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He glared at the reflection of himself in the window, frustration and fury rippling out across the water in the pool. It was a good thing, he told himself. Because now? Nownothingwould stop him from getting her back by his side.
CHAPTER SIX
EMILYPRAYEDHEwouldn’t come after her. That he’d just let her be—let her recover from the pool. Water dripped down her back from the ropes it had made of her hair. She was trembling with cold now, making a mockery of the intense desire that had shivered across her body before.
‘Kiss me.’
She had begged. Shame coursed through her. The man who had left her alone, who had shown a selfishness that had cut so very deep, and she hadbegged.She would have pleaded for more if his words hadn’t crashed through the fragile shell-world they’d created from his lies. She would have taken everything he had offered and given more of herself than she would ever have wanted. Her fingers rose to her lips, swollen from kisses that would have only had one logical conclusion: sex. He had kissed her with utter and complete possession, he always had. She shook her head at her own weakness. The fact that she couldn’t trust herself around him was humiliating.
‘Emily!’
His angry shout echoed around the stone-walled house and she wanted to run. Not because she was afraid of him, but because she didn’t know what would happen now that the lies were broken in pieces on the floor. For six years, they had avoided this. Avoided why she had left...why their marriage was broken.
Oh, God.
She wasn’t ready for this, not dressed in a bikini she was holding together, soaking wet, and still trembling with desire for him. She ran up the stairs just as she heard him come in from the pool, and slammed the spare bedroom door behind her. Grabbing the cover from the bed, she wrapped it around herself, trying to stop her legs from shaking.
‘Emily,’ he growled through the door.
‘Don’t you dare get angry with me,’ she yelled back.
‘What?’
‘You’re the one who faked having amnesia!’
‘And you’re the one who filled our home with tat,’ he accused from the other side of the door. ‘There isnoexcuse for that ceramic parrot.’
She could almost see the angry slash of his hand as if the door had been invisible.
‘Having a husband who lies about a medical conditionisthe excuse!’
‘Open the door, Emily.’
‘No.’
‘I willnothave this conversation with you through a door!’ She could tell he was angry, his accent had thickened and, although she would never be afraid of him, she wasn’t quite sure what he would do.
‘I... I don’t want to see you right now.’
‘No? Like you didn’t want to see me six years ago when you left me waiting on a red carpet?’ he demanded.
‘Yes. Pretty much,’ she replied glibly.
‘Stand back,’ he growled.
‘What? No, I—’
The moment she heard the wood splinter, she leapt back away from the door. She hadn’t been that close to it, but the shock of it startled her. Wood snapped as another bang cracked it from the hinges.
‘Javi! What are you doing?’ she cried. The door fell into the room, half swinging on the last remaining hinge as Javier, barefooted, white shirt and trousers still plastered to his skin, shoulders heaving, looked ready to explode.
‘I am making sure,wife, that I can see you when you tell me why you left me. So that when you finally explain why you walked away from me without warning or explanation you can’t hide this time.’
‘Me?’ Emily demanded, fury rising like a phoenix in her soul. ‘You’re accusingmeof hiding?’ she asked, closing the distance between them, mindless of the destruction at the side of the room. ‘Javier Casas, you left me long before I even thought about leaving you.’
Shock blew his pupils wide and, rather than another angry outburst, Javier went completely and unnaturally still. It created a vacuum that pulled at her, that sucked air and breath and emotions towards the vortex that washim.She nearly stumbled towards him but he took a step back, stopping her in her tracks.
‘How can you say that?’ he accused, hurt mixing with anger and a palpable sense of injustice.
