Bond of Hatred(33)

In the fathoms-deep silence, she watched long fingers slowly travel up to his bow-tie and jerk it free, and he did not remove his intense appraisal from her express­ively incredulous face for a split-second.

'No,' Sarah said breathlessly.

He cast aside the tie, shrugged wide shoulders fluidly out of his dinner-jacket and continued to watch her. A slashing smile of primal purpose curved his hard-edged mouth, the innate savagery that lay at the very heart of Alex's volatile temperament freely visible, confidently displayed. He was, she noted dazedly, very much in his element in a woman's bedroom. He unbuttoned his shirt, exposing a broad, muscular chest, golden-brown in colour and liberally sprinkled with curling black hair.

Sarah's fingers clenched tightly into the bedspread below her hand. She would stare him down if it killed her, because he just could not be serious. She rested her head to one side, striving for an appearance of cool amusement, but she could feel a blush slowly colouring up her pale skin, starting at her dry throat and moving up in an unstoppable tide.

'If you have a desire to expose yourself in a centre­fold, you don't need to audition for my benefit,' Sarah commented, struggling for a tone of irony.

'You'd buy the magazine and hide it under the bed,' Alex asserted with grim amusement. 'I warned you many weeks ago that I could handle you with one hand tied behind my back...but that you wouldn't like my methods. Why didn't you listen?' Alex breathed in a velvety purr, strolling gracefully across the room to drop his shirt and his jacket across a chair.'Your sexual machismo leaves me cold, Alex.' Sarah despised the tremor running through her voice.

'The first time we met, I noticed what beautiful eyes you had. The second time, I remember thinking, What a truly sensational pair of legs. And the third time, you let me see that glorious hair.' His accent thickened tell­ingly as she stared back at him, patently stunned by this wholly unexpected confession. 'You revealed yourself to me piece by exciting piece and the chemistry between us was explosive-----'

'What ch-chemistry?' she stammered jerkily.

'You didn't even recognise it for what it was. You had programmed yourself to tune out all sexual messages and ignore them. But what you did feel unnerved you,' Alex murmured lazily. 'And I thought, I want this woman but she is the one woman I cannot have.'

'Alex... this is a male fantasy running riot.' Her hurt and mortification that he should pretend to find her at­tractive were intense. 'You are trying to justify your quite unjustifiable presence in my bedroom. And shall I tell you why?'

'If you like.'

Very pale, Sarah breathed, 'I hurt your ego------'

'A bomb wouldn't deflate my ego,' Alex inserted smoothly.

'I hurt your ego,' Sarah repeated tightly, 'and you want to level the score.'

'I left scoring behind in my teens, along with not phoning when I said I would and lusting hotly after everything in a skirt between sixteen and thirty.'

'I imagine you were fairly successful,' she muttered helplessly.

'Very.. .but I did grow out of it and you are my wife...'

Unwarily, Sarah glanced up, registered that he wasn't wearing a stitch and hurriedly looked away, knowing that that image of Alex naked was imprinted indelibly on her memory for life. But then it had not previously occurred to her that the male physique could be that mag­nificent ... or that disturbing.

'I'm prepared to offer you an annulment,' she prof­fered in a rush, like a woman trying to bargain with an executioner at the last ditch.

"This is very sudden, isn't it?' Alex mocked. 'No.'

'I'm offering you your freedom back-----'

'Are you offering me Nicky as well?'

An icy hand clutched at her heartstrings. Wo!'

'Stalemate,' Alex said succinctly.

But, had she agreed to go and leave Nicky behind, he would have agreed to an annulment. Dear God, that was what he really wanted. This was what he had planned from the beginning and, blind idiot that she was, she had walked right into it! It had not occurred to her that Alex's offensive might be demanding his marital rights. But Alex had somehow guessed what would disturb and distress her most and Alex was prepared to play that card and utterly humiliate her in the hope that sooner or later she would take flight, leaving Nicky in his sole custody.

'I didn't know Damon was married!' she told him afresh.

'Your performance to that effect was certainly con­vincing,' Alex conceded flatly. 'But it doesn't change the fact that we're married.'

'We don't have to stay married,' she protested tautly.

Alex strode into the bathroom without responding. He wasn't listening to her.

Sarah flopped back against the pillows like a rag doll and crammed a hand against her convulsing mouth and bit back a sob of very real fear. The mere prospect of Alex enforcing sexual intimacy as a weapon appalled her. The thought of him looking at her naked, seeing all her deficiencies, touching her with cold, humiliating hands while doubtless having to fantasise about some otherwoman just to keep him aroused... it terrified and tor­tured her.