The Marriage Betrayal (15 page)

And the hot shivery desire that shot like a sheet of flame through Tally in response to that blunt invitation left no part of her untouched. Her nipples peaked, her breasts swelled and heat and damp gathered between her thighs. She wanted to say yes, she wanted to say yes so badly that the very word was on her lips because she knew that sexual intimacy would ease the terrible tension and allow her to feel close to him again. She was eager for the proof that he still found her desirable, for only that could make her feel in any way secure when he didn’t love her. But on a more rational level she was experiencing a sixth-sense feeling of apprehension that would not let her alone and turned the fever in her blood cold.

‘I think it would be better if I went straight home tonight,’ Tally contended, pulling back from him with strained eyes as she fought the craving he always evoked in her. She did not know how to explain the feelings afflicting her, she only knew that she did not want to add a bout of wild make-up sex to an already volatile situation. She was very much afraid that, willing partner though she would be, sex would only make her feel used because what she really wanted from him just then were reassuring words and feelings, rather than the mindless excitement of his lovemaking. And there was really no point expecting him to deliver the more tender emotions he was not experiencing.

Swinging away from her in receipt of the rare rejection, Sander raked long fingers through his cropped black hair and swore under his breath before breathing rawly, ‘I assumed we would be celebrating.’

‘My hormones are all over the place at the minute,’ Tally muttered apologetically. ‘The last week has been pretty traumatic and I need some down time to think and revise for my exams.’

‘I just don’t know where you’re coming from—’

‘Let’s fix a date for the wedding,’ Tally broke in, her desperation mounting and she shifted closer and stretched up to kiss the corner of his mouth in a soothing gesture of affection.

Unfortunately the gesture failed to work its magic. Sander closed his hands into the torrent of her curls and he held her fast while he plundered her mouth with a dark driving need that speared through her like a lightning bolt. Even so she still wouldn’t surrender to her hunger and she fell back from him, her ripe mouth red and swollen. Eyes cloaked, he gazed down at her moodily and noticed with an unexpected sense of satisfaction that when she smiled dizzily up at him, her dimples were showing again.

‘Three weeks today,’ Tally bargained, keen to smooth away the tension still hardening his lean, dark, devastatingly handsome features. ‘Three weeks today we get married … Okay?’

When she had gone in the taxi he had procured and paid for, Sander reminded himself sardonically that at least on one level he had got what he wanted. Was it too cynical to suspect that she had decided to withhold the voluptuous delights of her curvy little body until she got that wedding ring on her finger? Had the natural candid girl who had initially attracted him only existed in his own imagination? It was a depressing suspicion.

Unusually, Crystal got out of bed to see her daughter
when she got home and Tally wasted no time in sharing
her news. ‘Sander’s asked me to marry him and we’re thinking of three weeks today if it can be arranged.’

Crystal’s face lit up as though someone had switched on a floodlight inside her and she hugged her daughter in a rare display of physical affection. ‘That’s wonderful, darling! It’ll be a challenge to organise a wedding that fast, but I agree that it would be unwise to wait any longer. Look at what happened to me!’

Tally resisted the temptation to remark that her mother had been the leading light in her own downfall and quietly removed cups from a cupboard to make tea. ‘If Sander does change his mind, I won’t hold it against him. Marriage is a very big step.’

‘So is having a baby. Why
should
Sander change his mind?’ Crystal demanded sharply as she withdrew a bottle of vodka from another cupboard. ‘No, don’t make me tea. I’m going to celebrate this news with something stronger.’

‘You’ll probably think I’m being stupid but I really don’t want Sander to feel that he
has
to marry me because I’m pregnant,’ Tally confided in a rush.

‘What does it matter?’ Crystal countered impatiently and then a Cheshire cat grin flashed across her mouth again. ‘Oh, darling, I can’t
believe
you’ve actually pulled it off!’

Tally’s brow furrowed. ‘Pulled what off?’

‘You’ve caught yourself a multi-millionaire and you’re going to be a respectably married wife. I never got to be a wife!’ her mother pointed out bitterly. ‘I never got the big wedding either, but you’re going to—’

‘Sander doesn’t want a big wedding and he doesn’t want anyone to know about the baby yet,’ Tally cut in
uncomfortably, wishing the older woman weren’t quite
so impressed by Sander’s wealth but rather touched by her excitement. ‘Mum, I was really shocked when he proposed and I’m worried that he hasn’t really thought it through.’

