by Lynne Graham
Infuriatingly, for she would have loved to criticise, the dress was elegantly restrained in shape and length and it fitted as though it had been specially made for her. He handed her a jewel box and she extracted earrings fashioned as glittering stars with an emerald jewel at the centre.
‘They reminded me of your eyes …’
Knowing how starry-eyed she was around him, Tally laughed and put them on. The earrings were gorgeous, catching and reflecting the light like miniature chandeliers. Indeed the combined effect of the jewellery and the dress was impressive, she acknowledged grudgingly, wanting and needing him to be proud of her even if that meant swallowing her own pride and independence.
Sander took her to a swanky London nightclub, well known for attracting celebrities and the rich. On the way to their table, he was hailed from all sides with waves and calls and it was obvious he was a regular. He ordered champagne but Tally’s tummy was slightly dodgy again and she stuck to mineral water, rather than run the risk of worsening the nausea. Sander stood up to talk to friends and briefly introduced her to young women who were barely willing to acknowledge Tally’s existence at his side. She saw a girl push something into his pocket and when they were briefly alone insisted on knowing what it was.
Sander drew out a card bearing a phone number and a personal message and crushed it between his fingers before she could contrive to read what had been written. ‘It happens all the time,’ he said dismissively as Tally stared at the card in shock at such bold behaviour. ‘Some of these women would kill to land a rich man. I ignore such invitations.’
Tally was disturbed by the number of come-ons he received even with her actually sitting beside him. Girls in opulent micro-minis that revealed a great deal more than they concealed approached him throughout the evening and eventually, to get peace from the constant interruptions, Sander took Tally to another table in the VIP area, which was guarded by burly bouncers. There, ironically, however, he met up with the only female who actually bothered Tally. He brought a slender exquisite Greek girl back from the bar where she had been standing with companions.
‘Oleia Telis, an old friend of mine … Tally Spencer …’
Oleia, who was so petite in build she made Tally feel like an elephant, managed to keep on smiling brightly while withering Tally with a glacial look of hostility. The brunette talked exclusively to Sander in Greek and clearly amused him because he laughed quite a lot. Against the backdrop of the music Tally could not hear their conversation, and within minutes Oleia had slid her tiny figure between Sander and Tally and had spread a possessive hand on his lean muscular thigh.
When the flirtatious brunette dragged him off to dance, Tally headed for the cloakroom where she was stunned to turn away from the washbasins and find herself being confronted by three young women whom she recognised as Oleia’s friends from the VIP area.
‘Why don’t you go home?’ one of them demanded with a venomous appraisal. ‘Sander’s dancing with Oleia. They don’t need you hanging around them like a bad smell.’
‘Sander brought me here with him tonight,’ Tally responded, lifting her head high, determined not to be intimidated by their approach.
‘He’s known Oleia all his life. He’s slumming with you. Why can’t you take the hint and back off?’ another of the girls asked maliciously.
Her cheeks burning, Tally pushed past the unpleasant trio and returned to the VIP area, hovering at the edge of the dance floor only to see Oleia plastered up against Sander like a second skin with her arms linked tightly round his neck. Tally watched as the tiny beautiful brunette stretched up to kiss Sander and shamelessly rotated her pelvis against his. She watched and while she watched Sander didn’t push Oleia away. Her heart sinking down to her toes and her sensitive tummy churning, Tally turned hurriedly away from that distressing spectacle and pulled out her mobile phone to text Sander.
‘I won’t stand for you kissing another woman. We’re finished. I’m going home.’
A bouncer hailed a cab for her and she climbed in, caught up in a daze of sick disbelief, even while she took her time in the dim hope that he might immediately read the message and follow her. How could it be over just like that? Without any warning? Without him first demonstrating some evidence of his loss of interest in her?
Of course possibly the fairy-like brunette had simply proved more temptation than Sander could withstand. Shell-shocked, Tally set her phone beside her bed and lay there wide awake waiting for Sander to respond to her text. But there was no reply, either then or by the following morning, when she wakened at dawn and succumbed to the realisation that Sander’s continuing silence confirmed that their relationship was over.
Her misery was evidently too much for her tender stomach. She endured her worst attack of nausea to date and then rushed into the bathroom where she was ingloriously sick. Her breasts were uncomfortably tender as well. Indeed everything felt wrong in her world. No matter what way she looked at what had happened she could not forgive Sander or excuse his behaviour with Oleia Telis. Still suffering from a sick headache, she went to class and made an appointment to see a doctor that afternoon because she reckoned it was past time that she had her digestive troubles checked out.
