A Past Revenge

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘Yes,’ she bit out tautly.

  ‘Then you’re going to get your wish!’ He strode across the room to pull her to her feet, dragging her behind him towards the stairs. ‘Let’s hope it’s worth it,’ he ground out viciously as he pushed her into his bedroom.

  It was an utterly masculine room, entirely suited to the arrogant man at her side. For a moment she felt panic, reluctance to go through with this, and then she looked at Nick. He was once again the disdainful cynic she had first met, the man who had taken her so callously and then dismissed her as cruelly when his needs had been satisfied. Only this time he would have no need to accuse her of being ‘mechanical’ in her response—she would give him a response like he had never known before!

  ‘Yes, let’s hope it is,’ she murmured as she began to take off her clothes, seeing his eyes widen in surprise at her action. ‘We can hardly make love with our clothes on,’ she taunted him.

  ‘No,’ he rasped, angrily pulling off his tie before he too began to undress.

  His body was just as magnificent as she remembered, and as she kissed and caressed him she knew this was what had been denied her the last time they made love, that he had been intent then only on subjugating her, of making her body dance to his commands. But he couldn’t stop her now, or his own reaction as she touched him intimately, his body leaping with desire.

  ‘Danielle …!’ his cry was partway between a groan of hunger and a plea for her to stop.

  But she didn’t do the latter, refused to give him any respite to the aching satisfaction she wanted him to feel. Finally he could stand her caresses no longer, rolling her over on to her back, possessing her with a savage thrust of his body, as if he wanted to punish her for giving him so much pleasure.

  Danielle hadn’t wanted to feel any of that pleasure herself, but the heated warmth began to invade her body with each new thrust of his thighs, and when Nick’s passion exploded into ecstasy she knew she had reached the summit with him, her whole body pulsating with a sensitivity that made her tremble.

  Nick gave her a long speaking glance as he moved to lie at her side, a dark flush to his cheeks as the sleep of the satiated overcame him. Danielle lay looking down at him for several minutes, too weak herself to move very much, knowing that the two of them had reached a moment of ecstasy shared by few, that Nick had been as moved by the moment as she was.

  With one last lingering look she left his bed to quietly dress, going back to her own bedroom to pack her things. When Nick woke he would find her gone, as savagely removed from his life as he had once been from hers.

  But before leaving she returned to his bedroom once more. He still slept, and she moved silently to the unit that stood beside his bed, placing the two hundred pounds where he couldn’t possibly miss seeing it when he woke up, quietly leaving the room and the house afterwards.

  CHAPTER NINE

  SHE was working later that morning when the insistent ringing began on her doorbell, taking her time in going to the door, not sure that she was up to this confrontation yet. She hadn’t slept at all after she returned to her apartment last night, the time she had spent in Nick’s bed shaking her more than she cared to think about, and meeting him again now, when her defences were down, wasn’t something she exactly welcomed. But this final meeting had to be faced, and perhaps it was better sooner than later.

  ‘What the hell do you mean by sneaking out of my bed and house in the middle of the night like that?’ he didn’t waste time on preliminaries, striding arrogantly into her lounge to glare across the room at her. ‘And what’s the meaning of this?’ he threw the folded twenty pound notes down on the coffee table between them.

  It was as if he had thrown down the gauntlet between them, reminding Danielle of the reason why she had carried out this elaborate plan of revenge. She stiffened her shoulders in resolve, ready to face any of the fury he might show her with an anger of her own.

  ‘I didn’t sneak out of the house,’ she told him coolly. ‘I simply left; we both know I was well enough.’

  His eyes iced over. ‘It wasn’t a question of whether or not you’re well enough, you know damn well that after last night we needed to talk.’

  ‘Why?’

  He drew in an angry breath. ‘Because last night was the deepest, most satisfying lovemaking I’ve ever known. And it was your lovemaking.’

  She looked at him coldly. ‘Not too mechanical for you?’ she taunted.

  Puzzlement flickered in his eyes at the bitterness he detected in her voice. ‘Look,’ he began in a reasoning tone, ‘I know you’re angry with me, that we argued before we made love. But I know you felt the same completeness I did.’

