The Marriage Betrayal

Chapter SIX


‘HURRY up,’ Sander urged impatiently into his phone. ‘I’m double-parked!’

‘I’m almost there,’ Tally gasped, running out of breath as she charged past the shops and up to the sleek silver Ferrari awaiting her arrival.

Slinging her bag of files in ahead of her, she almost fell into the passenger seat in her haste. All her attention was reserved for the breathtakingly handsome male at the steering wheel. The lean dark beauty of Sander’s features always enthralled her. Sander had spent the previous week in Athens and she had missed him intolerably while he’d been away. That was why she was cutting classes to meet up with him in the afternoon, breaking one of her most unbreakable rules on his behalf. Now, as she looked at him with shining green eyes, common sense and cool were the furthest things from her mind.

In his driving mirror, Sander had been watching a traffic warden with a hand-held device in readiness to book him with a parking offence, but when Tally tumbled into the car, dressed in her student apparel of jeans and a brightly coloured tunic, his stunning dark golden eyes welded to her instead. In a movement that lacked his usual measured grace, he lifted a lean hand to close his fingers into her tousled tangle of curls and tip up her face. As usual she was bubbling with chatter, which emerged in confused half-sentences, her overwhelming excitement and delight at seeing him again as unfeigned as a child’s. Her warmth and naturalness had as much appeal for Sander, the child of rigidly cool and undemonstrative parents, as the clarity of her eyes, flawless skin and those pink pillowy and oh-so-kissable lips of hers. Without hesitation he bent his head and claimed her tempting mouth in a long drugging kiss that sent naked excitement snaking through her in an insane rush.

Before the traffic warden had finished tapping in his vehicle registration details, Sander was already driving off. Tally was in a daze, battening down the fierce hunger he had roused so easily even while she longed to drag him back into her arms. A glance down at the trouser fabric moulded to the hard swollen ridge of his manhood informed her that the desire was mutual. She had worried that he might seek sexual solace elsewhere while he was away but the revealing heat of his powerful libido reassured her even while she knew that there were no guarantees.

After all, Tally had set out on their association with the very rational resolve that she would be sensible and not allow herself to get too attached to Sander Volakis. His reputation, his age and the very differences between them in the status and wealth stakes had all warned her not to take too optimistic or long-term a view of their relationship. But regardless of those facts, they had now stayed together for seven weeks and the heat of the attraction between them had yet to show any sign of abating.

Binkie had met Sander very briefly when he’d picked Tally up one evening and had pronounced him ‘charming’ while Crystal, who was currently staying in Spain with a recently widowed friend, had only had dire warnings to make on the score of her daughter’s liaison with a Greek entrepreneur.

‘The most you’ll ever have with Sander Volakis will be a steamy affair before he gets bored and moves on to some other woman,’ Crystal contended with a cynical twist of her lips. ‘I’m telling you that for your own good. If you’re prepared it will hurt less.’

‘I know Sander’s not in love with me,’ Tally admitted rather tightly, although she continued to keep a valiant smile pinned to her face. ‘That doesn’t mean I can’t be happy while it lasts.’

‘As long as you accept that you don’t have a future with him.’

‘I accepted that at the start,’ Tally fielded a tinge drily. ‘We’re both young and single, so of course it’s not going to last for ever.’

Having said all the right, level-headed things, Tally had become conscious that day that she wasn’t really fooling anyone, least of all herself. She adored Sander, absolutely adored him. Just the sound of his voice on the phone made her day and a glance from his dark deep-set eyes could tie her in knots and make her burn with longing. Even though she had not intended to fall madly in love with him, it had happened all the same.

She was relieved that Sander had not yet met her mother, for Crystal had never overcome her bitterness at the way her child’s father had treated her and Tally did not trust the older woman not to make some scornful and embarrassing comment about her daughter’s Greek parentage. Sander still didn’t know that Anatole Karydas was Tally’s father but she saw no reason why she should tell him, because what difference would it make to him? It was not as though her father took any interest in her life or even bothered to stay in regular contact with her.

