by Miranda Lee
Which only made him want her all the more.
The discovery of where this over-the-top and stunningly uncontrollable desire was coming from was little comfort to Dominic. His flesh remained stubbornly resistant to reasoning.
Okay, so he’d always liked a sexual challenge in a woman, but this was ridiculous. This woman despised him. It was extremely perverse to desire someone who was making it blatantly obvious he would be the last man on earth she’d go to bed with.
‘I repeat,’ he stated forcibly. ‘I only slept with Sarah the once. And I used protection. It was the last night of her employ as my secretary. Her boyfriend had just gone off with some other woman and Sarah was very upset.’
‘So you comforted her,’ Tina said, the most blistering sarcasm in her tone.
His eyes clashed with her coldly cynical gaze, and again, something happened within him. Something deep and dark and even more dangerous. For this time he could not even control his thoughts.
One day, madam, he vowed hotly, I’ll make you look at me differently to that. One day you’ll give me fire, not ice. One day!
The moment of mental madness was over as quickly as it had come. But it still rattled Dominic, for it betrayed a lack of control previously unknown to his character.
He really had to get a grip on this situation.
And his body.
Or was it his mind playing havoc with him?
No, no, not his mind. This woman.
‘Something like that,’ he grated out.
‘Condoms have been known to fail, you know,’ she challenged tartly.
‘Not the ones I buy.’
Her eyebrows lifted. Wickedly mocking, taunting eyebrows. ‘I know of no such infallible brand.’
Neither did Dominic. But he was not going to give an inch where this woman was concerned.
‘When and where can I take this test?’ he asked, determined to have done with this appalling scenario as quickly as possible.
‘I’ve rung the doctor,’ his mother informed him. ‘He said if you and Bonnie come in first thing on Monday morning, he’ll take the required blood tests and have them sent off straight away. But, given it’s not an urgent criminal case, the results might take anything up to a couple of weeks.’
‘Surely they can do it quicker than that!’
‘You can ask, I suppose. But I doubt it will make any difference. Apparently there’s a bit of a backlog, due to increased demand for DNA tests, and they only give priority to real emergencies. Police work and such. Meanwhile, I’ve asked Tina and Bonnie to stay here with us. She’s been working and living in Melbourne this past year and doesn’t have anywhere decent to stay in Sydney other than the little bedsit Sarah was renting.’
‘I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Mum,’ Dominic said firmly, gratified that he didn’t sound as panic-stricken as he felt at this development.
‘Why not?’
‘For one thing, you’ll grow attached to that baby in two weeks. How do you think you’re going to feel when you find out she’s not your granddaughter?’
She gave him a disturbingly smug look, as though she had some secret knowledge he wasn’t privy to. ‘I’ll cope, if and when that happens. What other objections do you have?’
‘I don’t like to be pedantic, but you really know nothing about this woman, here, except what she’s told you. For all you know, that baby in there could be anyone!’
Actually, this thought hadn’t occurred to him before, but now that it had, he ran with it.
‘And so could she!’ he said, jabbing a finger towards the brunette. ‘To invite a stranger into our home without checking her story with independent sources is not only naive, but downright stupid!’
CHAPTER FIVE
TINA’S eyes narrowed to dark slits at this last insult. Right, she thought savagely. This was war!
She’d put up with his looking at her as though he wanted to strangle her with his bare hands. She’d endured his huffing and puffing in pretend outrage. She’d even listened to his heated denials and unimaginative lies without actually laughing.
But this attack on her character and honesty was beyond the pale. First he’d called Sarah a liar, and now…now he was accusing her of the same. Worse! He was virtually calling her a shyster! She might have twisted the truth a little here today, but only because the truth was…well…complicated. Nothing changed the fact that this man was Bonnie’s father. And now he was trying to worm his way out of accepting his responsibilities a second time!
