Putting her daughter down on the rug, when she looked up, the door was closing behind him on his way out. She sank to the floor in a daze and sat there for several seconds while she caught her breath. The incredible urge to touch Dominic had shocked her with its intensity. What was even more incredible was that if not for Nicole she would have done it.
Four
Dominic had said earlier they would eat alfresco tonight, so Cassandra refreshed her light makeup and gave her shoulder-length hair a quick brush, then smoothed her white cotton shirt down over the matching drawstring pants. Flat sandals gave her outfit a casually elegant look.
Then she went downstairs to find the table on the deck set for two and Dominic standing there dressed in chinos and a shirt, opening a bottle of wine. Behind him the sun was in the midhorizon and slowly sinking in the sky.
It all looked so…romantic.
Her heart jumped in her throat and she had to wonder, would he try and get her into his bed tonight? After the way she’d reacted to him this afternoon, she doubted he’d have to put in much effort.
“Is Nicole asleep?”
“Er…yes.” She stepped into the evening and walked toward the table. He met her halfway with a glass of wine, then held out a chair for her. She quickly took her seat before her legs gave way.
Soon he was sitting opposite her and holding up his wineglass in a toast. “Cheers.”
She held hers up, too. “Cheers.”
He leaned back and took a sip while looking out over the tranquil view of the pool and garden in the bush setting. Cassandra followed his example and could feel a little of the tranquility seeping into her bones.
Dominic turned toward her. “I’m expecting a business call later, but hopefully only after we eat. We’re having some problems with a supplier, and I want to keep informed.”
She frowned, worried about him for once, though she would never say that to him. “I thought you were going to take a break from work?” was all she said.
“I’m getting plenty of rest,” he muttered, the look in his eyes saying that there was rest and then there was abstinence.
A quiver pulsed through her veins. “So, what’s on the menu?” she said, then thought she could rephrase that better, considering the circumstances.
A flash of amusement said he was thinking the same thing. “I thought we’d eat the seafood from last night.”
She felt a stab of guilt for falling asleep like she had. “Good idea, otherwise we’ll have to throw it out.”
His brow lifted. “Is that the only reason you’ll eat it? Would you prefer something else?”
“What? Oh, no. I love seafood. I was just thinking we shouldn’t be wasteful.”
“Wasteful?” he said as if he’d never heard of the word.
“There are starving people in the world, Dominic,” she chided, unable to ignore years of her mother’s favorite saying.
His mouth tightened. “I know that. It’s just something I never expected to hear you talk about.”
She bristled at the insult, intentional or not. “Then you don’t know me.”
A moment crept by.
“I don’t know you.”
“Perhaps it should stay that way,” she said, any illusion of ease between them gone, as if it had never been.
His eyes snapped to attention. “What do you mean?”
Everything surged inside her. Fear, tension, the stress of the last few months. “I can’t live like this for the rest of our married life, Dominic. No matter what you think of me, I prefer you keep any hostility to yourself in future.”
Surprise flickered; then he fixed her with an irritated scowl. “And if I can’t?”
She opened her mouth to say that she would leave and get an annulment, but as quickly remembered she couldn’t. She was trapped. Dear Lord, she couldn’t forget that if he found out about the money for the nursing home, he might put two and two together. Annulment or not, he might still use anything he could find to turn a judge’s opinion against her, including Keith Samuels and his convincing lies.
And she could lose Nicole.
Her heart constricted, and she knew she had to appeal to his better nature. It was the only way. It was all she had left.
“Dominic, please. If you can’t do it for my sake, do it for Nicole’s.”
His body tensed. “Nicole?”
“She needs a father. I watched you with her today, and I know you’re growing attached to her. Our hostility will only hurt her in the long run.”
His face shuttered more than usual, but she had to take hope that her words would affect him. He wasn’t a man who would give in too easily, but surely he would see reason?
“You’re right,” he finally admitted. “I apologize for my attitude toward you.”
Relief whizzed through her, and tears pricked at her eyes. She hadn’t expected an apology on top of it all.
Then he added, “Nicole shouldn’t have to suffer because of the issues between us.”
A dullness hit her at these words, but she quickly put it aside. Fine. So what if his hostility was still just beneath the surface? She shouldn’t have expected any different. As long as it didn’t affect her daughter, then she could live with it. This was about Nicole, not about herself.
He rose from his chair. “Come on.”
Startled, she looked at him. “What?” Was he suggesting they go to bed?
His bemused eyes said he knew she’d jumped to the wrong conclusion. “I need you to help carry out the food.”
