The Marriage Betrayal

Chapter SEVEN


HIS lean, darkly handsome features brooding, the banked fire of his anger illuminating his dark eyes to smouldering gold, Sander released his breath in a slow hiss when his PA indicated that Tally had arrived. He was glad he had told her to come and see him at his office. The businesslike surroundings would keep the meeting brief and to the point. After all, what was there left to say? Her walkout at the club had outraged him. He had brought friends into the VIP area to meet her, only to find that she had departed, and her peremptory text that delivered judgement without a hearing had only exacerbated his mood.

Tally had put on leggings, pumps and a long line T-shirt in a berry colour to face Sander. She wanted to look normal, not as though she had made a special effort, and yet she had spent over an hour on her hair and her make-up and had changed clothes three times over, before finally looking in the mirror and conceding that absolutely no power on earth was ever going to give her teeny tiny Oleia’s cute doll-like proportions or her flawlessly pretty face. She knew she was jealous and that made her feel mean-spirited.

Stepping inside the spacious office, she focused on Sander. He was as gorgeous as a spectacular sunset, she reflected dizzily, all sleek dark Mediterranean good looks and height and muscular power drenched with buckets of pure sex appeal. He was lounging back against the edge of his desk in an attitude of relaxation, no doubt staged to look super-cool and controlled. That masculine stance and stubborn, insolent attitude were so Sander that Tally could have screamed with vexation. She was not so easily fooled as she could read the tension in his broad shoulders and the angles of his high cheekbones, not to mention the compression of his lower lip. And his pretence of cool simply gave her a horrendous desire to slap him and tell him to give her a real human reaction. But, no doubt, she would soon receive exactly that from him when she told him about the baby. Their baby, she adjusted thoughtfully, and she felt horrendously guilty for the little blossoming spark of pride and pleasure that the acknowledgement evoked.

‘I don’t know what you’re doing here,’ Sander murmured cruelly, and it was cruel because he believed that she had contacted him again because she had thought better of her headstrong decision to ditch him out of hand. His attention pinned to her, he veiled his gaze, but not before he had noticed the proud swell of her beautiful breasts and recalled the strawberry flavour of her succulent mouth. Willing his libido back under control, Sander looked directly at her, mentally censoring out his awareness of her most sexy attributes.

‘Well, it’s nothing to do with what happened at the club that night,’ Tally declared straight off, keen to make that point for the sake of her pride. ‘You behaved badly and I’ve got nothing to add to what I said in my text!’

A surge of irate colour accentuated the hard line of Sander’s cheekbones and his golden eyes positively flashed at the schoolmistressy tone she had utilised on him. ‘You acted like a drama queen.’

‘No, your behaviour didn’t give me a choice. A drama queen would’ve made a scene there and then. I chose not to,’ Tally pointed out, staring back at him and registering that he was rigid with anger and scarcely able to credit that she was daring to challenge him again. But she wasn’t surprised he was furious because she had only truly realised that evening at the club that Sander had probably often got away with treating women badly. He was very rich and very good-looking and very much in demand. Easy come, easy go. New, exciting lovers were always on offer to him. Many of those women doubtless took whatever he dished out, eager to please and hold his attention at any cost, but that was not Tally’s way.

Strong and proud as she was, Tally was constitutionally incapable of overlooking the kiss Sander had shared with Oleia Telis unless he was able to excuse or explain it in some way, but it was obvious that Sander was in no mood to offer any explanation of his conduct. However, the recollection of his behaviour still cut through Tally like a knife, hurting like hell.

‘You walked out on me just because Oleia was flirting with me. She was far from sober and she’s one of my oldest friends.’

‘I didn’t see you pushing her away.’

The wilful curve of his wide sensual mouth had never been more obvious. ‘I’m not a eunuch and you don’t own me.’

‘No, I don’t,’ Tally agreed in an attempt to draw the aggression he exuded out of the atmosphere; it was doing neither of them any favours. ‘But that’s not why I asked you to see me …’

‘You want me back,’ Sander pronounced with unassailable assurance and the urge to slap him grew so unbearable that her hand actually tingled with longing.