‘I had hoped to avoid bringing lawyers into this,’ Tina flung at him in clipped tones, black eyes blazing. ‘I’d hoped we could come to some amicable arrangement where Bonnie was concerned. But I see that was optimistic of me. I’m sorry, Mrs Hunter,’ she said, turning to Bonnie’s grandmother. ‘I would have dearly liked to stay here with you. I can see you’re not of your son’s ilk. You’re a good woman. But this is not going to work.’
‘Oh, yes it will,’ Mrs Hunter refuted strongly, and Tina blinked her astonishment. ‘This is my house and I will have you here to stay if I want to. If you don’t like it, Dominic, then you can be the one to go. Perhaps it’s time you found a place of your own, anyway. The mortgages have long been paid off. And just think. If you lived on your own, you wouldn’t have to worry about my matchmaking.’
Mortgages? Matchmaking?
Tina’s eyebrows lifted. It seemed life in the Hunter household wasn’t always smooth sailing.
‘Fine,’ the man himself snapped, and was actually whirling away when common sense returned to Tina. This was not what she wanted. Not at all!
‘No, wait!’ she said swiftly, and he stopped in mid-turn. ‘Mrs Hunter, please,’ she said pleadingly. ‘I…I don’t want to cause any trouble between you and your son.’
And she didn’t. There was no advantage in it for her. Or for Bonnie. As much as she might like to tear strips off the man, it wasn’t going to get her anywhere.
As for threatening to get a lawyer…she really didn’t want to take that road, either. Court cases took time. And money.
Money she couldn’t spare. Sarah’s superannuation pay-out on her death had been a tidy little sum, but Tina had put that away in a special savings account for Bonnie’s education. Her own savings were negligible. Acting wasn’t the most steady or reliable of professions. Besides, she’d only been out of AIDA a year.
Common sense told Tina that conciliation was the way to go, not confrontation. She already had his mother on her side. Time to play a more clever and subtle hand.
It would almost kill her to back down, or make compromising noises, but if Bonnie would eventually benefit, then she would do it.
Steeling herself, she harnessed her acting ability once more.
‘Your son does have a point, Mrs Hunter,’ Tina said with a convincing display of concession. ‘I could be anyone. I do have my driver’s licence and other ID with me, but I suppose that’s not really enough. I dare say con-artists have such things all at the ready. Still, I can give you several phone numbers you can call to check out my identity. Friends. Employers. The legal aid lawyer who handled Sarah’s will. I’m quite happy for you to have me checked out, Mr Hunter.’
She forced herself not to scowl at the man.
‘As for Bonnie, I can certainly prove who she is. I brought her birth certificate with me. I also have the keys to Sarah’s place, where there’s a copy of her will and other personal papers which should help prove what I’ve told you and your mother today. I could get them and show them to you, if you like.’
He didn’t exactly jump at her offer. In fact, he still looked decidedly reluctant. And remained grimly silent.
Tina sighed. So much for her humiliating herself. So much for compromise.
‘Fair’s fair, Dominic,’ his mother intervened. ‘Tina can’t do much more than that, can she? Look, why don’t you drive her over to Sarah’s place tonight after dinner? That way you could start satisfying your doubts straight away and bring bac
k anything Tina might need for herself and Bonnie at the same time.’
Tina saw the muscles along Dominic’s strong jawline tighten appreciably. Clearly he didn’t want to drive her anywhere. He didn’t want to have anything to do with her.
Or with Bonnie.
Well, that was just too bad, she thought savagely.
Tina tried not to look as livid as she felt, but something must have shown in her face for his whole body seemed to stiffen, not just his jaw muscles.
It was probably her eyes. People often told her that her eyes gave her away every time. She’d tried to learn to control them, tried to make them project whatever emotion she wanted rather than what she was feeling at the time. An actress should be able to do that. But when she was this angry, when she disliked someone this much, she invariably failed.
‘I’m not going to have any say in all this, am I?’ the object of her intense dislike directed towards his mother, a black frustration in every word. ‘Just don’t blame me if things don’t work out the way you hope they will.’ He sucked in a deep breath which expanded his already large chest, then let it out slowly. ‘I take it Joanna won’t be coming for dinner tonight?’
