by Paula Roe
She clamped down on a dozen furious comebacks, testing the words on her tongue. “I was with Gabriela.”
“I see. And how is my footloose ex-girlfriend? I’m assuming she found someone else to be her handbag because I’ve heard nothing.” His mouth thinned, as if barely able to contain his scorn.
You have to stop this. Now. She slapped her hands on the desk, stared at the polished wooden surface and took a deep breath.
“Don’t go there, Alex.” She managed to rip her eyes away from his piercing blue ones and snap her diary shut with firm finality. “You hired me to do a job. If I’m to do it, we need to leave our personal lives out of it—including whatever issues you and Carlos have.”
His gaze turned sharp. “What issues would they be?”
“I have no idea. The last time I saw him was two months ago.”
Did he know how much that wounded her, having Carlos lock her out of his life? Apart from a few throwaway comments, she had no idea what her brother’s relationship with Alex was since Alex’s return to Canberra. Which was a good thing, she decided. She’d grown up this past year—becoming a mother and moving out of the Valero home had not only provided the independence she craved: it had also put a stop to Carlos’s stifling “big brother” routine. And she’d banned Alex from her mind, preferring not to know what he was doing or whom he was seeing.
As he considered her with intense scrutiny, the atmosphere slowly disintegrated. It was like…expectancy. As if he wanted to ask a million questions but something held him back. Definitely not the Alex she knew.
“I’ll need to speak with your family,” she said abruptly.
And just like that, their moment was gone.
“Of course.” His expression smoothed and he stood, startling her. “I’ve arranged an 11:00 a.m. flight.” He glanced at his watch. “I’ll have a car pick you up from your apartment at ten.”
She blinked. “I’m sorry? I thought—”
“You. Me. Flight at eleven,” he repeated succinctly. “You need to meet my family—your clients. They’re at Diamond Bay.”
“Your outback resort?” she asked faintly.
“The same. Don’t be late.”
“What…” She shook her head, frowning. “What about my team?”
“I need to get back to the resort. Plus my staff is fielding a million calls, so right now, I need one hundred percent discretion. At this moment, you are the team.”
Of all the—! She shot to her feet. “I can’t do everything myself! I need an assistant, an event planner…”
He waved away her protest with a regal hand. “I have ample staff for that. And once we have a firm schedule, you can delegate.”
She stared at him. “I have a life, a—”
“I thought your work was your life.” His chilly appraisal brushed over her almost insultingly.
She crossed her arms. “You don’t know anything about me anymore.”
“That’s true.”
The sudden drop in temperature did nothing to cool the slow burn creeping up her neck. Yet before she could form a retort, he reached into his jacket and removed his mobile phone. “Pack for a week. I’ll see you at the airport.”
Then he was gone, the only evidence of his presence the very male notes of a lingering aftershave.
Yelena was left staring at her open door, stuck in a deep frown that sent tiny aching shards into her temples.
Stop scowling, Yelena. You’ll give yourself wrinkles.
Her mother’s familiar command cut into her thoughts like diamonds on glass and she automatically smoothed out her features.
How on earth could she leave the past behind and concentrate on her job when this was the result of their proximity?
She’d packed a lifetime of living into the last year. She’d lost a sister and Alex. Even Carlos had drifted away; he’d become so publicity conscious, and the only time they talked these days was to argue. She’d disappointed her family, her life had shattered then been fused back together in irregular mismatched pieces. Like an expensive vase outwardly displaying a flawless façade, only to reveal the hairline cracks on the inside.
Yet Yelena had finally gained control. And she’d become a mother. Through it all, Bella had been worth everything she’d suffered.
She had to do this for Bella.
As she tidied her desk, grabbed her iPhone and locked up, she remained focused on that one honest truth.
Alex Rush was the Holy Grail of clients. His campaign would cement her career and her promotion. And despite his unspoken yet obvious falling out with Carlos, despite their torrid history, he’d chosen her. If he could make this just about business, then so could she. She wasn’t about to blow her future on the mistakes of her past.
