‘Did you purposely choose the same room?’ A hint of seductive mockery played at the corners of his mouth and sparkled in his eyes as he looked at her.
As she entered the room she looked about her. It was much the same as it had been that first night.
‘I didn’t ask for this room. They must have remembered me.’ She smiled at him, briefly forgetting her intentions, and for a moment it was like going back to those nights they’d spent together, teasing and laughing with each other.
She’d been so in love with him, so sure he was the man. She had encouraged his kisses, yearned for his touch and craved his body, hers seemingly knowing exactly what to do despite her innocence.
‘Is this it? This small case?’
The atmosphere changed as he spoke.
‘As I told you, I came to do the decent thing and tell you to your face. I didn’t intend to stay long. It was never as if we could start again where we’d left off. Not when you’d made it so clear what your thoughts on being a father were.’
‘I did not make any such thing clear.’
He narrowed his eyes and she knew she’d hit a nerve.
‘The possibility that those moments on the beach might have made you a father horrified you, Nikos. Don’t try to deny it.’ She fired the words at him, feeling herself emotionally stronger again. She wasn’t going to allow him to manipulate her just because he had power and wealth. He might have hidden that from her when they first met, but no way would she let him use it against her now.
‘That is untrue and you know it.’
He moved closer to her and her heart rate rushed away like a herd of wild horses.
‘Do I?’ She snapped the question out, desperate to hide the effect he was having on her.
His deep, silky voice, heavily accented, did untold things to the heady desire she was trying to suppress. She couldn’t let it show. Whatever else he thought, he had to think she was completely indifferent to him.
He moved closer to her, his eyes darkening, his accent becoming more pronounced and far too sexy.
‘It’s still there, isn’t it? That sizzle of attraction that kept us here, in this very room, in this very bed, night after night.’
Serena looked at him, her mind racing back to the time they’d spent here, to their first night together. That night he’d kissed her softly, his lips teasing and gentle. She’d known then for certain that this was the man she wanted to give herself to completely. She’d wanted him with such abandon she’d have done anything to show him how much she loved him.
She’d instinctively known that what they’d had was special, that the attraction was one she might never find again. Now, as she stood looking at him, her heart was heavy—because it hadn’t been like that for him. It had been nothing more than a passing affair. One he’d hoped he could turn his back on.
She stepped away and looked out of the open window to the sea moving restlessly in the darkness, its salty tang lingering on the warm breeze. This would be her child’s heritage—one it might never see if she walked away now. But how could she stay when he didn’t want her? Let alone the child she carried?
‘Serena...’
His voice was husky and he stood right behind her, the heat of his body almost too much. She shut her heart against thoughts of what might have been as he placed his hands on her shoulders. Mesmerised by his spell, she turned, looking up into his face. His blue eyes were heavy with desire as they looked into hers, urging her towards him.
She closed her eyes, but that didn’t help, and when his lips brushed hers she jumped back and glared at him. ‘Don’t you dare think you can seduce me with kisses this time.’
‘I don’t need kisses to get what I want.’
He moved closer to her, forcing her against the wall, but she held her ground and maintained eye contact, even though inside she was quaking.
Those hard words had suffocated any lingering illusions of love she’d had. He didn’t care about her. He didn’t care about the baby. This was all about getting what he wanted.
‘So what is it you want?’ she asked haughtily, testing him. Would he openly admit to being that callous, that cold?
‘I want you to come to Athens with me, Serena.’
Each word was full of determination, softened only by the accent that she found so sexy.
She shook her head. ‘That’s not going to happen, Nikos.’
‘Then why are you here?’
She stepped up to him, lifting her chin and glaring angrily at him. ‘I came here to tell a fisherman he was to be a father—to tell him that no matter what I’d never stop him from seeing his child. But that fisherman is not you.’
Memories came unbidden to her mind of that night on the beach—the night they’d made love without any thought of contraception. The night they’d created the new life she now held within her. The life whose future she could determine by her choices now.
‘It’s just as well that I am not that fisherman, because now I can give you what you want—but only if you become my wife. No child of mine will be born illegitimate.’
‘You think you have all the power, don’t you, Nikos? But you can’t drag me up the aisle.’
Unnerved by his certainty that he could get what he wanted, she moved away from him and to the door of her room, opening it wide in the hope that he’d leave.
That hope faded instantly.
* * *
Nikos remained resolutely still, biting down hard against the anger that coursed through him. How dared she think she could calmly dismiss him from his child’s life? He hadn’t wanted to be a father, but there was no way he would turn his back on his child—allow it to grow up wondering where he was.
As the challenge of her actions settled around them he knew exactly how he was going to handle this. Serena would be his wife—his willing wife—no matter what. His child was going to be born without the stigma of illegitimacy.
He ignored the waves of anxiety rushing through him at the thought of commitment. And he didn’t even know if Serena would stay and go along with his plans or if she’d be just like his mother—too selfish to care—and walk away.
‘You will be my wife. The child you carry is my heir and I will not allow you to keep me from it.’
Hostility poured off her as she stood, rigid and tall, by the open door of the hotel room. With each passing second she was challenging him further, pushing him to limits he’d never thought it possible to go to.
‘What are you going to do? Force me to marry you?’
The curtness of her tone irritated him further, and he crossed his arms and glared coldly at her.
‘I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse.’ Dominance in the boardroom was something he was used to, but overpowering a woman—one he still wanted and desired—was a totally new concept.
‘You don’t have anything I want, Nikos.’
The hint of confusion in her voice made him raise a brow in speculation. Surely she was curious to hear the terms of his deal?
‘If the baby is mine—’ he began, but halted as she gasped loudly, her delicate brows furrowed, her soft lips open and her hand against her stomach.
‘How dare you suggest it isn’t?’
‘I have no evidence that it is.’