‘That’s not true. I did love you.’ I do love you, she silently added.
His lip curled in disdain. ‘Your parents were right about you. They warned me you are wilful and disobedient, with a propensity for volatility and attention-seeking behaviour. I should have listened to them, not to mention some of my business associates who thought I was a fool for marrying you instead of just having a quick affair. They told me you were after my money but I stubbornly refused to listen.’
‘Then why on earth did you marry me?’ she tossed back. ‘You could have just slept with me and saved yourself some hefty legal bills.’
His fists clenched by his sides, a nerve pulsing near his mouth, which was white-tipped with anger. ‘That reminds me,’ he said, reaching for an envelope and handing it to her. ‘This came for you. It’s from your lawyer.’
Keira took it from him with trembling fingers, glancing briefly at her lawyer’s name and emblem on the left hand side of the envelope.
‘Aren’t you going to open it?’ he asked after a short tense pause.
‘Not right now,’ she said, not sure that she wanted him to see what was documented there. Her lawyer, Rosemary Matheson, was a little on the ruthless side when it came to dealing with divorce settlements. Half the time Keira hadn’t even listened to what Rosemary had said during their appointments. She’d usually sat picking at her cuticles, agreeing to whatever was suggested, hoping it would get Patrizio’s attention and bring him storming back into her life.
‘If you think for a moment that you are going to get half of my money, think again, Keira,’ he said through lips pulled tight with anger. ‘I will agree to a considerable payout but no way am I going to set you up for life after what you did to me. You duped me from the start.’
Keira looked up at him in confusion. ‘What do you mean, I duped you from the start?’
‘You led me to believe you were a virgin,’ he said. ‘I realise now, of course, that was all an act. You only told me that to reel me in to marry you.’
She stared at him open-mouthed. ‘You think I lied about that?’
His eyes burned into hers. ‘Didn’t you?’
Her bottom lip began to tremble and she spun away so he wouldn’t see it. ‘No,’ she said in a flat empty tone. ‘You were my first lover.’
‘But not your only one.’
She stiffened her spine and made her way to the stairs. ‘I’m going to have a shower.’
‘Keira.’
‘I said I’m going to have a shower.’ She kept moving, one foot after the other, knowing if she didn’t get away from him right now he would see the devastation she was feeling.
She hadn’t even heard him come up behind her. Suddenly she was on the landing with him holding her by the upper arms in an iron grip, his mouth thinned out with fury.
‘You are determined to make me lose control, aren’t you, Keira?’ he asked. ‘You want something to hold over me, some supposed misdemeanour that will make you feel less guilty about what you did.’
‘No…’ She struggled in his hold but he wouldn’t release her. ‘No, that’s not true.’
‘You are a wanton witch,’ he ground out. ‘You cannot live without a man in your bed. I see the hunger in your eyes. I saw it when you came to my office the other day. You are insatiable. One man was not enough for you. It is never going to be enough for you.’
She closed her eyes to shield herself from his hatred.
‘Look at me, damn you!’ he shouted, his fingers biting into her flesh.
Keira opened her eyes but by doing so opened the floodgates of her distress. She stood shaking in his hold, tears pouring from her eyes, sobs erupting from her throat with such brokenness that she felt her legs sway beneath her.
‘Keira…’he said, his voice catching on her name. ‘Do not do this. Why are you acting this way? It is not like you to cry at the drop of a hat.’
‘P-please let me g-go…’ she said between sobs.
Patrizio released her arms and brought her head down to his chest, one of his hands going to the nape of her neck. ‘Shh,’ he said, rocking her gently. ‘Shh, cara mio.’
Keira snuggled against him, her anger towards him gradually abating as his tender caresses broke through her puny firewall of defences. She breathed in the clean male scent of him, her senses on full alert as his hand moved from her neck to her hair, his long fingers becoming entangled in her wild curls.
‘I am not sure I can get through six weeks of this,’ he said, his breath ruffling her hair. ‘I thought I could, but now I’m not so sure.’
‘Me too,’ she whispered between noisy little sniffs. ‘It’s too hard…’