Two
“I’m just about to feed Bella,” Melanie, her neighbor and babysitter, announced from the kitchen as Yelena walked in her front door. “You want?”
Yelena dropped her bag on the counter then took the warm formula from her neighbor with a smile. “Of course. Did my mum call in?”
“She phoned just after you left this morning…” Mel trailed off as she followed Yelena down the quiet hallway and into Bella’s room.
“And? Hello, gorgeous girl—how’s my bella Bella today?” Yelena reached into the crib, scooping up the gurgling five-month-old baby with a theatrical gasp. “You are so big! How did you get to be so big? What did she say, Mel?”
The woman pulled a thread from her tank top’s hem, giving the task entirely too much attention. “She said she was coming down with a cold and didn’t want to give it to Bella.”
“I see.” Despite knowing exactly what her mother was like, Yelena’s heart still squeezed painfully. Maria Valero played tennis and had a personal fitness trainer. She’d been a three-step-skin-care woman since her teens, she took vitamins, ate just enough to stay healthy, eschewed caffeine, chocolate and other skin-destroying addictions. The woman was going to outlive everyone including, she suspected, Bella.
The lie still had the power to hurt, which meant it still mattered.
“Better to be on the safe side,” Melanie added diplomatically as she handed Yelena a cotton towel. “Babies can pick up things so easily.”
“That’s true.” Yelena settled in the huge rocker, gently placing the squirming baby on the nursing pillow that Mel arranged under her arm. When Bella’s tiny rosebud mouth latched onto the bottle, something deep and primeval sucker-punched her low.
Fierce and total adoration engulfed her as she gazed down at the feeding baby. She’d do anything for Bella. Her world began and ended with this little girl.
“So what’s this business trip you’re taking?”
Yelena’s gaze remained riveted on Bella, smiling at the baby’s gentle slurp. “Just a new client.”
“For how long?”
“I should be back next Monday.”
“So…” Melanie frowned. “Who’s going to look after Bella for a week? Your mum?”
Yelena shook her head. “Can you honestly see her coping with a baby?” And I wouldn’t dream of leaving Bella with a woman who rarely had time for her own children. “No, Bella’s coming with me.”
“Wow.” Melanie crossed her arms and perched her bottom on the arm of the one-seater. “I didn’t know B&H had a nanny service. I’m so in the wrong profession.”
“They don’t—the resort we’re staying at has. And as it’s extended travel, B&H foot the bill. Anyway,” Yelena said, grinning and gently wiping drool from the baby’s mouth, “don’t tell me you’d rather work in my frivolous, soulless profession than go back to your thankless, underpaid teaching career.”
Melanie’s grin matched her friend’s at their shared joke. “Nah. And it’s not like Matt can’t afford to keep me, being head of oncology and all. Plus I get to be a hands-on mum and pick Ben up from kindy. Best of both worlds.”
“Well, after this client, I’m expecting that promotion to kick in.”
“And about time, to
o. You work twice as hard as anyone in that firm. But I will miss Bella—she’s adorable.” She gently stroked the infant’s downy head before winking at Yelena. “Even if she does look like her mother.”
Deep protectiveness surged, and Yelena answered with a smile. “Hey, can you do me a favor and pack a few things for her while I finish up here?”
While Melanie gathered up clothes and feeding equipment, Yelena burped Bella. Sitting here in the comfort of her daughter’s girly lemon-and-white bedroom, it was so very easy to ignore the world. Bella was her whole world, from the moment she’d been born. She’d made a promise to that squirming little bundle, wrapped warmly in a birthing blanket.
I’ll protect you, keep you safe from harm. And I will always, always be there whenever you need me.
She’d been doing fine until Alex Rush had waltzed back into her life and demanded her complete attention.
