LISA COULDN’T MOVE, couldn’t even blink as she looked at Max. She’d waited so long to hear those words that she’d given up hope of ever hearing. In desperation she’d come here tonight to give him back the diamonds and, by doing so, take back her love, her heart, because they were wasted on a cold and emotionless man like him.
A gasp from someone nearby warned her that everyone close to them had stopped dancing and had formed a circle around them. They were the centre of attention, just what he’d wanted to avoid, but she hadn’t planned it like this—so public. But somehow that didn’t matter, not any more. Her heart thumped hard and she couldn’t take her eyes from Max’s.
‘I should have said it a long time ago.’ Regret filled his voice, but she wasn’t going to be lured in by such tactics.
She lowered her hands so that he didn’t see how much they were shaking. ‘Yes, you should have. A long time ago, but you didn’t feel it, did you, Max?’
He stood just an arm’s length away but it might as well have been across the other side of the room. He was still closed off, still behind that barrier of steel. Those words he’d just said, the words she’d so longed to hear didn’t have a ring of truth in them.
‘Just as you didn’t trust me enough to truly let me in,’ she continued. Now that the floodgates of all her pain were open she couldn’t stop. ‘Even when I’d shared all the darkness from my past. When I’d told you everything that had made me so certain that I didn’t want you in our child’s life unless you could be there all the time, every step of the way. Even then, Max, you didn’t open up to me. You couldn’t tell me about your mother even though I was pregnant with your child, forcing you to face all that childhood pain and anguish again.’
He stood rigid, tall and proud, seeming to deflect all the emotion pouring from her. She wanted to pummel his chest with her clenched hands, anything to show him her frustration. But she couldn’t, not when all around them the party seemed to have stopped, all attention turned on them.
‘It was too painful, too raw to share. I guess I’ve never come to terms with losing my mother so young.’ He frowned at her. ‘How do you know?’
‘Angelina told me.’ She lowered her voice, gentled her tone as a wave of sympathy rushed forward like an incoming tide. ‘She told me all about your mother, the tough decision she’d had to make.’
‘Angelina?’ He frowned at her.
‘She’s hurting too, Max. You’re shutting her out. Denying her your love.’ Lisa let the truth flow from her. If nothing else came of this conversation maybe she could make things better between him and his sister, who deep inside was still the little girl who’d grown up with barely a memory of her mother and a cold, distant brother she believed hated her.
‘Ten minutes to midnight.’
The excited remark of another party-goer further away roused some of their spectators, eager to get the champagne needed to toast in a new year, but Lisa held Max’s gaze, implored him with her eyes to understand her, to forgive her for saying all this here.
‘We should talk about this somewhere else. I didn’t intend such a public goodbye.’ She began to move, to walk away, hoping he would follow her. Instead he grabbed her wrist.
‘Lisa, I couldn’t tell you. If I did it would have meant opening my heart, letting love in and love has only ever caused me pain—and loss.’
She shook her head slowly. ‘It doesn’t have to be like that, Max. It can be good, so very good.’
Movement in those around her caught her attention and in the ever-growing crowd she saw Lydia, hands clasped in front of her and pressed firmly against her chest, and the look in the other woman’s eyes left her in no doubt that she was doing the right thing, that, no matter who witnessed it, she had to make him see he was worthy of love. Even if it wasn’t hers.
‘But it can’t mend the past.’
‘It can ease the pain, but you have to let it into your life. It can’t penetrate toughened barriers of steel. It can’t reach dark and cold places—unless you want it to.’
‘I know that now. When I thought you weren’t coming tonight, that you never wanted to see me again, the pain of that was too much—because I love you.’ Max gently pulled her closer and she moved unresistingly to him.
‘You hurt me so much, Max, when you told me the marriage was over, that you couldn’t give me what I wanted, yet I still loved you. That’s why that night a few months ago happened. I couldn’t stop loving you.’
‘But you don’t now?’
