‘Why did you come back here with me?’ Sergio drove on remorselessly. ‘You knew you were pregnant but you didn’t come back here so that you could tell me and we could talk this out...’
‘I wanted... I don’t know...’ She backed away from an answer that would demonstrate just how powerful his effect on her was. ‘I shouldn’t have. I should have taken some time out to really get my head round this and then I should have approached you in a...a more neutral setting.’
‘By which you mean anywhere devoid of a bed? Why don’t you admit it, Susie? You came back here because you wanted to sleep with me. You wanted me to make love to you...to touch you in all those places you like being touched. Bit rich to talk about self-sacrifice and chains and shackles when you can’t wait to jump into bed with me, wouldn’t you agree?’
Susie squeezed her thighs tightly together. He made it sound so straightforward. A business arrangement with the added bonus of good sex.
Except she didn’t want a business arrangement, and good sex didn’t last for ever. If she married him she might get the guy she loved, but that didn’t mean she would end up with the guy of her dreams because those were two completely separate issues. The man of her dreams could only ever be the man who returned her love. What she would end up with would be a nightmare from which she would never be able to escape.
She would be trapped, loving him, and her love would make her desperate and clingy and needy—just the sort of woman he would end up despising. He would find excuses to work later and later, and eventually he would end up having an affair with someone like Alex...a clever, sophisticated woman who could hold his interest once the lust had gone. She, on the other hand, would be left at home to bring up the baby. She would spend half her time crying and the other half trying to regain his attention.
‘I should leave...’ she breathed defiantly.
‘You should be honest with yourself,’ Sergio returned with equal cool speed.
There were staring at each other in this difficult situation like combatants in a ring, but he could still feel the intense electricity between them, sizzling like a live charge.
‘The passion between us hasn’t waned because you’re carrying my baby. It’s a start.’
‘Passion fades—what then?’
‘We’re going to be having a child and I won’t be a part-time father. I’m not going to let someone else enter your life and slip into the role of being the man who’s there all the time, making the joint decisions, while I show up on a weekly basis trying to play catch-up.’
‘It wouldn’t be that way,’ she said uncomfortably. When she thought about some other man coming along and sweeping her off her feet her mind went blank.
‘And how are you going to feel down the line?’
‘I don’t know what you mean...’ She looked at him, confused.
‘When I find someone else...when she comes along with me on those weekly visits...gets to know our child, takes an interest, has input into my decision-making process...’
Susie felt the colour leave her cheeks. Of course he would find someone else. He wasn’t a man who would be inclined to spend too much time celibate. He was rich beyond belief, even more powerful, and it would be a matter of seconds before he became an object of pursuit.
She imagined what this fictitious pursuer would look like and it played on all the old insecurities she had—all the feelings of inferiority that she had spent a lifetime trying to put behind her. She would be hard as nails and ready to get stuck in when it came to all sorts of decisions that were none of her business. She would be a clever, brutally tall blonde, with a razor-sharp bob and a repertoire of hard and fast notions on how to bring up other people’s kids.
And she, Susie, wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it. She certainly wouldn’t be finding solace in the arms of another man. No, she would be lurking in front of the television with the sound down, counting the minutes until her child was returned to her.
Furthermore, even if Sergio stepped up to the plate financially—which she knew he would, however hard she objected—he would still be a billionaire, able to afford anything and everything.