Rushing into the lift to keep up with Sander’s long impatient stride, Tally was feeling quite dizzy when the lift whirred up to his apartment. As goose bumps rose on her skin and perspiration dampened her short upper lip she also felt slightly sick. It was far from being the first time she had felt under par in recent weeks and once again she resolved to visit her doctor when she could find the time. Having started taking the contraceptive pill to protect herself from pregnancy, she was beginning to suspect that the particular brand she was using might not suit her because she was suffering from increasingly frequent attacks of nausea.

Sander scooped her up in the hall and kissed her hard, the cool he practised in public places banished as his hands roved over her, smoothing up below the tunic to find the ripe curves of her breasts. An earthy groan of appreciation escaped him as he pushed her bra out of his path and kneaded the firm mounds that tumbled into his palms. ‘I’m so hot and ready I could take you here …’

‘I missed you too,’ Tally confided, engaged in wresting him out of his jacket, which fell on the tiled floor.

‘Skase! Shut up,’ he told her, urgently covering her mouth again. ‘You’re talking too much …’

While he kissed her breathless, stoking the flames of arousal already quivering through her, Sander pulled her through to the bedroom. His eagerness to make love to her thrilled Tally and made up for other omissions. He had yet to introduce her to any friends, other than those they had accidentally run into when out. He had never asked her to stay the whole night with him. He also never invited her out more than forty-eight hours in advance or said anything that might allow her to assume that they would still be together in a few weeks’ time.

Having whipped away her tunic and bra and trailed off her jeans in speedy succession, Sander stood by the bed stripping from his suit. He was so aroused he was in pain and had barely slept the night before. He had never had such great sexual rapport with a woman and he loved the fact that Tally had not known any of his friends or indeed his rivals before him. She was exclusively his in a way no other woman had ever contrived to be and very much his creation between the sheets. He was convinced that that was why he enjoyed being with her so much and why he had yet to become bored with her.

Watching her lover undress, Tally came up on her knees. She took the level of his arousal as a compliment. There was a hum of answering desire low in her pelvis, a tingling, dampening swelling between her thighs. She bent her head to caress his hard shaft with her tongue and her lips and a raw sound of pleasure escaped him before he sank his fingers into her hair and pulled back from her. ‘I want to come inside you,’ he breathed thickly. ‘And I’m way too revved up already, latria mou.’

Sander having reassured her with a recent health check, and taking account of the fact that she had started taking the contraceptive pill, Tally had agreed to his making love to her without using a condom. She knew that her trust in him was mirrored by his in her, because he had admitted that he had never trusted a woman sufficiently before to dispense with that added safety barrier.

He eased her down on the bed beside him and closed his mouth to a swollen pink nipple to draw it deeply between his lips while his fingers stroked the tender tissue between her thighs to establish her readiness. A whimper of appreciative sound was dragged from her as he rubbed her tiny bud of pleasure. Her hips rose and then squirmed and her back arched while he probed her with an exploring finger. With a hungry groan he sheathed himself in her honeyed heat, stretching the delicate walls of her body with his thick hardness. She cried out, eager for every sensation, clutching at him with frantic hands as a starburst of powerful excitement engulfed her and he began to pound into her tight channel with strong sensual need.

So intense was Tally’s excitement that she writhed under him as the paroxysms of pleasure washed through her in pulsing waves that were hitting closer and closer together. Their passion drove them both to an explosive conclusion. The tension provoked by that almost agonising excitement peaked at an incredible climax that saw Tally buck and cry out as his magnificent body shuddered over hers. In the same glorious instant of release he spilled his life force into her with an uninhibited shout of satisfaction.

After a moment of recovery, Sander settled smouldering dark eyes welded with concern to her hectically flushed face. ‘I got carried away—did I hurt you?’

