Read Coercion to Love for Free Online

prefer it if we never meet or speak again,' the letter had coldly finished.
    She shuddered. He saw it, and sighed impatiently. 'When I paid that cheque over to your sister, I did so because I believed the deed already done!'
    'My sister told you so?' she challenged.
    'Yes,' he nodded, holding her hard look steady.
    Disbelief glowed in her eyes. 'Then why,' she posed, 'if that was the case, is Terri sleeping peacefully at this very moment, in your house?'
    'Because your crazy sister lied to me!' he snapped.
    'No.' Cass refused point-blank to accept that, her expression so totally ungiving that he shook his head, as if trying to clear it.
    'It is useless trying to have a fair and constructive discussion with you, isn't it? You are so completely biased that you wouldn't listen to me even if I forced my side of events down your wretched throat!'
    'Terri was and is,' Cass stated grimly. 'If you didn't care one way or the other five years ago, then you can't expect me to believe you really care now.'
    Muttering something beneath his breath, he spun away from her^ a hand going up to rake in frustration through his silky black hair. Then, on a sudden spurt of energy, he strode back to the desk. It was only then that Cass realised they were standing in what could only pass as his study. The room was lined with books and packed with the computerised trappings of a rich businessman. Sitting down in the chair behind the desk with a bunch of keys dangling from his fingers, he unlocked a drawer and pulled it open to withdraw a thick manila file, which he slapped down hard on the polished top.
    'W-what's that?' she asked.
    His eyes pinned her with the kind of grim intent one used when hell-bent on killing someone else's illusions.
    1m contains everything I need to drag your sister's name and her reputation through the gutter if you make it necessary,' he said. 'But there is one item in particular I want to show to you which-----
    'You're lying,' Cass cut across him, not even alarmed by the threat. He could have nothing damning on Liz. He was just bluffing. 'Liz's life—before and after you— was so clean it squeaked. ‘Try again Signor Valenti,' she derided, fine brows arching in polished-copper contempt.
    He sucked in a sharp breath, and Cass gained the impression that he just wasn't used to having his word challenged. 'I have the evidence—the irrevocable proof— that your sister was nothing more than a low-down-----'
    'No!' Mount Etna erupted with no warning other than that one volcanic negative, and Cass was hurling herself across the room in a frenzy of uncontrollable rage. She would not—could not—listen to him, of all people, defile her sister!
    She made a grab for the file, intending to rip the lot to shreds without deigning a single glance at a single sheet of his lying proof! But he stopped her.
    'No!' His denial was just as explosive, the hand lying on the file pressing down with all his weight as he shot to his feet and stood glaring at her across the width of his desk.
    'You don't get your destructive little hands on this, Miss Marlow. This,' he bit out threateningly, 'contains my guarantee that you will give me full and complete guardianship of my daughter!'
    'And just the very fact that you can have such a file makes me certain you are not the man to have control of Teresa!' Sucking in an angry breath of air, Cass placed her palms flat on the desk and sent him a look which said that the very sight of him made her sick to her stomach.
    'I won't hand Terri over to a man who has the power to ruin her mother's memory! I won't, Mr Valenti, give you the time of day while that file-----' she sent the manila folder a scathing glance ‘remains a threat to Tern's love for her mother!'
    Silence followed that. And Cass stood, shuddering in the aftermath of her own explosion, watching the dull flush mount his handsome face before it paled to a shaken whiteness, and knew—knew—she had at last managed to cut the arrogant devil