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‘I’m sorry.’ Her voice came out unevenly.
His mouth twisted. ‘Are you?’
She didn’t answer but moved past him to the pram under the single window. She was conscious of his tall frame just behind her as she peeled back the covers so he could see Georgia’s face.
She felt him standing close beside her, his arm brushing hers as he looked down at his brother’s child for a long time without speaking. The silence was so intense she could hear the sound of his breathing, his chest moving in and out with the effort of controlling his reaction to seeing his niece for the first time.
‘Can I hold her?’
Nina felt as if her heart had done a complete somersault in her chest at his simple request. What if he held her the wrong way and she cried?
‘Um…I don’t think—’
‘Please.’ His raw tone brought her eyes back to his. ‘I would like to hold my brother’s child. She is all that I have left of him.’
Nina released an uneven breath and carefully lifted the sleeping baby from amongst the covers, cradling her gently before turning and handing her to him.
She watched as a thousand emotions flashed over his handsome features as he brought the tiny bundle close to his broad chest, his dark gaze thoughtful as he looked down at the perfection of Georgia’s peaceful face.
‘She is…beautiful.’ His tone was distinctly husky.
Nina had trouble keeping the emotion out of her own voice. ‘Yes, she is.’
His eyes met hers briefly. ‘What did you call her?’
She lowered her gaze a fraction. ‘Georgia.’
‘Georgia,’ he repeated as if tasting it. ‘It suits her.’
She chanced a look at him and was surprised to see how at ease he was holding the infant, one of his large hands cradling her securely while the other explored her miniature features as if in wonder.
‘Does she have a middle name?’ he asked into the heavy silence.
‘Grace,’ she answered, wondering if she should tell him it was her own middle name, but at the last minute deciding against it. She’d been so touched when Nadia had told her of her choice of names, and for a while had hoped her sister was going to finally settle down and face her responsibilities. But within a few short weeks of Georgia’s birth she had gone back to late-night partying and drinking, leaving the baby with Nina so often that Georgia had begun to cry whenever Nadia had made any approach at all, as if sensing her total inadequacy as a carer.
Nina was increasingly aware of the silence in the room as Marc Marcello held his niece, his dark gaze fixed on the child’s face.
She said the first thing that came into her head. ‘I think she looks like Andre, don’t you?’
Marc swung his gaze to where she was standing, his hard expression instantly clouding. She thought he was going to agree with her but instead he turned back to the child in his arms and asked, looking down at her, ‘Did he ever see her?’
‘No.’
She’d been furious when Nadia had told her that Andre hadn’t wanted to see his baby, and couldn’t help wondering if that was the reason her sister hadn’t bonded with the child in the first place. The whole way through the pregnancy Nadia had had all her hopes pinned on Andre falling in love with his child once he saw her, thus ensuring a secure future for Nadia as his wife. When he had flatly refused to take a paternity test to establish whether or not the baby was his, Nadia had gone into a deep depression, closely followed by a spate of reckless partying.
‘No,’ she repeated, her tone holding a distinct note of bitterness. ‘I expect he was too busy preparing for his wedding.’
Marc didn’t answer but Nina could see the sudden tightening of his jaw as if her words had annoyed him.
She watched as he laid the baby down once more, his touch sure but gentle as he tucked the light bunny rug back into place.
When he turned to face her she found it difficult to hold his piercing gaze as she thought of how she was deceiving him. It suddenly occurred to her what a dangerous game she was playing. Wasn’t there some sort of law against impersonating another person? Marc Marcello was nobody’s fool and if he were to ever find out how he’d been duped there would be hell to pay, she was sure.
‘Miss Selbourne.’ His deep voice brought her troubled gaze back to his.
‘Y-yes?’ She moistened her lips, somehow sensing he was going to state his intentions, all her instincts telling her she wasn’t going to like them one little bit.
‘I want to see my niece on a regular basis and, while I understand your aversion to such an arrangement, I think you know I will pursue this legally if you refuse.’
‘I’m her mother,’ she bit out. ‘No court in Australia would remove her from my custody.’
‘You think not?’ His lip curled. ‘What if I told them about your little affair with a certain prominent politician just a few weeks after giving birth to my brother’s child?’
What affair? Nina thought in panic. What politician? What the hell had Nadia been up to?
He must have seen the flicker of alarm cross her features as he added in a cool deliberate tone, ‘You see, Miss Selbourne, I have all the dirt on you and I intend to use it in order to bring about what I want. I have heard how you tried to extort money from the poor fool when he called a halt to the relationship. You have been lucky that little affair did not get the press’s attention, but one word from me and, well…’ He paused for effect. ‘You know the rest.’
