Page 30 of Legacy of His Revenge
His mind was already zooming ahead to what Sophie might want from him.
Money was the first and only thing that came to mind. She had encouraged a deal with her father so that she could benefit from the financial injection. No deal meant no financial injection, which meant that she still wanted money, except it wasn’t going to come from her dear papa.
He was outraged that she would try her luck with him. He knew that he certainly shouldn’t be allowing her any chink through which she might try and slip. But he couldn’t resist the opportunity to see her and he was, he acknowledged, curious to see what approach she would take to try and wheedle cash out of him.
Would she shoot him one of those sweet, innocent, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth smiles? The kind of smile that instantly went to his groin and induced all manner of erotic, dirty, sexy scenarios in his head? He got a kick imagining her sashaying into his office, hot for sex. He’d send her on her way, but he still experienced a massive surge of desire playing with the thought.
The single knock on his door found him relaxing in his chair, his hands loosely linked on his washboard-flat stomach, his expression one of mild curiosity.
‘Yes.’ The door opened, his secretary stood to one side and there she was, tentatively walking into his office, blushing in the way that would send any normal, red-blooded man’s pulse through the roof. She was wearing a pair of grey trousers and a white blouse and his eyes immediately dropped to the soft swell of her breasts and, right on cue, his brain lurched off at a predictable tangent, remembering exactly what those luscious breasts had felt like, had tasted like. ‘What have you come for?’ he asked abruptly, putting paid to the raunchy turn of his thoughts. He pushed himself away from the desk but did nothing to make her feel comfortable. Why should he?
‘Can I sit down?’
Matias nodded to the chair. ‘I wouldn’t make myself too comfortable if I were you,’ he drawled. ‘Time is money, after all. On the subject of which, I’m taking a stab in the dark here at the reason for your sudden, unexpected visit. Because this isn’t a social call, is it?’
‘No.’ Her voice was steady and Sophie was proud of that, although that, in fairness, was the only part of her that felt remotely controlled. She hadn’t laid eyes on him for weeks but she hadn’t stopped thinking about him, and, seeing him in the flesh now, she was shocked that she could have so massively underestimated the impact of his physical presence.
His lean, dark face was even more stunningly beautiful than she recalled, his mouth more cruel, more sensuous, his body...
Sophie didn’t want to think about his body. She just wanted to say what she had come to say and leave before her steady voice went the way of the rest of her. She reminded herself of the man he had turned out to be, vengeful and ruthless, and a lump of ice settled inside her, the cold knot of hatred, which she welcomed.
‘Didn’t think so.’ Matias’s lips thinned. He was recalling in vivid detail the mind-blowing sex they had shared... He was also recalling the reason she had slept with him. ‘I expect you read all about your father’s downfall in the financial pages.’
‘You must be pretty pleased with yourself.’
Matias flushed darkly, nettled by the cool disdain in her voice. ‘Your father got what he deserved.’ He shrugged. ‘And yes, I’m quietly pleased with myself, although I have to say that had he not let his company run aground, my job would have been considerably less easy. He was a thief, a conman and eventually an idiot who let go of the reins and never thought that the horse might bolt. A great deal of highly suspect financial dealings is being uncovered, but that won’t come as any surprise to you. In due course, your father and Her Majesty will be more than nodding acquaintances, but not in the way he would doubtless like. But you haven’t come here for a chat. I’m a busy man so why don’t we just cut to the chase, Sophie? No deal with your father means no rescue of his terminally ill company, which means no cash in hand for you. So I’m guessing that you’re here to see whether there isn’t another way to elicit money out of me.’
‘I wouldn’t accept a penny from you if my life depended on it,’ she snapped. Every word that had passed his beautiful lips stung, every word was a reminder of exactly what he thought of her.
If she could have turned tail and run for the hills, she would have, but Julie had been right. A father deserved to know about the existence of his child, even if he chose to do nothing with the knowledge. However much she hated him for how he had treated her, she was fair enough to recognise that simple fact.
‘We’re going round the houses here,querida. In one sentence, why don’t you just tell me what the hell you’re doing in my office?’
‘We had unprotected sex, Matias. Do you remember?’
Two sentences that dropped into the still silence between them with the power of an unexploded bomb.
Usually quick on the uptake, Matias could literally feel his brain slowing down, skidding to a halt in the face of what she had said and what she hadn’t.
‘I remember...’ he said slowly. It was strange but that languorous bout of lovemaking, in that quiet surreal lull between sleeping and waking, had stayed right there, between the sheets, trapped in a moment in time. Had he subconsciously shoved it to the back of his mind rather than face the possibility that taking her without protection might have had consequences? Or had it just seemed unreal in the light of day and therefore easily forgotten?
He was remembering now, remembering the way their bodies had fused, warm and lazy and barely awake.
‘I’m pregnant, Matias,’ Sophie told him flatly.
She’d not envisaged what sort of reaction she would get from her announcement. In her head, she said what she had to and then walked away. Now, as she watched the vibrant bronze of his face slowly pale, she found herself riveted to the chair into which she had sunk.
‘You can’t be,’ he denied hoarsely.
‘I’ve done three tests. I didn’t even think about it until I started feeling nauseous every morning and realised that my period hadn’t come.’
‘It’s impossible.’ Matias raked his fingers through his hair and realised that his hand was shaking. Pregnant. She was having his baby. Just like that, his eyes darted to her still-flat stomach, then to her breasts, which now, suddenly, seemed bigger and lusher than he remembered. ‘And if this is your attempt to try and get money out of me, then you’re barking up the wrong tree. You seem to forget that I’ve had ample experience of a woman who will use a so-called pregnancy to worm her way into my bank balance.’
Sophie rose on shaking legs. ‘I’m going now, Matias. I know you had a poor experience in the past and I’m very sorry that I’ve had to come here and spring this on you, but I’m not your ex-girlfriend, I’m not lying and I certainly don’t want a penny from you. After what you did to me, do you honestly think that I could ever want anything from you?Ever?I’m here because I felt you should know about your baby.’
Matias watched as she began walking towards his office door. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion or maybe it was just that his brain had now totally seized up, unable to deal with a situation for which he had not, in any way, shape or form, prepared himself. He didn’t move as she opened the office door but then he did, suddenly galvanised into action.
He caught her as she was barrelling along the corridor towards the bank of lifts and he placed his hand on her arm, forcing her to a stop.
