Pregnant at Acosta's Demand

by Maya Blake

  ‘Is it?’ he enquired, his tone a touch softer, a touch more...vulnerable.

  Her eyes widened as what he’d said before made clearer meaning. ‘That’s why you want a child? So you’re not alone?’

  Pain flickered over his face. ‘I want a family, yes,’ he confirmed.

  ‘And digging up my mother’s records, what does that achieve except to make me think you’re leveraging my mother’s health against me?’

  ‘It’s not leverage. It’s an offer of help so, when we reach agreement, you have one less thing to worry about. Those miracles you scoffed about can happen.’

  She laughed. She couldn’t help herself. ‘You actually expect me to believe that you’d do that out of the goodness of your heart, after going to this trouble to bring me here?’

  He didn’t answer for a long minute. When he did, his voice was bleak. ‘For some reason Luis held both you and your mother in high regard, and yet you were prepared to walk away from the inheritance he left you just to make a point when that money could’ve helped your mother. Luis isn’t around any more to make you see sense. But I am.’

  She shook her head. ‘That money was meant for the child I never had.’

  ‘It was meant for you. But like everything else, you threw it away without a second thought. You think Luis just overlooked the fact that you were no longer pregnant when he chose not to amend his will? He knew your mother was ill. Did you not think this might be his way of helping you?’

  ‘I don’t know. I had no idea what he was thinking—’

  ‘Perhaps this! What is happening here right now. Maybe he rightly believed that you owe me answers. That you owe me, full stop.’ His fist was bunched, his nostrils pinched in a tight leash on his control.

  She refused to back down. ‘Regardless of that, I don’t deserve that money.’

  ‘Does your mother deserve your abandonment?’

  ‘I haven’t abandoned her! I’ve done everything I can for her—’

  ‘Have you? Or did you make the barest minimum effort then stop, just like you did with our child?’

  Fresh whips lashed her heart. ‘You have no right to say that to me—’

  ‘I have every right. And more. For what you did there is no coming back. Only reparations.’

  ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the moment I found out! Is that what you want to hear? Do you want me to get down on my knees and beg your forgiveness?’

  ‘You know what I want.’

  She flung her clutch on the sofa, every cell in her body too agitated to contain her. ‘How can you even propose something like this...how can you contemplate doing something so life-changing when you stare at me with such hate? And have you even paused for a second to think about my feelings?’

  He swivelled towards the window, his features carefully schooled as he raked a hand through his hair. For a long time, she thought he wouldn’t answer her questions. When he turned back, his features were set even harder, his eyes completely inscrutable.

  ‘I don’t need to like you to take you to bed,’ he replied. While she was grappling with that, he added, ‘And vice versa. I believe right before our last connection we were less than impressed with each other. Yet, we still proved that we were compatible where it counted.’

  Her senses reeled with the enormity of his reasoning. ‘You think that tipsy interlude compares in any way to this...clinical exercise you’re proposing?’

  ‘Yes, I do. And this time we’re going into this with clear minds and a finite purpose. And you mistake me by thinking this is something you can argue away.’

  ‘And you do likewise by thinking this is something you can force on me. My answer is no.’

  ‘There won’t be any force involved. You’ll stay here, take the night to sleep on it. Come morning, you will give me an answer. And I prefer that answer to be yes.’

  ‘Or what?’

  ‘Or nothing. And by nothing I mean we will both walk away empty-handed. You will not be returning to England to get yourself impregnated by some faceless sperm donor. I suggested that your place be given away to another needful applicant as of this morning.’

  She gasped. ‘What?’

  ‘You’re not deaf. On top of that, I have personally put in place a facility for an additional fifty women to receive similar funding. The charity is beyond thrilled. They won’t take your name off the list without your express confirmation, but I dare say you’re no longer at the top of their list. Not once I informed them that you’d be giving the traditional way another try with me.’

  The ground shook beneath her feet. ‘You...you can’t do that!’

  He nodded to the discarded file. ‘You underestimate how much I want this, Suki. You’re still on the waiting list with the charity, but if you truly wish to get pregnant any time soon, I’m your only option.’

  ‘That’s...that’s blackmail.’

  ‘You’ll be good enough not to fling disparaging labels around, cara. What you did was far worse.’

  The urge to scream again rose. She barely managed to keep it together to raise her hands in a placatory gesture when she wanted to find the nearest letter opener and stick it in his black heart. ‘Ramon. Please hear me out. What I did...my decision... I didn’t think I had a choice...’ Her voice broke. Swallowing, she shook her head. ‘I didn’t have a choice...’ she repeated.

  Ramon’s face paled, his features slackening for a brutal, painful moment, before it clenched back into a tight, furious mask. The eyes that stared back at her were almost black with volcanic rage. ‘You had a choice. Me. But you were too selfish to bring me into the equation. You made the decision on your own.’

  ‘My God, you accuse me of so many things, but what about you?’

  His brows clamped tight. ‘What about me?’

  ‘You told me you were no longer engaged, and yet weeks later I found out it was a lie!’