‘No, of course not,’ Tally declared breathlessly, her eyes shining and her body heavy with an overload of voluptuous pleasure as she wrapped both arms round him in an unashamedly enthusiastic hug.

‘I never quite forget the first time, latria mou.’ Raking long brown fingers through his tousled black hair, Sander tolerated being hugged and even enjoyed her affection in a way he chose not to focus on or examine in any greater depth. She was a touchy-feely girl, designed to melt when it came to animals, kids and sob stories, and that was part and parcel of what he viewed as her soft, naturally feminine nature.

‘What did you do in Athens?’ Tally questioned, lacing her fingers through his in an insistent gesture.

‘I don’t want to talk … I want to go to sleep,’ Sander teased.

‘You can’t—you’ve been away a week!’ Tally complained feelingly. ‘So, Athens?’

‘My father wants me to move home and get involved in his company and my mother wants me to marry a nice Greek girl, four of whom she lined up for a big dinner party they staged while I was there …’

None of that information was welcome to Tally but she kept on lightly smiling for she was conscious that she had asked and should be grateful that he had answered honestly. ‘Fancy any of them?’

‘No, don’t fancy getting married either,’ Sander confided, cupping a hand to a plump breast and massaging the pink pouting peak to stiffened sensitivity, smiling as her spine began to arch in response and a little breathy sound escaped her parted lips. ‘Why would I want anyone else when I have you in my bed? Do you know, I think your beautiful breasts are getting bigger?’

Tally went pink. ‘I think it’s the pills I’m taking.’

Sander gave her an all-male grin that had a wicked edge of pure sensuality. ‘I’m not complaining. I love your body. By the way, we’re going out tonight.’

‘Where?’

‘A friend is having a private party at a club,’ Sander proffered, springing upright and bending down to scoop her off the mattress. ‘Time for a shower, lazybones.’

Tally was thrilled that she was finally about to meet some of his friends. ‘I’ll need to go home to get changed—’

‘No, you won’t,’ Sander asserted. ‘I’ve taken care of that.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You’ll see …’ Tugging her under the water with him, Sander slicked her with shower gel and concentrated heavily on her breasts. Her nipples had become impossibly sensitive and, in tune with her gasps, it wasn’t long before it became obvious that washing was the last thing on Sander’s mind as well.

‘Want me?’ he breathed, grazing the swollen buds of her breasts with knowing fingers.

‘So much,’ she ground out between clenched teeth of restraint, shaking with the desire he had reawakened.

Angling his hips out from the wall, he lifted her and brought her down on his throbbing erection before flipping round to brace her against the tiles. What followed was energetic, earthy and incredibly exciting and, in the aftermath, she was so exhausted she lay up against him in a tangle of splayed limbs, struggling to catch her breath.

Wrapped in a towel in the bedroom, she finally discovered why he had said that there would be no need for her to go home and change. He strode out to the hall and reappeared with a pile of boxes, which he dumped in a casual heap on the bed.

‘New clothes,’ he told her cheerfully.

Tally froze, disconcerted. ‘You’ve bought me clothes?’

‘If I have to take you out one more time in that black dress, or that one with the flashy jewelled neckline, I’ll rip them in two!’ Sander complained. ‘You need a new outfit and here it is.’

He tugged open the first box and tipped the contents out, so that a spill of expensive emerald-green fabric slithered out onto the bed. It only took a glimpse of the famous designer label for her to recoil. ‘That dress must have cost hundreds … I can’t accept it from you!’

It was the first time that Tally had ever really irritated Sander and he had to bite back a derisive response. He knew how much appearances counted with his friends and while he appreciated the fact that, unlike most of her predecessors, she didn’t expect him to continually lavish expensive gifts on her, he thought she took independence too far for comfort.

In silent determination he broke open the other boxes and tumbled their contents out onto the bed. Tally flushed as she noticed the cobweb-fine underwear, and stockings and shoes that accompanied the dress. Her chin came up at a defiant angle. ‘Has my lack of a designer wardrobe caused you embarrassment?’

