Promising a lie.
With an intake of breath, she jerked away from him, tears in her eyes. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“Don’t you know?” he said in a low voice. “Haven’t I made it clear?”
“We had a deal,” she whispered. “One night in Rio. One million dollars.”
“Yes.” He looked down at her. “And now I’m not going to let you go.”
She stared up at him, frozen, even as other couples continued to swirl around them in a dark, sexy tango.
“I’m not going to let you seduce me, Gabriel,” she said, her voice shaking. “I’m not.”
He looked down at her, his eyes dark with desire. He didn’t argue with her. He didn’t have to.
With a gasp, she turned and ran, leaving him on the dance floor. Looking wildly for escape, she saw open French doors that led outside to some sort of shadowy garden. She ran for them, only to smack into a wall.
Except it wasn’t a wall. A man grasped her shoulders, setting her aright as he stared down at her. “Good evening, Miss Parker.”
“Mr. Oliveira.” She licked her lips. Dressed in a tuxedo that only served to accentuate his bulk, he was drinking a martini beside the bar. Behind him, she saw the gorgeously pouting Adriana in a skimpy silver cutout dress that clung like spackle over her breasts and backside, leaving everything else bare down to her strappy silver high heels.
“Lovers’ spat?” Felipe Oliveira said mildly.
Gabriel appeared behind her. He put his hands possessively on Laura’s shoulders. “Of course not.”
Swallowing, Laura leaned back against Gabriel, feeling the hardness of his body against hers, and tried her best to look as if her heart wasn’t breaking. She forced her lips into a smile. “I, um, just wanted a little fresh air.”
Gabriel wrapped his arms around her more tightly, nestling her backside firmly against his thighs as he nuzzled her temple. “And I wanted to dance.”
Oliveira looked at them, his eyes narrowed. “You’re both liars.”
Gabriel shook his head. “No—”
“I’ll tell you what is really going on,” the older man interrupted. “You think I am stupid enough to fall for this. But if I sign those papers tomorrow selling you the company, you know what will happen?”
“You’ll make a fortune?” Gabriel drawled.
His hooded eyes hardened. “You will end this charade and be once again free to pursue what does not belong to you.”
Gabriel snorted. “Why would I possibly be interested in your fiancée, Oliveira, when I have a woman like this?”
The other man looked at Laura, then shook his head. “Santos, you change lovers with the rise of each dawn. Miss Parker is beautiful, but you will never commit to her for long. There is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise.” He finished the last of his martini. “I will sell to the Frenchman.”
“You will lose money!”
“Some things, they are more important than money.”
Gabriel exhaled. Laura felt his body tense behind her, tight and ready to snap. “St. Raphaël is a vulture,” he growled. “He will break my father’s company up for parts, fire the employees, scatter the pieces around the world. He will crush Açoazul beneath his heel!”
“That is not my problem. I will not give you any reason to remain in Rio.” Oliveira’s jowly face was grim as he started to turn away, holding out his arm for Adriana, who could barely contain the smug look on her beautiful face.
They’d lost.
Laura’s heart leaped up to her throat, choking her.
They’d failed. She had failed.
“You’re wrong about me, Oliveira,” Gabriel said desperately. “I can commit. I’ve always been ready to commit. I was just waiting for the woman I could love forever.”
Frowning, the older man and Adriana glanced back at them. They stopped. Their eyes went wide.
As if in slow motion, Laura turned to face Gabriel, who was standing behind her.
Except he was no longer standing. He’d fallen to his knee.
He’d pulled a black velvet box out of his tuxedo pocket.
Opening it, he held up a ten-carat diamond ring. “Laura,” he said quietly, “will you marry me?”
Laura’s jaw dropped.
She looked from the ring to Gabriel kneeling in front of her. She looked back at the ring.
I was just waiting for the woman I could love forever.
He’d changed his mind about love and commitment? Did he want her in his bed so badly he was willing to marry her?
He smiled, and everything else fell away. She was lost in his dark eyes.
“What is this?” Oliveira demanded. “Some trick? Now she’s your pretend fiancée?”
