Love Beyond Reason(41)

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Katherine must have drawn on some surplus of discipline and self-control to keep herself from either fainting or fleeing. Instead her hands clenched into painful fists at her sides, her nails digging into her palms. Her lungs constricted. The breath seemed to leave her body by slow degrees until she gasped in an effort to sustain herself.

She tore her eyes from Lacey's triumphant mocking face to Jace's. His frustration was manifested in the slight twitch in his rigid jaw and the hard, implacable eyes. Slowly, he extricated himself from Lacey's embrace and stood up, pushing her away from him.

"That's not exactly accurate, Lacey. You are my ex-wife. A pertinent distinction, I think," he corrected.

So, he really had been married to this woman, Katherine thought. She had been clinging to a tenuous thread of hope that perhaps this Lacey was playing a practical joke on an old friend. But the pouting, seductive expression the brunette bestowed on Jace denoted that their relationship went far beyond friendship. Even a fool could see that.

"Oh, Jace," Lacey chided petulantly, "you always were annoyingly precise. I still feel married to you. I'll always consider you to be my husband. In the eyes of God, we're married."

"Oh?" Jace cocked a skeptical eyebrow. "Lacey, if God looks upon everyone who has carnal knowledge of another to be married, the world is overpopulated with bigamists." Katherine never recalled Jace sounding so bitter. Was he referring to their marriage? The pain in her heart was unbearable.

He continued to stare at Lacey closely, while she returned his look with an open invitation on her provocative lips.

Katherine felt alien and useless. She had to get out. Their intimate looks sickened her. She had interrupted a private interlude which they seemed eager to resume.

The picnic basket fell noisily to the floor. Spitefully, Katherine hoped everything would spill out and make a big mess. Maybe the wine bottle would break. As her hand touched the doorknob, Jace barked, "Katherine, where are you going?"

She looked at him with angry incredulity. Had he gone mad? Did he think she was going to stand here and witness his lust for – or love for – his former wife?

"I'm going home," she stated coldly. "I only came out to bring you some lunch."

"Now isn't that—" Lacey started, but Jace cut her off.

"Thank you," he said. His face hadn't lost that harried look, but his perception never failed. He raked her body quickly with intuitive eyes. He knew her purpose for surprising him, and she flushed hotly. Her plans for an affectionate playtime between a husband and wife now seemed obscene.

"Maybe we can share it later," he suggested.

"I don't think so," Katherine returned sharply.

Jace muttered an expletive under his breath. Every line and angle of his body radiated his agitation.

"Well, don't leave yet. I want to talk to you."

Lacey hopped up onto the desk and crossed her legs. Her blue silk slacks tightly contoured her hips and legs. Through her beige crocheted top, Katherine could plainly see her lush, coral-tipped breasts. Jace, she thought miserably, could see them too.

"Isn't Jace a dear husband, Katherine?" she purred. "When we were married, he barely left me alone for an hour at a time."

"Lacey," Jace grated.

"I still remember each time we made love, which was often," she laughed. "He makes sex an event, doesn't he?"

Katherine felt the bile rising at the back of her throat and longed to rush for the door and put as much distance as possible between her and those mocking brown eyes and sensuous mouth.

"Of course, ours was a love match and yours..." her cooing voice trailed off meaningfully. Katherine's mind caustically completed the sentence. Had Jace found it necessary to explain the circumstances surrounding his hasty marriage to Lacey?

"Lacey, you're dwelling on the past and that doesn't concern Katherine in the least." Was there a trace of warning in Jace's tone?

"Oh, on the contrary, darling." Lacey placed her hands on either side of her on the desk and leaned forward. Her heavy breasts dangled in front of her like luscious ripe melons. "I think Katherine would find it extremely interesting to learn that we divorced over the topic of children."

She took her eyes off of Jace and settled them on Katherine condescendingly. "You see, Jace has this big hang-up about families. As soon as we married, he started in on me to have babies." She pouted. "I wanted him all to myself for a while."

"Lacey. I'm—"

She leaned back negligently and swung her legs back and forth in front of the desk like a pendulum. She ignored Jace's threatening interruption and continued, unaffected by his growing anger.

"Isn't it lucky that he acquired a ready-made family by marrying you?" Her smile was brilliant, revealing sharp white teeth.

Katherine gnawed her lower lip. She refused to allow herself to break down in front of Lacey or Jace. When he made a move toward her, she jerked away from him. Everything Lacey was saying was the truth, but somehow hearing it verbalized by this gorgeous woman who had been married to Jace, lived with him, slept – Katherine shuddered. That he must have told Lacey about their personal life was an unforgivable insult. Maybe she was standing here listening to Lacey because she subconsciously sought punishment. She had been foolish to get into this marriage in the first place. Then she had gone one step further and fallen in love with Jace when she knew it was hopeless. She had come to trust him. That was her most ruinous mistake. She should have known better. Hadn't Mary loved and trusted Peter too?