Pregnant at Acosta's Demand

by Maya Blake

  ‘That money was never meant for me, Ramon, and you know it. It isn’t right,’ she murmured, her voice husky.

  ‘Whatever my thoughts are on the matter, this was Luis’s wish. You will honour it.’

  Her mouth firmed. ‘Okay, fine. If I choose to accept it, what then? Will you just hand it over?’

  He shrugged. ‘That will be one of the subjects of our private discussion.’

  A tiny flame lit through her eyes, a spark of anger lightening the dark blue depths that seemed even more vivid against the stark black she wore. ‘You just wanted me to say yes so you’d make me jump through hoops, didn’t you?’

  ‘I’m not in a habit of handing over a quarter of a million pounds on a fickle whim, Suki, so yes, there will be some hoop-jumping.’

  She gasped, her gaze swinging from his to his lawyer’s. At the man’s nod of confirmation of the sum, she subsided back into her chair. ‘That’s...a lot of money. Why?’

  ‘You were carrying his niece, and Luis was big on family. As his friend, surely you knew that?’ he taunted.

  The fire dimmed a little, but her chin elevated. ‘Yes, I knew.’ Her gaze swung to the lawyers. ‘If Mr Acosta decides to release the money to me, I would still like to donate it. Can I contact you if I need to?’

  Temper rising, Ramon watched his lawyer nod, his expression softening.

  ‘Sí, of course, Miss Langston.’

  Suki started to rise, throwing further fuel on Ramon’s mood. ‘Sit down, we’re not done,’ he snapped.

  Her gaze reverted to him, then back to his lawyer. The older man cleared his throat. ‘Luis also left you two works of art to be handed over on whatever birthday followed his passing. I believe your twenty-sixth birthday is coming up.’

  She nodded.

  The lawyer continued, ‘They’re commissioned and paid for, but not yet completed. The artist will let us know when it is ready and you will be informed.’

  A tiny frown marred her eyebrows. ‘I...who’s the artist?’

  Ramon hid his sizeable bolt of shock. ‘I’m guessing that would be me,’ he supplied lazily, both irritated and saddened by Luis’s meddling. He looked at his lawyer. ‘Correct?’

  Her head snapped in his direction, her breath stopping. ‘You...why?’ she asked for a second time in the space of three minutes.

  ‘Because according to my brother, you adore my work. I believe his paraphrased words after a visit to one of my galleries were, “She rhapsodised over your sculptures for a solid hour and needed to be dragged out of the gallery. I think the poor girl deserves a couple of her own.” I never thought he’d actually put the thought to deed in his will.’

  Her face reddened, her eyes sliding away from his. ‘I didn’t... Luis liked to exaggerate. I wasn’t that taken...’

  ‘Does that mean you’re about to refuse this gift, too?’ he enquired, the turbulence inside him curiously emerging in a soft whisper.

  Her gaze returned to his. Her lips parted. Ramon found himself holding his breath, unsure whether he wished her to accept or refuse.

  ‘You would still do it? Despite...everything?’ Her voice was equally soft, but tinged with bewilderment, not the rage burning beneath his skin.

  He allowed himself a twisted smile. ‘I loved my brother. I believe in honouring his wishes. The question is, do you?’

  Her bewilderment intensified, her tongue sneaking out to lick her lower lip. ‘Of course, but, Ramon...’

  He actively despised the hot little tug to his groin as he followed the action. ‘Is that all of it?’ he snapped at his lawyers.

  They got the hint, straightened their ties and shuffled papers. ‘Yes, that’s Miss Langston’s part of the meeting concluded. When it’s decided what to do with the inheritance, we will be on hand to carry out your wishes.’ His chief lawyer switched to Spanish, handing over the papers Ramon had requested with a puzzled expression.

  Ramon ignored his concerns. Almost overnight, he’d had everything that meant a damn taken from him. His parents and Luis’s loss was unavoidable. The steps Suki had taken were deliberate. He would not be swayed from the path he’d chosen.

