Baby of Shame

Author:James, Julia [James, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 0373125186
Google: DJBjDhTGXCQC
Amazon: B003AV6FBY
Goodreads: 461409
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-01-02T07:00:00+00:00

Alexis consumed his fish in silence. His mind was preoccupied.

So Davies Yacht Design had been on the point of total collapse when Rhianna Davies had used him. She hadn’t given the impression they were that desperate for investment. But then his business brain clicked in. For her to have done so would have been to weaken her hand. No company wanting a life-saving bail-out would want a potential investor to realise just how critical the situation was.

But if MML had been keen to buy Davies Yacht Design it must have had potential, as she’d claimed, for returning on the investment. Had it not been for his standard policy of freezing the investment plans of any company newly acquired by Petrakis International, MML would probably have gone through with the takeover.

‘After the buy-out fell through why didn’t your father line up another white knight—or was the mess worse than you’ve admitted?’

Rhianna’s head jerked up.

‘Because he had another heart attack the day after I—after you—’ She stopped, the words cutting off.

‘Another?’ Alexis’s voice was strangely expressionless. He set down his knife and fork.

Rhianna swallowed. Why was he putting her through this?

‘He’d had a heart attack three days before—’ Again she stopped.

‘Your father had just had a heart attack when you approached me at that dinner?’

She gritted her teeth. ‘Yes. He was in Intensive Care. I had no choice but to try and talk to you like that at the dinner. The banks were going to foreclose the following week unless the takeover got the go-ahead at MML. Your PA let slip that you would be going to that dinner that night—I’d asked if I could have an evening appointment to see you, but she said your schedule was already finalised. So—’ she took a harsh breath ‘—I bought a ticket for the dinner, and altered the seating plan on the board at the cocktail reception beforehand so I could make sure I was on your table. It was my last chance. I had nothing to lose.’

She fell silent.

She had been wrong. She had had a lot to lose—and she had lost it all.

Slowly Alexis digested what she had just said.

Her father in Intensive Care with a heart attack. The banks about to foreclose.

She must have been desperate…

Was that why she had done what she had? Offered him the one thing she had left? The traditional last coinage of every woman. Her body.

Then his eyes hardened. However desperate she’d been she should not have tried to take him for a gullible fool she could manipulate with her sexual favours!

‘And the idea of simply asking me to consider the takeover on its own merit never occurred to you, did it?’

‘I beg your pardon?’ Rhianna’s voice was hollow.

‘Had you not assumed that you could use your body to persuade me to look favourably on the takeover—’

Rage exploded through her.

‘How dare you make such an accusation? I never at any time thought such a thing, intended such a thing, or did such a thing! My God, you are a vile, disgusting man!’

A palm slammed down on the table-top.

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