‘Don’t worry, Tom, I’m not going anywhere without you or your mother again. I have to work, but I’ll see you after school. I’m your family now, too.’
Tom was almost convinced. ‘You promise?’ he insisted and, smiling, Lucas drew a cross over his heart.
‘Cross my heart,’ he confirmed. ‘Now run along with your mother. Goodnight, son.’
Taking his mother’s hand, Tom gave another big yawn. ‘’night, Daddy,’ he returned and made no further protest but happily climbed the stairs.
It took Sofie less than half an hour to get Tom washed, dressed and into bed. The excitement of the day had worn him out and she had hardly read much of his chosen story to him when she realised he was already asleep. Tidying up his scattered clothes, she kissed him gently, switched off the light and left the door ajar. Finally she was ready to go down and face Lucas.
He was sitting where she had left him, glancing through one of Tom’s comics, but he tossed it on to the coffee table when she walked in. He took one look at her set face and raised an eyebrow.
‘You have a problem?’ he asked sardonically, which did little to improve her mood.
Sitting at the end of the sofa, she sent him a stony look. ‘I don’t appreciate you telling Tom things that you haven’t discussed with me,’ she declared tightly. It was bad enough that she had no control over what happened now, without him using their son against her.
The exact opposite to her, Lucas leaned back and looked perfectly relaxed. ‘Really? Is that a fact? Well I didn’t appreciate having been kept in ignorance of my own son’s existence. If you don’t like my putting my son before you, too bad. He needed the reassurance, so I told him what he needed to hear. Do you have a problem with that?’ he demanded and Sofie sighed helplessly.
‘No, of course not,’ she admitted raggedly because she would have done the same thing, except she didn’t know his plans for their future. Taking a breath to settle her shattered nerves, she asked the all important question. ‘What have you decided to do?’
A hint of steel entered his amazing blue eyes. ‘I’ve decided that we will be a family because I have no intention of being a part-time father. I missed the first five years of his life, but I’m not about to miss the rest, caro. Make no mistake, Sofie, I intend to take an active part in his day-today life.’
Her heart leapt a little as she heard those words. ‘So you’re not going to sue for sole custody?’ She sought clarification of that most vital point. It felt to Sofie as if her whole life hung upon the answer.
‘Not yet. Whether I do or not at some time in the future depends on you. I promised Tom we were going to become a family, and that’s what will happen,’ he declared firmly.
Sofie blinked at him, her thoughts a blur. ‘But…why? You don’t even like me any more, let alone love me!’ she pointed out, and a silly part of her heart was hoping he would deny her words and say he did love her. It didn’t happen.
‘No, I don’t, but I do love my grandmother,’ Lucas returned bluntly, taking her breath away for more than one reason.
‘Your grandmother?’ she queried faintly, completely knocked sideways. What did she have to do with this? ‘I don’t understand. Does she live with you?’
‘No, she lives in the south of France,’ he explained and, to her further surprise, dragged a hand through his hair in a gesture that revealed a hidden anxiety. ‘She lost my grandfather several months ago and is not coping at all well. Nothing I, or my parents have tried has pulled her out of the depths of misery she lives in constantly. I was getting to the end of my tether when I found you and Tom.’ At that point he broke off and looked at her, for once revealing the worry he felt. ‘Tom could be the answer. What better than a new great-grandson to make her want to live again?’
A lump of emotion rose into Sofie’s throat, as she knew exactly what he meant. Having Tom had lightened the burden of her own despair at leaving Lucas. He had been the shining light in her life—a reason to get up in the morning and look ahead with hope.
Because of that, it was the most natural thing in the world for her to reach out and touch his hand. ‘I’m so sorry. You must have felt his loss deeply too,’ she said softly, with ready sympathy, and felt his fingers close around hers for one vital second before he suddenly became conscious of what he was doing and released her hand, sitting back to put more distance between them.
‘You don’t have to start acting the part of a loving wife,’ he returned ironically, and she pulled her hand back.
‘I wasn’t acting. Believe it or not, I can sympathise with grief, even yours!’