Gabriel just looked at Laura. “Say yes. Make this an engagement party.”
And Laura exhaled.
All her wedding dreams came crashing down around her. This proposal had nothing to do with love, or even sex. It was entirely about business.
This was his plan B.
Tears rose in her eyes, tears she hoped would appear to be tears of joy. Unable to speak over the lump in her throat, she simply nodded.
Rising to his feet, Gabriel kissed her. Tenderly, he placed the diamond ring on her finger. It fit perfectly.
Laura stared down at it, sparkling on her hand like an iceberg. It was beautiful. And so hollow.
“Hmm,” Oliveira said, watching them thoughtfully. “Maybe I was wrong about you, Santos.”
“You said you’d never marry anyone!” Adriana sounded outraged.
Never looking away from Laura’s face, Gabriel smiled. “Plans change.”
“But people don’t,” she spit out. “Not this much. You would never marry a woman with a baby!”
Stiffening, Gabriel turned to her.
“She has a baby,” Adriana said spitefully to Oliveira. “They were seen together on Ipanema Beach. He just brought Laura here this morning, after they’d been apart for a year. Why would he suddenly decide he’s in love with a woman after being apart for over a year? It’s a trick, Felipe,” she declared. “It’s a lie. He’s not committed to her. He won’t commit to anyone.”
“I can explain, Oliveira,” Gabriel said through his clenched jaw.
Felipe Oliveira’s jowly face hardened as he slowly turned to face his younger rival. “No,” he said. “I’m afraid you can’t. I don’t appreciate this elaborate theater you’ve performed. The deal is officially off.”
The man turned away. Laura saw Gabriel’s frustration, saw his vulnerability and the desperate expression on his face as he lost his father’s company forever.
“Wait,” Laura gasped.
Snorting a laugh, Felipe Oliveira glanced back at her with amusement. “What could you possibly have to say, little one?”
“Everything that Adriana said is true,” she whispered. “I have a baby. And I hadn’t seen Gabriel since I left Rio over a year ago. But there’s a reason why he came for me. A very good reason he’d want to marry me.”
Folding his arms over his belly, Oliveira looked at her with a shake of the head. “I am dying to hear it.”
Laura didn’t glance at Gabriel. She couldn’t, and still say what she had to say. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Then she spoke the secret she’d kept for over a year.
“Gabriel is the father of my baby.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
TREMBLING, Laura folded her arms.
“Ah,” Felipe Oliveira said, stroking his chin with satisfaction as he looked from her to Gabriel with canny eyes. “Now I understand.”
“No!” Adriana gasped. “It can’t be true!”
Laura’s gaze rested anxiously on Gabriel. His dark eyes were deep as the night sky. She saw him take a deep breath. Then slowly, very slowly, he came toward her. Never looking away from her face, he took her in his arms. Biting her lip in apprehension, Laura waited for his jaw to clench with fury and resentment. Waited for him to say something biting and cru
el.
Instead, he gently kissed her cheek, then turned to face Oliveira and Adriana.
“We weren’t going to tell anyone yet. But yes, Robby is my son. I wanted to wait until after our wedding to make it public. It seemed more proper.”
“Proper?” Adriana sneered. “When have you ever cared about proper?”
Gabriel stiffened, glaring at her. “I have always cared about doing what is right,” he said in a low voice. “I would never leave my child without a father, without a name.”
“And yet,” Oliveira said, shifting his savvy gaze between them, “you allowed your fiancée to raise your baby alone, for all these months.”
Gabriel set his jaw. “I—”
“He didn’t know about Robby,” Laura interrupted in a whisper. “I didn’t tell him. It wasn’t until he came to my sister’s wedding that he first saw his son. I knew Gabriel didn’t want a family—”
“So he always insisted,” Adriana said resentfully.
Gabriel’s dark eyes glowed with warmth and love as he looked down at Laura, who was shivering in her red strapless gown and opera gloves. “But Robby changed my mind.” He wrapped his warm, tuxedo-clad arms more firmly around her. “From the moment I saw Laura with our son, I knew I couldn’t part with them. We were meant to be a family.”
