style="font-size:15px;"> ‘It is respected. And, as I told Richard when I made you the appointment today, it’s my baby, too.’
‘Don’t do this, Alexi!’ Her voice trembled.
‘Do what?’ For a moment his eyes flicked over her, taking in the tumble of curls around her shoulders. She looked pale and fragile but utterly beautiful.
‘Try to take me over.’ She glared at him.
‘Take you over …’ He repeated the words and for a moment looked amused.
‘I know you, Alexi,’ she reminded him. ‘I know what a shrewd operator you are. You’re treating this situation as if it is some business plan that you are in charge of. Well, it’s not! I’m in charge of this.’
The amusement suddenly died in his eyes. ‘I told you earlier, Katie, I won’t be sidelined—this is my child. I’m involved whether you like it or not … and I want this baby.’
‘You want the baby?’ She stared at him in surprise.
‘Yes.’
She continued just to look up at him with startled suspicion. ‘You really want the baby?’
‘Yes. I just said so.’
‘Mr Commitment-Phobic? Mr “I only want casual relationships” wants to take on the biggest responsibility there is in life … a baby?’
‘Don’t be facetious, Katie, it doesn’t suit you.’
‘Well, come on, Alexi, you’ve got to admit it is a bit of a leap for you, isn’t it?’
He shrugged. ‘But every journey in life has to start with a single step, doesn’t it?’ He looked into her eyes. ‘We’ve taken that step—there’s no going back.’
She felt a warm feeling of relief start to wind its way through her body. She’d hardly dared hope that he would say something like that to her, and that this was going to be OK.
‘I want this baby, too.’ She whispered the words, her voice unsteady as emotion shivered through her. ‘So much it hurts.’
‘So we are in agreement.’ He said the words gently, and for a moment his eyes held with hers. ‘I’m glad, Katie. It simplifies everything. A baby needs the security of a mother and a father.’
She could drown in his eyes, she thought hazily. Her gaze moved to the gleam of satisfaction on his sensual lips.
‘So we’ll get married,’ he told her softly.
‘What did you just say?’ For a moment she thought she had misheard him.
‘We’ll get married,’ he told her again, his tone supremely confident. ‘As soon as I can arrange it.’
For a few startled moments her mind played with the proposal. ‘But we don’t love each other,’ she whispered.
‘Does that really matter?’ He held her gaze seriously. ‘That emotion only complicates things anyway.’
She was jolted back to reality with an abruptness that made her blink. ‘Of course it matters!’
‘Katie, giving our child a secure upbringing is what matters! Think about it, you can’t possibly manage on your own. For a start you live in a tiny first-floor apartment—totally unsuitable.’
‘I’ll manage perfectly well!’ She glared at him.
He shook his head. ‘Anyway, you don’t have to. You are expecting my heir; obviously I’m going to look after you.’
‘By taking over my life.’ Something hardened inside Katie.
‘By doing the right thing.’
‘Well, I don’t want you to do the right thing!’ For some strange reason she wanted to cry. ‘And if that is your idea of a proposal you can keep it.’
He fixed her with a piercing look. ‘It’s my idea of a solution,’ he said calmly.
‘Well, I don’t like it.’
‘So what do you suggest, then?’ He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. ‘Do you think it would be better if I wait until the child is born and then take you forcibly to court because I want custody?’
‘You wouldn’t do that!’ Her breath seemed to freeze in her throat.
‘Katie, I’ll do whatever it takes,’ he told her powerfully. ‘And, believe me, you don’t want to be on the wrong side of me. Because I have the money and resources to go all the way, and I will win.’
‘A judge wouldn’t give you custody!’ Her voice wasn’t quite steady now. ‘No right-minded person would take a baby from its mother!’
‘Let’s see … take a baby from a one-parent family and transport it into the loving network of one of the richest, most powerful dynasties in Europe?’
She swallowed hard. The feeling of initial relief that he wanted his child had now turned to a feeling of complete fear. ‘I can’t believe you are saying these things! That you could even contemplate for a moment forcibly removing a child from its mother—it’s barbaric!’
‘I wasn’t contemplating it,’ he told her calmly. ‘I’m hoping you will see sense and it won’t come to that.’
See sense! The words sizzled through her. He was offering her marriage like he was offering a deal in the boardroom.
‘You may have more money than me, but that doesn’t make up for love, Alexi! A judge would look at both sides of the equation.’
‘You think my child won’t be loved?’ He looked at her with a quizzical expression. ‘You must think very little of me if you believe that. OK, you and I are not in love, but that doesn’t mean I’m incapable of loving! And I want the best for my child, and that includes a mother—a loving family-unit.’
The words made her emotions swirl in confusion.
‘You are a part of that, Katie … I want you in my life.’
But he didn’t really want her—not in the way a man usually meant when he suggested marriage. ‘You want me as some kind of convenient baby-minder, you mean!’ she told him bitterly.
‘No, I want you as my wife … in my bed.’ He came closer and reached out a hand to stroke it lightly down over the side of her face. It was a gentle, almost tender caress and it made her emotions ache with the need to turn towards him, lift her face for his kiss.
‘A marriage without love would never work.’ She tried to keep focussed on reality.
For a moment anger swirled inside Alexi. He couldn’t believe that she was trying to turn him down! He hadn’t been able to think about anything else this afternoon—and the more he thought about it, the more sense this made. In fact, he couldn’t believe the ache inside him—the
