Reluctant Mistress, Blackmailed Wife

‘There is every need. The twins should have two parents.’

Humiliation writhed inside Katie like a wild thing. She wanted to sob with rage and hurt. ‘I don’t even like you…and I certainly wouldn’t want to marry you purely for my children’s sake!’

Alexandros surveyed her with scorching eyes of gold, his stubborn jawline squaring. There she sat, all five-foot-nothing of her, being bloody cheeky, feminine and infuriating. Of course she would marry him! For her to pretend otherwise was nonsense. ‘You don’t feel like that.’

‘Don’t tell me how I feel—’

‘I probably have a better grasp of how you feel than you do. Why are you so angry with me? Here I am, ready and willing to do the decent thing and make you my wife!’ Alexandros threw up lean brown hands in a gesture that encompassed his opinion of the sheer magnificence of that offer.

Loathing leapt up like a core of steel within Katie’s anger. The decent thing? She shook her copper head in vehement refusal. ‘Luckily for both of us, I’m not that desperate, greedy or stupid. We have nothing in common but the twins—’

‘Sex,’ Alexandros slotted in, without a shade of discomfiture. If he was doomed to live with an adolescent preoccupation with her body, marriage would at least provide an ample outlet for it.

Katie was mortified by that bold and earthy reminder of her weakness. ‘We’d need something rather more than that to make a marriage.’

Alexandros dealt her a sincerely enquiring glance. ‘Such as what?’

Katie was momentarily stunned by the obvious fact that Alexandros appeared to rate sex as the most important element of marriage. Acknowledging that she was out of her depth, she decided not to pursue that controversial angle. ‘Look, feeling as I do right now, nothing would persuade me to marry you.’

Alexandros contrived to look exceedingly unimpressed by that declaration. ‘I could persuade you to share my bed again in the space of a minute.’

Katie leapt upright, her fair complexion aflame with chagrined colour, for she really could have done without that mortifying reminder. ‘So…what does that prove?’ she challenged, in defiance of her own embarrassment. ‘That it’s been a long time since there was a man in my life?’

Alexandros frowned. ‘Don’t talk like that…it cheapens you. I don’t like it.’

Katie twisted her head away, fighting for control. He had been the only man, and that awareness rankled. While he had entertained himself with a succession of supermodels her life had fallen apart, destroyed first by pregnancy, then by motherhood and lack of cash. All of a sudden she could no longer silence her strong sense of injustice. ‘I really don’t care what you like. I’m only twenty-three years old. You are so precious about your privacy, your reputation, your life! What about mine?’ she demanded wrathfully.

‘Meaning?’ Alexandros queried, with the weary aspect of a guy forced to humour a hysteric.

‘Do you think this is the life that I wanted or would have chosen? I didn’t want to become a mother at my age. And I don’t feel like getting married either,’ she confessed shakily. ‘I want to go out clubbing again. I want to date. I want my single life back!’

CHAPTER FIVE

HUGELY taken aback by Katie’s startling confession of intent, Alexandros discovered that he had to call on every atom of self-discipline to keep his temper. He was astonished that his proposal had met with a negative response.

Surely she recognised that the twins’ future security and their rights of inheritance could only be safeguarded by their marriage? It was the practical solution, and he was a practical guy. He knew what he owed his children, even if she did not. His family were very conservative, and took certain conventions for granted. His irresponsible father might have flouted those principles, but Alexandros had made it his mission to live within them.

He regarded Katie with smouldering force, an aggressive current that was unfamiliar to him blurring his usually ice-cool thoughts. She wanted her single life back? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Running about with other guys? Sleeping around? If she had hoped to pack in that kind of experience, she should have taken care of it before she’d met him, because now it was out of the question. Of course it was out of the question, when the only male she had ever slept with was him. His level ebony brows pleated while he tried to work out why the suggestion that she might get into another man’s bed should outrage him to such an extent.

Theos mou, she was the mother of his children, and that was reason enough! That put her into a very special, indeed unique category, he reasoned fiercely. She wasn’t entitled to a single life. But perhaps now was not the moment to spell out that inescapable truth, for his legal counsel had already warned him that unmarried fathers had very few rights within the law. For the first time he appreciated that marriage would bring advantages other than sexual. He would gain control over her and his sons.

Registering that she was trembling, and that her eyes were full of stinging tears, Katie walked jerkily over to the window and turned a defensive back on him. She wrapped her arms round herself and fought to get a grip on her flailing emotions. How dared he look so shocked! Did he think no other man would ever look at her? How dared he think that she would marry a guy who was only asking her out of a sense of obligation? Catch her accepting the role of a poor second best to the love of his life! Catch her saddling a reluctant father with children he had no interest in!

‘I don’t feel right staying here. Please find me somewhere else to go as soon as possible,’ Katie muttered uncomfortably, her delicate profile taut. ‘Then we can both get on with our lives.’

Alexandros stilled, anger cooled by an instant warning jab of disquiet. He realised that it was time for the creative thinking at which he excelled in finance. Her hostility and her desire for independence disconcerted him, because he knew it was essential that he keep her on board and engage in dialogue. Perhaps what was required was a breathing spell in a more relaxed environment. ‘I think we can do better than that,’ he asserted smoothly. ‘I have a speech to give in Rome tonight. Why don’t you fly out the day after tomorrow and join me at my home in Italy for a few days?’

Taken utterly by surprise at that suggestion, Katie could not conceal her confusion. ‘I…well—’

‘We need time and space to talk our options over…as friends, if nothing else.’

A faint flush of discomfiture warmed Katie’s cheeks when she discovered that her immediate reaction to that suggestion of friendship was one of recoil. She did not want Alexandros as a friend, yet she knew that she ought to be relieved by that sensible offer. Her every instinct was now at war. She was even irked by the speed with which he had abandoned his talk of marrying her, and could not credit how contrary she was being.

‘You’d love the sunshine,’ Alexandros remarked casually. ‘The twins would enjoy it too.’

‘Yes…all right.’ Katie was reluctantly impressed by that angle, immediately gripped by the fear that only a cruel mother would deny Toby and Connor such a treat.

‘Would you mind if I spent some time with the children now?’ Alexandros knew to quit while he was ahead. But he was remembering again: Katie rushing outdoors in Ireland to rejoice in a pitiful patch of wintry sunlight, telling him cheerfully about the excitement of her one and only trip abroad. He had been touched by her happy recollection of a childhood which had struck him as wretchedly impoverished.

‘Of course not…’

His formality set her at a distance. As she accompanied him upstairs, he asked if the provisions made for the twins were acceptable.

‘More than acceptable.’ Katie raised a speaking brow, because the nanny was experienced and the nursery was full of designer baby equipment and toys.

‘The nanny is, of course, only temporary. My staff are already drawing up a shortlist of more permanent options. You may make the final selection,’ he advised. ‘I’ve also made financial arrangements to cover your needs and that of the children in the short term—’

Katie stiffened. ‘My needs? But you only have to worry about Toby and Connor’s.’

‘If my sons are to live in comfort, so must you. To do so, you will require adequate funding,’ Alexandros countered. ‘You’ll have to accept a personal allowance from me above and beyond the children’s expenses.’

‘I couldn’t possibly—’

‘I can’t see that you have a choice. Obviously you’ve gone without many things, but there is no longer any need for such self-sacrifice. You need clothes.’