I should be getting immune to him, spending time with him like this. He shouldn’t be able to affect me.
She had to try harder, because otherwise—
But there was no otherwise. There couldn’t be. It was impossible that there should be.
And I must never, never allow it! However hard that would be. However strong his impact on me still. I have to deny it and defy it.
Seven long bitter, hate-filled years separated them. And nothing had changed about the reason for it. His marriage might be over, but what difference did that make? To Xander she was still a liar and a thief.
Dividing them forever.
Chapter Seven
“DAN DEFINITELY NEEDSa larger pair of swim-shorts,” Xander declared, brooking no argument. He was driving them over to the retail park by the motorway. “And he can have some new summer togs while we’re at it.” He turned towards Dan in the back in his booster seat. “We’ll check out adding another couple of cars for your garage too.”
“He’s already got four,” Laurel said tightly.
Her interjection irritated him. “You can’t have too many cars,” he said. “Can you, Dan?”
“No,” Dan agreed.
Laurel gave no more objection and Xander was glad. All the same, as they queued to pay for the extra cars Dan had chosen, he murmured sibilantly, “I amnotspoiling him, so stop looking like you’re chewing a lemon!” He glanced towards Dan, but he was examining a tabletop display of Easter bunnies, just out of earshot. “Do you begrudge me giving him things?” he asked. He could hear the slightest edge in his voice but didn’t care.
She shook her head quickly. “Of course not! But I fear—” he saw her hesitate “—I fear that he will start taking the lifestyle you can afford for granted. It’s—” she hesitated again “—very easy to do.” She paused. “I should know.”
His eyes held hers. He heard himself speak, put the question to her that her comment had invited. “So, is that what happened, Laurel? Being with me opened your eyes to luxury, so when Olympia turned up, and you knew your time was up, you decided to take a piece of it home with you. A ruby-and-diamond piece.”
The queue had moved on, and it was his turn to pay. As he put his credit card away, took the carrier bag, he turned to look at Laurel. Her face was half averted, and she seemed to be blinking, gaze unfocussed.
His gaze moved down slightly, and he frowned. She was wearing, as she always did, the same old cheap clothes she clung to. It annoyed him, annoyed the hell out of him. It was such a waste of her beauty.
“Look,” he said now, decisiveness in his voice, “while we’re here, I really want to get you some decent clothes!”
She looked round. “No.” It was all she said. It annoyed him even more. Her mouth compressed. “Your money is for your son, not for me. How many more times do I have to say it?”
Xander felt his annoyance rise. “It’s ridiculous!” he snapped.
Something flashed in her eyes. “Not to me,” she bit back. “Yes, I admit that I enjoyed the lifestyle I had when I was with you. It was so very easy to enjoy! And because I did I got called a thief—then and now. So, no, I am not going to let you buy me clothes! I am not, Xander, giving you any more rope to hang me with! Not a single damn centimetre!”
She walked off, heading for the children’s wear section. She’d walked away from him like that at Piraeus, never looking back, head held high. Past and present seemed to meld, two images merging in his memory—and in his present vision.
Collecting Dan, handing him the carrier bag with his toys, Xander walked after her. His emotions were mixed, frustration uppermost, that she was being so obdurate. Damn it, he wasn’t trying to give her any more rope to hang her with.
I just want her to have some new clothes, show off her beauty. The way I remember it.
The way he wanted to see her again.
Is that such a crime?
No, it was not. Not in his book.
He frowned, thinking about what she’d said, that she’d enjoyed the lifestyle she’d had with him in Greece that summer. Yes, she had, but now that he thought about it, she hadn’t expected him to buy things for her when they went out and about. She’d bought some extra outfits for herself—a particularly fetching ankle-length dress in fine white cotton splashed with embroidered blue flowers, he recalled, remembering how good she’d looked in it—and how he’d enjoyed slipping it from her when they retired that night—but only from tourist shops, and always paying herself. He’d bought her a silk shawl once, in an up-market boutique on a marina, and then she’d promptly bought him a baseball cap with the name of the island on it, which he’d solemnly worn all day just to please her, because she’d said she couldn’t run to spending as much as the shawl had cost him, not that he’d wanted her to spend her money on him, the reverse if anything, because he’d have been happy to buy her things…
Including jewellery if she’d asked for it. But she never had.
So, why steal that bracelet? Was it more to get back at Olympia for looking down at her? Or was she jealous because it was a gift from me? Or both?
Did it make it less worse, her crime? Or not…?
