(Maroon 5 - One More Night)
"So. How. Much?"
His glacial chips of sapphire were trained on her from under a tumble of blonde hair, the hardened edge making her pulse hickup. She looked so... guileless, long lashed smoky grey wide eyes. Her lips were pinched and bloodless as Mac tried to pull her wrist from his larger hand but she wasn't strong enough to break his grip. Part of him wanted to hurt her for having trapped him, the other wanted to curse her out for rejecting them and playing this sick game of revenge.
He was going to be a father.
A child doesn't need a mother to survive, especially not one scheming enough to play you like a pro, he reminded himself firmly. Beauty was her disguise, women, there is always a catch... She'd had an agenda... and she was carrying his heir it was payoff time, only she wasn't going to like the consequences. He'd go to court and take full custody.
Blistering scorn.
He radiated angry authority, wide-set shoulders, lean hips and she knew from the predatory glint in his eyes that Dick Casablancas was not a man to make your enemy, especially in these circumstances. A convulsive shiver ran down her spine. Now she wondered how much of his easy-going nature was simply a well-crafted mirage.
An act.
Peter Pan was really the Big Bad Wolf.
The barrage of words finally stopped fluttering around her shocked brain long enough for the cold hard truth to sink in.
Heart racing she stared at him.
He was completely and utterly ruthless. The pampered prince and his trust fund just throwing money around and thinking he could take her baby away without a qualm. Did he want to pay her off like some broodmare?
I think I'm going to be sick. The look in his eyes threatened to stop her breathing. He'd accused her of the unforgivable...
"I told you, Cindy, I don't negotiate. What does someone usually pay whores?" he growled a low warning in his voice and her heckles began to rise as his expression turned even icier.
He thought he could treat her like an expensive prostitute? She was going to be the mother of his child!
"I don't want it!" she shot back defiantly her eyes flashing like a rare SoCal storm. The fierce look on her face was unmistakable as she tried again to tug her arm out of his grasp. For a moment there was silence as he tried to make sense of her words. His blue eyes narrowed. He didn't believe the renewed pool of tears in her misty-silver eyes, his father had been a consummate liar. Hell, Dick was the product of his very first con, switching out the contraceptive pill for the placebo of a naïve co-ed from a wealthy conservative family.
An abortion? Instinctively he balked against the idea. His eyes surveyed the flat plane of her stomach.
"Don't want it?" he growled his fingers tightening their grip and pulled her petite body against his, towering over her.
"You think I'm suggesting-?" Mac gasped horrified. "Let go of me! I don't want anything from you!"
I wanted you!
"How reassuring, except that's not what you were saying less than five minutes ago when I fucked you on the floor, you wanted my hands all over you then" his sharp features looked cruel in that moment. His body hardened, blood rushing hotter and faster through his veins at the memory. She felt the heat creep into her cheeks.
"This is not what I wanted... If you think I'd agree to... I'm not the person you think I am" she cried and she felt a tear slide down her cheek. Lightly she touched her body, fingertips resting on her stomach where the baby must lie- his baby. The muscle in his jaw jerked as one hand cupped her face almost tenderly.
"No, don't tell me! This is the part where you tell me how I got it all wrong… and you were actually a virgin!" he mocked the sardonic tone of his voice cutting her heart to pieces, his fingers winding into her hair. Did she think he'd settle for visiting rights? She was a skillful little seductress but he hadn't completely lost his mind.
"Just stop it! Please!" Mac sobbed in a voice not more than a whisper. "How can you treat me this way?"
Like she was nothing more than some trailer park surrogate?
"Because lust is cheap, and my pride will survive. We are tied together forever but I assure you, give me any trouble, and I'll call my old buddy Duncan's dad up for a favor and have that Turing Kane scholarship yanked out from under you," his voice was hard, harsher than she'd ever heard.
Blackmail? He'd go as far as to ruin her? They both knew his brother had had a vengeful streak...
"I don't know why it has to be like this…" she pleaded, she looked stricken for a moment.
"Don't lose sleep over it. I'm just making it clear we will be playing by my rules. You are in way over your head" he told her ruthlessly his hot breath against her ear. Because everything hurt and his words sounded like a slamming door.
"Richard, Please!" Mac sobbed wrapping her arms around herself to keep from falling apart. "I love you."
He chuckled low and deep but there was no warmth in that sound. She felt apprehension build up as ice-blue eyes lingered on her face in a moment of surrealism and she was acutely aware of his focus on her lips before he pulled her forward into a merciless demanding kiss, turning her bones into liquid fire. The muscles in his shoulders rolling with the motion as his arms wrapped around her like iron bars. Groaning as his treacherous body registered how hers surrendered and nestled into him.
What a fool he was. She's lying, his talented little Jezebel, but fuck he wanted to believe it. They weren't just going to curl up and cuddle watching some chick-flick after what had just happened. Her betrayal was a thunderstorm they'd never ride out.. the flesh had no morals like the mind.
"Damn you…" it was raw and deep in his throat. His mouth tore away from hers, and he put his palm flat to the door behind them. The sudden absence of his warm body leaving her feeling bereft. A short sharp curse escaped his lips, keeping his face turned from her so she couldn't see the tears that glistened.
He didn't look at her as he reached for the door handle and unlocked it.
"Just like that?" her voice had a raw quality to it then but he didn't trust that anguished shock for one minute.
"I'll see my lawyer tomorrow. Get a contract drawn up," his rough-voiced statement burned truth hollow in the pit of her gut when she saw the grim resolve in his features when the words simply spilled out of him.
He didn't believe her… so why..? She choked up, tears preventing her from speaking. He had no intention of standing by her.
He'd just declared they stood on a battlefield, and nothing could have hurt more than that rejection as she watched him walk away.
"Tempting as it might be to get my money's worth... I have no appetite for liars," he shrugged casually pulling the door open tossing a cold-blooded decree over his shoulder.