‘No, no, I don’t,’ Tally insisted and she knew she was lying because, in spite of everything, including the fact that she was furious with him, she did want him back. The gentler side of her nature accepted that she still loved Sander and wanted to be with him, but reason intervened to crush such inexcusable thoughts to dust. Not unless he grovelled, and she knew Sander well enough to know that grovelling was not on the cards.

‘So, what are you doing here?’ Sander enquired with the galling air of a male who knew exactly where she was coming from and, for an instant, she felt as guilty as though the conception were entirely her fault because he had no idea what she was about to tell him.

Tally sucked in a jagged breath that jarred her taut throat muscles. ‘I’ll come straight to the point. I saw my doctor yesterday. I’ve just discovered that I’m pregnant.’

The ensuing silence spread like an oil slick, heavy, suffocating and dark.

‘How pregnant?’ Sander finally asked baldly.

‘About six weeks,’ Tally advanced breathlessly.

Sander gazed straight back at her from below spiky black lashes, his expression blank, though the pallor of shock spread visibly beneath his bronzed complexion. From the instant she’d delivered her text, he’d accepted that their relationship was over for good and now he felt utterly betrayed. ‘Clearly it was a mistake for me to trust you to such an extent.’

‘I didn’t wilfully arrange for this to happen, Sander,’ Tally protested in an emotional surge, her green eyes full of concern and distress. ‘I was guilty of assuming that there was no risk of pregnancy from the instant I started taking contraceptive pills. I confess I didn’t even read the leaflet I was given—I thought I knew it all already.’ She grimaced expressively at her stupidity. ‘It took my GP to explain that certain things can reduce the effectiveness of the pill and—’

‘You’re wasting your breath. If you’re pregnant I can join up the dots for myself. Conception 101,’ Sander derided, his raw indignation etched in the tautness of his strong facial bones and the edge of his intonation. ‘I also assume that you’re planning to have this baby.’

‘Yes.’

‘Naturally.’

Sensitive to his tone, Tally stiffened defensively. ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’

‘That raising my child gives you the excuse to live at my expense for the best part of the next twenty years, so naturally you will want to go ahead and give birth,’ Sander extended with barely concealed scorn. ‘Conceiving my child was an astute financial move to make, a definite investment in the future.’

Her face flamed as though he had slapped her. Contempt and cynicism had licked round every syllable of that little speech. ‘We both took risks, Sander. Believe me, I didn’t plan this and I abhor the idea of living at your expense for the next twenty years!’ she slung back at him with unhidden resentment.

‘A rich man is always a target for this kind of scam—’

‘This is not a scam. For the last time, this is not some sort of attempt to defraud you of your hard-earned cash!’ Tally launched at him wrathfully. ‘It was an accident and right now I’m not any happier about my having conceived than you are. After all, this baby is going to have a much bigger impact on my life than on yours!’

‘I trusted you,’ Sander grated, hard dark eyes welded to her in condemnation, and it was clear that he had not accepted a word she had said as truth. ‘I should have known better. A girl from my own world would have too much class to pull a stunt like this!’

‘Who the heck do you think you are to speak to me like that?’ So much angry resentment was roaring up through Tally that she could hardly contain it and that snobbish crack about her more humble station in life was the last straw. ‘Your assumptions about me are so wrong. My parents broke up while my mother was pregnant and I never really had a relationship with my father because there was so much bad feeling between them. I’m the last woman in the world who would want to have a child in similar circumstances because I know the damage that growing up without a father did to me.’

‘Obviously I will do what is right for you and the child and support you both,’ Sander ground out with grim finality. ‘Of course I will.’

‘Damn you …’ Tally gasped strickenly, pierced to the heart by his businesslike attitude towards an issue as deeply personal as their future child. ‘It doesn’t have to be like this between us. You should know me well enough to know that I would never have planned this.’

Sander raised a sleek ebony brow, dark golden eyes still smouldering with displeasure and suspicion ‘Should I? I didn’t think you would surprise me with news like this but I was wrong on that score. What else might I have got wrong about you?’

Devastated by that admission of distrust, Tally felt her eyes sting and she opened them very wide to hold back the tears. ‘Only a few days ago we were happy—’

‘And now we’re not. That’s life,’ Sander cut her short with a sardonic bite that tore her sentimental comment to shreds. ‘I do appreciate that you came here to give me this news face to face. But if you’ve said all you need to say I can’t see that we have anything more to discuss at the moment. The legal firm I use here in London will handle this situation for me. I will pass on your details and they will be in touch.’

