“Ava.” He walked to the door, stopping only to nod peremptorily at Luca, who watched Matthias as though he were an Adonis.
“Oh, Ava, he’s simply divine.” Luca hopped from his chair and holding his arms out, swung into a waltzing step with a ghost in his arms. He was completely lost in his daydream. An hysterical giggle rose and she caught Luca, stepped into his arms and waltzed around the room with him. Faster and faster, Luca spun them, until they collapsed in a heap on the dance floor, breathless but laughing.
“Did you register the way he followed you around the dance-floor? He wanted to eat you right up!”
His words ended her giggling. Matthias had wanted to carve her right up. Luca carried on as though he didn’t notice her sudden sobriety. “And see, you waltzed around the room just like a professional dancer. You, young lady, are definitely a natural.”
Ava stayed on the floor, head lowered between her bent knees. She had forgotten the tension for one sweet moment, but reality was clawing back in. How could he know about Bella? Unless he had seen both of them that afternoon leaving the NTC Halls. Her stomach clenched. There was no way she could stand the suspense any more.
She had to talk to him—now.
* * * *
Matthias threw the door onto the roof open and stepped outside, gulping in the much needed air. Ava had something to hide, no question about it. His temper thickened even as he repeated I don’t have a child.
Ava.
She had fumbled her way around the floor and he had struggled to keep his face expressionless. Was this what delayed jet-lag felt like? Jealousy, confusion, exasperation, lust. Put them all in a cocktail shaker, with a dash of bitterness and hey presto, one Matthias de Romero. And hell if it didn’t create one mammoth head spin.
From the moment he had walked into the dance halls until he had turned the doorknob to her studio, he had struggled not to head straight to her.
Entering her studio quietly, he had waited in the doorway, captivated by her. Head held high, blond hair tied in a high ponytail and her curvy, strong body swaying to the music. She had jumped a mile from Luca when Matthias’s voice disrupted her concentration. Hand on hips, she’d stood, a graceful reed bending in the wind.
His mind jumped to her in his arms when the pressure of her breasts and hips had brought him to high alert, and he’d had to fight assiduously the red mist of lust descending. Her hauteur replaced confusion, a hint of defiance sparked through her eyes and she raised her chin in an unspoken challenge. Dio, how he wanted to kiss her, the vanilla and anise fragrance beckoned him to trail his lips along her slender neck. Body warming with need, it had taken everything he had to let her go and leave before the evidence of his desire became abundantly clear.
His body stirred uncomfortably and he idly considered a one-night-stand. He paced the building’s perimeter, scattering the pigeons cooing in the eaves. Six more weeks ahead of them, assuming Ava made it through to the finals—and there was no doubt in his mind that if she wanted to, she would. Once Ava decided to do something, she did it well. Including raising a child?
He snorted, frightening a stray bird to flight. Facts were facts. If she had become pregnant with his child and not seen fit to tell him, she was off limits. Firstly, she had the gall to leave him sleeping, then she had his child. Finally and worse, oh-so-much worse, her opinion of him was so low, she didn’t tell him. That all showed him what kind of woman she was. She was not to be trusted, never loved. Lust after, sure, but when did his body control his heart?
With a flash of annoyance, he hauled his thoughts back. A spark of purple from the corner of his eye caught his attention.
Ava exited the door and walked toward him slowly, then stopped. She stared at him, all big blue innocent eyes.
Show time.
Chapter 4
“What do you want?”
Ava flinched, his words made more hostile by the ice-tipped tone. He knew all right. And he was mad. Whatever preparation she had done for this conversation took to flight.
“Mierda, let me hear you say it.” His words were a low growl as he paced toward her. A shiver of apprehension slid down her back while a detached part of her enjoyed the panther-like view.
Run!
Yeah, right to him.
She couldn’t move as the combined feelings of excitement and danger assaulted her, and slowed everything down. She could breathe, just about. Nothing more. Matthias halted in front of her, filling her vision with broad shoulders and dark surliness.
