completely disrupted while you continue to carry on as if nothing much has happened...’
‘Stop feeling sorry for yourself. It makes sense for you to move to London after we are married. I can’t conduct my business from here. And remind me... As far as I am aware you don’t currently have many ties to this place. You’ve quit your job and your only other interest appears to be helping at a shelter somewhere. Nothing that can’t be left behind at a moment’s notice.’
Alexa felt rage rush through her with tidal wave force. If they’d been anywhere but here she would have been tempted to chuck something at him.
How dared he take her life, sum it up and write it off in a handful of words?
But perhaps that was how he treated all women? she thought with scathing distaste.
‘Are you like this with all women?’ she asked tightly.
‘How do you mean?’
Theo frowned, puzzled. How had they gone from a perfectly rational conversation about the dynamics of their married life to some opaque query about his treatment of women? He realised that never before had he had to hold himself to account with anyone—far less a woman.
Her bright eyes glittered as she waited in silence for a response.
Theo raked his fingers through his hair and muttered an oath under his breath. ‘I have no idea where you’re going with this...’
‘It’s a simple question,’ Alexa said stubbornly.
‘I’m extremely fair in my treatment of women,’ he said impatiently. ‘Exemplary, some might say.’
‘Really?’
‘Time to go, I think.’
‘Only if you answer my question.’ She didn’t know why it was important to her. She just had a vague feeling that she had to have some say in what was going on or else he would take control of the reins and she would find life as she knew it disappearing even faster than it already was.
‘I already have.’
‘I feel like you’re bullying me.’
Theo shot her a look of pure incredulity. ‘I don’t believe I’m hearing this!’
‘You expect me to change my whole life! You don’t even bother pretending that I have any say in the matter!’
‘I’m cutting through the red tape,’ Theo pointed out, with irrefutable logic as far as he was concerned. ‘There’s nothing you have here that ties you down.’
‘What about my parents?’
‘Your parents can come to London any time they want,’ Theo pointed out. ‘In fact I assume they already do, given that your father has business interests there...’
‘That’s not the point.’
‘It’s exactly the point—and if you would stop looking at the big picture with irrational feminine logic you would agree with me.’
‘Sometimes,’ Alexa gritted, ‘I really want to hit you.’
‘Who knows...?’ he replied without hesitation. ‘Maybe you will. Although if you do, it won’t be in anger...’
‘What are you talking about?’
Colour crawled into her cheeks as he raised his eyebrows and shot her a slow, deliberate smile. Her treacherous body tingled. Try as she might, she couldn’t bank down the sudden tightening of her nipples, achingly sensitive as they grazed against her lacy bra. And she was aghast to feel spreading dampness between her legs.
‘Never tried a bit of bondage?’ Theo asked, enjoying the hectic flush in her cheeks. ‘I admit I do prefer my women to fully participate in the action—although who knows...? I’m a man who has always been open to new experiences...’
‘I’ve already told you...’ Alexa could barely get the words out because her mouth was so dry. ‘We won’t be... That won’t be part of the deal...’
Did she have any idea how much he disliked being told that there was something he couldn’t do? Theo thought that if she did she might refrain from that approach.
‘Anyway, we’re straying off the topic.’ She cleared her throat. ‘I don’t like feeling that I have no input.’
‘And you’re implying that that’s the way I treat women generally? You’re telling me that you think I’m a bully who takes advantage of women...?’
Alexa cringed because, put like that, it seemed a crazy accusation. If he was a mean bully who took advantage of women why would they care if they were dumped? That blonde who had sidled up to him still had the hots for him. That had been very obvious. And she was the sort of woman who could have any man she wanted. If money had been the only thing keeping her in a relationship with Theo, there was no way she would have looked at him the way a starving man eyed up his next meal.
‘I’m just saying—’
‘I have never bullied a woman in my life before,’ Theo interrupted coldly. ‘I have extremely healthy relationships with the opposite sex. I am honest to a fault. I have never pretended that commitment and marriage is a possible destination. I have always told them upfront that I’m in it for fun and that fun doesn’t last—that beyond that I have nothing to give. But while they’re with me they couldn’t be treated better. Andrea, as a case in point, was showered with presents and taken to the sort of glittering social dos that have gone a long way to kick-starting her career in film.’
Alexa didn’t say anything, because he seemed to expect congratulations for being the sort of guy most women who wanted something other than a ten-second fling would run a mile from. And she was sure that a lot of those women who had been given his rousing speech on not getting thoughts of permanence wouldn’t have been quite as cheerful when they were dispatched as he liked to think.
‘What do you mean that you have nothing to give beyond fun? Why?’
Theo flushed darkly and immediately decided that he had imparted enough information on the subject of his private life. Inside, where the soul stored love, his soul was empty. No reserves left. That place, instead, stored the pain of his father’s reaction to loss and the hurt of his own loss...all the result of that big thing called love.
‘I’m not laying down laws,’ he said snappily, bringing the conversation back to the matter in hand. ‘Feel free to tell me if you think it’s feasible for me to set up camp here for the duration of our short marriage... Even when you have no strenuous objections to moving to London aside from the fact that it was a decision you feel you didn’t reach of your own free will.’
‘I’ve never had anyone make decisions on my behalf.’ She stuck stubbornly to her guns, but she knew that her moral high ground was being eroded from all directions.
‘Then maybe you should sit back and enjoy the novelty.’
Theo knew that that remark was tantamount to waving a red rag at a bull with an axe to grind, but he couldn’t help himself. Something about the way she reddened and pursed her
