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A wave of angry pink ran up Tansy’s throat over her cheeks and up to her brow. Deeply insulted that he had dared to call her a gold-digger to her face, she gritted her teeth and settled herself down in a comfortable seat to have her drink. In an effort to fake a relaxation she was far from feeling, she kicked off the shoes that were pinching her poor toes black and blue and slid off her jacket because she was too warm. ‘Well, since you already know everything there is to know about me, there’s no reason for me to keep talking, is there?’
Jude surveyed her with a daunting air of incredulous hauteur, his spectacular dark golden eyes gleaming with irate warning. Tansy hitched her chin even higher in challenge, green eyes gleaming with furious defiance and determination. ‘I’ve said sorry but I’m not going to grovel any more. I did something wrong and I’ve acknowledged it. I will do everything I can to ensure that Posy does not interfere too much with your life but there’s not much more I can offer to do.’
‘Of course, she’ll interfere with my life!’ Jude ground out, incensed by that unexpected rebelliousness of hers and her anger. She was angry with him? How dare she be angry with him? What right did she have to be angry?
‘Not if you can help it…you hired a nanny fast enough!’ Tansy could not resist sniping back at him. ‘And you called me a liar and I’m not!’
‘How do you make that out?’
‘I didn’t actually tell you any lies. You didn’t ask me if I had any dependants.’
‘That was for you to tell me upfront,’ Jude incised crushingly.
‘You’re not being fair. If you were going to be so blasted picky, you should have known what questions you needed to ask,’ Tansy argued defensively. ‘And if you had asked, I would have had to answer truthfully because, whatever you think, I’m not a liar.’
‘I wasn’t prepared for someone as inventive with the truth as you appear to be,’ Jude fired back at her. ‘Althea has her faults, but she didn’t tell me any lies.’
Tansy flushed. ‘Althea said she would marry you and then changed her mind last minute!’ she reminded him shortly, needled by his reference to the other woman. ‘She let you down—I haven’t and don’t intend to! I keep my word.’
‘How do you expect me to believe that now? There’s nothing straight or honest about your dealings with me,’ Jude condemned with icy scorn as he set his empty tumbler down with a jarring snap. ‘Bringing a young child into this changes everything!’
‘Maybe so,’ Tansy conceded reluctantly. ‘But Posy’s the only secret I have.’
‘Yet you even chose to pretend that you were still a virgin…why? Did you somehow imagine that virginity made you more appealing?’ Jude demanded with lacerating contempt. ‘Most men prefer an experienced woman.’
And it was only then that the extent of Jude’s genuine incomprehension engulfed Tansy. He now thought she had been lying when she had admitted her lack of experience. Why was she surprised that he had no idea that Posy was her sister and not her daughter? Understandably, he had assumed that she was Posy’s mother. Why had she not immediately realised that that was what he would think? Not that the identity of Posy’s mother could have much bearing on the current situation, she conceded ruefully. After all, the key issue was that Tansy had chosen to conceal Posy’s existence and her intention of bringing the child with her into their fake marriage.
Pale and taut, Tansy stood up. ‘I wasn’t lying about that. Posy’s my sister, not my child.’
His strong black brows drew together and he shot her a disbelieving look. ‘Your…sister?’ he scorned. ‘There’s twenty-odd years between you!’
‘My mother was forty-seven when Posy was born and died soon after giving birth to her,’ Tansy told him tightly, her eyes shadowing at that unhappy memory. ‘I’ve been looking after her ever since she was born. I left my course at university while Mum was pregnant because she needed help with her business and after she died, I stayed on because…’ She made an awkward gesture with her hands, her lips compressing. ‘Well, Posy still needed me.’
‘She’s your stepfather’s child?’ Jude prompted with a grimace. ‘So, why are you looking after her?’
Tansy tensed. ‘I’d prefer not to get into that. Calvin’s never been my favourite person but he wasn’t cruel to Posy,’ Tansy stressed uncomfortably, reluctant to tell him about her stepfather’s financial stake in their marriage, for she suspected that that might cause more trouble than she was equipped to handle just at that moment. ‘He just wasn’t interested and his girlfriend, whom he wanted to replace me with, was only willing to look after Posy to please him and didn’t have any affection for her. My sister deserves better than that.’
