silence was a message.
Still, it wasn’t enough.
He had to put his denial of his rights to his child in writing. She needed a document that said he didn’t want the baby, that he’d rather believe her story was a lie than acknowledge he’d fathered a child.
Even that was no guarantee.
Damian Aristedes was powerful. He could hire all the lawyers in Manhattan and have money left over. He could not only make his own rules, he could change them when he had to.
But if she had something on paper, something that might give her a legal edge if he ever changed his mind—
“I can almost see you thinking, Miss Madison.”
Ivy blinked. The prince was standing with his arms folded over his chest, narrowed eyes locked on her face.
It was disconcerting.
She was accustomed to having men look at her. It went with the territory.
When you had done hundreds of photo shoots, when your own face looked back at you from magazine covers, you expected it. It was part of the price you paid for success in the world of modeling.
Men noticed you. They looked at you.
But not like this.
The expression on Damian Aristedes’s face spoke of contempt, not desire. How dare he be disdainful of her? She’d made a devil’s bargain—she knew that, had known it almost from the beginning—but she’d been prepared to stand by that bargain even if it tore out her heart.
Not him.
He was the man who’d started this. Now, he was pretending he didn’t know what she was talking about.
That was fine. It was perfect. It meant she’d kept her promise and now she was free to put the past behind her and concentrate on the future. On the child she’d soon have.
Her child, not his.
It was just infuriating to have him look at her as if she were a liar and a cheat.
Except, there’d been a moment, more than one, when she’d caught him watching her in a different way, his eyes glinting not with disdain but with hunger.
Hunger only she could ease.
And when that had happened, she’d felt—she’d felt—
“You’re as transparent as glass, Miss Madison.”
Years of letting the camera steal her face but never her thoughts kept Ivy from showing any reaction.
“How interesting. Do you read minds when you’re not busy evading responsibility, Your Highness?”
“You’re trying to come up with a way to capitalize on that moment of shock I showed when you told me I was your baby’s father.” He smiled thinly. “Trust me. You can’t.”
He was partly right. She was trying to come up with a way to capitalize on something, but not that.
Ivy took a steadying breath.
“I’ll be happy to leave, happier still never to see you again, Prince Damian. But first—”
“Ah. But first, you want a check for…How much? A hundred thousand? Five hundred thousand? A million? Don’t shake your head, Miss Madison. We both know you have a price in mind.”
Another steadying breath. “Not a check.”
“Cash, then. It doesn’t matter.”
The icy little smile slipped from his lips and she repressed a shudder. The prince would be a formidable enemy.
“I don’t want money. I want a letter. A document that makes it clear you’re giving up all rights to the child in my womb.”
He laughed. Laughed, damn him!
“Thee mou, lady. Don’t you know when to quit?”
“Sign it, date it and I’ll be out of your life forever.”
His laughter stopped with the speed of a faucet turning off. “Enough,” he said through his teeth. “Get out of my home before I do something we’ll both regret.”
“Just a letter,” she said. “A few lines—”
He said something in what she assumed was Greek. She didn’t understand the words but she didn’t have to as he gripped her by the shoulders, spun her around, put a hand in the small of her back and shoved her forward.
“And if you’re foolish enough to tell your ridiculous story to anyone—”
The thing to do was hire a lawyer. Except, he’d hire a dozen for every one she could afford. He had power. Money. Status. Still, there had to be a way. There had to be!
“And if you really are knocked up, if some man was stupid enough to let your face blind him to the scheming bitch you really are—”
Ivy spun around, swung her fist and caught him in the jaw. He was big and strong and hard as nails but she caught him off guard. He blinked and staggered back. It took him all of a second to recover but it was enough to send a warm rush of pleasure through her blood.
“You—you pompous ass,” she hissed. She marched forward, index finger aimed at his chest, and jabbed it right into the center of his starched white shirt, her fear gone, everything forgotten but his impossible arrogance. “This isn’t about you and who you are and how much money you have. It isn’t about you at all! I don’t want anything from you, Prince Damian. I never—”
She gasped as he caught her by the elbows and lifted her to her toes.
“You don’t want anything from me, huh?” Damian’s lips drew back from his teeth as he bent his head toward hers. “That’s why you came here? Because you don’t want anything from me?”
“I came because I thought I owed it to you but I was wrong. I don’t. And I warn you, letter or no letter, if you should change your mind a month from now, a decade from now, and try and claim my baby—”
“Damn you,” he roared, “there is no baby!”
“Whatever you say.”
“The truth at last!”
“Truth?” Ivy laughed in his face. “You wouldn’t know it if it bit you in the tail!”
“I know that I never took you to bed.”
“Let go!”
“How come you didn’t factor that into your little scheme?” Damian yanked her wrist, dragged it behind her back. She flinched but she’d sooner have eaten nails than let him know he was hurting her. “You made several mistakes, Miss Madison. One, I don’t drink to excess. Two, I never forget a woman I’ve been with.” His gaze swept over her with
