Rebel's Bargain

‘I haven’t the time or inclination to continue this discussion.’ She rose and picked up her bag. ‘Spread what stories you like, Orsino. It makes no difference to me.’

It was a lie. Damaging rumours would make her life hell again. With photos of Orsino as a wounded hero she’d be cast as a villainess, her reputation in tatters as well as her peace. It was bound to impact on her career.

But she couldn’t let it matter. Losing her self-respect was too high a price.

‘Wait!’

His peremptory tone stopped her as she turned away.

‘I have a proposition.’

Reluctantly she turned. What she could see of his face looked paler than before. His mouth was set in a thin line of pain. She eyed his tense jaw and wondered if she could call the nurse.

How could she feel concern for a blackmailer? It didn’t make sense. But then nothing about her reactions to this man was logical.

‘Poppy?’

‘I’m listening.’

‘I refuse to stay in a convalescent home. I want privacy while I recuperate.’

‘So?’ She refrained from pointing out that with his money he could buy the best medical care in his own home. ‘Why not ask one of your women to look after you?’

Orsino was regularly seen with a gorgeous woman at his side, a different one every week.

‘Why not this Amindra you were expecting? I’m sure she’d jump at the chance to be alone with you.’

His chuckle rippled, warm and rich, across her skin and Poppy was appalled to feel herself melt a little at the knees. Till he spoke again and her hackles rose. ‘Ah, that explains your bad mood. Are you jealous?’

She stood straighter, a shaft of fury stiffening her backbone. ‘Absolutely not. Now, I have a return flight to organise.’

She’d taken just one step when he spoke again. ‘Amindra is a nurse. I’m sure she’d jump at the chance for extra money but not if it means leaving her children and grandchildren behind for several weeks.’

‘She’s a nurse?’

‘Who else would I meet in this condition?’ For the first time Orsino’s voice betrayed bitterness as he waved his hand in a slashing gesture across his bandaged torso. It spoke of barely leashed frustration and all at once it hit her how difficult an active man like Orsino must find his forced confinement. She’d been so caught up in relief at seeing him alive, then irritation at his high-handed attitude, that hadn’t sunk in.

Even badly wounded Orsino had more presence than most men she knew. If only he didn’t get under her skin so!

‘Look after me for a couple of weeks and I’ll set you free.’

Poppy stared intently but couldn’t make out his expression. Those bandages hid so much. Was he blind behind them? She wanted to ask but knew he wouldn’t answer.

‘What do you mean, set me free?’

His mouth curled up at one side. ‘That should be obvious. I’ll give you a divorce.’

Poppy’s fingers tightened on the strap of her bag.

‘Why now? After all this time?’

He shrugged again and fleetingly she thought of how his occasional Mediterranean gestures, the use of his hands as he spoke, the lifting of those broad shoulders, used to fascinate her. As had the intriguing combination of stunning Italian good looks and English reserve, courtesy of his Italian mother and British father.

‘It’s what you want, isn’t it?’

Poppy stared. Was he offering an easy divorce because that’s what he wanted or because he thought she did? Had he found someone else to fill the rarefied position of his wife?

For years she’d resolutely turned her thoughts away from Orsino with anyone else. Even though he wore gorgeous women like fashion accessories every time he appeared in public.

A hollow ache started up beneath her ribs. She told herself it was stress from the long journey and from facing Orsino again.

‘Why should I go to such bother, when I could just visit a lawyer and file for divorce?’

He didn’t like that. She saw his mouth tighten.

‘Because I have it in my power to make divorce easy.’ He paused. ‘Or hard. You get to choose whether it’s smooth and painless or drawn out and very, very public.’

No mistaking the threat in the rough velvet timbre of his voice. It was on the tip of Poppy’s tongue to ask why he hadn’t divorced her. But she wouldn’t give him an excuse to pry into her own reasons for inaction. She hadn’t worked that out herself. ‘Unless—’ his voice dropped to a speculative murmur ‘—you don’t want a divorce after all?’

Silence throbbed between them, fraught with vulnerabilities she’d thought she’d conquered years ago, and a challenge she didn’t dare refuse.

Divorce meant an end to their relationship. No more lingering dregs of regret, no ‘if onlys’ in the wakeful predawn hours.

A divorce would free her, make her whole. She’d thought herself free of Orsino but her reaction today taught her otherwise. Despite the way he’d shattered her dreams, some remnant of emotion remained.

It was a remnant she was determined to obliterate.

A couple of weeks with this arrogant, selfish man would cure her of those last hints of doubt. It would be hell but it would be worth it to finally be free.

Poppy stepped to the edge of the bed and watched him turn his head towards her.

‘You’ve got yourself a deal, Orsino. I’ll give you a couple of weeks for old times’ sake and then I never want to see you again.’

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_a378af3d-3a12-5f74-875e-e75836b38977)

ORSINO GRIMACED AS the doctor probed gently and pain throbbed through him.

‘How long till I’m fit?’ he demanded, his voice hoarse from fighting pain and the unexpected emotion of meeting Poppy just hours before.

He felt raw inside, as if the slip of deadly ice and rock had crashed right through his innards instead of merely cracking a few bones and tearing skin.

Despite his injuries, death from exposure had, by comparison, been a strangely peaceful prospect. Numbness would lead to loss of consciousness then nothing. No pain, no struggle. Only his brain hadn’t let him give in. He’d heard a voice, Poppy’s voice, whenever he’d wanted to give up. He’d known he couldn’t just slip away until he’d finished what was between them.

‘For the arm, a month or so, though you could have lingering symptoms in this hand especially. You were in the ice too long for my liking.’

The doctor scrawled another note in his report and Orsino reminded himself he was lucky he could see the movement, no matter how poorly. The prospect of blindness had terrified him. He repressed fear that this distorted vision was the best he’d ever get.

‘I’d prefer that you stayed here longer.’