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She licked her lips. “It’s not something I thought could happen. I denied it, even to myself…”
“Let me guess,” he said sardonically. “You’re desperately in love with me.”
She nearly gasped. Then, looking up into his face, she told him the truth.
“Yes,” she whispered.
His face hardened. “For so long, you’ve been such a mystery. An intriguing problem to solve.” He brushed back tendrils of her dark hair the wind had blown across her face. “But now I understand you. At last.”
She shivered beneath his touch, closing her eyes.
Was it possible that everything she’d dreamed of for so long was about to happen? Was it possible he was about to tell her he loved her as well, and in a moment, when she told him shyly about their coming baby, he would take her into his arms and kiss her?
She could barely breathe…
“You’ve been setting me up,” he said harshly. “Just like you and your sister did with your last employer.”
Her eyes flew open.
“My…my sister?”
She felt Rafael’s fingers clench into her shoulders, and she gasped. He looked down at her with something close to hatred in his eyes.
“I thought I could trust you,” he said in a low voice. “But it was all just a trick, wasn’t it?”
“No,” she whispered. She shook her head. “You’re wrong.”
He gave a harsh, cruel laugh.
“I trusted you. Trusted you as I trusted no other woman alive. But have you spent the last five years of your life setting me up for a con?”
“What?” she gasped. Unshed tears stung her eyes as she shook her head fiercely. “I don’t—”
“Tell me the truth!” he said coldly. “Was I a fool to trust you? Did you lie when you said you were on the Pill?”
Horrified, Louisa sucked in her breath.
For a moment, silence fell. The cool breezes from the sea caused the colorful paper lanterns to sway amid the darkness of the garden.
Rafael’s jaw was set in a grim line as his hands tightened on her.
“I thought I’d done due diligence by calling your last employer personally. I spoke to his wife, not realizing she was your sister. Of course she gave you a glowing recommendation—she wanted to help you get your wealthy man, as you helped her!”
Louisa drew back, tears suddenly in her eyes as she thought of all the pain. “That’s not how it was!”
“No?” His lip curled. “Then how was it?”
Louisa took a deep breath. She didn’t want to speak of the past, but she had no choice. For their child’s sake, she had to make him understand that her pregnancy was an accident—not a trap!
“Five years ago, I fell in love with my boss,” she whispered, then stopped.
Rafael gripped her shoulders. “Go on.”
“I’d only been working as his housekeeper for a few months when Matthias asked me to marry him.” Every low, hoarse word felt painfully ripped from her. “But I wouldn’t go to bed with him. I told him I wanted to wait for our wedding night. I was so young, so young and idealistic. Then my little sister came to visit from college.” She looked up at him, blinking back tears. “The night of our engagement party, Katie told me Matthias was going to marry her instead. Because…she was pregnant with his baby.”
Staring down at her, he took a deep, shuddering breath. For a moment, she thought he meant to comfort her. Then his dark eyes looked at her with the fire of betrayal.
“Just as the two of you planned all along. You left him sex-starved, your sister lured him into her bed and he fell into her trap. Just as I fell into yours,” he said in a low, cold voice. “I trusted you, Louisa. Although I should have suspected something when I first took you to bed. There would be no reason for a virgin with no boyfriend to be on the Pill—”
“I told you, it was for cramps, to regulate my cycle—”
“I thought it was just an unfortunate coincidence,” he spoke over her ruthlessly, “that when I came home that night and found you crying in Paris, the apartment was out of condoms. You set me up so methodically, and I wanted you so badly, I was blind.”
Louisa stared at him in shock and grief.
She’d shared something of her past she’d never spoken about with anyone—but he didn’t give a damn. He was just determined to use her own words against her!
A slow burn of anger built inside her.
“I forgot to restock the condoms, but that wasn’t on purpose! Perhaps I had trouble—” she lifted her chin defiantly “—because you were going through boxes so rapidly.”
His jaw twitched. Abruptly releasing her, he folded his arms. “You lured me by acting distant, knowing that would intrigue me. Then you made sure I found you weeping, needing comfort, knowing there was only one kind of comfort I would offer.”
