Reckless Night in Rio

chapter THIRTEEN




LAURA woke up with a start to see the soft curl of a pink sunrise through the windows. She sat up in bed abruptly, the blanket falling from her naked chest. Had she heard her baby next door?

She listened, and heard nothing except Gabriel’s even, steady breathing beside her in the shadowy bedroom. Then she heard Robby’s voice again.

‘Ma…ma…ma!’

Quietly Laura rose from the bed and pulled a robe off the bathroom door hook. Leaving Gabriel’s room, she went down the hall to her own, where she found her baby son sitting up in his crib. Whispering soft words of love, Laura took him in her arms. Holding him tenderly, she fed him, rocking him in the rocking chair. The baby, now yawning with a full belly, swiftly fell back to sleep.

But Laura knew she would not.

Putting him back in his crib, she went to the en-suite bathroom, closing the door silently behind her. She turned on the shower and dropped the robe to the floor. As the steam enveloped her body, she climbed into the marble shower. She washed her hair and stared bleakly at the wall.

She’d been so happy last night.

She’d been so stupid.

Of course Gabriel had thought she was lying when she’d claimed he was Robby’s father. It had seemed a useful fabrication. Just like his marriage proposal.

She glanced down at the enormous diamond ring still on her finger. Her other hand closed around it with a sob. It had all felt so real. She closed her eyes, leaning her head back in the hot water. When she’d realized he still didn’t believe he was Robby’s father, her heart had split in two. She’d fallen into the pool, sinking into the water, hoping to forget her pain the way she did at the pond back at her farm.

But it had been Gabriel’s touch that had made her forget, the searing heat of his dark eyes as he’d carried her to bed. For a few hours, she’d managed to forget her heartbreak, forget that she was in love with a man who didn’t want her or their child. She’d managed to forget she’d be leaving him in the morning, with a lie forever between them.

He’d taken her in his arms and kissed her, his lips so gentle and tender and true, and she’d forgotten everything but that she loved him.

His hands had stroked her naked skin as he’d kissed her, his body hard and hot against hers on the bed. She’d lost her mind. Then she’d taken things into her own hands. Literally. A half-hysterical laugh escaped her. She remembered the hard, silky smooth feel of him in her grasp. The taste of the single gleaming bead on the tip of his throbbing shaft. She remembered the rough way he’d reacted, pushing her down against the bed and savagely thrusting deep inside her until she exploded with pleasure, blinding sweetness tinged with bitter salt like tears.

She blinked back tears as she stared across the steamed-up shower. It was morning now. Her left hand closed over the ten-carat diamond sparkling beneath the running water. Their night in Rio was over. Time to give back the ring. Time to take back her heart.

As if she could.

She’d go back home to her family’s farm. Back to her lonely bed. Only now it would be worse than before. Because now she knew she’d always love him. Now, she’d never be free.

Who is the father of your baby, Laura? Will you ever tell?

She turned off the water and dried her hair with a thick white towel. She put on the plush white robe and left her bedroom, closing the door softly behind her.

Going to the kitchen, she turned on a light and made coffee. As it brewed, she poured milk and sugar into a big mug, then filled it to the rim with the hot, bitter brew. Blowing on the steaming liquid, she stood for a moment, alone in the house of sleeping males.

This could have been her home. They could have been her family. If only she’d fallen in love with a man who actually loved them back, a man who wanted a wife and child.

Carrying her mug, she went outside to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic. It was the last morning she would ever spend with both Robby and his father under the same roof. The last day she’d ever see the man she would always love.

She felt the soft wind, the breeze off the sea, and looked down at the beach below. She looked down. The party had ended, leaving only litter rattling along the empty street.

‘There you are.’

She turned to find Gabriel behind her in drawstring pajama bottoms. Her eyes unwillingly lingered on his bare chest before she met his gaze. His dark eyes twinkled at her as he held up a steaming cup of coffee. ‘You made coffee. Thank you.’