Was that a stab of disappointment because he wasn’t talking about making love? She hoped not.
She stood up. “Lead the way.”
They carried the food out and sat down to dine on a large platter of king prawns, mussels, salmon rosettes and an avocado filled with delicious marinated calamari. For dessert they enjoyed berry crumble and cream.
Replete, they sat back and sipped at fine wine and watched the sun set over the horizon of trees.
“Are you going to tell your adoptive family about our marriage?” he asked out of nowhere.
Her inner calmness shattered like glass in a mirror. There was really only her sister to tell, but that begged the question. What did Dominic know about her family? Liam had told her that his father had obtained a report on her years ago after their whirlwind marriage. Yet if Dominic was asking now, she assumed there was no updated report. And if that was the case, he wouldn’t know that Joe was in a nursing home.
She nodded. “Yes. I’ll phone them when we get back to the city,” she said, continuing with the pretense. Penny would be hurt if she read it in the papers, but thankfully there was some leeway with that until Dominic released a statement and his parents returned from the cruise. “And by the way, Dominic, they’re not just my adoptive family. They’re my family. I don’t differentiate between the two. I feel just as close to them as I would if they were blood relations.”
“You didn’t invite them to the wedding,” he pointed out.
“And you’re surprised?” she scoffed.
He inclined his head, conceding the point. “Would they have come?”
“If I’d asked them to.” Penny would have pulled out all the stops to bring her husband and children from Sydney, and would have gotten her family in debt at the same time. Her sister hadn’t the money to help out with Joe, either, so she had taken full responsibility for it all from the start. She hadn’t minded. She would have found a way to get them here for the wedding if she’d wanted her family here for such a farce. She hadn’t.
“So you get on with them?”
She squashed her hurt at the comment. He probably wasn’t even aware it implied she was at fault. “Yes, we all get on well.”
“Tell me about them.”
Dangerous ground.
She tried to act casual. “I have a sister. Penny. She lives in Sydney with her husband and two children.” She paused, not sure what to say about Joe. If she said too much—
“And your parents?” Dominic’s voice cut into her thoughts. “Your father was ill a few years back, wasn’t he?” he said, sending her heart thudding against her rib cage. “I remember my mother mentioning it.”
She tried to remain calm and focused. “He was, but he’s better now,” she fibbed, justifying the lie to herself. “He lives with my sister.” Another lie.
“And your mother?”
“She died suddenly about five years ago.” Mary had only been sixty and the memory of losing such a loving mother still upset her.
His eyes rested on her, watching her closely. “What happened to your birth parents, Cassandra?”
It was so long ago that she didn’t often think about it, but she always felt a twinge of sorrow when she did. “My real mother was killed in a car accident when I was six. My father died when I was nine, but he was gone from me long before that.”
He considered her. “I’m sorry. It must have been traumatic for you.”
A knot rose in her throat. “Thank you. It was.” She appreciated his sympathy.
“But it sounds as if your adoptive family treated you well,” he said, like he expected that would be every foster child’s lot in life.
“Yes, they did,” she was pleased to say.
Yet she had to wonder if a wealthy man such as himself, one who’d been born into privilege like he had, could appreciate how differently things might have gone for her. Did he really understand how it felt for a child to be so alone in the world? Did he know how it felt when there was no one she belonged to anymore? No one to take care of her or protect her? Losing his brother happened to him as an adult. It wasn’t the same thing.
“You know, Dominic, they weren’t the first family I went to.” She saw him give a start. “I was put in another foster home first. I hated it. The ‘real’ daughter was nasty and used to blame me for everything.”
“I see.”
Did he?
“Thankfully they found me a new family. I was so lucky to have found the Wilsons,” she pointed out. “They’d always been short-term carers, but they were getting on in years and had decided to take in some children with a view to adopting them and giving them their name.” Her heart softened. “They were wonderful. They adopted Penny, too, and gave us a family again.”
He went still.
His cell phone rang.
She waited, but he didn’t move. “That’s the call you were waiting for,” she prompted gently, noting he looked a little white around the mouth.
“It can wait.”
“No, answer it.” She’d said all she needed to say.
He looked like he wouldn’t move; then he pushed to his feet and strode inside. “Yes?” he barked as he disappeared indoors, and Cassandra rather felt sorry for Adam on the other end of the phone, though she suspected Adam could hold his own against his big brother.
She let out a deep breath, then sat there for a minute, recovering from delving into the past. Part of her knew she’d said more than she should have, but she didn’t regret making Dominic more aware of who she really was. At least this way it might be easier for both of them to live with each other. She knew where he was coming from. And he now knew about her.