‘No,’ his mother returned crisply. ‘I postponed that till another night.’
‘Well, thank heavens for small mercies,’ he mocked. ‘Who would have thought I’d be grateful to this fiasco for anything?’
Tina reacted poorly to the word ‘fiasco’. But she bit her tongue. She had a feeling she was going to have to bite her tongue a lot around this man. He’d pressed the wrong buttons in her before she’d even met him. Dealing with him in the flesh stirred additional negative responses, not all of them strictly rational.
The truth was she’d never liked big men. Their size sometimes unnerved her, making her feel small and defensive and vulnerable. Silly, really, when she was five foot nine inches tall and quite strong for her slender frame. But she’d often been grateful that most male actors were of the shorter, slighter variety.
Dominic Hunter was a big man. He looked extra big in this confined space, as opposed to his huge, airy office. Her gaze travelled up and down him as she assessed his actual height and weight. At least six foot four and a hundred kilos. Not fat, judging by his flat stomach, but with massive shoulders and long, strong arms. Large hands. Large fingers.
No doubt the rest of him was just as large.
Tina shuddered at the thought and he shot her a sharp glance. His hard blue eyes locked with hers, before dropping to her mouth, and then to her breasts.
Tina was flustered to find that her heart was racing madly.
Not that he was leering. He was simply subjecting her to the same cold appraisal she’d just given him. Tit for tat.
Immediately her chin shot up, her stomach clenching down hard in defiance of her unwanted and highly annoying inner turmoil. Be damned if she was going to start trembling in front of him like some nervous nelly!
But she was rattled all the same.
‘I need to shower and change,’ he said brusquely, and wrenched his gaze away from her breasts to land on his mother, who was watching her son with interest. ‘Dinner still at the same time?’ he rapped out.
‘A little earlier, I think, since you’re going out afterwards. June prepared everything this morning—thinking, of course, that I’d be having Joanna to dinner tonight. But Tina can eat Joanna’s share. I just have to set the table and heat some things up. Say…seven-thirty?’
‘Fine,’ he muttered, and was gone, striding over to the stairs and swiftly disappearing from view. A door banged shut shortly afterwards and Tina let out a ragged sigh before she could think better of it.
Mrs Hunter reached over and patted her on the back of her hand. ‘His bark’s worse than his bite,’ she said. ‘Actually, I thought you handled the situation very well, standing up to him like that. Mentioning a lawyer was a very good idea. If there’s one thing which will bring Dominic to heel it’s the thought he might have to waste time fighting a paternity suit in court. He’s a workaholic, you see, and workaholics never have time for anything else but work. It rather explains why he had an affair with your friend. The only woman he ever sees regularly is his secretary.’
‘I don’t think he’s having an affair with his present secretary,’ Tina said drily, and Mrs Hunter laughed.
‘I’d have to agree with you there. I find it odd, though, that Dominic’s so vehement in his denials over this affair. Why claim he only slept with Sarah the once if that wasn’t so?’
Tina didn’t like to call Dominic an out-and-out liar to his mother’s face, but she had solid evidence he’d slept with Sarah more than once. ‘Er…I’m not sure why he said that.’
‘Could there have been another man?’
‘Oh, no! Now that I do know. Sarah fell in love a lot, but only with one man at a time. She was in love with your son in late October, and even Dominic is admitting he slept with her towards the end of November. Believe me when I tell you there would have been no other man in the meantime. When Sarah loved, she loved exclusively and obsessively.’
‘Fair enough. But why would Dominic say Sarah hadn’t come to see him about the pregnancy if she had? My son is no saint, but he’s usually honest.’
Clearly the woman couldn’t embrace the fact her son could lie with the best of them.
‘Um…I honestly can’t say,’ she murmured. ‘Maybe he didn’t want to look badly in your eyes. Look, I don’t know what’s going on in your son’s mind, Mrs Hunter. But I know he’s Bonnie’s father and the DNA test will show that.’
