Free An Offer She Can't Refuse by Emma Darcy Page A

their son. ‘You were with another woman,’ she muttered as though that urge was tarnished, too.
    ‘I was already wishing that I wasn’t before I saw you. Please … at least believe this of me. It’s true.’
    For the first time he saw a hint of uncertainty in her eyes. She lowered her long thick lashes, hiding her thoughts. ‘Tell me what your valid reasons were.’
    ‘To my mind, we both still had a lot to achieve on our own without ties holding us back from making choices we would have made by ourselves. You’d barely started your modelling career, Christina, and it was obvious you had the promise of making it big on the international scene. As your sister has done.’
    Her mouth twisted into a wry grimace as she looked down at their sleeping son. ‘If you didn’t forget me, Ari, did you ever wonder why I never broke into the international scene?’
    ‘I did expect you to. I thought you had chosen to stay in Australia. Some people don’t like leaving everything that is familiar to them.’
    ‘I wasn’t worth coming back to,’ she murmured, heaving a sigh that made him feel she had just shed whatever progress he had made with her.
    ‘I was caught up dealing with family business these past six years, Christina,’ he swiftly argued. ‘It’s only now … meeting you again and being faced with my own son that my priorities are undergoing an abrupt change.’
    ‘Give it time, Ari,’ she said dryly. ‘They might change again.’
    ‘No. I won’t be taking my marriage proposal off the table. I want you to consider it very seriously.’
    She slid him a measuring look that promised nothing. ‘I’ll think about it. Don’t ask any more of me now.’ She nodded down at Theo. ‘I’m tired, too. Please ask Jason to head back to Fira.’
    ‘As you wish,’ he said, rising from the bench seat to do her bidding.
    Trying to push her further would not accomplish any more than he had already accomplished today. She didn’t trust him yet but at least she was listening to him. Tonight would give him the chance to show her the family environment he wanted to move her and Theo into. He had to make it as attractive as he could.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    W HILE Theo was occupied fitting the pieces of the Lego train station together, Tina tried to imagine what her life might have been like if she hadn’t fallen pregnant. Would she have picked herself up from the deeply wounding disillusionment of her love for Ari and channelled all her energy into forging a successful modelling career?
    Almost certainly.
    She had been very young—only eighteen at the time—and having been rejected by him she would have wanted to show him she really was special—so special he would regret not holding onto her.
    Cassandra would have helped her to get a foot in on the international scene. Given the chance, she would have tried to make it to the top, delivering whatever was required to keep herself in demand and in the public eye; fashion shows, magazine covers, celebrity turnouts that would give her even more publicity. Ambition would have been all fired up to make Ari have second thoughts about his decision, make him want to meet her again.
    When and if he did she would have played it very cool. No melting on the spot. She would have made him chase her, earn her, and she wouldn’t have given in to him until he’d declared himself helplessly in love with her and couldn’t live without her. He would have had to propose marriage.
    Which he’d done today.
    Except the circumstances were very different to what might have been if Theo had never been conceived. That completely changed the plot, making the marriage proposal worth nothing to her.
    Though Ari’s face had lit up with pleasure at seeing her in Dubai.
    But that was only a fond memory rekindled.
    She wasn’t the same naive, stars-in-her-eyes girl and never would be again, so it was impossible for him to recapture the pleasure he’d had in her company in the past. Surely he had to