Bought: The Greek's Baby(47)
“Eve, I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I did what I thought was right. Forgive me—”#p#分页标题#e#
“I will never, ever forgive you.” She looked at him, cold and proud. “I never want to see you again.”
“You’re my wife.”
“I’ll be filing for divorce as soon as I return to London.”
“You’re pregnant with my child!”
“I will raise this baby alone.”
He gasped, “You can’t cut me out of my child’s life!”
“My baby will be better off with no father than with a faithless, treacherous bastard like you!” Tears rushed into her eyes, tears she no longer even tried to hide. “Do you think I could ever let myself trust you? Do you think I could ever forgive myself if I did?”
“Your father was the one who betrayed and hurt your family.”
“You have no proof of that,” she said coldly. “You are the only liar I see. You said you loved me!”
“I do love you!” His voice was ragged, anguished.
“You don’t know what love means.”
She heard his harsh intake of breath.
“I do now,” he said hoarsely. He reached toward her, inches from her cheek, and in spite of everything, her breath quickened as she recalled all the times he’d tenderly stroked her face. “When you lost your memory, you regained your lost innocence and faith. And somehow you made me find mine,” he whispered. “Just give me the chance to love you. Test me as you will. Let me prove my love for you.”
She thought she saw a shimmer of tears in his eyes.
Talos Xenakis, the scourge of the world—crying?
No. Impossible. It was another of his cruel, selfish games. She thought of how he’d ruthlessly wooed her in Venice, tricking her into marriage with romance and soft words only to punish her the moment they were married. Crossing her arms, she drew herself up stiffly.
“Very well,” she said coldly, lifting her chin. “I will let you prove you love me. Give up this child and never contact us again.”
He gasped. “Don’t make me do it, Eve,” he choked out. “Anything but that.”
“If you don’t do it, you prove you don’t love me,” she said with satisfaction. She started to turn away.
Without warning, he grabbed her. Pulling her into his embrace, he kissed her. His lips seared her with longing and wistful tenderness. It was a kiss that held the promise of love to last forever.
She trembled. Then even as her knees went weak, a cold sheet of ice came down over her heart.
Savagely, she pushed away from him. “Never touch me again.”
Still naked, he clenched his hands, staring at her. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, guttural.
“I will do what you ask,” he said thickly. “I will stay away from you and our baby. But only until I find the proof that your father lied.” His dark eyes glittered at her. “When I have proof that you cannot deny, I will return. And you will be forced to see the truth.”
She tossed her head, folding her arms.
“Then I am well satisfied, because you will never find that proof.” Her lip curled as she gave him one last look. “But thank you. You’ve just given me your word of honor you’ll stay away from me and the baby—forever.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
FIVE months later, Eve stood alone by her mother’s grave.
It was only the first week of March, but already the first blush of early spring had come to Buckinghamshire. The weeping willows were green and gold beside the lake, splashing the season’s first color over the graveyard of the old gray church.#p#分页标题#e#
In her white goose down coat and green wellies, Eve felt hot and out of breath after crossing the hill from her estate. Not that it was terribly far, but at nine months pregnant, every move was an effort. Even bringing daisies, her mother’s favorite flower, to her grave.
Eve glanced at the daffodils poking through the cold earth nearby. Just a few weeks ago, the ground had been covered with snow. How had time fled so fast? Her baby was due any day now.
Her poor, fatherless baby.
It had been such a long lonely winter. During the five months since she’d left Greece, she’d tried to forget Talos. Tried to pretend that her baby’s father was a figment of her imagination, the remnant of a bad dream from long ago. But her dreams had insisted otherwise, and in her secluded, drafty mansion, she’d had one hot dream after another to make her sweat and cry out for Talos in her sleep.
She had tried to lose herself in the life she’d left behind, the whirl of social life, of lunch with friends in London and shopping trips to New York. But it had all just depressed her. Those people weren’t really her friends—had never been her friends. She saw now that she had deliberately chosen shallow acquaintances, the kind she could keep at a distance. She’d never wanted anyone to really know her. It had been the only way she’d been able to stay focused on her goal of revenge.