Читать книгу A Marriage Betrayed - Emma Darcy, Emma Darcy - Страница 9

CHAPTER THREE

“SO!”

It was a sibilant hiss that seethed with explosive emotion. Kristy instantly realised his composure was a facade, and it was not only his voice that revealed how brittle the façade was. The dark eyes were not dancing with amusement. They glittered with a primitive ferocity...anger, pain, blistering accusation.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” he demanded, repitching his voice to a tone of sardonic mockery that didn’t quite disguise an undercurrent of barely leashed savagery.

It was a beautiful voice, rich and male and mesmerisingly coloured by the emotion it projected. Kristy had to shake herself out of her appreciation of it, focus on what was being demanded.

He probably thinks I’m some kind of thief, she thought, and frantically searched her mind for the best way to explain her presence. An attempt at appeasement came up as top priority.

“Je regrette . . .” she began tentatively, but got no further.

“You’re sorry?” Incredulity resonated around the room. The dark eyes swept her with scathing contempt. “You’re sony,” he repeated jeeringly. He tilted his head back and rolled his eyes at the ceiling. “Bon Dieu! You have a thousand things to explain and all you can say is you’re sorry.” His derisive laugh had an element of wildness that sent chills down Kristy’s spine.

She darted a look at the interconnecting door, measuring her line of retreat.

“Oh, no, my precious darling!”

The endearment held no affection whatsoever. The tone of venomous purpose whipped Kristy’s gaze back to him. He was moving swiftly to cut off her escape route and the aura of violence he emanated was quite enough to hold Kristy absolutely still. She didn’t want to provoke him any more than he was already provoked by her presence here.

“You will not leave until I’m satisfied you have explained...everything...to me,” he promised her, a threat underlining every word.

Kristy swallowed hard. Her whole body seemed to be vibrating with electric tension and it was difficult to make her mouth work. But speak she must. “It’s very simple really,” she began.

It seemed to provoke the man even more. “Simple!” he interjected, his eyes blazing dark fury. He moved closer to tower over her. “Two years! Two long lonely bitter years! And all you can say is you’re sorry? And it’s simple?” His voice literally shook with outrage.

Kristy’s mind whirled with confusion. What did two years have to do with anything? “I don’t know what you want to know,” she rushed out in the hope of getting some direction from him since he didn’t like anything she said.

At least it had a calming effect, Kristy thought with relief. The blaze of fury banked down to a simmer which still looked dangerous but was temporarily under control. Then he smiled at her. Somehow the smile was as chilling as his derisive laugh had been. It spelled disaster if she put a foot wrong.

“Did you come here in the hope of hearing words of love from me?” he asked in a soft jeering tone.

“Certainly not,” Kristy replied incredulously. The idea was absurd. Why would she expect to hear endearments from a stranger?

One black eyebrow rose in mocking challenge. “To tell me that you love me?”

Kristy could hardly believe she was hearing this. She didn’t know the man. What kind of woman did he think she was? A boldly enterprising callgirl on the make, slipping into his room to set up a chance?

“That’s ridiculous!” she protested.

He laughed. “How true!” The dark eyes burned more intensely into hers and his voice lowered to a purring throb. “Was it to seduce me into making love to you? To feel my body caressing yours in the way you most enjoy?”

“No! Absolutely not!” Kristy cried, terribly disconcerted by the effect his suggestive words had on her pulse rate.

Her reply seemed to incense him. “Then I will tell you what I think,” he seethed. His mouth curled around the words as he spat them out. “You are a cowardly sneak! Your effrontery in presenting yourself here is unbelievable! You are shameless, heartless, gutless...”

Shock paralysed Kristy’s mind for several seconds. Then a tidal wave of outrage swept through her, lifting her hand, propelling it with furious force. It struck his face so hard it snapped his head back. It left reddened weals across his cheek, and Kristy’s eyes burned with savage satisfaction at the sight Never had she felt so angry in her life.

“Keep your slanderous words and thoughts to yourself!” she hissed, ready to fight tooth and nail if he so much as tried to insult her again in such an offensive fashion.

He had no right. All she had done was trespass into his room, and she had been given a key for that purpose anyway. She couldn’t see how any blame for that could be attached to her. She did not deserve such abuse and no way in the world would she tolerate it.

The dark eyes flared with violent passion. She met them with blue ice, defying him to do his worst. The clash of will and turbulent emotion somehow seeded something even more disturbing. Kristy was conscious of a shift inside herself, an uncoiling of a need, a desire, an awakening tingle in her blood that she had never felt before.

She did not know this man.

Yet something inside her did. Or seemed to. Some subconscious recognition she was at a total loss to explain. The feeling was even stronger now than it had been in the lobby, spurring with it a fiercely primitive urge to have what he’d put into her mind. She found herself literally craving to know what it would be like to feel his body caressing hers.

Suddenly the searing dark eyes were like magnets, dragging on her soul. A sense of deep intimacy pulsed between them. She had a compelling urge to reach up and touch his cheek, to tenderly stroke away the hurt marks she had inflicted. She only just managed to check what would have been an insane move, given the situation.

