Chapter 34

Little wonder he didn't understand what all the fuss was about. He was sensationally attractive, super-rich and oversexed. Nine out of ten women would contrive to live with his flaws. Unfortunate that she was the tenth. Unfortunate for him, that was!

He might get a bride, but he wasn't getting a wife. He would live to regret forcing her to go through with the wedding. When she took off within hours of it, the public embarrassment would be colossal. Then she could stamp the long-overdue account 'paid in full'. Getting mad got her nowhere; getting even would restore her self-respect. Luc might have set her up, but he had set himself up as well.

Pay-back time was here. She would go down in history as the woman of principle who had rejected one of the world's most eligible bachelors. It was perfect, she decided, the old adrenalin flowing again. Shame she wouldn't be able to stay around to take advantage of the publicity. She could see the headlines. Why I couldn't live with Luc Santini.

Tying a towelling robe round her, she abandoned the entrancing imagery with regret and padded back to the bedroom, a woman with a mission now, a woman set on revenge and nobody's victim.

* * *

A cork exploded from a bottle like a pistol shot. His dark head thrown back as he let the excess champagne foam down into his mouth, Luc was a blaze of stunning black and gold animal vibrancy in the strong sunlight. He straightened and poured the mellow golden liquid expertly into a pair of glasses, white teeth flashing against brown skin as a brilliant smile curved his mouth. 'Force is not my answer to everything.' Magnificent lion-gold eyes skimmed over her. 'You look like a lobster. You've been in there so long, you must have used up all the hot water in the castle.'

She hadn't expected him to still be waiting for her. The filthy look she gave him ought to have withered him. Naturally it didn't. It drifted impotently off him like a feather trying to beat up a rock. Crossing the carpet with feline grace, he pressed a glass into her hand. 'You're not in love with Huntingdon,' he drawled. 'If you were, you would have slept with him.'

Just looking at him drained her. Her nerves were suddenly in shreds again. Her hands weren't steady. It was an unequal contest. She wasn't ready for another confrontation and he knew it, conniving and ruthless swine that he was! She marvelled at his arrogance in believing that he could bring her back to heel within the next twenty-four hours. That was, of course, what he was banking on.

'You wouldn't understand a man like Drew if you lived to be a thousand.' Her cheeks had gone all hot, and she tossed back the champagne in the hope of cooling down her temperature.

'He attracts you because he's a loser. You feel sorry for him.'

Her teeth gritted. 'Drew is not a loser.'

'He's run a healthy family firm off its feet with a series of bad business decisions,' Luc traded succ

inctly.

'And any day of the week, he's still a finer man than you'll ever be!' she launched shakily.

The superb bone-structure hardened. 'You're in a privileged position, cara. I would allow no one else to say that to me with impunity.'

The chill she had invoked was intimidating. A shiver ran down her backbone. She felt like a reckless child rebuked for embarrassing the adults. But his contempt for Drew deeply angered her. Yet, at heart, she knew he was right. Drew had never been ambitious or hungry enough to become successful. He had allowed his family to live at a level beyond their means, draining the firm of capital that should have been reinvested for the future. However, those facts didn't lower Drew in her estimation. He was not a born wheeler-dealer and he never would be. When she thought of the dreadful week of worry Drew had had to endure waiting for that contract, she tasted the full threat of Luc's savagery. No…no, she reflected tautly, she would never have cause to regret concealing Daniel's existence from Luc.

'You've hurt Drew,' she whispered, thinking that, once she was gone, Drew would be safe from all interference. She saw no reason to disabuse Luc of his conviction that she had had a relationship with Drew. It infuriated her that Luc should believe he had the right to stare at her with such chilling censure. 'And you don't own me.'

Confusingly, his wide mouth curled into a sudden, almost tender smile. 'I don't need to own you. You are mine, body and soul. So, you strayed a little, got lost, but you didn't stray as far as I'd feared, and now you are back where you belong.'

Seething temper gripped her. 'I don't belong with you!'

'Why do you fight me?' he demanded softly. 'Why do you fight yourself?'

As she collided unwarily with ebony-fringed dark eyes, a squirming helpless sensation kicked at her stomach. It was hard to withstand that burning, blatant self-assurance of his. 'I'm not fighting myself.'

'Come here,' he invited very quietly. 'And prove it.'

The magnetic force of his will was concentrated on her. Her body shivered, though she was not cold, her heart raced, though she was not exerting herself, in reaction to the sheer physical pull he could exert. It crossed her mind crazily that he ought to be banned like a dangerous substance.

He strolled closer and refilled her glass in the throbbing silence. 'You're afraid to,' he noted. 'Indeed, you behave as though you are afraid of me. I don't like that. I don't want a little white ghost with fear in her eyes in my bed tomorrow night. I want that scatty, loving, happy creature you've been all week.'

He was so close now she couldn't breathe. 'I don't love you.'

'If I weren't so certain that you loved me, I wouldn't be marrying you.'

She backed off hastily from his proximity. 'I wouldn't have thought it would have mattered a damn to you either way!'

'If you take refuge in the bathroom again, I'll break the door down,' he delivered conversationally. 'You started this and I'll finish it. I want to know why you're putting up barriers again.'

'Why?' she echoed breathlessly. 'Why? After what you've done?'

A brown hand inscribed a graceful arc. 'What have I done? I spend all these years looking for you and, the moment I find you again, I ask you to marry me. Isn't that a compliment?'