For an instant, Crystal fell oddly still and veiled her eyes. ‘That’s silly. Why do you always look for problems?’

‘I just don’t think I’m sufficiently beautiful or important enough to marry someone like Sander,’ Tally told her with pained honesty. ‘He’s gorgeous and rich and very successful—’

‘And he’s the father of your child, so you
deserve
a ring!’ Crystal interrupted forcefully. ‘Why should you struggle for years to bring a kid up on your own?’

‘Lots of other women do.’

‘I want you to have what I never got!’ the older woman declared emotively.

In the days that followed Tally focused on her revision for her final exams and distracted by Sander taking off on a business trip to Brazil and only rarely phoning her, eventually realised in dismay that her mother was living her dream rather than
her
daughter’s. Once Anatole had been told about the forthcoming nuptials—though not yet about the baby—Tally’s father had confirmed that he would foot all the bills, even though he would not be attending his daughter’s wedding. Crystal hired a top-flight wedding planner and went into action. From that moment on, every bridal extravagance seemed to be in the pipeline, including the appearance of two cousins Tally barely knew to act as bridesmaids in concert with a school friend. In vain did Tally remonstrate with the elaborate arrangements her
headstrong parent was making. Even so, it did not occur to her that there
might be more widespread repercussions until Sander turned up unannounced at the house the week before the wedding.

‘I didn’t know you were back in London.’ In answer to Binkie’s call, Tally came downstairs. She wished she had known he was coming because she was murderously uncomfortable, greeting him clad in comfortable track pants and a shapeless sweatshirt.

Predictably, Sander looked amazing in a sharply cut navy designer suit and a blue and white striped shirt. His strong jaw line roughened with dark stubble, he trained his dark deep set eyes on her, metallic gold dancing like fiery sparks in his irate gaze, his stunning cheekbones taut below his bronzed skin.

‘What’s wrong?’ Tally prompted instantly, tension gripping her.

‘I believe you had a Save the Date card and a request for a guest list of two hundred people sent to my parents last week—they didn’t even know I was getting married!’ he launched at her in wrathful condemnation. ‘They’ve only just chosen to tell me.’

Tally settled aghast eyes on his lean strong face. ‘You still haven’t told your parents about us?’

In the face of her disbelief, Sander’s lean muscular frame went rigid. ‘It not the sort of announcement you make on the phone. I’m flying home this evening to speak to them.’

‘You should’ve told them the minute we set the date,’ Tally countered defensively, demoralised by his admission that he had yet to discuss his marital plans with his parents. Was he ashamed of her? Or simply
trying to forget the fact that he would soon be a married man with a wife and a child on the way?

‘You didn’t warn me that a virtual circus would be kicking off back here in London!’ Sander slung back at her between gritted teeth. ‘I told you I wanted a quiet, quick ceremony. I don’t like superficial show and fuss.’

‘Since you’ve taken absolutely no interest in anything to do with our wedding and have not asked one single question about the arrangements I can’t see why it should matter to you!’ Tally snapped back, the resentments she had squashed for the sake of peace now leaping out to stand toe to toe with his. ‘Do you realise that it’s five days since you even bothered to phone me?’

‘Well, if you think I’m going to start checking in with you all the time like a truant schoolboy you’re in for a big disappointment!’ Sander fired back at her in glowering challenge. ‘Don’t start telling me what I’m supposed to be doing!’

‘Would anyone like coffee?’ Binkie proffered very quietly from the kitchen doorway.

‘Not for me, thank you,’ Sander pronounced stiffly, jerking round to acknowledge the presence of the older woman. ‘I have to get to the office and catch up before I head to Athens, Tally. I doubt if I’ll see you before the wedding now.’

Filled with a disappointment she was determined not to parade for his benefit, Tally folded her arms, her soft pink lips settling into a naturally mutinous pout. ‘I’ll survive.’

‘Tally!’ Binkie pronounced reproachfully as soon as the younger woman had closed the door in Sander’s imperious wake. ‘What’s got into you?’

