‘You want me to confirm it?’
‘Yes,’ she stated simply.
‘Let me guess,’ Nicos began with marked indolence. ‘Georgia confided in Enrique, who then sold the information to a newspaper contact?’
‘Yes,’ Katrina reiterated. Her eyes flashed with long withheld anger. ‘Dammit, you could have told me yourself instead of leaving me to discover facts from a newspaper!’
‘When would you have had me confide my intention to have Georgia provide tissue samples for DNA testing, Katrina?’ His voice was pure silk. ‘Should I have introduced it as idle conversation during the few social functions where we accidentally happened to attend at the same time? As Kevin lay dying in hospital? At his funeral?’
Katrina’s gaze sharpened. ‘You knew Kevin had redrawn his will, incorporating the condition stipulating my control of Macbride.’ The anger began to build, gaining momentum. ‘So you waited. Both of you making the decision to take advantage of a bad situation.’
‘Yes.’
Her eyes sparked green fire. ‘You didn’t have that right!’
‘The least I could do for him, and you, was to allow him your total focus, unclouded by other issues which could be resolved—’
‘At a later date.’ A cold hand closed around her heart. ‘And if Kevin’s health hadn’t been in jeopardy?’
His gaze was hard, inflexible, almost dangerous. ‘You doubt I would have told you?’
She couldn’t be sure. She wanted to be. Desperately, with all her heart.
Nicos read the momentary indecision, the aching intensity of her emotions. Yet still he waited.
‘Do you know what I went through when Georgia confronted me with her pregnancy and named you as the father of her unborn child?’ she demanded.
‘At the time, I distinctly recall stating my relationship with Georgia was over long before I met you.’
She’d chosen not to believe him. ‘You have to admit the evidence seemed weighted against you.’ Dear heaven, the barbs, the innuendo had been very cleverly orchestrated. ‘Georgia provided dates, places, that coincided with your absence.’
‘Even given there was any truth in it, do you think I would have been sufficiently foolish not to take precautions against a possible pregnancy?’ he continued relentlessly.
‘Prophylactic protection has been known to break.’
Nicos wanted to wring her slender neck. ‘I gave you my word. It should have been enough.’
Kevin had believed in him. Why hadn’t she?
Because Georgia had pressed all the right buttons, she perceived silently. Shock, disbelief, anger had done the rest.
Anger flared. ‘What did you expect, Nicos? That I’d turn a blind eye? Dammit, my heart felt as if it had been ripped from my body!’
‘Did you spare a thought for my reaction?’ His voice dropped to a dangerous softness. ‘Have you tried beating your head against a brick wall, yet make no impression?’
She was temporarily bereft of speech.
‘Do you know how long it took for me to get proof of my innocence? How many legal battles I fought to have Georgia submit to DNA testing during her pregnancy? And failed?’ His features assumed an angry mask. ‘How the legal system forced me to wait until the child was born, and go through the process of a court order to have DNA tissue testing carried out on the child?’
‘Just how long have you known the result of the DNA test?’ she demanded.
‘Since late yesterday afternoon.’
He thrust his fists into his trouser pockets in an attempt at control. ‘Georgia’s intention was to latch onto me for child support, and acquire a meal ticket for life. She didn’t care who got in the way. Or who she hurt.’ His eyes were hard, his expression inflexible. ‘It seems the father of the child is a charming playboy living far beyond his means. They set up the scenario together.’
Her expressive features conveyed more than mere words, unaware he read every emotion.
‘You doubt I would leave any stone unturned?’ he queried hardily.
Katrina stood silent for several seemingly long seconds.
‘I have copies of court documents, reports from private detectives, and now the DNA result,’ Nicos explained.
Nine months of anguish, broken dreams, lonely nights. They had each experienced their own individual hell, caused by a woman whose wicked inability to let go of an ex-lover had damaged their lives and had almost wrecked their marriage.
To think how close Georgia came to achieving her goal… It made Katrina shudder to even contemplate it.
‘I owe you an apology.’ Her voice was stiff, the words almost disjointed.
His gaze held hers. ‘Are you offering one?’
A whole gamut of emotions crowded for release. ‘Yes, dammit!’ Oh, hell, she wouldn’t cry. That would be the final humiliation. Her chin tilted as she fought for control. ‘You’re right. Here, now, isn’t the time or place for this.’
She turned away from him and took two steps towards the door, only to have a hand close over her arm as he pulled her back towards him.
‘Oh, no,’ Nicos said with lethal softness. ‘You aren’t going to walk away this time.’
Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. ‘What do you want?’
Her voice broke, and it almost undid him.
‘You hold me to blame for using the terms of Kevin’s will?’ he demanded quietly. ‘Taking the opportunity to repair what Georgia had torn apart?’ He waited a few seconds, then pursued her, saying, ‘Proving to you that what we shared was too special to cast aside?’ He released her arm and thrust hands into his trouser pockets so as not to catch hold of her shoulders and shake her.
‘I needed for you to see, to feel you’re the only woman in my life. Each time we came together, you had to know it was an act of love. Not just physical sex to scratch an itch.’
Dear God, she had known. Deep down in a subconscious level, there had been recognition. She should have listened to her instincts, instead of allowing Georgia’s vicious innuendo to take root.
‘Except once,’ Nicos revealed darkly. ‘When I hauled you back from the hotel.’ He smote a fist into the palm of his hand, and the explosive sound echoed starkly round the room. ‘I was so angry at yet another legal delay; then to arrive home and discover you gone… I was so close, yet still not close enough to a resolution. To have you openly defy me attacked the barriers of my control.’ He lifted a hand and pushed fingers through his hair. ‘I lost it. And shocked you.’
‘No,
