She laughed. 'You'll break the door down. Okay, I get the message,' Going into the bedroom, Norrie slipped off her dress and hung it up, then collected her night things and went into the bathroom. She changed as quickly as Bruno could have wanted, but took time over brushing her hair so that it hung in shining silken waves on her shoulders, then added more scent before pirouetting in front of the mirror to note how the nightdress clung to her, covering her body but revealing the soft curve of her breasts, the slimness of her waist and taut flatness of her stomach, and on down the long length of her thighs and legs. Yes, she would do. She wanted Bruno to know exactly what he was missing.
Norrie grew still suddenly, staring at herself in the mirror, the enormity of what she was about to do making her tremble with sick fear now that the moment had arrived. She couldn't go through with it, she couldn't! She would just have to tell Bruno the truth and beg him to forgive her. Turning, she put her hand on the door knob, intending to go out and confess everything, but her hand was shaking so much that she fumbled with the catch, and those few seconds made her pause as she pictured what would happen. He wouldn't forgive her, no way. And he didn't have any mercy in his make-up; he had already proved that. He would just use her weakness to do what he wanted to her, and then kick them out. And the hell of pretending during these last weeks would all have been for nothing. It was too late; to back down now would be even worse than going through with it. For a few moments Norrie leaned her head against the door, wishing herself anywhere but here, but then turned with a hopeless kind of determination to finish getting ready.
She put on the neglige just as he rapped impatiently on the door. 'The ten minutes are up.'
Deciding to leave the neglige untied, Norrie switched off the light and slowly opened the door to stand framed in the doorway, one leg forward of the other so that he could better see its slender curve.
Bruno turned as she opened the door and stood staring at her for a long moment. 'You were right,' he said slowly. 'Tonight is very, very special.' Then, thickly, 'Come here, Mrs Denton.'
Norrie looked at him and smiled a little, but moved slowly to obey him. He was wearing only a pair of pyjamas, the top unbuttoned, and it was already obvious that he wanted her. Drawing her into his arms, he kissed her, his hand in her hair, taking all the time in the world about it, his lips soft and sensuous, not yet yielding to passion. Then he let her go and reached up to take off her neglige, letting it slip off her shoulders to lie in silken confusion at her feet. 'I love you, my darling,' he said with soft sincerity. 'I've always loved you.'
'Do you?' Norrie looked up into his face, her own quite expressionless.
Thinking that she doubted him, Bruno said forcefully, 'I swear it!'
'Good. I'm glad. That makes it all the better.' Then she stepped back from him. 'I'm going to bed.'
He gave a slightly surprised grin. 'I know.'
'Alone,' Norrie said coldly. Not understanding, he gave a small laugh and reached for her again, but she knocked his arm away. 'Don't touch me.'
Bruno frowned. 'What is it? What's the matter, darling?'
'You heard me,' she said clearly, 'I'm going to bed—alone. You can sleep in the spare bed in Ben's room.'
She moved to walk away but Bruno caught her arm and spun her round. 'Hey, the time for teasing's over.' Then he saw the cold hatred in her face. 'But I see you're not teasing,' he said slowly, his features changing from surprise to growing wariness.
'No. I'm not.'
'So just what is this?'
'I should have thought that was obvious. You wanted to marry me for Ben's sake. Well, you've done that. But that's all you're getting. There are no— conjugal rights, or whatever you care to call it, included in the package deal.'
Bruno stared at her, still holding her arm. 'Are you jealous because of Ben? Do you think I only married you to get him? But it isn't so.' He caught hold of her other shoulder. 'I've just told you that I've always loved you. Okay, giving Ben my name was important to me, but he was an excuse, not a reason, for asking you to marry me. I'd been missing you for a long time and I came to Welford specifically to find you again and see if we couldn't get back together.'
'How very touching,' Norrie said sarcastically. 'But I couldn't care less what your motives were. I told you before that you leave me cold, but you're so damn big-headed that you just couldn't believe that a woman could find you repulsive.'
His face paled. 'Repulsive?'