‘Oh, yes, I agree with you there. In fact, I have no doubts whatsoever!’
‘You haven’t?’ Tina had begun to worry that Dominic’s denials might have brought some doubt. She herself didn’t have any, but she wasn’t Dominic’s mother.
‘Heavens, no,’ the woman said, smiling. ‘Bonnie’s the spitting image of Dominic when he was a baby. I noticed that straight away. Such a pretty child, he was. And a pretty lad too, till puberty turned him into the big lug he is today.’
Tina found it difficult to see any resemblance. She thought Bonnie looked like Sarah. Still, she hadn’t known Dominic when he was a baby.
‘Er…what do you think Dominic will do when the DNA test comes back and he can no longer deny he’s the father?’ Tina asked.
The woman sighed. ‘I have to admit he won’t be pleased. Hopefully, he’ll come round.’
‘I wonder if he will…’
Tina was gnawing at her bottom lip when she became aware of Mrs Hunter looking her over with an assessing gaze.
‘Do you have a boyfriend, Tina?’ she asked with seeming innocence, and Tina almost laughed. If Dominic Hunter’s mother was thinking what Tina imagined she was thinking, then she’d better think again. Hell would freeze over before she fell for that man. Or any man, for that matter, she thought caustically.
Still, it was hardly the right moment to reveal what Sarah had always castigated her over: her inability to love or trust the opposite sex. Given both their backgrounds, Tina thought her negative attitude to the male species was justifiable. It amazed her that Sarah had always been so willing to be taken in by them.
Tina couldn’t help being hard and cynical in her dealings with men, and sex. Not that she was a virgin. She’d slept with a couple of the species, though never for love. Simply to know how to act in sex scenes. She’d also wanted to see what all the hoo-ha was all about.
She still had no idea.
‘No,’ she denied. ‘No boyfriend at the moment.’
The answer pleased Bonnie’s grandmother.
‘And is there any reason you have to return to Melbourne to live? You did say the part you were playing in that soap opera was over.’
‘For the time being. But if the viewing public miss me, they might write me back in.’
‘Can’t you get an acting job here in Sydney?’
‘Unfortunately there are more production companies in Melbourne.’
‘Please don’t concern yourself, Mrs Hunter. Bonnie is my number one priority at the moment, not my career. If you want me to stay in Sydney, I will.’ Actually, Tina was disillusioned with her choice of career at the moment. It wasn’t bringing her the pleasure and satisfaction she’d once thought it would. She was more than happy to put acting aside for a while and look after Bonnie.
Mrs Hunter beamed, and Tina thought how lucky Bonnie was to have a grandmother like this.
‘You know, you really must stop calling me Mrs Hunter. My name is Ida.’
‘Ida,’ Tina repeated, smiling.
‘Wonderful. Now I suppose I’d better go get dinner ready before grumpy-bumps comes downstairs.’
Tina tried not to laugh, but ‘grumpy-bumps’ described Dominic Hunter to a T. Men like him didn’t like women making waves in their lives. Clearly he was most put out by all this.
Tough, she thought.
‘Can I be of any help?’ she offered.
‘Oh, no, dear, I’ll be fine. Why don’t you pop along to the powder room and freshen up for dinner?’
‘Fine,’ she said. ‘I’ll do just that.’
CHAPTER SIX
DOMINIC stepped under a deliberately cold shower, all the breath rushing from his lungs as the icy spray hit his seriously overheated flesh. Swearing, he gritted his teeth and stood there staunchly while the freezing water achieved what his will-power could not.
Finally, he turned the taps onto a warmer setting and reached for the shower gel, squirting several dollops into his hands, then lathering it all over his body, finding some satisfaction in having his hormones under control once again.
But for how long, with that female living under his roof?
Hell! He hadn’t been the victim of such a wayward and unwanted burst of lust since he was fourteen!
Don’t even think about her, he warned himself, when his flesh prickled once more.
But he had to think about her, and the situation.