‘I have no intention of discussing my private life with you—’
‘Did she love you? Dear lord, why didn’t you tell me?’ Sarah demanded.
Alex stretched out long, powerful legs and tossed back a whisky in one driven gesture.
‘You have no right to lay this on me when you never even mentioned that there might be someone in your life...I mean someone apart from—’
‘The women I have to pay to share my bed?’ Alex slotted in dulcetly.
From pale Sarah turned crimson, unprepared to have that thrown up to her when she was in such turmoil. The very idea that she might have broken some poor woman’s heart by depriving her of the man she loved, even if it was Alex Terzakis, now sat on Sarah’s conscience like a giant boulder.
‘Elise never shared my bed.’
Not much of a passionate romance, then, Sarah decided.
‘Nor was marriage ever broached as a subject between us, but we would eventually have made a suitable alliance. In the Terzakis family, we marry for life. One does not enter such a serious commitment in a romantic haze of illusion.’
‘God forbid,’ Sarah mumbled, thinking how coldly calculating he was. Sex with his mistresses. Stability and suitability with his wife. Love just didn’t come into the equation. And why should she be surprised? Callie had been judged and rejected on those same terms. Sarah had no doubt that Damon’s bride Androula was rich, well-born and suitable in the extreme.
Yet Sarah was surprised by Alex’s matrimonial equation. Strive as he might to conceal the fact, Alex emanated emotional and passionate intensity in perceptible waves. His responses ran deep and strong and he was immensely protective of his family, whether she liked his methods or not. He had divided Damon from Callie because he’d believed that to be in his kid brother’s best interests and had doubtless married him off fast to ensure that there were no further unsuitable alliances.
‘Does Elise love you?’
Alex elevated a superior winged brow at the intimacy of the question.
Sarah flushed but refused to be silenced. ‘I would hate to think that I had been the cause of hurting her.’
‘I hurt her pride,’ Alex divulged grimly. ‘And since she and everyone else will believe that Nicky is my child and you are his mother...’
Sarah frowned. ‘Must they?’
‘Something else you didn’t consider?’ Alex derided. ‘Since Damon and Androula are not to have the right to raise Nicky as their child, his true parentage must remain a secret within the family circle. I will not have Androula humiliated...’
Sarah didn’t see how Androula could be humiliated by something that had occurred before her marriage to Damon...unless Androula had been on scene at the same time as Callie. That was possible, she supposed. Damon had betrayed his true character in his treatment of Callie. Androula could well have been the socially acceptable girl back home in Greece.
‘Naturally, as soon as Nicky is of an age to understand, he will be told that he is adopted and, later still, I believe that he should have every right to know the whole truth of his parentage—’
‘Your whole truth or mine?’
Alex dealt her a slashing look of sudden intimidation. ‘You are a malicious and very dangerous woman, but be warned...I will tolerate no interference on that count when the time comes. If you’re still around, of course.’
The soft conclusion made her tense. ‘Why wouldn’t I be around?’ she asked stiffly.
‘You will require remarkable staying power
and buckets of humility to stay the course,’ Alex drawled, his dark, strong face set in unyielding lines, a rather dauntingly amused smile playing round the edges of his hard mouth. ‘And frankly I do not think you are likely to make the grade.’
‘Thank you for the vote of confidence.’
But Sarah was suffering from increasing turmoil. He was threatening her but that alone would not have plunged her into her current slough of self-examination. What threatened her most of all was her very first acknowledgement of Alex as a male with feelings and possible frailties of his own.
He was very bitter. Three weeks ago, she hadn’t given two hoots for that, would have felt equal to holding off Alex with one hand and an army with the other. Grieving for Callie, distraught with bitterness and fiercely driven by her own need for revenge, Sarah had closed her eyes to one inescapably basic reality. Damon was the male who had lied to Callie, got her pregnant, abandoned her, neglected to support her and furthermore lied about her to his brother. Acting on information received, Alex had moved into action. Damon could have gone ahead and married Callie, defying his brother, if he had wanted to. But the simple truth was that Damon hadn’t wanted to marry Callie and indeed had scarpered, leaving Alex to extract him from an embarrassing situation.
So Damon was the real sinner but Alex was the one making the sacrifices. Dear God, how come that was only penetrating her confused brain now? Why had the entirety of her hatred focused solely on Alex Terzakis? He had been a far more worthy opponent on which to target her rage than his wimpy little brother, who had been assiduously careful to put in only the most fleeting appearance at Callie’s funeral. Yet she had forced Alex to make restitution on Damon’s behalf.
Sarah felt suddenly like someone emerging into the sunlight after a long period of being lost somewhere underground. ‘It’s not too late to change your mind, admit you had a brainstorm and that you really didn’t mean it,’ Gina had urged over and over again before the wedding. But Sarah had been deaf and blind to such persuasions. She had had a Terzakis male in her sights and she had taken aim and fired in the name of revenge.
And for Nicky, she reminded herself. And for Nicky. Unfortunately, it was only now registering that she had just about wrecked Alex’s life while Damon got off scot-free and that was not justice. From below her fluttering lashes, she appraised the husband she had acquired by force, collided electrifyingly with fierce golden eyes as hot as flames and hurriedly dropped her gaze again, a dismaying sinking sensation afflicting her stomach. Bloody hell, girl, she said to herself furiously, this is not the time to lose your bottle!