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Chapter Thirty Six
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“It is not ridiculous for me to think this. He looks at you with the eyes of a man who has claim to you.” Dash said.
“There is such thing as the claim of friendship.” Tess replied.
“And friendship requires late night visits to his hotel room?” he asked, making Tess even more angry.
“I’ve never been to his hotel room late at night, for goodness’ sake. I’m hardly the type to carry on a brief affair, or did you miss the hopeless-in-bed description?” she said. As the words left her mouth, she realized with chagrin she’d given Dash what he wanted—a definite answer to whether or not she was sleeping with David.
He didn’t look smug, however. He was too busy glaring at her. “Stop repeating that bitch’s words as if they are gospel. She knows nothing of you or your passions. You will be a consuming
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That she did not yet realize she belonged to him now was the only reason he had not flattened that David, but soon both she and he would know it. And then let the blond man touch her at his peril.Her father obviously hadn't told her about this, so it was better to keep it that way. The elevator stopped and Tess looked up for the first time. “Where are we?” she asked.The doors slid open and he stood back for her exit first. “This is my headquarters.”he replied.They stepped through one of the two doors on the landing.She looked around them. “It looks more like a home to me, or are you trying to tell me that a tycoon does his business in the living room rather than the boardroom?”He felt his lips quirk at her sassiness. This unexpected side to her nature was not altogether unpleasing. A wife without spirit would not suit him
SILENT DESIRES Chapter Thirty Eight
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Explain.” he said.She was only too happy to do so. “I spent three hours as the butt of every joke in the room. Poor hopeless Tess, throwing herself at the gorgeous Dash Black,” she mimicked with savage pain. “Did you see how he had to practically tear her arms off of him? We always knew she was hopeless, but to be that desperate.”The cruel voices echoed in her head as if it had just happened and the painful mortification sliced her heart.“This cannot be true. I kissed you. Surely the other guests saw that. Seriously! I rejected that tall blonde’s advances to be with you.”“Oh, yes, the model.” Tess's body went taut with remembered emotion. “You know that old saying about a woman scorned? Well, she epitomized it. She told anyone who would listen that I pushed her out of the way to get to
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“Are you trying to say that if you had, you would have stayed? That you would not have rejected me so publicly and treated me like the kiss meant nothing to you?” Tess asked.His face was tight with frustration, but he did not answer. Probably because a truthful answer would put him even further in the wrong.“I didn’t think so,” she said, sounding every bit as cynical as the women who had mocked her at the party.In a move that shocked her, he reached out and pulled her to him. “That is in the past. This is now. We begin from here, Tess.”Begin what exactly? She thought, not that she had enough time to think. She hated her treacherous body that longed to melt against him. “I’m not up to your speed.” She said. Miserably aware that it was too true, she tried to pull away. “I belong with someone like David.”
SILENT DESIRES Chapter Fourty
He slowly withdrew his hand from intimate contact with her body as if it pained him to do so. She buried her face against him until he gently set her away from him. She kept her eyes fixed on the floor. How could she have made the same mistake twice? She hadn’t just let him kiss her, she’d responded with all the wantonness of a woman who routinely shared her body with men. She didn’t even know she was capable of that level of abandon to the physical. It both scared and shamed her.“Look at me, Tess.” Dash said.She shook her head. The memory of the way she had allowed him to touch her and where she had let him touch her was sending arrows of mortification into her conscience with bull’s-eye accuracy.“You have nothing to be guilty over.” he said again.That was easy for him to say. He was just fruit tasting. She’d never done any of thi
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Someone had turned it into a garden, giving the impression of being in an enchanted bower high above the streets of the city. The view over the wall was spectacular. The moment she’d seen it she’d been glad she came with him, if only for the opportunity to spend her final evening in Greece in such magical surroundings.He sat down in the chair opposite hers. No sooner than he had done and a drink was placed in front of him by a discreet servant. The first course was served moments later.Their conversation flowed, Dash asking her questions about her life and he answered her questions about his.“So, what are you doing in Athens, or is it top-secret business stuff?” She was used to her father keeping tight lips about many areas of his life.“I make frequent trips to my headquarters here and elsewhere.” he replied.He was as driven as her father, she thought. “Do you ever take time off to relax?
