look. ‘You went to bed with me last night purely as a way of diverting my attention from the fact that Hal and Laura weren’t returning—a fact that you were well aware of when you brought me here!’
The tiny bubble of hope that had begun to emerge from their closeness last night was firmly burst, the small bud of trust withering and dying, and Leonie assumed her air of detached recklessness like an old, well-worn glove. ‘I believe it was your idea that we make love, Hawk,’ she mocked lightly. ‘But you’re right, I did know Laura and Hal were away for the whole weekend. You’re completely wrong about my motives, however.’
‘Oh yes?’ he prompted contemptuously.
‘Hm,’ she nodded. ‘I had it more in mind that you might look a bit more favourably on their relationship if you had what you seemed to want—me.’ She met his gaze challengingly, knowing that none of her inner disillusionment showed; she had learnt long ago to hide her true feelings. ‘Obviously I misjudged the situation,’ she added derisively.
‘Damn right you did!’ growled Hawk. ‘Care to try a little blackmail of your own?’ he prompted softly.
Her eyes widened, then she gave a slow smile. ‘It wouldn’t look too good to Hal if he were to find out you’d taken me to bed, the sister of the woman he loves, only hours after meeting me,’ she taunted. ‘But I wouldn’t do that to Hal, Hawk,’ her eyes flashed. ‘He doesn’t deserve to be hurt by knowing what a bastard his father is!’
His mouth thinned. ‘Maybe I ought to tell him, just to show him how far you and your devious sister are prepared to go!’
Her trembling hands gripped the sheet in front of her. ‘Maybe you should,’ she agreed flatly.
‘But I won’t,’ he declared. ‘It’s bad enough that I know what sort of a fool I was last night. But if you think what happened made me look with favour on Hal’s and Laura’s relationship you couldn’t be more wrong; God knows what your sister is capable of if you’re capable of going to bed with a man to give her what she wants!’
Leonie sat forward in the bed. ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked.
His mouth twisted, his eyes mocking her. ‘Whatever it is you can depend upon it being a direct result of what you did with your sexy little body last night!’
And he had left her then.
If Laura had been any other than what she was Hawk would never have got away with asking them to wait a year before marrying; he would have lost his son. He hadn’t realised, still didn’t seem to realise, that it was because of Laura that he still had a son who loved him.
Hawk’s daughter had been conceived that night in his arms when Leonie had briefly begun to hope again, even her veneer of cheerful recklessness stripped from her when she learned that she carried his child.
Looking at Hawk now, as he faced her so steadily across the lounge, waiting for her to deny that Holly was his child, Leonie knew he was the last man she should have gambled even the tiniest piece of love on, that it was just as well he had killed the emotion before it had even begun to possess her. She would have been destroyed utterly by caring for this man. Or his child.
‘If you’ve come for Holly I’m sure June could have her things packed in about half an hour or so,’ she told him calmly. ‘Do you have someone you can get to take care of her for you?’
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