  She shrugged, knowing she couldn’t deny it. ‘Isn’t that what sex is all about?’

  ‘No!’ He was breathing heavily in his anger. ‘And it wasn’t just sex.’

  ‘Wasn’t it? I thought we had acknowledged before we went to bed together that that was exactly what it was between us,’ she drawled dismissively.

  ‘Danielle—!’ He sighed the frustration of his anger. ‘Why did you leave the money? You were a guest in my house, I didn’t expect you to pay for your bed and food.’

  ‘Oh that money wasn’t for my food,’ she looked at him steadily, waiting for him to realise what it had been for.

  ‘Then what—?’ He seemed to become suddenly still as realisation hit him, swallowing hard. ‘Are you saying you left the money for last night?’ he asked softly.

  ‘Isn’t it enough?’ her tone was deliberately provocative. ‘I realise that the rate for a whole night is probably a little higher than that nowadays, and of course there’s always inflation, but—’

  ‘Danielle!’ He shook her roughly. ‘You’re talking hysterically.’

  ‘Am I?’ she looked at him with contemptuous green eyes. ‘I thought I was perfectly calm.’

  ‘Too calm,’ he grated. ‘And you aren’t making much sense either! I want to know what significance that money has to us.’

  Want. He always wanted. Well right now she wanted him to leave her alone, the revenge she had wanted leaving her trembling and weak after waiting seven years to achieve it. ‘Think about it, Nick,’ she derided. ‘Perhaps you’ll remember.’ She moved out of his grasp, able to breathe again.

  ‘I want to know now.’

  Her eyes flashed dangerously. ‘And I don’t feel like telling you,’ she rasped. ‘Just give it a little thought,’ she taunted, ‘I’m sure a clever man like you never forgets a thing. Now if you wouldn’t mind,’ she added pointedly, ‘I was working when you arrived.’

  ‘But I do mind,’ Nick grated. ‘I mind very much. I want to know what the hell is going on?’

  ‘And I want you to leave,’ she stated coldly.

  ‘Danielle, whatever else is going on here—and I wish to God I knew what it was!—I love you.’

  An emotion akin to pain ripped through her. His love, if she could believe he meant what he said, had come seven years too late. Once she would have welcomed such a declaration, would have been grateful for his support while she carried his child, but it was just too late. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said flatly, her expression emotionless.

  ‘I want to marry you!’

  She flinched. That too had come too late. ‘I’m sorry about that too.’

  He gave a choked groan at how calm she sounded. ‘You really mean this, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Last night meant nothing to you,’ he realised dully. ‘It was exactly what you said it was, you just wanted to go to bed with me.’

  ‘Yes.’ Her confirmation was only slightly slower in coming the second time.

  His expression was harsh, his face pale. ‘You don’t even like me very much, do you?’

  ‘Have you liked every woman you’ve ever been to bed with, desired?’ she answered him with a question of her own.

  ‘Of course I liked them—’

  ‘Let’s put it another way, do you remember them?’ she cut in heat
edly. ‘Do you remember the women you’ve slept with?’

  ‘I don’t—I’m not on trial, Danielle,’ he defended harshly.

  ‘Then perhaps you ought to be,’ she dismissed coldly. ‘Yes, perhaps you ought to be. You walk into a woman’s life like a conquering hero, and walk out again just as quickly when it suits you to.’

  His eyes narrowed thoughtfully on her flushed face. ‘Did I once hurt someone you know?’ he asked softly.

  ‘Someone I know?’ she repeated with distaste. ‘Yes, I suppose you could say that.’

  ‘What was her name?’

  ‘Ellie,’ she revealed flatly.

  He frowned. ‘Ellie What?’

  ‘Oh no, Nick,’ she said sharply. ‘I’m not going to do it all for you, Take your—your money,’ even talking about it sickened her, ‘and leave.’

  ‘It isn’t my money—’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she nodded grimly. ‘It is.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Like I said, Nick,’ she picked up the money and thrust it into his hand, ‘think about it. I’m sure that somwhere among that calculator you have for a heart you’ll remember.’

  He crushed the money in his hand, staring at her. ‘I do love you, Danielle,’ he said gruffly.