A nerve pulsed in his jaw. ‘Maybe you can, but save it for somebody who wants it!’
Sofie bit her lip and tried not to feel hurt by this further rejection. OK, if he didn’t want her sympathy she’d keep it to herself in future. She would concentrate on his grandmother instead. ‘Does your grandmother have nobody else?’
Lucas shook his head. ‘Only my parents and myself—and now you and Tom, of course. Which is why I’m making arrangements for us to fly out to Nice and visit her for an extended holiday. The school holidays start in a few days, which will give us enough time to get everything done.’
Impotent anger bubbled up inside her at the way he was organising her life. ‘You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you? But what about me and my life here?’
‘It’s over. If you want to keep Tom, your place is with me. Now, you can do this the easy way or the hard way. Try to fight me, and I promise you you’ll lose.’ He spelled it out to her in no uncertain terms.
Sofie gritted her teeth, knowing full well that she was trapped. ‘You’re taking my agreement for granted?’
Lucas’s response was to smile mockingly. ‘Naturally. You owe me, remember. More now than before. You will do this because you have no choice. Now, caro, do you really want to do it the hard way?’
She stared at him, feeling the walls closing in around her. She was helpless, and they both knew it. ‘No.’
He spread his hands as if to ask what all the fuss was about. ‘Then it’s settled. We go to Nice. Look on it as our first family holiday together. That shouldn’t be so hard to do.’
‘Tom will be over the moon,’ she managed to say by way of agreement, even though the words almost stuck in her throat.
‘But not you,’ he queried sarcastically.
‘Does it matter how I feel?’ she couldn’t help but ask, somewhat caustically.
‘I’m sure Tom would be upset if he didn’t think you were happy about this,’ Lucas pointed out curtly, and Sofie took a steadying breath before biting the bullet.
‘Don’t worry. I make a point of ensuring Tom never sees me anything other than happy and smiling. It wouldn’t have been fair to offload my worries on to him,’ she informed him tightly.
Lucas’s blue eyes bored into hers. ‘I would never doubt that you’re a good mother, caro, but the big question now is—will you be able to pretend you love me?’
Sofie’s lips parted on a tiny gasp of shock. ‘Why would I have to? Tom is only five. He’ll just assume we do.’
‘True, but my grandmother will want proof.’ Lucas dropped the bombshell with precision, knocking the breath out of her.
It was one thing to agree to go to Nice for a family holiday to help his grandmother, but to expect her to act as if they loved each other for her benefit was something else. ‘You can’t be serious!’
Lucas regarded her steadily. ‘I’ve never been more so.’
Sofie shook her head to clear it. ‘I can appreciate the need to help your grandmother, but why the big act?’
‘Because she wants me to be happy, and when I rang her and told her that I’d found you again, and that everything was going to be all right, I could hear the change in her voice. She perked up for the first time in months.’
Sofie was flabbergasted. ‘You told her that last night? Before you’d even asked me?’
He raised one eyebrow mockingly. ‘We both kn
ow there was only one answer you would give, so don’t sound so aggrieved, caro.’
Knowing he was right didn’t make her feel any better. She jumped up from the sofa and paced away from him, rubbing her arms nervously. ‘It’s all very well for you to say all this is going to happen, but how on earth do you expect me to walk into your grandmother’s house and act as if I love you?’ Of course, she knew it wasn’t a role she was going to have to act. She did love him, but he was putting it to the test right now!
Lucas’s response turned the rack another notch. ‘It shouldn’t be difficult. You’ve done it before very convincingly. I actually believed you. It was a salutary lesson to discover how easy I was to fool,’ he said abruptly, and her heart ached all over again.
Sofie turned back to him, feeling wretched. ‘I was good, was I?’ she asked in a gravelly voice, and he smiled wryly.
‘The best. Which is why it should be no problem this time.’
She closed her eyes momentarily, feeling the hot sting of tears. The irony of it was that she was going to have to make it seem like an act when it was anything but, in order to protect herself. Shrugging, she pulled a face.
