A though crystallized inside him.
“Marry me.”
Her head had gone back, her eyes wide in astonishment. “Wh-what!”
“I want you to marry me.” All at once he felt he was doing the right thing.
She pushed herself away from him. “I don’t believe I’m hearing this,” she whispered, disbelief ringing the irises of her blue eyes.
“Why not?” When she had time to think about it, he was sure she’d come around to the proposal.
“First you accuse me of trying to get you to marry me for the sake of my baby, now you want me to marry you?”
“Prerogative is not only the domain of the female.” The more he thought about it, the more the idea was growing on him. Surprisingly, he didn’t care that she wasn’t quite the woman he wanted her to be. Being a gold digger was one hell of a fault in her, but he would cope with that. He’d make sure he kept her under control. But he had to protect her from Monica.
“But you think I’m a liar and cheat. You’ve accused me of trying to get all I can out of you.” Her eyes held a sudden wary look. “What’s changed your mind?”
He didn’t miss a beat. “Nothing a prenuptial agreement couldn’t solve.” If she suspected it was because of Monica, she would refuse his offer. “Oh, and I’d want it in writing that you’ll remain faithful to me, of course.”
“Gee, thanks.”
He ignored that. He had the money to keep her in the lifestyle she obviously enjoyed. And if he made her sign the prenuptial and watched her like a hawk so that she couldn’t get herself into trouble, then they could have a good life together.
The alternative was suddenly unthinkable.
She shook her head. “This is about honor, isn’t it? You feel you have to do the honorable thing.”
He had to smile. “I’ve made love to many women but I didn’t feel I had to marry any of them.”
Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Then it’s because I’m pregnant.”
“I’d ask you to marry me whether you were pregnant or not.” That was the truth. Pregnant or not, he needed to protect her at all costs.
Always.
She sat up against the pillows, pulling the sheet up under her chin, her eyes confused. “I don’t understand.”
He started to speak but then thought better of it. He may have feelings for this woman but he wasn’t yet ready to lay them on the line. He’d always played his cards close to his chest and he would do the same here.
“Simple. It’s time I got married.”
“And the woman you consider a fortune hunter is the chosen one? How nice.”
He ignored her sarcasm as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. “I’m getting older. And you’re the first woman I can imagine waking up with for the next twenty years.”
“So it’s not a lifetime guarantee?” she quipped.
He acknowledged her wit with a thin smile as he looked back at her. “I was speaking figuratively.”
She shot him a speculative glance. “You would want children?” she said, as if testing him.
His smile vanished into thin air as the memory of his mother dying in childbirth all those years ago came to mind. His jaw clenched and his heart slammed against his ribs. He’d sworn never to have children. Sworn never to risk a woman’s life for the sake of procreation.
But now that pledge had been taken out of his hands. Danielle was going to have her baby whether he feared for her life or not. So he would make sure she got the best medical care. These days it would be highly unlikely for a woman to die in childbirth, he reassured himself.
“Of course I want more children,” he said brusquely. “With you.”
Her hand went to her stomach, as if in protection. “And what about this baby?”
That previous sense of protectiveness rose up inside him. “I would bring the child up as my own.”
Her bare shoulders tensed. “But would you love my baby as your own?”
“Yes.” And he would. Every child should be valued and protected and, this child, being Danielle’s child, would be more than special.
Her shoulders relaxed a little, but she continued to stare at him as if she couldn’t quite believe this was happening.
Then a look of panic crossed her face and she threw back the covers, attempting to push herself off the bed. “No. I’m sorry. I can’t marry you. I don’t want to marry anyone.”
Her previous marriage must have still reminded her of unpleasant things. And that reminded him of Monica. His stomach clenched tightly as he stood up and strode around the bed to help her.
He tried a change in tactic. “Think of it this way. If you married me, you would never have to worry about money again. I can give you everything you need.”
She flinched, then ignoring his outstretched hand, she pushed to her feet and went to pick up her robe from the floor. Saving her the trouble, he scooped the robe up and held it open for her, taking pleasure in her nak*d figure as she quickly slid into it.
“Once I sign an agreement, right?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “You’re as calculating as my husband.”
Displeasure furrowed his brow. “Don’t you mean your late husband?”
She began to speak then stopped.
For some reason, the culmination of her comments about Robert Ford hit him in the gut. “What did he do to you, Danielle?”
Her eyes flashed with remembered pain. Then she said, “Nothing.”
“Tell me. I’d like to know.”
