A Sicilian Husband - Kate Walker [35]
‘Counsel for the prosecution!’
The phrase left his lips on a slightly shaken laugh. He’d certainly been that this morning. He’d condemned himself by his silence more effectively than if he’d offered any sort of evidence.
When Terrie had found out that he had a wife, he had deliberately kept back the important detail that Lucia was dead because something had stopped him from speaking. And that something had been that he had wanted her to hate him. Wanted her to throw him out of her room and never have any regrets about her actions afterwards. It would hurt her less that way, he had told himself. She would be able to shake off the memories of the previous night and go on with her life without any afterthoughts.
And he had wanted to ensure that he had no way back. That even if he tried to find his way into her life again, she would slam the door in his face hard and fast.
It had worked perfectly. It couldn’t have worked out any better. Terrie had rejected him with all the speed and determination he had expected. He was free. No ties, no commitments.
And he didn’t like it.
‘Dannazione!’ he swore under his breath as the lift came to a halt and the doors rumbled open just by the door to his suite. ‘What the hell is wrong with me?’
Wielding his key card like a lethal weapon, he pushed it into the slot and snatched it back out again, wrenching open the door with a force that expressed the disturbed state of his feelings.
What was wrong with him was that he had planned on fixing things so that there was no way back. And now that he’d done just that, he realised it was not what he wanted. Not deep down.
Deep down, what he wanted was more of what he had experienced last night and this morning. He wanted more of Terrie’s own special brand of intensely feminine sensuality. More of the deep warmth and passion he had found in her arms. More of the dreamless sleep of satiety that had followed their lovemaking.
And it was a black irony in his mind at the thought that now, finally, he had got exactly what he had set out to achieve last night. Only to find that it was the last thing he truly wanted.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SATURDAY was usually the best day of the week. A day when the prospect of a lie-in, followed by forty-eight hours away from work, gave even the prospect of the most mundane tasks, carried out in the most miserable weather, a glow of anticipation like any other.
But this Saturday was different, Terrie reflected as she pulled on faded denim jeans and a well-worn bright pink T-shirt. Or, rather, it looked set to be almost exactly like every other day this week, and that was what made it a problem.
This time last week, she had had a job. Not the best job in the world, admittedly, but at least it had been something. Something that had meant that she was able to support herself, pay the rent on her flat, and maintain a degree of self-esteem.
She no longer had that job. After her absence from two ‘vital’ elements of the conference her services had been abruptly dispensed with, a decision she hadn’t even felt up to arguing about. She had already decided that employment at Addisons had totally lost any of the fragile appeal it had ever held for her. And, as a result of Giovanni Cardella’s intervention in her life, self-esteem was something she was totally lacking. He had seen to that, removing all her confidence and leaving her feeling lower than a snail’s behind.
‘So now what do I do?’
Even the question seemed totally redundant. There was nothing to do.
Free of her job, she had spent the past week cleaning and tidying every inch of her flat. But, as it was basically a living-room-cum-kitchenette plus a single bedroom, with shared bathroom, that hadn’t exactly taken long. She had done the basic grocery shopping she could afford, and now the weekend stretched ahead, empty and unappealing.
As a result, the sound of the knock at her door was a more than welcome