by Lynne Graham
She pushed open the door of Teddy’s room.
‘This is a little girl’s room,’ Eros objected, only slowly lowering her son into his cot, his attention pinned to the pink cartoon mural of princesses on the wall.
‘We haven’t got around to redecorating yet,’ Winnie retorted, sidestepping the truth that the sisters had decided not to go to that trouble and expense when they were unsure how long their grandfather would allow them to make the house their home. Stepping over to the cot, she slipped off her son’s shoes and his sweatshirt and settled him down before tugging the string on the little musical mobile that had been his from birth.
Closing the curtains, she walked back to the door, watching Eros hover by the cot. ‘Why’s the cot in the middle of the room?’ he asked.
‘Because if you put it beside the furniture, Teddy will use it to climb out and I don’t want the hassle of trying to persuade him to stay put in a junior bed. He’s too young to understand.’
‘A nanny would remove much of the burden of childcare,’ Eros commented smoothly. ‘It must be hard for you to work and care adequately for him at the same time.’
‘Not with my sisters around,’ Winnie countered steadily, refusing to rise to the suggestion that she wasn’t doing the best mothering job possible.
Eros strode down the stairs only a step in her wake and she walked into the lounge. ‘I suppose I should offer you coffee,’ she said stiffly.
Eros sent her a winging hard glance. ‘No, thanks. Let’s not procrastinate.’
‘If you must know, I was trying to be polite.’
Eros shrugged a broad shoulder, the edge of his jacket falling back to expose a shirt front pulling taut across his muscular torso, delineating sleek bands of abdominal muscle. As she watched, her mouth ran dry and she looked hastily away, colour warming her cheeks.
‘Why bother?’ Eros incised drily. ‘We’re neither friends nor casual acquaintances.’
‘What do you want from me?’ Winnie fired back at him, anxiety biting through her.
‘Answers,’ Eros framed silkily. ‘And I’ll keep on coming back at you until I get them.’
CHAPTER THREE
‘ANSWERS? WELL, I can give you a question. Why didn’t you tell me that you were a married man?’ Winnie demanded abruptly, infuriated by his refusal to acknowledge that deception.
‘You never asked if I was married,’ Eros pointed out smoothly.
And that fast, Winnie wanted to hit him, hit him so hard she knocked him into the middle of next week. Her small hands curled into tight fists, her cheeks pink with the force of her resentment and the galling knowledge that she couldn’t afford to lose control of her temper. ‘Why would I have asked when ostensibly you were living alone and there was no visible woman in your life?’ she shot back at him. ‘I hadn’t the smallest suspicion that you were already in a relationship!’
‘My marriage is not a subject I’m prepared to discuss with you,’ Eros informed her arrogantly, clenching his strong jawline. ‘I would have been willing to discuss that topic two years ago. But two years on, I don’t believe I owe you that explanation.’
Winnie clenched her teeth together as hard as if she were biting into solid metal. ‘Oh, don’t you, indeed?’ she exclaimed, vexed by that provocative assurance and, if anything, madder than ever.
‘You met Tasha,’ Eros acknowledged curtly. ‘Eventually I did find that out and presumably that is why you chose to suddenly disappear without giving me any explanation.’
‘Don’t say that like it excuses you... Nothing excuses your behaviour!’ Winnie slammed back at him furiously. ‘And I didn’t owe you anything!’
Eros studied her with intent, glittering green eyes. She still had lousy dress sense, he conceded ruefully, invariably choosing to envelop herself in drab colours and very practical clothing, but he knew her ripe body as well as he knew his own and he could see the changes in her lush figure, which even clad in leggings and an all-concealing sweatshirt was visibly fuller at breast and hip. He hardened, momentarily snatched back into hot, sweaty memories of the passion that had once threatened to consume him. His treacherous libido heated up, sending a sensual pulse through his groin and making him bite back a curse at his lack of restraint.
