‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Sin rasped, ‘but that wasn’t the alternative I was referring to. Are you willing to hand the baby over to me after it’s born? In exchange for a cash settlement, of course?’ His top lip curled back with distaste.
Luccy recoiled as if he had struck her, even more taken aback by this suggestion than she had been by his earlier one. Sin wanted to take the baby away from her…? Wanted to give her money in exchange for handing her baby over to him after it was born?
Until that moment Luccy hadn’t been sure herself how she felt about her pregnancy—she had still been in a state of shock from learning she was pregnant at all!
Mostly she had ignored it, deciding it was something she could deal with later, when it became more of a reality.
But Sin’s suggestion that he take the baby from her after it was born suddenly made it very real to her. She was expecting a baby. Her baby. Admittedly it was Sin’s baby too, but even so—!
‘No way,’ she told him fiercely even as her hands moved protectively over her stomach where her baby nestled safe and warm. ‘Absolutely no way!’ She glared at him.
Sin, having half prepared himself to hear Luccy say she would accept his offer, now felt the relief wash over him at the fierceness of her refusal.
Maybe there was hope for the two of them yet…
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘IT’S settled, then.’ Sin nodded decisively. ‘We’re getting married.’
‘The fact that you have made a decision does not make it settled, Sin!’ Luccy told him exasperatedly. ‘You have just insulted me in the worst possible way, seem to think that I deliberately planned this pregnancy for mercenary reasons, and now you calmly assume we’re getting married!’ She gave a determined shake of her head. ‘I don’t think so, Sin.’
He gave a rueful shrug. ‘Do you have any other suggestions—viable ones,’ he added harshly as Luccy would have spoken.
‘My having the baby and continuing to live and work in London is a viable suggestion.’
‘Not to me.’
Luccy felt as if she were going round and round in ever-decreasing circles—with no way out of the labyrinth! ‘People—even pregnant ones—who take a big step like marrying each other should be in love when they do.’
‘Who’s to say that we won’t learn to love each other, given time?’
‘I somehow doubt that very much!’ Luccy muttered.
Sin shrugged. ‘Stranger things have happened.’
‘Not to me, they haven’t!’ she growled.
‘In that case, as I fully intend for us to be married before the baby is born, it would appear I have seven months in which to convince you otherwise, doesn’t it?’ he pointed out. ‘I’ll try to make those months as pleasurable for both of us as possible.’
‘If you think you can seduce me into falling in love with you, then all I can say is you must have a very inflated opinion of the effect your lovemaking has on me!’ Luccy was breathing hard in her agitation.
Sin slowly crossed the room, his movements all feline stalking. ‘I’ll probably have to work pretty hard at it,’ he acknowledged dryly. ‘But as I said, I’ll endeavour to make sure that you enjoy the experience…’ He stood in front of her now, those grey eyes gleaming like molten steel as he looked down at her.
Sin’s eyes were like heated mercury, Luccy thought inconsequentially as she found herself unable to look away from the warmth of that gaze as it moved slowly over her slightly flushed features. And just as lethal if she got too physically close!
If Sin set out to deliberately break down her defences, then she wouldn’t stand a chance. She gave a determined shake of her head as she tried to evade the spell that heated gaze was weaving about her senses. ‘I have a plane to catch—’
‘Not today, I’m afraid, Luccy,’ Sin told her softly.
‘I’ve already warned you not to presume to tell me what I can and can’t do, Sin,’ she retorted.
He didn’t bother to reply as he moved to pick up the telephone receiver before pressing a single button. ‘Reception?’ His gaze held Luccy’s as he spoke into the mouthpiece. ‘Could you call the airport and cancel Miss Harper-O’Neill’s flight to England later today? Thanks,’ he added decisively before replacing the receiver to look at her challengingly.
‘Damn it! I’ll simply rebook!’ Luccy told him with angry impatience. ‘You really are the most arrogant man it has ever been my misfortune to meet!’ She glared at him.
‘Was meeting me really so unfortunate, Luccy?’ he prompted huskily even as he reached out and curved his hand about her cheek before running the pad of his thumb caressingly across her bottom lip.
A caress Luccy felt from the hair on top of her head to the skin on the soles of her feet as it completely eradicated every other thought in her head.
Her lips tingled from the caress, the whole of her body becoming sensitised, breasts firming, nipples tightening, a warm clenching sensation in the pit of her stomach, that familiar heat between her thighs.
Luccy was still furious with Sin for the insulting remarks he had made to her earlier. Even more so for his high-handedness in cancelling her flight just now.
Obviously, just not furious enough to prevent herself from physically responding to him…
Before meeting Sin she had never thought of herself as a particularly sensual person, hadn’t found her previous physical experience particularly stimulating, and had only mildly enjoyed the few kisses she had received at the end of other dates over the years. Yet Sin only had to look at her in a certain way, to touch her however lightly, and she felt that caress all the way from her head down to her toes.
‘Was it, Luccy?’ Sin persisted huskily, the lure of her parted lips proving almost too much of a temptation to him as he touched their softness, his whole body having tensed with awareness.
She swallowed hard. ‘Can you doubt it when it’s resulted in an unwanted pregnancy?’
Her breath was like a light caress across the tops of his fingers, totally distracting him from the sting of her words. ‘It isn’t unwanted by me.’
Her eyes widened. ‘How can you say that when you’re insisting on marrying a woman you don’t even like?’
‘Who says I don’t like you?’
Luccy stared up at him exasperatedly. ‘Of course you don’t like me! You can’t possibly like someone you don’t trust.’
Sin didn’t answer her in words, his hand dropping back to his side before he slowly lowered his head and captured her lips with his own, not touching her in any other way now as he sipped and tasted their pouting softness and he felt her quiver in response beneath the gentle onslaught.
Sin knew when a woman responded to his kisses. Just as he knew that Luccy’s response to him the night they had made love had been completely genuine. As had his own response to her.
Even if they never felt more for each other than that physical desire, surely, for the sake of their child, it would be enough to sustain a marriage?
Sin raised his head slightly to look directly into the dark blue of her eyes. ‘Now do you believe me when I say I don’t dislike you?’ he prompted gruffly.
Luccy didn’t know what to believe any more!
But she couldn’t marry a man who didn’t love her just because he physically aroused her every time he so much as touched her. That sort of heated passion didn’t last, and once that had died what would they have left? The same disastrous mess