The Tycoon's Blackmailed Mistress - Maxine Sullivan Page 0,45
of the iceberg, right?”
For several more seconds he held her gaze. She wanted to look away but couldn’t. “Yes,” she admitted.
His eyes glittered with something so strong, so palpable, she felt a shiver roll down her spine. “Tell me about your marriage.”
She drew a calming breath, glad to be able to talk about it. “It was a mistake almost from the start, but I tried to pretend it didn’t matter. After a while I couldn’t even do that anymore.”
“Did you love him?”
“I thought I did, but I soon found out his idea of marriage was different than mine. He wanted unconditional love and I…well, I just wanted to be free.”
“Yet you fell pregnant to him,” he pointed out, his eyes detached but she knew he wasn’t.
“Not on purpose, Flynn. I would never have wanted my child to be brought up in that sort of atmosphere.” She took a shaky breath, trying to ignore the sick feeling in her stomach at the thought. “No, it just happened. I was finally ready to leave Robert, but he convinced me not to walk out on our marriage and to give it one more try. I knew I didn’t love him anymore. I knew he was probably being manipulative but…” She swallowed hard. “He said things would be different from now on, only he never got the chance to prove it. He was killed in a car accident a week later.”
Slowly Flynn’s shoulders looked less tense. “I’m sorry for what he did to you. For what they both did to you. If I could take away your pain, I would.”
Sudden tears sprang to her eyes. No matter what had passed between her and Flynn, no matter how angry he’d made her feel, or what accusations he’d thrown at her or how arrogant he’d become, he’d given her so much.
“You already have,” she murmured, blinking back her tears. “Oh, Flynn, when we made love, you made me feel like a woman again, instead of a poor example of a wife.”
His dark eyes deepened in color. “You would never be a poor example of anything. Never.”
She swallowed hard. “Thank you.”
Just then the wail of a siren could be heard coming closer, and the real world intruded. She saw a shutter come down over Flynn’s face.
He reached for the door handle. “Rest now. I’ll see to this.” He opened the door then looked back at her, his eyes bleak. “I’ll be moving into the bedroom next door. You need have no fear of being smothered by me any longer.”
“Oh, but…” His words clutched at her heart, making her aware that she suddenly didn’t like this wall he was putting between them. “Flynn, I don’t want you to use another bedroom. I want you to share my bed. I—” it was hard for her to say this “—need you right now.”
He froze, his dark eyes riveting on her face. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She moistened her lips. “So…will you be coming back?”
His eyes searched hers, reading her thoughts. “You can count on it,” he said brusquely, then left the room.
She sat there for long moments after he’d gone, exhausted but incredibly relieved by his words. No matter how apprehensive she was about their relationship, no matter that it had progressed to another deeper level, it was somehow important to have Flynn by her side, if only until the baby was born.
After the ambulance left, Flynn went into the study, reached for one of the unopened bottles on the bar and poured himself a large measure of whiskey. It should have burned going down but it didn’t. He was already burning inside. Burning to take a certain dead man by the throat and rip his heart out.
And Monica. She was certainly a piece of work. She’d admitted having her daughter-in-law kicked out of the penthouse and then tried to dump everything on Danielle’s slim shoulders. It was just as well the older woman was on her way to a psychiatric hospital. She needed help and he doubted she would be released for quite some time.
Danielle must have gone through a living hell with those two. The thought of it appalled him.
But what appalled him even more was that he had been doing the same thing to her, telling her what to do and smothering her independence just as surely as Robert and Monica had done, not to mention accusing her of all sorts of things she hadn’t done.
He’d found that out after Connie had called a half hour ago with