'Yes, repulsive,' Norrie spat the word at him venomously. 'Did you seriously believe that I'd go to bed with a man who drove my father to his death?'
Bruno slowly dropped his hands, staring into her face. 'Christ, is that what this is all about, some kind of punishment for that?'
'Yes, that's exactly what it's about,' she flung at him. 'You were stupid enough to want to marry me, so I decided to show you just what the institution of marriage could mean.'
His mouth set into a grim line. 'And the way you've been acting tonight, all the teasing, it was just to turn the knife in the wound, was it?'
'Well, it did, didn't it? You were slobbering, you were so damn randy,' she retorted, hiding a sudden feeling of revulsion at her own behaviour.
Bruno's arm shot out and grabbed her. His mouth was twisted and his eyes dark with pain and anger. 'Shut up! You bitch, you sadistic little bitch. God help me, I've a good mind to ...'
'To what?' Norrie demanded, her voice rising. 'To take me anyway? Just try it and I'll scream the place down. And try explaining to the management that your wife found you so abhorrent that you had to resort to rape on your wedding night.'
'But maybe it might not come to rape,' Bruno snarled, pushing her suddenly backwards so that she came up against the bed and fell on to it. Then he knelt over her, his legs on either side of hers, his weight holding her down. 'You aren't so immune to me. The way you've responded these last few weeks has proved that. You haven't even tried to resist when I've touched you.' And he deliberately put his hand on her breast, caressing her through the thin silk of the nightdress.
'Take your filthy hands off me,' she spat at him.
'Why don't you say what you really want?' he said roughly, jerking the strap off her shoulder and pulling it down, then cupping his hand round the soft swell of her bare skin.
'Now I'll have to scrub myself clean again, the same way I have every time after you've handled me.'
His face darkened and for a moment his hand tightened, hurting her. She tried not to wince but it must have shown on her face because he gave an ugly kind of smile. 'Why let me touch you then, if you find it so distasteful?'
'Just to keep you panting and eager, until tonight. You see I knew that sex and money were the only things you'd ever respond to.'
He stood up suddenly and turned his back on her. 'So why did you marry me?' he demanded harshly.
'For money, of course. What else?' Norrie stood up and replaced the strap of her nightdress; her breast felt sore even against the softness of the silk.
'And just what makes you think you're going to get any money out of me after this?' There was disgust in Bruno's face as he turned towards her.
'Oh, I think you'll be quite willing to pay up when you think of what will happen if you don't. Just think of the headlines: "Newspaper owner's wife sues for non-consummation".' She laughed sardonically. 'That won't do your precious image any good, will it? You'll be the laughing stock of everyone who knows you.'
'You can hardly sue for non-consummation when we have a son,' Bruno pointed out acidly.
'But you'd have to prove he was yours,' she said sweetly.
'You'd deny it?' he exclaimed.
'Of course.'
'Such things can be proved now, beyond doubt.'
'Sure. But you'd have to do it amid a blaze of dirty publicity from the gutter end of the national press. Is that what you want—for you or Ben?'
His jaw tightened. 'You're a lousy little blackmailer, Norrie. You'd even drag your own kid into this?'
'It can be avoided, if you pay.'
'How much?' he asked, his nostrils flaring disdainfully as if he had smelt something foul.
'Twenty thousand pounds,' she told him, waiting until she saw his quickly hidden surprise at the reasonableness of the demand before adding, 'for each of the people you kicked off the Westland Gazette—the ones that are still alive, that is.'
His eyes rested on her face in startled surprise. 'And for you?'
'Oh, I don't want anything from you. I'm just going to enjoy watching you squirm while you write out the cheques. Eight of them, making one hundred and sixty thousand pounds in all.' She said the amount slowly, emphasising the words.
'I can't lay my hands on that kind of money.'
'You can get it,' she said shortly. 'I don't expect you to write the cheques tonight. I'll give you time; I'll give you a whole month of time.'
'And what then?'
'Then we part and you can sue me for divorce.'
