HELEN BROOKS - The Baby Secret

‘You don’t like it?’ She stared at him incredulously, unable to believe her ears. ‘Well, that’s just tough, isn’t it?’

He shrugged lazily, but Victoria had seen his eyes narrow and his mouth tighten. She hadn’t spoken to him like that before and he didn’t like it. Good. The man’s arrogance was past belief and she wasn’t prepared to take it a minute longer.

‘You’re really not going to listen to me, are you?’ he said thoughtfully after a tense few seconds had ticked by. ‘But you believed every word the dragon lady said.’

His nickname for her mother used to make Victoria smile but she didn’t feel like smiling any more. And now, in spite of the muggy, sweltering heat that had the dusty streets deserted and empty except for a few chickens pecking desultorily here and there, the temperature chilled to zero as he added, ‘And you ran to William Howard; you trust William Howard. Why is that, Victoria?’

‘William?’ In the shock of seeing Zac again she hadn’t thought to ask exactly how he had known where she was, but now her voice trembled as she said, ‘Did William tell you where I was? You...you haven’t hurt him—’

Now it was arctic conditions. ‘No, I haven’t hurt him,’ Zac grated with dangerous composure, his eyes lethal. ‘I wasn’t aware that there was any reason to, but I’m beginning to wonder. I found out where you were by other means; I have...contacts.’

Oh, yes, she was well aware of his ‘contacts’, Victoria thought bitterly. He had a small army of minions ready to jump at the click of his fingers, and money could buy anything—or anyone. She had heard him talk about ‘necessary research’ once—they had been at a party and one of his business colleagues had button-holed him about a prospective deal—and when she had asked him what he had meant, once the man was gone, he had smiled before saying, ‘I have people who find out things, Tory, that’s all. Things that other people might prefer to keep hidden.’

‘Private detectives, you mean?’ she had asked naively.

‘Something like that. And then he had changed the subject.

‘Why doesn’t Coral know this William?’ Zac asked sharply.

Victoria snapped back from the past as Zac’s voice cut into her thoughts. ‘My mother never took any interest in my friends,’ Victoria said tightly, ‘as well you know.’ Except you, she thought. My mother took a great interest in you from day one. And now she knew why. ‘Have you asked her about William?’ she added abruptly as the portent of his words made itself known. Silly question; of course he had

‘Yes, I have.’ The night-black eyes were boring into her brain. ‘He is the brother of a schoolfriend, yes? That is all that Coral knew. My...source informed me he was out of the country covering some disturbance or other in Saudi Arabia.’

‘That’s top-secret information,’ Victoria blurted out, shocked to the core. William had impressed upon her, on his last visit the previous weekend, that only very few people knew of his forthcoming, extremely sensitive and delicate assignment.

‘But he told you,’ Zac said very softly. ‘He told you, Victoria.’

‘Of course he did.’ She had meant that William had confided his whereabouts to her because she was an old and trusted friend who was living in his home—or one of them—and Victoria knew William had been trying to prevent her worrying if she was unable to contact him for a week or two. But now, as she stared into the menacingly dark face of her husband, she realised Zac had put quite another interpretation on her innocent reply.

‘Of course.’ His mouth was a hard, angry line, his black brows drawn together in a ferocious scowl. ‘Victoria, exactly what is your relationship with this action man?’ Zac asked with icy control. ‘And I want the truth, please,’ he added cuttingly.

‘My...’ He was jealous. He was jealous of William, Victoria thought numbly. And who was he to talk about truth?

‘You flew out to Tunisia in the middle of April,’ Zac bit out harshly, looking every inch his mother’s son as his glittering black eyes blazed his Italian blood. ‘Where were you for the two weeks before that when you fell off the face of the earth?’

He was questioning her morals? Victoria thought disbelievingly, white-hot rage beginning to bubble like a volcano about to explode. He was actually daring to suggest that she and William...

‘How dare you?’ she spluttered helplessly, utterly outraged.

‘Oh, I dare, Victoria. I most certainly dare,’ he snarled darkly, breaking into her loud, hissing protest with a fury that matched her own. ‘I’m asking you again—where were you?’

She glared at him, drawing herself up to her full five feet six inches as she tilted back her head and stared him straight in the eyes. ‘I was at William’s flat,’ she said icily. ‘Okay?’

‘I see.’ It was more ominous than any bellow.

‘No, you don’t! You don’t see at all,’ Victoria shot back tightly. ‘William has been absolutely wonderful to me, he always has been, but we’re friends, that’s all. Platonic friends.’

‘There is no such thing between a man and woman,’ Zac stated tautly, ‘especially a woman who looks like you. He would have to be made of stone, and I take it he is very much a flesh-and-blood man, right? A man who likes women?’ He added suddenly, evidence that he had thought of another possibility clear on his face.

‘Of course William likes women.’ Victoria was even more furious that Zac obviously considered the only way she and William had been able to keep their hands off each other was if William preferred men. ‘He’s very...’ Her voice stopped abruptly as she realised it wasn’t tactful in the circumstances to labour William’s masculinity. She stared at him as her mind went blank.

‘Very...?’ Zac rasped angrily. ‘William is very...?’

Oh, to hell with it. ‘Male,’ Victoria said a trifle weakly.

‘Is he?’ If ever two words were loaded, those two were. ‘And this very male man looks on you in the same way an aged uncle would?’ Zac continued with heavy sarcasm. ‘How old is he?’

‘Twenty-seven.’ Victoria’s tone clearly stated, Make of that what you will. ‘And I’m not prepared to discuss William with you,’ she added firmly, contradicting herself immediately when she said, ‘He, at least, has never let me down.’

‘I bet he hasn’t,’ Zac derided contemptuously, ‘but if you ever stay with him again you’d better book him a hospital bed at the same time. He’ll need one.’ He glared at her ferociously.

‘You wouldn’t!’ Victoria glared back, horrified. ‘How dare you threaten William? He’s never done anything to you.’

‘It’s not what he’s done to me that concerns me,’ Zac said with lethal intent. ‘And it’s not a threat, it’s a promise.’

‘I don’t believe this!’ She was so angry she could barely get the words out. ‘After all you’ve done, you have the cheek to object to William and me—’ She suddenly had a wave of light-headedness and stopped abruptly, her colour coming and going as she stared into the blazingly angry face of her husband.

‘William and you...?’ Zac pressed softly, his face making it clear he was thinking the worst from her sudden silence.

‘Being friends.’ Even to her own ears it sounded like an afterthought, and her own patheticness made her voice tremble with a mixture of rage and injured pride as she said, ‘It is your suspicious mind that has made up the rest. William is one of the nicest men I know, and certainly the most honourable. He’s kind and generous—’

‘Spare me a list of his virtues, Victoria, please,’ Zac grated with hateful sarcasm. ‘I’m amazed this paragon hasn’t got wings already. And whilst we’re talking about suspicious minds, might I remind you you are in no position to cast the first stone?’