‘No, but I know enough about women to know that you will be embarrassed if you don’t wear this tonight,’ he completed smoothly.

Mortified by his candour, Tally looked away from him and wished that money weren’t such an embarrassing subject. This was the first time it had caused trouble between them. His annoyance did not pass her by, for although he had said nothing she knew him well enough to read the tension etched in his lean dark features and the coolness in his gaze. Her pride warred with her reluctance to stage a major argument over a gift that many women would have gratefully, even joyously accepted from him. For the first time she wondered if her lack of a presentable wardrobe had dissuaded him from taking her out to mix in his usual circles.

‘I’m even more embarrassed by you doing this,’ Tally confided in a rush. ‘But I can see that you intended to be kind and generous and even thoughtful, and I don’t want to be ungrateful. But please don’t ever buy me clothes again.’

‘I don’t want you to look out of place or feel uncomfortable with my friends,’ Sander admitted.

She almost told him that if that was the case he had the wrong friends but bit back the comment as the atmosphere was still tense and he was volatile.

She let her fingers glide over the costly material of the dress. ‘It’s a gorgeous colour,’ she conceded stiffly, offering an olive branch.

‘The instant I saw it, I knew you would look amazing in it,’ Sander confided, hauling her into his arms and staring down at her with flattering intensity.

And there and then she forgave him absolutely, even though her brain was still telling her that it was wrong to let him buy her expensive clothes. ‘Will you be annoyed if it doesn’t fit?’

‘This isn’t the first time I’ve bought a dress for a woman,’ Sander imparted drily.

‘Too much information,’ Tally muttered, vanishing back into the bathroom to tame and dry her wet hair.

‘I bought you emerald and diamond earrings as well.’ As Tally froze at the vanity mirror and spun round Sander dealt her a might-as-well-be-hung-for-a-sheep-as-a-lamb look of challenge.

Tally parted bloodless lips. ‘I don’t want them.’

In the doorway, Sander flung his arms wide in a gesture that expressed his frustration. ‘What is your problem? You give me a great deal of pleasure. Why is it wrong for me to show you my appreciation in the only way open to me?’

Put like that, it made her sound small-minded and ungrateful and she went pink. ‘Accepting costly gifts from you just doesn’t feel right,’ she framed.

‘Don’t be difficult,’ Sander censured. ‘You should never question generosity.’

She thought about the Greek girls his mother had lined up in Athens and chewed at her lower lip rather than toss a provocative retort. But if she wasn’t careful, she thought ruefully, loving Sander would make a coward of her and she would become so focused on keeping him happy that she would lose herself. It was a scary consideration and while she dried her hair and renewed her make-up she swore to herself that even love wouldn’t make a doormat of her, wouldn’t make her do and say and accept things she didn’t believe in.

Infuriatingly, for she would have loved to criticise, the dress was elegantly restrained in shape and length and it fitted as though it had been specially made for her. He handed her a jewel box and she extracted earrings fashioned as glittering stars with an emerald jewel at the centre.

‘They reminded me of your eyes …’

Knowing how starry-eyed she was around him, Tally laughed and put them on. The earrings were gorgeous, catching and reflecting the light like miniature chandeliers. Indeed the combined effect of the jewellery and the dress was impressive, she acknowledged grudgingly, wanting and needing him to be proud of her even if that meant swallowing her own pride and independence.

Sander took her to a swanky London nightclub, well known for attracting celebrities and the rich. On the way to their table, he was hailed from all sides with waves and calls and it was obvious he was a regular. He ordered champagne but Tally’s tummy was slightly dodgy again and she stuck to mineral water, rather than run the risk of worsening the nausea. Sander stood up to talk to friends and briefly introduced her to young women who were barely willing to acknowledge Tally’s existence at his side. She saw a girl push something into his pocket and when they were briefly alone insisted on knowing what it was.