  His jaw flexed for a second. ‘And that is the reason you called my brother when you should’ve called me? That is why you handed him the responsibility when it should’ve been mine to bear?’

  Her breath shuddered out. ‘I didn’t hand anyone the responsibility. I didn’t call Luis. My mother did.’

  He stilled, straight eyebrows clenched tighter in a dark frown. ‘Your mother?’

  She nodded, her head barely able to perform the movement. ‘She was home from hospital but weak from her chemo. She knew what was going on and she felt bad that she couldn’t help me. I told her I didn’t need help but she...she wouldn’t listen. She thought she was letting me down. She knew Luis and I were close friends but she assumed our relationship had grown into something more. Anyway, she assumed he was the father and called him. Apparently, she had a long go at him for shirking his responsibilities. Luis didn’t say a word to refute the claim. He just...turned up at my house the next day and refused to leave.’

  ‘And let me guess. That was when you swore him to secrecy to keep me from my own child?’ His voice bled fire and ice.

  ‘I was going to tell you. I didn’t think you would appreciate hearing it from him. And I thought I had time. But then things just...unravelled.’

  He breathed in a harsh breath. ‘You say that and yet you found time to call on Luis a second time to hold your hand through the procedure.’

  It staggered her how much detail he knew. And how things looked from his side of the fence. ‘I didn’t ask him to come, Ramon. But he wasn’t prepared to take no for an answer.’

  He gave an arid laugh. ‘You found it so easy to give in to him, the same way you found it easy to make up excuses not to contact me.’

  ‘How dare you—?’

  His hand slammed on the desk, making her jump. ‘I dare because I am without my child, and you’re to blame!’

  Pain shook her from scalp to toes. ‘You preach
at me from your lofty pedestal about doing the right thing. Did you stop to think that after lying to me about Svetlana that I’d want nothing to do with you? Or are you going to tell me that those pictures in the papers of the two of you taken in the weeks after we were together were your doppelgängers?’

  His jaw worked for a long moment before he exhaled. ‘What happened between you and I was a one-night thing. If memory serves it was what you wanted, what we both wanted.’

  The fact that he was justifying his actions shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Wasn’t that how she had come into this world? Hadn’t she heard a version of the same story from her mother about her father’s justification for his infidelity? The only difference here was that Ramon had apparently wanted the seed he’d unwittingly planted in her womb. Suki’s father hadn’t even stuck around for the pregnancy test announcing she was on the way.

  The end result of that had been a mother steeped in so much bitterness she’d never trusted another man long enough to move on from the past. From a very early age, Suki had vowed to learn from that lesson, until she’d met Luis and had eventually chosen to hope that all men weren’t the same.

  Luis had been one in a million, and she’d trusted him with her life. Unfortunately, she’d been foolish enough to transfer some of that faith to his older brother.

  She didn’t plan on making the same mistake again.

  Refocusing on Ramon, she shook her head. ‘There’s no way this can ever work. Too much has happened. Besides, what about Svetlana? Won’t she have a huge say in what you’re proposing?’

  ‘She and I have been over for several months.’ The words were clipped. Final.

  Suki told herself the fluttering in her stomach was a side effect of the strain of the conversation. ‘The same kind of over you meant the last time?’

  His eyes gleamed, his focus unwavering. ‘The kind of over that means she has no bearing on this conversation.’

  She wanted to press for more. Why, she had no idea. Whether Ramon and Svetlana were over or not had no impact on her life. There were more important things to focus on, like the reason he had a file on her mother.

  ‘Did you know about Luis’s financial bequest before today?’

  ‘No, but he was fond of you. It doesn’t surprise me he would take such an action.’

  Her head still reeled from that. ‘I don’t know what to say...’

  Another bleak expression darted across his face. ‘If he were here right now, what do you think he’d say with regard to your mother’s condition?’

  Suki’s heart twisted, her best friend’s vibrant face rearing up vividly in her mind’s eye. ‘He would help me beg, borrow or steal to help her.’

  ‘Sí, he would. And what do you think he would say to you helping me to continue his family line?’ he countered smoothly.

  She gasped at the skilful way he’d cornered her. ‘That’s not fair.’

  ‘Is it not, or are you being a hypocrite? He’s left you a means to help your mother. Should her treatment exceed what he left for you, I’ll pick up the slack.’ He paused, his eyes still fixed on her. ‘Are you going to let pride and stubbornness stand in the way of your mother’s health?’

  ‘No, of course not! But I can’t help but think this is...a cold transaction.’

  ‘It’s a transaction where we both win.’

  Her heart shuddered. ‘But her doctors say there’s nothing else they can do.’

  ‘They were wrong.’ Returning to the sofa, he picked up the last file and handed it to her.

  Hands shaking, she opened it, started to read. The names that jumped out at her were from some of the best teaching hospitals and medical research facilities in the world. She recognised them because she’d come across several of them in her own research. Letters from acclaimed doctors with countless abbreviations after their names had personally answered all of the pertinent questions Ramon had posed them. Without offering guarantees, at least half a dozen different doctors had given her mother far better odds than her current doctors had.