For a while, the sheer novelty of that passion had obsessed him and, having recognised that as a dangerous weakness, he had refused to allow himself to look for her after she vanished out of his life. He could get by fine without sex; he had got by for years and he no longer fell as easily into temptation as he had fallen with her. He was free now, he reminded himself, but that old belief that he had to always stay in control of his physical urges was still ingrained in him. Giving way to those same urges had destroyed his father’s life. Winnie had made him feel dangerously out of control and that, if he was honest with himself, had unnerved him.
‘At the very least, you owed me the knowledge that you were pregnant with my child,’ Eros delivered in harsh condemnation.
‘No, I didn’t!’ Winnie slammed back at him in annoyance. ‘Your deception released me from any such obligation!’
His stunning eyes narrowed, black velvety lashes shading that mesmeric green. ‘There was no deception on my part. For a deception to be contrived, one must deliberately engage in concealment of the truth...and I did not. I didn’t tell you a single lie!’
For several unbearable seconds, Winnie searched her memory for evidence of a lie and her inability to find one merely enraged her more. He was so scheming, so specious in his arguments. ‘But you also knew I hadn’t the faintest suspicion that you were a married man!’ she flung back at him bitterly.
Eros inclined his glossy dark head. ‘Did I? Some women are content to sleep with married men without questioning their status.’
‘Stop playing with words!’ Winnie interrupted, rising up on her toes, pulsing with angry tension. ‘That’s what you’re doing in defiance of the facts! You knew I wasn’t that kind of woman... You knew I wouldn’t willingly get involved with a married man!’
Again, Eros shrugged, the lean, hard angles of his sculpted features set like granite. ‘None of this nonsense is pertinent now,’ he claimed in a dry tone of finality. ‘I will not engage in a slanging match about our past. That ship sailed a long time ago. What is germane now is that you have my son and you didn’t tell me about him. Let’s concentrate on that, rather than on facts we cannot change.’
Winnie tore her gaze from him with difficulty and turned her head away, momentarily at a loss. In one sense he was correct, in that there was nothing to be gained from arguing about what had happened between them two years earlier, but that also meant that he was denying her any justification for having chosen not to inform him of her pregnancy. Her slight shoulders stiffened and her head swung back, dark strands of her lush mane of hair falling across cheeks flushed by angry frustration.
‘How did you become pregnant anyway?’ Eros demanded without warning. ‘I always took precautions.’
At that much-too-intimate question, Winnie practically fried in mortification inside her own burning skin and she walked stiffly over to the window, momentarily turning her back on him. ‘No, there were times when you overlooked that necessity,’ she told him grudgingly, forced to recall early-morning encounters when she had wakened to his hard, thrillingly aroused body pressed to hers and in warm drowsy lust and need had succumbed without either of them thinking of contraception.
‘I don’t remember a single occasion,’ Eros informed her with a raw edge to his dark, deep, accented drawl.
‘Then you must have a very short memory because I remember at least a dozen occasions when contraception was the last thing on your mind. In the shower, in the pool, early mornings when we were both half-asleep.’ Winnie forced out the words like staccato bullets voiced between gritted teeth. ‘In fact, you were downright careless, and I noticed but I didn’t say anything.
Instead, I tried to go on the pill to protect myself but by the time I saw a GP, it was too late. I had already conceived.’
‘You should’ve drawn those oversights to my attention,’ Eros delivered curtly, reflecting that if anything should’ve warned him that the affair was out of control, it was exactly that aberrant carelessness on his part that underlined it. He had got too comfortable with her, too involved to be logical and safe. It had been a high-voltage sexual affair and he hadn’t been prepared for it, hadn’t counted the risks or the costs, had simply waded in like a man with an unquenchable thirst and drunk so deep that even his intelligence was compromised.
Winnie twisted back to him in a sudden movement. ‘Oh, really?’ she carolled tartly. ‘So, the fact I fell pregnant is my fault too, is it?’
‘There’s little point in awarding blame this late in the day,’ Eros murmured curtly. ‘What is done is done and we have a child...a child who is, sadly, a stranger to me. That must be remedied immediately.’
