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He reached for the bound papers his lawyers had drawn up and tossed them into her lap.
For long seconds, she looked down at them. Then, slowly, she picked them up, scrutinised the pages with a frown. ‘What is this?’
‘It’s an agreement between you and me.’
She leafed through a few more pages. ‘I can see that. But for what? It just says it’s an agreement for my services. I’m an interior designer and you’re a hotelier and artist. What service could you possibly want from me?’
‘I don’t need your professional services, cara. What I want is for you to provide me with what you took deliberate steps to deprive me of. My whole family was wiped out in a single night. I want a child, Suki. An heir. As soon as possible. Preferably in the next nine months. And you’re going to give me one.’
CHAPTER FIVE
DEEP SHOCK AND confusion held her frozen in the chair for countless seconds. Then Suki surged to her feet. She tossed the papers back onto the desk, unable to get her fingers off them quickly enough.
‘Are you out of your mind?’ She should’ve posed the question rhetorically because she was one h
undred per cent sure that he had gone insane. From grief or from something else, but definitely unsound.
Except he didn’t look crazy. Only brutally determined, eerily controlled. ‘Far from it,’ he confirmed. ‘In fact, this is probably one of the sanest decisions I’ve ever made.’
Her already racing heart tripped over itself to speed up even more. ‘Then I’m terrified to imagine what you class as sane!’
A cold smile curved his mouth. ‘Let’s concentrate on one item at a time.’
‘We will not concentrate on any items because what you’re...suggesting isn’t going to happen,’ she returned. She didn’t realise she was backing away from the chair, from him, until he rose to his imposing height and prowled after her.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’
‘Where do you think? I’m leaving!’
‘No. You are not.’ His voice was deadly soft.
Goose bumps rose on her skin but she kept moving away. ‘Watch me.’
‘I am watching you. And I don’t think you realise how very little options you have here.’
‘I have the option of not staying here to continue this insane conversation with you.’
His hands slid lazily into his pockets, but there was nothing indolent in the eyes that tracked her backward trajectory with narrow-eyed intensity. ‘You can leave this room, but how do you propose to make your escape from this house?’
Her back touched the study door and she froze. ‘You... I seriously hope you’re not suggesting that you intend to keep me here against my will!’
‘That entirely depends on you. You can walk out of here and attempt to make the three-hour journey back to Havana on your own or we can finish this conversation.’
She shook her head, knowing deep inside that things weren’t that simple. The alarming suspicion that he’d planned all this with meticulous precision grew with each second he stared at her.
‘I’ll make the journey on my own, thank you.’
She needed to get out of here. The trip back would be costly, but she’d stick it on her credit card and think about the consequences later.
Reaching behind her, she grasped the handle, turned it. Relief flooded her when it yielded. It occurred to her that once she turned and walked away, this would probably be the very last time she set eyes on Ramon. A tiny second was all she needed to take in the sculpted beauty of his face, the square designer-stubble jaw, the impossibly wide shoulders that Luis had once told her had been honed from his days playing quarterback at college in the States, the lean, hard-packed body that stretched over pure, streamlined muscle.
She took all of it in, stored it in a file somewhere deep in her subconscious, unwilling to admit that some time in the future she would revisit it. Just as she’d revisited their night together more times than she felt comfortable admitting even to herself.
Pulling the door wider, she stepped through it. ‘Goodbye, Ramon.’
‘Is your hurry to get back to do with your appointment with the sperm donor agency or your mother?’ he enquired in an almost indifferent voice.
Suki turned back so swiftly she almost tripped over her feet. The way he leaned so casually against the doorjamb, legs crossed at the ankles, made her believe she’d misheard him. Because surely he wouldn’t look that bored while informing her he’d callously invaded her privacy. ‘What did you say?’
