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Robby. How could she have allowed herself to forget, even for an instant, that her son was counting on her to keep him safe?
Grabbing Gabriel’s hand, she pulled him out of the room, dragging him out of the house, away from prying eyes and into the freezing February air.
Outside in the wintry night, cars and trucks were wedged everywhere along the gravel driveway between their old house and the barn, strewn along the country road in front of their farm. Across the old stone walls that lined the road, white rolling hills stretched out into the great north woods, disappearing now into the falling purple twilight.
Behind them, next to the old barn, she could see the frozen water of their pond, gleaming like a silver mirror under the lowering gray clouds. Her father had taught all his daughters to swim there during the summers of their childhood, and even though Laura was now grown, whenever she felt upset, she would go for a swim in the pond. Swimming made her think of her father’s protective arms. It always made her feel better.
She wished she could swim in the pond now.
Laura looked down at her breath in the chilly air and saw the white smoke of Gabriel’s mingle with hers. She realized she was still holding his hand and looked down at his large fingers enfolding her own. The warmth of them suddenly burned her skin, sizzling nerve endings the length of her body.
She dropped his hand. Folding her arms, she glared up at him. “I’m sorry you’ve come all this way for nothing. I’m not going to work for you.”
“You don’t even want to hear about the job first? For instance—” he paused “—how much it pays?”
Laura bit her lip, thinking of her bank account, which held exactly thirteen dollars—barely enough for a week’s supply of diapers, let alone groceries. But they’d get by. And she couldn’t risk Robby’s custody—not for something so unimportant as money! She lifted her chin fiercely. “No amount of money could tempt me.”
His lips quirked. “I know I wasn’t always the easiest man to live with—”
“Easy?” she interjected. “You were a nightmare.”
His eyes crinkled in a smile. “Now that’s the diplomatic Miss Parker I remember.”
She glared at him. “Find another secretary.”
“I’m not asking you to be my secretary.”
“You said.”
He looked down at her. His voice was dark and deep, his eyes burning though her with intensity. “I want you to spend a night with me in Rio. As my mistress.”
His mistress? Laura’s mouth fell open.
Gabriel continued to stare down at her with his inscrutable dark eyes, his hands in his pockets. She licked her lips.
“I’m…I’m not for sale,” she whispered. “You think just because you are rich and handsome you can have whatever you want, that you can pay me to fall into your bed—and go away the next morning with a check?”
“A charming idea.” A humorless smile traced his sensual mouth. “But I don’t wish to pay you for sex.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks went hot. “Then what?”
“I want you—” he moved closer, his hard-edged face impossibly handsome “—to pretend to love me.”
She swallowed. Then she tilted her head, blinking up at him in the fading light. “But thousands of girls could do that,” she said. “Why come all the way up here, when you could have twenty girls at your penthouse in Rio in four minutes? Are you insane?”
He raked his dark hair back with his hand.
“Yes,” he said heavily. “I am going slowly insane. Every moment my father’s company is in the hands of another man, every moment I know I lost my family’s legacy through my own stupidity, I feel I am losing my mind. I’ve endured it for almost twenty years. And I’m close now, so close to getting it back.”
She should have known it had something to do with regaining Açoazul. “But how can I possibly help you?”
He looked down at her, his jaw clenched. “Play the part of my devoted mistress for twenty-four hours. Until I close the deal.”
“How on earth would that help you close the deal?” she asked, bewildered.
He set his jaw. “I’ve hit a snag in the negotiations. A six-foot-tall, bikini-wearing snag.”
“What?”
Gabriel ground his teeth. “Felipe Oliveira found out I used to date his fiancée.”
“You did?” Laura said in surprise, then gave a bitter laugh. “Of course you did.”
“Now he doesn’t want me within a thousand miles of Rio. He thinks if he doesn’t sell me the company after all, I’ll go back to New York.” Gabriel looked at her. “I need to make him understand I’m not interested in his woman.”
“That doesn’t explain why you’d need me. Thousands of women would be happy to pretend to be in love with you. For free.” She took a deep breath, clenching her hands at her sides. “Some of them wouldn’t even have to pretend!”
He set his jaw. “They won’t work.”
She exhaled with a flare of her nostrils. “Why?”
