She sensed rather than saw Theo’s head jerk up. She had never expected anyone to make the connection before but now she was glad they had.
‘Is that right, Willow, darling?’ Theo was taken aback. A murderer? Surely she had not hated him that much. He was oddly hurt, but he was damned if he was going to show it. ‘I am so glad to be of help,’ he commented as with his free hand he tilted her chin so she had to look at him.
‘I admit it,’ she said offhandedly, and the eyes that met his were cool. ‘But then we writers have to get our inspiration from somewhere.’ She smiled.
All Theo’s male antennae rose in red alert as he noted the faint shadows beneath her eyes, and the slightly too bright smile. Something was badly wrong with his lovely wife, and he let his hand fall from her face. In the next few minutes he found out exactly what.
‘You’d better beware, Theo,’ Charles jocularly remarked in his cut-glass English accent. ‘Her next one is about a woman who murders her husband.’
‘How exciting. Can you tell us more, Willow?’ Alethea asked, her brown eyes keen with interest.
‘Oh, I don’t know.’ Willow let her glance skim around the group, her eyes glancing off the necklace around Christine’s throat, and it gave her an idea.
‘Well, maybe a little,’ she said, and with vengeance in mind she did what she did best…let her imagination run riot…
‘It starts with the woman finding a receipt in her husband’s pocket for a diamond necklace.’ And she let her gaze linger for a moment on Christine. ‘Something glamorous like yours, Christine.’ She smiled coolly, and was gratified to see the shock in Christine’s face.
She didn’t look at Theo but she almost laughed out loud at the sudden tension she could sense in every line of his long body. Yes, you bastard, squirm, she thought bitterly and continued, beginning to enjoy herself.
‘But the wife knew that her husband had certainly not bought it for her, so she realises that he must have a mistress. Then she discovers he has not one, but two, and he had the colossal arrogance to marry her while keeping both of them. As you would expect, the wife’s upset turns to murderous rage, and she determines to dispose of him, but craftily and at no threat to herself…’
It had gone very silent. Everyone in the group was waiting for what would happen next, and at least two of them more in fear than interest.
‘I think that is enough.’ Theo’s fingers dug threateningly into her waist. ‘You don’t want to give away the whole plot, Willow, darling.’
‘Spoilsport, Theo,’ Charles spoke up. ‘It sounds absolutely intriguing. I’m sure we all want to discover how it ends.’ His golden eyes gleamed with amused respect at Willow. ‘Do continue.’
‘Oh, but she must get caught in the end,’ Alethea said, totally unaware of the undercurrents swirling beneath the conversation as she addressed Willow again. ‘If I remember rightly, in the first one the serial killer got the electric chair, and in the next a life sentence. Your murderers always do.’
‘Maybe, maybe not,’ Willow responded enigmatically. Only then did she tilt her chin to look up at Theo. A muscle was pulsing in his jaw, his mouth a grim line, and there was a ruthlessness in the dark eyes. But she didn’t care; his reaction was proof, if any more proof were needed, she thought scathingly. ‘But you are right, darling, I must not give any more away.’ And she didn’t just mean the plot.
‘Very wise,’ Theo responded with a sardonic tilt of one dark brow. But he was furiously angry that she had dared to assault his character in front of Greek society’s élite. She knew exactly what she was doing even though most of what she was saying was fiction.
How she had found out about the necklace he did not know; she had certainly never discovered any receipt. But one glance at her face as she’d looked at Christine, her cool blue gaze lingering on the necklace, it was blatantly obvious that she knew. Willow was a strong, proud woman, and she had struck back at him in her own unique way, he had to give her that. But right now he felt more like throttling her, and his main priority was to get her out of here.
The chauffeur manipulated the limousine through the Athens traffic, and Willow sat in the back seat determinedly looking out of the window in stony silence. Theo had not said a word since they had left the reception together. But she could feel the tension, the simmering anger, pulsing in the air between them, and she knew the only thing preventing him from reacting was the presence of the driver.
The car eventually slowed and the driver activated the security gates. Within minutes they reached the entrance to the villa, and the car stopped.