Kristy didn’t understand herself at all. How could she be so enthralled by the man, when what was happening now was hardly a promising beginning for anything? She had never struck anyone in her whole life until he had stirred her into it.

An appalled horror descended on her. She was a nonviolent person. Words, not fists, had always been her creed. Ever since she had entered this hotel, things had started swinging out of normality.

Was it Alice who had stepped through the looking glass and into another world?

Kristy was beginning to feel the same thing had happened to her. She took a deep breath and tried to regain some sanity. How could there be any sense of intimacy between this stranger and herself? She had to be imagining it. His talk of love and lovemaking must be triggering wild offshoots from the need to belong to someone, somewhere.

Yet, as though they were somehow acutely attuned to each other, she sensed a similar withdrawal from him, the automatic reaction to shock and disbelief, needing time to pause and take stock, to reassess. His face tightened. His mouth thinned into a grim line. The dark eyes narrowed to gleaming slits.

Kristy thought about apologising, but since this whole scene had erupted from her initial apology, it didn’t seem like a good idea. Besides, he had been as much in the wrong as she was. Pride insisted she concede no fault in what she had done, but explanations were certainly due.

“Monsieur . . .” she started again.

“Don’t call me that!” he snapped angrily.

Whatever I say seems to get me into trouble, Kristy thought. “Very well,” she agreed, wondering what else she could call him. “There is an explanation....”

“I shall be interested to hear it,” he snapped again. “I shall be fascinated to hear how you explain yourself,” he went on, his voice gathering a stinging contempt. “Every word will be a priceless pearl to my ears. I shall assess it with intense appreciation for its worth.”

Which set Kristy back on her heels because her explanation didn’t make much sense to her, and she doubted it would make sense to him either. However, the truth was the truth. “I have this key....” she began slowly. “The manager gave it to me....”

That was as far as she got.

He took hold of her shoulders and shook her in furious impatience. “You are incredible! Totally incredible!” he seethed.

Kristy realised that what he was saying was true. Her explanation was totally incredible. But this man was teetering on the edge of being totally out of control and she didn’t know what to say or do. “Please...” She couldn’t call him monsieur. “. . . take your hands off me,” she begged.

He laughed with arrogant disdain, but he released her and dropped his hands to his sides. “You think I cannot do that?” he taunted, his eyes flashing bitter derision. “You think I have to touch you? That I cannot help myself?” He bared his teeth in a scornful sneer. “I can do it. See for yourself!”

“Thank you,” Kristy breathed in deep relief.

Violence did breed violence, she thought. She shouldn’t have slapped him. Strictly words from now on, she promised herself.

As though he had come to the same civilized conclusion, he stepped back from her in haughty rejection, a cold pride stamped on his face. His aristocratic bearing was very pronounced as he strode around the room, releasing his inner turbulence in sharp angry gestures and bursts of scorn.

“You are nothing,” he hurled at her. “Nothing at all! Not a speck of dirt. Utterly insignificant. Meaningless.”

Kristy steeled herself to remain cool, no matter how hotly this man stirred her blood. In actual fact, what he said was a fairly accurate description. To the world at large, she was a nobody. There was no-one left who cared whether she existed or not. Besides, agreeing with people’s ideas was a better way of placating them than disagreeing with them.

“I realise that,” she said calmly.

Her answer brought him to an abrupt halt. His brow creased in puzzlement. The dark eyes stabbed at her in suspicious re-assessment “You realise that?” he said slowly, watching intently for some telltale reaction from her.

“Certainly,” Kristy said with assurance. Why should she mean anything to this man? They were complete strangers.

He sauntered towards her, ruthless purpose stamped on his face. “I’ll prove how worthless you are.”

“You don’t have to prove anything of the kind,” Kristy cried in alarm. She didn’t want him to shake her again.

“Where have you been for the last two years?” he bit out savagely. “What have you been doing? Why did you move out of my life without so much as a word of warning or excuse?”

Understanding began to dawn in Kristy’s mind. For some reason this man thought she was someone else. Enlightenment grew in rippling waves. The hotel staff, from the doorman to the manager, had thought she was someone else. It was the only explanation that fitted the facts; all the odd reactions she had been getting from the staff which she had set down to snobbery, the accident in the lobby that had happened because this man had caught sight of her, the bellboy’s proclaiming it un scandale terrible, the manager with his strange manoeuvrings and talk of discretion.

This certainly loomed as a very delicate situation!

The tantalising question was...who was she supposed to be? Who did they all think she was? And why couldn’t they see she wasn’t who they thought she was?

“Answer me!”

He was towering over her again, commanding her attention. Kristy pulled her mind out of its whirling flurry of activity and concentrated on what was most immediate. Somewhere, sometime, there had to be an explanation of what was happening. In the meantime, Kristy thought, it was imperative to answer this man’s question truthfully and with a calm composure. Her heart gave a nervous little flutter as she looked up into the darkly demanding eyes.

“I was in San Francisco most of the time....”

“So! You did go with the American!” he threw at her. “Yes...I can hear it in your voice. Damn you for the conniving cheat you are!”