“I never thought you would come home early from your date and seduce me!”
“So you’re not pregnant?”
She sucked in her breath.
This was worse, so much worse than she’d thought. Why hadn’t she realized that her two-day stomach flu had totally ruined the effectiveness of the birth control? She’d never thought he might look at her past and imagine that she could be so devilishly clever.
If she were, she thought bitterly, she wouldn’t have slept with a heartless, suspicious playboy like Rafael Cruz!
Dark shadows and swinging red lights moved over his hard expression, making him look devilish. She sucked in her breath, trembling at the dark promise she saw in his eyes. It made her take an involuntary step backward.
She had to lie. There was no way she could tell him the truth now.
But the thought of denying the existence of her unborn child, the weight of telling such an awful lie, beat down upon her like golf-ball-size chunks of ice.
She felt incredibly hormonal and exhausted from being pregnant and traveling back from Greece. She felt tearful and emotionally drained from the roller-coaster ride of the last few days. Just yesterday, she’d been his adored mistress; today, she’d been ripped apart by the discovery of her pregnancy, and yet she’d been forced to hide her emotion, to serve him and his fancy guests while watching him flirt with another woman.
And suddenly, she’d had it.
Louisa took a deep breath. Slowly she looked up at him. She could live without his love. She could ball up her heart into a block of ice. She could ignore her feelings. She’d done it before.
But he had to love their baby.
If Rafael was cold to their innocent child and treated him badly through his whole life, letting their son or daughter know they were never wanted…No, she couldn’t let that happen. She would deny their child’s existence before she would risk causing her baby such endless grief!
He gently stroked her cheek. But his gaze was anything but gentle as he raked her soul with his fury and rage. She had the sudden feeling of being trapped. His body, his darkness, towered over her.
The heat between them felt like a cold burn. Like ice. Like a threat.
“There’s only one thing I need to know,” Rafael said in a low voice. “One thing that will determine if I was a fool to believe you were the last honest woman on earth. So tell me.” His dark eyes glittered in the swaying light of the red paper lanterns. “Are you pregnant, Louisa?”
Rafael’s muscles were painfully tense as he waited for her answer.
She wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“Could you love a baby?” she whispered.
He nearly growled at her. “Don’t change the subject. Answer my question.”
“If I accidentally got pregnant,” she faltered, “don’t you think it’s possible it could have nothing to do with money, and everything to do with…with…”
“Love?” He sneered.
Wordlessly she nodded. Her eyes were wide, limpid pools in the night. Wild. Desperate.
For a moment, his body instinctively wished to comfort her. It was the same way he’d felt when she’d revealed how she’d loved her last boss then lost him—to her sister. He’d almost pulled her into his arms, until he’d reminded himself that this might be part of her con. Her innocence, her pain, her supposed love—was it all an act to get him to marry her?
His stomach clenched. “A mere housekeeper does not go to all the trouble of getting pregnant by a wealthy man without expecting a payout.”
Turning pale, she gasped.
Then her lovely face hardened, in that aloof, cold expression he knew so well.
“So I’m a mere housekeeper now, am I?” she said in a low voice. Her dark eyes glittered. “Just what sort of payout do you think I want?”
He set his jaw. “Marriage.”
She sucked in her breath. “Marriage?”
“You know very well,” he said grimly, “if you were pregnant, I would have no other choice.”
They stared at each other in the shadows of the garden.
Looking down at her beautiful face, Rafael’s body hurt with tension and fury.
He’d always vowed he would never get trapped by any woman. It had happened to him once, and that was enough. At seventeen, he’d fallen for an older woman who’d callously dropped him to marry a wealthy man. When Rafael had pleaded with her to marry him instead, she’d laughed at his tiny diamond ring. The faded Cruz fortune wasn’t nearly enough to tempt her, she’d said. She liked his body well enough, but money was what mattered most to her.
At eighteen, he’d made it his mission in life to get rich. Ten years later, he’d ruined the woman—and her husband—in payback.
Rafael would never feel desperate over a woman again. It was why he could never have children. He would never give a woman that kind of power over him. Never feel vulnerable again. Never.
