Baby By Accident(34)

A flush rose in her cheeks. “After you threw me into your bed.”

His fingers tapped their impatience on his crossed arm. “Whatever the lead up to the sex was, one thing is certain. We both wanted it.”

His stare dared her to disagree. She tried to summon her sense of injustice, but her honor told her it was a useless protest. Especially in the circumstances. “I might have wanted sex that night, for my own reasons.”

He continued to stare at her as if trying to penetrate her skull.

“That doesn’t mean I want anything more to do with you now.”

“Too late.”

“It’s not too late.” She dug her nails deeper into her palms. “You can easily walk away from this whole thing with your conscience completely clear. I absolve you of any responsibility.”

“But I do not absolve myself.” His frown returned. “And I do not reject the responsibility for my child.”

This man couldn’t possibly be Vico Mattare. Not in a million years. “You might feel this way for a moment, but when reality sets in—”

“I have been thinking of this for several weeks now.” His voice was harsh and hard. “This marriage proposal is not some random thought that only just entered my head.”

Shock rocketed through her. Weeks? In between business meetings and nights on the town, he’d been contemplating marriage to her? “You can’t—”

“You have thought the worst of me from the moment we met.” His tawny eyes simmered with temper. “You might want to rethink some of those conclusions.”

“I did not—”

“Because they are causing you to underestimate me,” he stated. “Once more.”

They glared at each other. The room was closed in and hushed, the only sound the dull murmur of his PA on the phone.

“I have thought long and hard about this. What man wouldn’t?” he finally said. “This is the only way forward. No matter what we think of each other.”

The determination was there in the clench of his jaw and in the intensity of his gaze. He really meant it. He wasn’t tricking her or fooling her or playing with her. He meant to marry her.

Even now, her brain couldn’t wrap around it.

Still, it did give her another weapon. “My baby would be miserable.”

“Our baby will have a mother and a father.”

Why was he doing this? Why was he claiming responsibility when it was patently not in his character to want it?

She’d thought about nothing other than this inevitable confrontation throughout the week. It had stunned her, the level of determination he’d shown in demanding the test. But she’d managed to dismiss it as a mere show, some kind of odd male need to know he was capable of planting his seed. So, as she girded herself for this meeting, she’d expected his anger and annoyance. She’d expected some sort of monetary offer—which she would have instantly refused. Yet she’d never in her wildest dreams thought he’d do this. Want this. “You can’t want to—”

“I will provide for my child.”

Lise straightened her spine, pride ramming up it like a steel rod. “I can provide for my baby myself. I don’t need anything from you.”

“Really?” His tone turned grim. “Even when you will be required to pay off your mother’s mortgage immediately?”

“What?” Her heart and nausea leapt into her throat.

“In full.” He dropped his hands to grip the windowsill.

The threat zinged through all her nerve endings, making her feel like a live wire. She stood and stormed across the room to him, not realizing the danger until she was too near.

The heat of his body engulfed her.

His tiger eyes enthralled her.

The rich musk of him encircled her.

She was inches from him. Inches from the heat of his embrace, the comfort of his caress. For one long second, she remembered waking in his arms last week: the gentle way he’d held her, the warmth of his body surrounding her own, the look in his eyes as he leaned down to kiss her.

The memory slipped away to be replaced with—

Now. His demand. Her rejection.

She tamped down the burn behind her eyes. Hormones.

He glanced at her, one brow arched with…amusement? Awareness?

Her pride demanded she stay where she was. Not let him see how he affected her. “I did what you wanted last time. I gave you the damn DNA test.”

“Si.”

He enraged her. The one word. The dismissive tone. The bleak determination in his voice. She had the violent urge to haul off and whack his arrogant, handsome face one more time. Push him over the edge of passionate madness she teetered on.

“Now you use it again?” she cried. “It’s not fair.”