Sander drew out a card bearing a phone number and a personal message and crushed it between his fingers before she could contrive to read what had been written. ‘It happens all the time,’ he said dismissively as Tally stared at the card in shock at such bold behaviour. ‘Some of these women would kill to land a rich man. I ignore such invitations.’

Tally was disturbed by the number of come-ons he received even with her actually sitting beside him. Girls in opulent micro-minis that revealed a great deal more than they concealed approached him throughout the evening and eventually, to get peace from the constant interruptions, Sander took Tally to another table in the VIP area, which was guarded by burly bouncers. There, ironically, however, he met up with the only female who actually bothered Tally. He brought a slender exquisite Greek girl back from the bar where she had been standing with companions.

‘Oleia Telis, an old friend of mine … Tally Spencer …’

Oleia, who was so petite in build she made Tally feel like an elephant, managed to keep on smiling brightly while withering Tally with a glacial look of hostility. The brunette talked exclusively to Sander in Greek and clearly amused him because he laughed quite a lot. Against the backdrop of the music Tally could not hear their conversation, and within minutes Oleia had slid her tiny figure between Sander and Tally and had spread a possessive hand on his lean muscular thigh.

When the flirtatious brunette dragged him off to dance, Tally headed for the cloakroom where she was stunned to turn away from the washbasins and find herself being confronted by three young women whom she recognised as Oleia’s friends from the VIP area.

‘Why don’t you go home?’ one of them demanded with a venomous appraisal. ‘Sander’s dancing with Oleia. They don’t need you hanging around them like a bad smell.’

‘Sander brought me here with him tonight,’ Tally responded, lifting her head high, determined not to be intimidated by their approach.

‘He’s known Oleia all his life. He’s slumming with you. Why can’t you take the hint and back off?’ another of the girls asked maliciously.

Her cheeks burning, Tally pushed past the unpleasant trio and returned to the VIP area, hovering at the edge of the dance floor only to see Oleia plastered up against Sander like a second skin with her arms linked tightly round his neck. Tally watched as the tiny beautiful brunette stretched up to kiss Sander and shamelessly rotated her pelvis against his. She watched and while she watched Sander didn’t push Oleia away. Her heart sinking down to her toes and her sensitive tummy churning, Tally turned hurriedly away from that distressing spectacle and pulled out her mobile phone to text Sander.

‘I won’t stand for you kissing another woman. We’re finished. I’m going home.’

A bouncer hailed a cab for her and she climbed in, caught up in a daze of sick disbelief, even while she took her time in the dim hope that he might immediately read the message and follow her. How could it be over just like that? Without any warning? Without him first demonstrating some evidence of his loss of interest in her?

Of course possibly the fairy-like brunette had simply proved more temptation than Sander could withstand. Shell-shocked, Tally set her phone beside her bed and lay there wide awake waiting for Sander to respond to her text. But there was no reply, either then or by the following morning, when she wakened at dawn and succumbed to the realisation that Sander’s continuing silence confirmed that their relationship was over.

Her misery was evidently too much for her tender stomach. She endured her worst attack of nausea to date and then rushed into the bathroom where she was ingloriously sick. Her breasts were uncomfortably tender as well. Indeed everything felt wrong in her world. No matter what way she looked at what had happened she could not forgive Sander or excuse his behaviour with Oleia Telis. Still suffering from a sick headache, she went to class and made an appointment to see a doctor that afternoon because she reckoned it was past time that she had her digestive troubles checked out.

The appointment was brief. Once she had outlined her concerns, the doctor began to discuss alternative forms of contraception but, since her relationship with Sander was over, Tally saw no reason to continue the course of pills and said she would simply stop taking them. The doctor suggested that she have a blood test, which a nurse conducted, and then Tally returned to college. When she got home, Binkie told her that the medical practice had phoned to arrange a second appointment for her with the doctor the next day. Binkie also passed on the news that Tally’s mother was flying back from Spain later that evening.

