by Various
‘I’m not going to marry you, Luc,’ she managed to tell him breathlessly.
‘No?’ His hands moved up to cup her breasts, the soft pads of both his thumbs caressingly lightly over the swollen tips of her breasts.
‘No.’ Annie gasped as heat coursed from her breasts down into her thighs.
‘Do you not remember how it was between us, Annie?’ He moved the hardness of his erection against her bottom. ‘How we couldn’t get enough of each other that night?’
Yes, of course Annie remembered! It was those memories of being with Luc, more than anything else, that had prevented her from being able to enter into another relationship with someone else!
Meeting Luc in the way she had, daring to spend that single wild and passionate night with him, had been completely out of character for Annie. Until that night she had always been the most quiet and practical one, preferring to spend her time at Balfour Manor with Tilly rather than flitting from party to party as two of her older sisters did.
Her emotions once she realised she was pregnant had been a tangle of contradiction. Part of her had been terrified at the thought of having a baby. Another part of her had been thrilled at the thought of the child growing inside her.
Luc’s child.
Not Luca de Salvatore’s.
After all, she didn’t even know Luca de Salvatore.
Except that she seemed to respond to him as readily as she had Luc all those years ago…
Annie’s mouth tightened. ‘Before you did your disappearing act the following day, you mean?’
‘There was a good reason for that—’
‘I’m sure there was!’ she scorned as she recalled the humiliation of sitting in a restaurant the evening following their night together, waiting for a Luc who had never arrived. She twisted out of his restraining arms now to put some distance between them. ‘I remembered that night, Luc—you’re the one that didn’t,’ she reminded him tensely.
Luc’s mouth thinned, and his hands clenched at his sides in frustration.
No, to his shame, he hadn’t initially remembered spending that night with this beautiful young woman. But there really was an explanation for that. Maybe not an acceptable one to the woman who had given birth to and brought up his son alone, but it was an explanation, nonetheless.
A shameful explanation that had been the driving force behind all of Luc’s thoughts and actions this past four and a half years…
Through his arrogance he had brought the de Salvatore business empire to its knees. And then, instead of remaining in Rome to help his father try to repair the damage he had done, Luc had taken himself off to enjoy the Italian ski slopes. Had closed his mind to the mistakes he had made by indulging in a frenzy of pleasure that had culminated in him taking Anna Balfour to his bed.
What Luc hadn’t known, hadn’t realised until the following morning, was that while he had been busy enjoying himself, his father had suffered a heart attack as a consequence of Luc’s mismanagement, and was in hospital fighting for his life.
He had seen the news of his father’s collapse in a newspaper, of all places!
Having arranged to meet Annie later that day, Luc had instead ended his holiday abruptly and returned to Rome to be at his father’s bedside.
How could he possibly have known—how could he have guessed?—that by doing so he had abandoned Annie to the fate of giving birth to their son alone?
Luc sighed. ‘I am no longer the self-centred young man I was four and a half years ago.’
Annie gave a rueful acknowledgement of her head at the truth of that. ‘Luckily, I’m not as naively trusting as I was then either,’ she assured him drily.
His mouth twisted. ‘Have any of the Balfour sisters ever been “naively trusting”?’
Annie drew in a sharp breath. ‘I really don’t believe we’re going to achieve anything by insulting each other.’
‘No,’ he acknowledged, that nerve once again pulsing in his tightly clenched jaw. ‘Nevertheless, we are going to be married, Anna,’ he stated evenly.
Annie gave him a pityingly look. ‘It’s a long time since anyone said no to you, isn’t it, Luc?’
He gave a humourless smile. ‘I do not remember anyone ever doing so.’
‘I just did,’ she pointed out.
‘Yes.’ He nodded slowly, those dark eyes glittering in the moonlight. ‘But you do so in the knowledge that I will fight for my son if necessary.’
