re and turning away to blink back the sudden sting in her eyes. Why on earth would someone like Theo be interested in marrying someone like her for real? What had she been thinking? How deluded could she still be? They hardly knew each other. All they’d had was a one-time thing. He hadn’t changed his mind about her. Why would he?
Of course, it would have saved her a whole lot of trouble if he’d started with the business angle to the marriage proposal in the first place, but obviously it hadn’t occurred to him that he needed to. Why would it have when the notion was so laughably inconceivable?
That she’d got the wrong idea was entirely her fault, and it wasn’t even the first time. There’d been the occasion that evening in his office when he’d told her she was unique. For the briefest, headiest of moments she’d thought he’d been paying her a compliment, but all he’d meant was her situation—her virginity. Then, as now, she’d been stupidly filled with a hope that had been swiftly dashed, and she had nobody but herself to blame.
But while she might be naïve and hopeless, one thing was very clear. She was not going to be steamrollered into a fake engagement, marriage, whatever, just because it suited him. Self-esteem issues or no self-esteem issues, even she was not going to be used in that way, and there was no way she’d allow their unborn child to become a pawn in its unfortunate father’s shady business deals. So she swallowed hard and stamped down on the emotions swirling around inside her.
‘It’s an interesting proposal,’ she said, with a strength that interestingly she didn’t even have to dig very deep for.
‘A necessary one,’ he countered.
‘I see.’
‘Excellent,’ he said, with the flicker of a satisfied smile. ‘I’ll email you the details in the morning and—’
‘No.’
The word was like the crack of a whip and for a moment it hovered in the silence between them.
Theo looked at her, his eyebrows lifting a fraction. ‘What do you mean, no?’ he said, sounding faintly taken aback, as if he was unused to hearing the word, which, she supposed, he was.
‘I’m not going to do it.’
‘Why not?’
She stared at him. Why not? She didn’t know where to begin. ‘Well, for one thing,’ she said, opting for the least complicated reason, ‘it wouldn’t work. No one would ever believe it.’
‘Of course they would,’ he said, failure obviously a concept he was as familiar with as defiance. ‘People do not tend to question me.’
Right. ‘It’s unethical.’
A flicker of irritation flitted across his face at that. ‘It’s business.’
‘So find someone else.’
‘I don’t want someone else. I want you.’
‘Because it’s convenient.’
A muscle ticced in his jaw. ‘Why else?’
At least he didn’t bother denying it. ‘Still no.’
His eyes narrowed minutely and the hairs at the back of her neck jumped up. ‘Think very carefully, Kate.’
‘I am,’ she said, determined not to be put off by her body’s infuriating response to him. ‘Do you honestly believe you can basically say you want to use me and our baby for your own selfish ends, and I’d be all, sure, why not?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, you’re wrong.’
His jaw tightened. ‘You will be handsomely compensated for your efforts.’
‘I don’t want your money.’
‘You were happy enough to take it a month ago.’
At that, Kate went very still, her blood chilling and her heart thudding. Why would he mention that now? ‘What are you suggesting?’ she asked as a ribbon of trepidation wound through her.