He looked at Louisa. Especially her. She had too much power over him already.
Against his will, Rafael’s gaze dropped to her lush mouth. Even now, wondering if she’d tricked him, wondering if she were the most accomplished liar he’d ever met, Rafael couldn’t stop wanting to kiss her. His body ached for her.
“So if I were pregnant, you would really wish to marry me?” she whispered.
In spite of all her defiance, he saw that she wished to marry him. She wanted to pin him down. She was no different from all the rest.
He said evenly, “There’s no way I would allow my child to be raised by some other man. So I would make you my wife. Is that what you want, Louisa?” he said dangerously. “Is that what you’ve wanted all along?”
With a deep intake of breath, she looked away from him, staring out at the view of Istanbul across the Bosphorus. So close across the water, but it was another continent entirely—Asia.
Clenching his hands into fists, he stared at her. Louisa was like that. So close, and yet so far. She was standing beside him. He could feel the warmth of her skin. And yet she was so far away. He realized he’d never really known her at all.
“Would you be a good father?” she whispered into the night, still not looking at him. “Would you love our child?”
His eyes narrowed as he looked at her lovely face, so different without glasses. Her eyes were wide and deep as the night. Her long dark hair brushed against her creamy shoulders in the soft breeze. She was the most beautiful, elusive woman he’d ever known. And he hated her for her beauty.
When he spoke, his voice was low and even.
“I would marry you for the baby’s sake. But I would make you pay for trapping me into marriage,” he continued in a low voice. He reached out and brushed a tendril of hair off her cheek with his fingertips. He felt her shiver beneath his touch as he leaned forward to whisper in her ear, “I would make you pay…and pay…and pay.”
“What do you mean?” she gasped, shuddering.
He gave a cold, cruel smile as he straightened. “I would take pleasure of you in my bed until I had my fill.” He stared down at her. “I would own you, as you would never own me.”
She sucked in her breath.
She looked up at him, her eyes troubled in shadow. “But would you love our baby?”
Suddenly he was done with her endless evasions. Setting his jaw, he reached into his pocket for a cell phone. He dialed a number and spoke into the phone. “Dr. Vincent, please.”
“What are you doing?”
He looked at her coldly. “Since you refuse to tell me if you’re pregnant, I will have you examined by my doctor in Paris.”
Louisa ripped the phone from his hands and ended the call. She took a deep breath.
“Well?” he said coolly.
“I’m…” She licked her lips.
He stared at her, his heart full of darkness and fury.
“I’m…” she said in a low voice. She took a deep breath, briefly closing her eyes as she said, “I’m not pregnant.”
He exhaled in a rush. “You’re not?”
She stared at him. Her eyes were pools of darkness.
Relief coursed through him, almost making him stagger.
He hadn’t been wrong about her! She could be trusted! He hadn’t been such a fool as he’d feared!
Then, staring at Louisa’s tight shoulders and barely concealed fury, he reconsidered that statement. If she was innocent, he’d just treated her very badly indeed.
Looking at her with sudden regret, he rubbed the back of his head wryly. He’d let Novros’s suspicions get to him. The Greek bastard had probably made it all up, he thought in irritation, spinning the facts for his own reasons, hoping to cause friction between Rafael and his housekeeper. Hoping he could get Louisa for himself!
He sighed. So who was a stupid fool after all…?
“Sorry,” he said, spreading his hands wide and giving her his best smile. “Forgive me. I let my suspicions get the best of me. I should have known I could trust you, Louisa…”
But as he reached out for her shoulder, she backed away before he could touch her.
Rafael ground his teeth, silently cursing both his own untrusting nature and the Greek business rival who’d so easily managed to cause such trouble in his household.
“So, Miss Grey,” he said in a determinedly jocular voice, “your housekeeping skills are desperately needed at my apartment in Buenos Aires. Please go fix it up, just as you’ve done here. There’s no reason to stay in Istanbul any longer, as I just gave this house away in a business deal—”
“You did what?”
“You’ll fly to Argentina in the morning. I will follow in a week or two, after I’ve completed the Paris deal.”