She sucked in a ragged breath, even her fingertips growing icy cold with dread as it spread through her body like the flow of mercury in her veins.
‘What exactly do you want?’ Her words came out like hard pellets.
Marc waited for a few moments before he answered. Until he had seen Andre’s child—and one look told him she was indeed his—he had not really thought much further than waving a truckload of money under the mother’s nose and walking away with the baby as his father had planned. But somehow seeing Nina with the baby, the way she looked at Georgia so lovingly and cradled her so gently, he wasn’t convinced that he would be acting in the best interests of his niece by removing her from her mother, unless he was absolutely sure she was not up to the task of caring for her. If indeed he could, considering that ill-judged letter of his father’s, and its vicious rejection of the baby. The woman had a powerful weapon there, if she chose to use it.
Which left him with only one other course of action.
His obsidian gaze held hers determinedly. ‘I want to claim my brother’s child as my own.’
‘You can’t do that! She doesn’t belong to you! She belongs t-to…t-to me.’
‘I can, you know.’
‘How?’
She shouldn’t have asked, Nina thought later. She just should never have asked.
His dark eyes locked with hers and a persistent tickling feather of fear began to tease its way up the entire length of her spine.
‘I want that baby and I will do anything to have her, even if it means I have to tie myself to you to do so.’
She blinked at him, wondering if she’d misinterpreted his chilling statement. ‘Tie yourself? What do you mean tie yourself?’
His mouth twisted into a smile that didn’t quite reach his dark-as-sin eyes. ‘My brother refused to marry you, but I have no such scruples. You will be my wife within a fortnight or I will make sure you never see your daughter again.’ He kept his features still, knowing his bluff was convincing. But would it work?
It took Nina a moment or two to find her voice, her head pounding with a combination of shock and outrage.
‘Do you seriously think I will be coerced in such a way?’ she finally spat indignantly.
‘I am more or less counting on it. Andre told me your main goal in life was to land a rich husband, so here I am, ready to step into the role.’
She opened her mouth to speak again but her throat closed over at the steely determination in his dark gaze as it clashed with hers.
She considered coming clean, telling him she was really Nadia’s twin, hoping he would understand her need to protect her niece, but his air of icy hauteur changed her mind at the last minute. She’d be damned if she would give up her niece without a furious fight, even if it cost her everything she had, including her freedom.
She flashed him a look of pure loathing at the way he’d cleverly herded her into a corner from which she could increasingly see there might be little chance of escape. She saw the glint of anticipated victory in his dark gaze and her blood ebbed and flowed through her veins in a tide of anger and growing fear.
‘I suppose it’s to be expected a spoilt playboy like you would assume he can always get whatever he wants,’ she said.
‘I will, of course, pay you generously,’ he said, his dark eyes watching her steadily. ‘How much do you want?’
Nina was very conscious that in her place Nadia would have asked for some outrageous sum, but something stopped her from taking the charade that far. The ice she’d inadvertently skated on to was suddenly very thin in places, but taking money in what was little more than a bribe was surely going to lead to more trouble than she could cope with at present.
Besides, little Georgia was lying asleep less than a metre away from him, her tiny body badly bruised. She’d been lucky this time but if he took even one look beneath that vest…
Forcing her chin upwards, she tilted her head at him, her arms folded in front of her chest, and informed him with unintentional irony, ‘If you think you can bribe me then you’ve got the wrong person.’
His eyes flicked to her where her breasts were pushed up by her folded arms, taking his time before returning to her face.
Nina stood silently fuming under his mocking appraisal, wondering how in the world her sister’s behaviour had brought her to this. She knew her anger should be directed at Nadia and not the man before her, but everything about him goaded her beyond bearing.
‘I told you before, I don’t want your money. I’d feel tainted by taking anything from you.’
‘Nice try, Miss Selbourne,’ he drawled back. ‘I can see what you are doing. You are pretending to be nothing like the avaricious young woman who seduced my brother, but I can see through your little act. Do not think that you can deceive me so easily; I have made up my mind, and you will do as I say, whether you accept payment from me or not.’
Nina did her best to hide how his statement affected her while her mind raced on, wondering how in the world she was going to get out of this farcical situation. God, she was going to kill Nadia for this! Surely she couldn’t be forced to marry the man just to keep her niece? But what else was she to do? Nadia was an unfit mother and—like her—Marc apparently had enough evidence to prove it.
