Bought For The Marriage Bed

‘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.’