Bound By His Vow: His Final Bargain / The Rings That Bind / Marriage Made of Secrets

She held his look with a sassy one of her own. ‘I wouldn’t have done it, you know. I wouldn’t have slept with you.’

The corner of his mouth kicked up cynically. ‘No?’

‘I was playing with you.’ She straightened her wrap over her shoulders with fastidious attention to detail. ‘Seeing how far you’d go.’

When she finally brought her gaze back to his another involuntary shiver trickled down her spine at the sexy, knowing glint shining there.

‘You know where to find me if you feel like playing some more. My room is three doors down from yours. You don’t have to knock. Just come right in. I’ll be waiting for you.’

Eliza gave him a crushing look. ‘Your confidence is seriously misplaced.’

His mouth tilted sardonically as he turned to make his way up the stairs. ‘So is yours.’

Eliza was up early the following morning. Not that she had slept much during the night. The needs Leo had awakened made her feel restless and twitchy. All night long her mind had raced with a flood of memories of their past affair—racy little scenes where she had pleasured him or he had pleasured her. Erotic little flashbacks of her lying pinned beneath his rocking body, or her riding him on top until she gasped out loud. They all came back to haunt her—to torture her with the gnawing ache of want that refused to be suppressed. Was that why he had stepped back when he did? He wanted to make her own her need of him. He was playing with her like a cat did with a hapless mouse.

She wasn’t going to let him break her. She knew he wanted her pride as a trophy. He wanted to have all the power, to be able to control what happened between them this time around. She understood his motivations. She had hurt him. She regretted that.

But on the battleground between them was a small defenceless child.

It wasn’t fair to let Alessandra get hurt by the crossfire. Any arguments they had would have to be conducted in private. Any resentment would have to be shelved until they were alone.

As she was dressing after her shower Eliza noticed her upper arms bore the faint but unmistakable imprint of his fingers where he had gripped her the night before. It made her belly quiver to think he had branded her with his touch. She slipped on a three quarter length cardigan to cover the marks. She didn’t want to have to explain to Marella or to Laura, the agency girl, how they had got there.

Laura was all packed up ready to leave when Eliza went to the nursery suite. ‘Alessandra’s still asleep,’ she said, nodding towards the little girl’s room. ‘That’s the best she’s slept since I’ve been here. She’s been a little terror the whole time. I don’t think she’s slept two hours straight before. You must have a magic touch.’

‘I don’t know about that,’ Eliza said with a self-deprecating smile.

Laura lugged her backpack over one shoulder. ‘I’d better get going. I have a ride waiting for me downstairs.’ She offered her hand. ‘Good luck with it all. I don’t envy you having to answer to Leo Valente. He’s quite intimidating, isn’t he?’

‘He’s just being a protective father.’

Laura grunted. ‘Yeah, well, I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him. Did you know him before or something? I don’t mean to pry, it’s just that last night I kind of got the impression you two knew each other.’

‘I met him briefly a few years ago.’ Eliza knew she had to be careful what she said. The confidentiality agreement Leo had made her sign made her think twice before she revealed anything about her previous connection with him. She couldn’t risk being quoted out of context. She had no reason to believe he wouldn’t be true to his word over the consequences of speaking out of turn. There was a streak of ruthlessness in him now that hadn’t been there before. Didn’t last night prove it?

‘You dated him?’ Laura probed.

‘Not for long. It wasn’t serious.’

Laura gave her a streetwise smile. ‘Maybe you could have another crack at it. He’s got loads and loads of money. He’d be quite a catch if you could put up with the foul temper.’

‘I’m already engaged.’

Laura glanced at her left hand. ‘Oh, I didn’t realise. Sorry. When’s the big day?’

‘Yes, when is the big day?’ Leo’s deep voice spoke from behind them.

Eliza felt her face flood with colour as his gaze hit hers. She wondered how long he had been there. Long enough if that brooding look was anything to go by. ‘Laura is just leaving, aren’t you, Laura?’

