'No, you were looking for security, which is understandable. Only now you're discovering that there's more to life than comfort. There's excitement.' Her fragile poise deserted her completely as his grey eyes raked her face. 'And sex.'
Her chest felt so tight she could hardly breathe. 'How dare you talk like that to me?'
'I dare because our lives here only work because we accept certain limitations,' he said brutally. 'It's a very delicate balance, and when you start flirting with French studs...'
'I expect Jean-Paul would find the stereotyping very flattering,' she breathed, furious that he could calmly taint an innocent friendship—God, it wasn't even that!— with his nasty innuendo! 'If you hadn't tried to run my life for me, Ethan, Jean-Paul wouldn't even have come here. You'll be relieved to hear it wasn't my body he was after,' she hissed sarcastically. 'But then I'm sure you didn't think that. You played safe when you picked me, didn't you?' she accused bitterly. 'You picked the plainest female you could find in the knowledge that, no matter how much you ignored me, there wasn't going to be anyone else queuing up to show me a good time!'
'If Jean-Paul wasn't here to show you "a good time"—' her face flamed as he quoted her heated words '—why did he come?'
'He wants me to do a degree—in French.'
He gave a short, hard laugh. 'It's more original than wanting to show you his etchings,' he conceded.
'Why do you assume it's a joke? You think I'm too stupid?' she asked from between gritted teeth.
'Well, you're not behaving like an intellectual giant right now, are you?'
'Is that a fact?' Forgetting her rather prim pose of crossed ankles and folded hands, she had deserted the chintz armchair and was pacing the room. 'How am I behaving, Ethan?'
'Over-emotionally, irrationally...'
'You, on the other hand, are the epitome of self-restraint and reason. Well, I've got news that you can file away in that rational brain of yours: not only will I not stop going to evening classes, I've every intention of exploring the possibility of taking it further.' If he hadn't pushed her she doubted she would have had the nerve seriously to explore the possibility. Ironically it was Ethan's scorn that had hardened her determination.
Tm sure taking it further is exactly what Dubois had in mind,' he sneered. 'Only you're my wife!'
'My God, I hope for the sake of your clients you come up with more original arguments than that in court.'
'You can sneer, but you can't alter facts,' he countered, his face dark with anger.
He'd been inclined to dismiss Alexa's wild stories, and until he'd entered Hannah's room he'd expected to hear an adequate explanation. He'd been irritated at the necessity of confronting her after a long and tedious day, but nothing more.
Far from lulling his suspicions, her defiant attitude had made it clear she was capable of ruining their arrangement with her wilful behaviour. Her habitually calm hazel eyes had deepened to green as she glared at him before resuming her rhythmic barefooted tread of the deep-piled carpet.
He almost groaned out loud. A classic case of still waters running deep, only he didn't need, or require, deep. He needed shallow and efficient. He didn't want a glimpse of Hannah's passions; he wanted things back to normal. At the end of the day he could always come home knowing she would have coped with any household crises with quiet efficiency, his children would be happy and content and nobody would make any emotional demands on him. He hadn't realised how much he'd come to rely on this small oasis of peace until he'd been unexpectedly deprived of it.
'Some facts you can alter,' she said, coming to a dead halt with her back still to him. 'We could get a divorce — an annulment, even!' She spun around, her face alight with inspiration. 'It's not as if we have...' she shrugged '...you know.'
'Don't forget you signed the pre-nuptial — ' My God, he thought, staring at her. She means it!
Her imperative gesture stopped him mid-flow. 'I don't care about that,' she said simply. All she cared about was getting out of this situation. Being married to a man she was crazy about, a man who thought of her as a sexless nonentity. She'd been mad to think she could cope; she'd been made to think it would lead down the path of her wishful thinking.
Ethan blinked, recalling the amount of money it had been agreed she would get if she stayed with him until Tom was sixteen. 'And the children?'
'That's the best part,' she told him enthusiastically, willing him to see the logic of her scheme. 'I could still look after the children. When Tom starts school I could go to university and still help with them. I wouldn't do anything to harm the children, Ethan.'
'So I'm the only part of this equation that you don't like?' The desperate quality of her wild proposition said more about her unhappiness than anything else could have. The irony of the situation failed to amuse him. One of the reasons marriage to Hannah had been a good idea was that he'd wanted to put himself off-limits to all the women who, almost before the funeral was over, had made it obvious they were willing to offer him succour and comfort. His wife obviously found him easy to resist.