  Her gaze didn’t flicker as she stared straight back at him.’ And I don’t love you.’

  He heaved a ragged sigh. ‘I can’t leave with things like this between us.’

  ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to,’ she dismissed without emotion. ‘I don’t want you here.’

  A nerve jerked in his rigidly held jaw. ‘Did you go out with me because of this Ellie woman?’ he grated.

  ‘You’re very astute, Nick,’ she mocked.

  ‘And very stupid,’ he ground out.

  ‘Never that, Nick,’ she said hardly. ‘Never that.’

  ‘Oh yes,’ his eyes were narrowed. ‘Stupid enough to fall in love with a woman who doesn’t even like me.’

  ‘Maybe that was my attraction for you,’ she taunted. ‘I’ve heard that willing women pall after a time.’

  ‘You would never pall for me, willing or unwilling.’

  Her mouth twisted. ‘I’m sure you tell that to all your mistresses.’

  He stiffened at the taunt. ‘You haven’t believed a word I’ve said, have you?’

  ‘No,’ she derided.

  He strode angrily to the door. ‘Don’t think I’ve finished with you yet, because I haven’t!’

  Danielle wasn’t in the least perturbed by his warning, knew that once he realised she was ‘the little whore’ he believed his niece had found him for the night that he would have nothing further to say to her.

  She had intended all along to tell him exactly what he had done to her, had meant to tell him of his daughter he had had no interest in, but when it came down to it she hadn’t wanted to tell him anything, knew that she would be hurt more by telling him about their baby than he ever would be. Her daughter had been precious to her, and she didn’t want her memory sullied by anything Nick said about her. No, she had given him back his money, felt confident that he would eventually remember the young girl he had once paid to go to bed with him. It was enough.

  She left the apartment as soon as Nick had gone, needing to be completely alone now that it was all over. Could he have really meant it when he told her he loved her and wanted to marry her? As far as she knew Nick had steered clear of any emotional entanglement since his divorce, had admitted himself that he never felt anything more for his mistresses than expediency.

  But she had steadfastly refused to become his mistress, had made him wait before going to bed with him. Could it possibly be that by waiting he really had fallen in love with her? How ironic if he had!

  The haggard-faced man waiting for her when she returned from her drive bore little resemblance to the arrogantly confident Nicholas Andracas she had become used to!

  It was late when she returned home, almost eight o’clock, and from the look of Nick he had been waiting most of the eight hours she had been out. Could he possibly have remembered so soon? And if he had, what was he doing here?

  Neither of them spoke as she unlocked her door, Nick following her inside to sink down gratefully into a chair, looking greyer then ever. Danielle woodenly poured him some brandy, watching as he drank the whole glassful down in one swallow without so much as flinching.

  There was naked pain in his eyes when he finally looked up at her. ‘You’re Ellie,’ he said raggedly.

  She nodded, refilling his glass, pouring some for herself this time, grateful for the warm fluid as she sat down in a chair opposite him.

  He looked at her with dazed eyes. ‘I only ever knew one Ellie that I could remember, a beautiful young girl with long corn-coloured hair and wistful green eyes.’

  ‘Wistful?’ she echoed sharply.

  ‘They seemed that way to me,’ he sighed. ‘When I first looked at you—seven years ago.’

  ‘Then you do remember?’ she rasped.

  ‘Yes,’ he confirmed roughly, drinking some more of the brandy. ‘I remember you very well.’

  ‘Now,’ she mocked harshly.

  He sighed. ‘I had no reason to connect the sophisticated portrait painter Danielle Smith with a young girl I once—’

  ‘Paid to go to bed with you,’ she finished hardly.

  He flinched as if she had physically hit him. ‘That’s what the money was you left for me last night?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You kept it all this time?’

  ‘I’d never been paid for making love with a man before!’

  He stood up jerkily, his hands thrust into the pockets of his fitted trousers. ‘What I did to you that night was wrong, I know that, but at the time I had no reason to believe—’

  ‘I was anything more than a paid whore your niece had acquired for you,’ she finished hardly. ‘What a charming family you are!’

  He drew in a ragged breath. ‘You have a right to feel bitter about that night, to hate me for it, I realise that.’