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“Then why didn’t I belong to you three weeks ago? Why did you leave and not come back? I’ll tell you why,” Tess went on before he had a chance to answer, “because those kisses meant no more to you than eating a chocolate bar. You found them pleasant, but not enough to buy the candy store.”“You expected marriage after one kiss?” His derision hit her on the raw.“You’re deliberately misunderstanding me. I didn’t say anything of the kind. You’re the one who has been rabbiting on about me belonging to you because of an inconsequential kiss.” She said.“Hardly inconsequential. I could have had you and you would not have murmured so much as a protest.”Oh. She wanted to scream. “No doubt your skills in the area of seduction are stellar, but what does that signify? With my limited experience in the area, a
SILENT DESIRES Chapter Fourty Three
She put her hand out. “Thank you for an interesting evening. The food was wonderful and you could charge admission on the view from your terrace.” She said.She said nothing about the company and he felt the urge to smile at her spirit in spite of his anger.He took her hand, but instead of shaking it, used it to pull her into his body, so he could walk her inside. “I will take you to your room.”Her small body was stiff in his hold. “I won’t argue because it won’t do me any good to tell you I would rather walk alone.” She said.His lips twisted wryly. “You have said it.”“And it didn’t do me any good.”“I would be a poor escort if I did not see you to your door.” he said.“Cro-Magnon man has nothing on you for primitive.&rdqu
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She pulled her suitcase off the bed and left it outside the room for the porter to pick up and add to the tour’s luggage on the bus.Contemplating marriage with Dash was an exercise in futility. He was probably already regretting the kisses they’d shared and the implications he had made. He couldn't mean all that shit he said.She walked into the hotel dining room and seeing David at a table by the window, she went toward him. They’d been sharing breakfast since the second day of the tour, sometimes alone and other times joined by their fellow tour members. This morning, he was sitting alone at a table for four.She slid into the seat opposite him. “Good morning.” She said.He looked up from the paper he’d been reading. He had it special delivered because he said he couldn’t stand too many days without news from back home.His usually mobile face remained impassive. “Is it?” he asked.&nb
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His hold was almost bruising now. “I know you have stopped loving me. I deserve it, but I love you, baby. You are the air that I breathe. The only music my heart wants to hear. The other half of my soul. I will make you love me again. I can do it. You still want me,” he said as one hand cupped her breast with its already tight peak.She turned her head and cupped his face between her palms so she could see into his eyes. “You love me?” she asked.“For a long time. Since before that party I think, but to admit it would have been to admit the end of my independence. Fool that I was, I thought that mattered. Without you all the freedom in the world would be a tiny cell in a prison of loneliness.”Her jaw dropped open. She couldn’t help it. Not only had he said he loved her, but he’d gotten positively poetic about it. “Those are pretty mushy sentiments.” She said.He shrugged, his nature showing stronger in that m
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Neal Patchett didn’t even sound sorry.“Because he doesn’t love me,” she fairly shouted into the phone.“No reason to yell, missy. I may be getting old, but I hear just fine. The man wants you and for him, that’s probably as close to love as any woman will ever get.”She curled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. Could her father be right?“You should not have done it.” She said.“Tess, you wouldn’t take anything else from me.”“I didn’t want anything, just your love.” That was all she’d ever wanted from the two most important men in her life and the one thing she was destined not to get. “I’ve got to go.”“No, wait, child.”“What?” she asked with a lackluster voice.“I do love you.” he said.Four words she’d longed to hear since she was a child. They touched her now, healed some thin
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The rejection she felt was shattering.“I thought you cared about me. I knew it wasn’t love, but this thing between you and my father—it’s so demeaning. The knowledge that our marriage was the result of an arrangement between you and my father so you could get your company back…” Words failed her for several seconds as she struggled to keep the tears at bay.Finally, she swallowed. “I never would have suspected anything like that, but it explains so much.”He stepped toward her, his hand extended, “Tess, please, we can make this marriage of ours work.”She reared back, almost falling off the sofa. “Don’t come near me. I don’t want you touching me.” When she remembered how he had blackmailed her into marriage, using his body as the bait, she shuddered.His expression was that of a jaguar thwarted of its prey.“I want some time to think. Alone.” She said.He shook his head in sharp n
