Page 34 of Legacy of His Revenge
‘Matias!’ Sophie was shocked because he hadn’t been direct like this before.
Heat blossomed inside her. Her breasts ached and she felt the tingle of awareness stickily making its presence felt between her legs.Thatwas what those casual words were doing to her!
‘It doesn’t get more intimate than having my baby...’ he shrugged, his fabulous eyes not leaving her face ‘...so why are you so surprised that I am curious about the physical changes occurring to you? It’s natural. I’m fifty per cent responsible for those physical changes.’
‘This conversation is not appropriate! We no longer have that kind of relationship!’
‘You think that we are more like...what?’
‘Well,friends. At least, that’s what we should be aspiring to become! We’ve talked about this and we both agree that it would be best for our child if we remain on good terms.’ She cleared her throat and tried to ignore the suffocating effect his intense gaze was having on her nervous system. ‘Remember we agreed that you would be able to see him or her any time you wanted?’
‘So we did...’
‘We may not have expected this...’ she dug deep to repeat the mantra she had told herself ‘...but we’re both adults and um...in this day and age, marriage isn’t the inevitable solution to dealing with an unexpected pregnancy... We discussed this.’
‘Indeed...’
‘There’s too much water under the bridge between us.’
‘I won’t deny that.’ She had deferred, for once, and he had ordered for both of them, a sharing platter that was now placed between them. ‘But I’m curious. What do you suggest we do with the mutual desire that’s still putting in an unwelcome appearance?’
Sophie’s mouth fell open. He had brought out into the open the one thing she had desperately tried to shove into a locked box. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about!’
‘Liar,’ Matias said softly. ‘I could reach out and touch you right now and you’d go up in flames.’
‘You couldn’t be further from the truth,’ Sophie denied weakly. ‘I could never be attracted to someone who used me like you did. Never!’
‘Neveris a word that has no place in my vocabulary.’
‘Matias...’ She thought of Eric and the importance of hanging onto her resolve, but seeing Matias with Art had weakened that resolve, had reminded her of those sides to him that could be so wonderfully seductive, so thoughtful and unexpectedly kind.
‘I’m listening.’
‘I know you find it funny to make me uncomfortable.’
‘I think about you all the time. I wonder what your changing body looks like under those clothes.’
‘Don’t say things like that! We don’t have that kind of relationship! We talked about that.’ She sought refuge in the platter in front of her but she could feel him staring lazily at her, sending her into heady meltdown. Her whole body was throbbing with the very awareness he was casually dragging out into the open and forcing her to acknowledge.
‘I don’t like to stick to the script. It makes for a boring life.’ Matias sat back. He let his eyes drift at a leisurely pace down her curvaceous body and felt his mouth twitch because she was as rigid as a plank of wood, as if her posture were fooling him. ‘In fact,’ he drawled, ‘I’m taking the afternoon off.’
‘Why?’
‘Do I have to provide a reason? And stop looking at me like that. You should be thrilled at the prospect of spending time in my company. And do me a favour and refrain from telling me that wedon’t have that kind of relationship.’
‘I can’t leave Julie in the lurch.’
‘She’s going to have to get used to you no longer holding her hand when you finally decide to listen to me and quit working. She’s a big girl. She’ll cope.’
‘I can’tquit working, Matias.’
‘Let’s not go there. You don’t need the money.’
Sophie thought of Eric and her mouth firmed. The irony was that Matias wanted to throw money at her. Once upon a time not all that long ago he had turned his back on her and tossed her to the kerb but now that she was pregnant, everything had changed. They had not discussed money in any great depth yet, but he had already made it clear that his child, and her by extension, would want for nothing.
And yet, how could she allow herself to ever become financially dependent on him? Her pride would never allow it and, more than that, what if she began to trust again only to find that she had once more made a mistake? What if, by then, she was totally reliant on the money he was so keen for her to have because she’d stopped working? No, there was no way she could give up her job. Maternity leave was one thing. Resignation was quite another.
Another roadblock, Matias thought with frustration. He impatiently wondered why she couldn’t just recognise that his solution was the best and only way to move forward. What woman wouldn’t want a life of luxury? What woman wouldn’t want to be able to snap her fingers and get whatever she wanted? It wasn’t as though they didn’t have an electric connection still thrumming between them like a live charge. What more advantages did he have to bring to the table for her to accept his proposal? Why, he thought, did she have to be sodamned stubborn?