  The moment the lawyers left he returned his gaze to her.

  Watched her gather herself with a deep breath, her eyes fixed on the painting on the far wall of his study. A little colour had returned to her cheeks and she seemed better composed. She was nowhere as vibrant as she’d been the last time they were together, but she didn’t look deathly pale any more.

  Which he chose to see as an advantage. For what was to come she would need all her strength. Or perhaps she would acquiesce simply to get her hands on the money she purportedly didn’t want. He knew different. She was in severe dire straits financially.

  Rising, he rounded his desk. Her head immediately swung to him, her expression growing wary as she tracked his slow stride. Hitching his thigh on the corner of his desk, he sat down.

  Silently, he watched her. Waited.

  Her tongue darted out to worry her lower lip again. ‘Ramon, I think I need to explain a few things—’

  ‘Explanation is necessary when there’s a misunderstanding, an omission of facts, or outright lying. There is no such misunderstanding or omission here. You got pregnant with my child and chose to keep that fact to yourself. Then took specific steps to get rid of it. Have I misunderstood or omitted anything?’

  She flinched then slowly her gaze narrowed, the fire returning to her eyes. ‘No, you haven’t. But you’re also forgetting one thing.’

  ‘And what’s that?’ he asked.

  ‘That it was my body and ultimately my decision. Not yours.’

  The truth in that statement was inescapable. And while the civilised part of him accepted it, the part steeped in deep mourning and inextinguishable anger couldn’t swallow it in that moment. ‘So I didn’t matter at all in this scenario?’ he breathed.

  Her hand flew to her forehead, rubbing restively over her smooth skin. ‘I didn’t say that. The trouble is that you seem to think I took the decision lightly, when it was the last thing I did.’

  ‘How would I know? I wasn’t there.’

  Her hand dropped, her delicate jaw clenching. ‘I know! And you can berate me about that all you want. But I can’t change the past. I’m... I’m trying to put it behind me.’

  That terrible vice around his heart squeezed tighter. ‘Well, I’m not ready to put it behind me. And no, you can’t change the past. But you can change the future. And you will.’

  Her breath expelled in a little rush of apprehension. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘It means it’s time to discuss the next item on the agenda.’

  He reached for the bound papers his lawyers had drawn up and tossed them into her lap.

  For long seconds, she looked down at them. Then, slowly, she picked them up, scrutinised the pages with a frown. ‘What is this?’

  ‘It’s an agreement between you and me.’

  She leafed through a few more pages. ‘I can see that. But for what? It just says it’s an agreement for my services. I’m an interior designer and you’re a hotelier and artist. What service could you possibly want from me?’

  ‘I don’t need your professional services, cara. What I want is for you to provide me with what you took deliberate steps to deprive me of. My whole family was wiped out in a single night. I want a child, Suki. An heir. As soon as possible. Preferably in the next nine months. And you’re going to give me one.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  DEEP SHOCK AND confusion held her frozen in the chair for countless seconds. Then Suki surged to her feet. She tossed the papers back onto the desk, unable to get her fingers off them quickly enough.

  ‘Are you out of your mind?’ She should’ve posed the question rhetorically because she was one h
undred per cent sure that he had gone insane. From grief or from something else, but definitely unsound.

  Except he didn’t look crazy. Only brutally determined, eerily controlled. ‘Far from it,’ he confirmed. ‘In fact, this is probably one of the sanest decisions I’ve ever made.’

  Her already racing heart tripped over itself to speed up even more. ‘Then I’m terrified to imagine what you class as sane!’

  A cold smile curved his mouth. ‘Let’s concentrate on one item at a time.’

  ‘We will not concentrate on any items because what you’re...suggesting isn’t going to happen,’ she returned. She didn’t realise she was backing away from the chair, from him, until he rose to his imposing height and prowled after her.

  ‘Where do you think you’re going?’

  ‘Where do you think? I’m leaving!’