Of course Annie knew that Luc wasn’t about to just walk away from Oliver because she refused to marry him. She doubted that the man who stood before her, so hard, so ruthlessly intractable, had ever walked away from a fight. He certainly wasn’t about to walk away from his own son!
Annie swallowed hard. ‘The media will eat us alive if we fight over Oliver in a court of law,’ she said heavily.
Luc shrugged. ‘That is your choice.’
Annie looked at him searchingly, knowing by the hard challenge she could read in Luc’s expression that he wasn’t going to back down.
But the alternative to the horror of a court battle was marriage. To Luca de Salvatore. A Luca de Salvatore who was no more in love with Annie than she was with him.
She couldn’t do it!
Luc easily read the determined resolve in her face as she obviously came to her decision. A decision, he had no doubt, that would result in the two of them facing each other across a courtroom as they fought, by any means possible, for custody of their son. A very public and bloody battle that would no doubt also end with them hating each other as they were left with no choice but to rip each other’s characters and past behaviour to shreds.
‘You would be very foolish to even contemplate fighting me in that way, Anna,’ he warned softly.
Her pointed chin rose to that challenge. ‘With my own parents’ broken marriage as an example, I would be even more foolish to contemplate marrying a man I don’t love and who doesn’t love me!’
‘Just because your father was not successful in keeping your mother contented in their marriage bed does not mean that I would fail to keep you happy in the same way!’ Luc stated arrogantly.
Anna’s cheeks coloured. ‘My father kept my mother contented enough for her to produce three daughters in three years!’
Luc regarded her coldly. ‘Would you not like more children of your own, Anna? Or do you feel you have already done your duty by producing a son?’
‘Of course I would like more children,’ she snapped. ‘Just not with a man I don’t love!’
Luc gave a derisive snort. ‘I am surprised, considering your own childhood, to hear that you still believe in this elusive emotion called love.’
She looked rueful. ‘Just because my parents never loved each other in that romantic way doesn’t mean that they didn’t both find love, true love, with other people.’
Luc scowled darkly. ‘And you fear, if we were to marry for Oliver’s sake, the same thing might happen to one or both of us some time in the future?’
Did Annie fear that?
Or was her biggest fear, if she were to agree to marry Luc, that it might be him that she fell in love with? While he continued to feel nothing more than contempt for Anna Balfour, as he continued to call her.
She was back to that challenging Balfour code again: Face your fears with courage and they will lead to further self-discovery.
What if it should turn out that Annie’s biggest fear, the most momentous self-discovery she made, was that the reason she had never fallen in love with any of the men she had dated the past three years was because she had never been able to get over that night she had spent with Luc?
Chapter Six
ANNIE repressed a shiver just at the thought of her emotions being completely at the mercy of Luca de Salvatore’s legendary ruthlessness. ‘In your case?’ she bit out. ‘Somehow I doubt that very much!’
Luc’s eyes narrowed ominously. ‘You believe me incapable of feeling love for another person?’
She gri
maced. ‘I believe Luca de Salvatore to be capable of dismissing any emotion that might result in him feeling in the least vulnerable.’
How well she already knew him, Luc thought. As far as he was concerned, love for one’s family, especially one’s children, was permissible. But to feel love for a woman was to leave oneself totally vulnerable.
For any man to ever fall in love with one of the capricious and fickle Balfour sisters would be the height of foolishness!
To feel desire for one, however, was another matter entirely…
He looked at her quizzically. ‘And what of the man you met four and a half years ago? Do you believe him to be incapable of emotion too?’
Annie looked at Luc for some seconds. The hard glitter of his eyes. That thinned mouth. The inflexibility of his jaw. ‘They’re one and the same man,’ she finally stated flatly.
‘You did not seem to think so once,’ he said.
Annie shrugged. ‘I was young and easily impressed.’
‘And four short years later you have succeeded in eliminating such childish illusions?’ Luc taunted.