Tally was devastated by his outlook and the very obvious fact that he was determined to keep her at arm’s length. ‘I thought that I knew you better than this.’

‘You knew I didn’t want a child or even a serious girlfriend right from the start of our affair,’ Sander reminded her without hesitation.

‘Sometimes life trips you up … sometimes it’s nobody’s fault when things don’t go the way you planned them,’ Tally countered, enraged that he was blaming her for a development that she would never have willingly chosen. ‘But the unexpected—the baby—will only be a disaster if we make it one—’

‘Save the cheesy platitudes for someone who will welcome them,’ Sander advised with icy hauteur. ‘My lawyer will contact you.’

Pale as death, Tally walked back to the door. ‘I don’t appreciate being treated like some kind of confidence trickster.’

‘And I don’t appreciate being forced into becoming a father,’ Sander retorted in a flat rejoinder.

A week after that encounter, Sander was surprised to learn from his PA that Anatole Karydas had demanded a meeting with him.

Although his father often did business through Anatole—for Anatole was a renowned mover and shaker—Sander had only met the older man in passing and he didn’t like what he knew about Anatole’s dodgy business methods. Anatole was, however, a very influential wheeler-dealer with fingers in lots of different pies. He was also a notoriously bad-tempered bully, feared by his employees and his competitors for never forgetting a mistake or a slight.

‘Volakis …’ Anatole grunted in acknowledgement as he came in, a small portly figure with sharp dark eyes and an unmistakeable air of pomposity. ‘I believe you met my daughter at Westgrave Manor a couple of months ago.’

‘I gave Cosima a lift home one evening,’ Sander acknowledged with care, wondering if that was Anatole’s notion of small talk.

‘Tally told me that you played the Good Samaritan,’ Anatole commented, watching Sander frown in surprise at that reference. ‘Although I choose not to make a song and dance about it, Tally Spencer happens to be my daughter as well.’

Sander stared fixedly at the older man, convinced he must have misunderstood. ‘Sorry, Tally is … also your daughter?’

‘I never married her mother, of course, and my wife and Cosima don’t want the relationship acknowledged. To be frank, I’ve never had much to do with Tally. I can’t stand her harpy of a mother,’ Anatole revealed with a curled lip. ‘But Tally’s still my blood and I won’t stand by in silence and allow you to wreck her life.’

If Tally had been standing there at that instant, Sander truly believed he would have strangled her for concealing her true identity from him. Indeed, from the moment they had met, she had deliberately deceived him by pretending that she worked for her half-sister, Cosima. He was beginning to appreciate that he had never known Tally Spencer at all. A male unaccustomed to the discomfiture of being taken very much by surprise, Sander felt his temper blaze up beneath his controlled surface.

‘Obviously you’re aware that Tally is carrying my child. I hope I haven’t wrecked anybody’s life,’ Sander murmured drily. ‘I don’t turn my back on my responsibilities, Anatole, and I will support Tally in every way possible.’

‘You get my daughter pregnant, you marry her,’ Anatole contradicted without hesitation. ‘As far as I’m concerned, any other form of support is an insult to me and my family name.’

Shocked though he was by that speech, Sander could feel a current of icy self-restraint spreading through him, a current powered by the shrewd and cautious genes of his aristocratic ancestors. Anatole’s vulgarity and his attempt to interfere were distasteful but it was not surprising that so self-important a man should have chosen to regard Tally’s situation as a personal affront to his dignity.

‘No insult was intended.’

Already tiring of the conversation, Anatole took a belligerent step forward and shook a clenched fist. ‘Either you marry my girl or I pull the rug out from beneath your father.’

Sander froze. ‘What are you saying?’

‘That, whether you know it or not, Volakis Shipping is dangerously over-extended. Your late brother borrowed and spent too much for a business trading in an economic crisis. Your father needs to win the TKR contract to keep your family company solvent,’ Anatole outlined with a bullish expression. ‘If I speak a word in the wrong quarter, that contract will be awarded elsewhere and Volakis Shipping will go down.’

