Page 10 of Pregnant and Stolen by the Tycoon

For Cardosia.

‘I’m a man who’s unequivocal about stating what he wants. And yet I’m under the impression that I’ve skipped several rungs of this conversation without due process.’

A pink tongue slicked over her Snow White lips as she shook her head. ‘You’re not. You haven’t. I’m also a woman who doesn’t hold back from stating what she wants. I’ve told you what I want. Mindless chitchat isn’t necessary.’

Slowly, an unnerving sensation wound its way like a dark underground river through him. ‘Tell me you didn’t make this proposal to anyone else. Is this a contingency that was attached to all your meetings today?’ Why did that matter? And,Dios mio, why did the very idea of it fill him with such fury?

True, he hadn’t expected the near-reclusive genius to be so intensely...feminine. Alluring and breathtakingly beautiful. Not the gangly teenager wearing regulation nerdy glasses with mousy dark hair, oftentimes hiding behind her more publicity-seeking parents.

The reality of her had been so shocking that, for several seconds, he’d believed he’d walked into the wrong office.

No one had warned him the genius with the jaw-dropping IQ inhabited the body of a nineteen-fifties pin-up. That the ropey, lifeless hair was in fact lustrous tresses that invited a man...him...to sink his fingers into the heavy mass, grip it firmly to nudge her head back so he could plunder those sinful lips. To learn her taste and savour her essence.

And yes, his initial reaction after seeing her in the flesh for the first time had been...visceral. He was a red-blooded male with vigorous passions and a healthy libido, after all. But—

‘I did not,’ she replied crisply.

A layer of that furore subsided at her answer, but he still remained highly out of sorts, a baffling and irritating condition.

All he had to do was utter thenolodged like a heavy stone in his gut. Redirect the conversation back to the pertinent and pressing reason they were here. And yet all he could think of was that once he denied her with that ‘no’, she would seek the next candidate. Thathewould be consigned to the reject list.

So what?

He didn’t want children. Definitely not for the sake of procreating to fulfil the cachet objective the way his parents had. And most definitely not as a manipulation tool or a bargaining chip to be peddled for power. His whole childhood had been a joke, a cruel game of false affection, abject neglect and quid pro quo no child should be subjected to.

It was an experience that had, if not damaged him, at least psychologically scarred him. The risk that he could pass it on to his child, that he might unconsciously visit that same cruelty on an innocent offspring?

No.Never.

The searing reminder burned away the peculiar sensation swimming in his gut, attempting to move that stone. And when he exhaled next, it was with the reassurance that common sense had reasserted itself. ‘The answer is no, Miss Merchant.’

Her shoulders stiffened for a fraction of time, then deflated a little. Before she gave a curt, dismissive nod. ‘Very well.’

His eyes narrowed and that furore returned, twice as incendiary. ‘Very well?What does that mean?’ The intensity of his reaction shocked Seve.

As it did Genie, if her sharp intake of breath was an indication. For several seconds, she merely blinked at him. Then, she reached for her glass, taking a sip of water and setting it down in precise motions before she glanced at him. ‘I sense that I’m supposed to either beg, convince you to change your mind or take your answer at face value. Option number three seems the most logical. We’re both pressed for time, and you stated a few minutes ago that you’re an unequivocal man so it stands to reason that you wouldn’t say no just to play games with me.’

Seve was...nonplussed. And he hated it. This woman was drawing emotions from him he deeply resented.

Then get back on course. Be done with this.

He forced a reluctant nod. ‘Good. This dinner is to discuss you selling your algorithm to me. You haven’t lost sight of that, I hope?’

Her lashes swept down for a moment but when she lifted her head again only the faintest shadow in her eyes reflected the peculiar conversation that had just taken place. ‘No, I haven’t.’

A growl rose in his throat, but he quickly killed it. ‘You’re not what I expected.’

‘I’ve heard that often enough before, Mr Valente.’

‘Seve.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Call me Seve.’

The pulse leapt faster at her throat and his fingers itched to trace it. ‘I would rather not.’

‘Why do you want a child?’Dios, why was he pursuing this?

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