Jude breathed in slow and deep, slightly mollified that the baby was not her child and that she had not lied to him on that score, but he was equally quick to recall the conversation he had had with her when he had broached the topic of her having a child with him. He tilted his arrogant dark head back, furious condemnation in his piercing gaze. ‘Even when I asked you to consider having a child with me and suggested that you might not be keen on taking on the responsibility of becoming a mother at so young an age, you didn’t admit the truth,’ he reminded her lethally. ‘Let’s be frank—not even a direct question from me would have persuaded you to reveal that child’s existence!’
Guilt lacerated Tansy because she remembered that same moment and that conversation very well and knew she could not excuse her silence. ‘As I said earlier, I was keen for the marriage to take place. I didn’t want to give you a reason to write me off as a possibility.’
‘And, of course, it’s too late now,’ Jude completed flatly and then his eyes fired pure scorching gold with rage as he narrowed his fierce gaze on her. ‘Thee mou…no wonder you were so eager for us to marry before we went to Greece! That’s what made it possible for you to continue concealing the child’s existence from me. You were determined to have that ring safely on your finger first.’
There was no way of arguing that point and Tansy bit her lower lip and nodded grudging agreement. Jude, it seemed, had a forensic brain. He would unpick and expose every evasion and half-truth she had given him until there was nothing left for her to hide behind. She glanced up, encountering liquid golden eyes that sent a buzzing energy pulse through the most sensitive areas of her body and the sensation shook her inside out because no man had ever made her feel like that before. Her nipples tight buds pushing against her bra, her slender thighs trembling, the heart of her hot and damp, she hastily averted her attention from him.
The same heat pulsed through Jude like a drumbeat and he was furious with himself. The throbbing swelling at his groin was an unwelcome reminder of his lack of control around her. Although shouldn’t that persistent sexual attraction be something to celebrate rather than something to regret when they were already married? He wanted the full truth of what was going on with her stepfather and then he wanted her in his bed to ease the hard edge of frustration she induced. Whether he liked it or not, evidently they were stuck with the baby and condemned to be a family of three rather than a carefree couple. Dark fury rippled through his big, powerful frame.
‘There’s an imbalance here,’ Jude mused. ‘You’ve landed me with a child in my life for the next couple of years. I’m not the forgiving kind, but if you were willing to consider compensating me for your lies and omissions I may be persuaded to overlook your flaws.’
Tansy lifted clear green eyes full of incomprehension and her smooth brow pleated. ‘I don’t understand.’
Jude studied her with angry, calculating intensity. ‘Try to give me that baby I asked you to consider having and I will not only forgive you but I will also treat your sister as though she were my own child.’
Silence fell. Tansy’s eyes rounded and widened. ‘Oh, my word, you’re trying to use this to put pressure on me! That is so…so unscrupulous.’
‘And you’re surprised?’ Jude sliced in very drily. ‘You’re dealing with an Alexandris, not an angel. I was taught to wheel and deal from childhood.’
Shock set in hard on Tansy. She could barely credit that he would use her plight and her current guilt to bargain with her and do so with such a shameless lack of remorse. But what was even worse, she discovered just then, was that softly given promise to treat Posy the same as his own child. That was huge, particularly when it related to a little girl who had never known a father in her short life. Tansy knew how much she had missed having a daddy and some day her sister would go through the same experience, only not if she agreed to Jude’s suggestion that she try to have a child with him.
‘One question,’ Tansy muttered unevenly. ‘If I were to agree to this, would you be willing to apply to adopt Posy with me?’
‘Of course.’
Tansy felt dizzy with relief because her stepfather continued to lurk at the back of her mind as a lingering threat to his daughter’s security. Removing Posy from Calvin’s care without Tansy having any legal right to keep the child had worried her. Calvin had deliberately misled her by not delivering on the promise he had originally made and why was that? Only if Tansy adopted her sister could she feel that the child was safe from her father’s intrigues, and with Jude by her side, Posy would then be fully protected.
‘If you’re willing to adopt Posy with me, I’ll agree to try to have a child with you,’ Tansy conceded tautly, wondering if she was crazy to lay so much of herself on the line, but then thinking about Posy and knowing she would do anything to keep that little girl safe and secure. And providing her sister with that security and possibly the joy of another sibling as well would be a good result, she told herself squarely.
A slanting smile slashed Jude’s beautiful mouth and her heart skipped a beat and her mouth went dry. ‘Let’s have dinner, haramou,’ he suggested smoothly.