She held his gaze for a moment, then as if believing his sincerity, she took a shaky breath. “He smothered me, Flynn. Smothered me until I couldn’t make a move without him. Until I couldn’t breathe. He was very much like his mother in that respect.”
His jaw knotted, not liking the picture she painted. Now more than ever he was glad he’d proposed marriage. He had to get Danielle away from her mother-in-law. “Perhaps he wanted to spoil you?” he suggested, not for a moment believing that was true. Not after having met Robert Ford.
“Spoil me?” she scoffed. “By making sure I never got a moment to myself? By criticizing everything I did? By sucking the life out of me?” She shook her halo of blond hair. “No, the only one who was spoiled was Robert, only I didn’t see that when I first married him.”
Flynn began to burn for her. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
She shuddered, the look in her eyes clutching at his heart. “You’re doing it already. Flynn, I only went to bed with you. I didn’t expect a proposal of marriage.”
He forced himself to relax. He would show her that things would be different with him. He would prove it to her, if she let him. “I’m not asking you to cut off an arm, Danielle.”
Her lips twisted. “At least that would be quicker than the slow torture of being smothered to death.”
Dammit, her husband had made the mistakes, not him. He wasn’t about to pay for the faults of another man, especially a dead one.
“You won’t get a better offer,” he pointed out.
She shot him a cold look. “I don’t want a better offer. I don’t want any offer at all.” She headed for the bathroom door, then stopped and glanced over her shoulder. “And, Flynn, this isn’t the beginning of an affair. This is the end of it.”
He watched her go, heard the click of the lock behind her, but not for a minute did he agree that this was the end for them. He hadn’t got where he was by giving up on something he wanted badly. And right now he not only wanted to protect Danielle and her baby, but all at once he wanted Danielle in his life, as crazy as it sounded.
And he always got what he wanted.
Seven
D anielle leaned her hands on the bathroom sink for support and swallowed away the lump in her throat. Marriage!
How could Flynn do this to her? How could he take something so beautiful like their lovemaking last night and spoil it with a proposal of marriage? He had to be the last person she’d expect to want to marry her. The last person who’d want to tie himself down. After all, he was a virile man who was sure to have a string of women more willing and able.
Yet he wanted her.
The supposed gold digger.
The supposed fortune hunter.
The supposed woman who would do anything to get his attention.
She just didn’t understand it. But it didn’t matter anyway. Dear God, she couldn’t go through another marriage to a man who needed to possess her for the sake of possession. She wouldn’t be able to breathe again. Just thinking about it made her throat tighten. All she wanted was her independence.
But she had to think about it, in case she found herself weakening toward Flynn. She had to remember and be strong. She must never forget what Robert had done to her in the name of love. Never forget Robert wanting to know where she was every minute of the day, even when she was at work. Never forget the “suggestions” of what to wear, not just by Robert but his mother. Nor the criticism whenever she’d given an opinion, until she’d given no opinion at all.
She’d been young when she’d married, too young, really. And she’d been looking to fall in love when she’d met Robert. She’d missed her parents and had wanted someone to love her back.
But she’d chosen the wrong man, the wrong family, and by the time she’d discovered that, it had been too late. She’d married Robert Ford.
And his mother.
And Flynn wanted her to walk back into the fire? There was no way she would make that mistake again. No amount of sex, no matter how fantastic, would be enough to get her to marry him.
Thankfully Flynn had gone by the time she came out of the bathroom, and Danielle escaped for a stroll through the botanical gardens, appreciating the cooler lushness of the tropical surrounds in the steady heat of the day. But it did nothing to ease her mind, though she kept looking over her shoulder as she walked. She had the feeling someone was watching her, but she soon dismissed the thought. If Flynn were anywhere near her, she’d know about it. And then she spent the rest of Sunday at home on edge that Flynn would come back and put pressure on her to accept his proposal of marriage.
What nerve he had.
Not that she doubted for a moment she would give in, but she wasn’t really prepared to withstand him right now, not after their night of lovemaking. And she wouldn’t put it past him to use their sexual attraction to try and get a promise of marriage out of her, either.
She’d fought too hard to get to this point in her life, pregnant or not, and the last thing she wanted was to trap a man into marriage. She would be the one who’d be trapped…trapped by a man who obviously thought of women as useful for one thing only.
Thank heavens she was pregnant. The very thing that Mr. Flynn Donovan feared was the one thing that would save her from his clutches.
Her baby.
In the end he never came by, neither did Monica, and she had an uneventful day preparing her clothes for work and cleaning the apartment. Afterward she rearranged the furniture in the baby’s room, then sorted through the pile of baby clothes Angie’s friend had given her.