It consisted of only sixteen words. Eight names. Of his former paramours. Setting the list aside, he quirked a speculative brow at her and said nothing.
"Well?" she demanded finally. "Are there any inaccuracies on that list?"
"One inaccuracy," he stated with infuriating calm, "and several omissions."
"Inaccuracy?" Alexandra demanded, distracted by the glint of amusement in his eyes.
"Maryanne Winthrop spells her first name with a y rather than an'i.' "
"Thank you for that edifying piece of information," Alexandra retorted. "If I ever decide to give her a gaudy diamond bracelet to match the necklace everyone says you gave her, I shall be sure to spell her name correctly on the card."
This time there was no doubting the humor tugging at the corner of his mouth and she came to her feet—a proudly enraged goddess dwarfed by a dark, arrogant giant of a man. "Now that you've admitted your guilt, I will tell you what the course of our future will be." Pausing to draw an infuriated breath, Alexandra announced triumphantly, "I am going to get an annulment."
The harsh words rebounded through the room, ricocheting off the walls, reverberating in the deafening silence. But not a flicker of emotion registered on Jordan's impassive features. "An annulment," he finally repeated. With the patience of a teacher discussing an absurd rhetorical issue with an inferior student, he said mildly, "Would you care to tell me how you intend to accomplish that?"
His damnable calm made Alexandra long to kick him in the shin. "I'll do nothing of the sort. You can discover what my legal grounds are from—from whoever it is that handles these things."
"Solicitors," Jordan provided helpfully, "handle these things.' "
Her ire at his condescending superiority was almost more than Alexandra could contain as he smoothly added, "I can recommend several excellent solicitors for you to consult. I keep them on retainer."
That outrageous suggestion was such an insult to her intelligence that Alexandra felt tears sting her eyes. "Was I such a gullible fool over you two years ago?" she demanded in a pain-edged whisper. "Was I so gullible that you honestly think I'd ask your solicitor to give me advice?"
Jordan's brows pulled together as several astonishing realizations struck him at once: First, despite her magnificent show of courage and unconcern, Alexandra was apparently on the brink of tears; second, the brave, innocent, engaging girl he had married had become a gorgeous creature of exotic beauty and spirit, but along the way she had also acquired an undesirable streak of fiery rebellion; last—and most disconcerting—was the discovery that he was as physically attracted to her now as he had been a year ago. More so. Much more.
Calmly he said, "I was merely trying to spare you what will be a very embarrassing and completely futile ordeal in the office of some unknown—and possibly indiscreet—solicitor."
"It will not be futile!"
"It will," he stated with certainty. "The marriage was consummated, or have you forgotten?"
The bold reminder of the night she had lain naked and willing in his arms was more than Alexandra's taut nerves could withstand. "I'm not senile," she retorted, and the spark of laughter in his eyes made her so desperate to demolish his damnable calm that she informed him how she intended to get an annulment, after all. "Our marriage is invalid because I didn't choose to marry you of my own free will!"
Instead of reacting with alarm, Hawk looked more amused than ever. "Tell that to a solicitor and he may laugh himself into a seizure. If a marriage was invalid merely because the bride felt obliged to marry a groom not of her choosing, then most of Society's couples are—at this very moment—living in sin."
"I wasn't merely 'obliged,' " Alexandra flung back. "I was coerced, cajoled, connived, and seduced into doing it!"
"Then find a solicitor and tell him that, but bring your smelling salts because you're going to have to revive him."
Alex was horribly certain he was right, and her heart plummeted sickeningly. In the last fifteen minutes, she had already vented all her pent-up resentment and fury on Jordan—without seeing a single gratifying scrap of reaction from him—and now she suddenly felt devoid of everything including hope and hate. Empty. Raising her eyes to his, she looked at him as if he were a stranger, an unfamiliar specimen of humanity for whom she felt… nothing. "If I can't get an annulment, I'll get a divorce."
Jordan's jaw hardened as he suddenly realized Tony had apparently lied about their "familial" feelings for each other. "Not without my consent, you won't," he clipped. "So you can forget the idea of marrying Tony."
"I haven't any intention of marrying Tony!" She blazed with such feeling that Jordan relaxed slightly. "And I haven't any intention of living as your wife, either."
His mood vastly improved by her denial of any wish to marry Tony, Jordan studied her without anger. "Forgive me if I'm being dense, but I'm rather surprised you want an annulment."
"No doubt you're amazed to discover there's a female on earth who finds you resistible," she retorted bitterly.
"And that's why you want an annulment? Because you find me 'resistible.' "
"I want an annulment," Alex replied, looking him right in the eye and speaking in a polite voice that completely belied her words, "because I don't like you."
Unbelievably, he smiled at that. "You don't know me well enough to dislike me," he teased.
"Oh, yes, I do!" Alex replied darkly. "And I refuse to be your wife."
"You have no choice, sweetheart."
The casual, empty endearment made her cheeks flame with ire. It was exactly the sort of thing she would have expected from a notorious flirt; no doubt she was supposed to melt at his feet now. "Don't call me 'sweetheart'! Whatever it takes, I'll be free of you. And I do have a choice," she decided on the spur of the moment. "I—I can go home to Morsham and buy a cottage there."
"And just how," he asked dryly, "do you intend to pay for that cottage? You have no money."
"But—when we were married you said you'd settled a large sum of money on me."
"Which is yours to use," Jordan clarified, "so long as I approve of the way you spend it."
"How very convenient for you," Alex said with stinging scorn. "You gave yourself money."