Bella sneezed and Yelena gently turned her, bringing the chubby face in line with hers. The baby’s thickly lashed brown eyes stared right at her, the tiny mouth working an invisible pacifier.
Yelena studied Bella as she gurgled, her gummy grin stretching. Yet she couldn’t squash the trepidation fluttering around in her belly.
Alex was a smart man: once he saw Bella he’d do the math. There’d be no going back. Yet leaving Bella at home was not an option. Her childhood, all those years of emotional neglect, had seen to that.
“If Alex Rush wants me, then he’ll have to deal with you too, sweetheart.”
You can do this. She put entirely too much emphasis on what she’d meant to Alex. He’d moved on from what they’d been to each other, just as she had. He didn’t care enough to hate her. What mattered now—what had always mattered—was doing her job. Turning the tide of public opinion was his sole purpose. Whatever he felt about her would only be temporary, just as this campaign was.
Alex settled into the luxurious comfort of Rush Airline’s private Cessna, trying to focus on the work spread in front of him but failing.
His grievances against Yelena’s brother had been gathering momentum ever since his father’s accidental-death ruling. Alex had left the sanctuary of Diamond Bay in June, returning to Canberra to discover the huge ripple effect William Rush’s death had wrought. The speculation, the unrelenting police interrogation and the intense press scrutiny paled in comparison to discovering Carlos’s true colors.
He muttered a foul oath, the blade of betrayal still sharp. Carlos had been a casual acquaintance from university, one who’d mixed in the same elite social circles. On a whim he’d considered Carlos’s business proposal, encouraged by the prospect of escaping from the shadow of Australia’s favorite son, William Rush.
Two short years later and he and Carlos had set up a partnership, developing a handful of franchised travel agencies under the name of Sprint Travel.
He wasn’t so blind to ignore the fact that Yelena’s approval had played a part in his decision. Hell, he could still hear her glowing endorsement of her brother as partner material.
That woman could tempt the Lord himself…even if she were sister to the Devil.
He dragged a hand over his jaw and absently rubbed the whisper of stubble, its familiar rasp an empty echo in the cabin.
You were an idiot. A stupid, bloody idiot, thinking with your libido, not your head.
All his life he’d had this unnerving ability to know when people weren’t telling the whole truth—his father had crudely dubbed it “Alex’s crap detector” with a certain amount of pride. But with Carlos he hadn’t seen it coming…and yeah, he thought grudgingly, not wanted to see it because the brother of Gabriela and Yelena Valero couldn’t possibly be a lying snake…right?
He snorted. Wrong on all counts. A week after he’d been cleared of his father’s death, he’d been served with the breach of contract documents. He’d read them through, choking back his shock at the neatly typed legalese. If the courts sided with Carlos and the partnership was dissolved, all Alex’s shares would go to Carlos. Technically it was legal, but morally?
Before he had time to wrap his head around that, the next blow fell. A loyal agency manager with friends at the Federal Police and the Canberra Times had voiced concerns about Carlos’s creative accountancy practices.
And that’s when things had turned ugly.
The betrayal wounded him deep, much deeper than any financial loss. With fury in his blood, fueling every waking hour, he’d dug for the truth. And as the articles about his family steadily grew worse, so, too, did his desire for vengeance. He’d used every contact, every favor at his disposal to uncover something, anything solid to wield as his sword of justice, but until recently Carlos had been clever. No paper trail and no one willing to go on record.
And then, suddenly, two breakthroughs. Last week he’d contacted three potential victims of Carlos’s rip-off schemes who hadn’t automatically slammed the door in his face. And, more importantly, Alex had discovered Carlos was the one who’d been feeding infidelity stories of his dead father to the press since March.
Everything had clicked into horrible focus. Yelena was the only person who could’ve overheard that shameful, ugly confrontation with his father in his office. The only one who could’ve blabbed to Carlos about it.
It wasn’t about business anymore. This was personal.
Damn them. Damn her.
His fist tightened on his pen until a tiny cracking noise forced him to release it with a hollow clatter. The marks across his palm rose quickly.
