âWhere am Iâ¦I meanâ¦which room is mine?â Gabriella asked.
She could practically feel Maxâs incredulous stare zinging down the phone line! He let a full thirty seconds of silence elapse before replying. âI thought the whole idea here is to convince your parents weâre still happily married, despite what the tabloids say.â
âIt is.â
âThen which room do you suppose, Gabriella?â
She muttered, âThe master suite?â
âBingo! Any more questions?â
Indeed yes! But nothing would persuade her to come right out and ask, Will we be sharing the same bed?
Sheâd find out the answer to that soon enough!
âIâVE left word that youâre expected. If Iâm not home when you arrive, the concierge will let you in.â
The words themselves were chillingly neutral but, even after all this time and despite everything, Maxâs husky baritone still had the power to make her break out in goose bumps. Holding the phone away from her mouth so that he couldnât hear how ragged her breathing had become, Gabriella fought the urge to beg him to be there himself to greet her and, matching his tone the best way she knew how, said, âIs it still Howard?â
âIâm surprised you remember, given the number of doormen who must have crossed your path in the last two years.â
He made it sound as if she earned a living paying illicit visits to married menâs hotel rooms! âThere are few things about my life with you that Iâve forgotten, Max,â she said stiffly. âHoward was one of the more pleasant aspects. It will be nice to see him again and know thereâs at least one friendly face in the buildingâunless, of course, youâve poisoned his mind against me.â
âHardly,â her estranged husband replied. âYour name rarely comes up in conversation, and then only in passing.â
Though there was little doubt he was being his usual brutally direct self, even more regrettable was the fact that the truth should hurt so much. âAre you quite sure we can pull this off?â she said. âTwo weeks of facing each other across the table at mealtimes might not be a long time in the cosmic scheme of things, but I suspect itâll seem an eternity when it comes to living them second by second.â
âI can manage it, if you can. And I have no doubt that you can. It will be, after all, a lot like your lifeâa charade. And letâs face it, Gabriella, youâve always shown a talent for pretending. No doubt that explains your phenomenal latter-day success as a model. How else do all those glossy fashion magazines feature you as dewy virgin bride one day, sultry seductress the next, and beach bunny yet another?â
Sheâd made up her mind she wouldnât get drawn into the retaliation game, no matter how he might try to provoke her, but his scornful dismissal of the success sheâd worked so hard to achieve spurred her to respond, âWhy, Max, I had no idea you followed my career so closely!â
âI donât,â he said crushingly, âbut Iâd have to be brain dead not to recognize that, technically at least, Iâm married to the most famous face in North America and possibly the world. Given your unquestionable versatility when it comes to make-believe, plus the fact that youâre an accomplished liar, Iâm sure you can pull off the image of contented wife for a couple of weeks, especially since you have so much at stake and I plan to make myself as scarce as possible most of the time. All itâll take is a little civility in public, a few harmless demonstrations of affection. Weâve been married over two years, Gabriella. Your parents arenât going to expect us to act like besotted honeymooners.â
âWhich is just as well, since a honeymoonâs one thing Iâve never had the pleasure of experiencing.â
But she knew about heartbreak, and loneliness, and rejection. She knew how it felt to be a bride standing beside a groom who, when he looked at her at all, did so with a blank indifference touched with loathing. She knew what it was like to lie alone in the big marriage bed while her husband slept in the guest roomâa pain only slightly less unbearable than the few times when primitive need had driven him to come silently to her in the night then, when his hunger was appeased, just as silently leave her again.
She knew what it was like to be married to a man who hated her all the more because, once in a very rare while, he couldnât resist her.
âGabriella? Did you hear what I just said?â
Startled by his unabashed impatience, she jerked her attention back to the present. âUmâ¦not exactly.â
âI asked what time they land in Vancouver.â