Rumours: The Secret Billionaires. Дженнифер Хейворд
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be married at the earliest opportunity.’ Her gaze flew to his, panic and question in her eyes.
‘Married? Are you mad?’ She gasped the words out as if she couldn’t comprehend what he was saying.
‘Am I mad to get tangled up in marriage once more? Quite possibly. You do recall what you said to me just last week?
‘The only man who has a right to make any contribution to the decisions I make regarding my son is the man who puts a ring on my finger.’
She looked at him aghast, unable to say anything, and he continued to drive home his point. ‘I will be that man, Sadie, make no mistake about that.’
‘I don’t want to marry you.’ She all but spat those words at him and the fiery passion he’d seen once before in her eyes returned—as did the challenge. And challenges were exactly what he thrived on.
‘It’s not about what you want, or even what I want. This is about what is best for Leo.’ She glared at him as he spoke and he knew he was winning. ‘If you want to return to England, then go. Leo stays here—with me.’
* * *
Sadie’s world was crashing down around her. How had she been so stupid to think that Toni had been sent by Antonio, when all along he was the very man she least wanted to see? Panic rushed through her faster than lightning. How could she fight against the power of a man like Antonio Di Marcello?
What if his threat was real? Would he really take Leo from her?
‘So you think that spending two weeks in disguise is conducive to good behaviour for a father, do you?’ She could hardly think straight with his threat hanging heavily between them, so she fired the only challenge she could think of at him, pleased to see the brief flicker of shock which crossed his handsome face. ‘It doesn’t make you the kind of man I want Leo to look up to.’
He unfolded his arms and stepped far too close to her, but she refused to be intimidated. He might be the all-powerful businessman, but she wasn’t about to let him sweep in and demand what she and Leo should do.
‘I am Leo’s father. I have rights too, Sadie. Rights you have denied me since the day he was born.’ His words were menacingly quiet and she knew she was playing with fire, but she couldn’t do what he wanted, even though she knew he was right.
‘I wrote to you, Antonio. I tried everything I could to let you know I was pregnant with your child. Of course you wanted to write off that weekend, to play at being happily married with your new wife. But that didn’t last very long, did it? What was it, six months?’
‘Sì. Full marks for research.’
The defensive note in his voice shocked her, highlighting the fact that the divorce so soon after his marriage actually mattered to him. Had his male ego been crushed by its failure?
She tried to recall all she’d read about it before she’d stopped herself obsessing over a man who didn’t want her or his child. He had been photographed with many women in the months after the wedding. Clearly all the fault lay with him. She couldn’t subject Leo to a father like that, a man who wanted something and would then move on once he’d got it.
‘It has everything to do with it, Antonio. Why would I want a man who, apart from abandoning me when I carried his child, can’t even honour his wedding vows to be part of my son’s life?’ She was certain her new line of attack would deter him from the senseless idea of marriage, but the dark look which crossed his face pushed away that certainty.
‘What happened between Eloisa and myself has nothing to do with this and most definitely nothing to do with my ability to be a father to Leo.’ She stepped back as anger reigned supreme in his voice, dripping from every word. She hated the fact that he’d named his ex-wife, given her an identity. It made her feel inferior. She was the woman he’d had a brief affair with before leaving behind his bachelor life—but not his playboy ways, if the papers were to be believed.
‘Can you give Leo security and provide him with a loving and happy home?’ Defiantly she tried another line of attack. ‘Can you be there when he needs you in the middle of the night if he has a bad dream? Can you be the kind of father who will spend time with him for no other reason than you want to?’
She took a breath from her passionate appeal and looked at him, his silence telling her all she needed to know. He hadn’t thought about those kind of things—all he’d wanted was to claim something he considered his.
‘I want my son, Sadie, and I will do all it takes.’ He lowered his voice, the deep tones full of control and determination.
‘He is not a possession. A thing to be coveted. He is a child. My child.’ She turned and walked away from him, exasperated by the circles they were talking in. All it came back to each time was that he wanted Leo. How she wished she could paint over that weekend as easily as she could cover the blank canvas on her easel. ‘And I will never allow you to take him from me.’
She turned and looked down onto the street from the small window, her back to Antonio as if that would make him disappear, make all this go away. She’d once foolishly dreamt of him turning up to claim his son and declare his love for her, tell her that he couldn’t live without her, but now she knew that was never going to happen. The man who stood arrogantly in her small apartment was as cold as ice. He was as unfeeling and uncaring as his parents. Did she really want Leo to grow up like that?
‘He is my child too.’ Antonio’s voice reached her through the fog of hurt and disappointment. ‘And you leave me no alternative.’
‘What?’ She whirled round. What did he intend to do now?
‘I have appealed to you as a mother, but it seems that is not your real reason for dragging this out. So I will ensure that it is not only Leo who has a secure future. That is something I will do whatever deal we strike. But your parents—they are about to relocate back to England, no?’
What did her parents have to do with this? ‘Yes, and that is why I cannot even think of moving to Rome, much less marrying you. I need to go back to England with them.’
‘If you returned to Rome and became my wife, your parents would have a considerably more comfortable retirement.’ His calculated words burned a furious red before her eyes. ‘And you can be with Leo.’
‘Are you threatening me? Using my parents and my son?’ How dare he? Had he managed to find out that much about her and her family that he knew of the financial struggle her parents were facing in moving back to England?
‘The choice is yours, Sadie. Marry me and become a family or go back to England—alone.’
‘I can’t do that.’ She looked at him and knew, without a shadow of doubt, he was serious.
‘Then marry me.’
‘I don’t want to marry you, Antonio. Why would I want to marry someone who can use such threats?’
He moved towards her again and this time the hardness in his face had gone, the granite spark in his eyes had softened. He looked as he had done that weekend she’d fallen in love with him. He looked far too desirable and she wondered if she was losing her head, losing her ability for rational thought.
‘Because we had something good and from that has come Leo.’ He touched the back of his fingers to her face. ‘And we can have something good again, Sadie.’
‘No,’ she snapped and moved away from him. ‘Never that. If I agree, then it will be for Leo’s sake—and my parents’, as you have brought them into this. It will not be because I want to pander to your overinflated ego.’
‘Tough words.’ His voice was still incredibly sexy, but she wasn’t going to let him know that. ‘But so untrue. You still want me as much as I want you.’
‘Never.’ She wanted to shout the denial at him, but instead the lingering warmth of his touch was her undoing and her voice became husky. ‘I hate you.’
‘You