‘So, you only want to get married so they can inherit and run your company in twenty-five years?’ she demanded, thinking that was hardly a sufficient reason.
‘That’s not the only reason, no,’ he responded, obviously reading her lack of enthusiasm. ‘But it is a pressing one. They are entitled to it, Serena. All of it. It’s their birthright.’
That made her mind spin because it wasn’t an aspect she had considered, or even realised was at stake, and that made her aware of just how out of her depth she was with Caleb. ‘No. I won’t do it. I can’t. I’m not marrying you.’
His expression hardened with displeasure, but also with determination. ‘Give me one good reason why not.’
‘I’ll give you two. I don’t love you and I don’t trust you.’
He dismissed her feelings with a motion of his hand. ‘That’s of no consequence. I don’t require either your love or your trust, or for us to have any substantial relationship of any kind. All I require is your hand in marriage for all the world to see.’
This time her mouth did fall open at the dearth of emotion in his words, so at odds with the determination smouldering in his eyes. So, he was proposing a marriage in name only, with no feeling, no friendship even, between them? How could he so blithely give his life away to someone he didn’t at least care for in some small way? And how dare he expect her to?
‘There’s no need to look so indignant. What I’m suggesting may not be to your personal taste, but it makes perfect sense.’
How did it? Marriage wasn’t a solution to a problem. It was a solemn vow between two people who adored one another, just as her parents had. Having watched their marriage, Serena had always believed that it should only be considered when a deep and abiding love and trust were present. And as she’d said, she didn’t love or trust Caleb. He was so high-handed that he’d be the last man she’d want to marry. He’d been there less than a minute and was already trying to take over her life, and as for trusting anyone ever again…after Lucas had stomped all over her heart in his haste to desert her, that was definitely unlikely to happen. Why would she sign up for more heartbreak?
‘Not to me it doesn’t,’ she riposted.
In surviving all that she had, Serena had learned the valuable lesson that the one and only person she could, and should, truly rely on was herself. It was safer and smarter that way.
‘That’s because you’re thinking with your heart, and not your head,’ he said with mild condemnation, his eyes sweeping over her and rousing tingles that she fought not to feel.
He was silent a moment, as though expecting her to change her mind, and when she didn’t, his sensual lips firmed into a flat line of displeasure, a storm whipping to life in his gaze that had pulses of frenetic nervous energy zinging from one side of her body to the other. But crossing her arms over her chest, partly to hide the merciless rhythm of her heart that hadn’t once ceased in his presence, Serena held her ground.
Was he really endowed with such arrogance that he’d expected she would jump at the chance to be his wife? Or was he just too used to everyone he surrounded himself with falling in line with his wishes that he’d forgotten that people had minds of their own? Both, she decided, as she watched his jaw sharpen with a fresh burst of resolve.
He moved towards her, a hard smile smoothing over his wicked mouth, a mouth she remembered all too well. How it moved. Tasted. How it had claimed her moans again and again and again. She fought to stay in the moment and not drift back to that night spent in his arms, but that had been a difficult enough task when he hadn’t been in London. Now that he was here, and so tantalisingly close, it was all too easy to sink into the memories, forget how he had hurt and humiliated her and remember only the exquisite bliss he had delivered…
‘Just consider for a moment the life I can provide for you. The security and comfort,’ he added, making a point of looking around the room. ‘Far more than you’ll know here. You have to admit it’s a little cramped—what will it be like when you add a baby to it?’
His line of questioning cut too close to her own fears and concerns for her not to react. ‘I’m only staying here temporarily—until I find someplace of my own.’
It was only as she watched his quick mind seize upon that information that she realised her error in snapping back.
‘Why only temporarily? What happened to where you were living previously?’
‘I… I had to move out,’ she explained falteringly, loath to say any more than that because she knew that the truth would only weight the case in his favour.
‘Because…?’
‘My stepmother doesn’t approve of the pregnancy,’ she said when the silence became unbearable. ‘Or how I came to be pregnant.’
His eyes narrowed, reading between the lines of what she’d said. ‘She threw you out?’
Serena could only manage a small nod of her head, the pain of it still raw, the way she had failed her siblings still a barbed lump rolling around her chest, as well as her failure to find a way to fix it.
‘Your father didn’t have anything to say about that?’
‘My father passed away six years ago,’ she shared, her heart sore.
Caleb’s expression changed; so too did his body, angling more fully in her direction. In an instant, she was under the intense spotlight of his gaze, and that made her feel unaccountably breathless. Trapped. Especially as his expression was suddenly so full of sympathy. ‘Serena, I’m so sorry. That must have been—must still be—awful for you.’
‘It was a long time ago. It’s fine.’
Wrenching her gaze away, she tried to think about something else,anything else, because that show of heartfelt sympathy was pushing on something that she didn’t want to be touched. Couldn’t afford to be touched. Because she needed to remain strong, just as she’d always had to be, and if she were to dwell on how much she longed for her parents right now, or how alone she felt in the dark of night and how truly, deeply worried she was for the future, for Kit and Alexis, for her baby, she might just fall apart and she couldn’t do that.
And why was it sympathy from this man, of all men, that was threatening to undo her? Threatening to unleash a torrent of emotion that would drown her, when for years she had mastered the art of squashing and compressing and storing it neatly away.
