I’m not.” He drew her closer, until they were a breath apart. “Why should I be? You said we were intimate. I said we weren’t. Why not settle the question?”
“It isn’t worth settling. And I never said we’d been intimate.”
His lips drew back from his teeth. “Ah, Ivy, Ivy, you disappoint me. Backing down already?” His smile vanished; his eyes turned cold. “Come on, glyka mou. Here’s your chance. Convince me we slept together. Remind me of what it was like.”
“Stop it. Stop it! I’m warning you, let me—”
She gasped as Damian slipped one hand lightly around her throat.
“A woman can only taunt a man for so long before he retaliates. Surely someone with your skills should have learned that by now.”
“You’re wrong! You know the truth, that we never—”
Damian kissed her.
Her mouth was cool and soft, and she made a little sound of terrified protest.
That was how she made it sound, anyway.
It was all part of the act. Part of a performance. Part of who she was and why she was here and…
And she tasted sweet, sweeter than the first time he’d kissed her, maybe because he knew the shape of her mouth now. The fullness of it.
The sexy silkiness.
She cried out again, jammed her hand against his chest and Damian told himself it was time to let go of her.
He’d accomplished what he wanted, met her challenge, showed her that she had no power over him…
His arousal was swift. He put one hand at the base of her spine and pressed hard enough so she had no choice but to tilt her hips against his and feel it.
God, he was on fire.
Another little sound whispered from her mouth to his and then, same as before, he felt the change in her. Her mouth softened. Warmed. The stiffness went out of her body and she leaned toward him.
He reminded himself that nothing she did was real. It was all part of her overall plan.
And it didn’t matter.
He knew only that he wanted this. The taste of her. The feel of her. He was entitled to that. Hell, he’d been accused of something he had not done.
Why not do it now?
Lift Ivy into his arms. Carry her up the stairs to his bedroom. Take everything she wanted him to believe he’d taken before, again and again and again…
“Please,” she whispered, “please—”
Her voice was soft. Dazed. It made him want her even more.
Deliberately he slid his hand inside her jacket and cupped the delicate weight of one breast.
“Please, what?” he growled. “Touch you? Take you?”
His fingers swept over her breast, blood thundering in his ears when he felt the thrust of her nipple through the silk that covered it. She moaned against his mouth.
A wave of lust rolled through him, shocking him with its intensity.
She moaned again and he gathered her closer. Slid his hands under the waistband of her black jeans. Felt the coolness of her buttocks, the silk of her flesh.
Primal desire flooded his senses. He wanted her, no matter what she was. And she wanted him. Wanted him. Wanted him…
Panagia mou! Damian flung her from him and stepped back. Tears were streaming down her face. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have honestly thought she was weeping.
“I can’t believe Kay loved you, that she wanted to give you a child!”
“Your story’s getting old. And confused. You’re the one who’s pregnant. Who I took to bed, remember?”
“That’s not true! Why do you keep saying it? You know we didn’t go to bed!”
“Right,” he said, his voice cold with contempt and sarcasm. “I keep forgetting that. We didn’t. We did it standing up. Or sitting in a chair. Or on a sofa—”
“There was no chair. No sofa. You know that. There was just—just your sperm. A syringe. And—and me.”
“Yeah. Sure. You, my sperm, a syringe…” Damian jerked back. “What?”
“You damned well know what! And you didn’t even have the—the decency to let Kay be artificially inseminated by a physician. Oh, no. You wanted to protect your precious privacy! So you—you used a—a condom to—to—” Her voice turned bitter. “I knew what you were when you didn’t ask to meet me in advance. When you didn’t care enough to come with Kay the day she—the day I—the day it took place.”
Damian wanted to say something but he couldn’t. He felt as if his head were in a vise.
Her story was fantastic. Far more interesting than the usual He made me pregnant tale.
And the media loved fantasy.
They’d fall on this like hyenas on a wounded antelope. By the time a different scandal knocked the story off the front pages, the damage would have been done. To his name, to Aristedes Shipping, the company he’d spent his adult life rebuilding.
“Nothing to say, Your Highness?” Ivy put her hands on her hips and eyed him with derision. “Or have you finally figured out that denial will only take you so far?”
Tossing this woman out on her backside was no longer a viable option. She was too clever for such easy dismissal.
“You’re right about that,” he said calmly. “Denial only goes so far and then it’s time to take appropriate action.” He closed the distance between them, relishing the way she stumbled back. “You will take a pregnancy test. Then, if you’re really pregnant, a paternity test.”
Ivy stared at him. She couldn’t think of a reason he’d want her to take such tests…Unless he was telling the truth. Unless he really hadn’t known about the baby.
And if he hadn’t…What would happen once he did?
“I don’t want to take any tests,” she said quickly. “You said you didn’t want the baby. That’s fine. You only have to give me a document—”
“No, glyka mou. It is you who will provide me with a document that legally establishes that you and I and a syringe never met, except inside your scheming little brain.”
“But—”
Damian took her arm, marched her to the elevator and pushed her inside it. Seconds later, the doors slid shut in her face.
CHAPTER FOUR
IT
