'You are driving me out of my mind', Bryan murmured, his voice rough with emotion, his mouth sliding to her throat. 'Gid Sharon, I want you --- I don't think a lifetime will ease this pain...'
Sharon closed her eyes, her hands still caressing his wide muscular shoulders, tangling in the vital thickness of his hair. She knew how he felt. She wanted him with an intensity that made her feel faint.
'I want you', she whispered, her voice breaking. It was not an admission of defeat but an answering if his need. 'Bryan please hold me, hold me please'.
She felt the strength of his arms tightening possessively around her and suddenly, the wetness of tears in her face. She swallowed them back aware that she was on the point of abandoning her foolish pride for ever. She would never know a love like this again.
Unbidden, Devon's face rose in her mind, holding her back, reminding her that Bryan had never loved her.
'Why ... why did Devon tell the press?' She asked in a shaking voice.
Bryan stared down into her face, his black eyes still heavy with desire. 'God knows', he said huskily. 'I guess because she is not very well. She can't always ------'.
Three years ago, I found you kissing her and smooching her when she came to visit you in the bank. It was clear what the both of you did or would do behind close doors. Damn you. I don't think that you can excuse that by saying that she is not very well, do you?'
She felt him stiffen, his body tensing. The desire faded from his eyes, his face became a hard expressionless mask. 'What the hell are you talking about?' he demanded.
'You know very well', Sharon almost shouted. 'You must have thought that I was a fool and I must have been to have trusted you'.
She saw his jaw clenching. He grabbed her, his hands bruising the fragile bones of her shoulder.
'Tell me', he said harshly.
'You don't remember?' All the pain she had been holding back for three long years seemed to spill out unchecked. She felt angrier than she had ever felt in her life. 'No I suppose you don't. I had been on my way to your office. I didn't know why but I had wanted to see you under one pretense or the other but Devon saw me and kissed you on the lips, I had thought that she was nothing to you but a friend of your sister though she had always been hostile to me. The kiss was not a chast one at all and I saw your hands go round her waist pulling her closer. I was so psined that zi could not look on, I needed no fortune teller to tell me what would take place later and to preserve my peace of mind, I left and that was the day, I left the bank as well because if you could do that in my presence, then imagine how you would carry on behind my back'.
Bryan gripped her shoulders, tightened until she thought that her bones would break. She winced with pain.
'And I hate you now just as I hated you then', she said struggling against his hands.
'So you went straight to Gerhard?' He muttered between his teeth.
'What difference dies it make?'
He let her go. Releasing her so abruptly that she almost fell. They stood inches apart, facing each other as bitter enemies. He was breathing heavily, his hands clenched into fists at his side, his eyes leaping with fury.
'You stupid little bitch'. I have never taken Devin to bed. I have never touched her.
'You are a liar', Sharon said wildly. 'A liar'. She flew at him, beating st his broad chest with her fists, wanting to kill him. 'I saw you with my own eyes'.
He caught her hands, pinioning them behind her back,pulling her against his hard body. She fought him violently as he began to kiss her. His mouth was angry, almost brutal and she tried to resist. But her body betrayed her again and her lips parted almost immediately, her response quick and fierce.
Bryan let go off her hands and they crept up around his neck, to touch his hair, his shoulders. She moaned beneath the demanding hunger of his mouth.
At last, he lifted up his head and stared down into her blind face, bitterness in his eyes.
'How could you go to him? How could you let him touch you?' The words were torn from him, harsh, accusing.
'I didn't', she said too weary to lie anymore. She closed her eyes, lowering her head.
'What?' He tilted up her face, hurting her, forcing her to look at him.
'I didn't', she repeated, dry mouthed, knowing that she had to tell the truth. 'I never did. Gerhard was never my lover'.
Bryan's black eyes held hers. 'I saw you together, the night you went away. I just didn't know you were going away with him, I may have stopped you and I saw him kiss you'.
'He was in love with me. That night you saw us, I never expected him to kiss me, I didn't want him to. As far as I was concerned we were just good friends brought together by our profession and out mutual friend David'. There was a calm relief in finally telling him the truth.
'Your cousin told me....'
'It was to protect me. I didn't want to see you'.
Bryan's mouth tightened, his jaw clenched. 'You married him damnit!'
'Because he was dying. It was what he wanted and I couldn't refuse him', she whispered, the tears coursing down her face.
Bryan swore long and violently. His face was white and totally blank. His eyes were burning like fire.
'Bryan, I...', she had to say something. She was disturbed by what she saw in him. He didn't look at her, he turned from her and walked from the room in silence, his body very tense.
Sharon let him go on anger, not understanding his anger, his deadly fury.
Her mind was in a turmoil, refusing to function properly. She sank down on the chair and cried her eyes out.