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The eyes that rose to meet hers held a bottomless depth of bleakness.
‘But you knew all of that. Didn’t you?’ he said with chilling finality.
And that icy condemnation in his voice?
It was pure Zephyr Diamandis.
The man she’d married almost two years ago.
‘You remember!’
His face was a mask of cold, Stygian fury. ‘Oh, yes,dear wife. I remember. Everything.’
Imogen willed herself to stop shivering. And failed.
She searched his face frantically for signs of softness. And failed to find any.
They’d relocated to the thankfully empty living room. By some unspoken signal the household and waitstaff had disappeared, leaving her alone with Zeph.
Who prowled back and forth in front of the giant fireplace like a caged animal.
‘If you’re struggling for somewhere to start, maybe I can help?’ she offered, a desperate part of her wanting this to be over and done quickly so she could retreat to lick what wounds were inflicted. Because she knew they were coming.
Would she return to the States?
No. There was nothing left for her there. Hell, there was nothing left for her anywhere in the world. She’d dared to step out of her cold, lonely existence, to reach for light and warmth. Now she was about to be mercilessly flung back.
His hand slashing through the air stilled her frantic thoughts. ‘I think you’ve done quite enough, don’t you?’
‘Have I? I’m sure you’ll explain when you’re ready.’ She gave herself a little congratulatory pat for sounding remotely calm.
He stared her down from across the room, eyes like fired gems filled with accusation. ‘You were quite clever, weren’t you? You stormed into that church making me think you were reclaiming your husband. But you were saving yourself the inconvenience of having to wait around while I extricated myself from possibly bigamy?’
‘Ah, I see we’re back to that being my fault.’
‘And you were very quick to inform me that my parents were dead. To intimate that I had no one else. No one besides you. You preyed on the off chance that I would want to keep you close. As my wife you were the natural, sensible choice to have at my side. Was that why you put up a token protest before agreeing to staying on the yacht? Because you didn’t want me around anyone or anything that might trigger my memory returning?’
‘What are you talking about? Where in all the things you’ve listed is my sin?’
‘Your sin, dear wife, was not telling me that my so-called saviour was also my worst enemy. The daughter of the man directly responsible for me growing up with nothing!’
That shattered her cobbled-together calm. It pulverised her heart to unrecognisable pulp. But she had her voice. The fury in her soul. And she used them both.
‘You know what? I expected all this.’ She dashed away the shocked tears that filled her eyes, but more filled their place immediately. ‘You were always going to find a way to blame me for everything. For not telling you about our rocky history. For what my family did to yours. Does it even matter to you that I was trying to protect you? That I didn’t want to cause you pain for as long as I could prevent it?’
His head went back as if the very idea offended him. ‘No. You knew about the door from my damned nightmares because I told you the first day you found me. And you said nothing because you were protecting yourself.’
‘From what, exactly? From you thinking I was a gold-digger? As bad as or worse than my father and grandfather before me? I already knew that. You made it abundantly clear when you dragged me from America to a dingy little office in a town hall to marry me, then all but ignored me for the first year of our marriage.’ Her voice threatened to crack. She held it together by sheer willpower, surging to her feet to meet him toe for toe.
‘But the guy who I met in that church on Efemia? He had crumbs of decency about him. He smiled. He was courteous and considerate of other people. Hecared. If you want me to think he was a figment of my imagination, fine. I’ll wipe him from my memory. I’ll pretend that the man who made love to me and brought me to tears of rapture doesn’t exist, shall I? Go back to Athens, to your business acquaintances and everyone out there who hangs onto your every word and thinks you’re Zeus reincarnated. I don’t give a damn.’
A sound roared from him. Indecipherable and animal-like. A sound torn from his soul.
If he even had one?
Imogen was done trying to read this man. She’d relied on her emotions and got it wrong.
Hell, she’d done far worse.