Bruno looked at her for a long moment, then, 'If I agree to your—proposition, then I'll want to legally adopt Ben.'
'No way.' Norrie's answer was swift and final.
'I married you to have a share in Ben's life.'
'Well, that's another price you'll have to pay. I've told you all along that Ben is nothing to do with you.'
'I'm not going to let you push me out of his life, Norrie. Not now.'
'You don't have a choice. Do you really think I'd let Ben grow up anywhere near someone as cruel as you?'
He glared at her morosely. 'I'm beginning to think I could take a few lessons in cruelty from you. How much will you take to give Ben up to me?'
Norrie stared at him. 'There isn't that much money in the world. Just get the hundred and sixty thousand for the people whose lives you ruined. And get it within a month.'
'That kind of money can't be raised that easily.'
'But you'd better. My father had friends who are pretty high up in Fleet Street; they'd willingly drag your name through the dirt if I asked them.'
'And your name, too,' he pointed out angrily.
'No, not my name, yours. I'm Mrs Denton now, remember?'
Bruno's face darkened and he took a menacing step towards her, reaching out to grab her wrist. But Norrie stepped swiftly backwards, moving her arm out of his reach. 'Don't you dare touch me,' she spat at him, revulsion in her face.
He recoiled as if she'd struck him, his hands balling into tight fists at his sides, and she suddenly realised what an effort it was costing him not to physically lash out at her. Well, so much the better. At least now he would learn what it was like to be hurt and just have to stand there and take it, just like her father and the other people on the Westland Gazette had had to take it from him.
Turning away, Bruno walked over to the dressing-table and picked up one of Ben's toys, a green hippopotamus, that he'd left there. 'It may take me longer than a month to raise that much money.'
'You know the consequences if you don't. And you're a very persuasive man; I'm sure you'll manage somehow.'
'And what reason do I give to the finance company or bank for that high a loan?'
'Well, you could always tell them that you're repaying an old debt.'
Lifting his head, he looked at her in the wide mirror above the dressing-table. 'Or that my wife is blackmailing me,' he said bitterly.
'Even that. I don't care if you mortgage the rest of your life away. Just get the money. However much you get wouldn't be enough to pay those people back.'
'This could ruin me.'
'So who cares?' she answered insolently. 'Did you care about them?'
'You're obsessed,' Bruno said angrily, his eyes fixed on her reflection. 'You've let this get to you so much that you can't even think straight any more. Let me make an appointment with someone you can talk it over with. Maybe that way you can . . .'
'A psychiatrist?' Norrie laughed disbelievingly. 'You're the one who's crazy—power crazy. Megalomania they call it, don't they? And that's why you wanted Ben, so that you would have someone else you could manipulate. I bet you ...'
Her words were bitten off as Bruno suddenly dropped the toy and grabbed her arm, pulling her towards him. 'You said you didn't want anything from me,' he shouted savagely. 'But I gave you that nightdress, didn't I? So you won't want that!' And he began to drag at the straps, pulling it down to her waist and trying to tear it off.
Norrie opened her mouth and screamed.
For a few seconds Bruno went on tearing at the silk and it slid down to her hips, but then he brought up his hand to cover her mouth, the sudden silence more shattering than her scream. For a long moment their eyes clashed, both of them startled by the violence of their emotions, then the anger left them and Bruno's eyes grew bleak. Pushing her away, he turned and strode out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
It was a few minutes before Norrie could move, but then she ran over to the door and locked it behind him. Her hands trembling almost uncontrollably, she took off the ruins of her nightdress and put on one of her own, then crawled into bed but left on the bedside light. Whether anyone had heard her scream or not she didn't know, but she was quite certain that Bruno had been goaded so far that, if she hadn't screamed, he would have taken her by force. She lay in bed wide awake, much too afraid to sleep, her heart still trembling even though he had walked away and the door was locked. Only after a long time did it occur to her that she had actually carried it through, that Bruno had had to accept her terms to repay the people he had harmed. That thought should have given her a big enough thrill to make everything worthwhile, but somehow it didn't. Where she should have been exultant at her success Norrie felt completely flat and empty. She kept remembering the way Bruno had looked when he said he had always loved her and the hurt and bitterness that replaced it when she told him she only wanted his money. That should have pleased her too, because they were the same emotions that she had been feeling for a very long time, but whoever said that revenge was sweet must have been lying, because Norrie felt almost as wretched now as she had the last time she'd rejected him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Norrie was awakened by a persistent knocking at the door. She came slowly out of a deep sleep, but then memory came flooding back and she immediately sat up, clutching the covers. Then she relaxed again, recognising the knock, and picked-up the bedside clock. Eight o'clock, she could only have had about four hours' sleep. 'Okay, I'm coming,' she called, and got out of bed to unlock the door.
