A long, simmering silence stretched.
'Do you have any interest in my movements?' Alex enquired very, very quietly.
None. She wouldn't allow herself to have an interest. She wanted to think of Alex as Nicky's uncle, not as her husband. In fact, she flatly refused to think of him as her husband. Her clear emerald eyes gleamed. 'Do you want me to take an interest?'
His strong jawline hardened. Golden eyes flashed. Thrusting back his chair, he tossed aside his napkin. 'I'll see you tomorrow.'
Sarah cleared her throat and asked a question that had been nibbling anxiously at the back of her mind for several days. 'Alex... ?'
He studied her with unhidden impatience.
'When is Damon planning to come and see Nicky?' she completed tautly.
Alex stilled, clearly taken by surprise. 'He has had an open invitation since the day of our wedding.'
Sarah took a deep breath. 'Is it me? Is that why he hasn't come?'
'I really have no idea. Naturally it will not be an easy meeting for either of you,' Alex acknowledged. 'Although a little more honesty on your part might simplify matters.'
'On my part?'
'I'm prepared to concede that you were not aware that Damon was a married man. But I will not accept that he ever asked your sister to marry him-----'
'He did,' Sarah said tightly.'Or,' Alex continued, 'that he left your sister without means of support.'
'He did,' she said again.
'I won't believe that,' Alex asserted grimly. 'Money would have been the easiest thing of all for him to give to salve his conscience. He knew that the cheque I gave was never cashed. When you decide to face the truth of that affair, maybe then I will think the time is right to encourage Damon more actively to visit us here.'
'I am not lying.' Furiously conscious that he did not believe her, Sarah stared back at him, taut with frustration. Without proof, she knew she had no hope of convincing Alex of her innocence. First and foremost he would choose to believe his brother, but it angered Sarah that Alex should continue to harbour this view of her as an outright liar. Angered and hurt, she registered. Did that mean Alex's opinion mattered to her? She was shaken by the awareness that it did.
Alex sent her a glittering golden glance. 'For Nicky's sake, I am prepared to make certain sacrifices.'
'Sacrifices?' she questioned without understanding.
His dark, strong face hardened. 'I have seen for myself that, whatever other flaws you may have, you love that child and will undoubtedly be a more loving mother to him than any other woman I might have married.'
The compliment with the scorpion's sting in its tail. Her teeth gritted together, angry pink washing her cheeks. How dared he talk about his sacrifices and her flaws?
'And for that reason I have decided to do everything within my power to make this marriage work,' Alex concluded arrogantly.
'You actually ate dinner at home last night,' Sarah agreed sarcastically.
His savage cheekbones clenched, an arc of colour highlighting his shimmering eyes. 'I expect you to makethe same effort,' he delivered, ignoring the ungenerous stab.
'Not on your terms,' Sarah returned, her injured pride simmering towards boiling-point.
'On my terms or not at all.'
Sarah stared blindly back at him, knowing she could not survive those terms. He was finally telling her why she was now expected to share his bed on a permanent basis. Dear God, how could any mere woman live with such an honour? Alex Terzakis had made an unbelievably magnificent gesture, a sacrifice of immense magnitude: he was willing to accept Sarah as his wife. I really have arrived, she told herself sarcastically, but there was this terrible pain in among the anger and the wounded pride and she couldn't understand the pain.
'I can't accept your terms,' she whispered finally.
His terms would break her. Instinct told her that. To share his bed and rejoice in his passion without love or respect or even fidelity would demean her. Nor would having his children ease that humiliation. Her bitterness and resentment would inevitably triumph and there would be no happiness for either of them in such an arrangement.
'If you don't, I'll divorce you...'
Shattered, Sarah looked back at him. Alex stared back, not a muscle moving on his darkly handsome face, his impassive dark eyes reading her sudden pallor.
'And I will ensure that Nicky stays with me.'
Appalled, Sarah rose shakily upright. 'You can't do that!'
'As you once said to me, money talks,' Alex drawled with dark satire. 'And, in the light of the pre-nuptial contract you signed, I'm sure you recall that if the marriage breaks down for whatever reason you'll be lucky to get your train fare home!'
Her legs wouldn't hold her up any longer. Slowly she sank down again, simply gaping at him in horror. Shehad never dreamt that Alex could be this cruel, was quite unprepared for such ruthless tactics being employed against her. He attacked on her weakest flank without remorse. He knew how much she loved Nicky. He was using a sledge-hammer on a nut. Surely her presence in his bed could not be this important to him? She remembered that he had said that he wanted children. Was that why? In a frantic surge of feverish mental activity, she saw a way out.