‘It will be a hard act to follow, but I’ll do my best,’ she responded far more lightly than she felt. ‘What other decisions have you made?’ she went on, sure that there was more. She wasn’t mistaken.
‘I’ll arrange for all your personal belongings to be packed up and delivered to our house in Hampstead whilst we’re away. Tom will love it. If you remember, the garden has several trees suitable for tree-houses.’
‘Thank you,’ she retorted sarcastically, feeling as if she had been run over by a steamroller. ‘You’ve been…very thorough.’
‘I’ve tried to be. I’m having my PA look into schools in the area, although, the summer holidays are about to start. We need to get Tom’s name down at a good one.’
Sofie didn’t have the energy to protest. ‘You see this relationship lasting some considerable time, then?’ she wanted to know, and Lucas smiled.
‘I consider it to be permanent. You’re my wife. Tom is my son. What is more natural than for us all to be together?’
In an ideal world, of course, that would be the answer, but this was as far from ideal as it was possible to get. He didn’t love her and to resume a relationship where she knew that would be soul-destroying. It occurred to her to wonder just what else was expected of her.
‘I see. The marriage will be back on and I have to act as if it’s for real. Do you mind telling me just how real it’s going to be?’
Her question drew a sardonic look from Lucas. ‘I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know it will be a marriage in name only. As you said, I no longer love you, and your actions in keeping my son from me have frozen whatever attraction you had for me,’ he informed her bluntly. ‘I realise that a woman has needs, but you’ll just have to curb them. There will be no other men, is that understood?’ he added, sending a wave of shock through her system.
Loving him as she did, it had never occurred to her to take a lover. However, having him tell her she must not finally roused her anger. He had taken a lover before and it had driven her to leave him. Was she supposed to grin and bear it now? ‘Does that apply to you, too? Or is there to be a double standard here?’ she jibed scornfully.
Lucas’s expression grew stony. ‘What I do is my business. What I expect of my wife is another matter.’
‘I see,’ she responded tightly, having her answer. She must be above suspicion, whilst he could do as he liked because there was nothing she could do about it. Not if she wanted to keep Tom.
Lucas’s eyes were gleaming, for he could read the impotent anger raging inside her. ‘You can always say no.’
Sofie would dearly love to be able to throw his demands back in his face, but knew she didn’t dare. She was in an unenviable position and had no other option but to agree to everything.
‘I have no choice but to accept those terms and you know it,’ she told him shortly and drew in a sharp breath when she saw satisfaction flit across his face for a second. ‘I’ll make some coffee,’ she declared brusquely, turning abruptly and bustling into the kitchen before he could say anything else.
Once there, though, she made no attempt to make the promised drink, but instead walked to the sink and stood staring out of the window. She was devastated and her heart shredded with the knowledge of what was expected of her. An empty shell of a marriage to a man she actually loved was so far from what she wanted her heart wept. Except it wasn’t her feelings she had to worry about. This was about Tom. Giving their son a normal family life. Surely the lack of love for herself would be nothing compared to what Tom would get out of it. She wanted Tom to know his father and, searching her heart, she knew she loved them both enough to put her feelings aside.
Yet that didn’t stop her being angry at Lucas’s double standard. She didn’t want any other lover but him, but that was beside the point. His declaration that he could do as he pleased told her she had been right to leave him. He had destroyed her trust and would have no compunction about doing so again. Only this time she had to stay. She had to be strong, for Tom’s sake. More than that, she had to be strong for herself, and never let him see just how much she still loved him. If she could do that, then she could keep her pride intact.
Her happiness would come from seeing Tom happy and flourishing.
With that settled in her mind, Sofie found a sort of peace. She took a steadying breath and briskly set about making the coffee. Carrying the two steaming mugs into the sitting room, she set one before Lucas and cradled the other between her hands on her lap.
‘You were gone a long time,’ he pointed out, frowning, as if he could sense a subtle change in her, yet couldn’t work out why.
