by Abby Green
‘Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
Edie forced a smile and looked at Sebastio. ‘Fine...just a little tired.’
‘You can rest when we get to the house. I have some work calls to make, just to make sure everything is running smoothly for the next few days.’
Edie’s thoughts immediately went to the box in the white paper bag in her luggage. She felt clammy. ‘Okay.’
When they got to the house she was too tense to really notice how stunning it was. But it was stunning. Set amongst lush vegetation. Totally cut off from the outside world. A wide veranda surrounded the lower floor and there was a huge pool in the manicured back garden, with views of the sea beyond.
It was paradise.
The rooms were large and airy, doors and windows open to let the breeze flow through. Edie was wearing a white broderie anglaise sundress and even that felt too hot in the sultry heat.
A beautiful woman appeared, holding a tray with refreshing drinks. Sebastio introduced her as Angelique. Edie smiled her thanks and savoured the tart lemon juice.
The bedroom was massive. Wooden floorboards and white muslin drapes flowing in the breeze. Open shutters and French doors leading out to a balcony where the view took in the sea and, in the very far distance, the coastline of Argentina.
Sebastio felt an inordinate amount of satisfaction to see Edie here. Her back was to him, pale and slender in her dress. Her neck looked fragile. He felt a spurt of something very alien—protectiveness.
He’d never brought another woman here. This was his place, where he’d come after the accident. Where he’d been raw and broken. Where he’d endured long days and where his thoughts had got very dark. Days he didn’t like to remember.
Maybe that was why he’d brought her here? To eclipse those memories? Maybe finally it was time.
And the fact that he’d done it told him that she was different. That maybe she had a place in his life.
The thought of letting Edie go sent a tendril of panic through him. Not a pleasant sensation. But perhaps he didn’t have to let her go... Although he’d never taken a mistress before...
She turned around at that moment, as if sensing his circling thoughts, and immediately he wanted her. He could see the faint outline of her breasts under the thin dress. The curve of her waist.
He went over and put his hands either side of her body. He bent down and relished that split second before his mouth touched hers...and then the way she responded with such sweet sensuality.
He pulled back, his blood humming. He wanted nothing more than to take her over to the bed but she did look tired. And pale.
‘Have a shower and a nap, Edie. I’ll wake you later, when dinner is ready.’
She smiled. ‘That sounds like a good idea.’
Edie’s smile faded as she watched Sebastio walk out of the room. The driver of the Jeep—Pedro—had just delivered their luggage and she went over to hers, taking out the pharmacy bag.
She went into the bathroom and locked the door, barely noticing the white marbled luxuriousness.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed before she had the nerve to do the test. And then there was more waiting as she sat on the closed toilet seat.
After the allotted time Edie picked up the test and held her breath as she read the result.
* * *
Where was she?
Sebastio felt a spurt of frustration as he searched for Edie. She wasn’t in the bedroom, sleeping. She wasn’t downstairs.
He went upstairs again and checked the bathroom. No sign.
He was about to leave when he saw a white paper bag in the bin. Without even knowing why it had caught his attention he bent down to pick it up and something fell out...
CHAPTER NINE
EDIE STOOD ON the edge of the sea and felt the waves lap at her feet. She didn’t even remember leaving the bathroom or coming down here. She’d gravitated here instinctively, in shock. Reeling.
She was pregnant.
She couldn’t deny she felt panicked, because this was hardly the ideal situation in which to be pregnant.
But all she could think of was what her doctor had said. ‘If you are pregnant, Edie, then it’s is a very good sign. It means your body has recovered from the treatment and your fertility hasn’t been irreparably damaged.’
She put her hands on her belly. Hard to believe there was a little kernel of life growing inside her right now. But here was the proof that she was well and a miracle of sorts had happened.
New life.
She would have to tell Sebastio, of course. And she dreaded his reaction. But just for now, for this private moment, she would allow the pure joy she felt to suffuse her whole body. No matter what happened, she would love and care for this baby. Even if she had to do it on her own.
A fierce wave of love and protectiveness washed through her. She couldn’t stop smiling.
‘Happy with yourself, are you?’ Sebastio’s voice was like the lash of a whip it was so cold.
Edie whirled around, her smile fading. She’d never seen Sebastio look so angry. But it was a contained, cold anger. He was holding something in his hand.
The test. With that one word: Embarazada.
It was the Spanish word for pregnant. She’d looked it up before she’d done the test.
‘Sebastio... I just found out... I didn’t have any idea.’
‘You told me that you couldn’t get pregnant. You told me something had happened to you.’
Edie felt sick at the bitterly accusing tone in his voice. She had. And she couldn’t keep the truth from him now.
‘Something did happen to me. I wasn’t lying... The chances were so slim...’ She trailed off. Evidently not slim enough.
Sebastio was shaking his head. ‘I have been such an idiot. Blinded by lust. I should never have believed you. I should have listened to my gut when it told me your act of innocence was just that. But I will admit that faking your virginity was a master move.’