“Oliveira’s fiancée…is Adriana da Costa.”
“Adriana da…” Laura’s voice trailed off, her eyes wide.
Adriana da Costa.
Laura could still see those cold, reptilian eyes, that skinny, lanky body. Gabriel had dated the Brazilian supermodel briefly in New York several years ago, while Laura was his live-in personal assistant. She could still hear Adriana’s pouting voice. Why do you keep calling here? Stop calling.
Find the whiskey, you stupid cow. Gabriel always gets thirsty after sex.
Laura cleared her throat. “Adriana da Costa, the bikini model.”
“Yes.”
“The one Celebrity Star magazine just called the sexiest woman alive.”
“She’s a selfish narcissist,” he said sharply. “And for the short time we were together, she was always insecure. Only one woman has ever made her feel so threatened. You.”
“Me?” Laura gasped. “You’re out of your mind! She would never feel threatened by me!”
Gabriel’s dark eyes gleamed. “She complained to me constantly. Why did I always take your calls, but not hers? Why did I always have time for you, day or night? Why would I leave her bed at 2:00 A.M. in order to go home to you? And most of all, why did I allow you to live in my apartment, only you and no one else?”
Laura’s mouth fell open.
“She never understood our relationship,” Gabriel said. “How we could be so close without being lovers. Which we weren’t.” He paused. “Not until…Rio.”
The huskiness of his deep voice whipped through Laura, causing a sizzle to spread down her body.
“Adriana has made it clear she wants me back,” he said in a low voice. “She’d leave Felipe Oliveira in an instant for me, and he knows it. Only one thing will convince them both I am not interested in her.”
Laura stared at him.
“Me?” she whispered.
He looked right at her. “You are the only woman that Adriana would believe I could love.”
A roar of shared memories left unspoken between them washed over Laura like a wave, and her heart twisted in her chest. She’d been only twenty-one when, on her second day in New York City, the employment office had sent her to Santos Enterprises to interview in the accounting office. Instead, she’d been sent up to the top floor to meet with the CEO himself.
“Perfeito,” the fearsome, sleek Brazilian tycoon had said, looking at her résumé. Then he’d looked at her. “Young enough so you will not be planning to immediately quit to have a baby. At least ten or twenty years before you’ll think of that. Perfeito.”
Now, Gabriel looked at her with dark eyes. She felt a cold winter wind sweep in from the north and shivered.
“Be my pretend mistress in Rio,” he said. “And I will pay you a hundred thousand dollars for that one night.”
Her lips parted as she breathed, “A hundred thousand!”
She almost said yes on the spot. Then she remembered her baby, and her heart rose to her throat. She shook her head. “Sorry,” she choked out. “Get someone else.”
His brow furrowed in disbelief. “Why? You clearly need the money.”
She licked her lips. “That’s none of your business.” “I deserve an answer.”
She set her jaw. He didn’t know what kind of trouble he’d made for her by coming here. Didn’t know and didn’t care. He couldn’t see how Laura had changed through the anguish of the past year. Who would be the first neighbor to gossip that her ex-boss bore an uncanny resemblance to her son?
She exhaled, clenching her hands. He still thought all he had to do was tell her to jump, and she’d ask how high. But she wasn’t his obedient little secretary anymore.
With a deep breath, she closed her eyes. It was time to let it all go.
Let go the sound of Gabriel’s warm, deep voice for the last five years as his executive assistant. Miss Parker, there’s no one as capable as you.
Let go the brightness of his delight when he came home at 6:00 A.M. to find her silently waiting with freshly made coffee and a pressed suit for his early meeting. Miss Parker, what would I do without you?
Let go the memory of their time in bed, when his dark eyes, so vulnerable and warm, had caressed her face with unspoken words of love. Let go the memory of his lips hot against her skin. Let go the feel of him inside her. Laura, I need you.
She opened her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice shaking. “You don’t deserve an explanation. My answer is just no.”
Around them, the dusting of snow reflected light into the white-gray lowering clouds, in a breathless hush of muffled silence. He blinked, looking bewildered.
“Did it end so badly, Laura?” he said softly. “Between us?”