“Um.” She sounded like a mouse and she stopped, even her ability to do something as simple as breathe now escaped her. His scowl deepened.
“I have a daughter.” At the I’m not impressed expression on his face, the next words tumbled out with little grace. “Your daughter. And—”
She brought a hand to her mouth to stop “I love you” from escaping. Sheer disbelief lightened his green eyes to spearmint, and she could see him realizing the truth. He was a father.
“What’s her name?” His words were a caress but not for her as the thousand-yard stare turned his eyes soft. His lips curved upwards briefly, only to disappear into a thin line as his eyes met hers.
Ava swallowed.
“Bella, Isabella actually. But I call her Bella.” She whispered the final word, watching him flinch while her words registered. Deep hurt flashed in the copper gaze he turned on her, but fled under the force of fury in his deepening frown.
It was too late to run. Ava prepared herself against the oncoming onslaught, aware of only one thing. Finally Bella’s father knew of her existence. Ever since she had turned around in Argentina, knowing her daughter’s father had no idea of her existence plagued her. Now, doing the right thing effectively silenced the dilemma of the past two years.
Nonetheless as she regarded Matthias, a new fear mushroomed in her gut. He was mad.
He took a step closer. “Now tell me, Ava. Why should I believe she’s mine? After all, you previously told me you came home to your boyfriend.” Each word was bitten off as though they tasted bad.
Shock slammed through her, metaphorically pinning her against the door. Hurt unfurled slowly. Of everything she had expected, his requiring proof of paternity was not one of them.
More fool her.
“I only said I had a boyfriend to buy me time. To figure out how to tell you…” She weakened under the ferocity of his stare.
“Ah, you lied about that? So this too, could be a lie, non?”
She drew her bottom lip between her teeth and bit hard, hoping the pain would clear the fog around her, enabling her to say or do anything.
“It’s a little too easy, isn’t it, Ava? You, a single mother, saw me coming into your life and thought, I know, I can get some money from this guy. After all, we did have sex. He’s gullible enough to believe me.”
Ava flinched at his cool clear articulation and the dark, seething glare in his eyes. His lip curled, and a pulse beat pounded an erratic note in his temple.
She rubbed her shoulders briskly, filing his words away to deal with later. He knew now—heck, how was a girl supposed to compose an articulate response with him around? Her secret was out and she could get on with living her life now, no longer weighed down with lies. She carefully hid the hurt under her new, pragmatic approach. It would be fine, it would. She chose her words carefully.
“Believe me, I don’t want a peseta from you. We’re doing fine, Bella and I. I just thought you should know.”
Now let me get the hell out of here.
“A bit too late though. Two years to be precise.” Anger emphasized his Argentine accent, and his deep drawling words drew pins into her veins.
“I’m sorry, really I am. Now, though, I must go.” But her limbs stayed immobile.
Yet Matthias resembled a caged panther. All too sudden, every extremity tingled, apprehension not doing a good job of masking a deeper, stronger emotion. She swallowed, unable to stop watching his curling, sensuous mouth.
Cool fingers lifted her chin, not allowing her to look down. She dropped her eyes hastily, for he was too close and would see the desire etched deep in her soul.
“Look at me.”
Feeling as though weights had been attached to her eyelids, she nonetheless dragged them open, looking anywhere but at him. Desire raced dangerously through her, almost painful in intensity. Rational thought was noticeable in its absence.
Kiss me. Damn her traitorous mind.
His close presence awoke her adrenaline and desire lifted her chin. Muttering a curse, he brought both hands to her face and dropped his mouth to hers. Fire exploded from the nerves in her lips as his kiss mounted pressure, drawing a response from deep within her, rendering her a mass of molten ore, desperate to melt into him. His tongue plundered hers, drawing a moan from her. She put her hands on his waist to steady herself.
