She sucked in a ragged breath, even her fingertips growing icy cold with dread as it spread through her body like the flow of mercury in her veins.
‘What exactly do you want?’ Her words came out like hard pellets.
Marc waited for a few moments before he answered. Until he had seen Andre’s child—and one look told him she was indeed his—he had not really thought much further than waving a truckload of money under the mother’s nose and walking away with the baby as his father had planned. But somehow seeing Nina with the baby, the way she looked at Georgia so lovingly and cradled her so gently, he wasn’t convinced that he would be acting in the best interests of his niece by removing her from her mother, unless he was absolutely sure she was not up to the task of caring for her. If indeed he could, considering that ill-judged letter of his father’s, and its vicious rejection of the baby. The woman had a powerful weapon there, if she chose to use it.
Which left him with only one other course of action.
His obsidian gaze held hers determinedly. ‘I want to claim my brother’s child as my own.’
‘You can’t do that! She doesn’t belong to you! She belongs t-to…t-to me.’
‘I can, you know.’
‘How?’
She shouldn’t have asked, Nina thought later. She just should never have asked.
His dark eyes locked with hers and a persistent tickling feather of fear began to tease its way up the entire length of her spine.
‘I want that baby and I will do anything to have her, even if it means I have to tie myself to you to do so.’
She blinked at him, wondering if she’d misinterpreted his chilling statement. ‘Tie yourself? What do you mean tie yourself?’
His mouth twisted into a smile that didn’t quite reach his dark-as-sin eyes. ‘My brother refused to marry you, but I have no such scruples. You will be my wife within a fortnight or I will make sure you never see your daughter again.’ He kept his features still, knowing his bluff was convincing. But would it work?
It took Nina a moment or two to find her voice, her head pounding with a combination of shock and outrage.
‘Do you seriously think I will be coerced in such a way?’ she finally spat indignantly.
‘I am more or less counting on it. Andre told me your main goal in life was to land a rich husband, so here I am, ready to step into the role.’
She opened her mouth to speak again but her throat closed over at the steely determination in his dark gaze as it clashed with hers.
She considered coming clean, telling him she was really Nadia’s twin, hoping he would understand her need to protect her niece, but his air of icy hauteur changed her mind at the last minute. She’d be damned if she would give up her niece without a furious fight, even if it cost her everything she had, including her freedom.
She flashed him a look of pure loathing at the way he’d cleverly herded her into a corner from which she could increasingly see there might be little chance of escape. She saw the glint of anticipated victory in his dark gaze and her blood ebbed and flowed through her veins in a tide of anger and growing fear.
‘I suppose it’s to be expected a spoilt playboy like you would assume he can always get whatever he wants,’ she said.
‘I will, of course, pay you generously,’ he said, his dark eyes watching her steadily. ‘How much do you want?’
Nina was very conscious that in her place Nadia would have asked for some outrageous sum, but something stopped her from taking the charade that far. The ice she’d inadvertently skated on to was suddenly very thin in places, but taking money in what was little more than a bribe was surely going to lead to more trouble than she could cope with at present.
Besides, little Georgia was lying asleep less than a metre away from him, her tiny body badly bruised. She’d been lucky this time but if he took even one look beneath that vest…
Forcing her chin upwards, she tilted her head at him, her arms folded in front of her chest, and informed him with unintentional irony, ‘If you think you can bribe me then you’ve got the wrong person.’
His eyes flicked to her where her breasts were pushed up by her folded arms, taking his time before returning to her face.
Nina stood silently fuming under his mocking appraisal, wondering how in the world her sister’s behaviour had brought her to this. She knew her anger should be directed at Nadia and not the man before her, but everything about him goaded her beyond bearing.
‘I told you before, I don’t want your money. I’d feel tainted by taking anything from you.’
‘Nice try, Miss Selbourne,’ he drawled back. ‘I can see what you are doing. You are pretending to be nothing like the avaricious young woman who seduced my brother, but I can see through your little act. Do not think that you can deceive me so easily; I have made up my mind, and you will do as I say, whether you accept payment from me or not.’
Nina did her best to hide how his statement affected her while her mind raced on, wondering how in the world she was going to get out of this farcical situation. God, she was going to kill Nadia for this! Surely she couldn’t be forced to marry the man just to keep her niece? But what else was she to do? Nadia was an unfit mother and—like her—Marc apparently had enough evidence to prove it.
‘I want some time to think about this.’ She was a little unnerved by how like Nadia she sounded, but carried on regardless. ‘I like to look at all the angles on things before I commit myself.’
‘I am not here to negotiate, Miss Selbourne,’ he said intractably. ‘I am here to step into the role of Georgia’s father and I want to do it as soon as possible.’
She looked up at him in growing alarm. There was an intransigent edge to his tone that suggested he was well used to getting his own way and would go to any lengths at his disposal to do so.
Tell him the truth, she mentally chanted. Tell him who you really are. But the words were stuck somewhere in the middle of her chest where her heart was already squeezing at the thought of never seeing Georgia again.
She tried to think rationally and clearly but it was hard with him standing there watching every tiny flicker of emotion on her face.
What if she went along with his demands for now? He’d said two weeks. Surely she’d be able to wriggle out of it by then. Hopefully Nadia would be in contact soon and she’d be able to sort something out. She had to sort something out. She couldn’t possibly marry a perfect stranger!
Marc took her continued silence as acquiescence. ‘I will have the necessary papers drawn up immediately.’
‘But…’ She stopped, her heart giving another funny skip in her chest. Oh, God! What had she done? Surely he wasn’t serious?
She tried again. ‘H-how soon do you want me to…’ She found it hard to finish the sentence as his hard eyes cut to hers with a look of total disdain.
‘Perhaps I should make something very clear at this point. I do not want you, Miss Selbourne. This will not be a proper marriage in the true sense of the word.’
‘Not legal, do you mean?’ She frowned, trying to make sense of his meaning.
‘It will be legal, I would not settle for less, but it will be a paper marriage only.’
‘A paper marriage?’ Her finely arched brows met above her eyes.
‘We will not be consummating the relationship,’ he stated implacably.
Nina knew she should be feeling overwhelming relief at his curt statement but for some inexplicable reason she felt annoyed instead. She knew she wasn’t looking as