For a moment, she was silent. Then she said a single cold word.
“No.”
He tried again. “You will, of course, receive a muchdeserved raise. I intend to double your salary.”
“No,” she bit out. She lifted her chin, and her eyes glittered. “I’ve done nothing, nothing to deserve the humiliating treatment you’ve given me. My only mistake was sleeping with a heartless playboy, knowing what kind of man you were!”
He set his jaw. “Louisa, you must believe I never meant—”
“I’m not finished!” she nearly shrieked. “For the last month, I’ve asked myself again and again how I could have slept with you in Paris. Then I did it again, letting you convince me to be your mistress on that Greek island. I wanted you so desperately. For years, I’ve made excuses for your bad behavior. I told myself you had some goodness deep inside you. I’ve devoted every moment of the last five years to making your life comfortable. But now, I see you how you really are. How could I have ever let myself love you? A coldhearted, selfish bastard like you?”
“I never asked you to love me.” He gritted his teeth. “And I paid you well—”
“You’ll never pay me another penny,” she interrupted in a low, cold fury. “I won’t take one more dime from you. Ever.”
He took a deep breath. “Louisa, you’re just upset,” he said in a reasonable voice. “I admit I was rude to jump to conclusions, but surely you can see how your past looked to me? I am sorry I accused you of trying to trap me. I should have known you would never try to purposefully get pregnant with a child neither of us want. Forgive my stupidity,” he said humbly. “Let’s forget all this unpleasantness. Leave it behind and return to how we were. Boss. Valued employee.”
She shook her head, her face a mask of repressed fury and some other emotion he could not read. Disgust? Grief?
“I will never work for you again,” she whispered. “God help any woman stupid enough to be completely under your control. I’m done with you, Rafael. I never want to see you again.” She lifted her chin, and her eyes glittered. “I quit.”
Chapter Six
Sixteen months later
THE bakery had been busy all day amid the hubbub of the early spring season in Key West. Outside, the sun was warm, glimmering off the turquoise sea and a cruise ship docked nearby. It was only early afternoon, but Louisa guessed that she’d already served nearly every tourist on that ship. As she worked the counter, she glanced at the ship briefly through the storefront window that proclaimed Grey’s Bakery.
Then, as the family of six left with their arms full of doughnuts and cookies, Louisa turned with an apologetic smile to the last customer. “Good afternoon. I’m so sorry for the wait—”
Then she finally got a good look at the man who’d been behind the throng of tourists. She sucked in her breath. The tongs she’d been holding dropped to the floor with a clang.
Rafael looked down at her, smiling with his dark eyes.
“Hello, Louisa,” he said. “How are you?”
She stared at him in shock, unable to speak.
It had been almost a year and a half since she’d left him in Istanbul, this selfish, coldhearted man who hadn’t wanted either a wife or a child. He looked at her now with the exact same gray shade of eyes as her baby son, who was now almost eight months old. The baby who was right now sleeping in the tiny office behind the counter. The baby he didn’t know about.
Involuntarily she moved a little to the right, blocking his view of the office door. What was Rafael doing in Florida? Had he somehow found out about Noah?
“What are you doing here?” she choked out.
“You don’t look pleased to see me.” He rubbed the back of his dark hair and glanced up at her with a sheepish half smile. “I guess you’re not the one who sent the letter. I hoped you were.”
“Letter?” She hid her shock by leaning down behind the counter to pick up the tongs from the tile floor. She turned and dropped them into a sinkful of soapy water. Bracing her hands against the sink, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Not exactly a letter,” he clarified. “It was a flyer advertising your bakery. Someone sent it to my office in Paris.”
A chill went through her. She knew just who’d sent it. Damn Katie!
Fear pierced her heart.
Don’t be afraid, she told herself desperately. Why should Rafael Cruz frighten her? She was no longer his employee. No longer his lover. This was her bakery, hers and her sister’s, and if Louisa chose, she would throw him out onto the street!
He had no power over her, she told herself. None whatsoever.
But she knew that was a lie. She thought of her baby in the darkened room behind her. If he knew about Noah…
Could he possibly know?