Theo leapt out before the driver could even move and was already opening the door beside Willow. ‘Out,’ he said and grabbed her arm, and told the driver to leave.
He urged her up the steps to the massive front doors of the villa, and quickly opened them, bundling her inside, and only then did he set her free.
Theo turned as Willow was walking away from him and he opened his mouth to yell at her, but then stopped. By a supreme effort of will he managed to control his temper. She had tried to make a fool of him in front of their friends and no one got away with that. But as his gaze slid over her proud dark head he saw the tension in the slender shoulders. He realised with a sickening jolt in his chest that what he had done to her was as bad, if not worse. He had used her love for her child to force her into marriage, and, in his conceit, had presumed that as long as he showered her in presents and kept her satisfied in bed, she would be a happy and dutiful wife.
He was so used to sophisticated women in his life, and always had been. In his world when an affair started and ended a suitable pay-off was expected and usually given. People changed partners regularly but, with cynical disregard of any finer feelings, continued to mix socially with no apparent hard feelings on either side. In his arrogance he had made no allowance for the fact that Willow was not one of them. The women he had known in the past would not have cared if they had met one of his exes wearing diamonds he had given them, as long as they were the one in favour at the time, and that eventually they too would get their share.
His dark brows drew together in a frown. Willow was not like that; she took more pleasure from a single rose than she did from a fortune in diamonds. And if he ever found out who had told her about Christine’s necklace he would destroy them. But in the meantime, unless he was very careful, Willow would walk away from him for good and that was something he could not contemplate. She was young, beautiful and talented and earned a good living. She didn’t need him half as much as he needed her and the knowledge hit him like a thunderbolt. He loved her…
Willow made her away across the massive reception hall heading for the stairs. She had nothing to say to Theo. She entered the master suite, and, grabbing her nightgown off the bed, she just as quickly exited. She made her way to the guest room as far away as possible from the room she had shared with Theo. There were plenty to choose from, she thought bitterly. The house was like a mausoleum, and tonight had certainly seen the death of all her hopes.
She pushed open a door into an elegant blue and white bedroom and noted the queen-sized bed. It was more than big enough for her, and she crossed into the stark white ensuite bathroom. She quickly shrugged off her dress and briefs and slipped the nightgown over her head. Then she swiftly removed her make-up, unpinned her hair and shook it free.
It crossed her mind why Theo had not followed her, and then she berated herself for being so weak. Why should he? He knew she had found him out. He no longer had to pretend he cared…
She walked back into the bedroom and froze. Theo was standing in the middle of the room wearing only a black silk robe, tall and infinitely formidable, his chiselled features set in a hard, impenetrable mask.
Theo’s control had been stretched to the limit after he had walked into their bedroom, determined to be reasonable, and found her gone. He had told himself to calm down, stripped and quickly showered. Willow wasn’t going anywhere tonight—the house was locked
up as tight as a drum. He would find her and explain that Christine meant nothing to him, less than nothing, and make her understand. But looking at her cool, pale face and her luscious body covered in a swirl of violet silk that floated to her feet, her blue eyes openly defying him, he wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled.
‘What do you think you are doing, Willow?’ he demanded in a dangerously quiet voice. ‘You are my wife, and you sleep in my bed.’
‘Not any more,’ Willow said bluntly. ‘The marriage is over.’ Her mind was made up. She should never have married the heartless swine in the first place. Millions of children lived with divorced parents, and, while she would never have wished it on her son, she was not the type to be a martyr.
Theo’s expression changed to one of sardonic cynicism. ‘I think not, but obviously we need to talk. That overactive imagination of yours appears to have developed some very strange ideas.’
‘There was nothing strange about the diamond necklace around your mistress’s throat; in fact it was quite beautiful.’ She matched him for cynicism. ‘And the only strange idea is yours, that you should imagine for a second that I would ever share a bed with you again.’ Willow drew in a deep unsteady breath, and managed to keep her voice cool with the greatest difficulty. ‘Now, please leave.’
