Bond of Hatred(45)
'If you want children we could use IVF.' Alex looked back at her blankly. Hesitantly, the words tumbling out of her, she rushed to explain the marvels of technology and the complete lack of necessity for any actual physical contact.
Alex stood there, frozen to the spot, apparently thrown violently by the suggestion that he could father his future family without ever laying a hand on his wife.
Abruptly, a lean brown hand lifted to silence her. Narrowed dark eyes welded to hers, Alex breathed, 'Are you trying to tell me that I must approach a laboratory to get you pregnant?'
Sarah reddened but pressed on, her sole ambition to show him that they need not participate in sexual intimacy simply to produce a child. She marvelled that Alex appeared so ignorant of such processes. 'That way we could abide by the original terms of our marriage,' she pointed out breathlessly.
All of a sudden she registered that it was not ignorance that had silenced Alex but a kind of unholy and incredulous fascination backed by rather daunting signs of gathering rage. A dark tide of blood had flushed his golden features, a tiny muscle tugging relentlessly at the corner of his eloquent mouth. 'You have to be out of your mind to suggest such a thing to me!' he told her rawly.
'Alex... if we could for once move away from this macho conditioning of yours and talk about this sen-sibly, you might see that it is actually a very sane solution to the problem.'
Alex strode forward and pulled her up out of her seat with two powerful hands. 'My children are not going to be conceived in a test tube and that has nothing to do with my "macho conditioning",' he spelt out ferociously. 'When you first opened the subject, I thought you were joking, I could not credit that you could be serious.'#p#分页标题#e#
Sarah made no pointless attempt to escape. One lesson she had learnt. Alex was considerably stronger than she was. She stood there, icily composed on the surface, a teeming mass of growing agitation underneath. 'I do not want to sleep with you,' she stated. "That is a sacrifice I am not prepared to make-----'
'You bitch...' After a startled moment, Alex let loose in Greek, his fluent English letting him down as he stared down at her in savage fury, as white beneath his dark tan as though she had struck him.
'I don't know why you should take that personally, Alex,' she said tremulously. 'It's not as though we have feelings for each other like other married people-----'
'I have some very powerful feelings for you!' One dark hand clenched round her forearm, Alex trailed her over to the door. The pilot of his helicopter was hovering in readiness. He broke into speech about the lateness of the hour.
'I will catch a later flight,' Alex bit out.
'Let go of me,' Sarah spat on the way up the stairs. 'What the heck do you think you're doing?'
Out of sight of the hall, she attempted to jerk free of his bruising grasp. 'Stop it!' she burst out hotly.
His hand tightened and a fuse blew inside Sarah. Her other hand flew up as she stopped, intending to fetch him a wallop that would flatten him. Alex parried that furious hand and reacted by clamping his hands to her waist instead and hoisting her into a fireman's lift.'You swineV she screeched. 'Put me down this minute!'
He put her down on his bed and came down so fast on top of her that she had no time to react. 'You're my wife and I want to make love to you,' he spelt out fiercely.
'Be assured that if anything happens it will be rape!' Sarah spat up at him.
Pinning her flat, Alex undid the sash on the dressing-gown, peeled it wide.
'I'll never forgive you if you do this,' she swore strickenly. She collided with glinting golden eyes and something twisted in pleasurable pain in the pit of her stomach. Shakily she gasped in oxygen under the shattering onslaught of that all-pervasive stare. Naked panic filled her to overflowing.
'No, it's yourself you won't forgive,' Alex murmured softly, intently, scanning the myriad expressions skimming her triangular face. 'All that stands between us is your pride and your need to be in control. And in my bed you are out of control.'
Appalled by his insight, Sarah shot a look of loathing up at him. 'I hate you, Alex.'
He tugged the dressing-gown down her arms. 'I don't think so,' he said in a velvety purr. 'I think you want me so much it terrifies you.'
'Naturally you would like to think that-----'
'Know it, not think it,' Alex countered, shrugging out of his jacket and pitching it carelessly aside, yanking at his tie with a not quite steady hand. 'You excite the hell out of me. You really can't expect me not to know that it's mutual-----'
'It is not mutual!' Her teeth ground together.
'Our wedding night was unforgettably erotic,' Alex savoured, peeling off his shirt. 'I've thought of little else for two endless weeks. In fact I only have to think about what being inside you felt like and I-----'