‘I made my point?’ he repeated softly, icily. ‘And exactly what point would that be?’ His voice hardened noticeably.
Luccy’s mouth firmed. ‘That great sex can make us forget all sorts of things,’ she said. ‘It even made us forget for a while that we don’t even like each other.’
Sin felt as if Luccy had physically punched him in the stomach. She still claimed she didn’t even like him?
He sat up abruptly. ‘Then I guess we’ll just have to settle for great sex, won’t we?’ he grated.
‘What do you mean?’ She looked up at him warily as he began to pull his clothes back on.
‘I mean, Luccy, that once we’re married—because we are getting married,’ he assured her firmly. ‘I’m going to share your bed—our bed—every night. And every damned day too if I feel like it!’ He didn’t bother with the buttons on his shirt as he bent down to pick up his jacket from the carpet.
Her cheeks flushed with her own rising temper. ‘You can’t force me into marrying you—’
‘Oh, yes, Luccy, I really believe that I can.’
Luccy’s breath caught in her throat as she heard the steel in Sin’s voice. ‘Because of the baby?’
‘Why else?’ Sin gave a humourless smile.
She shook her head. ‘You would condemn our child to being brought up in a loveless marriage?’
His jaw was tight. ‘You know the alternative, Luccy.’
She wrapped her arms protectively about her body. ‘I’m not going to give you my baby!’
‘My baby, Luccy,’ he corrected. ‘The legitimate Sinclair heir. And I’ll fight you for it in court if I have to.’
Luccy’s eyes glittered with a mixture of anger and tears. ‘If you force me into this, Sin, then I will hate you for the rest of my life!’
‘Hate away, Luccy,’ he said. ‘There’s an old adage that my grandfather taught me long ago—keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer. Well, I intend keeping you very close for the next fifty years or so.’
‘I am not your enemy—’
‘That’s the real problem, isn’t it, Luccy? I still have no idea what you are. One minute I’m convinced that you’re a conniving little witch, and the next you seem like something totally different.’
Luccy shook her head sadly. ‘Because you’re too blinded by your own prejudice to see the truth. Another woman used you, years ago, and because a lying adulterous creep like Paul Bridger told you I had done the same thing, you chose to believe him! Can’t you see, you’ll never understand me while you continue to believe that?’
Sin’s mouth was a thin, taut line as he looked down at her coldly for several long seconds before turning on his heel and leaving the bedroom, the door closing with soft violence behind him.
Luccy stared after him, dazed and disorientated by the anger that had followed their exquisite lovemaking.
Completely devastated by the knowledge that, in spite of everything, she was deeply in love with him…
CHAPTER TEN
SIN stood up from the breakfast table as Luccy walked out onto the terrace wearing a red tee shirt and flowing white linen skirt, his expression remote. The fact that he was wearing a tailored grey suit, snowy white shirt, and a silver tie knotted meticulously at his throat told her that he was probably going into the city today.
Just as if nothing had happened between them last night.
Not their lovemaking, at least. Because the anger was most definitely still there as he silently moved to hold a chair back for Luccy to sit down at the table before resuming his own seat opposite.
It wasn’t a pleasant silence. Nor a comfortable one. But with Wallace present Luccy knew that she couldn’t resume their conversation of last night, either.
And she wanted to.
She hadn’t slept at all well after Sin had left her, reliving his last words over and over inside her head. He was as determined to marry her as she was not to marry him!
‘Coffee, Miss Harper-O’Neill?’
She turned to smile at Wallace as he hovered beside the table holding a coffee pot. ‘I would prefer tea if it isn’t too much trouble?’
‘Not at all,’ the elderly butler assured her warmly. ‘Can I get you anything to eat? Eggs? Bacon? Or perhaps some sweet Scottish kippers?’ he added temptingly.
Except Luccy wasn’t tempted, just the mention of fish—any fish—enough to make her stomach churn in protest.
She had been lucky in her pregnancy so far in that she hadn’t experienced morning sickness, but just the mention of fish, let alone the smell of it, was enough to make her feel ill.
‘Forget the kippers, Wallace,’ Sin instructed after a glance at Luccy’s rapidly paling face, recalling only too well how ill she had been the last time she had been presented with a plate of fish. ‘Perhaps just some tea and fresh toast for the moment, Wallace,’ he suggested ruefully.
‘Thank you,’ Luccy murmured softly once they were alone on the terrace, her gaze not quite meeting his.
‘You’re welcome,’ Sin drawled dryly. ‘Luccy, I’m not going to disappear just because you don’t look at me!’ he added impatiently as she continued to stare out at the parkland.
Her eyes glittered as she turned sharply back to him. ‘Pity!’
‘Isn’t it?’ Sin’s mouth twisted self-derisively. ‘I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that I have to go in to the office today.’
She nodded. ‘I think that would be best.’
Sin bit back his biting retort, knowing that this constant tension between them couldn’t be good for either her or the baby.
But it wasn’t helping his effort at detachment that Luccy was looking so ethereally beautiful this morning. Her long hair was braided down her spine, her eyes huge blue pools in the otherwise paleness of her face, her cheeks slightly hollow, her exposed throat looking delicate, her body still amazingly slender in the red tee shirt and white linen skirt.
She needed to eat more. It was because they had argued—yet again!—that she had missed dinner the previous evening…
His mouth tightened. ‘Perhaps with me gone you might actually manage to eat something this morning?’
‘Perhaps I will.’
Sin sighed. ‘Luccy, is this what it’s going to be like when we’re married?’