At her touch, he flinched away, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Deliberately, he drew the back of his hand over his mouth.“Pliant as ever, Ava.” Satisfaction smeared his voice, masking a deeper emotion in his eyes. “This…conversation isn’t over. But I will make you aware of one thing. No one, and I mean no one makes a fool of me. I want a DNA test done. My lawyers will be in touch.”
He banged the door open and the sound of his feet clattering down the stairs faded when it swung closed. Ava blinked at the bright sunshine. Hadn’t it been dark and cloudy, thunderstorms threatening? She sagged like a rag doll for their conversation had gone even worse than the very bad ones she had concocted during her sleepless nights.
What relief she had gained at him knowing the truth slowly slid into regret. Regret for not having stood her ground and telling him the truth when she had flown back to Argentina. Hormones instead had sent her ricocheting back to her safe life in London. How different would her life be right now if she had followed her heart?
Her gut twisted with the emptiness of her probable future. He wouldn’t trust her ever again. No use in romanticizing their relationship—that would never happen now. More than likely he hated her. If she could only summon some kind of anger at his accusation of palming another man’s child off on him that may help in hardening her heart. But the problem was she could understand his reaction. He was hurt and lashing out.
She walked to the low wall at the perimeter of the building, sinking slowly onto it, fingers pressed against her tender lips. He had kissed her. Why? A kiss of punishment? Or to see if she was as willing as she had been before? Because she had been. In fact, she would’ve taken that kiss as far as it would go.
There was only one thing she knew for sure; nothing but trouble lay ahead.
* * * *
Matthias flew. The horse he rode was a champion steeplechaser and ate up the Hertfordshire countryside with ease. But nothing could outrun his thoughts, the images of Ava flying beside him, blond hair streaming back, exhilaration in her expressive eyes when she turned to watch him from over her shoulder. He shook his head. Focus. She had said she had borne him a child. Renewed antagonism flowed through him with every fence jumped and every stream forded. There were too many echoes of Beatriz’s manipulations for him to believe any woman who claimed a child to be his. And he didn’t have any reason to trust Ava. He had called the London branch of lawyers he used in Mendoza and told them to hurry through the test. The results should be coming through soon.
Perhaps Bella wasn’t his. Now that the results were imminent, he found himself questioning something he knew inherently. Almost as if he could persuade himself that Bella wasn’t his, then he wouldn’t feel hurt if the results were negative.
He clutched onto the thought, a drowning man with a raft, but ignored the whispers from deep within telling him he was wrong. Of course, Bella was his. Because he didn’t want children. More to the point, Ava knew he didn’t want children. His bitter smile froze in the cold air rushing past him. He pulled Jacob up into a canter to give him a breather. Mierda. How many other men were plagued by woman claiming their child was his?
His innate sense of fairness yelped—okay, okay, so Ava hadn’t plagued him. In fact she hadn’t even told him. And remembering what he had said about children—specifically that he didn’t want them and never would—could he blame her?
Dio, could it get any more complicated? It all had started simply enough. Boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy sleeps with girl. So far so good.
That’s where the easy part ended. Girl runs off and rather than boy forgetting about her, she morphed into the only one he would ever want. Boy tracks down girl. Only to discover he wanted her more than ever. It was all boy could do to drag his mind from the gutter whenever girl appeared. Not forgetting, girl was now the woman who had his child.
Perhaps he had been wrong about Ava. The Ava he met two years ago had appeared open, guileless and, more enticingly, free of the constraints of life. She was one independent chica.
Now with a child.
Vibrations came from his phone in his shirt pocket. Gently, he brought Jacob to a stop and dismounted to walk him as he answered the call from his lawyer. Thirty seconds later, he pressed the red button and held the phone to his lips thoughtfully. No doubt about it, Bella was his daughter.
Non! Time to book a flight back to Santiago? Return to his well-ordered life. No disturbing women around, no toddlers staking a claim on his heart. But he had come to London for a reason—to get some answers. Instead more questions besieged him. What the hell was he going to do?