Winnie was so rigid that her very muscles ached with the strain. ‘Must it?’
‘Of course, it must be,’ Eros declared, studying her with an incredulity that implied she would have to be witless to expect anything else. ‘Teddy must learn that I am his father and I need to get to know him. I would like to spend time with him tomorrow.’
‘No,’ Winnie cut in without even thinking about it because Teddy had always been hers and he had never been in the care of anyone outside the family.
‘Naturally, I will bring a qualified nanny with me to ensure that Teddy’s basic needs are properly met while he is with me. I have a lot to learn about being a father,’ Eros admitted with a candour that disconcerted her. ‘But given time and experience, I will pick up what I have to know.’
‘I really can’t believe that you’re this interested in Teddy!’ Winnie proclaimed in consternation, watching him pace back and forth in front of her, the lithe grace of his every movement strikingly noticeable and grabbing her attention with its aching familiarity.
A hollow sensation opened inside Winnie, her breath suddenly tripping in her throat. Her nipples were peaking, suddenly tender and tight beneath her clothing. She dragged in a jagged breath as the hot melting sensation of arousal pulsed between her taut thighs. How did he do that to her? How on earth could he still do that to her when she knew he was no longer hers to crave? Never had been hers either, except in her imagination, she reminded herself guiltily, dragging her attention from him to try to focus elsewhere.
‘Obviously I want to get to know my son and I expect that process to begin immediately,’ Eros spelt out bluntly. ‘I will not accept you putting obstacles in my path.’
‘Is that a fact?’ Winnie sizzled back at him, feeling as though she was under attack on every front.
‘I am being frank. You have denied me my rights as a parent for quite long enough,’ Eros reasoned. ‘The situation must change. I will see Teddy tomorrow and take him out. He will be very well taken care of.’
‘I’ll come too,’ Winnie broke in insistently. ‘You won’t need a nanny.’
‘No,’ Eros countered decisively, his wide sensual lips compressing into a determined line. ‘I would prefer to get to know my son away from your influence.’
‘He’s too young for that yet!’ Winnie argued passionately. ‘He’s never been away from me before.’
‘Then it is time you encouraged him to achieve a little independence.’
‘He’s only a baby!’ Winnie gasped defensively.
‘He will come to no harm in my care. He is my son, my family, indeed the only close family I have left alive,’ Eros pointed out grittily. ‘Obviously he will be looked after to the very best of my ability.’
‘You can’t simply exclude me!’ Winnie said accusingly.
Eros elevated a winged ebony brow in direct challenge. ‘Is that not what you have done to me?’ he pressed silkily. ‘I have been excluded from every aspect of his life since birth but that cannot continue and you have to accept that reality.’
‘I don’t have to accept anything from you!’ Winnie objected vehemently, wondering how they had contrived to travel so swiftly from rehashing old issues to his shattering demand to have full unsupervised access to their son.
And that was the crux of the matter, Winnie registered belatedly. Teddy was their son, not only hers, not only his. It was truly the first time that she had been confronted by the unwelcome truth that she did not have total, unbreakable rights over her own child and that awareness cut through her like a knife blade, giving rise to all sorts of other worries and insecurities. Faster than the speed of light, Eros was interfering, setting down his boundaries and making unapologetic demands. Eros was not the sort of man likely to humbly sit back in the corner and wait until she decided to cede him his rights as a parent.
‘You have to learn to share Teddy,’ Eros intoned without hesitation. ‘But try starting your judgement of me from a fair starting point. Why assume that I won’t look after my son as well as you do?’
‘I didn’t make that assumption,’ Winnie contradicted nervously. ‘I’m just warning you now that, no matter how well you look after him, Teddy will fret away from me and that you’ll find him a handful.’
‘You would like me to have difficulties handling him,’ Eros assumed grimly, shooting her an unimpressed glance. ‘But I do not foresee a problem.’
‘Have you any experience in looking after a child this young?’ Winnie enquired, needled by his insuperable confidence.
