Sharon Kendrick Collection. Sharon Kendrick

      Offensively clear—but that was not the point. Triss tried to swallow down the panicky feeling which was making her head swim. ‘You don’t understand!’

      He shook his head. ‘Oh, I think I do, Triss. And I’m not exactly proud of what just happened.’

      Triss frowned, dismayed and baffled by his reaction. And angry too. ‘But you enjoyed it, didn’t you, Cormack?’ she accused him.

      His mouth twisted. ‘Enjoyed it?’ he echoed. ‘I could think of a lot more appropriate words to describe how that rather sordid little coupling made me feel, but I suspect that you might be insulted if I used any of them.’

      She tried one last time, biting back the urge to agree with him—and to get as far away from him as possible. ‘Cormack, you don’t understand—’

      ‘Yes!’ he cut in mercilessly. ‘I do. That’s just the trouble—I understand only too well! We’re no good for each other, you and I, Triss! We can’t live together—we just destroy each other. The sex between us is mind-blowing—it always was—but at least before there was communication and affection. Even occasional laughter, which inevitably comes when you live together—at least at the beginning,’ he finished heavily.

      ‘Cormack, just let me explain—’

      He shook his head. ‘Hear me out first, Triss. And perhaps that might spare both of us the indignity of something like this happening again. This must be the last time we see each other—do you understand that? Do you, Triss?’

      He looked at her, his features tightly contained, as if he was determined not to betray one flicker of emotion. ‘Since our relationship is finished and all that is left is physical attraction—it diminishes whatever we once had between us—or it will if we give in to it. So we won’t. And I think that the only way to guarantee that happening is for us not to see one another again.’

      She watched as he ran one long forefinger caressingly over the shiny red and silver surface of his helmet in an unconsciously sensual gesture, and then he gazed at her directly, his blue eyes searingly candid.

      ‘I cared for you more than any woman I’ve ever known, Triss—perhaps more than I ever will in the future. It just didn’t work out. That’s all. That’s life.’ He attempted a conciliatory smile, but Triss felt that he might as well have been firing poisoned darts at her.

      ‘At least we didn’t make it as far as the altar,’ he continued. ‘And at least we didn’t have children together. We might have messed each other’s lives up, Triss, but at least we didn’t inflict misery on any defenceless offspring.’

      She could not let him say any more. His words had already ripped through what little self-possession she had left and had left her in no doubt whatsoever that their relationship was well and truly over.

      Any more of that caustic, wounding tongue of his and Triss really doubted that she would have the strength to go through with what she had brought him here to say. Because already he was turning towards the door, that bitter, angry look still on his face.

      ‘You have a son, Cormack,’ she said into the brittle silence.

      He stilled.

      Triss thought that he might not have heard her. ‘You have a son,’ she repeated desperately, longing for some—any—kind of reaction, then immediately wished that she hadn’t, for the outraged look of disbelief on his face was like a sabre being plunged deep into her heart.

      Countless seconds ticked by, and when he spoke it was as though he was using unfamiliar words, for his voice was totally unrecognisable. ‘Tell me that what I just heard is not true, Triss.’

      She swallowed down the acrid taste of despair. ‘You have a son,’ she said again quietly.

      He came across the room like a panther stalking its terrified prey, until he stood just in front of her, his eyes blazing angry blue fire which scorched into her soul. ‘You’re lying—’

      ‘I wish I was,’ she said, and then, when she realised the implications of that, ‘No! I didn’t mean that!’ she exclaimed in horror. ‘I just meant—’

      ‘Shut up!’ He looked angry enough to strike her, but Triss knew that she was safe from violence, for no matter how forceful his rage Cormack was a man who despised physical supremacy when it was abused. One of his finest screenplays had exposed a wife-beater as the lowest form of cringing coward. It had earned him his first Oscar nomination.

      ‘How old is he?’ he shot out, and his words had all the cold, penetrating accuracy of a bullet.

      ‘He—he’s five months.’ She did not need to look at Cormack’s fierce expression of concentration to know that he was frantically trying to work out when Simon might have been conceived.

      ‘Oh, he’s yours all right, Cormack,’ she informed him steadily, trying her utmost to withstand the blast of raw rage which was emanating from his smouldering eyes. ‘You have only to look at him to know which stable he came out of.’

      ‘Only you’ve never given me the opportunity to do that, have you, Triss?’ he snarled. “To look at him?’

      ‘I had my reasons!’ she defended herself, aware of how stilted she sounded.

      ‘Oh, really?’ he bit out in disgust, and Triss almost recoiled from the look of stark hostility he directed at her.

      When she had felt lonely and lost, and been missing Cormack like mad, her idea of keeping his child a secret from him had seemed like the ultimate act of justifiable revenge for the ruthless way he had treated her. But now Triss wondered if she had been insane at the time. Had her wildly fluctuating hormones been all over the place, making her temporarily mad enough to try and conceal Cormack’s baby from him?

      Because if she had stopped to think through all the repercussions properly would she not have anticipated his terrible, terrible rage at finding out in such a way? And what would his next action be? Dear Lord, thought Triss frantically, what on earth had she started here?

      ‘Where is he now?’ he snapped.

      ‘At home.’

      ‘And where’s home?’

      ‘In Surrey. We’ve only just moved. We live in a beautiful house in—’

      He interrupted her with a harsh demand. ‘Who’s looking after him now?’

      Triss swallowed. All of a sudden she did not feel confident enough to admit to Cormack that she had left their son with a woman she had scarcely known for any time at all.

      Lola Hennessy was her next-door neighbour—an air stewardess with a sunny disposition and the sweetest smile that Triss had ever seen. Triss had watched the way that Lola played with Simon, and had known with a woman’s unerring instinct that Simon could not be in better hands.

      ‘Lola is looking after him,’ said Triss quickly. ‘And she’s a friend of mine.’

      ‘But not an old friend, obviously, since I’ve never heard of her.’ Blue eyes bored into her so accusingly that Triss flinched. ‘Can she be trusted?’

      ‘Of course she can be trusted!’ Triss exploded. ‘Do you really think I’d leave my baby—’

      ‘Our baby,’ he corrected her immediately, his words icy with anger.

      ‘—with someone who can’t be trusted?’ she finished.

      His eyes were spitting angry blue sparks. ‘How the hell should I know?’ he demanded. ‘You didn’t even bother to inform me that I had a child, which is pretty abnormal behaviour in anyone’s book. Why stop there? Why not engage a group of tame gorillas to look after him?’

      She tried to tell herself that it was natural for him to lash out in view of what she had just told him. What she had not expected was for his criticism to hurt quite this much. ‘Cormack,’ she said quietly, ‘calm