‘You might have the body of a goddess and the face of an angel but I would not touch you even if you held the key to life itself,’ he ground out heavily.
Injured feminine pride made Nina hitch up her chin another fraction, her eyes issuing him a challenge she knew deep inside she should not be issuing but she just couldn’t help it. How dare he dismiss her so confidently?
‘Want to lay a bet on that, big boy? Put your money where your mouth is—so to speak.’
The line of his mouth grew even tighter until his lips appeared almost white. Nina could tell she had taken things a little too far but it was too late to back out now.
‘All right.’ He finally released his breath. ‘I will lay a bet on it. If I touch you other than in the most casual way during our marriage, you win the bet. I will double your allowance on the spot.’
She suddenly realised that Nadia would have asked how much he intended giving her by now but it simply hadn’t occurred to Nina to do so.
‘Um…how much are you intending to pay me?’
‘Much more than you are worth, I can assure you.’
Her eyes burned with seething hatred at his denigration, everything inside her quaking with anger until she could barely stand still. She felt it rumbling in her stomach, flash-flooding her veins as it was carried to every single cell of her body.
‘That remains to be seen,’ she said in Nadia’s confident flirty tone even though her teeth were being ground to powder behind her seductive smile.
His midnight eyes gleamed with confidence as he looked down at her, the small smile that was playing on his lips a combination of both mockery and challenge.
‘Go ahead, Miss Selbourne, go ahead and make me pay.’
She opened her mouth to respond but before she could get the words out the door opened under his hand and he stepped through and closed it behind him with an ominous click of the lock as it fell back into place.
She stared at the door for a moment or two, her stomach in tight knots of panic, her head throbbing with tension and her legs trembling at the thought of what she’d just done.
She turned and leaned heavily on the arm of the old sofa, her frazzled brain trying to find a satisfactory way out of her predicament.
If she told him who she really was he would have even more reason to claim Georgia, for she could hardly provide for her the way he obviously could and, with Nadia already abandoning her daughter, what hope would there be of fighting back?
But marrying him?
Her heart gave another heavy thump of panic at the thought of being formally tied to him in marriage, all the time having to keep her true identity a secret. But unless Nadia reappeared and claimed her daughter, Nina knew she was going to have to continue with the charade for as long as necessary. What other choice was there? Georgia needed her. She couldn’t let her down.
Two weeks…that was all she had and it wasn’t anywhere near long enough.
She gave a tiny shiver as she thought of him towering over her the way he had, his eyes aflame with dislike. He was ruthlessness and power personified; he was used to simply paying for any obstacles in his path to be removed and she would be the first to be crushed beneath his well-heeled foot.
She gave a little jump when the telephone rang on the small table beside her and, reaching out a still shaking hand, picked up the receiver and held it to her ear.
‘Nina?’ Nadia’s voice rang out airily. ‘I thought I’d call you en route. I’m in Singapore for a couple of hours while the plane refuels.’
‘Do you have any idea of what you’ve done?’ Nina choked, clutching at the receiver with both hands.
‘I know you don’t approve of me leaving Georgia,’ Nadia said. ‘But quite frankly I don’t care. I want—’
‘Will you shut up and listen to me?’ Nina bit out. ‘How could you do that to your own daughter? Not only did you abandon her but you hurt her!’
‘Look.’ Nadia’s tone hardened. ‘She was crying for ages while you were out. It drove me nuts.’
Nina’s stomach churned at the thought of the abuse happening under her very own roof.
‘She’s a defenceless child. You were one once; don’t you remember what it feels like to be so vulnerable?’
‘I don’t remember a thing, so drop it, OK?’
Nina sighed with frustration. Her twin was an expert at burying her head when things got tough. There was nothing she could say or do to change the habits of a lifetime. Her sister was damaged and all she could do now was accept it and do what she could to protect Georgia from repeating the pattern in her own life.
‘Any news from Andre’s people?’ Nadia asked as casually as if asking what the afternoon’s weather had been like in her absence.
‘He came here,’ Nina said through clenched teeth.
‘Who?’
‘You damn well know who!’ She felt close to screaming. ‘Marc in-your-face Marcello.’
‘I thought he might.’
‘How can you be so casual about this?’ Nina cried. ‘He thinks I’m you, for God’s sake!’
Nadia hooted with laughter. ‘Does he really? How amusing.’
‘Well, guess what—I’m not laughing,’ Nina ground out. ‘And you’d better get back here as soon as you can and sort it out.’
‘I’m not coming back,’ Nadia said determinedly. ‘Bryce is expecting me in LA tomorrow. Why don’t you just tell him who you are and be done with it?’
Nina whooshed out a breath. ‘Because he wants Georgia, that’s why.’
‘Does he now?’ Nadia’s sugar-sweet voice grated along Nina’s shredded nerves. ‘So the photograph did the trick then.’
‘What do you mean?’
Nina heard the sound of her sister’s long artificial nails tapping a nearby surface as if she was mentally planning something.
‘He’ll have to pay, of course, but it’s where she belongs anyway. Think of how rich she’ll be when she comes of age, an entire family of billionaire merchant bankers to call on for a loan or two.’
‘I can’t believe you can be so unfeeling about this,’ Nina said reproachfully. ‘Do you know what he means to do?’
‘What?’ Nadia’s tone sounded bored.
‘He’s forcing me—I mean you—to marry him, which is really me because you’ve flown the coop and he doesn’t realise it, and I’m up to my neck in lies and I don’t know if I can face it because I have no idea how to handle men like Marc Marcello and I have work commitments and no childcare and—’
‘Whoa!’ Nadia interjected. ‘Slow down; you lost me at the marriage bit. What do you mean he wants to marry you?’
‘Not me—you!’ Nina shrilled. ‘He thinks he’s forcing you into a paper marriage.’
‘A paper marriage?’
‘He wants to adopt Georgia and is prepared to marry me—I mean you—to do it.’
‘And you agreed?’ Nadia sounded surprised.
‘He didn’t really leave me with much choice,’ Nina answered resentfully. ‘He threatened to expose you as an incompetent mother and you gave him all the evidence he needed by hurting Georgia the way you did. It was just pure luck that he didn’t notice—’
‘What’s he paying you?’ Nadia asked.
Nina