looked away, desperate to break the heady contact of his dark eyes. Beyond the small but well-equipped office she looked through the window and out over London lying beneath dark heavy clouds. She was about to turn back to him, to tell him that maybe he was right, when papers on his desk caught her attention.
The petition for divorce. On top of the acknowledgement form lay a pen, as if he’d been interrupted in the process of signing it.
* * *
Max followed her gaze and looked at his desk, seeing a story he knew she would quickly piece together. The pen lying where he’d dropped it as he’d answered the phone call from his half-brother, Raul, which had thrown everything into disarray—and that had only been the beginning.
Then he’d been poised ready to sign the papers, to end a marriage he’d made in haste, but even before the ringtone of his phone had slashed through his thoughts he’d been unable to do it. Unable to make it so very final.
‘You were going to sign them,’ Lisa said softly as she looked back to him, and the pain in her eyes clutched at him, stabbing his conscience.
The truth of it all was that even before the phone call his hand had hovered over the form, ready to sign but not able to. Still the shock of receiving them cut deeply. He’d failed. Just like his father, he’d been unable to be the man he’d promised to be.
‘Isn’t that what you wanted me to do?’ He deflected her question, throwing one back at her, and he knew that if he stood any chance of being in his child’s life he had to get Lisa to understand that they needed to remain married.
‘Yes,’ she said, but the hint of hesitation told him he was finally winning. ‘It was.’
‘And now that you are carrying my child? Do you still want me to sign them?’ He moved away from her, wanting to give her space to think but more importantly to take away the temptation to kiss her.
He looked out over London, the tension in the room notching up as her silence lengthened. He went to his desk, turning the papers round to face him and picked up the pen.
He looked at her, saw the way she bit at her lower lip, her focus on his hand. ‘The baby changes nothing, Max. We should never have married.’
‘But we did,’ he said as he put down the pen and stood tall, his arms folded across his chest. Anything to stop himself from going to her, from trying to kiss some reason into her. She was his wife and the thought of her moving on, of her meeting someone new, lashed at him like icy rain.
‘I don’t want a reluctant father for my child, Max.’
He drew in a deep breath as her words hit at his biggest insecurity. ‘Then we agree on that at least because I want to be there for my son or daughter all the time. Which is why I want to give our marriage another chance.’
‘We already know we don’t work.’
‘I’ll make a deal with you, Lisa. We give the marriage one last chance. We live as a married couple for the next two weeks and if by New Year’s Eve you still feel the same, I will not contest the divorce and we can both start our lives again.’
* * *
‘Why?’ she asked, her brows furrowing in suspicion. ‘You don’t love me. You told me that in no uncertain terms.’
Lisa looked at Max as his eyes met hers across the small space of his office. Her heart flipped over and her stomach fluttered just as it always had done when he’d looked at her like that. For her it was all about being in love, but for him it was something different.
‘Because we have created a child, our child, and we owe it to that child to at least try.’ His words confirmed her thoughts. This was about his conscience, about doing the right thing.
She’d never wanted a divorce. Not because she couldn’t admit they’d made a mistake, but because she still loved him. It had been his cold and cruel words after their passionate night that had prompted her to tell him that morning she wanted a divorce and the pain had stung long enough to ensure she’d eventually seen it through.
‘Our night together should never have happened.’ She turned and glared at him, pushing down her softer side, the one that wanted to fall into his arms and take anything he was offering. She might have been able to do that once, but not any more, not now she had a child to think of.
‘So why did it, Lisa?’ His voice was deep, gravelly and very sexy.
She bit down hard, keeping the truth inside. There was no way she was ever going to let him know she still loved him. She’d thought her dreams had all come true at once when she’d first met Max and giving up on her dreams was hard. Too hard.
‘Far too much wine.’ She snapped the words she’d used earlier and turned, leaving the small office and the air that was full of the scent of Max. She couldn’t stay here any more, not when every word, every look, made her remember all she’d lost.
‘Nothing else?’ He taunted her and she stopped, her breathing deep and fast as she looked steadfastly at the door of his apartment, her escape. She wouldn’t turn round, couldn’t look at him.
‘No.’ She shook her head and took the final steps to the door but before she could open it Max was in front of her. ‘Nothing.’
‘But there is something now,’ he said all too calmly. ‘Our child.’
She clutched at the first thing she could think of to change the subject. ‘What about your brother? Aren’t you intending to meet him this afternoon?’
‘I am meeting my brother...’ he paused and lifted his arm to look at his watch, the movement exposing his tanned wrist and, try as she might, she couldn’t tear her gaze away ‘...in one hour. Which means, we will have to continue this discussion later.’
‘In that case, I’ll go home.’ Her blasé reply made his brows rise in a suggestive and incredibly sexy way and she drew in a deep breath.
‘You will come with me, Lisa, and afterward, we will call at your apartment to collect all you need to move back in here while we sort things out.’
‘Are you mad?’
‘Quite possibly.’ He smiled, the kind of smile that left her in no doubt he was sure he held all the power. ‘But I am not about to allow you to walk away with my child.’
‘A child you’ve never wanted.’
‘That may have been the case once, but not any more.’
MAX’S MIND HAD been a turmoil of thoughts as he and Lisa had made the journey across London to the hotel his brother had suggested for their meeting. One minute he’d been thinking of his brother and how finally meeting him would affect him, and then his thoughts had gone to the child he was now responsible for. How could he be a father when he was the son of a man who’d led a double life, effectively having two families simultaneously?
He looked at Lisa as she sat down in one of the cosy-looking armchairs in the
