Page 135 of The Billionaire's Baby
"If only things had worked out otherwise, but they didn’t, and I am sorry. But that was just one time, right?" He rubs his thumb across my wrist and my pulse skitters.
"We can try again." His voice takes on a cajoling tone.
I tip up my chin. "We can, huh?"
He nods, his features taking on an earnest expression. "Let me give you what you want. Let me take you away from the city to a place where there is no stress, where you don’t need to worry about anything, but can focus on yourself. After all, if you are less tense, it helps to conceive right?"
"You’ve been reading up?"
He smiles and his features light up. "I confess that I may have researched it." He lowers his head and kisses the back of my palm. "Let’s do it right this time. Let me marry you, make you my wife, and then we can try for a child."
"Is that your command?" I stare at him.
He rakes his gaze across my face. "And if it is?"
"Well then…" I flutter my eyelashes at him, "it’s a ‘no’ from me."
"What?" His gaze widens. "You don’t mean it."
"Better believe it." I flick my hair across my shoulders. "I thought you were going to apologize—"
"I already did, didn’t I?" He scowls.
"Did you?" I look him up and down. "Clearly, you and I are not talking about the same thing if I have to remind you about what you have to apologize to me for."
I turn to leave and he grabs my wrist, "Don’t leave." He growls, "Don’t you dare turn away from me, Sparks."
"Oh, I am going to do more than that." I smile grimly. "Let go of me, Arpad."
"No."
"See, this is your problem." I shake my head. "On the one hand, you want to convince me to marry you. On the other, you’re still trying to control me into doing what you think is right for me, and that’s only going to push me away. You know that, right?"
He glares at me and his grip tightens. His jaw tics and his muscles coil. Then he squares his shoulders, and releases me. "See," he growls, "I am doing what you want, aren’t I?"
"It’s a start." I tuck my elbows into my sides. "Now, you can stay the hell away from me."
"Don’t ask me to do that." He bunches his fingers into fists. "Anything but that."
"That," I tilt my head, "is the price."
"For what?"
"For a chance at convincing me that you’re the man for me."
"I am the only one for you. You know that already."
"Do I though?" I scan his features. "All I see is a man who wants to control me into doing what he wants."
"Because it’s right for you."
"Let me be the judge of that." I draw myself up to my full height. "Promise me, you won’t interfere in my life."
His chest rises and falls. Anger rolls off of him in a dense cloud and his shoulders seem to grow even bigger. He takes a step forward and the strength of his dominance crashes into my chest. I throw up my hand. "Promise me," I force out the words through a throat gone dry. "Do it Arpad, if you want a chance at us being together."
"Will you come back to me if I do?"
"I don’t know."