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She glared at him, anger and resentment boiling in a cauldron inside her that was ready to explode all over him. She jumped up and faced him, fury making her body rigid. “I don’t have to convince you of anything.” He was the one who’d been caught taking a shower while his former girlfriend lounged around answering his phone. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll call my father and ask him.”She turned to do just that, but his words stopped her.“Do not go. I will tell you.” Dash's complexion had gone gray. “You thought your father tried to get us together, but you did not realize the methods he used?”The methods had been pretty obvious, or at least she had thought so at the time. “He sent you to check on me in Athens.”“He sent me, yes, but not to check on you. I was under duress to convince you of marriage.” Dash said.That explained so much. Dash looked sick and she could imagine why. A proud m
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She leaned forward and kissed him, still holding his face in her hands. She stroked her hands through his hair and then over his cheeks again, smiling a tender smile all the while.“We make quite a pair, don’t we? We’ve made mistakes. But I like to think that we haven’t given up. And that maybe we’re stronger for it all. It makes me hurt that you’ve given up so much for me. Your family. The place you grew up in. And you gave it up, bought a beautiful house you knew I’d love all because you loved me. If I don’t forgive you then I’m denying myself that love and I don’t want to live without you, Matt. Or your love. Not anymore. The last months have been the worst of my life. I don’t ever want to relive that kind of agony again.”He pulled her into his arms, leaning forward so they didn’t tumble into the sand. He held her so tightly she couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t care. They were together. Finally. Without all the hurt and pain of the past. Without
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The flight and subsequent transportation to the villa on the beach was seamless. Matt had changed his mind about going back to the paradise villa as he didn't want his mom or Enzo showing up again and upsetting Savannah so they had gone to moon island instead,the place where David and Emily had gotten married.Matt had ensured that Savannah was given every consideration. She was endlessly pampered and waited on and when they arrived on the island, they were greeted not only by the physician who would be monitoring her care, but a personal nurse who would reside at the villa with her and Matt.When Savannah got her first look at the sprawling villa, it took her breath away. They drove through a gate and down a winding driveway that was lined with lush, gorgeous flowers. Just for a moment the driveway paralleled the beach before it ended in front of the main house.The house couldn’t be more than a few steps fr
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The tacit agreement to her fears made Tess's knees give way and she sank onto the side of the bed. “Are you saying you spent the night with my husband?” she asked. Her voice trembled, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to die.“Are you sure you want me to answer that question?” Olivia asked.“No,” Tess whispered, her vocal cords too constricted for normal conversation, “but I need you to.”Olivia hesitated. When she spoke, her voice had changed, become more tentative. “Perhaps you had better discuss this with Dash.”Tess didn’t answer. She just held the phone to her ear and stared at the far wall of the room she shared with Dash. Was this what death felt like? Your whole body going numb and your emotions imploding until there was nothing left?Another voice intruded on her blanked out mental state. “Tess? Is that you, honey?”And she realized she wasn’t numb. “Don’t call me
SILENT DESIRES Chapter One Hundred and Two
Dash called again at dinner that evening from Rome. She picked the call, feeling subdued and just plain not up to arguing with his mother or sister about taking the call. Then she stood up and left the table.“Hello, Dash. Was there something you wanted?” she asked in a voice that sounded dead to her own ears.“Yes, Tess, I want many things, but I called to apologize for my behavior when you told me about the baby.” He sounded tired. “I want our baby, honey. I am sorry I was less than enthusiastic when you told me.”She dismissed the apology as too little, too late. Perhaps if he hadn’t been treating her so hurtfully for days beforehand, it would have been enough. “Don’t call me honey. You don’t love me and I don't see any reason why you should. I don’t ever want you to use that word with me again.”“Tess, I…” He hesitated.Strange to hear her super-confident husband hesitant.
SILENT DESIRES Chapter One Hundred and One
Stepping out into the sunshine from the air-conditioned building, Tess asked herself where she could go. Looking up and down the busy street, she knew she wanted only to get away from the crush of people. An image of the grounds surrounding the Black villa rose in her mind like Valhalla to her ravaged state. She would take a taxi to the grounds and then when she was ready, she could walk home.Having a plan of action helped calm her churning emotions enough to wipe her tears away and wave down a cab.She had the driver drop her on the outskirts of the Black estate. Luckily, she remembered the code for the small gate in the far wall. She and Elena had used it once before on an afternoon walk.Once inside the estate’s walls, she walked only far enough to hide herself in the trees, then sank to the ground. Her back resting against the trunk of one of them, she let the tears fall freely. It hurt so much.
