Taking hold of her shoulders, he gave them a small shake then pulled her hard up against his chest. ‘Listen to me when I speak,’ he ground out. ‘They are not important. You—your Frenchman is!’
‘He isn’t French, he’s Canadian,’ Nell mumbled, still staring at the way he’d covered the photograph as if he’d committed some mortal sin. ‘He’s also my—’
‘Canadian …’ Xander repeated as if a whole load of pennies had just dropped into place. ‘You stupid fool, Pascalis,’ he growled furiously at himself. Then those expressive black eyes flared Nell a look of blistering contempt. ‘What did the two of you do—make love on a mountain while your mother lay dying in her bed—?’
The crack of her hand landing against the side of his face made a whiplashing echo around the room. Nell stood locked within his iron-hard grip, panting, breasts heaving as she watched her finger marks rise on his cheek. There was a horrible moment while she stared into those black eyes when she thought he was going to retaliate.
Then he let go, his fingers unclipping from her shoulders before he took a step back. The moment he did Nell began to shiver. Pale as death now and still shocked by her own act of violence, a cold chill shook her, bringing her arms up to hug her body, tense fingers clutching at the soft suede sleeves of her jacket.
She took in a slow breath. ‘As I was about to say before you said w-what you said, Marcel is not my—’
‘Well, I know he did not taste the main treat, yenika,’ he drawled insolently. ‘But there is more to sex than a—’
‘He’s my brother, you filthy-minded beast!’ Nell flung at him.
It was as if someone had plugged him into an electric socket, the whole of his posture racked up with a jerk. ‘Theos,’ he husked. ‘That was a joke—yes?’ Then as he stared into her angry face, ‘Theos,’ he breathed again. ‘You are serious.’
‘H-half-brother,’ she extended in a trembling voice.
Violently, he twisted his back to her, lifted up a long-fingered hand and grabbed the back of his neck. Blistering tension was scored into every bone and sinew.
‘You should have told me.’
‘Why?’ Nell quavered.
‘Why …?’ He swung round to spear her with a piercing glare. ‘I did not know you even had a brother! Don’t you think such a thing warranted a mention some time in the last year?’
‘If you’d cared enough about me to want to know about me you would have found it out!’ she shrilled. ‘And anyway …’ she pulled in a deep breath ‘… I enjoyed watching you squirm. It made a pleasant change from squirming myself.’
‘What is that supposed to mean?’ he demanded stiffly.
Nell felt the sudden threat of wounded tears. ‘I was in love with you when you asked me to marry you. I don’t think you even noticed or cared!’
‘I cared,’ he grunted.
‘So much that you were with your mistress a week before you married me! Now I find out that she has your child!’
White-faced now, ‘No,’ he said. ‘Listen to me …’ He took a step towards her, one hand reaching out, but Nell backed away.
‘I w-was going to leave you today.’ She shook out the confession. ‘If it hadn’t been for your men dogging my every step I would have disappeared and you would not have found me.’
The way his jawline gave a tense twitch made her wonder if he was biting back the desire to argue with her about that.
‘You play with people, Xander. You like to be in control and when you’re not you react as if we have no right to pull on your strings! I’ve seen you do it with your mother. You did it with those ten men last night. You’re always doing it with me. You did it today when you set your hounds on me—’
‘You said it yourself you were going to disappear—’
‘That was my choice!’ she launched at him, felt the tears start to come and had to tug her fingers up to cover her quivering mouth. At the same time her other hand went to her stomach because it was beginning to feel strange, kind of achy and quivery and anxious.
‘Nell …’
One hand covering her mouth, the other her stomach, Nell was already spinning away. She made a dash for the bathroom with no idea that Xander was right behind her, so he took the full force of the door slamming shut in his face.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FOR a few blinded seconds Xander just stood there with that solid wall of wood a mere hair’s breadth from his face and the whole of his front vibrating from the force with which the door had shut.
Still reeling from the stuff that Nell had thrown at him, he spun to face the other way.