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Bernstein had obviously convinced her that he loved her and that they had a permanent future together. Marcus knew Polly, and he knew there was no way she could even contemplate leaving Fraser House, never mind giving Bernstein a child, unless he had. Marcus had learned from Suzi that there was a very different side to Phil Bernstein than the one Polly had seen, and that he was a man who could be as ruthless in his emotional life as he was in his business one. But there was obviously no point in telling Polly that, not when she was so obviously totally besotted with the man.
And Marcus knew better than most just what it was like to love someone beyond all logic or reason.
‘Why are you doing this to me, Marcus?’ Polly asked him chokily. ‘What possible reason can you have?’
‘You seem to forget that I have a considerable financial stake in this business, and whatever I might think about your other…capabilities…I have to admit that here at Fraser House you would be extremely hard to replace. You own half of the business yourself, and…’
‘I intend to sell my share,’ Polly told him swiftly. ‘If you want…Marcus…Marcus…let go of me,’ Polly protested as he suddenly grabbed hold of her.
He was almost shaking her as he demanded in disbelief, ‘You’re doing what?’
‘I’m going to sell my share,’ Polly repeated shakily as she felt the tension in his body communicate itself with her own via the hold he had on her upper arms.
‘I know I have to offer you first refusal and—’
‘Oh, you do, do you?’ Marcus interrupted her softly. ‘Is that why you went to bed with me, Polly…to offer me first refusal?’
‘Oh…!’ Polly’s shocked indrawn gasp of outrage was flattened in her throat as it threatened to close up with the anguish of what she was feeling. ‘I didn’t…you weren’t…’ she tried to explain in shaken self-defence, but Marcus shook his head to silence her.
He knew exactly what she was going to say, of course. She hadn’t intended anything to happen. She hadn’t wanted him. She had wanted Bernstein. He had just happened to be there, to have caught her at a weak moment when her defences were down. But he was the one who had held her, touched her, loved her. He was the one she had cried out to, responded to—and suddenly Marcus was tired of playing the ‘good guy’.
She had responded to him once. He could show her how good it could be between them…how right they were for one another. He could show her how much happier she could be with him than with Bernstein. He could show her how much he loved her, how much he longed to love her—to love her and protect her and, yes, to give her the child she claimed she wanted.
God, but didn’t she know how much hearing that had hurt him? He’d had to watch while she gave birth to Richard’s child, wanting so much for it to be his and yet loving Briony for herself in spite of his own feelings. But to see her body growing a second time with another man’s child…
No. There was no way he could endure that.
As the hot mist of his jealousy started to settle Marcus told himself that he must have been mad even to consider using Polly’s vulnerability to…But then, as he started to release her, his glance fell towards her body, where the thin cotton robe she was wearing was pulling tightly against it. He could see quite clearly the sharp, hard outline of her breast with the taut crest of her nipple pressing against the fabric as though…as though…
‘Polly…’
With a muffled groan Marcus reached out to touch her, cupping his hand around her breast, his thumb against her erect nipple, caressing it.
‘No.’ Polly could hear the sound of her own denial, only the word sounded much more like a long, low plea of craving rather than a rejection. No wonder Marcus wasn’t paying any attention to it. No wonder what he was doing was stroking her nipple more urgently.
‘No,’ Polly protested a second time, but she knew that, if anything, her denial sounded even less of a rejection than it had done the first time.
‘What is it about Bernstein that makes you want to walk away from here, Polly? You once told me that after Briony, Fraser House was the most important thing in your life because it was a part of Richard.’
Had she said that? She might have done, Polly acknowledged, but she couldn’t remember having done so. No doubt it had been a defensive remark she had thrown at Marcus when under attack, but trust him to have remembered it and to use it against her now.
‘If it’s physical satisfaction you’re hungry for,’ Marcus groaned hoarsely in her ear, ‘then I can satisfy that need for you.’
