‘That is a pity.’ He set the case with the emerald necklace in it down on the table beside her chair.
There was still that something different in his voice—that something she’d never heard before. She’d heard ill-humour, short temper, impatience and displeasure. She’d heard desire and passion and warmth and laughter.
But she’d never heard this before.
She stared at him.
He spoke again. ‘A pity,’ he said, ‘because, you see, emeralds would suit you so much better than mere diamonds.’
‘I don’t understand...’ The words fell from her. Bewildered. Hollow.
The very faintest ghost of what surely could not be a twisted smile curved the whipped line of his mouth for an instant. As if he was mocking himself with a savagery that made her take a breath.
‘They would suit you so much better than the diamond ring which Hans presented to you.’
Tara struggled to speak. ‘Presented? He showed it to me! Dear God, Marc—you could not...? You could not have thought...?’
Disbelief rang in every word that fell from her. He could not have thought that! How could he? Shock—more than shock—made her speechless.
A rasp sounded in his throat. It seemed to her that it was torn from somewhere very deep inside him.
‘We see what we want to see,’ he replied. The mockery was there again, in the twist of his mouth, but the target was only himself. And then there was another emotion in his face. His eyes. ‘We see what we fear to see.’
She gazed at him, searching his face. Her heart was pounding within her, deafening her. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said again. Her voice was fainter than ever.
‘No more did I,’ he said. ‘I didn’t understand at all. Did not understand how I was being made a fool of again. But this time by myself.’
She frowned. ‘“Again”?’
He moved suddenly, restlessly. Not answering her.
Here he was, standing and facing her in this place that had been almost impossible to find—hard to discover even by relentless enquiry.
It had taken him from a ruthless interrogation of her former flatmates, in which he had discovered that she had moved out...had hired a van to transport her belongings, to the tracking down of the hire company, finding out where they had delivered to, and then, finally, to hiring a car of his own and speeding down to that same destination.
All with the devil driving him.
The devil he was purging from himself now, after so many years of its malign possession. So much depended on it. All depended on it.
He took a breath—a ragged breath. ‘When you look at me, Tara, what do you see?’
What do you see?
His words echoed in her skull. Crying out for an answer she must not give.
I see the man I love, who has never loved me! I see the man who did not want me, though I still want him—and always will, for all my days! That is the man I see—and I cannot tell you that! I cannot tell you because you don’t want me as I want you, and I will not burden you with my wanting you. I will not burden you with the love you do not want from me... Nor with the gift you gave me.
But silence held her—as it must. Whatever he had come here for, it was not to hear her break the stricken silence that she must keep.
He spoke again, in that same low, demanding tone.
‘Do you see a man rich and powerful in his own realm of worldly wealth? A man who can command the luxuries of life? Who has others to do his bidding, whatever he wants of them? Whose purpose is to protect the heritage he was born to—to protect the wealth he possesses, to guard it from all who might want to seize it from him?’ His voice changed now. ‘To guard it from all who might want to make a fool of him?’
He shifted again, restless still, then his voice continued. Eyes flashing back to her.
‘You saw Celine with Hans—you saw how she took ruthless advantage of him, wanted him only for his wealth. You saw what she did to him—’ He made a noise of scorn and disgust in his throat. ‘I am richer than Hans—considerably so, if all our accounts were pitted one against the other! But...’ He took a savage breath. ‘I am as vulnerable as he is.’ A twisted, self-mocking smile taunted his mouth. ‘The only difference is that I know it. Know it and guard endlessly against it.’ He shook his head. ‘I guard myself against every woman I encounter.’
His expression changed.