The Secret He Must Claim. Chantelle Shaw

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СКАЧАТЬ could she look so damned innocent when he had irrefutable proof that she was far from it? He remembered how she had flirted with him at her birthday party and he had been blown away by her sexual allure.

      Cortez’s anger with himself increased when he found he could not tear his eyes away from Elin. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. The black dress she was wearing was a classic style reminiscent of a previous era when women had looked effortlessly elegant. Her pale blonde hair was swept up into a chignon that emphasised the incredible bone structure of her face, with those high cheekbones and perfectly arched brows above the bluest eyes he’d ever seen. He felt a sudden tightness in his chest and to his fury he was powerless to control the almost painful throb of his sexual arousal.

      ‘If you were not drunk when you had to be carried out of a nightclub the other night, then perhaps the recent lurid tabloid headlines alleging that you have a drug habit are true,’ he drawled.

      Colour stained her porcelain cheeks. ‘The press print a lot of lies about me, but the truth is that I fainted in the nightclub because I’ve been unwell recently. I felt wobbly just now because it was a huge shock to learn that my father had excluded me and my brother from his will, and named you—his illegitimate son that no one knew existed—as his heir.’ Elin’s voice was icy but her eyes flashed with fury as she got up from the sofa and faced him.

      ‘Did you go to the house in Kensington and gatecrash my party so you could gloat? Ralph must have told you a year ago that he intended to make you his heir. Wasn’t it enough to know you would inherit Cuckmere Hall, the house in London and the chairmanship of Saunderson’s Bank, and you decided you would take me too?’

      Cortez gave a hard smile, because here at last was proof that she might look like an angel, with her golden beauty and that ridiculous air of innocence that made his gut twist, but she was just another blonde who had satisfied his libido for a few hours, and she was no different to all the other blondes who regarded sex as a bartering tool. No doubt if he had stuck around after they’d slept together, Elin would have issued demands the way all women did.

      ‘As a matter of fact I did not know about the will,’ he told her. ‘After I met my father for the first time at Cuckmere Hall I had planned to spend the night at a hotel in London, but Ralph suggested I could stay at his house in Kensington and gave me a key. He said that you and your brother were both abroad and the house would be empty. When I walked into your party I had every intention of leaving, but you begged me to dance with you.’

      Cortez was fascinated by the tide of scarlet that swept along her high cheekbones. ‘I did not take anything that was not offered freely,’ he said harshly. ‘You invited me into your bedroom and made it clear that you wanted sex.’ He shrugged. ‘Knowing of your reputation, I don’t flatter myself that I was your first or last one-night stand.’

      The colour receded from her face. ‘You really are a bastard, aren’t you? That night I was under the influence of a drug which impaired my judgement and caused me to behave in a way I would never normally have done. As for my reputation—’ she gave a short laugh ‘—you know nothing about me.’

      There was a strained note of what he could almost believe was hurt in her voice that made Cortez feel uncomfortable. He had no reason to feel guilty, he assured himself. Elin had just admitted that she’d taken drugs at her party and implied that she’d had sex with him because she had been high. But he’d been unaware she’d taken any kind of substance or that her behaviour was out of character. Everything he’d read about her in the press suggested she’d had many previous sex partners.

      Memories of that night were crystal-clear in his mind, despite the distance of a year. He remembered that when he had pulled her beneath him and thrust himself into her with a desperation he’d never felt before, she had tensed and caught her breath. Dios, she had been so tight and so goddamned hot that he’d almost come instantly. But then she’d wrapped her legs around his hips and matched his pace when he began to move. Passion had blazed between them and he’d dismissed the unlikely notion that she was sexually inexperienced.

      Maybe it was an act she put on with other men, Cortez thought darkly. He had proof that he could not have been her first lover.

      ‘I know you have a child.’ He wondered why he felt a simmering rage at the thought of her slender body wrapped around another man. He had been shocked when he’d heard during the reading of Ralph’s will that Elin had a son. It was odd the media had not reported that she had a child.

      ‘Ralph stated in his will that he wished for you to marry and provide your son with a father. Are you in contact with your child’s father, and do you intend to marry him in order to claim your inheritance?’

      He did not know why he had asked her when he really wasn’t interested in her private life. But he stared at her because he couldn’t help himself and waited tensely for her answer. He realised he was bracing himself for her to reply, but when she did he was unprepared for the shockwave that ripped through him.

      ‘You are my son’s father,’ she said in her soft voice that had haunted him for the past year.

      For a split second he wondered if it was possible, but... ‘No.’ He dismissed the idea. ‘You can’t pin the blame on me. Although I can see why it would be convenient if I was the father of your child,’ he said sardonically. ‘I would feel duty-bound to marry you, and you need a husband in order to meet the terms of Ralph’s will. Marriage to me would give you not only a share of Saunderson’s Wines but also everything you had expected to inherit from my father. As my wife, you could continue to live here at Cuckmere Hall and enjoy the affluent lifestyle Ralph provided, until he named me as his heir.’

      He smiled cynically when she shook her head. ‘I’m not a fool, querida. I always practice safe sex. Perhaps you were out of your mind from whatever substance you had taken at your birthday party, but I’ll prompt your memory and remind you that I used a condom. I’m afraid you will have to look elsewhere for a husband and a father for your child.’

      Elin swayed on her feet, whether for dramatic effect or because she hadn’t fully recovered from fainting a few minutes ago, Cortez did not know and he told himself he didn’t care. She swallowed before she spoke. ‘Only a fool would believe that contraception is one hundred per cent effective, and in our case it failed.’

      She lifted her chin and met his gaze, and for some reason he was compelled to look away from her intense blue stare. ‘Believe me, hell will freeze over before I’d ever want to marry you,’ she said coldly. ‘Harry is yours, but I might have known you would shirk your responsibility for your son when you scuttled off without even having the decency to say goodbye after you’d had sex with me.’

      ‘You were in a deep sleep and I did not think you would appreciate me waking you,’ he bit out, incensed by her scathing tone and her insistence on continuing with what was undoubtedly a lie. He did not believe for a minute that he was the father of her child. Dios, after what had happened with Alandra he had taken care never to have unprotected sex.

      Even so, he disliked the image Elin had presented of him hurrying out of her bedroom while she slept because he could not deny that was exactly what he’d done. He’d been rattled that she had made him lose control and he had left before he’d given in to the temptation to kiss her awake and make love to her again, slowly, taking his time to explore her beautiful body so that she gasped and moaned while he pleasured her.

      Cortez swore silently as his body reacted predictably to his erotic thoughts, and he forced himself to focus on the present situation. He wasn’t surprised that Elin had played the oldest trick in the book to try to secure financial security for herself, after she’d СКАЧАТЬ