‘Having a baby when you’re unmarried and alone will do that to you every time,’ Annie said tightly.
He stiffened. ‘You chose—’
‘I didn’t choose anything, Luc!’ Annie cried. ‘How could I have done anything else but what I did when I had no idea who you were? And if you think, just because I’m one of the infamous Balfour sisters, that it was easy telling my parents I was pregnant, then I suggest you think again!’ she snapped angrily as Luc continued to look at her with that chilling intensity. ‘It was—’ She broke off, shaking her head slightly as she recalled that awful evening when she’d had to get her father and mother together at Balfour Manor and tell them she was three months pregnant.
Oscar had been furious, demanding to know the name of the father—with the obvious intention of beating the man to within an inch of his life for daring to get one of his daughters pregnant! He had become angrier still when Annie had tearfully refused to—because she couldn’t—tell him the father’s name.
As usual, it had been left to Tilly to calm the situation, as she first comforted Annie and then soothed Oscar’s angry protestations, pointing out the futility of Oscar knowing the name of the father of Annie’s baby when Annie obviously wanted nothing more to do with him.
Not quite true, of course; Annie had been left with no choice when Luc had disappeared so abruptly that day. But at least the abruptness of his departure from the Italian ski slopes, as well as from her life, had shown Annie only too clearly that as far as Luc was concerned that one night together had been enough. Pride, more than anything else, had dictated that Annie didn’t try to find Luc just because she had realised she was pregnant.
She had always been sensible. Practical. For her to then be the daughter who ended up alone and pregnant had been mortifying!
‘Some of my sisters may sometimes behave outrageously, but—’ Annie shook her head. ‘My parents never said so, never voiced any recriminations, in fact, but I know that I must have disappointed them terribly when I became pregnant,’ Annie acknowledged heavily.
Luc could see the pain of that admission in the darkness of her eyes and the pallor of her cheeks.
Something Luc understood only too well when he had let his own father down so badly himself. It wasn’t the same thing, of course, but—
‘You did not consider…terminating the pregnancy?’
‘Of course not!’ That fire returned to Annie’s eyes. ‘And my parents didn’t suggest it either, if that was going to be your next question,’ she said. ‘The Balfour family may make the newspaper headlines on a regular basis, but I don’t think anyone can ever accuse us of running away from our responsibilities.’
No, Luc knew he certainly could not accuse her of doing that.
‘You—’ He broke off as a knock sounded on the outer door of the hotel suite.
‘That’s probably room service with my dinner,’ Annie realised. ‘You’re more than welcome to share my club sandwich if you haven’t already eaten,’ she offered as she moved lightly across the balcony and back into the suite. The food would probably choke her after this conversation with Luc anyway!
What followed, after Luc’s earlier accusations and threats, was slightly surreal as far as Annie was concerned.
Whoever would have imagined that the two of them would be able to sit down together and make polite—if slightly stilted—conversation?
Annie certainly wouldn’t have thought it possible, but that’s exactly what they did as they waited for the waiter to return with a second club sandwich for Luc. That conversation became less general and more personal once the waiter left them alone a second time.
‘Have you attended one of these management conferences before?’ Luc asked.
‘No. Daddy just decided that it was time that I did.’ She had no intention of telling Luc of her father’s ridiculous decision to send all of his daughters out into the world to seek their destiny.
‘Really?’ Luc frowned across at her. ‘So you did not want to come to Italy?’
‘Not particularly.’
‘Possibly because it was where we met?’ Luc guessed astutely.
Annie looked him straight in the eye. ‘Italy is a big place, Luc.’
‘Obviously not big enough!’ he drawled drily.
‘Obviously not.’ She grimaced. ‘But even so, you have to admit, the chances of us meeting again were pretty remote.’
‘And yet it happened.’
‘Pure fluke,’ Annie stated.
‘Was it?’
‘Exactly what are you implying?’ Annie eyed him warily. ‘That I deliberately came back to Italy with the intention of finally seeking you out?’
