He lifted his head, a smile still curving his lips. ‘Work,’ he said, and slipped the phone in his jeans pocket.
Beth caught her breath. She was tempted to smile back, and that frightened her. He was a handsome, charismatic man when it suited him, but she had seen the dark side of him—the clever, domineering and unbelievable bossy character—and she needed to get rid of him....
‘You know, Dante, I have hated you for years and now I realise it was a wasted emotion,’ she said, schooling her features into a blank mask. ‘You will never change and you are always right—which does not bode very well for the future of my baby. An autocratic father is the last thing a child needs. And I really think you should go now.’
‘I agree. But I want you to come with me. I don’t like the idea of leaving you on your own here.’
‘I won’t be on my own. I told you Janet and Annie are coming to stay and we are going out for the rest of the day.’ She flashed him a smile that did not reach her eyes. ‘Have a safe journey.’
Beth turned back to the sink and pulled out the plug, watched the water drain away.
She heard the scrape of a chair on the floor. Good, he was going.... Hopefully by the time she saw Dante again—if she saw him again—she would have a plan to deal with him. Maybe a monthly visit...something like that. Firmly settled in her new life, with people around her she trusted, the thought of having a baby was not so scary after all. In fact she was thrilled, and loved the baby already. Working from her own home was the perfect solution for a single mother. No nursery, no childcare and a great environment to bring up her child.
Beth picked up a teatowel and dried her hands and turned around to make sure Dante had left—only to see him standing in front of the table, his steely gaze focused on her.
‘I thought you’d gone.’ Her eyes clashed with his and a sliver of fear trickled down her spine. He still exuded an aura of firmly controlled masculine power, and yet she sensed something had shifted. She felt the heightened tension in the air, saw the hard resolution in his dark eyes, and resisted the urge to moisturise her suddenly dry lips.
‘I don’t take orders, but when I give them I expect them to be obeyed—something you will have to learn when we are married.’
‘Married?’ she parroted dumbly.
‘Yes, married.’
Beth was shocked rigid for a moment. To want to marry her after all that had been said between them—he must be crazy....
Stony-faced, she squared her shoulders and bravely held his gaze. ‘Let me make this very clear. I am not marrying you. I’d have to be out of my mind to marry a man who thinks I am a criminal or a femme fatale who preys on young men. And my opinion of you is as bad—if not worse. I don’t like who and what you are, let alone love you.’
‘I am not that keen on you as a wife,’ he said dryly. ‘But there is a baby to consider. As long as we are civil to each other and concentrate all our energy on giving the child the nurturing and love it deserves I don’t see a problem. We are sexually compatible, and in my experience lust is preferable to love—if love even exists, which I doubt.’
Beth felt the colour rise in her cheeks as images of her tussle on the sofa with him filled her mind—and the full-blown sex that had got her into this position in the first place....
‘That is the most cold-blooded argument for getting married I have ever heard, and typical of you,’ she declared scathingly.
‘No, it is eminently sensible. I want my child born legitimately and brought up in Italy, as I was, on the family estate. But I travel abroad a lot, and spend quite a bit of my time in London, so I don’t mind if you keep this house and stay here when I’m in the city. So long as you devote all your time to our child.’
His arrogant attitude infuriated Beth. ‘No. Marrying you is out of the question. It is never going to happen.’
‘As I see it there are only two options. We get married or I take you to court for sole custody of the child—which will be a long, drawn-out process that could go on for years, and you know I will win eventually. You choose.’
Beth felt as if all the air had left her body and she stared at him in horror. He meant it. She recognised the cold, implacable determination in his voice.
‘That is no choice at all!’ she exclaimed and, taking a steadying breath, she tilted up her chin, just as determined as Dante. ‘My mother—whoever she was—abandoned me as a baby in a hospital emergency department. Much as I loved my adoptive parents, I would never give up custody of my child. But I certainly would not fight you in court after the last time. I’m not that stupid. I know what a devious devil you can be and I have little faith in your sort of justice. As for marrying you? Spending the rest of my life with you does not bear thinking about.’
Dante had not realised she was adopted. The investigator had not gone that far back. But in her last comment his fertile mind saw a way to get what he wanted...
‘Th
en don’t think about the rest of your life. Nothing lasts for ever,’ he stated with a cynical arch of a black brow. ‘And though I am not in favour of divorce, under the circumstances I am prepared to make allowances. If by the time the child is three—old enough to really know its parents—you find married life intolerable, I will give you an amicable divorce with shared custody of the child. In fact I will draw up a prenuptial agreement stating as much.’
Beth’s eyes widened a fraction. Her first thought had been to dismiss marriage out of hand, but now Dante had surprised and shocked her. Had he said it deliberately? she wondered, and studied him for a moment. His expression was watchful but not malicious, she decided. A wry smile played around her lips. He was so insensitive, so self-centred, that he did not recognise the irony in offering her a divorce after three years. Her prison sentence had been three years....
‘A marriage with a get-out clause you mean?’ she said, and amazingly she found herself considering it. She had done one prison sentence because of him, and got out after eighteen months. Who was to say she could not get out of the marriage sentence sooner? While loving her child she could be the wife from hell. Making Dante’s life a misery would be sweet revenge for all he had put her through....
He continued to look at her with that unwavering dark gaze. ‘Yes, exactly as I stated.’
Beth wanted the best for her child, and though she hated to admit it Dante’s offer was probably the best she was going to get. She would not have to stay in Italy all the time, as he had said. He spent quite a lot of time travelling all over the place with his work. Dante might be the biological father of her baby, but she couldn’t see him being a hands-on father. In fact she might not see much of him at all, she realised. She glanced around the kitchen, her brain ticking over.
‘Do I have any choice?’ she questioned cynically.