Page 69

‘Because I don’t wish either of us to delude ourselves with frivolous emotions. Now I ask you again, are you going to stay?’

Her heart splintered into sharper pieces that made it harder to breathe. Harder to think. But he was waiting. And as much as she wanted to crumble, she had to stand her ground this one last time.

‘No. The Archer deal is done. And so am I.’

He stared at her for several frozen moments. Then from his back pocket he produced a document. ‘I had my lawyers draft an agreement.’

Her heart lurched. ‘Why?’

‘Because I have new interests to protect.’ He set it down next to the jewellery box and turned away, abruptly. ‘Read it. Then come to my study.’

He left the terrace without a backward glance, his untouched champagne turning as flat as her heart.

CHAPTER NINE

‘IS THIS SUPPOSED to be a joke?’ Saffie’s voice shook like a leaf in a hurricane.

Joao didn’t turn from where he stood gazing out of the window. Not for several pounding heartbeats when she walked closer, searching his towering frame for signs of humour.

There were none.

The gritty set of his jaw told her he’d heard her question. The intense gleam in the narrow-eyed gaze he’d finally directed at her when he’d deigned to face her told her everything she’d read in the agreement was exactly as he’d wished it.

‘It’s a legal document. What do you think?’ he taunted, giving her all the confirmation she needed.

Her hand shook as she raised the document. ‘It has to be,’ she argued. ‘Because it says that you’re...’ She stopped, swallowed disbelieving words she wanted to speak out loud. ‘You’re seeking custody of my babies!’

‘They’re my children, too, Saffie,’ he corrected with icy patience.

‘And...the date on this thing...it’s the day after we found out...after the first ultrasound.’

‘When have you known me to waste time on something I want?’

‘So...your questions just now...you were testing me?’

His gaze clashed with hers, raw power blazing so fiercely, terror tap-danced down her spine. With deceptively casual steps, he approached, reached out and captured her chin, his grip gentle but firm. ‘Yo

u’re carrying my heirs, Saffie, and I’m claiming what’s mine.’

The tap-dancing sped up. ‘Stop saying that. They’re not yours! If anything they’re ours.’

He shook his head. ‘Not if you plan on racing off into the sunset with them.’

She tried to speak but no words emerged. Not for several heart-pounding seconds. ‘Please explain to me what’s going on, Joao. Make me understand why, a few weeks ago, you ridiculed my intention to have these babies and now you’re doing this!’

Again he said nothing for the longest time. Then his hand dropped. ‘I told you, reality lends a different perspective.’

‘I presented you with two shiny new toys and now you can’t help but take them away from me?’ she demanded scathingly.

He stared at her for a moment before he sighed. ‘I’d rather it not come to that.’

‘But it will. Why?’ That last word came out in a cringing, bewildered wail.

‘I’m simply safeguarding my position. You will never have my agreement to take my children from me, Saffie.’

The document slid from her nerveless fingers, her whole body wracked in tremors. ‘My God. To think I defended you to your father.’

‘You shouldn’t have. Perhaps I may be more his son than you bargained for. I see what I want and I go after it, consequences be damned. Doesn’t that sound familiar to you?’