Дженни Лукас – Pregnant By The Ceo: Sensible Housekeeper, Scandalously Pregnant / She's Having the Boss's Baby / The Baby Who Saved Dr Cynical (страница 16)
They stared at each other in the shadows of the garden.
Looking down at her beautiful face, Rafael’s body hurt with tension and fury.
He’d always vowed he would never get trapped by any woman. It had happened to him once, and that was enough. At seventeen, he’d fallen for an older woman who’d callously dropped him to marry a wealthy man. When Rafael had pleaded with her to marry him instead, she’d laughed at his tiny diamond ring. The faded Cruz fortune wasn’t nearly enough to tempt her, she’d said. She liked his body well enough, but money was what mattered most to her.
At eighteen, he’d made it his mission in life to get rich. Ten years later, he’d ruined the woman—and her husband—in payback.
Rafael would never feel desperate over a woman again. It was why he could never have children. He would never give a woman that kind of power over him. Never feel vulnerable again.
He looked at Louisa.
Against his will, Rafael’s gaze dropped to her lush mouth. Even now, wondering if she’d tricked him, wondering if she were the most accomplished liar he’d ever met, Rafael couldn’t stop wanting to kiss her. His body ached for her.
“So if I were pregnant, you would really wish to marry me?” she whispered.
In spite of all her defiance, he saw that she wished to marry him. She wanted to pin him down.
He said evenly, “There’s no way I would allow my child to be raised by some other man. So I would make you my wife. Is that what you want, Louisa?” he said dangerously. “Is that what you’ve wanted all along?”
With a deep intake of breath, she looked away from him, staring out at the view of Istanbul across the Bosphorus. So close across the water, but it was another continent entirely—Asia.
Clenching his hands into fists, he stared at her. Louisa was like that. So close, and yet so far. She was standing beside him. He could feel the warmth of her skin. And yet she was so far away. He realized he’d never really known her at all.
“Would you be a good father?” she whispered into the night, still not looking at him. “Would you love our child?”
His eyes narrowed as he looked at her lovely face, so different without glasses. Her eyes were wide and deep as the night. Her long dark hair brushed against her creamy shoulders in the soft breeze. She was the most beautiful, elusive woman he’d ever known.
When he spoke, his voice was low and even.
“I would marry you for the baby’s sake. But I would make you pay for trapping me into marriage,” he continued in a low voice. He reached out and brushed a tendril of hair off her cheek with his fingertips. He felt her shiver beneath his touch as he leaned forward to whisper in her ear, “I would make you pay…and pay…and pay.”
“What do you mean?” she gasped, shuddering.
He gave a cold, cruel smile as he straightened. “I would take pleasure of you in my bed until I had my fill.” He stared down at her. “I would own you, as you would never own me.”
She sucked in her breath.
She looked up at him, her eyes troubled in shadow. “But would you love our baby?”
Suddenly he was done with her endless evasions. Setting his jaw, he reached into his pocket for a cell phone. He dialed a number and spoke into the phone. “Dr. Vincent, please.”
“What are you doing?”
He looked at her coldly. “Since you refuse to tell me if you’re pregnant, I will have you examined by my doctor in Paris.”
Louisa ripped the phone from his hands and ended the call. She took a deep breath.
“Well?” he said coolly.
“I’m…” She licked her lips.
He stared at her, his heart full of darkness and fury.
“I’m…” she said in a low voice. She took a deep breath, briefly closing her eyes as she said, “I’m not pregnant.”
He exhaled in a rush. “You’re not?”
She stared at him. Her eyes were pools of darkness.
Relief coursed through him, almost making him stagger.
He hadn’t been wrong about her! She could be trusted! He hadn’t been such a fool as he’d feared!
Then, staring at Louisa’s tight shoulders and barely concealed fury, he reconsidered that statement. If she was innocent, he’d just treated her very badly indeed.
Looking at her with sudden regret, he rubbed the back of his head wryly. He’d let Novros’s suspicions get to him. The Greek bastard had probably made it all up, he thought in irritation, spinning the facts for his own reasons, hoping to cause friction between Rafael and his housekeeper. Hoping he could get Louisa for himself!
