“First of all,” she said, stalking a few steps away. Gone were the nervous movements. Greer looked . . . angry. At him? He was the one who should be angry. “Men will tell a woman anything and everything to get in their bed. And second of all? Ask you?” She laughed and the sound was bitter and unhappy. “All you do is lie to me, Asher. How am I supposed to trust what you say to me?”
“I lied to you?” He thought back to all the times he’d kissed and held her in bed and told her how beautiful she was, how sweet tasting, how much he liked touching her. Did she really think those were lies?
“The wedding?” she spat, crossing her arms. “The lawyer?”
Oh fuck. He felt the blood drain from his face. “I can explain—”
“I’d certainly hope so.” A hurt look crossed her face. “Are you trying to steal my baby, Asher?”
“What? No!” The thought was the furthest thing from his mind. He was shocked she’d think that.
“Then what was with the contract? Your lawyer trying to bribe mine? Writing in loopholes that would make the contract null and void?”
Fuck. This was blowing up in his face. He’d done it and hadn’t given a damn about the consequences. But seeing her in front of him, hurt, worried, and scared, no wonder she’d run. “Greer, sweetheart—” he reached for her, only to have her jerk away. “Okay, yeah. I’m an asshole and I told my lawyer to give you the contract you wanted but to make it crap.”
“Why?” The look she gave him was incredulous.
His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. “Because I want you,” he gritted out. “I want you and the baby both. I don’t want you walking out of my life. I love you. I wanted a chance to prove it to you and you wouldn’t give me that chance any other way. That’s why I made the lawyers come up with bullshit clauses. That’s why I went to your dad and bribed him to put on a ridiculous wedding. Because you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I couldn’t think of any other way to get close to you.”
Her angry expression softened. Her big brown eyes shimmered with tears and a moment later she ripped off her big glasses. “Stupid lenses fogging up.” She sniffed and crossed her arms again. “I just . . . it was a real low blow to bribe my father and make me do all that work for nothing.”
“I know. God, I know. I was just desperate. I went to him and tried to have him call the wedding off once I saw how those three idiots were running you ragged.” He took a daring step forward and brushed the tears off her cheek. Seeing her cry was breaking his damn heart. “He actually refused and tried to blackmail me. Said he’d expose everything if I didn’t go along with it and I was just so afraid of losing you when I had you again.”
She gave a watery chuckle. “So my father truly wanted to get married?”
“Once he saw how much money it could make him? Yes.”
“Figures.” She shook her head sadly. “My father is such an asshole. I never mattered to him. It was just his stupid company.” Greer sighed. “Someday I’m going to realize that he’s never loved anyone.”
“Wanting your father to love you isn’t a flaw, Greer. You just happen to hope that he’s a better person than he is. And it sucks when you find out he isn’t.” He pulled her against him and was gratified when she went into his arms. His hands stroked up and down her back, and it was a pure pleasure just to hold her.
“So how much did he shake you down for?”
Asher chuckled. “I offered him an unspecified amount, though my original idea was the five million I thought he’d loaned me. Until I found out it wasn’t him after all. You hid your tracks pretty well.”
He felt her stiffen. “When did you find out?”
“The evening of the big Prospectus Businessman of the Year party. I went to him to thank him and he had no idea what I was talking about. I figured out then that it was you.”
She pulled away from him, a look of horror on her face. “So . . . you went after me because you felt obligated?”
Holy hell, he was just saying all the wrong things, wasn’t he? “Of course not! I love you. I think I realized I loved you when I saw you that night—”
“And saw I was pregnant!”
“—and realized that when you hated me, I’d lost everything and you’d been right there the entire time, and I’d been too blind to notice it.” He reached for her, trying to pull her against him again. “Hearing that you gave the money to me and never said a word just made me realize that you were the one that had always been there for me. And I’m a selfish bastard because when I realized I’d lost you, I wanted you back and I didn’t care how I made it happen.”
She eased a little, and he tugged her closer.
“You want me to get my checkbook out? Write you a check for five million? I will right now.”
“No,” she said in a glum voice. “I just wanted you to want me for me. Not because of the baby or my money.”
“I do want you. If those other things didn’t exist, I’d still want you.” He dropped to his knees and put a hand to her stomach. “When we get married—and I’m marrying you at some point, you know—we can keep separate accounts if it’ll make you feel better. Or you can have mine. I don’t care. Prenup, no nup, whatever you want. Money doesn’t matter to me.” His fingers lightly touched her stomach. “But I can’t pretend this doesn’t matter.”