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But then, of course, he would. Eventually, he knew he would.
There was no other outcome that he would allow.
And perhaps it was nothing so simple as defiance with this woman, who imagined herself on some kind of crusade. “Geraldine. You are not seeing the full picture.”
“I believe I’m the only one standing here who is actually aware of the full picture. As I have just been at pains to share with you.”
“You have no bargaining chips,” he told her, softly enough. “This should be obvious to you. Look where we are.”
He watched a small frown increase in the space between her eyes as she did as requested, which felt perhaps too much like a victory. “I told you, I have a hotel on the outskirts of town. I don’t know why you brought me here.”
“I brought you here because it doesn’t matter what you tell me.” And he was proud of how he sounded then. Very nearlygentle, a word that anyone who had ever attempted to negotiate with him would have laughed at. Bitterly. “I have told you how it will be, and I assure you, thatishow it will be. What you have to decide is how you wish the inevitable to take place.”
She turned that frown toward him, and intensified it. “Inevitable?”
He could see the challenge in the way she asked that. And more, the clear inference that she believed that she was the one holding the cards here. That she thought she had some power over him.
And he almost admired that. He really did. Lionel couldn’t recall the last time that he had ever had any kind of encounter with someone who didn’t know precisely how much power he wielded, and more importantly, the vast power differential between him and them.
Once again, the novelty of this woman caught him off guard.
“We are already married,” he told her patiently. Or close enough. “I understand you do not wish this to be true, but that does not make it any less so. Another truth you may find unpalatable is that we will be landing in Spain later this afternoon. I would prefer it if you boarded the plane of your own volition, but that is not required.”
Her green eyes widened. “Is that a threat?”
“It is reality, Geraldine. This is what I’m trying to express to you.” It was getting more difficult to maintain that patient tone with her, but he tried. He really did try. He reminded himself that while this might have been an unorthodox contract negotiation, that was still what was happening here. These things did not all have to happen in tedious boardrooms. “You have few choices here, so I would use the ones that you do have wisely.”
“That sounds a whole lot like a threat, no matter how you try to dress it up.”
“I do not have to dress it up. I would not bother to try.” He shook his head, as if he felt sorry for her. He might have—had he not elevated her far above what must be deeply humble beginnings indeed. And yet asked so little in return. “I need a wife to present to my grandmother. This presentation will occur tomorrow. If you do as I ask, I will be only too happy to take whatever tests you like. And no matter what their result, I will make certain that this child is provided for in perpetuity.”
He did not see how she could refuse or why she would wish to.
Yet the look on her face was not one of joy and acquiescence. Not by a long shot. “And if I do not play this bizarre game for you, a small child suffers. Is that what you mean to say?”
“That is a matter that is entirely under your control,” he reminded her softly. “If you do not do as I ask, I will have to do what I can to convince my grandmother that our marriage is the sort she has long imagined for me, but without your input. I will tell her you are indisposed. She will ask, at once, if that means you are pregnant. And I will have no choice but to tell her that you are. What that means for you is that you will need to become so. Immediately.”
When he had discussed something similar with the Cartwright heiress, it had been a far more arid conversation. He had not considered for a moment that any such necessary pregnancies would occur outside of a doctor’s office.
It was odd that this woman made him wonder if, perhaps, it might be better to try things the old-fashioned way.
“You do realize that everything you’re saying makes you sound like a raving madman, don’t you?” she was demanding.
And what was funny was that her saying that felt a bit like a relief.
“I cannot deny it,” Lionel said, aware that he sounded something bordering oncheerful, whatever that was. “These are the lengths that I am willing to go to please my grandmother and I will tell you, I do not really care if you think it mad.”
Geraldine folded her arms in front of her and the way she looked at him took on a flinty sort of cast. “You have had many relationships with women.”
Lionel blinked at that unexpected shift in the conversation. He tried to recall the last time anyone had surprised him so much, or at all, and failed. “I would say I have had a reasonable amount of relationships for a man of my age.”
“What I mean is, you’re known for always actually having relationships. Not merely strutting about like a rock star teeming with groupies.” She made that sound a bit too much likelicefor his comfort. And she was still talking. “That said, they are always quiet, these relationships of yours. Perhaps you’ll allow a photo to be snapped at this or that high-profile event, but you do not run around making headlines regularly.”
He considered her for a moment. “Certainly not. I prefer my personal life to be private.”
Because it was impossible to do the kinds of business deals he did if everyone at the bargaining table knew every last lurid detail of his assignations. Lionel had always wondered why that wasn’t more obvious to his peers.
Assuming, that was, that he, Lionel Asensio himself, could be said tohaveany peers.