Maybe what he had taken for independence was actually mistrust of everything and everybody. That fit with her raising his child without telling him. Less independence and more distrust of him. Facts were facts, she had left him after they shared an incredible time together without having the courtesy to wake and tell him.
Fact. She became pregnant and hadn’t told him, the father of her baby. Fact. Adding up to one enormous neon sign—she didn’t trust him.
Why?
Answers unforthcoming, story of his life. The well-mannered part of him said he should go see Bella. At least once.
An excuse to see Ava?
There was little relief in vaguely knowing what to do next, but mounting Jacob and absentmindedly patting his neck, he turned him back toward the stables. The horse, knowing the direction, gave a celebratory shake to his head and trotted for home.
* * * *
“I’m back!” Ava dropped her keys with a clatter in the bowl on the hall table, pulled off her scarf and went in search of her mum and daughter.
“We’re in here,” her mum called out from the kitchen.
“Mmm, something smells good.”
Bella smiled brightly as Ava entered the room. “Momma.” She waved her spoon in the air, Sheppard’s pie spilling onto the floor. Ava avoided the pie splattered on her face and kissed her forehead, delighting in the baby smell. She felt the weight of her worry break, flotsam in the face of a strong tide. She was home with her Bella.
“Hi, Mum.” She kissed her mother on the cheek and shrugged out of her jacket, placing it over a chair before walking to the kitchen sink. “How was your day?”
“Great.” Her mother’s eyes shone, a smile playing on her lips. “You sit down, and I’ll put the kettle on. You must be tired. But I’m dying to hear how it went.”
“Sure.” Ava yawned, running the tap to wash her hands after her public transport home. “I’m tired. These past few days have really taken it out of me.”
She wasn’t kidding. Not only had she been practicing hard, but every morning she had gone into the studios with a cold pit of dread, sure that day would be the day Matthias would contact her. But three days had gone by, and despite Matthias being in the building, he hadn’t come near her. His lawyers had though. The very evening of their last conversation, they had sent a representative around to pick up a sample of Bella’s saliva to test.
“I’ll stay and put little Bella to bed for you.”
“You know what, Mum? You’re the best.”
“Coffee or tea
, love?”
“Oh tea please, just to give me a caffeine fix, then I’m switching to the hard stuff. There’s some white in the fridge.” Ava sat down to help her daughter finish her last spoonful of pie. Bella was having none of it, alternately waving her hands in the air and impatiently trying to push the tray of the high chair away, to pulling the bib from around her neck.
“Ok, bambina, I get the message.” She freed her edgy child and scooped her into an embrace, relishing the feel of chubby little arms around her neck.
“She’s missed you.” Her mum put the tea on the table. “But we had a great day. We went to the park and fed the ducks and squirrels. Didn’t we, Bella?” Bella smiled and gooed and chatted away in adorable baby speak as Ava sipped her drink.
“Come on, chickadee, let’s get you in the bath. You relax for a bit, and we’ll talk before I go.” Her mother patted her knee in passing, taking Bella for her evening bath.
“Thanks Mum, I really should do it because I’ve missed her lots today, but I am very tired.”
“Don’t worry.” Her voice floated back.
Ava laid her head on the table, fighting the urge to bang it gently. Taking a deep breath, she slowly rose and took her nearly empty cup over to the window to see her garden. Not much was visible in the dark, but the white tipped daisies caught enough light to dance in the night breeze.
A knock at the door reverberated through the house. Who was calling at this hour? Ava normally wouldn’t answer the door, but the sound was too loud when Bella was going through her bedtime routine. She walked through the hallway and her heart bungee dived as she saw the frame of the man behind her stained glass panels on the door.
Matthias.
Chapter 5
Stopping in her tracks, her body thrummed gently at the thought of seeing him. He raised the door knocker and she ran to open it before he dropped it again.
Taming the Tango Champion Page 4