The appointment was brief. Once she had outlined her concerns, the doctor began to discuss alternative forms of contraception but, since her relationship with Sander was over, Tally saw no reason to continue the course of pills and said she would simply stop taking them. The doctor suggested that she have a blood test, which a nurse conducted, and then Tally returned to college. When she got home, Binkie told her that the medical practice had phoned to arrange a second appointment for her with the doctor the next day. Binkie also passed on the news that Tally’s mother was flying back from Spain later that evening.
Tally opened her eyes the following morning in a downbeat mood. Sander’s total silence was downright insulting, she decided angrily, refusing to acknowledge the painful sense of loss and disillusionment she was suppressing. The way Sander was treating her she might as well have been a one-night stand! Evidently she had never meant anything much to him and the bonds she had believed they were developing had existed more in her imagination than in reality. It was a lesson to her for falling in love with so little encouragement to do so!
Just the knowledge that she could no longer even text Sander gave Tally a hollow feeling inside. It was over, it was really over, she reflected painfully while she waited to see her doctor. The older man greeted her with a rather taut smile and she sat down rather anxiously.
‘I had the practice manager make this appointment because the blood test you had done yesterday revealed that you’re pregnant,’ the doctor explained.
Tally paled. ‘But that’s not possible … I mean, I was taking contraceptive pills—’
‘It’s a low-dose pill though. Were you careful to take other precautions during the first three weeks?’ the older man asked. ‘Did you miss taking any pills? Or were you sick at any stage? I notice you were taking antibiotics for an infection during the second week. Any of those things could have interfered with the effectiveness of your birth control.’
Tally opened her mouth and then closed it again just as quickly. She had missed taking one pill altogether and she was fairly sure that Sander had stopped using condoms before the end of the third week. As for the added risk of taking antibiotics, at the same time she had had no idea that the medication could interfere with her contraception. Reeling with shock, she submitted to an examination before asking in a small voice how pregnant she was.
‘I estimate about six weeks.’
Much of his advice about taking more rest and eating a healthy diet went over Tally’s head because she couldn’t think straight. She was having Sander’s baby and they had already broken up. The guy didn’t even care enough to have contacted her in the past forty-eight hours! She might have walked away but he had let her go. In desperate need of someone to talk to about her dilemma Tally skipped her afternoon class
and went home to confide in Binkie.
The older woman could not conceal her dismay and concern. ‘Oh, Tally,’ she sighed unhappily. ‘What will you do?’
Tally closed her hands together. ‘I’m going to have the baby. Mum had me in similar circumstances,’ she pointed out.
‘Your parents were engaged and your mother still hoped that there would be a marriage.’
‘Sander and I aren’t together anymore,’ Tally admitted reluctantly.
‘But you’ll have to tell him about the baby …’
‘What are you two whispering about?’ a third voice interposed from the kitchen doorway. ‘What baby?’
Tally glanced up in lively dismay to see her mother standing there clad in a floaty black negligee and matching nightdress.
‘Tally’s pregnant,’ Binkie explained very quietly as she rose from the table. ‘I’ll leave you to talk.’
‘Pregnant!’ Crystal exclaimed furiously. ‘By Sander Vola kis?’
Tally nodded. ‘I haven’t told him yet.’
Crystal winced. ‘Oh, darling, you’re so naïve. You won’t see him for dust when you do tell him.’
Tally jerked a stiff shoulder. ‘It’s his baby too and he should know. Unfortunately we’ve broken up.’
‘Just wait until your father hears about this!’ Crystal almost seemed to savour the idea of telling the older man about his daughter’s condition, her green eyes gleaming with a touch of malice.
Tally frowned. ‘Why on earth would you tell my father?’ she demanded in embarrassment. ‘I don’t want him told. It’s none of his business.’
When she thought about it, Tally felt no concern about Crystal sharing the news of her conception. As far as Tally was aware, Anatole’s hostility towards Crystal, the mother of his illegitimate daughter, had not abated one whit over the years and her parents very rarely spoke to each other.
‘You’re too young to be landed with a baby.’ Crystal sighed. ‘You should consider a termination.’
‘I’ll consider all my options,’ Tally muttered purely for the sake of peace. She went up to her room and texted Sander to tell him that she needed to see him urgently. There was no diplomatic way of breaking such news and the sooner it was done, the better, she thought unhappily. He would be anything but pleased; she knew that already thanks to his candour at the outset of their affair. But deep down inside, she nourished a little kernel of hope that his reaction to her announcement would be more generous than he had given her reason to expect …
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 sli
ck, 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.’