduce you?’
Was he really trying to tell her that they’d never had an affair?
‘Let me fill in the rest of the evening,’ he said, his mouth set in a grim line. ‘By the time I left the shower my office was empty—presumably both you and Marina had flown by then. Almost immediately I received a call from Marina saying that she’d seen you with Tom and that you were very upset. Naturally I came to find you.’
Naturally?
‘Y-you cared that I was upset?’ She stared at him blankly and he gave a humourless laugh.
‘We were married. Of course I cared. Foolishly, as it turned out. I found you kissing Farrer.’
Lauranne shook her head. ‘I don’t know what came over him that night. He’d been drinking—he wasn’t himself. He’d been behaving oddly all day. And then he jumped on me. When you walked through the door I was hurt and angry and I wanted to show you that I didn’t care.’
There was a long silence and Zander stared at her, his eyes glittering. ‘Finally I’m beginning to understand what happened. You kissed Farrer to make me jealous because you thought I’d just betrayed you with Marina. Do you know the risk you took?’ he asked hoarsely. ‘I could have killed him for being with you—’
She flinched slightly, remembering that moment all too well. ‘You gave him a black eye and a nosebleed and I wasn’t with him.’
‘But you made damn sure that I thought that you were.’ He stared at her for a long moment and then turned and paced the length of the villa, tension visible in every line of his powerful frame. ‘If we weren’t both so stubborn and hot-headed things might not have exploded so badly.’
‘We were manipulated, Zander,’ she said simply. ‘Both of us. And then you fired me. On the spot. “Get out,” you said, “I never want to see you again.”’
He sucked in a breath, a muscle working in his lean jaw. ‘I’m willing to admit that on that occasion my judgement may have been flawed—’
‘It wasn’t flawed, Zander,’ she muttered. ‘It was totally distorted.’
His eyes flashed defensively. ‘I had just found you in bed with another man—I was jealous.’
‘And so was I.’
Breathing heavily, he gave a twisted smile. ‘But neither of us had reason, it would seem. It would help our relationship a great deal if we talked instead of fighting. Why didn’t you ask me about Marina? Why didn’t you shout at me then? Why didn’t you black my eye? If I’d known what you were thinking then I could have put you right immediately—’