‘I was thinking. Considering my options—or lack of them,’ she responded tiredly. ‘I had no idea you could be so ruthless.’
‘I’m not, as a rule, but you drove me to it. Blame yourself if you don’t like the result,’ Lucas advised, watching her over his mug as he sipped his coffee.
She frowned at him. ‘If you despise me so much, why insist I come back?’
‘That’s for Tom. He needs you. I don’t,’ Lucas replied bluntly, and the words stung as they were meant to do.
‘How will you bear having to see me every day? Won’t that just rub salt into the wound?’ she jibed, trying to hit back, but it bounced off him without leaving a mark.
‘I’m prepared to make sacrifices for Tom’s sake,’ he retorted, and she saw red.
‘How very noble!’
Lucas set his mug down and leant towards her. ‘Be careful how you talk to me, caro. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to, whilst you will have nothing unless I agree to it. Tread softly, or take the consequences.’
Her heart quailed at the very real threat and she swallowed nervously. ‘And if I don’t?’ she challenged him and went cold when she saw the steel in his eyes.
‘Then losing Tom becomes a very real possibility.’
They stared at each other, but in the end she was forced to look away. ‘Damn you,’ she muttered softly, but he heard.
‘You damned me, caro, when you ran away. Now, let’s get everything settled. It’s getting late,’ he declared with finality. ‘I plan on flying out to Nice the first week of the holidays. Do you have a passport for Tom?’
‘Yes,’ she confirmed, struggling to keep her tone free of all emotion.
Lucas raised an eyebrow. ‘What name did you use?’ he asked.
‘Antonetti. I didn’t want to have to explain the different names,’ she revealed, and wasn’t surprised to see the sardonic gleam in his eye.
‘So it was convenient to be my wife sometimes?’ he drawled mockingly, and Sofie grimaced but remained silent.
‘OK, I’ll go ahead and book the tickets. Now, I’d better get moving,’ he went on, rising effortlessly to his feet. ‘I’ll be busy most of the day, but I will be back before Tom gets out of
school.’
Sofie let his assumption that this would be OK pass by. If this was the way things were to be, the sooner she got used to it the better. She had to keep her eyes on the prize, and the prize was Tom. ‘You’ll stay for dinner. Tom will expect it,’ she told him, rising too and heading towards the front door.
‘I shall be looking forward to it. I had forgotten how good a cook you are, caro,’ he complimented her, and Sofie had to admit she was surprised.
Which was why she turned round to look at him instead of looking where she was going. ‘I would have thought the food would stick in your throat,’ she retorted wryly, but there was no chance for Lucas to respond because at that precise moment she inadvertently trod on one of Tom’s abandoned roller skates and her foot went out from under her.
Uttering a strangled cry of alarm, she began to fall backwards, arms cartwheeling in a vain attempt to save herself. However, she had no need to fear, as her fall was halted midway by a strong pair of arms closing round her. Suddenly she found herself hauled up and into the safety of Lucas’s chest as if she weighed nothing at all.
In the second it took to get her breath back, she was very much aware of the warmth and scent of him and her senses responded accordingly, bringing her body to life. Needs suppressed out of necessity rose to the surface, bringing with it the remembered ache of desire. Pressed against him, she could hear his heart beating, the rhythm matching her own, which was racing, as much from the shock of her near fall as finding herself once more in his arms. Her lips parted in wonder and it was the most natural thing to tip back her head and look up at him.
Lucas was staring down at her and she knew she had taken him by surprise because there was just enough time to catch the heat and hunger in his eyes before he muttered something unintelligible and brought his mouth down on hers.
His kiss was as hot and hungry as that brief look in his eyes and, unable to help herself, Sofie welcomed it like the warming rays of the sun after an endless chill. Passionately demanding, it left no room for thought, only feeling. Too wild to last long, it left her gasping for breath and longing for more when Lucas finally dragged his mouth away from hers. Then he looked at her bruised lips and flushed cheeks as if surprised to see her there. In an instant he had set her back on her feet and stepped away.
The Millionaire's Marriage Revenge Page 10