Laura blinked back her tears, hardly able to breathe as she heard the words she’d always dreamed of.
She’d told him the truth about Robby, and he knew it. She could see it in his eyes. Robby was his son. And this was Laura’s reward for being brave enough to tell the truth. He wasn’t rejecting her. He wasn’t rejecting their baby.
All this time she’d thought it would be so hard to tell him the truth, but it wasn’t. It was easy.
Staring at them, Felipe Oliveira stroked his chin. “You might be a bastard, Santos, but you wouldn’t desert your son. Or your son’s mother.” He looked from Laura to Gabriel with a sly smile. “And I see the passion between you. I have been a doddering old fool to feel threatened. The two of you are in love.” He gave a sudden decisive nod. “Está bom. We will sign the preliminary contracts tomorrow. Be at my lawyers’ office at nine.”
Gabriel put his arm around Laura’s waist, smiling at the other man. “Sure.”
Adriana glared at Laura. “You got pregnant on purpose! You tricked Gabriel into marriage!”
As Laura stiffened, Oliveira grabbed the supermodel’s arm grimly.
“There’s only one person you should worry about getting tricked into marriage,” he said, “and that’s me. I look at them—” he nodded toward Laura and Gabriel “—and I see love. I look at you, Adriana, and I see…nothing.”
She stared at him, her eyes wide.
Oliveira lifted a white bushy eyebrow. “Our engagement,” he said mildly, “is over.”
He marched off across the ballroom. Adriana’s cheeks went red as an amused titter flowed through the nearby crowd.
“Fine,” she shrieked after him. “But I’m keeping the ring!”
Oliveira didn’t even turn around. Frustrated greed filled Adriana’s eyes, and with an intake of breath, she started to push forward. “Felipe,” she whined, “wait!”
When they were alone in the crowd, Gabriel looked down at Laura. She took a deep breath, waiting for the onslaught of questions she knew were coming. “Oh, Gabriel. I know we have so much to talk about—”
“Wait.” He glanced at the people around them, amused celebutantes and movie actors in designer clothes, rich and beautiful and dressed in sparkling, sexy gowns. “Come with me.”
Grabbing two flutes of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter, Gabriel pulled her through the glorious, gilded ballroom, filled with music and magic, and out a side door.
The private garden was dark and quiet. Laura looked up and saw black silhouettes of palm trees swaying against the purple sky. The night was tropical and warm, and on the wild southern coast so far from the lights of the city, she could see stars twinkling down on them.
Biting her lip, she faced him. “So…so you don’t mind?”
“Mind?” Smiling, he handed her a glass of champagne. His dark head was frosted with silvery moonlight as he leaned forward to clink his crystal flute against hers. “You are the most incredible woman I’ve ever met,” he whispered. “Brilliant. Beautiful.”
She stared up at him with trembling lips as joy flooded her heart. “You’re not angry?”
“Angry?” His brow furrowed. “Why would I be angry? Because you lied?”
She licked her dry lips. “Yes.”
He shook his head. “No, querida.” His expression was tender. “I’ve just gotten everything I ever dreamed of. Because of you.”
He drank deeply from his champagne flute, and she followed suit, her eyes wet with tears of joy. She’d never imagined he would react this way, not in a million years. What had she ever done to deserve this miracle—that Gabriel would so easily accept their child as his own? That he would be glad to be a father after all?
“I’m so happy,” she whispered. Smiling, she wiped tears from her eyes. “I never dreamed you would react like this.”
He looked down at her with a frown. “Querida, are you crying?”
“I’m happy,” she whispered.
“So am I, my beautiful girl.” He stroked her cheek, his fingertips lightly caressing her flushed skin. “You sexy, incredible woman,” he breathed in her ear, causing prickles to spread down her body. Cupping her face, he lowered his mouth to hers. “I will never forget this night.”
When he kissed her, his lips were hot and smooth on hers. He seared her with the sizzle of his tongue against her lips, teasing her. She gripped his shoulders, instinctively pulling him closer.
