LITMIR.BIZ

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name of my baby’s father? All I knew was that I’d had sex with someone called Cortez, but how could I know you were in fact my adoptive father’s real son? And as you didn’t stick around the next morning I had no way of contacting you when I found out I was pregnant.’

      Temper had turned her eyes to the deep, dark blue of an ocean. ‘You blamed Ralph for treating your mother badly by abandoning her when she was pregnant, but your behaviour was even worse than your father’s. You knew who I was, and you could easily have got in contact with me. But you didn’t because I was just a one-night stand and you did not care about how I might be feeling, even though you must have realised when we had sex that it was my first time.’

      Her words dropped into the room like a pebble thrown into a pool, shattering the calm surface and creating ripples. For a few seconds the effect on Cortez was just as shattering, before he remembered all those goddamned press stories about her busy love-life.

      ‘What I have realised is that you are a fantasist,’ he said grimly. ‘You are also delusional if you think I’d believe you were a virgin after you had invited me into your bedroom and told me with that pretty mouth of yours that you wanted me. I can’t deny it was convenient that you kept contraceptives in the bedside drawer, but the fact that you were prepared for sex suggests you’d had previous lovers.’

      He shrugged. ‘I don’t judge you for being sexually active and I do not hold double standards, as you accused me. But I deplore lying, which is why I insist on a DNA test, which will prove if I am your baby’s father or if your claim is another lie.’

      Elin had turned so pale that he wondered if she was going to faint. Or was it another ploy designed to gain his sympathy? Cortez thought cynically.

      ‘I’ve already explained that on the night of my birthday party my behaviour was affected by a drug that I was unaware I had taken,’ she said with a quiet dignity that disturbed him more than it should have done. ‘My drink had been spiked with a date-rape drug that made me unable to control my thoughts and reactions.’

      Anger growled in his voice. ‘Are you suggesting I slipped you a drug with the intention of sexually assaulting you?’

      ‘No, I know it wasn’t you who spiked my drink. But, all the same, it was the effects of the drug that led me to have sex with you.’

      ‘Really?’ He disguised his fury behind a mocking smile. ‘So you’re saying that if you hadn’t been drugged you would not have wanted me to kiss you? I assume you are not under the influence of any kind of behaviour-altering drug now?’

      She looked puzzled. ‘Of course not.’

      ‘Then let us put your theory to the test.’ He reached for her and watched her eyes widen as she realised his intention. But, curiously, she did not try to evade him, or perhaps he was simply too quick as he pulled her into his arms and bent his head.

      Her mouth was a sweet promise that had driven him to distraction and a sensual memory that had disturbed his dreams for too long. He covered her lips with his and kissed her with a hunger and need that should have appalled him if he had been able to think. But he was lost the instant she opened her mouth beneath his and allowed him to probe his tongue into her sweetness. Triumph surged through Cortez as he felt the tension ease from her body and she melted into him, soft against his hardness, her surrender a delicious victory that he was determined to savour.

      * * *

      It had been so long. That was the only thought in Elin’s mind as Cortez claimed her mouth with bold confidence and kissed her with devastating passion. It was more than a year since she had been in his arms, but it felt like a lifetime of loneliness, waiting for him, dreaming of him, secretly yearning for him. Now he was here, as dark and dangerously attractive as she remembered him, and she was incapable of resisting his mastery. Her traitorous body melted with the first brush of his lips against hers, and when he deepened the kiss and demanded her response the fire inside her became an inferno.

      He drew her closer to him, crushing her against his whipcord body and making her aware of his strength and his desire. His arousal jabbed between her thighs, and with a low moan she stood on tiptoe so that she could press her pelvis against the hard bulge outlined beneath his jeans. He muttered something incomprehensible as he clamped his hand on her bottom, and when he kissed her again he thrust his tongue into her mouth in an erotic mimicry of sex.

      The kiss went on and on and she never wanted it to end. There was nothing but heat and flame and searing need. Hers. His. Whatever Cortez might think of her, the potent force of his arousal betrayed his hunger.

      She was stunned when he released her and dropped his hands to his sides. Nothing made sense, not the thunder of her pulse, or the grim fury on his beautiful face, or the voice from the doorway.

      ‘I do beg your pardon,’ the nanny murmured, sounding embarrassed, before she stepped back into the corridor and closed the sitting room door behind her.

      Barbara’s timely interruption had been a godsend, Elin told herself as her memory stormed back and brought with it the humiliating knowledge that Cortez had kissed her to prove a point. She stared at him because she could not help herself. Because he was a sorcerer and she was trapped in his spell. She braced herself for his taunts. Dear heaven, after the way she’d responded to his kiss he probably thought she was a nymphomaniac. But, to her surprise, he broke eye contact first and she had an odd feeling that he was as shocked as she was by the tumultuous intensity of that kiss.

      ‘We will take Harry to London today to have the DNA test carried out at a clinic which provides an express paternity testing service,’ he said abruptly. ‘I’ve booked us an appointment, and they promise to have the result within eight hours of the test. How soon can you be ready to leave?’

      Elin realised it would be pointless to refuse the paternity test when Cortez had stated he would go to court to force her to agree. But she was infuriated by his arrogant belief that if he ordered her to jump she would ask how high. She had dozed for an hour this morning and woken with a headache, the result, no doubt, of her sleepless night. It was likely her shivery feeling was due to her getting so cold in the vineyard last night, she assured herself. The frost candles might have protected the vines but it had taken hours for her to warm up after her moonlit vigil. She dismissed her concern that she could be developing another kidney infection, which had been a recurrent problem since she’d given birth to Harry.

      ‘Why are you in such a rush for the test? Three days ago you refused to consider the possibility that you could be Harry’s father. I’ve told you I won’t make any financial demands on you and you can just walk away and forget about the night we spent together, as I had pretty much done until you turned up at Cuckmere Hall.’

      ‘You did not appear to have forgotten me when I kissed you just now,’ he said sardonically.

      She felt heat bloom on her face and silently cursed her fair skin that blushed so easily.

      Cortez swung his gaze to the bureau where she kept Harry’s birth certificate. He picked up the two passports that were lying in the drawer and studied them. ‘Were you planning to take Harry abroad as you have a passport for him?’

      ‘I’ve been invited to my friend’s wedding in Rhodes and I had to apply for a passport for Harry so that I can take him abroad.’ She frowned. ‘When I met you at my birthday party I assumed you were one of Virginia’s friends.’

      He slipped both passports into his pocket. ‘We’ll take these to London with us. The DNA clinic might need to see them for identity verification. Do you know your brother’s whereabouts?’

      Elin had been about to demand that he give her the passports, but she was distracted by his question.

      ‘Jarek should have returned to Saunderson’s Bank in Japan,’ Cortez continued. ‘But I have been informed by the bank’s manager that he failed to turn up for work.’

      ‘I’m sure there’s a good reason,’ she said quickly. ‘Perhaps his flight from England was delayed.’ Elin silently acknowledged a more likely explanation was that

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