Free The Greek Tycoon's Secret Child by Cathy Williams Page B

her eyes, and she tightened her jaw in an attempt to bite them back. She wouldn’t cry. She had stopped crying a long time ago and she wasn’t going to let this man get to her like this.
    â€˜You don’t understand.’ She took a few deep breaths and managed to get control of herself once again. Enough for her to raise her eyes to his although the unexpected gentleness of his expression was almost her undoing. ‘It’s all right for you. You’ve never known what it’s like to open your eyes and know that each day is going to be a struggle. Sometimes it’s easy just togive up and take the simplest road to dealing with things, which is usually the road leading to the nearest pub.’
    Dominic said nothing. He continued to nurse his mug and look at her.
    â€˜A lot of people face a life of struggle. Most people aren’t born into privilege. But most of them don’t become alcoholics in the process.’
    â€˜Frankie’s not an alcoholic!’
    â€˜Why are you defending him? You work in a nightclub because, you tell me, the money’s good and you need the money. From which,’ he carried on inexorably, ‘I take it to mean that you need to pay the bills because he doesn’t have a job.’
    Mattie’s green eyes were stormy with helpless anger but she couldn’t reply. He was right, after all.
    â€˜He…he’s going to get one.’
    â€˜In between his visits to the pub with his mates?’ Dominic laughed harshly and saw her wince. ‘Are you sure he’s with his mates?’
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜You know exactly what I mean.’
    They stared at one another in silence for a few tense seconds, and Mattie was the first to break it by rising to her feet and swinging around so that she wasn’t looking at him. There was a stack of filthy dishes in the sink. She added her mug to them and began washing up, hoping that her hands weren’t shaking so much that she would drop something.
    â€˜There’s no one else.’
    â€˜You sure about that?’
    â€˜Why have you come here? To drag an apology out of me? You don’t have to do that. I’ve already apologised.’
    â€˜It occurred to me that maybe you and your boyfriendhad plotted behind my back. The man who shares a pillow with a woman is a man who is inclined to be generous with his lover. Maybe you figured between yourselves that if you managed to get me into the sack then it would just be a question of time before you could begin the process of bleeding me for money.’ He hadn’t considered anything of the sort, but he had to fire her up to anger, had to get her to spill her fury onto him and, in the process, her feelings, because she had been eating away at him for the past week.
    Mattie spun around as though she had been struck.
    â€˜That is the most…most… horrendous thing you’ve said to me yet! How dare you?’
    She walked towards him with the tea cloth in one hand, glaring. And Dominic just wanted to yank her down onto his lap and kiss the expression off her face.
    â€˜I’m an extremely rich man. Wealth breeds suspicion.’
    â€˜Then I feel very sorry for you indeed!’
    â€˜It wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve been pursued by a gold-digger.’
    â€˜If I recall , you were the one doing the pursuing!’ She was standing directly in front of him now and leaning towards him in outrage at his suggestion.
    â€˜True. But maybe you’re the clever opportunist who seized the chance when it presented itself…’
    â€˜You’re…you’re…’
    â€˜Someone accustomed to reading motives behind every action…’
    â€˜I’m not interested in your stupid money! And I would never hatch a plot like that with anyone!’
    â€˜Not even with the man you defend so eloquently, not even the man you live with and love?’
    Dominic stared into the furious