* * *
Max inhaled deeply as Lisa looked up at him, her eyes searching his, her perfume pulling at his senses, flashing all they’d shared together in front of his mind like that of a dying man. Maybe he was. If he didn’t have Lisa, didn’t have her love, then life would mean nothing.
‘Say something, Lisa.’ He couldn’t do this, couldn’t bear to hear her say she didn’t love him any more. ‘I’m sorry. I’ve been a fool.’
‘It’s not your fault. All that happened, all that made you scared of showing your emotions, that’s all to blame. But I want more than you can give me, Max—for me and our baby. I want unconditional and honest love.’
Now she’d touched that raw nerve he’d always kept guarded. That he wasn’t fit to be a father; that, just like his own, he wouldn’t be capable of love. Raul moved into his line of vision and for a moment his gaze met that of his brother. It empowered him. Raul had let go of the past and he was going to damn well do the same. His present and his future were with Lisa.
He opened the hand that had been holding the earrings and offered them to her. ‘These are yours. They were a token of the depth of my feelings for you, as was the Christmas cottage. I was just such a damn fool I didn’t recognise it as love.’
Lisa looked down at the earrings, then up at him. Did the tears glistening in her eyes mean there was hope? That it wasn’t too late? If she took them she would be taking his love and he’d never let her go again.
She shook her head and stepped back as much as she could while he still held her wrist. She didn’t want them. Didn’t want his love. Pain seared through him as if he’d been physically branded. Branded by her love. Her rejection.
‘Oh, no!’ someone exclaimed in the crowd around them and a whisper of panic rushed around them, around him, pushing the tension in the air ever higher.
‘Please, Lisa.’ He tried one last time. If she refused once more, he’d turn and walk away. Accept defeat. Accept he’d messed it all up, thrown away the one good thing in his life.
* * *
Lisa looked down again at the diamond earrings that had unwittingly come to represent so much. The tension around her, buzzing in the crowd still gathered, made her head thump and her heart beat so hard. But it was what he’d just said that sent a fierce surge of hope through her.
He’d said he loved her. He’d said the words she’d always wanted to hear and in front of everyone.
So why wasn’t that enough?
Because he’s hurt you too much. Because he doesn’t trust you.
She lifted her hand to his, then stopped. She raised her gaze to his, meeting the darkness that was full of despair. He meant every word of what he’d said. He’d finally opened his heart to her, but if she took them she could be exposing herself to more pain.
‘Ten!’ someone shouted as, beyond the circle gathered around them, the countdown to a new year had begun amidst raucous delight.
‘I can’t,’ she whispered as her eyes searched his face, his eyes. ‘You don’t trust me. You couldn’t open up to me even after I’d told you my darkest secrets and it knocked me so far down I don’t know if I can come back from that.’
‘Nine!’
Max let her wrist go and raised his hand to brush the backs of his fingers over her cheeks. ‘That was my insecurity, Lisa, and for that I’m sorry.’
Her eyelashes fluttered closed as he moved his hand, his fingers, trailing down her neck and then to the back of her head. When she opened them he was
so close to her she could kiss him if she moved forward just a fraction.
‘Eight!’
‘It’s never been about that.’ Her whisper was soft, her breathing fast and deep. She couldn’t hold out against this for long. Not when she loved him so much.
‘Seven!’
‘I was a damn fool, Lisa. You’ve loved me all along and I abused that love in the worst way possible, but I want to spend the rest of my life making it up to you—loving you.’
‘Six!’
‘And the baby?’ She drew in a ragged breath as he lowered his gaze. ‘Max?’
‘Five!’
‘Our baby will have all the love it can ever want from its father because I’m not my father. I’m not the cold, hard, mercenary man he was, not when I love my wife with all my heart.’
‘Four!’
It was just seconds until the new year, until a fresh start, and Lisa knew she couldn’t ignore that omen, couldn’t turn Max away when her heart ached so badly for him and he’d finally destroyed the barrier of steel he’d spent so long behind.
‘Oh, Max,’ she whispered as she moved closer, her lips almost touching his. Almost.
