The Problem with Seduction - By Emma Locke Page 0,5
MAN BORN into a family of rakes, Con hadn’t quite managed to perfect his way with women. Elizabeth’s gray eyes went wide with fear, then crazed with an unholy light that caused him to step back. After escaping Captain Finn’s fists two nights before, Con was feeling a bit invincible. Her butler—if the ship-sized creature in her entry could be called such—had hardly fazed him. Regarding Elizabeth across the room now, however, his luck seemed to have run out. Slowly, mechanically, she rose and placed a baby into a cradle tucked into the corner of the room. More slowly still, she faced Con. Her pale features had taken on an uncanny brittleness he found terrifying. “I think perhaps we ought to take tea before we make any hasty decisions—” he began.
She took a small step forward, then another and another until she was at a full-fledged run. Her balled fists found his chest as she beat him with ineffective wallops that might have made him laugh except she was half-gurgling, half-screaming, “You monster! I will never give him up!”
He caught her wrists and held her apart from him so he could look into her eyes. Tendrils of dark brown hair wisped around her face, highlighting high cheekbones, full, generous lips and those gray eyes he found so startling. “Elizabeth! Be calm! Surely we can talk about this rationally. Don’t you trust me?”
No, of course she didn’t trust him. She’d paid him to lie to the entire ton. Still, he felt like that should count for something. They were now a team, weren’t they?
She stopped fighting long enough to hiss in his face. “You snake! We made a deal. You have no right to Oliver. No right at all.”
“Yes, but—”
“You promised not to make any claim on him. You signed your name.”
“It’s not like what Finn wanted,” he said. What the devil was she so upset about? “I mean, it is like what Finn wanted, in that I need to see my son—”
“He’s not your son!” she shrieked.
The door burst open. Iron arms banded around him and the butler’s deep voice vibrated in his ear. “Let her go.”
“You, again?” Con sighed and dutifully released Elizabeth.
She hastily scrambled back. “You are heinous! I will never let you take him. Why would you even…” She brushed away a lock of chestnut-colored hair curling in her face. Her chest heaved and her cheeks flushed pink with fury. Again her fingers tucked the lock into place, but when a lone tear rolled down her cheek he knew the real reason why she’d raised her hand. She hastily rubbed the glistening trail away. New, fresh fury sparkled in her eyes. “I am done with crying. I am done, sir, with you. Leave. Now.”
He struggled against his human restraints before giving up. It was a futile attempt to retain what little dignity he could muster, for fighting a man twice his mass only made him look silly. He had to make her understand, though. He needed her to cooperate, or at least stop attacking him. “I’m afraid you’ve put us both in a bind, you see,” he tried to explain. “I have a bad enough reputation as it is, so far as responsibility goes. I can’t let this baby be one more I ignore.”
The last of his breath whistled through his teeth as his captor cinched Con’s upper arms hard and fast enough to almost crack his ribs.
She stared at him incredulously. “You expect me to care about your reputation enough to hand over my son?”
It did sound foolish, the way she said it. Oliver wasn’t even his child. What did it matter if he ignored the boy for the rest of his life? Surely Con was old enough now to take his family’s disappointment in stride.
Her eyes narrowed. “This is about money. Ten thousand wasn’t enough? Well, I won’t be threatened. You won’t squeeze another shilling from me. I won’t have it—you can take your conniving, blackmailing ways and go hang.”
“All right, all right.” It wasn’t worth upsetting her any more than he already had. He didn’t even want children. Or a half-crazed woman with an unholy hatred of him—that was, in fact, one very good reason why he wasn’t married. He held up his hands as best he could, given his arms were trapped at his sides. “It was a stupid idea. I’ll go father my own by-blow and then take care of him.”
Her face went white. “How can you say such a thing? He’s