Mistress Of The Groom. Susan Napier

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СКАЧАТЬ hand. She couldn’t deny the searing accusation. Her guilty knowledge was a burden she would carry to her grave, and beyond—for she had not dared seek advice or absolution for her sin. She had done this man a grievous wrong in the very house of truth. Her only excuse was that he was strong and Ava was weak. He had survived—thrived, even—in the aftermath of disaster, as she had known that he would...

      ‘You told your lies and then you disappeared before anyone could ask you for proof,’ he said, with the pent-up savagery of years. ‘But you knew you wouldn’t need proof, didn’t you? You knew that Ava was highly strung, you knew that the shock of your words would be enough to send her into hysterics. You were her best friend, she trusted you, and you used that trust to humiliate her and her parents to the extent that she never wanted to see me again.

      ‘You were sick with jealousy of your best friend’s happiness so you smashed it to smithereens by publicly announcing that you and I were lovers!’

      Jane’s flush deepened as she recalled the brazen words that she had flung down the aisle:

      ‘This man doesn’t love this woman enough to forsake all others. He hasn’t even honoured her with his faithfulness during their engagement I’m sorry, Ava, but I can’t let you do this without knowing what’s been going on behind your back—Ryan and I have been having an affair for months...’

      ‘Why didn’t you instantly deny it?’ she choked, defending the indefensible. ‘You just stood there...you didn’t even try to denounce me—’

      ‘I was as stunned as everyone else. It was such a flagrant lie I didn’t think anyone would believe it for a moment...especially Ava. She knew that I loved her—’

      ‘How can you say that?’ said Jane fiercely. ‘You hardly spent any time together...you certainly hardly knew her when you proposed. It was more of a business arrangement with Paul Brandon than a love-match—’

      ‘Is that how you justified yourself?’ He grated a bitter laugh and watched her flinch. ‘I loved her, dammit! From the first moment we met I knew that she was the one for me...she was so beautiful, so gentle and sweet and womanly. The business deal was just the icing on the cake as far as I was concerned; my feelings for Ava were separate—private and precious.

      ‘And that’s what you just couldn’t stomach, isn’t it? That Ava had someone to love her and you didn’t— because you’re a hard-faced, cold-hearted, selfish bitch who always has to be the centre of attention—’

      ‘No—’ Jane shook her head, a thick swath of wavy hair swirling over her shoulder, creating an inky splash against her white breast.

      She didn’t want to believe that he had been as deeply in love with Ava as he claimed, but, oh, God, wouldn’t that explain the extraordinary viciousness with which he had come to pursue his revenge? It would also explain why he had left for Australia rather than force a confrontation when Ava had run away and shortly thereafter married someone else. If he had been in love, Ava’s lack of faith in his honour would have been profoundly wounding, perhaps rendering him incapable of acting rationally in his own defence.

      Based on what Ava had told her, Jane had thought it was only Ryan’s pocket and his pride that would be injured if she forced the abandonment of the wedding, and those things were easily repaired for a man of his talent and toughness. But if he loved even half as passionately as he hated.

      ‘No...’ She shook away the weakening thought. If he had loved then it was an ideal, an Ava who had never really existed except in his imagination.

      ‘Yes! So now I’ve decided to give you what you wanted back then, sweetheart...’ The endearment was a subtle insult, an insidious threat, as he unfolded himself from his seat and loomed over her, his big fists sinking into the leather on either side of her hips, his breath hell-hot against her face.

      ‘Tell me, Miss Sherwood, how do you like being the centre of my complete and undivided attention...?’

      CHAPTER THREE

      ‘WHERE are you taking me?’

      At that moment, judging by the expression on his face, she wouldn’t have put it past him to be spiriting her to some isolated spot with a quiet murder in mind.

      He didn’t move, still crowding her, surrounding her with the heat of his physical menace as he purred:

      ‘Where would you like me to take you?’

      Her breath caught in her throat, but he eased away and she found her wits again.

      ‘Home, of course,’ she said grittily.

      Without looking away from her he sprawled back on his seat and picked up the phone at his elbow, giving the chauffeur her address. When her eyes flickered he said softly, ‘Oh, yes, I know where you live... I know what you eat, what you wear, who you see. Nothing escapes me.’

      ‘Except the occasional bride,’ said Jane unwisely, wiping the smug expression from his face.

      The breath hissed between his teeth. ‘Ava didn’t escape... I let her go.’

      It was a very fine distinction, but one Jane was beginning to fear might be true.

      ‘You had no choice,’ she protested.

      After fainting at the altar Ava had successfully followed her subsequent fit of hysteria with a full-blown impression of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Any suggestion of reconciliation was clearly out of the question, and her parents had been forced to bundle her away on a quiet, stress-free holiday in order that they might sweep the whole embarrassing fiasco under the carpet.

      ‘There’s always a choice. I could have proved your lie, sued you for slander, paraded the whole sordid business through the courts and the newspapers, dragged a public apology out of you—’

      ‘Why didn’t you?’ She still felt a frisson of horror when she thought of all the things that could have gone wrong with her incredibly foolish plan. But she had been young enough to be fired by her own righteousness, rich enough to think that if the worst came to the worst she could buy her way out of trouble and arrogant enough to think that she was equal to anything he could throw at her...

      His voice, like his cobalt stare, was riddled with contempt.

      ‘For Ava’s sake. I wasn’t going to compound her hurt and humiliation by broadcasting your vitriolic lies to an even greater audience, by exposing our intimate lives in open court. Ava hated being in the public eye—even the prospect of a big wedding was an ordeal for her. Exposing her to more ridicule and gossip wouldn’t have regained me her trust, or her parents’ respect.’

      So he had known that Ava didn’t want an extravagant show on her wedding day but still hadn’t supported her against her mother. Given the choice of offending her parents or riding roughshod over the wishes of the woman he loved, he had chosen the latter. What did that say about his so-called love?

      Jane summoned her most indifferent stare as he continued savagely, ‘You planned it very cunningly—I was damned whatever I did. A lie has no leg, but a scandal has wings, and no matter what penalty you were slapped with in court there would always be people who believed that there was foundation to the story. The only way to protect Ava was to remove myself from the scene. I was going to come back when the dust settled and quietly sort things СКАЧАТЬ