  ‘Everything in there has been double and triple checked. All that’s required for your mother to get the help she vitally needs is to say yes.’

  Suki closed her eyes, three unshakeable truths becoming crystal clear. Her mother’s case wasn’t hopeless. Luis, in his own inimitable way, was caring for her even from the grave. But by doing so, he’d also put her directly in his brother’s debt.

  And there was only one means by which Ramon Acosta wanted payment.

  CHAPTER SIX

  SHE WENT THROUGH the paperwork, noting the recommendation for her mother’s treatment to be started immediately, preferably at a state-of-the-art facility in Miami. Closing the file, Suki walked to the sofa and sat down.

  The pressure that had been building since Ramon walked into her hotel room this morning intensified. Her pulse raced and in a fit of agitation she reached up and tugged the pins from her hair. The simple of act of unknotting her hair brought a tiny bit of relief. But her mind continued to spin at the sheer enormity of what he was asking of her.

  Spiking her fingers into her hair, she briefly massaged her scalp, then raised her head to the dominating figure poised like a dark overlord before her. His gaze was on the heavy tresses gliding over her hands and down her shoulders. He seemed momentarily fascinated with what she was doing, but, too soon, dark unwavering green eyes locked on hers once more.

  ‘Are you ready to discuss this properly?’

  She took a deep breath. ‘You can have any woman you want. You only have to click your fingers to have them lining up outside your gate to have your baby. Why go to these lengths? And why me?’

  This time the trace of pain was fleeting, very hurriedly controlled. ‘I can’t just pluck a surrogate off the Internet. These things take months, sometimes even years to find a right match.’

  ‘What about your little black book? Surely you have conquests that went beyond a one-night stand, who will be happy to bear you a child?’

  His full lips compressed. ‘I haven’t yet come across a woman who, no matter how much she initially claims otherwise, doesn’t start imagining a deeper, more meaningful relationship with me at some point. I’m not interested in that.’

  ‘Right. You were so not interested in that that you were once engaged to be married?’

  He ignored her sarcasm. ‘I was once engaged because I believed a relationship was a viable option for me. I no longer believe that. Marriage is not for me. And why you?’ He shrugged. ‘Because you require a sperm donor and I happen to need a surrogate. The timing couldn’t be better. Besides, with you I know exactly what I’m getting.’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘A black-and-white transaction with no frills, no insincere platitudes and one hundred per cent commitment signed in ink.’

  Her chest squeezed tight. ‘I’m not just going to hand over my baby to you the moment he or she is born, Ramon. You can forget that right now.’

  Two things happened right then. All six feet four inches of him froze in rigid attention. And Suki realised just what she’d said.

  ‘So you agree to bear my child?’ he clipped out after a long moment, his voice strangely hoarse.

  Her breath shook out. ‘I...no. Not yet.’

  ‘This is very much a yes or no situation.’

  ‘And I very much would like five minutes to think about what I’m agreeing to before I say yes to bringing another child into this world!’

  He rocked back on his heels, then turned towards his desk. ‘While you think about it, I’ll get the kitchen to bring you some refreshments.’

  Her raw laugh scraped her throat. ‘Canapés aren’t going to make deciding any easier.’

  ‘Neither will starvation and dehydration. You’re much thinner than you were the last time I saw yo
u.’

  ‘Yes, I’ve been through a trauma or two,’ she replied.

  ‘I’m aware of that. But we still need to remedy that,’ he countered.

  ‘Fine, let’s fatten me up for the slaughter,’ she muttered under her breath, because he was already lifting the phone, relating instructions in rapid Spanish.

  That done, he returned to his position as silent, merciless master in front of her. After several minutes had gone by, he crossed over and sat down next to her. Elbows on his knees, he angled his body towards hers.

  ‘What is it, Suki? Spit it out.’

  She didn’t want to say the words out loud, but the fear in her heart wouldn’t dissipate. ‘I’m...are you not afraid that something will go wrong?’ Again.

  A muscle ticced in his jaw. ‘You were about to get yourself artificially inseminated. What guarantees do you have that that pregnancy will proceed smoothly?’

  Her heart twisted. ‘None.’

  He nodded. ‘Muy bien. Then we are in the same boat. But rest assured we will have the benefit of the top obstetricians in the world monitoring you round the clock.’

  The assurance eased the constriction around her heart, followed swiftly by the realisation that she was seriously contemplating agreeing to Ramon’s wishes.

  ‘What do you think he would say to you helping me to continue his family line?’

  Her heart tugged painfully, the belief that Luis would’ve urged her on so strong, her breath caught. Whether that was the reason the constriction further eased in her chest, or because she now had fresh hope for her mother, she didn’t know. And even if she seriously considered refusing, with Ramon determined to throw himself in the way of her having a child any other way but with him, her options for a child of her own were limited, considering she had very little financial resources left.

  But another child...with Ramon? Her insides clenched with apprehension at the thought of creating another child, this time deliberately with him. But next to that apprehension, a tiny quiver she refused to label as hope and excitement began to unfurl. She pushed it back down, unwilling to let it spring forth when there was so much more to consider.