‘Yes,’ Laura said and made a move for the door. ‘I’ll see myself out. Bye.’

A prickly silence filled the room once the young woman had left.

‘I’d prefer you to refrain from gossiping with the hired help,’ Leo said in a clipped tone. ‘It’s in your contract.’

‘I wasn’t gossiping. I was simply answering her questions. It would’ve been rude not to.’

‘You’re not here to answer questions. You’re here to look after my daughter.’

Eliza returned his hardened glare. ‘Is that really why I’m here? Or it is because you have an axe to grind? Revenge is a dirty word, Leo. It’s a dirty deed that could turn out hurting you much more than it hurts me.’

His cleanly shaven jaw locked with tension. ‘I’d have to care about you for you to be able to hurt me. I care nothing for you. I only want your body and you want mine. Last night proved it.’

Anger pulsed in her veins at his arrogant dismissal of her as a person. ‘Do you really think I would allow myself to be used like that? To be pawed over like some cheap two-bit hooker you hired off a dark alley?’

There was a condescending glitter in his eyes as they warred with hers. ‘I’d hardly call a million pounds cheap. But you can forget about bargaining for more. I’m not paying it. You’re not worth it.’

‘Oh, I’m worth it, all right.’ She put on her best sultry come-to-bed-with-me look. ‘I’m worth every penny and more.’

He grasped her so suddenly the breath was knocked right out of her lungs. She felt the imprint of his fingers on the bruises he had left the day before but her pride would not allow her to wince or flinch. ‘You want me just as much as I want you. I know the game you’re playing. You want to drive up the price. I’ve sorted out your school, but it’s your bank account you want sorted out now, isn’t it?’

Eliza couldn’t stop herself from looking at his mouth. It was flat-lined and bitter now, but she remembered all too well how soft and sensual it could be when it came into contact with hers. Desire flooded her being. She felt the on-off contraction of it deep in her core. He was the only man who could reduce her to this—to this primal need that would settle for nothing less than the explosive possession of his body. Could she withstand this temptation? Could she work for him without giving in to this desperate longing?

‘I don’t need your money.’

He gave one of his harsh laughs. ‘But you’d like it all the same. You’re starting to realise what you’ve thrown away, aren’t you?’

‘I always knew what I was throwing away.’

His top lip curled. ‘Are you saying you have regrets?’

She arched her brow pointedly. ‘Don’t we all?’

He held her gaze in a stare-down that made the base of her spine fizz like sherbet. ‘My only regret is I didn’t see you for what you were at the outset. You’re a classic chameleon. You can change in the blink of an eye. I had you pegged as an old-fashioned girl who wanted the same things I wanted. But you were not that girl, were you? You were never that girl. You were a harlot on the hunt for sensory adventure and you didn’t care where you got it.’

‘Why is it such a crime for a woman to want sensory satisfaction?’ Eliza asked. ‘Why does that make me a harlot? What does that make you? Why are there no equally derogatory names for men who want to be satisfied physically? Why do women have to feel so bad about their own perfectly natural needs that you men seem to take for granted?’

‘What’s wrong with your fiancé that he can’t give you the satisfaction you want or need?’

The question was like a punch to her chest. ‘I’m not prepared to answer that.’

‘Does he even exist?’

Eliza looked at him numbly. ‘What?’

‘Is he a real person or just someone you made up to use as a get-out-of-jail-free card?’ His eyes were hard as they drilled into hers. ‘It’s a handy device to have a fiancé in the background when you want to get out of an affair that’s not going according to plan.’

She swallowed against the lump in her throat. Ewan did exist, but not as he used to be. And it was her fault. His life was as good as over. He would never feel the things he used to feel. He could never say the words he used to say. He couldn’t even think the thoughts he used to think. He existed…but he didn’t. He was caught between the conscious world and the unconscious.