LITMIR.BIZ

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to taste. Her pale blonde hair reached to halfway down her back and shimmered like raw silk.

      He wanted her. Dios, he could feel the thunder of his pulse, and the fire in his blood mocked his belief that his desire for her a year ago had been an aberration. What was it about Elin that tested his self-control to its limits? She was not the only beautiful woman he had known, not even the most beautiful—her eyes were too big in her heart-shaped face and her mouth was too wide. She was elfin and ethereal and too petite for his six feet four frame.

      The rage inside him turned darker and more dangerous as he watched her dancing with a man he vaguely recognised was a television chat show host. The guy’s hands were all over Elin, but she seemed to be enjoying the attention, and her lilting laughter audible above the music caused acid to fizz in Cortez’s gut. He snapped his teeth together and strode across the ballroom, driven to distraction by an unfamiliar emotion that he grimly realised was jealousy.

      ‘My turn, I think you’ll find,’ he growled to Elin’s dance partner. The other man obviously valued his doubtless exorbitantly expensive dental work and quickly dropped his hand from her waist.

      ‘That was incredibly rude.’ Elin threw Cortez a furious glare before she spun round and began to walk away, but he snaked his arm around her waist and jerked her towards him.

      ‘I’m sure you don’t want to cause a scene, so I suggest you dance with me.’

      ‘I’m not the one causing a scene,’ she snapped. ‘Do you know who that man is? He is Clint Cooper, one of the highest paid people on television, and he was about to promise me a lot of money before you barged him out of the way.’

      ‘Santa Madre, you would barter yourself like a whore on a street corner?’ Cortez made no effort to hide his disgust, but to his fury he realised that he still wanted her and he didn’t care that she had lived up to her reputation in the tabloids as a goodtime girl.

      ‘How dare you?’ She reacted instantly and swung her hand up, but his reactions were quicker and he seized her wrist before she could slap his cheek.

      ‘Careful,’ he warned her softly. ‘If you hit me, I’ll retaliate. Right here in front of your guests, I will put you across my knee and spank you as befits the spoiled brat you are. And, believe me, I would dare, Elin.’

      The pink flush on her cheeks deepened to scarlet and she breathed jerkily, causing her breasts to quiver above the low-cut neckline of her dress. Her eyes flashed with temper, but Cortez sensed the scorching sexual chemistry beneath her anger and he felt an answering lick of fire along his manhood.

      ‘You are an odious man,’ she hissed. ‘Why are you even here? You said you would be staying in London.’

      ‘Is that why you decided to throw a party while I was conveniently out of the way? I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that Ralph left me Cuckmere Hall. The house and estate are mine by right of birth—even though my father failed to acknowledge me for most of my life.’ He could not hide his bitterness. ‘I suppose you are angry because your adoptive father excluded you from his will, but I find it distasteful that you arranged a party two days after Ralph’s funeral. You might as well have danced on his grave.’

      She stiffened when he moved his hand to the small of her back and held her tightly against him so that she was forced to dance with him. ‘As a matter of fact, Ralph helped to organise the party before he died,’ she snapped. ‘The charity, Lorna’s Gift, was my brother’s idea and all the funds raised go to helping children living in orphanages around the world.’

      She pointed to a banner on the wall that he had not noticed because his attention had been riveted on Elin. The banner had the slogan Lorna’s Gift and a photograph of a sweet-faced woman who he guessed was Lorna Saunderson. Cortez was aware that Ralph’s wife had died eighteen months ago.

      ‘Clint Cooper was telling me of his intention to make a donation to the charity,’ Elin continued furiously. ‘He was not offering me money for sex. What gives you the right to judge me?’ Her mouth trembled and Cortez sensed she was struggling to control her emotions. ‘Do you think I don’t judge myself?’ she said in a low voice. ‘My birthday party a year ago was the most shameful night of my life. You have no idea how bitterly I regret that I had sex with you.’

      Cortez told himself she was a good actress. He knew her air of innocence was fake. He focused his thoughts on the reason he had driven from London to Sussex on a filthy night. ‘I need to talk to you, but not in here with this deafening music.’ He had noticed there was a conservatory next to the ballroom and he steered her over to it. The glass room was empty and he closed the door to muffle the sound of the disco.

      Elin immediately stepped away from him and put her hands on her hips. ‘What now?’ she demanded belligerently. ‘After we spoke two days ago I got the impression that you had nothing more to say to me, and I certainly have nothing to say to you.’

      He pushed away the infuriating thought that she looked magnificent when she was angry. Her blue eyes gleamed with the fiery brilliance of sapphires and her breasts heaved beneath her velvet gown. ‘When was your son born?’ he said abruptly.

      ‘The sixth of October.’ She did not drop her gaze from his, and Cortez narrowed his eyes to hide his inexplicable feeling of disappointment.

      ‘So he is five months old. You could at least have worked out the maths. You must have conceived in January last year, but we had sex in March.’ His lip curled in disgust as another thought occurred to him. ‘Dios. You must have been pregnant when you slept with me, but you told me I was responsible. Surely you had the sense to realise I would not accept a paternity claim without a DNA test?’

      She shrugged. ‘It was worth a try.’

      Dark and dangerous emotions swirled inside him and he felt the same savage wrench in his gut that he’d felt years ago when Alandra had informed him that she had terminated her pregnancy. He had wanted his baby but he hadn’t been given a chance to be a father. Tonight he had come to Cuckmere Hall because he’d realised there was a chance he was the father of Elin’s son. But she had lied and made a clumsy attempt to foist another man’s child on him.

      His jaw clenched as he struggled to control his anger. He was furious, not only with Elin but with himself because, despite the proof that she was a lying bitch, he was trapped in her spell and the shaming hunger he felt for her was a weakness he found intolerable.

      ‘I warned you not to play games with me.’ He resisted the urge to shake some sense into her. If he touched her he feared he would be lost. ‘Maybe your whole life is a game of endless parties and various sexual partners, but you have a child to consider. I know what it is like to grow up without a father. What will you tell your son when he asks why he doesn’t have a father?’

      She paled, and that made him even angrier. How dare she look so tragic, as if he had wounded her, when he knew—when everyone who read the English tabloids knew about her wild sex-and-drugs party girl reputation?

      ‘I’ll tell Harry the truth,’ she said quietly, ‘which is that his father did not want him.’ Her voice hardened. ‘You’re such a hypocrite. You think that it’s fine for you to sleep around, but you judge the women you sleep with. That’s blatant double standards. Equality between the sexes means nothing. It’s still women who are left with the babies when they are abandoned by their lovers.’

      * * *

      Elin stalked out of the conservatory without giving Cortez a chance to reply. She was incensed by his arrogance and reassured herself that she had done the right thing by misleading him about Harry’s date of birth. Cortez had made it clear he did not want a child, and after hearing his insulting opinion of her it was impossible to see how they could both have a role in Harry’s life.

      It was equally impossible to understand why she allowed herself to be affected by Cortez. But she did not allow it, she thought bitterly. She was kidding herself if she believed she had any control over her reaction to his dangerous good looks, and that thing that smouldered between them, that intense heat that licked through her

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