‘No. You must know that I am an only child and few of my friends are parents yet,’ Eros admitted grudgingly. ‘But with a trained childcare professional on hand to advise me, I am sure that we will manage.’
‘Teddy’s at an unpredictable age. He throws tantrums,’ Winnie warned him ruefully. ‘He can go from rage to tears in seconds.’
‘Perhaps my son needs more stable and reliable care to thrive,’ Eros murmured silkily, as if tantrums could only be the consequence of inadequate parenting.
In receipt of that covert criticism, Winnie reddened with furious resentment. ‘As you said yourself, you have a lot to learn about children,’ she responded non-committally, however, reluctant to expose her sensitivity to any questioning of her own parenting skills. She wondered if she was a complete shrew to hope that Teddy would lose his rag with Eros and teach him the reality of dealing with a volatile toddler.
‘And tomorrow evening, after I have returned Teddy to your care, we will have dinner together and discuss—like reasonable adults—where to go from here,’ Eros decreed decisively.
Winnie compressed her lips. If Eros wanted access to Teddy, she supposed that they had to discuss arrangements that would be acceptable to both of them. But how would she cope with that when even the prospect of having to part with Teddy for a few hours the next day daunted her? She knew that she would spend the entire time Teddy was away from her worrying about him.
‘We’ll have to dine out some other time,’ she told him and not without a certain satisfaction. ‘I have to work tomorrow evening.’
‘I’m leaving for New York the next day and I will be away for at least a week. A later date will not be convenient for me,’ Eros told her levelly. ‘Get a night off or plead sickness. It’s up to you.’
‘I won’t do that, Eros. I won’t let my employers down.’
‘Do you know where I’m going from here?’ Eros enquired grimly. ‘To consult my lawyer about my legal position with regard to Teddy. You are not in a strong enough position to be difficult, Winnie. We must discuss provisions and soon.’
Her heart-shaped face pulled taut, her big brown eyes suddenly ducking from his as she strove to withstand the conviction that she was being deliberately intimidated and forced in a direction in which she had no desire to go. ‘Are you threatening me?’ she asked curtly, feeling a little like a wayward farm animal being firmly
herded down a preset track.
‘No. I’m being honest,’ Eros fielded with harsh emphasis. ‘I am impatient to get to know my son and I would advise you not to stand in the way of that desire. It is natural for a new father to be keen to establish a normal relationship with his child.’
‘But this keen interest of yours is coming at me out of nowhere!’ Winnie protested hotly.
‘Your vengeful attitude ends here and now,’ Eros breathed in a raw undertone.
Winnie flung her head back to look up at him, having until that moment somehow contrived to forget how very tall he was in comparison to her. He was also way too close for comfort, the faint, dangerously familiar scent of his designer cologne flaring her nostrils. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’ she demanded blankly. ‘Vengeful?’ she questioned with incredulous emphasis on that choice of word.
‘When you found out that I was married, you decided to punish me by withholding all knowledge of my child from me,’ Eros extended with perceptible bitterness, his lean, darkly handsome face sardonic.
‘That’s nonsense!’ Winnie proclaimed in shocked denial. ‘I’m not that sort of person!’
‘You believed that the fact I was a married man was a good enough excuse to exclude me from Teddy’s life. But it wasn’t. That attitude won’t wash with me now. You have to adapt to a new situation.’
‘And what about your situation? How is your wife going to feel about all this?’ Winnie cut across his condemnatory speech to demand helplessly. ‘How is she going to react to Teddy’s existence?’
‘I don’t have a wife any longer. I’ve been divorced for some time,’ Eros informed her grimly. ‘All matters concerning Teddy are between you and I and nobody else.’
Winnie was shocked, having automatically assumed he was still married. From the minute she had discovered that Eros was married, she had suppressed every inappropriate urge to look him up on the Internet and learn, not only about his marriage, but about what he was doing. He belonged to another woman. He was no longer her business, should never have been her business. She had warned herself painfully, fearing that seeking information about him would only fuel her longing for him.