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Her heart thumping, her head reeling, Alessia palmed the back of her neck wondering what on earth had just happened and what he’d just meant.
There was only one way to find out.
She entered their room as the bathroom door locked.
Gabriel brushed his teeth furiously.
The darkness he’d been fighting had tightened its grip on him, the cobra winding its way to the base of his throat.
This was unbelievable. All this time.
There had been nothing—nothing—to indicate Alessia was a virgin.
But you weren’t thinking clearly that night,a voice whispered.Not with your head...
Teeth done, he took stock of his reflection, breathed deeply and gave himself another pep talk.
The past was the past. Alessia was his wife and his future...
Acrid bile flooded his mouth. He swallowed it away but the bitterness remained.
Closing his eyes, he took one more deep breath and stepped back into the bedroom.
He took one look at his wife perched on the side of the bed facing the bathroom door and all the efforts he’d made to get a grip on his emotions were overturned.
Her stare was steady. ‘I need you to tell me what you meant.’
He clenched his jaw. ‘Now is not the time.’
‘Nowisthe time. I must have done something to warrant that remark, and as a wise half-Spanish, half-French man once said, if you don’t tell me what’s wrong, how can I fix it?’
The look he gave her could freeze boiling water.
‘I know things are tough for you right now,’ Alessia said, somehow managing to keep the steadiness in her voice through the thrashing of her heart. ‘I know your mother’s actions feel like a betrayal, but if I’ve done something to add to it then you need to tell me so I can put things right. Is it because I didn’t tell you I was a virgin? Or is there something else at play?’
His chest rose and fell sharply. A contortion of emotions splayed over his face.
Gabriel gritted his teeth so hard it felt like his molars could snap into pieces. The scalding fury...he could feel it infecting every part of him.
‘Did I hurt you that night?’ he asked roughly.
Eyes widening, she shook her head violently. ‘No.It was wonderful. You know it was.’
‘Sorry,’ he bit out, ‘but this little revelation has made me rethink the whole night. I suppose it explains why you weren’t on the pill. Or is that another false assumption?’ Somehow Gabriel was hanging onto his temper but the thread of it he clung to was fraying and the control he’d always taken with his speech was slipping out of his reach.
She closed her eyes briefly. ‘No, I wasn’t on the pill. But you already know that.’
‘But you didn’t think to tell me that then? In the moment? Before we got carried away?’
‘I thought you’d taken care of it.’
‘How? By wearing an invisible condom?’
There was a flash of indignancy. ‘I didn’t know and I didn’t think to ask. I was stupid and naïve, I know that, but I wasn’t thinking that night and neither were you, and you have no right to be angry with me about it because it’s on you just as much as it’s on me.’
The thread snapped.
‘If you’d told me you were a virgin then none of this would have happened!’ he snarled. ‘Don’t you understand that? Do you not know what you’ve done? I would never have touched you if I’d known! You’ve trapped me into a damned marriage I never wanted!’