Sander studied Anatole with revulsion. He was well aware that the family shipping firm was over extended. In funding an expansion at the wrong time, his late brother Titos had taken too many risks in a field where competition was fierce and prices keen. Sander had no doubt that it was within Anatole’s power to kill the TKR contract dead with just the whisper that Volakis Shipping might be a risky choice of carrier. Guilt assailed him. He had ignored his suspicion that his father, Petros, was struggling to handle more than he was equipped to deal with, and that sense of responsibility only grew as Sander recognised how much his own unlucky dalliance with Tally might ultimately cost his family.

‘I have to consider this,’ Sander breathed between clenched teeth, his self-discipline stretched thin because he would have been happier to plant a fist in Anatole’s smug face. ‘Did Tally tell you that she was pregnant?’

‘Her mother did,’ Anatole admitted harshly. ‘Tally has no idea I’m here.’

The older man took his leave. Sander was in a daze, the foundations of his world in a state of collapse. He was expected to marry her? Marry Tally Spencer … Karydas? Sander wanted to punch the wall in furious frustration. He felt … trapped. He didn’t want to get married. He had once, as a naïve teenager, wanted to marry Oleia but that dream had gone sour overnight, never to be revisited. He had learned a lot from that disillusionment, although clearly not as much as he believed, he conceded bitterly.

Tally had made a very good job of fooling him. An ordinary girl? He suppressed a contemptuous laugh. Self-evidently, there was nothing ordinary about Tally, who had gone out of her way to conceal her true parentage from him. But it hadn’t taken her long to show her real colours and wheel out the big guns in the shape of her thuggish father. How could anyone expect him to believe that she had not personally informed Anatole of her condition? An accidental pregnancy? How could he ever credit that story now? Anatole Karydas was as crafty and calculating as a man could be and it looked very much as though Tally had inherited more than her lack of height from her paternal genes.

Anatole Karydas was blackmailing him. Sander ground his even white teeth together in disbelief. Marry Tally or else. And Sander would have called Anatole’s bluff, had it not been for the fact that it would be his parents, rather than himself, who would pay the price for his refusal to give way to the older man’s demand. He was already uncomfortably aware that, in recent years, he had been a less than dutiful son and although he had never been close to his parents, he still loved them and cared about what happened to them.

Sander knew that he could survive the fall of Volakis Shipping unscathed. He did not depend for support either on his parents or on the family business. But he was painfully conscious that six generations of his family had sweated blood and tears to build that business into a world-renowned shipping line. In the space of three years his older brother had destroyed an established concern with his grandiose determination to modernise and expand almost overnight. Sander’s parents would be devastated if they lost the company, not to mention the comfortable lifestyle and society status that they took for granted.

There was no way that Sander could allow that to happen to them at their stage in life … no way at all.

He was their son and there were bonds that even the strongest rebel could not deny. He could not stand by and watch Volakis Shipping fail simply to retain his own freedom and independence.

And Tally was, it had to be said, his every fantasy in bed, he mused with reflective heat. That was one plus, though the baby she was carrying was a very big minus on his terms. Sander could barely credit that he had run such a huge risk on the contraceptive front merely to enjoy the freedom of sex without a protective barrier. Why the hell had he done that? After all, he hated the idea of becoming a father, indeed had never been drawn to that prospect. Babies cried and pooped and smelled, and he had always seen them as a very unattractive option. When they grew into toddlers they threw tantrums and food and made incessant demands, and their unappealing habits only became more pronounced and disruptive with age. Even worse, he had noticed that wives tended to concentrate their energies on their children rather than on their husbands. A baby … the very thought of such an entity upsetting his carefree and unashamedly self-indulgent life turned Sander cold. He supposed that he wouldn’t be expected to have very much to do with it. A good nanny, a team of good nannies, would make all the difference to their lives, he told himself in mounting desperation.

Marriage … Sander poured himself a stiff drink and tipped it back with scant appreciation. He knew that he was going to get very, very drunk before he went to see Tally the next day. He dared not mention her father’s visit. Suppressing his anger on that issue, he reminded himself that, having been brutally honest with her when she told him about the baby, he now had fences to mend. He also had an honourable proposal to make in response to the most dishonourable act of blackmail …