He sighed. So who was a stupid fool after all…?
“Sorry,” he said, spreading his hands wide and giving her his best smile. “Forgive me. I let my suspicions get the best of me. I should have known I could trust you, Louisa…”
But as he reached out for her shoulder, she backed away before he could touch her.
Rafael ground his teeth, silently cursing both his own untrusting nature and the Greek business rival who’d so easily managed to cause such trouble in his household.
“So, Miss Grey,” he said in a determinedly jocular voice, “your housekeeping skills are desperately needed at my apartment in Buenos Aires. Please go fix it up, just as you’ve done here. There’s no reason to stay in Istanbul any longer, as I just gave this house away in a business deal—”
“You did what?”
“You’ll fly to Argentina in the morning. I will follow in a week or two, after I’ve completed the Paris deal.”
For a moment, she was silent. Then she said a single cold word.
“No.”
He tried again. “You will, of course, receive a muchdeserved raise. I intend to double your salary.”
“No,” she bit out. She lifted her chin, and her eyes glittered. “I’ve done nothing, nothing to deserve the humiliating treatment you’ve given me. My only mistake was sleeping with a heartless playboy, knowing what kind of man you were!”
He set his jaw. “Louisa, you must believe I never meant—”
“I’m not finished!” she nearly shrieked. “For the last month, I’ve asked myself again and again how I could have slept with you in Paris. Then I did it again, letting you convince me to be your mistress on that Greek island. I wanted you so desperately. For years, I’ve made excuses for your bad behavior. I told myself you had some goodness deep inside you. I’ve devoted every moment of the last five years to making your life comfortable. But now, I see you how you really are. How could I have ever let myself love you? A coldhearted, selfish bastard like you?”
“I never asked you to love me.” He gritted his teeth. “And I paid you well—”
“You’ll never pay me another penny,” she interrupted in a low, cold fury. “I won’t take one more dime from you. Ever.”
He took a deep breath. “Louisa, you’re just upset,” he said in a reasonable voice. “I admit I was rude to jump to conclusions, but surely you can see how your past looked to me? I am sorry I accused you of trying to trap me. I should have known you would never try to purposefully get pregnant with a child neither of us want. Forgive my stupidity,” he said humbly. “Let’s forget all this unpleasantness. Leave it behind and return to how we were. Boss. Valued employee.”
She shook her head, her face a mask of repressed fury and some other emotion he could not read. Disgust? Grief?
“I will never work for you again,” she whispered. “God help any woman stupid enough to be completely under your control. I’m done with you, Rafael. I never want to see you again.” She lifted her chin, and her eyes glittered.
THE bakery had been busy all day amid the hubbub of the early spring season in Key West. Outside, the sun was warm, glimmering off the turquoise sea and a cruise ship docked nearby. It was only early afternoon, but Louisa guessed that she’d already served nearly every tourist on that ship. As she worked the counter, she glanced at the ship briefly through the storefront window that proclaimed Grey’s Bakery.
Then, as the family of six left with their arms full of doughnuts and cookies, Louisa turned with an apologetic smile to the last customer. “Good afternoon. I’m so sorry for the wait—”
Then she finally got a good look at the man who’d been behind the throng of tourists. She sucked in her breath. The tongs she’d been holding dropped to the floor with a clang.
Rafael looked down at her, smiling with his dark eyes.
“Hello, Louisa,” he said. “How are you?”
She stared at him in shock, unable to speak.
It had been almost a year and a half since she’d left him in Istanbul, this selfish, coldhearted man who hadn’t wanted either a wife or a child. He looked at her now with the exact same gray shade of eyes as her baby son, who was now almost eight months old. The baby who was right now sleeping in the tiny office behind the counter.
Involuntarily she moved a little to the right, blocking his view of the office door. What was Rafael doing in Florida? Had he somehow found out about Noah?
“What are you doing here?” she choked out.
“You don’t look pleased to see me.” He rubbed the back of his dark hair and glanced up at her with a sheepish half smile. “I guess you’re not the one who sent the letter. I hoped you were.”