In two lithe strides he reached her and caught her shoulders in a bruising grip. ‘Let go of me, Theo.’
‘Never,’ he rasped. ‘I have only one question for you, Willow. Who told you about Christine? And, so help me, I will destroy them. Can’t you see that they were only trying to make trouble between us, you little fool?’
Calling her a fool was like waving a red rag to a bull. Willow retaliated without thought of the consequences. ‘I might be a fool but it was you that made me one!’ And her usual cool voice shook with rage. ‘My God, you bullied me into marrying you, and then had the colossal nerve to introduce me to your mistress. Not just me, but my son, and all the while your own mother was looking on, and even she knew. Well, let me tell you something.’ She poked a finger in his chest. ‘You have made a fool of me for the last time, Theo. I am out of here tomorrow, and you can go to hell.’
‘If I do then you are damn well coming with me.’ Theo’s black eyes gleamed with frustrated fury and she gave a silent cry of pain as his hands tightened on her slender shoulders.
‘For God’s sake, Willow, grow up and enter the real world. So what if Christine was my mistress? I’m a thirty-seven-year-old man. What the hell did you expect? You and I met again by accident—I did not have a chance to finish with Christine before we got married. What you saw at the restaurant was business in a way. I was telling her at the first opportunity I had that it was over and paying her off, and she knew it. I had not slept with her in over two months.’
‘And that makes it all right, then?’ she prompted mockingly. ‘My God, you are despicable.’ Her blue eyes blazed with bitter contempt.
‘Despicable maybe, but at least I had the decency to tell Christine to her face it was over. You on the other hand allowed your friend to inform your lover Dave for you,’ he taunted. ‘How despicable is that?’
‘Dave was never my lover!’ She was so outraged that he had dared to try and make this her fault that she told him much more than she had intended.
‘I have never had a lover. I never had the time, I was too busy looking after my son and earning a living.’ She gave a choked laugh. ‘Much good it did me. You barged back into my life, stole my son, and stuck me in this—’ she glanced wildly around the luxuriously appointed room ‘—great mausoleum of a house, that you had built for your first wife and decorated by your mistress.’
His hands tightened into an excruciating grip. ‘I never—’
‘Don’t bother denying it, Theo.’ She cut him off and met his narrowed gaze, her own eyes blazing. ‘I saw the article in the magazine all those years ago, featuring this house and Dianne. By all accounts you are still sleeping with Dianne when you are in New York as well as Christine. My God, you are nothing but an oversexed lech, and so crude you make me sick.’ She had gone too far…
For one timeless moment Theo looked capable of murder, his eyes darkening to black ice. ‘Crude, am I? You don’t know the meaning of the word, but perhaps it is time you learnt.’ The menace in his tone cut through her anger and made her shiver in fear.
‘No.’ But she was too late. He hauled her close against his long body, his mouth crashing down on hers, forcing her lips apart in a kiss that was punishingly savage. He lifted his head, and tore the violet silk from her body to the hem, his black eyes skimming over her nakedness with a ruthlessness that terrified her. Then his lips found hers again and plundered the moist sweetness within, his hand curving her bottom, making her shockingly aware of his arousal.
‘Make you sick, do I? And without the slightest effort he swung her up into his arms and dropped her on the bed, trapping her slender body beneath his own. ‘Then I must do something about that.’ She caught the implacable intent in his black eyes, and she did not have time to cry out before his mouth covered hers in a kiss that was as passionate as it was provocative.
Self-respect made her try to resist with all her strength, but it was no contest. He knew exactly what he was doing, how to wring a response from her. His hands were everywhere, caressing and stroking as he conducted a ravishment of her senses that had her sinking in a mindless sea of passion.
‘No.’ She found the will to cry out. ‘No.’ Her blue eyes were wild as he lifted his head and stared down at her.
‘Oh, hell.’ Theo groaned and rolled off the bed. He could not believe what he had almost done. Standing by the side of the bed, as he tied the belt of his robe, his eyes narrowed on her flushed face. ‘You don’t have to be afraid of me, Willow, not ever,’ he said tautly.
