Christakis's Rebellious Wife(53)

                                      CHAPTER NINE

                NIK STUDIED BETSY as if she had gone insane without him having noticed, with wonder and disbelief and, yes, unfortunately, just a little amusement. ‘Let me get this straight...you want to negotiate the terms of our marriage before you’ll consider making a reconciliation permanent?’

                In the background the hum of the jet engines provided a surprisingly soothing backdrop to Betsy’s ears. Nik was a trapped audience when he was airborne. He couldn’t walk away, make an excuse about pressing business or lose his temper because he would dislike the risk of the cabin crew overhearing him arguing with his wife.

                ‘Yes. I think it’s the practical approach. We failed the first time around, so we should try to foresee the potential problems there might be and endeavour to avoid them this time,’ Betsy responded doggedly, lifting her chin as Nik sprang restively out of his seat and frowned down at her.

                ‘But we didn’t have any problems the first time—you decided you wanted a baby, I knew I couldn’t give you one and it all went downhill from there,’ Nik recited drily.

                ‘It only went downhill because you decided that you couldn’t tell me the truth about your vasectomy,’ Betsy contradicted.

                His green eyes glittered with challenge and his strong jawline clenched hard with tension. ‘How many men want to tell a woman that they can’t give her the one thing she most wants in the world?’ he demanded in a harsh undertone. ‘How do you think I felt when I stumbled on the baby clothes you had hidden in a bag at the back of the closet?’

                Betsy was taken aback by that bold and unusually emotional question. It made her appreciate for the first time that Nik’s macho spirit had been crucified by her desire for what he had known he could not give her; she had made him feel inadequate. When he mentioned the secret cache of baby items she had bought as a gesture of continuing hope and then shamefacedly hidden, she didn’t know where to put herself. She was deeply embarrassed by that revelation, did not even want to think about how that discovery must have made him feel, and her face burned with discomfiture.

                ‘I didn’t know you’d found those clothes... Why didn’t you tell me?’ she pressed weakly.

                ‘I knew I was in way over my head, so it was easier and safer to avoid the subject,’ Nik admitted grimly. ‘There was no way out for me that I could see. As far as I knew then the vasectomy was irreversible and no matter what I did you were going to break your heart for what I could never hope to give you...’

                ‘I’m so sorry,’ Betsy whispered feelingly, finally recognising what that troubled phase of their lives had cost him as well. Her desire for a child had become an obsession that had ruled her existence and his and he had been trapped by a truth that he could not bear to share with her.

                But now everything had changed, she reminded herself impatiently. Against all the odds, she had conceived that much-wanted baby and what she was fighting for now was the need for them to create a viable blueprint for their marriage to thrive in the future.

                ‘These terms you mentioned...’ Nik prompted softly but she wasn’t fooled by his tone. He stood straight and tall, lean, darkly beautiful face taut as if he was daring her to suggest conditions that he would find unacceptable.

                ‘You were always travelling and I was home alone. That would have to change,’ Betsy told him ruefully.

                Nik viewed her in astonishment. ‘But I wasn’t away on pleasure trips. I was travelling for business reasons—’