Modern Romance Collection: August 2017 Books 5 -8. Jennie Lucas
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announcement about my private life right now,’ Cortez said tersely. ‘All I will say is that the current situation regarding my son’s legitimacy will be resolved in the very near future.’
He signalled to his PA that the press conference was over and stepped down from the podium. As he carried Harry out of the ballroom Elin hurried after him, and he guessed from the staccato beat of her stiletto heels on the marble floor that her temper was simmering.
‘What did you mean by that last vague reply you gave to the journalist?’ she demanded after Cortez handed Harry to the nanny so that she could take him back upstairs to the nursery. The entrance hall was full of guests who were preparing to leave now that the party was over, and he led Elin into his study and locked the door to ensure their privacy. She put her hands on her hips. ‘How can Harry’s legitimacy be resolved?’
He waited a heartbeat. ‘By us getting married.’
‘Very funny,’ she snapped. ‘But I’m not in the mood for jokes.’
‘It wasn’t a joke. I’m serious.’ In his mind Cortez heard the journalist say that Harry was illegitimate, and he was hurtled back in time to when he had been taunted by other boys in the village where he had lived with his mother. ‘Malparido!’ they had shouted at him. The word meant bastard in English. Worse had been when they had called his mother a puta—a whore. Cortez had retaliated to the boys’ insults with his fists. He hadn’t cared what they called him, but he had fought to defend his mother’s honour. Working in the vineyard from an early age had made him physically strong, and after a while the boys had stopped calling him names to his face because they knew he would retaliate with punches.
Attitudes had changed in the thirty-four years since he had grown up among villagers who had held traditional values and sneered at him because his mother was unmarried. But the journalist’s comments showed that there was still a stigma attached to being illegitimate. He would not allow his son to be called a malparido.
He looked at Elin’s mutinous expression and knew he would have a battle on his hands to persuade her to marry him. But she wanted Harry as much as he did and Cortez was prepared to play dirty to get everything he desired.
‘WHAT MAKES YOU think I’d marry you after you have kidnapped me, insulted me and accused me among other things of being a drug addict?’
Elin’s chest heaved as she struggled to control her overwrought emotions. When Cortez had announced to his party guests and the press that Harry was his son, she had felt a sense of being trapped and powerless. ‘This ridiculous situation has gone on long enough,’ she said forcefully. ‘I don’t know why you told the journalist that Harry will live in Spain. His home is in England with me.’
Instead of replying, Cortez picked up a crystal decanter and poured a generous measure of pale gold liquid into a glass. ‘Do you want a drink?’ he asked her. ‘This is F&C’s finest fifteen-year-old cask-aged sherry.’ When Elin shook her head he lifted the glass to his lips and swallowed half its contents in one gulp, almost as if he had needed the hit of alcohol. He looked at her with an unfathomable expression in his eyes. ‘So how do you think it will work if we share custody of Harry?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Will we each have him living with us for a week or a month at a time? That might work while he is a baby, but when he’s older don’t you think he will find it unsettling to be shipped between England and Spain like he is a parcel? Is that what you want for our son?’
‘Of course not.’ A memory flashed into Elin’s mind of herself as a little girl, walking up the front steps of Cuckmere Hall for the first time after Ralph and Lorna Saunderson had adopted her and taken her to England. She had only known the orphanage in war-torn Sarajevo, but even though it had not been a happy place she had been scared to leave. Moving away from familiar surroundings was unnerving for a child. She remembered how she had clung to her brother’s hand for reassurance. How would Harry feel when he was a bit older and he was separated from one of his parents and taken to live with his other parent in a different country every few weeks? Not having a permanent home would be unsettling for him.
‘What about Christmases and birthdays?’ Cortez went on relentlessly. ‘How much do you think he will enjoy those special occasions if he has to choose which of his parents to spend them with?’
‘Plenty of parents manage to lead separate lives and successfully share custody of their children,’ Elin argued. ‘We don’t have to get married for Harry’s sake.’
‘No, we don’t have to,’ Cortez agreed flatly. ‘But why wouldn’t we choose to give our son stability, security and the consistency of growing up with both his parents? Harry needs to be part of a family and surely his needs are paramount?’
‘This is crazy!’ Elin’s frustration bubbled over. Everything Cortez had said made sense, but marry him...really? ‘You are the last man on earth I’d choose to marry.’
‘Yet, if I am to believe what you told me, I am the first and possibly only man you’ve had sex with,’ he drawled.
She flushed. ‘I explained why I slept with you on my birthday night. I certainly wasn’t tempted to sleep with anyone else after I’d found out that I was pregnant by a stranger who had gatecrashed my party.’
Cortez finished his drink and set his glass down on the desk. ‘I hired a private investigator in England, who checked police records and confirmed that a male guest at your birthday party was accused of tampering with several of the women’s drinks. Tom Wilson was charged with administering a substance which is a well-known date-rape drug.’
Elin gave a deep sigh. ‘There is the proof that I behaved out of character when I went to bed with you. The drug that had been slipped into my drink without my knowledge had the effect of lowering my inhibitions.’ Deep down, she knew she could not only blame the date-rape drug for the way she had responded to Cortez’s smouldering sensuality. She had taken one look at him and been blown away by his handsome looks, but she wasn’t about to admit that to him.
She became aware that he had moved closer to her without her noticing him doing so. He possessed the stealth and predatory instincts of a wolf stalking its prey. The thought unnerved her even as her body reacted to the evocative scent of his cologne. He was always impossibly handsome, but tonight, wearing an impeccably tailored black dinner suit, he took her breath away. It hurt her to look at him and she wanted to turn her head away, but he trapped her gaze and the sultry heat in his gold-flecked eyes sent a sizzle of electricity through her.
‘You can tell yourself that it was a drugged drink that made you desire me a year ago, but it doesn’t explain your response when I kissed you at Cuckmere Hall,’ he drawled.
‘You took me by surprise.’ She was quick to defend her actions but she flushed guiltily as she remembered how she had melted in his arms. She held up her hand to ward Cortez off when he stepped even closer to her. He was so tall that she had to tilt her head to look at his face and the implacable expression stamped on his chiselled features caused her heart to miss a beat.
‘What are you doing? Leave me alone.’ Her panicky plea was muffled against his mouth as his head swooped down and he crushed her lips beneath his in a kiss designed to prove that he was her master.
She must not succumb to his sensual magic, Elin told herself frantically. But she felt boneless as Cortez pulled her into the heat and strength of his big body, making her aware of his powerful abdominal muscles and, lower down, the shockingly hard ridge of his arousal that pressed insistently against her pelvis.
He deepened the kiss, exploring the moist interior of her mouth with his tongue while he slid one hand into her hair and clamped her skull so that escape was impossible. His other hand skimmed down her bare back, his touch setting her skin alight before he spread his fingers over the swell of her buttocks. Her silk dress was a frustrating barrier and Elin longed