She didn’t see his cynical smile. "I appreciate your attempt to negotiate with me, Julia. I've always admired your spirit. But in case it is not clear to you, allow me to spell it out. You have no bargaining chips to use, beside your body. And even that, I will own."
"No!" She breathed out hotly. "I will never sleep with you, Zayn, do you understand?"
He turned to regard her slowly, and his face was completely expressionless. Only his dark eyes glowed with emotion. “When we are married, you will take your place in my bed whenever and however I want.”
She stared up at him, her mouth hardly working. “No way, Hosé.”
He shrugged coolly.“Then I will leave. Give my best wishes to Colin.”
Julia watched as he moved to the heavy oak door of her father’s study and pulled it open. Was he really going to leave? Again?
“Wait.” She moved towards him on legs that were like jelly.
“Yes, Julia?” His look was one of pure boredom.
“I need to think about it.” She lifted her eyes to his face. The same face that had filled her dreams for years, since her first semester at Oxford. “I just don’t understand why you’re doing this.”
“You don’t need to understand.” He said with a note of steel in his voice. “You need only accept my offer, or allow your father to be dragged through the bankruptcy courts. Tell me, how is his heart these days?”
Her eyes flew wide, like saucers in her pretty heart-shaped face. “You bastard.” Colin’s heart attack had been mild, but Julia had been terrified since then that his health was suffering.
His smile was cold. “I get what I want, Julia, using whatever means are necessary.”
“But why do you want me?” She asked urgently. “Why do you want me now?”
“Oh, I wanted you then, too. But you were a child. You have grown into a woman, ready to be a wife and mother.” He ran a finger down her cheek. “Your delectable body has no doubt pleased many men since I knew you. Now it’s time to add me to the list.”
“You’re one to talk!” She muttered, old wounds suddenly rubbed raw. “Or have your escapades as the Playboy Prince been exaggerated?”
His mouth twitched in obvious amusement. “Guilty as charged,” he said, unconscious of how his admission made her heart clench uncomfortably in her chest.
“I couldn’t open a magazine without seeing pictures of you with woman after woman,” she said quietly, but her expression had a faraway look, as she remembered the totally unceremonious way he had dumped her, and then moved on to a field of more available, experienced women.
“What I did, and with whom, is none of your business," he said firmly.
“It is if I’m to marry you,” she pointed out logically.
“How do you figure that?”
She rubbed at her temples with her fingertips. “You seem to be a man with a voracious appetite. How do I know that you’ll be faithful to me, when we’re married.”
“You don’t.” His voice was firm, his tone unapologetic.
“You can’t be serious,” she spluttered, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him with frustration. “You actually expect me to marry you, not knowing how many women you’re dragging into bed besides?”
“I have never had to drag a woman into my bed, habibte. More often I find they leap there with alacrity.”
Julia’s fingers itched to slap the arrogant grin off his face. “You disgust me.”
“You wish I disgusted you, but actually, you are just the same as these women. You would lie down here for me, on this cold tiled floor, if I wanted to take you.”
Colour infused her cheeks at his crude, yet accurate, assessment of her desire. “As if,” she said weakly, turning away from him and pacing the length of the floor.
“Careful, Julia. It sounds like you’re asking for a demonstration. As though you need reminding you were just moaning in my arms.”
Her body shook with anger, but she tried to sound dismissive. “So what? By your own admission, you’ve had a lot of practice. Of course you can push a woman’s buttons. Am I supposed to be impressed by your sexual prowess?”
“Whether you are impressed or not is not my concern,” he said with a lazy glance at his watch. “Your role as my wife will not be a hardship for you.”