Sucking in her breath, she turned to face him. Her eyes searched his face.
Then she exhaled. He didn’t know. He couldn’t. If he’d known, he wouldn’t be looking at her with an expression that was so open and friendly and warm. He would have come in here with all guns blazing.
“What do you want, Rafael?” she bit out. She would never call him Mr. Cruz, ever again.
“I’ve missed those caramel brownies of yours,” he said. “I’ll pay for them, of course.”
She heard the echo of his long-ago words. I would make you pay…and pay…and pay. She lifted her chin. “I thought I made it clear that I never wished to see you again.”
“You did,” he admitted. “But when I got that letter, I realized that I wanted to see you.” He smiled at her. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”
The smile he gave her would have melted the heart of any woman.
But not hers. Never again. She glared at him, then turned with an elaborate smile to help a new customer who’d just come in her store. He waited with unusual patience as she served the other customer. After the tinkle of the bell as the customer went back onto the boardwalk with a bagful of doughnuts, Louisa finally turned to him coldly.
“I have nothing to say to you. Please leave.”
“I had to find you, Louisa. To tell you,” he said, “to tell you I’m…sorry.”
She stared at him.
He was sorry.
“You have nothing to be sorry about,” she said coldly. “I’m glad you forced me to quit. My life now is exactly what it should be.” After she’d fled Istanbul, she’d returned to Miami, where she’d been stunned to discover Katie was a widow, living in a mobile home and barely able to support her five-year-old daughter. They’d hugged and cried in each others’ arms. Now, they were sisters again. They were a family. Louisa lifted her chin. “You did me a favor.”
He looked at her ruefully. “I did?”
Louisa nodded coldly. She’d used her savings to start this bakery on Key West, a place she’d visited long ago. This bakery wasn’t just a family business, it was a labor of love. Even her little niece, who was now in first grade, helped out. The two sisters worked here during the day, and lived upstairs with their children in a small apartment above the bakery.
She had the perfect life now. She had her family, a successful business she loved and friends on this island. And if she still sometimes dreamed of Rafael, hot dreams of longing in the night—well, what of that? She didn’t want him. She was better off without him!
Rafael looked at her. His eyes were as deep and dark as the Caribbean at midnight. He shook his head. “Ever since you left Istanbul, I’ve regretted my behavior that day. I never should have let my suspicions get the better of me.”
“Forget it,” she said shortly.
“I cannot.” He looked at her regretfully, then with a sigh, he clawed back his dark hair. “I accused you of trying to get pregnant with my child. You! Of all women on earth, I should have known you would not do such a thing!”
She surreptitiously glanced back at the room where their baby was sleeping. She heard the soft snuffle of Noah’s heavy breath. He would be hungry and waking soon. Katie had gone to pick up her daughter from school, but any moment now she’d be back to take her turn working the counter.
Her interfering, well-meaning sister would no doubt be thrilled to see Rafael. Curse her.
“Forgive me,” Rafael said humbly, bowing his head. “I am sorry for how badly I treated you.”
She heard her baby shift in his playpen, heard his snuffle as he started to wake up.
“I forgive you,” she said abruptly.
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.” She had to get Rafael out of her bakery—fast. She moved behind the counter, using fresh tongs to pick up some of her caramel brownies, the most popular item at the bakery, and put them in a white bag. “Here,” she said. “Take these as a peace offering. On the house.”
“Thank you.” He took the bag, but he did not leave as she’d hoped. Instead he hesitated, propping the bag on the side counter as he slowly looked around the shop. “It’s a beautiful store.”
“Thanks,” she said unwillingly.
“How did you end up here? At this remote island?”
Not remote enough, she thought, looking at him. “My sister was still living in Miami with her daughter. Her husband had died the year before.”
“Yes,” he said quietly. “I just heard about that.”
“Right.” Matthias Spence, the handsome, wealthy older man the Grey sisters had once fought over, had died of a heart attack shortly after the government had seized his remaining fortune for milking his investors in a money-making scheme. “But we’re all doing fine now.”
“Really?” he said softly.