a groan of horror; the walls in the building were paper-thin. A fact she really ought to have kept in mind before taking part in a slanging match.
‘Will you lower your voice?’ she begged in a hushed undertone. ‘I’m not trying to deny I told Tamara that the no-contact situation wasn’t your idea. But when she came to me she already knew. She’s not stupid; she had worked it out. What was I meant to do? Lie when she asked me?’ Even as she spoke she knew that he wasn’t hearing a word she was saying.
‘I have to tell you, if this was your way of ingratiating yourself—’
The furrows on her smooth brow deepened. ‘Ingratiate? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
One dark brow lifted. ‘No?’
‘No, I don’t.’
‘Then let me spell it out. You create a problem and then step in to heal it. ‘
Fleur blinked, totally bewildered by the angry assertion. ‘Why on earth would I do that?’
‘To use the influence you appear to wield over my daughter to worm your way into my life…make yourself indispensable—’
Her jaw dropped in shock. ‘Your life!’ she echoed in a stunned voice. ‘What are you talking about?’
Antonio ignored her bewildered question. ‘You pretend you care about her.’ And he had not just let her into their lives, he had actively nourished the connection.
A flash of angry colour travelled up Fleur’s neck until her pale cheeks grew hot. ‘I do care about her.’
‘You sound sincere, but then sincerity is your forte, isn’t it, Fleur? Sincere and sweet and a great listener…’ And he had fallen for it all, the phoney concern, the caring eyes, he thought, his lips curling into a grim smile of self-disgust. And how, how had he forgotten that women always wanted something, they always had an agenda? Maybe it was because he hadn’t been thinking with his head, but areas much farther south!
‘You think I used Tamara because I wanted…I wanted to be part of your life? You think I want to be part of your magic circle?’ She swallowed and loosed a low-pitched, ironic laugh. Well, at least she knew what he thought of her.
‘You think this is funny?’
‘Funny! My God, if I’m ever as cynical as you I hope someone puts me out of my misery. I knew you thought a lot of yourself, but even for you this must be a new high. I hate to blow your lovely conspiracy theory sky-high, but I really don’t go home at night and think about how to get myself a billionaire. People generally don’t.’
Antonio, who had been the target for unscrupulous and often inventive campaigns over the years, raised a brow and said sardonically, ‘You don’t think so?’
‘Oh, poor you!’ she drawled with insincere sympathy. ‘I suppose you have to fight them off with a stick. Do you work on the theory that every woman you meet wants your body…or is it your bank account, not your integrity, you’re worried about preserving? Oh, yes, I’d love a chunk of your money because I can see how damned happy it makes you.’
An expression of total astonishment chased across his patrician features. ‘You are trying to tell me you feel sorry for me?’
‘No, I save my pity for people who deserve it.’
The biting retort made his jaw tighten another notch. ‘And money means nothing to you, I suppose.’
Fleur considered the jeering question seriously. ‘Of course it does. It’s nice to feel secure and have nice things sometimes, but all money does—or at least the amount you have—is complicate things. Women do want other things, you know. We’re not all grasping sluts. Some of us can manage without millions in the bank and haven’t even had sex for two years…’ She stopped, all expression blanking from her face as the awful words hung in the air.
She’d have given anything to have retrieved them, but she couldn’t. They were out there doing all manner of damage to her self-esteem, not to mention her moral authority.
I did not say that. Please tell me I did not say that, she prayed silently.
But of course she had. The mother and grandfather of all Freudian slips and it was all hers. This was a situation where damage limitation was the best she could hope for.
‘Two years is a long time.’
Tell me about it, she thought, maintaining a tight-lipped silence in the face of his glittery-eyed scrutiny.
‘So you don’t want my money, just my body.’
Fleur cast him a look of intense dislike. ‘That was a figure of speech…’
‘No, that was a cry from the heart.’
‘My heart has nothing to do with this.’
‘You want me as much as I want you.’
Fleur’s teeth clenched as she heard the smug inflection in his voice. She wanted to scream with sheer frustration. She had done what she had sworn she would never do again, she had revealed her vulnerability.
‘Hormones, not heart!’ she snarled. ‘And get that look off your face. I wouldn’t have you if you came gift-wrapped!’
Unwrapping the parcel might be fun, though. The forbidden thought brought a fresh prickle of heat to her skin.
Her jaw clenched as she faced him with all the aggression of a small, cornered animal.
‘I like my life the way it is. Why the hell would I want to have any part of yours, or, for that matter, you? In case you hadn’t noticed, Antonio, you’ve got baggage.’
‘And you are one of those women who consider a family an undesirable encumbrance?’
His hypocrisy was more than she could bear. ‘This from the man who hasn’t stopped for one second since he learnt he was a father to appreciate how damned lucky he is.’
Antonio looked startled. ‘Lucky…?’
‘Yes, lucky. So very, very lucky.’ She felt her eyes fill and blinked angrily.
Antonio saw the tears and frowned. He knew there was something he was missing, but he knew when to keep quiet.
The words continued to spill from her. ‘A child may not fit in with your playboy image, but some people would envy you. Do you have any idea how many people would love to be in your position?’ she demanded. ‘You may have lost out on Tamara’s early years, but you have her now.
‘If you’re not totally stupid and blow it completely, she’ll be part of your life for the foreseeable future. Do you know how lucky that makes you in my book?’ she raged. ‘People like you who don’t appreciate what they have really make me mad!’
She dabbed the back of her hand angrily to brush away the tears sliding down her cheeks. ‘How many people want a family and can’t have one? How many people have a f-family and lose him…?’
Crying in earnest now, she covered her mouth with her hand and closed her eyes tight. The painful sound of her choked sobs filled the awful silence as it stretched.
‘Who did you lose, Fleur?’
‘I had a miscarriage…’
Antonio had never experienced a mood swing so swift or drastic. He looked at her bowed head and experienced the most overwhelming desire to make her stop hurting.
‘It was a difficult pregnancy…apparently these things happen for no reason sometimes,’ she explained, accepting the handkerchief that was pushed into her hand.
Their eyes met and she saw enormous compassion, which Fleur’s defensive mechanisms translated as pity.
Pity was the one thing she couldn’t, wouldn’t, take! She took one enormous gulping breath and tried to feign