‘I want some time to think about this.’ She was a little unnerved by how like Nadia she sounded, but carried on regardless. ‘I like to look at all the angles on things before I commit myself.’
‘I am not here to negotiate, Miss Selbourne,’ he said intractably. ‘I am here to step into the role of Georgia’s father and I want to do it as soon as possible.’
She looked up at him in growing alarm. There was an intransigent edge to his tone that suggested he was well used to getting his own way and would go to any lengths at his disposal to do so.
Tell him the truth, she mentally chanted. Tell him who you really are. But the words were stuck somewhere in the middle of her chest where her heart was already squeezing at the thought of never seeing Georgia again.
She tried to think rationally and clearly but it was hard with him standing there watching every tiny flicker of emotion on her face.
What if she went along with his demands for now? He’d said two weeks. Surely she’d be able to wriggle out of it by then. Hopefully Nadia would be in contact soon and she’d be able to sort something out. She had to sort something out. She couldn’t possibly marry a perfect stranger!
Marc took her continued silence as acquiescence. ‘I will have the necessary papers drawn up immediately.’
‘But…’ She stopped, her heart giving another funny skip in her chest. Oh, God! What had she done? Surely he wasn’t serious?
She tried again. ‘H-how soon do you want me to…’ She found it hard to finish the sentence as his hard eyes cut to hers with a look of total disdain.
‘Perhaps I should make something very clear at this point. I do not want you, Miss Selbourne. This will not be a proper marriage in the true sense of the word.’
‘Not legal, do you mean?’ She frowned, trying to make sense of his meaning.
‘It will be legal, I would not settle for less, but it will be a paper marriage only.’
‘A paper marriage?’ Her finely arched brows met above her eyes.
‘We will not be consummating the relationship,’ he stated implacably.
Nina knew she should be feeling overwhelming relief at his curt statement but for some inexplicable reason she felt annoyed instead. She knew she wasn’t looking as glamorous right now as Nadia customarily did, but her figure was good and her features classically appealing. It didn’t sit that well with her to have him dismiss her desirability so readily, as if she held no physical appeal at all.
‘You expect me to trust you on that?’ she asked with just the right amount of cynicism in her tone.
He lifted a long-fingered tanned hand and made a sign of a cross over his chest as his eyes pinned hers.
‘Cross my heart and hope to die.’
Something about his air of supreme confidence tempted Nina into giving him the sort of seductive look she’d seen her sister casting men’s way for years. She placed her hand on her hip as she tilted her pelvis provocatively, the corners of her mouth tipping upwards in a taunting little salacious smile as she drawled breathily, ‘Then I would say you’re as good as a dead man, Mr Marcello.’
CHAPTER THREE
MARC gave an inward smile at her overblown confidence. She was just as Andre had described, all pouting little girl one minute, raging sex siren the next. It was a heady combination, he had to admit, but while Andre hadn’t been able to contain his desire for her, temporary as it had been, Marc felt confident he was in no danger of being tested beyond his control. Nina Selbourne was the total opposite of what he most wanted in a partner.
He loathed shallow money-hungry women who had nothing better to do than preen themselves in the hope of attracting a rich husband. He’d been surrounded by them for most of his life, with the exception of his French-born mother, who had had both style and grace without affectation.
No, Miss Nina/Nadia Selbourne was fooling herself if she thought he would fall for her physical charms.
‘I am not like my brother, Miss Selbourne,’ he informed her coldly. ‘My tastes are a little more upmarket.’
Nina wished she could slap that imperious smirk off his handsome face but knew there would probably be distasteful consequences if she did. She clenched her hands into fists and glared back at him.
‘I could make you eat those words and we both know it. I saw the way you ran your eyes all over me the moment I opened the door.’
‘I admit I was a little intrigued as to what made my brother act so incautiously.’ His lazy look took in her heaving chest and feisty gaze. ‘But I can assure you I have no appetite for vacuous women such as yourself.’
Nina schooled her features back under control with difficulty. ‘I take it this marriage arrangement you’re proposing leaves you free to liaise with whomever you want whenever you want?’
‘I will do my best to be discreet if the need should arise.’
‘What about me?’ she asked. ‘Am I allowed to indulge myself similarly?’
He didn’t answer immediately but she could almost hear the cogs of his brain ticking over as he considered her question.
‘Well?’ she prodded with an arch look.
‘No.’
‘No?’
He shook his head in slow motion, ‘Absolutely not.’
‘You can’t possibly be serious.’ She snapped her brows together again.
‘Deadly serious,’ he said and folded his arms across the broad expanse of his chest.