Edie’s mouth opened in shock. ‘I was a virgin.’
But Sebastio was hardly listening to her. ‘The way you stopped and told me... Of course all I could think about was how much I wanted you. And then you came to me, remember? You asked me to make love to you. Begged me.’
Edie’s face flamed with shame. She had asked him. She had gone to him with every atom of her courage and asked him to take her innocence. And now he was twisting it.
‘It wasn’t like that,’ she whispered.
‘We are not staying here. Be ready to leave in half an hour.’
Sebastio had turned and was striding away, back up the path, before Edie could move.
She went after him. ‘Sebastio, wait.’
He stopped. His tall body rigid with rejection. He turned around. ‘Yes? More lies?’
Edie refused to let him intimidate her. ‘What about the baby?’
He flicked a cold glance to her belly and then back up to her face. ‘First of all I will have it confirmed by a doctor that you are in fact pregnant, and then, assuming that it’s mine until such time as we can disprove that, I will make all the necessary arrangements.’
Edie just heard ‘necessary arrangements’ and went icy.
She put a hand on her belly. ‘I am not getting rid of this baby.’
Sebastio’s mouth curled. ‘That is not what I meant. If there is a baby and it is mine, then it will be afforded my full protection.’
If. It.
The words landed like barbs all over Edie’s skin. Sebastio had turned and was walking away again. She was rooted to the spot. A block of ice. He was suggesting it mightn’t even be his. The thought made a semi-hysterical giggle bubble up inside Edie. But she was too shocked to let it out.
She forced her legs to move and followed Sebastio back into the house.
* * *
Sebastio had retreated to a place of icy numb control during the journey back to Buenos Aires. He’d been acutely aware of Edie beside him, but he hadn’t been able to look at her. The sense of betrayal he’d felt when he’d picked up that plastic stick and realised what he was looking at was huge and it still reverberated inside him.
He’d spent his first Christmas in four years with another person. He’d brought her to Argentina. He’d walked out of an important meeting because it had seemed more important to spend time with her. He’d brought her to the island—his sanctuary.
What had she done to him? Who had he become? Not someone he recognised.
After a lifetime of adhering to a self-protecting code of cynicism he’d suddenly reverted to a place of blind trust? He’d even been contemplating making her a more permanent fixture in his life...when all along she’d had a far more ambitious game-plan.
She was pregnant.
The thought made a cold sweat break out over his skin. He’d already been responsible for the deaths of a mother and child. How on earth could he hope to nurture and protect a defenceless baby? He’d always vowed never to have children, not wanting to put any child through what his parents had put him through. And that vow had solidified after the crash.
Yet if she was pregnant, and it was his—
His heart stopped at a sudden unbidden image of a tiny dark-haired infant suckling at Edie’s breast. Damn. Enough. He would provide for the child, obviously, but he couldn’t contemplate anything further than that right now.
They’d just walked back into his apartment when Edie said, ‘Sebastio, I need to tell you something.’
He steeled himself, feeling an almost superstitious aversion to looking at her, as if that might unravel the fierce control he was exerting over himself.
He can’t even look at me, Edie thought, sickened.
She refused to let him treat her as if she was invisible, though, and she put down her bag and walked around him so she stood in front of him.
Those silver-grey eyes blazed down into hers. For a fleeting moment Edie had the sensation that if he felt this much anger then surely it had to mean strong emotions were at play and maybe there was a chance she could appeal to him...
‘I wasn’t lying when I told you I had my reasons for believing I couldn’t get pregnant.’
‘It’s too late for excuses.’
‘It’s not an excuse.’ Edie’s voice was sharp. She was on edge after the overload of tension and Sebastio’s icy dismissal of her.
Sebastio stood still. Not moving away.
She swallowed. ‘I had cancer when I was in my teens. A rare type of lymphoma. I went through months of chemotherapy and radiation. One area that was specifically targeted was my uterus, which is why the prospect of my getting pregnant was so slim. Slim enough for me to believe it wouldn’t happen.’
He said nothing.
She continued. ‘The night I saw you...the night in the club... I’d just been given the all-clear. I was wearing a wig.’ She touched her hair self-consciously. ‘That’s why it was longer. I had no hair after the chemo. And I haven’t let it grow long since then because I have a superstitious fear that if I do the cancer will come back.’ She stopped, her heart thumping painfully.
Sebastio looked totally expressionless. He looked like a different person. Remote. Austere. Like he had that night in the club when he’d told her to run along.
Eventually he said, ‘If this is true, why didn’t you tell me before?’
‘If this is true.’
The pain of him not believing her almost blindsided Edie for a moment. ‘It is true.’ She pulled down her top and touched her port scar. ‘This is where they fed the drugs into my system.’
He barely flicked a glance down.
She went on. ‘The reason I didn’t tell you was because I didn’t want you to think of me as fragile...vulnerable. I didn’t want you to remember me like that. It was a tough time. I prefer not to think about it.’
