Page 33 of Legacy of His Revenge
CHAPTER EIGHT
SHE’DTURNEDDOWNhis extraordinary marriage proposal and she’d done the right thing.
Of course there were pros and there were cons. Every decision was always laced with pros and cons! But she had done the right thing. She’d been to see Eric, sat in his soothing presence, watched his contentment in his peaceful surroundings. Somehow she’d find the money to pay for him carrying on living there, but she would never expose him to the cruel glare of a curious and judgemental public.
Was she being selfish? Was she failing to consider the reality, which was that a child would always be better off with two parents as opposed to one and that was something that should override every other concern?
No. How could you hitch your wagon to a man you didn’t trust? A man you felt might betray you again? And anyway, trust issues aside, two parents only worked if the glue that bound them together wasn’t a child, but love. Matias didn’t love her and he had never pretended that he did. He felt responsible for her, responsible for the child he had sired, and was admirably willing to step up to the plate and do his duty, but duty was a far cry from love.
Duty would wear very thin at the edges as time marched on. Duty would be the very thing he would come to resent when he found himself harnessed to a woman he would never have voluntarily chosen to spend his life with.
But three weeks had gone by and Matias just seemed tobe around so much.
He hadn’t said it in so many words, but there had been no need because every look he gave her and every word that passed his lips saiddon’t fight me.
She’d turned him down but, like a predator waiting for the right moment to strike, he was simply biding his time.
He didn’t realise, she thought, that he would never wear away her defences because there was more than just her and their baby at stake. At stake was a brother he knew nothing about and never would and that bolstered all her resolve when his presence just felttoo overwhelming.
Nothing he could say, no logic he could use, could ever make her do anything that might jeopardise her brother’s privacy and happiness.
She was congratulating herself on being strong as she sat, the first to arrive, at the posh restaurant where Matias had arranged to meet her for lunch. He had been away for the past three days and her stomach was already tightening in nervous knots as she braced herself for that first glimpse of him. On the one hand, she had been relieved that, although he had been scrupulous about maintaining contact with her by phone, he hadn’t imposed his presence on her on a daily basis. On the other hand, she wondered whether she might have become more blasé about his physical presence if he were around more, if she had a chance to get accustomed to him. She didn’t like the way he still made her feel and she hated the memories of him touching her that refused to go away. They weren’t on that page any longer! Things had changed and they were never going to be on that page together again.
Lost in thought, she looked up to find that he had arrived and he wasn’t alone.
Art was with him. She hadn’t seen him since the weekend party in the Lake District and she rose to her feet, already smiling as he walked towards her. Behind him, Matias towered, unbearably sexy in his work clothes, one hand in his trouser pocket, the other hooked to his jacket, which was slung over his shoulder.
Seeing that warm, genuine smile on her face as she looked at Art, Matias sourly thought that it was somethinghehadn’t seen for a while. She’d repeatedly thrown his marriage proposals back in his face and he’d been sharp enough to realise that the harder he pushed, the faster she would back away.
There was no way he was going to let her run out of his life because it suited her. Pride refused to let him forget that she had slept with him as a ruse to get him to invest in her father’s company, but common sense dictated that he get her onside because he was never going to be persuaded into the role of part-time father.
He watched, his expression shuttered, as she and Art chatted away like the old friends they weren’t and something hit him hard, something so unexpected that it was like a punch to the gut.
He didn’t like seeing her relaxed interaction with his friend. He didn’t like the way she was so at ease in his company. He didn’t care for the tinkling of her laughter as they found God only knew what to talk about, considering they’d known each other all of five seconds.
Jealousy and possessiveness rammed into him with the weight of a sledgehammer and he interrupted their conversation to coolly inform her that Art wasn’t going to be joining them for lunch.
‘That’s a shame.’ Sophie sighed with genuine disappointment, which got on Matias’s nerves even more.
He scowled, met Art’s curious eyes and scowled even more. ‘Don’t let us keep you,’ he said abruptly, and Art grinned broadly but stood up, moving to drop a kiss on Sophie’s cheek before heading out.
‘That wassorude,’ she said. ‘It was lovely seeing Art again! I had no idea you two were so close. You never said! I can’t believe yougrew up together!’ They were like brothers and it had brought her up short to acknowledge that Art adored Matias. Even in the space of half an hour, she had been able to glean that from their interaction and seeing them together had unwillingly reminded her of just why she had been seduced by him. There was a side to Matias that wasn’t a bastard, a side that could elicit a depth of affection from a loyal friend who was clearly a wonderful human being. It was suddenly confusing to admit that he was also many other things, a complex guy with so many dimensions, it made her head swim.
Not that she was going to let that deflect her from the path she had decided to take.
‘I had no idea I had a duty to tell you every detail of my life just because you’re carrying my baby,’ Matias drawled lazily, sitting back as menus were placed in front of them. Her cheeks were still flushed and she looked so damned sexy that the jealousy that had attacked him from nowhere five minutes ago staged another onslaught. He knew he was being irrational but he couldn’t help it.
‘You never said that you were going to visit your mother...’
‘I could hardly let her find out about us via the grapevine.’
‘She must have been disappointed,’ Sophie said quietly. ‘No mother likes to think that her child has...well...is going to have a family...you know...so unexpectedly...and without the usual build-up...’
Matias allowed her to run aground. Seeing his mother had reinforced his belief that the only solution was to marry the woman blushing opposite him. If she was going to dig her heels in, then he would have to work along the lines that there was more than one way to skin a cat. He’d seen the way she still looked at him. ‘Naturally,’ he murmured smoothly, ‘she would have preferred the love and marriage scenario...’
‘But you told her how it was? That this isn’t that sort of situation?’
Matias didn’t say anything because he had told his mother no such thing. ‘Pregnancy becomes you, Sophie,’ he said instead, relaxing into the chair and staring at her until the faint colour in her cheeks deepened and he saw the latentawarenessof him that she was always so careful to try and conceal. ‘Your body’s changing. You’re wearing looser clothes. Are your breasts getting bigger?’