She pressed her fingernails into her palms to keep from crying. Robby. She had to think of Robby. “You shouldn’t have come here.” Her cheeks felt inflamed in the winter air, her body burning up and yet cold as ice. “I want you to leave. Now.”
He took a step closer, looking down at her. A sliver of moonlight pierced through the clouds to illuminate his face. She noticed the dark shadow on his hard jawline, saw the hollows beneath his eyes. She wondered when he’d last slept.
Her heart twisted in her chest. No. She couldn’t let herself care. She couldn’t! Choking back tears, she edged away. “If you won’t leave, I will.”
He grabbed her wrist. He looked down at her, and his eyes glittered. “I can’t let you go.”
For a moment, she heard only the panting of their breath. Then a door banged open, and she heard a baby’s whine. A chill went down her spine and she whirled around with a gasp.
Too late!
“Where have you been, Laura?” her mother called irritably, holding a squirming Robby in her arms. “It took me ages to find you. What on earth are you doing out here in the cold?”
Ripping her arm from Gabriel’s grasp, Laura gave her mother a hard, desperate stare. “I’m sorry, Mom. Just go back inside. Go back. I’ll be right there!”
But her mother wasn’t looking at her. “Is that—is that Mr. Santos?” she said tremulously.
“Hello, Mrs. Parker,” Gabriel said, smiling as he stepped towards her and held out his hand. “Congratulations on Becky’s wedding. You must be very proud of your daughter.”
“I’m proud of all my daughters.” She came closer to shake his hand. “It’s nice to see you again.”
Laura stared at them, her heart in her throat. Her mother had always liked Gabriel, ever since he’d paid for the family to take a vacation to Florida four years ago, one they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford. The Parkers had traveled in his private jet and stayed at a villa on the beach. It had been a lavish second honeymoon for Laura’s parents, a big change from their first at a cheap motel in Niagara Falls. Pictures of that Florida vacation still lined the walls, images of their family smiling beneath palm trees, building sand castles on the beach, splashing in the surf together. With that one gift, Gabriel had won her mother’s loyalty forever.
“I’m glad someone had the sense to invite you to Becky’s wedding,” Ruth said, smiling.
He smiled back with gentle courtesy. “I’ve always asked you to call me Gabriel.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t,” she said. “Not with you being Laura’s employer and all. It just wouldn’t be right.”
“But I’m not her employer anymore.” He flashed Laura a dark look before leaning toward her mother to confidentially whisper, “And I wasn’t invited to the wedding. I crashed. I came to offer her a job.”
“Oh!” Ruth practically cried tears of joy. “A job! You have no idea how happy that makes me. Things have been so tight lately and you should see some of the ridiculous jobs she’s applied for, as far away as Exeter—”
“Mom,” Laura cried. “Please take Robby inside!”
“So she’s looking for a job, is she?” he purred.
“Oh, yes. She’s totally broke,” Ruth confided, then her cheeks turned red. “But then, we all are. Ever since…since.” She turned away.
Gabriel put his hands into his pockets. “I was sorry to hear about your husband. He was a good man.”
“Thank you,” Ruth whispered. Amid the lightly falling snow, silence fell. Gabriel suddenly looked at
Robby.
“What a charming baby,” he murmured, changing the subject. “Is he related to you, Mrs. Parker?”
Her mother looked at him as if he was stupid. “He’s my grandson.”
Gabriel looked surprised. “Is one of your other daughters married, as well?”
“Mom,” Laura breathed with tears in her eyes, terrified, “just go! Right now!”
But it was too late. “This is Robby,” her mother said, holding him up proudly. “Laura’s baby.”
CHAPTER THREE
AS her mother turned to place Robby into her arms, Laura’s heart fell to the snowy, frozen ground. The six-month-old’s whine faded, turning to hiccups as he clung to Laura. Ruth leaned forward to hug her.
“Take the job,” her mother whispered in her ear, then turned to Gabriel and said brightly, “I hope to see you again soon, Mr. Santos!”
Laura heard the dull thunk of the door as her mother went back inside. Then she was alone with Gabriel; their baby in her arms.
Gabriel’s dark eyes went to the child, then back to her. The sound of his tightly coiled voice reverberated in the cold air. “This is your son?”
She held her baby close, loving the solid, chubby feel of him in her arms. Tears stung her eyes as she looked down at Robby. “Yes.”