They heard a sudden burst of laughter as other guests came into the garden. Grabbing her hand with a low growl, Gabriel pulled her deeper into the trees, into a shadowy corner. Above them, palm trees swayed in the violet-smudged night. The other voices continued to come closer, and he pushed her all the way back against the palace wall. She felt the hardness of his body, the roughness of the stone behind her.
Without a word, he slowly kissed her throat. She closed her eyes, tossing her head back with a silent gasp. She felt his teeth nibble her neck, felt his hands skimming from her bare shoulders down the length of her arms, over her long white gloves. He kissed her bare collarbone, his hands cupping her breasts below the sweetheart neckline of her strapless gown. Pressing her breasts together, he licked the cleavage just above the red velvet, and she sucked in her breath.
Samba music poured out of the palace as the doors to the garden continued to bang open and more guests discovered the garden. Voices grew louder, laughing and sultry, murmuring in Portuguese and French, as other lovers approached their corner. Gabriel pulled away from her. “Let’s get out of here,” he growled.
She blinked at him, dazed with desire. “Leave the ball already? It’s barely midnight.”
Jerking her back against his hard body, he leaned his forehead against hers and whispered, “If we don’t leave, I will take you right here.”
Drawing in a breath, she saw his absolute intent to make love to her right here in the dark garden, against the wall, with people on the other side of the foliage and samba music wafting through the warm air. She gave a single nod.
Gabriel instantly grabbed her hand and dragged her through the garden, back into the ballroom. He pulled her through the huge, crowded space, wading against the flow of new arrivals. Laura heard people shouting greetings to him in a variety of languages, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t even look at them. He just pulled her relentlessly up the wide, sweeping stairs to the front door, where he tersely summoned his driver.
As they waited, they stood at the end of the red carpet, not looking at each other. His hand gripped hers, crushing her fingers through her gloves. She heard the hoarseness of his breath. Or maybe it was her own. Her heartbeat was rapid. She felt dizzy.
“What’s taking so long?” Gab
riel muttered beneath his breath. She felt his barely restrained power, felt the grip of his hand as if only sheer will kept him from turning to her and ripping off her slinky red gown, pushing her against the wall and tasting her skin, in front of all the servants, the valets and flash of the paparazzi’s cameras.
It took three minutes before the Rolls-Royce sedan pulled up and Carlos leaped out. Laura stared at the man’s crooked tie. She saw a smudge of lipstick. “Finally,” Gabriel growled, grabbing his door. “Sorry about the delay, senhor,” Carlos said, casting a regretful glance back at the palace. Laura followed his gaze and saw a housemaid looking down from the second-floor window. Laura was so filled with joy, she couldn’t bear the thought of everyone not being happy tonight. Standing on her tiptoes, she whispered in Gabriel’s ear, “Give him the night off.”
“Why?” he snapped. “I don’t want to drive. I want to be alone with you in the back—”
“He was enjoying his time here.” She tilted her head toward the window. “Look.”
Gabriel glanced behind them, then instantly faced his driver, who’d just come around the car. “Carlos, you’re dismissed.”
“Senhor?” the man gasped in horror. “Enjoy your night,” he said. “I trust you can get a ride home tonight?”
Delight flooded the older man’s face. “Yes, sir.” “I have an early appointment tomorrow. Do not be late.” After opening the door for Laura, Gabriel walked around the car and climbed into the driver’s seat.
Smiling at Carlos’s dumbfounded expression, Laura fastened her seat belt, and Gabriel pressed on the gas. They drove down the tree-lined lane with a spray of gravel, and the flash of cameras from additional paparazzi parked outside the gate.
“I know a shortcut,” Gabriel said a moment later. Turning off the busy main road, he drove down the rocky coast, the luxury sedan bouncing hard over the rough road. Laura looked out her window. The landscape was hauntingly beautiful, filled with trees and thickets of jungle that wound along the sharp cliffs overlooking the moonlit Atlantic.
She looked back at the dark silhouette of Gabriel’s brutally handsome face, his Roman nose and angular jaw. She saw the tight clench of his hand on the gearshift, saw the visible tension of his body beneath his tuxedo.
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