Ben was on the other side, wearing his new Action Man pyjamas and clutching a toy car that Bruno had given him. He came in and looked at the bed. 'Where that new Daddy gone?' he demanded.
Norrie got back into bed and he climbed in with her. 'Isn't he in your room, in the other bed? And what happened to my good-morning kiss?'
Putting his arms round her neck, Ben plonked a wet kiss on her cheek. 'Why that new Daddy not in this bed? He said ...'
'I know, I know. But he isn't a real Daddy, pet. He's only a pretend Daddy.'
Ben was quite happy with that explanation; his world was full of pretend characters from books and the television. 'Has he gone away?'
'I'm not sure,' Norrie admitted cautiously. 'We'll have to wait and see.' She obligingly lifted her knees to make hills for him to run his car up and down, but he soon tired of this and she helped him wash and dress, then did so herself. After that, she wasn't quite sure whether to go down to breakfast or not, and had a sudden fear that Bruno might have walked out and left her to pay the hotel bill. But most of his clothes were still in the wardrobe in the bedroom, many of them with very good labels, she could always sell those to pay the bill and she had been careful to bring enough money to pay for her and Ben's return fare to Welford.
The breakfast room was already crowded, mostly with families making plans for the day. The sun was shining and the children were noisy, enjoying the added freedom they got from their parents' more relaxed, holiday mood. Norrie looked round for an
empty table and saw Bruno sitting alone by a window, looking out at the view. Ben saw him, too, and tugged at her hand. 'There that new Daddy,' he exclaimed, loud enough for several tables to hear.
Her face flushed, Norrie let him lead her over to Bruno, out of embarrassment as much as anything else. Now all the hotel would think that she was having a clandestine holiday with him. Although, she thought with a grim, inward smile, nothing could be further from the truth.
Bruno stood up politely as they neared him, but his face was like a cold mask, completely and carefully devoid of any expression as he glanced at her. He pulled out a chair for her but then went to sit on the other side of the table, but he couldn't help smiling a little when Ben insisted on sitting next to him. 'Where you go?' he demanded.
'I went for a walk along the beach.'
Ben was indignant. 'Why you not take me? I like going for a walk on the beach.'
Bruno put a hand on the child's shoulder in a gesture that was both affectionate and reassuring. 'You were fast asleep, old chap.'
'Can we go down to the beach after breakfast?'
'That depends on your mother.' Bruno looked at Norrie fully for the first time, his eyes freezing her.
Ben frowned, not used to having Norrie referred to as his mother, 'That not my mother, that Norrie,' he pointed out to set the record straight.
But Bruno didn't hear him because Norrie spoke at the same time. 'It's your decision when we go back to London. After all,' she pointed out, 'I'm sure that you'd like to start on that—business you have to transact as soon as possible.'
Bruno's hand tightened on the handle of the coffee cup he was holding until the knuckles showed white, but his face gave nothing away. 'If you mean try to raise the money you're extorting out of me, I can't do much on a Sunday, so we might as well go down to the beach.'
The waiter came then and Ben kept up an excited stream of questions and remarks so that they both talked to him, which disguised the fact that they didn't talk to each other. After breakfast, they all went back to the suite to get ready for the beach, Bruno collecting some clothes and disappearing into the bathroom, while Norrie prudently changed into bikini and sundress in Ben's room.
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