“How old is he?”
“Six months,” she said in a small voice.
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. “So tell me.” His voice was deadly and still as a winter’s night. “Who is the father of your baby?”
She’d wished so many times to be able to tell Gabriel the truth, dreamed of giving her son his father. With their baby squirming in her arms between them, the truth rose unbidden to her lips. “The father of my baby is…”
You. You’re Robby’s father. Robby is your son. But the words stuck in her throat. Gabriel didn’t want to be tied down with a child. If she told him her secret, nothing good would come of it. He might feel he had no choice but to sue for custody out of duty, resenting Robby, resenting her for forcing him into it. He might try to take their child to Brazil, away from her, to be given into the arms of some young, sexy nanny.
Laura would gain nothing by telling him. And risk everything.
“Well?” he demanded.
She flashed her eyes at him. “The identity of my baby’s father is none of your business.”
His own eyes narrowed. “You must have gotten pregnant immediately after you left Rio.”
“Yes,” she said unwillingly. She shivered, looking from father to son. Would he notice the resemblance?
But Gabriel turned on her, his dark eyes full of accusation. “You were a virgin when I seduced you. You said you wanted a home and family of your own. How could you be so careless, to forget protection, to let yourself get pregnant by a one-night stand?”
Gabriel had used protection, but somehow she’d gotten pregnant anyway. She said over the lump in her throat, “Accidents happen.”
“Accidents don’t happen,” he corrected. “Only mistakes.”
She set her jaw. “My baby is not a mistake.” “You mean it was planned?” He lifted a sardonic eyebrow. “Who is the father? Some good-looking farmer? Some boy you knew back in high school?” He glanced around. “Where is this paragon? Why hasn’t he proposed? Why aren’t you his wife?”
Robby was starting to snuffle. Even in his long-sleeved shirt, he was getting cold, and so was she. Holding him close to her warmth, she shifted his weight on her hip. “I told you, it’s none of your business.”
“Is he here?”
“No!”
“So he deserted you.”
“I didn’t give him the chance,” she said. “I left him first.”
“Ah.” Gabriel’s shoulders seemed to relax slightly. “So you don’t love him. Will he cause any trouble when you take the child to Rio?”
“No.” “Good.”
“I mean—I’m not taking Robby there. I’m not going.” Her baby started to whimper as she turned away. “Goodbye, Gabriel.”
“Wait.”
The raw emotion in his voice made her hesitate. Against her better judgment she turned back. He stepped toward her, and she saw something in his expression she’d never seen before.
Vulnerability.
“Don’t leave,” he said in a low voice. “I need you.” I need you.
She’d once loved him. She’d served him night and day, existed only to please him. She had to fight that habit, that yearning, with every bit of willpower she possessed.
“Is a hundred thousand dollars not enough?” He came closer, his dark eyes bright in the moonlight, the white smoke of his breath drifting around them in the chilly night air. “Let’s make it a cool million. A million dollars, Laura. For a single night.” She gasped. A million…?
Reaching out, he stroked her cheek. “Think what that money could mean for you. For your family.” His fingers moved slowly against her cold skin, the lightest touch of a caress, warming her. “If you don’t care what it would mean for me, think what it could do for you. And all you need to do,” he said huskily, “is smile for a few hours. Drink champagne. Wear a fancy ball gown. And pretend to love me.”
Pretend. Blinking up at him, she swallowed the lump in her throat. Pretend to love him.
“Although I know it might not be easy,” he said dryly. Then he shook his head. “But you are not so selfish as to refuse.”
With an intake of breath, Laura clenched her hands into fists. “Maybe I am. Now.”
His sensual mouth curved. “The Laura I knew always put the needs of the people she loved above herself. I know that hasn’t changed.” His dark eyebrow lifted. “You probably stayed up all night making your sister’s wedding cake.”
Her lips twisted with a dark emotion. “I really hate you.”
“Hate me if you will. But if you do not come with me to Rio tonight…” He clawed his black hair back with his hand, then exhaled. His dark eyes seemed fathomless and deep, echoing with pain. “I will lose my father’s legacy. Forever.”
