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“You think I’ve had no time to consider what it means for a child to feel abandoned by his parents? To feel alone? To have no real home?”
Callie closed her mouth with a snap. Of course he knew. Licking her lips, she tried helplessly. “I could give our baby a wonderful home—”
“I know you will.” His eyes were fathomless and stark. “Because I will provide that home. As her father.”
There was no winning this war. Now that Eduardo knew about her pregnancy, he would never give up his rights as a father.
“So what do we do?” Callie said miserably.
“I told you. Marry.”
“But I can’t be your wife.”
“Why?”
“I—I don’t love you.”
“Good,” he bit out. “Your sainted McLinn can keep your love. Just your body and your vow of fidelity are enough.”
Her heart was pounding in her throat. “You really want to marry me?” she whispered. The thought made her tremble. In spite of everything, she couldn’t forget the romantic dreams she’d once had of Eduardo taking her in his arms and saying, I made the worst mistake of my life when I let you go, Callie. I love you. Come back to me. Be mine—forever. “As in forever?”
Eduardo gave an ugly laugh. “Be married to you forever? No. I have no desire to live the rest of my life in hell, chained to a woman I’ll never be able to trust. Our marriage will last just long enough to give our child a name.”
“Oh.” She shifted in her seat then frowned. That changed things a bit. “Like—like a marriage of convenience?”
“Call it what you like.”
“For a week or two?”
“Let us say three months. Long enough for it to actually look like a real marriage. And for our baby’s first months to be the best possible, with us both in the same home.”
“But—where would we live? My lease is gone. You sold your brownstone in the Village.”
“I just bought a place on the Upper West Side.”
She blinked. “You were moving back to New York, because you thought I’d be gone.”
His lips twisted. “I bought it as an investment. But you are correct.”
Callie stared up at him, her heart pounding. “This is never going to work.”
“It will.”
She took a deep breath. Marriage. Would it be good for their baby, as Eduardo believed? Or would it only make their frayed relationship even worse, creating yet more accusations and distrust between them?
“But how would our marriage end?” she said. “With an ugly divorce—throwing plates and screaming at each other? That wouldn’t help anyone, least of all my baby.”
“Our baby,” he corrected, then bared his teeth in a smile. “Our prenuptial agreement will outline our divorce. We will agree from the beginning how it will end.”
“Plan our divorce before we’re even wed? That seems so sad….”
“Not sad. Civilized.” He lifted a dark eyebrow, rubbing the rough, dark edge of his jawline. He gave her a tight smile. “Since we are not in love, there will be no hard feelings when we part.”
Three months. Callie swallowed. She tried to imagine what it would be like to live in Eduardo’s house. Even as his secretary, she’d never lived with him on such intimate terms. And though she was no longer the naive, trusting girl who’d fallen in love with him so stupidly, he still had such frightening power over her. Callie’s foolish, traitorous body yearned for him like a sugary, buttery cake that was impossibly bad for her but she couldn’t stop craving just the same.
“And if I refuse?” she whispered. “If I get out of this car and flag a taxi back to Brandon?”
His expression cooled.