  ‘No. You are not.’ His voice was deadly soft.

  Goose bumps rose on her skin but she kept moving away. ‘Watch me.’

  ‘I am watching you. And I don’t think you realise how very little options you have here.’

  ‘I have the option of not staying here to continue this insane conversation with you.’

  His hands slid lazily into his pockets, but there was nothing indolent in the eyes that tracked her backward trajectory with narrow-eyed intensity. ‘You can leave this room, but how do you propose to make your escape from this house?’

  Her back touched the study door and she froze. ‘You... I seriously hope you’re not suggesting that you intend to keep me here against my will!’

  ‘That entirely depends on you. You can walk out of here and attempt to make the three-hour journey back to Havana on your own or we can finish this conversation.’

  She shook her head, knowing deep inside that things weren’t that simple. The alarming suspicion that he’d planned all this with meticulous precision grew with each second he stared at her.

  ‘I’ll make the journey on my own, thank you.’

  She needed to get out of here. The trip back would be costly, but she’d stick it on her credit card and think about the consequences later.

  Reaching behind her, she grasped the handle, turned it. Relief flooded her when it yielded. It occurred to her that once she turned and walked away, this would probably be the very last time she set eyes on Ramon. A tiny second was all she needed to take in the sculpted beauty of his face, the square designer-stubble jaw, the impossibly wide shoulders that Luis had once told her had been honed from his days playing quarterback at college in the States, the lean, hard-packed body that stretched over pure, streamlined muscle.

  She took all of it in, stored it in a file somewhere deep in her subconscious, unwilling to admit that some time in the future she would revisit it. Just as she’d revisited their night together more times than she felt comfortable admitting even to herself.

  Pulling the door wider, she stepped through it. ‘Goodbye, Ramon.’

  ‘Is your hurry to get back to do with your appointment with the sperm donor agency or your mother?’ he enquired in an almost indifferent voice.

  Suki turned back so swiftly she almost tripped over her feet. The way he leaned so casually against the doorjamb, legs crossed at the ankles, made her believe she’d misheard him. Because surely he wouldn’t look that bored while informing her he’d callously invaded her privacy. ‘What did you say?’

  He remained silent, those all-knowing green eyes pinned on her.

  ‘Did you not hear me? I said—’

  ‘I heard you, and you know exactly what I said. I just prefer not to conduct this conversation in the hallway in the hearing of my staff, especially if you insist on using that shrill voice.’

  Suki swallowed down the scream that rose; squashed the urge to march up to him, take him by his expensive designer lapels and shake the living daylights out of him. It would be useless because she suspected he would remain just as unmoved as he seemed now.

  She shook her head in abject confusion. ‘What gives you the right to invade my privacy?’

  ‘You don’t seem to have grasped the reality before you, Suki.’ He stepped back from the door, his hands leaving his pockets to hang almost menacingly against his masculine thighs. ‘So come back in and let’s discuss this rationally. Now,’ he added after a handful of seconds when she remained frozen.

  ‘All this...the ticket, the hotel, coming here to meet with your lawyers...it was all one giant plan, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Sí, it was,’ he confirmed, not a trace of apology in his face or voice. ‘Oh, and I forgot to mention. Your things were moved here from the hotel while we were at the memorial. So bear that in mind if you decide to make another grand exit.’

  Her mind sped with the thinly veiled threat in his voice.

  Her things...including her passport and airline ticket. ‘Oh, God. You...’

  ‘Need your undivided attention without the histrionics.’

  The reality of what was happening rammed home in that instant. She could try to leave but she wouldn’t get very far. So really, she was going nowhere until he deemed it so.

  On leaden legs, she returned to the study. The sound of the door shutting felt like the slam of prison gates.

  She tightened her fingers around her clutch to stop their trembling. ‘I can report you to the authorities. You know that, right?’

  He raised a mocking eyebrow. ‘For having a simple conversation with a guest after my brother’s memorial?’