‘Don’t flatter yourself. I am not.’ Willow sat up and covered her nakedness with a sheet, her whole body throbbing with frustration.
‘Don’t lie. I saw it in your eyes,’ he said, his face sardonic, ‘and it stopped me cold. I would never hurt you, Willow. Though God knows you do your infuriating best to drive me mad.’ He said it like a man at the end of his tether.
‘Me drive you mad…?’ She was almost speechless at the nerve of the man.
Theo stared for a long moment, and made a conscious effort to control his anger. Raging at her would get him nowhere, and his hard face softened in a smile of wry amusement. ‘Yes, you witch…that is the kind of power you have, if you only knew it.’ She was confused and it showed in the frown that marred her smooth brow.
‘Come on, Willow.’ He held out his hand to her. ‘Let’s go back to our room; this bed is too small for the two of us, and we can put tonight behind us. Forget about Christine, she never meant anything to me, and what we share together is so much better.’
Yes, sex and a son, Willow thought bitterly. Sex was his answer to everything, his arrogance monumental. He dismissed her arguments as nothing. Suddenly with blinding clarity she saw the future he had mapped out for her, a sexual slave kept in a gilded cage, pampered and petted as long as she asked no questions. Kept in her place, until all the vitality was drained out of her, and she ended up as little more than a cipher in his life. And Stephen—what kind of example as a woman would she be to him?
She rolled off the other side of the bed, and, dragging the sheet with her, she carefully wrapped it toga-style around her naked body. Finally taking a deep steadying breath, she turned to face Theo.
‘You are an immoral, devious swine and I hate you,’ she said bluntly, and there was no mistaking the cold determination in her face. ‘Our marriage was a huge mistake, and much as I love Stephen I am not prepared to sacrifice my pride or my self-respect to pretend anything different. He is an intelligent boy and he would see through the farce in weeks.’
‘Stephen apart, you could already be pregnant again—’
‘I am not that big a fool,’ she cut him off. ‘I am on the pill courtesy of Anna’s docto
r. I don’t make the same mistake twice.’ Back stiff, she walked past him, her heart sick and aching, but not prepared to argue any more. Theo stood as though he had been turned to stone.
‘And I actually thought I loved you,’ she murmured with a negative shake of her head as she made for the door.
Theo flinched as though he had been struck, and desperately reached out for her, and swung her around to face him. ‘What did you say?’ he demanded hoarsely, his fingers shaking on her upper arms.
‘You heard. It is over. Let go of me.’
‘Not that, Willow.’ He looked at her, his dark eyes gleaming with suppressed emotion. ‘The part about thinking you love me.’
He had heard and her humiliation was complete. ‘Past tense. Thought. I will be out of here in the morning and you can do your damnedest but you won’t stop me.’ She had to force the words out. It was hard because her throat was dry with unshed tears and she was hanging on to her self-control by a thread.
Theo stilled, his hands dropping from her shoulders, tension evident in every long line of his body. ‘God, don’t let it be too late,’ he murmured under his breath, hectic colour burning up under his skin as he looked at her. It wasn’t in his nature to be afraid but it took every scrap of courage he possessed to say, ‘Please don’t leave me, Willow. I love you. I think I always have.’ He laid his heart on the line, and waited in an agony of suspense.
Willow thought she was hearing things. He towered over her, not a flicker of emotion apparent in his ruggedly handsome face, and the silence seemed to reverberate around the room. She raised her eyes to his and was stunned by the vulnerability in the dark depths that he could not quite hide.
She could not have been more shocked if he had hit her. She was conscious of the sudden erratic pounding of her heart as for a brief moment she was tempted to believe him. But fear of making a fool of herself all over again made her lash out.
‘You expect me to believe that?’ she said mockingly. ‘I have just spent the evening with your mistress wearing the diamonds you gave her and discovered it is common knowledge you were going to marry her.’ Surely not even Theo would stoop so low as to lie about being in love to keep her with him.
The Greek Tycoon's Love-Child Page 16
