Chapter 36: Chapter 36

Sharon could still feel his eyes boring into her. She had thought that he would leave and had delayed ending the call for as long as she could but had had to end the call at last and Bryan was still inside her office.

She could bear the suspense no longer and risked a glance at him and then tensed up as she found him watching her with eyes like Obsidian, glassy, black volcanic.

'Did you do it delibrately?'

That question rocked her. 'Delibrately?'

'You know very well what I am asking - did you get pregnant delibrately? It seemed to make him angrier that she seemed so bewildered. 'What were you trying to do? Force David's hand? Make him marry you? Was that your game plan?'

Darkly flushed, she dot up, turned on him trembling and indignant. 'You have a filthy mind. I'm not listening to any of this any more. Get out of here!'

'Not yet', he said through his teeth. 'I want to know - did it work? Is he going to?'

'Go away!' She put up her hands over her ears to block the relentless drill of his voice.

He took two strides closer, his hands closed round her wrists and he yanked her hands down away from here ears.

The sudden contact sent fever through her veins. She swayed like grass in high wind. Bryan stepped closer to her and muttered fiercely, 'He isn't, is he? I can tell from the way you are reacting. He still won't marry you,will he? He may be fond of you - I think he is. He may fancy you, I imagine most men do. But marriage is something else entirely. He might even know the reason you want to marry him. He isn't a fool. Maybe, It wouldn't be a love match, would it? Maybe, David doesn't want to be married for his money or for security and you should have known that he wouldn't sit for this sort of blackmail, either'.

'Blackmail?' she asked stunned.

'What else do you call this? You are trying to force his hand and using the baby as a weapon. I call that blackmail and you should have known that it wouldn't work with David. You have worked with him for years, you should have known him better than that. David may be a nice enough guy in private but has sabre toothed tiger in his make up or he wouldn't have been so successful heading this bank for years. You don't run a big city institution like this one without having predatory instincts'.

'You should know!' she told him bitterly.

He gave her a cool look. 'So if David refuses to marry you, what the hell are you going to do? Will he acknowledge that he is the father and make some sort of settlement on you and the child?'

'I have no intention of asking my child's father for money and will you please let go of my wrists?You are hurting'.

He looked down as if surprised that he still held her and then unclenched his hands and let her go.

She looked down at her fists, the faint dark red lines around them, where his fingers had gripped.

'I hope you are proud of yourself, leaving marks like that on me!'

'The marks you've left on me won't heal as fast!'

The snarl in his voice made her flinch away in shock, feeling that she had innocently opened the door of a house to find that it was on fire when flames leapt out at her.

Bryan's skin had been a dark angry red, now it was white and icy like the face of a marble statue and his eyes looked very black, impossible to fathom.

The silence between them was charged with electricity, she became terrified that he would touch her again and send her emotional temperature sky-high.

'I told you that you were playing a dangerous game's, he whispered harshly making her ears buzz with hypertension. 'I warned you Sharon. Sex is dynamite'. You can't treat it with contempt. It's always likely to explode and blow you sky-high. You thought that David would be easy to handle, as safe as houses - but you see, you were wrong'.

Angrily, she said, 'Okay, I was wrong and you were right. Does that make you feel happier? Is that what you were waiting for me to say? Now take your satisfied ego and get out of my office with it!'

Bryan stared at her, his face taut, suddenly turned in his heel and walked out, slamming the door behind him.making her windows rattle and a glass on her desk vibrate noisily. Sharon burst into tears, covering her face with her hands, put her head on her desk and sobbed weakly, until she managed to choke back her tears and pull herself together.

The next time she saw him, Bryan totally ignored her, his eyes icy. He walked past her in the bank as though she were invincible. She felt as though he had slapped her face and had to bite her tongue to avoid betraying the pain that she felt.

From then on, that was how it was between them. When no body else was around, he pretended that she didn't exist. If there were others present, he spoke to her politely, coolly but never quite met her eyes.

Sharon kept out of his way as much as possible and fought to keep a calm look on her face anytime she did see him but the ache inside her deepened day after day

She was however seeing a great deal of David out of working hours. One day out of every week, he spent at a clinic having counselling' and some sort of treatment about which he didn't like to talk. Sharon had promised that she would always be there for him when he needed her during this time. At first his treatment always left him grey and drained but then he would recover a little. Sometimes he would take her out to dinner or a play. It helped him keep his spirits up especially the night before treatment when he was obviously worried and frightened.

Gradually as the weeks went by, he began to look like his old self,to have some energy again but above all, to start enjoying life once more.

All these developments and changes were pleasing to Sharon who had been so worried about him. She was happy to see that he was taking a stand on his life and fighting.

She prayed that he recovered completely but even if not, he believed that his time would elongate as a result of these positive changes and desire to live.