The crashing of the waves swirled in time to the pounding in her temples as Tabitha fought for eloquence, struggled to articulate what was written in her soul. ‘There’s something I need to tell you.’#p#分页标题#e#
‘Sounds serious.’
His flip remark only unnerved her further; the magnitude of her feelings truly terrified her. ‘It is.’
Despite the heat of the morning Tabitha suddenly felt chilled to the bone. Telling him now would surely change everything. Zavier wanted a woman he could discard with ease when the allocated time slot was over. Love wasn’t on his agenda, and telling him now might end everything. It was a business deal, for Zavier at least, and a declaration of love could only spell the end, but her back was to the wall now and something needed to be said. ‘I don’t have a gambling problem.’ Okay, so it wasn’t the big one—fireworks didn’t suddenly start whizzing through the air and cupid’s dart might have missed its mark for a moment—but if Tabitha couldn’t tell him what was truly in her heart right now, she wanted at least a semblance of honesty between them.
If her revelation was somewhat an anticlimax Zavier didn’t notice. He let out a low hiss. Rolling onto his back, he stared up at the sky, his eyes squinting in the glare before he snapped them closed. ‘I don’t want to go into it again, Tabitha. We’ve already covered that.’
‘But I don’t—’
‘So you keep saying. I can’t make you admit it—it has to come from you.’ He let out a low laugh. ‘I’ve been reading up on it.’
His eyes remained closed, effectively shutting her out, but Tabitha carried on talking, her voice breathless. ‘I’ve tried to tell you. It’s my grandmother that has the problem.’
‘Well, thank God I covered babies in the contract; your affliction must be hereditary.’ His eyes were still closed, his voice a sarcastic bored drawl. ‘You’ll be telling me it’s not your fault soon.’
‘You don’t understand.’ He wasn’t making this easy. Zavier’s absolute refusal to accept the truth had Tabitha wondering if it was even worth it, yet suddenly it was imperative she tell him this. If he couldn’t know that she loved him, she at the very least needed to walk up the aisle with as few lies between them as possible. ‘I’ve never had a problem, and if you won’t believe me—keep refusing to listen to me—then I can’t go through with tomorrow.’
His eyes flicked open. Rolling onto his side, he eyed her slowly as she stared fixedly ahead. ‘Does Aiden know?’
She gave a small, hesitant nod.
‘So why the hell didn’t he tell me?’
‘I asked him not to.’ Her voice was a strained whisper, her eyes screwing tightly closed as she struggled with his questions. ‘Anyway it probably didn’t seem relevant at the time whom the gambling debt belonged to.’
‘Didn’t seem relevant?’ For the first time ever she heard Zavier raise his voice. She had seen him angry, livid, even, but always, always in control.
Until now.
Black eyes were blazing at her, a muscle leaping in his cheek, his neck and shoulders absolutley rigid with tension.
‘Didn’t seem relevant,’ he repeated. ‘I’ll tell you why it didn’t seem relevant—this is just another one of your lies, another one of your…’
‘It’s the truth, Zavier.’
Her small voice did nothing to stop the tirade, and still he steadfastly refused to believe her. ‘At the casino…’ his hand was on her chin now, jerking her head around, forcing her to face him. ‘You were suddenly so alive, so vibrant.’
So in love.
Still her eyes were screwed shut. How could she look at him and lie about the one thing that mattered? But if she wanted to keep him, wanted her shot at paradise, lying was her only option. ‘It had nothing to do with the casino, Zavier, nothing at all. If I was suddenly happy it was down to the fact I had the best part of a bottle of champagne inside me and more than a few years’ wages in my bag with a promise of more to come. Is it any wonder I felt so good?’#p#分页标题#e#
It was the hardest thing she had ever done, the most vile lie of all, and if she hadn’t been so wrapped up in her own angst maybe she would have registered the pain in his eyes, the drop of his hand from her chin as he sat there in silence.
‘I’m sorry,’ she stammered when Zavier didn’t say anything. ‘I thought you’d be pleased.’ Unshed tears sparkled in her eyes, the aftertaste of her words still bitter in her mouth. ‘Pleased that I wasn’t a gambler.’