Read Online The Proud Wife by Kate Walker - Free Book Online Page B

husky, sounding as if his throat had been scraped raw. He could barely control the sense of outrage, the feeling of being led on and then dumped hard and fast, as he watchedher busy herself with swift repairs to her appearance. She was calmly smoothing down her clothing, tucking it in here, straightening it there. She even combed her tangled hair through with her fingers, twisting it back so that it hung once again in the long, sleek tail halfway down her back.
    How could she do that? How could she switch off so completely, locking herself away as if they had never connected in any way at all? It stung him with memories of how she had done that before at the bitter end of their marriage. The way she had retreated from him, turned her back on him, eventually shutting him out altogether. It had seemed that even the passion that brought them together had died.
    But that kiss just now had proved otherwise. It was still there, that wild, fierce, primitive fusion between them, one that still burned its way through his body like some stinging electrical current that couldn’t be controlled.
    â€˜I said…’ he began, again and at last she looked up, opaque green eyes locking with his probing stare.
    â€˜I know what you said,’ she returned, cool and calm as you like. Infuriatingly so. ‘You said that before as well. And my answer is the same.’
    When he frowned his confusion, she flashed him a defiant look from under those long, long lashes.
    â€˜I am not playing at anything. In fact, the truth is that I have never been more serious in my life. I came here to end my marriage and that’s what I intend to do.’
    â€˜It looks like it.’
    That earned him another glare, but this one flashed real fury, total rejection of his comment.
    â€˜Oh, are you assuming that one kiss—one lousy kiss—is all it takes to have me begging to come back to you, into your life, your marriage?’
    â€˜I thought it was our marriage,’ Pietro inserted with icy precision and watched her eyebrows shoot sky-high in an exaggerated expression of fake surprise. He felt his jaw tighten against the temptation to rise to her provocation of that ‘one lousy kiss’.
    â€˜ Our implies that we were equal,’ she flung at him. ‘And I would say that equal does nothing at all to describe the marriage we had.’
    â€˜You think I forced you into it? Or used some sort of blackmail? You were willing enough at the time, as I recall.’
    â€˜Willing, yes. But then I was half out of my mind with—with wanting you. You were the one who insisted on marriage.’
    â€˜Because you were pregnant.’
    It had been unplanned, a mistake, the result of a stomach upset and a missed pill, but still he’d snatched at it as an excuse to rush her into marriage. Back then, he hadn’t been able to bear the thought that she might even consider not coming back to Sicily with him when his time in London was up. Just the idea that she might be with anyone else had driven him half insane with jealousy, so he’d used the fact that she was carrying his child as a reason to ensure she became his.
    â€˜Yes—because I was pregnant and you were so insistent on your precious D’Inzeo heir being born legitimate that you didn’t give me time to breathe. Or think.’
    â€˜You needed to think about it?’
    â€˜You bet I did—or I really should have done. If I’d been in my right mind at the time, then I would have recognised that there was nothing between us to build a marriage on.’
    â€˜There was a child. I wanted that child. And I wanted you.’
    He knew he’d rushed and grabbed at the excuse, but hehad thought that was what she’d wanted too. And he had believed that, like him, she had been happy at the prospect of the baby, that it was wanted even if it hadn’t been planned.
    â€˜You wanted the baby, all right. And you wanted me because we came