Shivering in the cold night, cradling her whimpering baby in the warmth of her arms, Laura looked up into Gabriel’s handsome, haggard face. She knew better than anyone what the Açoazul company meant to Gabriel. For years, she’d watched him scheme and plot to regain control of it. He hungered for it. His legacy.
Living in the house her great-great-great-great-grandfather had built with his own two hands, on the land her family had farmed for two centuries, Laura could understand the feeling. She looked at his face. It was a shock to see raw vulnerability in his dark eyes. It was an expression she’d never seen there before, not in all the years she’d worked for him. She could feel herself weakening.
One million dollars. For a single night of luxury in Rio, a night of beauty and pleasure. She looked down at her baby. What could that money do for her son? For her family?
But oh, the risk. Could she be strong enough to resist telling Gabriel the truth? For twenty-four hours, could she lie to his face? Could she pretend to love him, without falling in love with him again for real?
On the country road in front of their property, Laura saw a parked black sedan turn on its headlights, as if on cue. She heard the smooth purr of the engine as it slowly drove up the driveway. Over Gabriel’s head, moonlight laced the ridges of the dark clouds with silver.
She closed her eyes. “You will never come back looking for me after this?” she said in a low voice. “You will leave us in peace?”
Gabriel’s own voice was harsh. “Yes.”
Looking at him, Laura took a deep breath and spoke words that felt like a knife between her shoulder blades. The only words he’d left for her to say. “One night,” she whispered.
An hour later they arrived at the small private airport, where his jet waited outside the hangar. As they crossed the tarmac, Gabriel felt his blood rush in his ears as he stared down at her.
Laura was even more beautiful than he remembered. In the moonlight, her hair looked like dark honey. The frosty winter air gave her cheeks a soft pink glow, and as she bit her lower lip, her heart-shaped mouth looked red and inviting. For a single instant, when he’d first seen her at the farmhouse, he’d had the insane desire to kiss her.
He took a deep breath. He was tired, flying straight from Rio on his private jet. Even more than that, he was exhausted from the months of negotiations to buy back his father’s old company in Rio, to gain back the business that had been his birthright before he’d stupidly thrown it away as a grief-stricken nineteen-year-old.
He wouldn’t fail. Not this time. Gabriel glanced down grimly at his expensive platinum watch. They were still on schedule. Just.
As they climbed the steps to the jet, Laura paused, looking behind her. Shifting the baby carrier on her arm, she pulled her diaper bag up higher on her other shoulder and bit her lip. “I think we should go back to the house for a few more things—”
“You have enough for the flight?” he said shortly.
“Yes, but I didn’t pack clothes. Pajamas—”
“Everything you need will be waiting for you in Rio. It will be arranged.”
“All right.” With one last, troubled glance, she followed him up the steps.
Inside the cabin, Gabriel sat down in the white leather seat. A flight attendant offered him a glass of champagne, which he accepted. It had been harder than he’d expected to convince Laura to come. She sat across from him, suddenly glaring at him beneath her dark lashes.
Was she angry at him for some reason? God knew why. He was the one who should be angry. She’d left him in the lurch a year ago. In an act of pure charity, he’d allowed her to quit her job. It had been the act of a saint. He’d barely managed to patch up the hole she’d left in his office.
“You’d better have a very trustworthy babysitter in Rio,” she growled, refusing the offer of champagne.
He finished off the crystal flute. “Maria Silva.”
She blinked. “Your housekeeper?”
“She was my nanny when I was young.”
“You were young?” Laura said sardonically.
Gabriel’s throat closed. Against his will, memories of his happy childhood washed over him, of playing with his older brother, of the wrestling and fighting, of his nanny’s voice soothing them. Only a year apart in age, Gabriel had competed with Guilherme constantly, always seeking to best him in their parents’ eyes. He’d started some stupid battles. Leading up to the night of the accident…
Turning away, he finished harshly, “I’d trust Maria with my life.”
Laura no longer looked angry. Now she looked bemused, staring at him with her large, limpid turquoise eyes. She started to ask a question, then was distracted when the flight attendant suggested she buckle in the baby’s carrier before takeoff.
Gabriel watched her smiling down at her son, murmuring soft words of love as she tucked a baby blanket into his pudgy hand. The little one yawned again.
A strange feeling went through Gabriel.