The look on his face, the purity of the love she could see in his eyes made any further words so hard, but she managed what needed to be said. What he needed to hear.
‘I love you, Max. So much.’
‘Three!’
His lips claimed hers in a hard kiss as the hand at the nape of her neck pulled her toward him. Her arms wound around his neck and she kissed him as if her life depended on it.
‘Two!’
He pulled back from her, still so close. ‘It’s time for a fresh start. You and I and our baby.’
‘One!’
‘The perfect time,’ she said softly as the old year slipped away, taking with it all the pain and heartache.
‘Happy New Year!’
A riotous cheer went up from those around them and she looked at him, smiling. ‘Happy New Year, Max.’
He brushed his lips over hers. ‘Happy New Year, and I’m going to tell you I love you every day from now on.’
‘Just tell me?’ she teased wickedly, not caring who was still watching, though from the sound of chinking glasses and popping corks it wasn’t many people. Fireworks sounded outside and more cheers went up.
‘I will tell you as much as you like here, but when I get you on your own I’m going to show just how much.’
She laughed in delight as he lifted her from her feet and began turning round and round as in a dance of elation.
‘That was better than any fireworks,’ someone said as Max finally stopped turning.
Slowly her feet touched the floor again and she looked up into his handsome face as he lowered his head to kiss her. She reached up and pressed a finger against his lips. ‘I’m going to hold you to that, Maximiliano Martinez. I want to hear that every single day from now on.’
‘Then I’d better start now. I love you, Lisa. You are everything to me, always have been and always will be and just to prove it I want you to take these back—and put them on.’
He opened his hand and she looked at him then took the diamond earrings, warm from his touch, just as his heart now was. Without taking her eyes from his, she put them back on then smiled. Diamonds would be a symbol of their love for evermore.
‘I love you, Max.’
A round of applause erupted again as he kissed her, deeply and passionately, and she knew that finally her happy ever after had arrived.
EPILOGUE
LISA LOOKED AROUND the crowded party room at the top London hotel Max and Raul had chosen for their New Year’s Eve party. It was hard to believe that this time two years ago she’d been ready to walk out on Max, on her dreams of love and happiness, believing them to be futile.
‘This is spectacular,’ Lydia said as she sat across the elegantly set table, looking as glamorous as ever despite being heavily pregnant with her first child. The deep blue of the gown suited her well. Or was it the glow of pregnancy?
‘I’m so pleased Raul and Max have decided to make this our annual family tradition, a new one to clear away all the heartache they have both known and build good memories for our children. When they are older, of course.’ Lisa laughed softly at the expression on Lydia’s face and wondered if she’d given her secret away.
‘Children?’
‘Our little Lilly and soon your son or daughter,’ Lisa said as she sipped at her cooling lemonade.
‘Oh, I have to tell you. I just can’t help myself,’ Lydia suddenly said, leaning as far forward as her advanced pregnancy would allow. ‘It’s a boy.’
She took her sister-in-law’s hand and squeezed it tightly. ‘I’m so pleased for you both.’
Further talk of babies was halted as Max returned to their table, soon followed by Raul. The two men were immaculate in their tuxedos and had commanded equal attention as they’d moved around the room, mingling with their guests.
‘Have you seen Angelina?’ Max asked as he sat back and surveyed the guests.
Lisa had seen her. She’d been in the arms of the Greek that Max and Raul had been in recent business negotiations with. Although she wasn’t sure Max would welcome such news. He was fiercely protective of his sister despite the way she continued to keep him at arm’s length. He had tried to mend things with her, but the pain and heartache she’d known was so deep. Lisa briefly thought of saying nothing, of leaving him in ignorance of the obvious attraction between the two, but that night two years ago they’d made a promise to never keep anything from each other again.
‘She was dancing with Vasilios Christakis a while ago,’ she said lightly, trying to play the situation down.
‘I had no idea she knew Vasilios?’ Max frowned.
‘They’ve had a few dances, that’s all.’ Lisa had seen the connection between them, that same spark of instant attraction she’d felt when she’d met Max.