Tally opened her eyes the following morning in a downbeat mood. Sander’s total silence was downright insulting, she decided angrily, refusing to acknowledge the painful sense of loss and disillusionment she was suppressing. The way Sander was treating her she might as well have been a one-night stand! Evidently she had never meant anything much to him and the bonds she had believed they were developing had existed more in her imagination than in reality. It was a lesson to her for falling in love with so little encouragement to do so!

Just the knowledge that she could no longer even text Sander gave Tally a hollow feeling inside. It was over, it was really over, she reflected painfully while she waited to see her doctor. The older man greeted her with a rather taut smile and she sat down rather anxiously.

‘I had the practice manager make this appointment because the blood test you had done yesterday revealed that you’re pregnant,’ the doctor explained.

Tally paled. ‘But that’s not possible … I mean, I was taking contraceptive pills—’

‘It’s a low-dose pill though. Were you careful to take other precautions during the first three weeks?’ the older man asked. ‘Did you miss taking any pills? Or were you sick at any stage? I notice you were taking antibiotics for an infection during the second week. Any of those things could have interfered with the effectiveness of your birth control.’

Tally opened her mouth and then closed it again just as quickly. She had missed taking one pill altogether and she was fairly sure that Sander had stopped using condoms before the end of the third week. As for the added risk of taking antibiotics, at the same time she had had no idea that the medication could interfere with her contraception. Reeling with shock, she submitted to an examination before asking in a small voice how pregnant she was.

‘I estimate about six weeks.’

Much of his advice about taking more rest and eating a healthy diet went over Tally’s head because she couldn’t think straight. She was having Sander’s baby and they had already broken up. The guy didn’t even care enough to have contacted her in the past forty-eight hours! She might have walked away but he had let her go. In desperate need of someone to talk to about her dilemma Tally skipped her afternoon class and went home to confide in Binkie.

The older woman could not conceal her dismay and concern. ‘Oh, Tally,’ she sighed unhappily. ‘What will you do?’

Tally closed her hands together. ‘I’m going to have the baby. Mum had me in similar circumstances,’ she pointed out.

‘Your parents were engaged and your mother still hoped that there would be a marriage.’

‘Sander and I aren’t together anymore,’ Tally admitted reluctantly.

‘But you’ll have to tell him about the baby …’

‘What are you two whispering about?’ a third voice interposed from the kitchen doorway. ‘What baby?’

Tally glanced up in lively dismay to see her mother standing there clad in a floaty black negligee and matching nightdress.

‘Tally’s pregnant,’ Binkie explained very quietly as she rose from the table. ‘I’ll leave you to talk.’

‘Pregnant!’ Crystal exclaimed furiously. ‘By Sander Vola kis?’

Tally nodded. ‘I haven’t told him yet.’

Crystal winced. ‘Oh, darling, you’re so naïve. You won’t see him for dust when you do tell him.’

Tally jerked a stiff shoulder. ‘It’s his baby too and he should know. Unfortunately we’ve broken up.’

‘Just wait until your father hears about this!’ Crystal almost seemed to savour the idea of telling the older man about his daughter’s condition, her green eyes gleaming with a touch of malice.

Tally frowned. ‘Why on earth would you tell my father?’ she demanded in embarrassment. ‘I don’t want him told. It’s none of his business.’

When she thought about it, Tally felt no concern about Crystal sharing the news of her conception. As far as Tally was aware, Anatole’s hostility towards Crystal, the mother of his illegitimate daughter, had not abated one whit over the years and her parents very rarely spoke to each other.

‘You’re too young to be landed with a baby.’ Crystal sighed. ‘You should consider a termination.’

‘I’ll consider all my options,’ Tally muttered purely for the sake of peace. She went up to her room and texted Sander to tell him that she needed to see him urgently. There was no diplomatic way of breaking such news and the sooner it was done, the better, she thought unhappily. He would be anything but pleased; she knew that already thanks to his candour at the outset of their affair. But deep down inside, she nourished a little kernel of hope that his reaction to her announcement would be more generous than he had given her reason to expect …