She took a sip from her mug, relishing the burn against her tongue. ‘Sure.’ She drew a deep breath and turned back to the view of the ocean. ‘It was the least I could do before I go.’

‘Go?’ There was something odd in his voice.

She turned back to face him, startled. ‘In a few hours, you’ll sign the papers to buy your father’s company. And Robby and I will go home.’

Gabriel’s handsome face looked suddenly grim. Setting down his coffee, he put his hands on her shoulders and gazed down at her. ‘I don’t want you to leave.’

‘We had our night. It’s over.’ She swallowed back her own pain, tried to smile. ‘We both knew it wouldn’t last.’

‘No.’

Laura gave him a trembling smile. ‘It was always meant to be this way.’

‘No,’ he repeated roughly. ‘Stay.’

‘As what?’

‘As…as my mistress.’

She licked her lips, yearning to agree, yearning to say anything that would give her relief from this heartbreak. But she knew that staying here as Gabriel’s mistress wouldn’t end her pain. It would only prolong it.

‘I can’t,’ she whispered. ‘I would always be waiting for the day you’d tire of me, and move on to another.’

He searched her gaze. ‘Can’t you live in the moment? Just live for today?’

Blinking back tears, she shook her head.

‘Why?’ he demanded.

For an instant, she almost laughed. He looked like a spoiled child deprived of his favorite toy. Then she sobered. ‘I don’t want to raise Robby that way. And because…’

‘Because?’

She took a deep breath. Taking her heart in her hands, she looked up at him.

‘Because I love you,’ she whispered.

His dark eyes widened. ‘You—love me,’ he repeated.

She nodded, a lump in her throat. ‘I left you last year because I knew you could never love me back. You’ve told me so many times you will never love anyone. Not a wife.’ She trembled, lifting her eyes to his. ‘Not a child.’

He stared at her, and Laura waited, breathless with the hope that he might deny it, that he’d say his time with Robby had changed his mind.

‘There’s more to life than love, Laura,’ he said, pulling her into his arms. ‘There’s friendship, and partnership, and passion. And I can’t do without you, not anymore. I need you. Your truth. Your goodness. Your warmth.’ He gave her a humorless smile. ‘It warms even my cold heart.’

She caught her breath, then rubbed her stinging eyes. ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t do it, Gabriel. I can’t,’ she choked out. ‘I can’t just stay here, loving you, while you give me nothing in return but the knowledge that you’ll someday leave—’

He gripped her shoulders. ‘Marry me.’

Her eyes and mouth went wide. ‘What?’

‘Marry me.’ He picked up her left hand, looking down at the diamond on her finger. His lips curved upward. ‘You already have the ring.’

‘But I thought your proposal was a lie!’

‘It was.’

She shook her head tearfully. ‘So why are you saying this? We’re alone. You’ve already convinced Oliveira. You don’t need to pretend, not anymore!’

‘I’m not pretending.’ Bending his head, he kissed her hand, making her tremble with the sensation of his warm lips against her skin. He looked up. ‘I need you, Laura,’ he said huskily. ‘I don’t want to lose you. Marry me. Now. Today.’

She licked her lips, feeling like she were in a dream. ‘What about Robby?’

Setting his jaw, Gabriel straightened.

‘Perhaps I can’t love him. But I can give him my name. I can give you both the life you deserve. And I can be faithful to you, Laura. I swear it.’

It was so close to everything she’d ever wanted. Gabriel would be her husband. He would be a father, at least in name, to their child. And if some part of her warned that this was a fool’s bargain, to marry a man who could not love her, she still couldn’t resist. Her heart overrode her reason and she succumbed to the temptation of her heart’s deepest desire.

With a tearful sob, she flung her arms around him in her bulky white cotton robe, kissing him as the sun finally broke, vivid and golden, over the fresh blue Atlantic.

‘Yes!’ she cried with a sob. ‘Oh, yes!’