And yet he had told her almost everything, Sebastio realised bitterly. More than he’d ever told anyone else.
He was aware of the faint red line under her collarbone, and he didn’t like to think that it had allowed toxins to be fed into her system, but once again the jury was out on whether or not this was just an elaborate ruse to gain his sympathy.
He’d be a fool to fall for it.
He looked at his watch and said, ‘I’ve arranged an appointment with my physician tomorrow morning. We’ll discuss what happens next after that. I’m going to go into the office now and I won’t be back until late tonight.’
In other words, she was dismissed.
Edie said nothing as Sebastio walked out of the apartment again. A wave of weariness came over her and she went into the bedroom that she hadn’t yet used and climbed under the covers, willing sleep to come and mute the pain she was feeling.
* * *
Edie had elected not to have Sebastio in the doctor’s office with her the following morning, but when she emerged the doctor came with her to meet him. He confirmed that Edie was indeed in the very early stages of pregnancy. About three weeks. As he said this to Sebastio Edie felt her cheeks grow hot, realising that they must have conceived that first time they’d made love.
Sebastio’s reaction to the doctor was as stony-faced as it had been to her for the past twenty-four hours. He just said, ‘Okay, let’s go.’
In the car on the way back to the apartment Edie said tautly, ‘I did not pretend to be a virgin and this baby is yours.’
Sebastio looked at her and for a second she thought she saw a flicker of emotion before it disappeared. She knew this news was as much of a shock to him as it was to her, but right now she wasn’t in any mood to compensate for his shock. Or his distrust.
When they got back to the apartment Edie went straight to her room and packed her bag, leaving behind everything Sebastio had given her. She just wanted to leave this place now. Go back to familiar surroundings, lick her wounds and think about what she was going to do. How she was going to cope. She wasn’t prepared to put up with Sebastio’s cold condemnation a moment longer.
When she came out he was standing at the window. He turned around and frowned. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’
‘I’m going home.’
‘I’m not returning to London until next week. I have meetings lined up here.’
‘That’s got nothing to do with me, Sebastio. We can talk about things when you come to London, but right now I’m leaving.’
She turned and walked to the door, but a hand landed on it right in front of her face. ‘How do you think you’re going to get there?’
She stepped back and looked fixedly at the door. ‘I’ll get a cab to the airport and take the next flight to England. There’s bound to be one soon.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. You could be waiting for two days. You’ll stay here until I leave and we can go together.’
She looked at him. ‘Am I a prisoner now?’
‘Of course not. But you are pregnant with my baby—’ He sounded exasperated.
‘Oh, so you’re willing to concede that much now?’ Edie realised how on edge she was when she heard the jeering tone in her voice. She’d never spoken to anyone like this before.
Sebastio said nothing for a long moment and then, ‘You really want to go home right now? Today?’
She nodded. Not trusting herself to speak.
Sebastio took his hand from the door and said coolly, ‘Then I will organise it for you. Just give me ten minutes.’
Within twenty minutes Edie was in the back of his car heading towards the private airfield where his plane was waiting. Sebastio sat beside her,
drumming his fingers on his thigh. It only made her tension increase.
When they got to the airfield he took her suitcase on board and said, ‘Paolo and the staff will see you safely home. I will return in a few days. I have arranged for you to be taken directly to my apartment.’
Edie opened her mouth to object, but Sebastio put up a hand.
‘Please, do not argue with me. Until we discuss what is going to happen you are under my protection. This isn’t just about us any more.’
Edie swallowed a ball of emotion. There never had been an us.
It just went to show how little Sebastio had cared for her that he found it so easy to cast her aside. Anger welled up, drowning the other dangerous emotions. She couldn’t believe she’d allowed herself to hope for anything in those fleeting moments when she’d thought she’d seen something in his eyes. Yet she could still feel the ever-present awareness and sexual tension simmering between them in spite of everything.
It galvanised her into saying, ‘What about us...?’
‘Everything is different now.’
‘Because I’m not some disposable lover any more? Because I’ve had the temerity to fall pregnant?’
‘I told you right from the start that I was not interested in commitment or a relationship. You were under no illusions.’
He was so cold he scared Edie, but she refused to let him see it. ‘I know. But sometimes things happen outside of our control...’
He shook his head. ‘Not in my world. I will deal with this consequence of our actions, but what we had is over, Edie.’
* * *
A few days later, back in London, in Sebastio’s penthouse, the pain of his parting words had faded to a dull ache. The worst of it was that, knowing about his life and what he’d been through, Edie had some perspective on why he was shutting her out so comprehensively. It didn’t excuse his behaviour, though, or make it any easier to bear.
When she’d landed back in London she’d had every intention of going back to her own apartment, but she’d been met by the resistance of Sebastio’s driver, Nick, and one of his assistants, who’d come to meet her and told her firmly that they had instructions to take her to his apartment and see that she had everything she needed.