His gaze pinned her, penetrated her. “I have every right.”
“No, you don’t.” She held herself tighter. The fear of what could happen if he ever found out pulsed through her and she used the only weapon her feeble brain could find to defend herself. “Not after what you did that night.”
His brows rose. “We had sex. We both were in that bed and we both participated.”
“You tricked me.”
“You wanted me.”
She clutched the flannel, damp sweat on her palms. “I was drunk and you took advantage.”
His whole body went taut and a flash of emotion went through the gold of his eyes, turning them brown. Had that been guilt? Was this man capable of feeling such a thing?
His words instantly put that idea out of her head. “When I wake up to a woman with her hand around my cock, I wouldn’t call that taking advantage.”
Heat swept across her face. “You are—”
“I’d say it was accepting an invitation.”
“I didn’t want you then. I don’t want you now.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “It is of no consequence to what we must deal with now.”
“We don’t have to deal with anything.”
He ran a restless hand through his long curls. “All of this arguing is of no importance. What is important is the baby and who the father is. You will comply with my request.”
“I won’t.” She knew she sounded like a child, but they were the only words she could muster.
Another harsh laugh came from him. “You will. Either willingly or I will make you.”
A blinding terror raced through her, but she beat it back. He couldn’t. She still held power in her company, too much for him to merely cast her aside. “You can’t fire me. You’d hurt the company irreparably.”
“I know.” He eyed her, giving away nothing more. His big body leaned negligently, relaxed again on the sofa. Yet the heat of him, the demanding energy surging between them, enveloped her. A shiver of unwanted lust and fear went down her spine.
“Why do you care?” she accused him, trying another desperate tactic. “You can’t possibly want anything to do with a child.”
“So you are saying it is mine?” Now there was green in his eyes. A pure, clear green mixing into the gold and brown.
“N-no. Definitely not.”
“Hmm.” The green welled, taking over the gold, washing and rolling into a sea of inflexible power. Like the tide of the ocean, the color rushed toward her, overwhelming her.
This was her baby, though. She had to win this. Convince him of what was so plainly true. He didn’t want a baby in his life. Didn’t want a child or the responsibility. Surely he could see that. What was he thinking, the stupid man?
“Look at the way you live.”
“What does that mean?” The menace in his tone was clear. He wanted her to drop this line of objection completely.
But she had spine. And she had terror. “The women. The partying. You barely have time for anything else.”
“Really?” The menace gritted around the word. “You know this how?”
“Well.” She couldn’t meet his green-gold gaze any more. The look in those tawny eyes no longer made her shiver, it made her quake. “It’s perfectly clear you’d rather be free to…”
“To?”
“To…” She waved her hands in the air. “To play. You don’t want the responsibility.”
His sudden move to stand made her jerk her head back to stare at him with a wary gaze. The menace now emanated from his body in the tight fisting of his hands, the flash of fury in his eyes, the hard edge of his jaw.
What? What had she said that was anything other than the truth? She took a step backward even though she hated to think of it as a retreat.
“Can you look at what is happening in the company and deny my ability to take responsibility?” The words punched from his mouth.
“That is not the same—”
“Can you look me straight in the eye and deny the success my plans have achieved in only six months?”
Lise balled the front of her nightgown in her sweaty hands. She wasn’t going to lie again. Not again.
“Maybe,” he growled. “This has nothing to do with my lifestyle.”
“What?”
“Maybe the real reason you object to letting me know if this child is mine is because you don’t want to sully its life with my presence.”
His words were so bitter she felt them like a lash. What was he talking about? She stared at him in complete bewilderment. “I just don’t think you want to be a father. I don’t think you’d be very good at it.”