  ‘Do you?’ she scorned. ‘I doubt it!’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking straight that night,’ he rasped. ‘I just wanted to hurt someone.’

  ‘Me!’

  ‘As it turned out, yes,’ he sighed. ‘Let me tell you about that night, Danielle—’

  ‘I know all I need to know about it, thank you,’ she refused tightly.

  ‘I know there’s no real excuse for what I did to you,’ he said softly. ‘But I didn’t realise—I had no idea until after you had left of the real injury I had done you.’

  She gave him a sharp look. ‘What do you mean?’

  The grey eyes were sad with regret as he looked at her. ‘You were a virgin.’

  Danielle turned away, paling slightly. ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘I was far from gentle with you. There was some evidence of that in the bed, and—’

  ‘Oh,’ she blushed her embarrassment of the physical evidence he had found of her virginity, having read about such things but never believed it had happened to her, the pain she had felt too brief to have done any real damage.

  ‘I’m sorry, Danielle,’ his expression showed his regret. ‘I don’t want to distress you any more than I need to about that night.’

  ‘You won’t,’ she told him flatly.

  ‘Danielle—’

  ‘I’d rather not talk about it any more!’ She looked at him coldly. ‘The debt has now been paid, I want to forget all about it.’

  ‘But I can’t,’ Nick rasped. ‘I may have been blinded by bitterness and anger when we met seven years ago, but I can see clearly now, and I know I love you. I want to marry you.’

  ‘And it must be obvious by now that I have no interest in either one of those things!’

  His gaze was compelling on her angrily flushed face. ‘Danielle, I may have just wanted to vent my anger against my wife on the nearest available woman seven years ago, but what was your motive for going to bed with me?’
/>
  She couldn’t meet the merciless probing of his eyes. ‘You were Nicholas Andracas,’ she shrugged with a nonchalance she was far from feeling—and they both knew it. ‘I was overwhelmed by the fact that you had singled me out for your attention.’

  ‘Like hell you were,’ he bit out grimly. ‘Tell me the real reason, Danielle. Please!’

  ‘I—You were attractive—’

  ‘The real reason, Danielle,’ he repeated forcefully.

  She shook her head in denial of the pressure he was exerting on her. ‘If you’re expecting a declaration of love out of me for what occurred that night you’re going to be disappointed,’ she derided bitterly. ‘I didn’t want or expect you to take me to bed that night.’

  ‘But you were powerless to stop me, weren’t you,’ he persisted gently.

  ‘You were far stronger than I was—’

  ‘And you didn’t even try to stop me,’ he reminded softly.

  ‘The mood you were in it would have been futile!’

  ‘Yes,’ he sighed at the truth of that. ‘My wife had decided to file for divorce, and I was furious about the conditions she made. I had to agree to be the guilty party when I wasn’t, and she wanted a huge cash settlement. Neither condition exactly hurt me, but I despised Beverley’s method of getting her own way.’

  ‘I’m really not interested in the failure of your marriage,’ Danielle told him distantly. ‘Or the reason for it.’

  ‘But don’t you see, it’s all connected to that night I hurt you so much?’ he demanded impatiently. ‘I had received the divorce papers from Beverley only that morning.’

  ‘Carly had already told me that you had some unsettling family news,’ she dismissed.

  ‘I’m sure she didn’t tell you exactly what that news was, or that Beverley had made it clear I had better agree or else.’

  ‘Or else what?’ Danielle asked in a puzzled voice; she couldn’t imagine Nick letting himself be blackmailed into doing something he didn’t want to do!

  ‘My wife—Beverley, had access to certain information that she knew I didn’t want made public,’ he revealed roughly. ‘I agreed to her terms, but not without a certain amount of frustrated anger on my part. I was ranting and raging to my niece Carly about how mercenary women were, and how I would rather know up front that I was paying for the privilege of bedding her. Carly thought it was very funny, told me that if I wanted a whore perhaps I ought to get myself one.’ He looked at Danielle with pained eyes. ‘You left the party with me so willingly, raised no objection when we went to my apartment, that I thought you were Carly’s idea of a joke.’