He raised dark brows over those remorseless black eyes. ‘Did you?’
‘Absolutely not,’ she denied, deeply resenting the fact that he had thought she might have done so. ‘I work for my father, Luc, and as such, I have to go where he tells me to go.’
He considered her closely. ‘But you said you do not like working for your father?’
Liking didn’t come into it; it had simply been the easiest and most convenient thing for Annie to do to earn a living once she considered that Oliver was old enough to be left with her mother for a few hours every day.
Annie eyed Luc defensively. ‘Not particularly, no. But that doesn’t mean I’m not good at what I do.’
‘No?’
‘No,’ Annie said. ‘A couple of years ago I helped my mother put her small cookery business on a financially viable footing—’
‘A cottage industry does not compare to one of international proportions—’
‘I’ve only been here twenty-four hours, Luc, but already I can tell you that this hotel doesn’t have enough receptionists. I had to wait ten minutes yesterday in order to book in. The health club should open earlier than seven-thirty in the morning. There aren’t enough restaurants for the number of guests. A bar actually on the beach would add to the guests’ comfort and enjoyment. And that’s only after a cursory observation,’ Annie added challengingly. ‘I’m sure I could find more room for improvement if I were to go into it more thoroughly.’
Luc sat back to look at her in reluctant admiration. ‘You have inherited your father’s business acumen, I see.’
‘So it would seem, yes,’ Annie said a little smugly.
‘Perhaps I should consider hiring you myself?’
‘You couldn’t afford me!’
Luc’s admiration turned to amusement. Certainly no one could accuse Anna Balfour of a lack of self-confidence!
He sobered. ‘The offer was actually a serious one, Anna, in the event you might wish to continue working after we are married.’
‘Oh, please, not that again!’ She pushed her plate of food away almost untouched before standing, those deep blue eyes glittering angrily as she looked down at Luc. ‘I have no intention of marrying you. Not now. Not ever,’ she ad
ded with finality.
Luc had never before met a woman as determined to thwart him as Anna Balfour—or Annie Balfour, as she preferred to be called.
Or one apparently so unaware of her own sensual allure…
The red lights in her chestnut-coloured hair seemed all the deeper beneath the overhead light. Her eyes as deep and clear a blue as the lake outside. Her complexion a perfect cream. The bow of her lips full and sensuous.
It was also impossible to ignore the allure of her curvaceous body—as he had discovered earlier those full breasts definitely were completely bare beneath her T-shirt, her waist flat above the low waistband of her jeans. As for the way that denim hugged the contours of her rounded bottom…
Luc felt a tightening of his thighs just looking at her! And the way she smelled was delicious. There was that floral perfume, of course, but beneath that, elusive but still discernable, was a hint of heat, of sexual arousal, that touched a part of Luc he had long thought subdued.
‘Do not be too quick to reject the idea, Annie,’ he murmured throatily as he slowly stood.
Annie’s eyes widened as Luc now stood towering over her. ‘We aren’t back to those compensations again, are we?’ She tried to inject scorn into her tone, but even to her own ears she sounded nervous rather than scornful!
That nervousness increased as Luc lifted a hand to gently cup one side of her face, those fingers seeming to burn where they touched. ‘You are a very beautiful woman, Annie.’
Just the way Luc said her name, huskily, with a hint of sensual persuasion, was enough to set alarm bells ringing in her head. ‘I’m also a Balfour,’ she reminded him tartly as she stood her ground in a determined effort to keep Luc from seeing how much his touch affected her.
Luc’s mouth quirked. ‘That would no longer be true if you married me. Then you would become Anna de Salvatore.’ Strange how right that sounded.
She gave a rueful shake of her head. ‘Being a Balfour is a state of mind, not just a name,’ she told him.
‘Not all of your sisters are considered wild and unruly,’ Luc pointed out.
