“Are you deaf? I don’t want to marry you, Derrick. I couldn’t care less about your money or your lifestyle. They mean nothing to me. I don’t care enough about any of it to want to put up with marriage to you.”
She hated getting so riled up, so emotional, she didn’t even know herself. Her mother, originally from the South, had been a genteel woman and would turn over in her grave if she saw Eva’s behavior. But even her mother would have to understand how Derrick pushed her buttons. Derrick could test the patience of Job. His dogged determination to get his way may be a plus in business, but it was a less than admirable trait on a personal level.
“Stop and think,” he said through clenched teeth.
“No, you stop and think—about what you’re doing. You and your fancy Atlanta lawyers can go to hell.”
She walked by him.
“Eva!”
She swung around and hurled the crumpled letter at him, watching it float to the ground. “I said go to hell!”
Her voice quivered, and she hated herself for it. She could barely see through the cloudy screen of tears as she left him standing on the sidewalk. Before she broke down completely in front of him, she fumbled for the handle on the door. Once inside, she rushed to the back of the store and cried.
Chapter Three
“The art of intimidation, my boy, is to make your opponent believe every word you say. Look them dead in the eye and never flinch. Never let them see weakness.”
Phineas’s words repeated in Derrick’s head as he eased the rented sports car into the line of traffic and headed toward the two-bedroom beach villa he’d rented. Phineas had always doled out advice, and it turned out much of it could be applied just as easily to personal relationships as to business ones.
He hadn’t intended to make Eva angry. He didn’t know a whole lot about pregnant women, but he was pretty sure they shouldn’t get upset. Unfortunately, her reaction to his suggestion of marriage had stymied him and forced him to reveal his intention to take the baby if she didn’t go along with his plans.
After he let himself in and dropped his overnight bag in one of the bedrooms, he stepped out onto the patio to look out at the Atlantic Ocean, stretched out to the horizon as far as the eye could see. He shouldn’t have come here, because of the memories of all the times he’d stayed here with her. He could have told his personal assistant to book him into another location, but old habits die hard.
The soothing sound of the waves and familiar salty scent of the blue water didn’t have the same appeal this time. He pulled out his smartphone, trying not to think about her, but finding it impossible.
Damn. He really should have picked somewhere else to stay, because there were too many memories here—buying groceries at the local store and cooking together in the kitchen, splashing around in the villa’s private pool, and, entwined in each other’s arms, making love until they grew exhausted.
He turned on the ringer on the phone, which he’d switched off earlier so there would be no interruption during his conversation with Eva. He scrolled through the list of missed calls and saw one had come from the attorneys. Hopefully they had good news concerning the legal battle between him and his family. They’d pooled their resources and dragged him into court to contest Phineas’s will. The attorneys had warned him to expect a long and dirty fight.