Million-Dollar Love-Child

Her desperate need for the money warred with her own powerful sense of self-preservation. It had taken her years to recover from the fallout of their relationship. Years to rebuild her life. How could she even contemplate putting herself back in that position?

She knew from bitter experience that he was incapable of connecting with a woman on any level other than the physical. He was incapable of showing or even feeling emotion. He’d break her heart again if she was foolish enough to let him.

Except that this time she wasn’t an idealistic teenager, she reminded herself. Her expectations were realistic. This time round she knew the man she was dealing with. Understood his shortcomings. Understood that he wasn’t capable of a relationship.

And, most of all, this time she would have more sense than to fall in love with him.

She almost laughed at her own thoughts. She was weighing up the facts as if she had a decision to make but the truth was there was no decision to make. What choice did she have?

Given the circumstances, how could she say no?

The only thing that mattered was her son.

So what were Luc’s reasons? Why would he want her back when he’d been so determined to end their relationship all those years before?

‘Why do you want this when our relationship was over years ago?’ She just couldn’t bring herself to refer to it as sex, even though that was what it had been. ‘I just don’t understand.’

‘Don’t you?’ His gaze dropped to her mouth and his dark eyes heated with molten sexuality. ‘We have unfinished business, meu amorzinho, as you well know.’

Her heart thudded hard against her chest. ‘I need time to think about it.’ Time to talk herself into doing something that left her almost breathless with panic.

‘You can have ten seconds,’ he offered in a smooth tone, glancing around the basic, threadbare room with an expression of appalled distaste. ‘And then we’re leaving.’

‘Ten seconds?’ How she wished she’d booked a room with air-conditioning. It was too hot to think properly and she needed to think. Just in case there was an alternative—‘That’s ridiculous! You can’t expect me to make a decision that quickly!’

‘And yet it was you who said that you needed the money immediately,’ he reminded her, thick dark lashes shielding his expression, ‘you who told me there was no time to linger over this decision. The blackmailer is waiting, is he not?’

His tone dripped sarcasm and she stared at him helplessly, looking for a hint of softness, a chink in that solid armour plating which might suggest that for him this arrangement was about something deeper than just animal hunger.

But there was nothing soft about Luciano Santoro and no break in the armour. He was hard, ruthless and he took what he wanted.

And it seemed that he wanted her.

‘Why?’ The words fell from her lips like a plea. ‘Why do you want me back? You yourself said that women don’t get a second chance with you. It doesn’t make sense.’

‘It will make perfect sense when you’re naked and underneath me,’ he assured her in the confident tone of a man who knew a negotiation was all but over. ‘Your thinking time is up, meu amorzinho. Yes or no?’

She looked at him with loathing, wondering how he could be so cold and detached. Was he capable of feeling anything? All her instincts were warning her to say no and run a mile. But then she thought of her son—‘You leave me no choice.’

‘How typical of you to pretend that this isn’t what you want. Again I’m cast in the role of big bad wolf.’ His smile was faintly mocking and he lifted a hand and gently drew his thumb over her lower lip. ‘You can always refuse.’

She stared at him, hypnotised by the heat in his eyes.

How? How could she say no, knowing what that would mean for her child?

And yet how could she say yes, knowing what it would mean for her?