They stopped at a red traffic light and Quin turned to her, a deadly serious expression on his face, his eyes intensely concentrated on hers, making her heart thump in the helpless hope she was important to him—deeply, irrevocably important to him. Not just for the pleasure of the sexual intimacy they could so easily achieve. Not because she was the mother of his child. She needed to be the woman he loved above all others, the one he truly would share his life with. All of it. Not some piece he selected to give, excluding her from other parts.
“What you heard from my mother tonight…it wasn’t only my life story, Nicole,” he said earnestly. “It was hers, too. A very private, painful story that drove her into exile from her home country. She didn’t want it told to anyone here. And that wasn’t ever going to end until I ended it, as I did when I paid back the money. I’m free of it now, free to take on other responsibilities and give them the attention they should have.”
Responsibilities…was that how he thought of marriage and fatherhood? She didn’t want it to be a point of honour for him to marry her—a responsibility he had take on and carry for the rest of his life.
“I understand you felt…sidelined…when we were together before,” he went on. “I can’t go back and change that, but I promise you it will be different this time.”
“What? No sex?” she scoffed, the crass challenge spilling out of her own thwarted desire for him, heating her whole body with an instant wave of shame.
For several seconds the air in the car was charged with steaming frustrations—his and hers. Then a car-horn behind them honked its driver’s frustration. The red traffic light had turned green. Quin switched his attention back to the road, put his foot on the accelerator and the Audi responded with a swift surge of speed.
“As much sex as you like,” he growled, once they were travelling smoothly again.
Nicole couldn’t stop herself from sniping, “Really? I thought that had been sidelined since you met your daughter.”
“There’ve been other things to consider,” came the terse reply.
“Like planning a wedding without bothering to get my consent?”
“Like trying to clear up the past so we can build a future on mutual trust.”
“We need more than trust to build a future.”
“I thought great sex was a given, but if you need that reinforced…”
“I wasn’t talking about sex.”
“Yes, you were.” His eyes smoked anger at her. “If that’s the only thing I’m good for, as far as you’re concerned, I’ll make it so good you can’t live without it.”
He deftly manoeuvred the Audi across traffic lanes as he spoke and suddenly took a left hand turn, startling Nicole into asking, “What are you doing?”
“Going to a hotel where we’ll be assured of absolute privacy.”
Her heart catapulted around her chest. She hadn’t been talking about sex. Love had been on her mind. Trust and love. Yet she couldn’t deny the adrenaline rush at the exciting thought of going to bed with Quin, having him to herself again, drowning out the confusion and conflicts of the past few days with sheer, mind-blasting physical chemistry.
Though it wouldn’t solve anything, she told herself, and surrendering to this move without a protest would probably make Quin think he had the power to push her into whatever he wanted. “You told your mother you were taking me home and would soon be back,” she rattled out.
It made no impact on him. He turned the car into Elizabeth Street, heading towards Circular Quay instead of out of the city centre. “My mother has my cell-phone number,” he stated reasonably. “I doubt she’ll worry about where I am but she can always call me to find out.”
There was no answer to that.
“And your mother won’t be expecting you home tonight,” he added, shooting her a derisive look. “Right?”
He was referring to the deal.
It was the thirteenth night—a night for which he’d paid an exorbitant amount of money and she had to deliver what had been promised. No argument. The weird part was she had wanted the deal back in place, resenting his involvement with their daughter and the intrusion of his mother, yet now that Quin was obliging her…why was she feeling so at odds with it?
Because too much else was involved now.
And as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t just forget how far he seemed determined to push himself into her life.
They turned into the entrance driveway of a very grand hotel facing Hyde Park. As soon as the Audi halted, a doorman and a parking attendant offered their services. With the car taken care of, they were ushered into a palatial lobby and Quin wasted no time in securing a suite. Within a few minutes, they were in a plush elevator, zooming up to their designated floor.
“Amazing what having lots of money can accomplish,” Nicole remarked cynically, thinking of the speed with which Quin’s requirements had been met.
“Yes, it wiped out my mother’s disgrace, your mother’s debts, got you back into bed with me…”
The harshly cynical retort jerked her gaze up to his. Soul-searing anger looked back at her. It stirred all the fermenting emotions that had been plaguing her since he had found out about Zoe.
“You’re trying to take more than your pound of flesh, Quin.”
“I have a right to more than you agreed to give me.”
“You want to be a father to our daughter…fine! But that doesn’t mean I have to be your wife.”
The elevator doors opened. Quin grasped her arm, steering her out of the compartment, along a corridor, halting briefly to unlock and open the door to their suite, then pulling her inside and kicking the door shut behind them. The fierce turbulence emanating from him was all too evident when he swung her into his embrace for a close face to face confrontation. Stormy-grey eyes raged at her brittle defences.
“Why not? Why not be my wife? You want this as much as I do.”
His mouth crashed down on hers, igniting all the pent-up lust that should have been simple and straightforward and easily satisfied with Quin making himself sexually available for this thirteenth night. Nicole responded to his savage plundering with a passionate abandonment of every other concern, but she could not stop her heart yearning for more than a physical union.
Her arms wound around his neck, holding him with a wanton possessiveness. Her body plastered itself to his, seeking its heat, its strength, wanting its rampant need to envelop her, seep into her, fill her with the sense that only she could be his life mate. Her breasts were crushed against his chest, her stomach furrowed by the hard roll of his erection, her thighs quivering under the muscular power pressing against them. A wild chant was running through her mind—love me, love me, love me…