  ‘There’s nothing simple or remotely funny about this, and you know it,’ she replied heatedly.

  All traces of mockery evaporated from his face, leaving a harsh, bleak mask. ‘On that we’re agreed,’ he bit out. One hand rose to spear agitated fingers through his hair. ‘Did you stop to think that, had I been in the picture, things could’ve turned out differently?’

  Suki didn’t want to admit that the thought had crossed her mind when the doctors had first given her the diagnosis. But in those initial harrowing weeks, she’d clung vainly to hope. Then the tabloids’ timely confirmation of Ramon and Svetlana’s still very much on engagement had usefully reiterated why any reliance on the man who’d slept with her while still committed to another woman, who’d proven most categorically that he was untrustworthy, was out of the question. Father of her child or not, the knowledge that she couldn’t trust Ramon with so momentous a decision had kept her silent. ‘How?’ she asked, despite knowing they wouldn’t have been.

  ‘For a start, had you come to me, you would be in a financially better place now than you currently are.’

  She frowned. ‘Financially better place? What are you talking about?’

  ‘Luis helped you with your medical bills, did he not? Did you stop to think that going ahead with the pregnancy, that presenting me with my child, would have made you rich beyond your wildest dreams?’

  She staggered, actually staggered back at the accusation. ‘Are you telling me you think I deliberately got rid of the baby because it wasn’t financially viable?’

  ‘I had my investigators look into your financial history, Suki. I know you’re broke.’

  She struggled to take a breath. ‘I understand that we were little more than strangers. And we didn’t even like each other very much,’ she ventured. ‘But I would never...never dream of—’

  ‘Drop the excuses, Suki. Nothing you say will excuse your actions. Having my child was an inconvenience you took care of without bothering to tell me,’ he cut across her, jaw clenched into stone. Turning, he headed back to his desk and picked up two files and the bundle of papers she’d discarded minutes ago and strode towards her, savage purpose in every step.

  He casually opened the file he held. Suki recognised the charity’s logo on the letterhead immediately. ‘Which begs the question, why would you get rid of my child, then make yourself a charity c
ase for a sperm donation four months later?’ There was something dangerously deadly in his voice. A scalpel-sharp control that said he was stroking the very edge of his endurance.

  She swallowed, knowing instinctively that the none of your business line was the last thing she wanted to throw at him right now. A tremble shivered down her spine. Retreating until she had the grouping of studded leather sofas and a coffee table between them, she attempted to reason with him. ‘Ramon, the past is the past. This thing...what you’re suggesting...it doesn’t make sense.’

  His harsh exhalation stopped her stuttering. He glanced up, eyes like the frozen wastelands of Siberia blasting her. ‘Why, Suki? Why, for some unconscionable reason, have you decided you want a child now?’

  She raised her chin. ‘I don’t have to explain myself to you.’

  A thousand expressions flitted through his eyes, not a single one of them decipherable. Slowly, he shut the file and, without taking his eyes off her, tossed it on the coffee table.

  ‘Okay. Let’s talk about something else. Your mother is currently in a private hospital with health complications triggered by stage two cervical cancer, yes?’ he pressed.

  Her heart lurched painfully. ‘Yes,’ she murmured.

  ‘With her insurance about to run out this month and her doctors all set to throw in the towel, nothing short of a miracle will bring any hope.’ There was no malice in his voice, but neither was there any warmth or sympathy. For reasons she knew were coming, he was laying out the facts of her life in bare chunks.

  A spike of anger tunnelled through her bewildered emotions. ‘And let me guess, you suddenly have the power to grant miracles?’

  ‘I have more than that. I have the financial power that fuels particular miracles. I’m also trying to discover what your goals are. Is this baby you’re hoping to have a means of alleviating future loss? Having decided that you didn’t want a child before, you’re now desperate for one so should your mother not make it you won’t be left alone?’ he demanded chillingly.

  ‘I don’t know what kind of monster you think I am, but what you’re suggesting is detestable.’