Soon they would be on their way to Diamond Bay, where he’d have Yelena completely to himself. He’d make sure Carlos Valero knew his perfect, respectable sister had willingly fallen into his bed then he’d hand all his evidence about Carlos’s wrongdoing over to the authorities. Only complete and utter humiliation would vindicate him.
Wasn’t one sister enough for you? Keep your hands off Yelena or God help you, I’ll bring you down. His mouth slashed into a grim smile as he remembered Carlos’s hollow phone threat, now securely saved on his message bank.
Anger meant mistakes and Alex was counting on Carlos to make one.
Alex glanced at his shiny Tag Hauer. What if she didn’t show? He tossed away that thought as quickly as it formed. He knew Yelena, knew how hard she worked to control her world, how she craved independence and respect. A successful campaign with the Rush name behind it would send her career into orbit.
Yet relief still surprised him when he finally heard her voice in the alcove.
Then she rounded the corner carrying a strangely shaped bundle and he frowned.
“What’s that?” he asked over the sudden roar of the plane’s engines.
“‘That’ is my daughter.”
Oblivious to Alex’s stunned silence, she smiled at the attendant who’d flipped down the bulkhead’s portable cot then gently placed the bundle inside.
“You don’t have a baby,” he said sharply as she eased into the seat opposite.
“I do.” She shrugged off her jacket then buckled up, keeping her eyes firmly on her task. “Her name is Bella.”
“You adopted.”
His tight statement snapped her eyes to his. “That’s none of your business, Alex.”
“It is if you’re bringing your private life to work.”
Her icy gaze matched his. “You of all people can understand why she’s here. I will not hand her over to my family while I run off for a week, no matter how badly I need your account.”
Her steady glare, her steely posture, all spoke of complete and utter control.
He paused, recalling her proud, dry-eyed confession that the Valero children had been raised by nannies and boarding schools while Maria Valero had played the part of the foreign diplomat’s wife to perfectly coiffed perfection.
It had been the first time he’d been aware of something more than just physical desire for Yelena.
His teeth ground together with an inward growl. “So she’s yours?”
In her infinite
simal pause he had his answer. He didn’t need to see the quickly suppressed anxiety in her eyes that accompanied the curt nod.
A child. Yelena’s child.
How had he missed that?
A deathly calm swept in to cleave his entire body, slicing at his control and reopening past wounds all over again.
“How old?” he got out.
She actually had the audacity to lift that proud chin of hers, to meet his glare with one of her own. “Five months.”
As he did the math then double-checked, a thin film of rage clouded his vision, choking him into silence. If he’d had any smidgen of doubt about his plans, any tiny attack of conscience, she’d well and truly obliterated them.
The night Yelena had declared she’d loved him, the night of his father’s death, she’d been pregnant with another man’s child.
Three
The plane banked high in the air then slowly eased off. For the next hour, Yelena tried to bury herself in Alex’s clippings, but time and again she caught herself staring out the window, into the painfully bright clouds and searing blue sky.
Bella finally stirred and she gave up any pretense of working. Instead she rummaged in her bag for a bottle of formula. But even as she fed Bella, she was acutely aware of the man seated directly opposite…and his complete and utter lack of interest in her. When Bella began to fidget—obviously sensing her mother’s tension—Yelena glanced over.
The dark scowl as he focused on the papers on the table was so oddly out of place that her eyes lingered. She’d never seen Alex so angry, so untouchable. Her memories of him were scattered with flirtatious banter and unspoken attraction.
Don’t forget kisses. Treacherous kisses that promised as much as they cajoled her to forget.
She glanced down at Bella, at those large half-mast eyes, her mouth hanging slack on the bottle. With a tender smile, she put a towel on her shoulder then placed the baby over.
Ten minutes later, she moved her sleeping daughter back to the cot, packed away the forgotten paperwork then focused on the land spread out below.