“I’m not a cheat!” she hurled back at him in fierce resentment.

“You think you can get to me again? After what you’ve done?”

She hadn’t done anything! Except use the key that had brought her into this room. However, before she could expostulate, his hand lifted and curled around her cheek. Kristy flinched away from the touch but it was an ineffectual movement. He tilted her chin up, bent his head, and his mouth crashed onto hers.

The shock of it left her momentarily defenceless. His hand slid into her hair entangling itself in the thick tresses and binding her to him as forcefully as the arm that scooped her body hard against his. Then an explosion of sensation robbed her of any thought of resistance.

His mouth possessed hers in a frenzy of passion, igniting a response that rushed into being, spreading through her like wildfire, an uncontrollable force, taking her over, thrumming to a beat of its own. Heat pulsed from him, suffusing her entire body, exciting an almost excruciating awareness of hard flesh and muscle imprinting themselves on her. His kiss plundered and destroyed her previous knowledge of what a kiss could be, arousing a compulsive need to cast all limits aside and plummet into more and more enticing levels of melding together.

The break came as swiftly and as shockingly as the enforced connection. He tore his mouth from hers. His hands encircled her upper arms, holding her away from him as he stepped back. Dazed by the abrupt withdrawal and still helplessly churning with the sensations he’d stirred, Kristy looked at him in blank incomprehension.

His dark eyes glittered with malevolent triumph. “You see?” he said, removing his grasp, lifting his hands away as though the touch of her was distasteful to him. “I feel nothing for you. Absolutely nothing.”

It was a barefaced lie.

He was not unaffected by her, nor what had passed between them. His breathing was visibly faster and even as he swung on his heel and turned his back to her, Kristy was recalling all too acutely the burgeoning of his erection, proving he had been physically moved. Besides, how could such passion be generated out of nothing?

Though that raised the thorny question of how could she have been so deeply affected when ostensibly there was nothing between them but a misunderstanding. Worse, a case of mistaken identity! A painful flush scorched up her neck and burnt her cheeks. He had been abusing another woman, while here she was, deeply shaken by a vulnerability she couldn’t explain.

Nevertheless, explanations were in order. In very fast order, too, given the volatile nature of feelings running riot here. She had to correct his conviction she was someone he had known before. That was at the heart of this whole wretched mix-up.

“The reason there is nothing is because there was nothing in the first place,” Kristy said shakily.

He whirled around, his face contorted with furious resentment. His eyes stabbed black daggers at her. “Don’t make a fool of yourself by stating the obvious.”

Still hopelessly unsettled by the turbulence he’d aroused, Kristy couldn’t stop her own temper from flaring. “You’re deliberately trying to provoke me!”

He did not deny it. He made no reply at all but his eyes kept accusing her of dark, nameless crimes.

Kristy struggled to get herself under control. “What has happened is quite simple,” she stated once again, determined to make him listen, no matter what he said. “You see...”

“I know what has happened,” he cut in emphatically.

Kristy let the interruption fly past her. “...you’re making a mistake about me. You think I’m someone else....”

He gave a cynical laugh.

“I’m not the same woman who...”

“No. Most decidedly not. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve been dead for the last two years. I wish you were. It would be better if you were dead.”

Kristy almost stamped her foot in frustration at his refusal to listen. “Will you give me one chance...”

“Absolutely not,” he bit out with venom. “No more chances. You don’t deserve any chances.”

They were talking at cross-purposes. Trying to explain the true situation was obviously a futile exercise. His mind was set on one idea and he wasn’t in the mood to listen to her.

“Fine,” Kristy agreed with some asperity. Since he was not open to reason, it was best for her to give up and walk away. “Please excuse me. I’m going back to my room.”

He waved a disdainful dismissal. “Do that.”

“And locking the door.” So he couldn’t storm after her.

“Good!” He looked satisfied.

“I’m leaving Paris tomorrow.” That gave him a deadline if he could calm down enough to hear her side of this crazy business.

“Excellent!”

Kristy burned over his intransigence. “I’m never coming back,” she declared.

That should finish it for him, she thought. He could consider her dead forever. For some reason, that hurt deep down inside her, but she steadfastly buried the hurt. If it was what he wanted, this meeting with him definitely had no future. Best for her to forget it had ever happened.

His eyes narrowed suspiciously, as though he didn’t believe her. “What do you want from me?” he demanded.

Kristy’s chin lifted in proud rejection of him and all that might have come of this encounter if he could have accepted that things were different to what he thought they were. “Nothing!” she declared in snapping defiance of his suspicions about her. “Absolutely nothing!”

Having delivered the most affirmative exit line she could think of, she swung on her heel and strode for the interconnecting door. She had her hand on the knob, ready to sweep the door shut behind her when his voice cracked out again in harsh command.

“wait!”

She’d had enough. She’d done her best. He wouldn’t listen. He was only upsetting her further and further. So she did not wait. She did not so much as glance back at him. With her head held high, she marched into the suite she had been given and swiftly shut the door on him. One firm twist of the treacherous key and the lock clicked into place.

And that, thought Kristy, was that!