‘Where is she now?’
‘Max,’ Lisa said softly as she placed her hand on his arm. The usual frisson of awareness rushed through her. ‘She’s twenty-three now. She has to make her own choices.’
‘Vasilios Christakis will never be good enough for my little sister,’ he said in a low and menacing voice. ‘He may be wealthy and have a good reputation as a businessman, but he certainly doesn’t where women are concerned.’
‘Will anyone ever be good enough for Angelina in your eyes? I doubt it.’
‘You’re right,’ he conceded with a sigh.
‘You’ll be the same with Lilly,’ Raul added for good measure. ‘In about twenty years’ time.’
Max glared at Raul, but both Lydia and Lisa laughed, knowing they were fooling around as they often did. Nobody could ever guess they’d only met two years ago.
‘And what about you, Raul? If you have a little girl you will be her most fierce protector.’ Max goaded his brother just a little more and Lydia caught Lisa’s attention with a knowing smile.
‘Then I will be the same,’ Raul replied firmly, a hint of a smile on his lips.
‘I’ve had enough of this for now. I’m going to dance with my wife while I have her to myself.’ Max stood up and took Lisa’s hand, pulling her to her feet gently then looking again at his brother. ‘That, little brother, is something you are soon going to have to get used to because once that baby arrives it will take up all your wife’s attention.’
‘Stop teasing, Max,’ Lisa chided and began to walk to the dance floor, pulling on Max’s hand, forcing him away from the expectant parents.
The music was slow and Max took her in his arms, holding her tight against his body so that she could feel every step he made. ‘I hope Lilly is all right.’
‘Max, stop fretting, she’s fine. She has the best nanny ever. You made sure of that.’
‘You’re right.’ He pressed his lips against hers and she sighed softly. The last two years had been so good, so happy. It was hard to remember the pain and heartache of that Christm
as when she’d told him he was going to be a father.
‘Do you remember we promised not to keep any secrets?’ There was a light teasing in his voice, but her mind flew instantly to what she and Lydia had just been discussing. Had he heard them?
‘Of course I do.’
‘So is there anything you want to tell me?’
She put her head to one side and looked at him coyly. ‘Like what?’
‘Like why you are not indulging in the champagne this evening?’
She smiled. ‘I was saving it until midnight and now you’ve spoilt the surprise.’
His eyes narrowed in suspicion briefly then a smile spread across his lips and lit up his eyes, like the night sky full of stars. ‘Are you...?’ He stumbled over the words.
‘Yes, Max. I’m pregnant. You are going to be a father again.’
‘When?’
‘It’s still early days yet, but by the end of July.’
‘Another summer baby. Have I told you how much I love you, Lisa Martinez?’
‘Often!’ She laughed as he dropped a light kiss on her lips. ‘But I don’t mind hearing it some more.’
‘I love you, Lisa, with all my heart. You, Lilly and our new baby are my world.’
The kiss he gave her was so powerful, so full of love she knew without a doubt how happy he was. She kissed him back, not caring they were now standing in the middle of the dance floor kissing passionately. In fact it was becoming a bit of a habit.
* * * * *
Coming next month
CLAIMING HIS NINE-MONTH CONSEQUENCE
Jennie Lucas
Ruby.
Pregnant.
Impossible. She couldn’t be. They’d used protection.
He could still remember how he’d felt when he’d kissed her. When he’d heard her soft sigh of surrender. How she’d shuddered, crying out with pleasure in his arms. How he’d done the same.
And she’d been a virgin. He’d never been anyone’s first lover. Ares had lost his virginity at eighteen, a relatively late age compared to his friends, but growing up as he had, he’d idealistically wanted to wait for love. And he had, until he’d fallen for a sexy French girl the summer after boarding school. It wasn’t until summer ended that his father had gleefully revealed that Melice had actually been a prostitute, bought and paid for all the time. I did it for your own good, boy. All that weak-minded yearning over love was getting on my nerves. Now you know what all women are after—money. You’re welcome.
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