Tally swallowed hard and veiled her eyes, making no
answer. She did not trust herself to speak. Sixth sense
was sending streamers of growing apprehension sliding through her but she did not want to acknowledge her secret fears. She did not want to be forced to ask herself whether or not she ought to be marrying a guy as detached from their approaching wedding and from her as Sander currently appeared to be …

Instead, Tally listened to Binkie’s comforting conviction that few men had any patience with bridal extravaganzas, but just at the point when she was tying herself into even deeper mental knots about her bridegroom’s lack of enthusiasm, a special delivery was made.

Taut with lively curiosity, Tally tore open the gift card first to stare down at Sander’s signature before opening the packaging of the small parcel and extracting a jewellery box. She lifted the lid to reveal a glittering diamond ring.

In a daze of surprise, Tally slid it onto her engagement finger and then she phoned Sander, who was already on the way to the airport.

‘Thank you—it’s gorgeous,’ she told him truthfully.

‘You should ditch the exams and come out to Greece with me,’ Sander responded.

That suggestion meant even more than the gift of the ring to Tally and she beamed with happiness and relief. She would have so much enjoyed accompanying him and getting the chance to meet his parents before the wedding. ‘I’d have loved to do that, but I’ve put in three years of hard work at college and I want to graduate this year,’ she told him ruefully.

Everything was really all right between them, Tally persuaded herself that night while she lay trying to get to sleep. The ring had been a thoughtful present, calculated
to make her feel more like a normal bride. She needed to stop worrying and concentrate on what was really
important. And what was really important was that she was about to marry the man she loved and whose child she carried, she told herself dreamily …

T
ALLY’S
choice of wedding dress had been her own. While Crystal’s bold ideas had reigned supreme in every other field, Tally had reserved the right to choose what she wore without interference.

For that reason, the dress wasn’t the most fashionable or expensive, nor was it calculated to turn heads with its daring. While Crystal was clad in designer togs from head to toe, Tally had picked an elegant lace column with a minimal train that flattered her small shapely figure. Her short veil and beaded hair ornament were equally unfussy. In addition, although the bridesmaids rather frantically threw rose petals in the bride’s path as she glided up the aisle, her mother flounced beside her in a killer silver shift dress and jacket to give her away and several flocks of doves were to be set free after the ceremony to mark the occasion, Tally exuded a wholly deceptive air of calm. Her exams were over and she was free to enjoy her day.

As she approached the altar, her outward composure was speared by warning fingers of frost when she met the cold critical appraisal of her future in-laws. Sander’s well-bred parents looked as grim as if they were attending a funeral. Her heart sank at that visible vote of disapproval and anxious pink flushed her
cheeks.

She was grateful when Sander turned his handsome dark head to look at her and she rewarded that show of interest with a shy but appreciative beam.

Sander had the most beautiful dark golden eyes, she acknowledged dizzily, dazzled by the sheer charge of his masculine charisma. In only a few minutes, Sander would be her husband and she could still barely believe her good fortune. Although she had hardly seen him since the day she agreed to marry him, she appreciated the amount of hard work he had been doing; an upmarket business magazine had just published a profile of him, citing the entrepreneurial brilliance of his recent deals as well as the wide-scale expectation that he would shortly be taking the helm at Volakis Shipping. Reading that article, Tally was so proud of him that she had shown it to everyone she knew.

A sardonic cast to his lean strong face, Sander caught the shine in his bride’s eyes and the upward tilt of her full mouth and saw that she was happy, in fact overflowing with the emotion. At least someone was in a bridal mood, he reflected wryly, thinking of the stand-up row he’d had with his father, who’d wanted him to call off the wedding rather than marry a woman he had described as ‘the Karydas by-blow’. Even a reference to the baby had failed to ignite a glow of grandmotherly anticipation in his mother’s eyes; in fact the older woman had referred to the advent of her first grandchild as ‘the oldest trick in the book’.

On the other hand, neither of his parents had the slightest suspicion that their son might have been blackmailed into the marriage and Petros Volakis was only mildly concerned that the all-important TKR contract needed to keep the family business afloat had yet to be signed. Sander preferred his family to remain
ignorant
of Anatole’s threats because he saw no point in revealing that he’d made a sacrifice that—if acknowledged—would only make his parents resent the hell out of his wife … or in this case resent her more than they did already.