draped a hand over the back of a chair. ‘So what’s new?’ she murmured drily. ‘Adrienne likes her men to be where she can keep an eye on them.’
‘Which would account, I suppose, for her keeping your emails secret. She’d have known I’d have flown to England in a heartbeat if I’d known you wanted to see me.’
Joanna, whose eyes had been glued to the muscles moving in his throat, dragged her gaze away. ‘I assume that goes for the messages you supposedly sent me?’
Matt rolled the cool can sensuously against his throat. ‘There’s no “supposedly” about it,’ he declared, and Joanna’s eyes were drawn to him again. ‘I was beginning to think that you might not want to come and see the invalid.’
‘If I’d known…’ Joanna began and then broke off.
What if she had known Matt was ill, she wondered, what would she have done? Truthfully, she didn’t know.
But Matt wasn’t inclined to let her get away with it. ‘If you’d known—what? Dare I hope you might have been concerned enough to make the trip for that reason and that reason alone?’
Joanna had to be honest. ‘I really don’t know.’
‘You’d have been too busy?’
‘No. But I wouldn’t have thought you’d want to see me.’
‘I see.’ Matt considered her response, and then offered a segue of his own. ‘Tell me, is Bellamy still playing a prominent role in your life?’
Joanna swallowed. ‘Please, leave David out of this.’
Matt’s eyes glittered. ‘So tell me, how do you fill your time? Going to the theatre? Visiting the gym?’
‘I have friends,’ said Joanna curtly. ‘And occasionally we eat out together. Not David,’ she added, seeing his expression. ‘Other friends. And I’ve spent some time with Mum and Lionel.’
‘Have you?’ Matt was impressed. ‘I thought you didn’t get on.’
Joanna hesitated. ‘Things are different now.’
‘Since your father died?’ Matt enquired sardonically. ‘Yes, I can believe that. You know, I always felt sorry for your mother. Angus had virtually cut her off from her only offspring. And all because he was jealous.’
‘Don’t say that.’
‘Why? It’s the truth. He never forgave Glenys for leaving him and he used you to get his revenge.’
‘No!’
Matt shrugged. ‘Have it your way,’ he said wearily. ‘One day you’ll come to your senses and see the truth. That explosion off the Alaskan coast wasn’t the fault of NovCo. We didn’t become as successful as we have by cutting corners on our equipment.’
‘Nor did Daddy,’ she countered hotly and for a moment Matt was inclined to let it go.
But, dear God, she’d believed Angus’s lies for over a year, and Matt was damned if he was going to let her go on believing her father was an angel.
‘So did Angus tell you we paid the hefty penalty the Alaskan authorities demanded out of the goodness of our hearts?’ He shook his head. ‘It was to protect you, Joanna. I know you don’t believe me, but your father had been cheating his workforce for years.’
Joanna felt a shiver of apprehension slide down her spine. What if she was wrong? What if her father had been lying? She wrapped her arms about herself, needing the protection. ‘I don’t want to talk about this, Matt.’
‘No, I bet you bloody don’t.’ Matt was angry now and he didn’t think before grasping one of her arms and jerking her round to face him. ‘You can’t accept the truth when it’s staring you in the face.’ His hot breath fanned across her cheek. ‘Damn you, Joanna. I swore I wouldn’t do this, but I care about you.’
Joanna lips parted. She hadn’t expected him to say that. Her heart was racing and she could feel the perspiration trickling down her spine. ‘I’m only here because I want a divorce,’ she insisted doggedly. ‘Not to rehash old grievances.’
‘You’re afraid to face the truth,’ retorted Matt harshly. ‘You’re letting your father ruin your life.’ His lean fingers dug into the bones of her shoulders. ‘Wherever he is right now, I bet the old devil is clapping his hands at your naivety.’
‘Daddy said you only married me to get control of his company.’
Matt’s eyes narrowed. ‘You and I were an item long before Angus decided to use me to get him out of the hole he’d dug for himself.’
Joanna and Matt married only six months after they’d met at the gallery showing. Matt knew her father didn’t approve of the speed with which they’d got together—nor did his mother, if it came to that—but he and Joanna were in love and nothing else seemed to matter.
And those first few months they were deliriously happy.
They honeymooned in Fiji and then moved into the apartment Matt had acquired on the Upper East Side of New York. They had an apartment in London, too, but it was the New York apartment that they regarded as home.
And it was a beautiful apartment, overlooking the East river, with plenty of room for themselves and a family when it came along. They had staff in both places, but Joanna liked looking after her husband herself. And the dinner parties she gave accrued many compliments from friends and business colleagues alike.
Matt suspected the fact that Joanna didn’t get pregnant during the second year of their marriage was a significant contribution to the problems that came after. He knew she wanted a baby, and he wanted it too, but two things happened in swift succession to make it even harder for them to have their wish.
To begin with Oliver Novak had a stroke, which meant Matt had to spend more and more time controlling NovCo. And then Joanna’s father’s company was found to be in financial difficulties, necessitating a buy-out that Matt organised on Joanna’s behalf.
Matt knew Angus Carlyle resented having to ask his son-in-law for help, but Matt thought it was worth it to see the relief in Joanna’s face. Even so, he found it hard to keep the real circumstances of Carlyle Construction’s problems from her. Particularly as he guessed Angus would find some way to pay him back.
Having a baby still eluded them, however, and making love became a mechanical thing, subject to times of the month and temperatures, and not the joyful declaration of their love for one another that it used to be. They argued more when they were together, and Matt knew his wife was retreating more and more into her shell.
Her father being diagnosed with lung cancer was devastating. It meant Joanna moved into the London apartment on a permanent basis, unwilling to leave her father on his own when he had no one else. Matt didn’t like to think it, but he sensed she was relieved to move out of the New York apartment. In London, she didn’t have to face any of the albeit well-meaning questions about her possible pregnancy that she’d had to face from their friends in New York.
The disaster in the Alaskan oilfield came only weeks after Angus’s cancer diagnosis. Matt hadn’t thought at that time that it would prove the straw that broke the camel’s back. But then he’d had no idea that Angus would use the accident to destroy their marriage. He would never have believed a man in his position could be so completely cruel.
Who was it who said that no good deed ever went unpunished? Matt thought now, putting his memories of the past aside. He’d been a fool, and he knew it. But, God help him, he wanted Joanna to see the truth.