on a pair of jeans and shrugged a black T-shirt over his head, and on his way downstairs he paused briefly to look in on Isabella.
She was curled up on her side, facing the door, and from this angle the curve of her belly hardly showed at all. With the light from the corridor falling across the sculpted contours of her face and her lips slightly parted in sleep, it was easy to forget why she was here. Easy to imagine her being in a bed in his house for another reason entirely…
Paulo swiftly turned away and went downstairs.
He went through his papers on autopilot, gradually reducing the pile to a few sheets which his secretary could deal with tomorrow. He glanced down at his watch and yawned. Today, he should say. Better get to bed.
But he switched his computer on and began playing Solitaire.
He must have been dozing because he didn’t hear the front door opening or clicking to a close. Nor did he hear soft footsteps approaching his study. In fact, the first indication that he had a visitor came from the sound of laboured breathing from just outside the door.
His eyes snapped open, his senses immediately on full alert, as he acknowledged that something had aroused him. He willed the aching fullness to subside.
‘Bella?’ he called softly. ‘Is that you?’
‘Sorry to disappoint you,’ came an acid female reply. ‘It’s only me.’
He sat up straight as a tall, slim figure walked into the room and frowned at her in disbelief. ‘Judy?’
‘Yes, Judy!’ came the sarcastic reply. ‘Why, did you think it was your little Brazilian firecracker?’
He reached out to click a further light on, his eyes briefly protesting against the bright glare as he stared at the woman standing uninvited before him.
The artificial light emphasised her pale-haired beauty—her long, willowy limbs and the pellucid blue eyes set in an alabaster skin. She wore jeans and an expensive-looking sheepskin jacket. And an expression he recognised instantly as a potent cocktail of lust and jealousy. He kept his face completely neutral.
‘Hello, Judy,’ he said softly, carefully. ‘I wasn’t expecting you.’
She raised her eyebrows and laughed. ‘You made that obvious enough.’
He kept his voice steady. ‘I didn’t realise you still had a key.’
‘That’s what keeps life so interesting, isn’t it, Paulo? These little surprises.’
He sighed. ‘Judy, I don’t want a scene.’
‘No. It’s pretty obvious from your greeting just what you do want!’
‘Meaning?’
‘Is that woman is staying here? She is, isn’t she?’
‘You mean Isabella?’ he asked coldly.
Judy scowled, ignoring the warning note in his voice. ‘You know damned well I do! You thought I was her when I came in, didn’t you? “Bella”! Well, I’m so sorry to disappoint you, Paulo! How long is she planning on staying for?’
Paulo didn’t react. The only movement in his face was the dark warning which glittered from his eyes. ‘I don’t think that this is a good time to have this conversation,’ he said carefully. ‘Apart from which, it’s really none of your business.’
For a moment her face looked almost ugly as different emotions worked their way across it.
‘She’s the reason you dumped me, isn’t she?’ she demanded. ‘You were never the same after she came here to see you. I could see it in your eyes that day. You were really hot for her, weren’t you, Paulo? In a way you never were for me. Not once.’
His mouth hardened as he realised that she had no idea that Isabella was pregnant. And he had no intention of telling her. He carried on as though she hadn’t spoken. ‘I’m actually very tired, so if you don’t mind…’
Judy stiffened as she read the rejection in his features. ‘What’s she got that I haven’t, Paulo?’ she pleaded. ‘Just tell me that.’
He shook his head. ‘Go home,’ he whispered. ‘Go home now, before it’s too late.’
Her eyes lit up as she completely misinterpreted his words. ‘For what? Too late to resist me, you mean? Well, maybe I don’t want you to resist me. Maybe I want what you’re trying to resist, just as badly as you do. What does it matter? I won’t tell.’ She moved towards the desk and the overpowering scent of her perfume invaded his senses and deadened them. ‘Come on, Paulo—what do you say? For old times’ sake.’
He shook his head, felt distaste whipping up his spine like a ragged fingernail. ‘No.’
‘No?’ She flicked her pale hair back. ‘Sure?’
This really was astonishing, thought Paulo. A beautiful blonde begging him for sex. It was most red-blooded men’s ideal fantasy and yet all he could think of was that she was going to wake the pregnant woman who lay sleeping upstairs.
‘Quite sure. Keep your voice down.’ He flattened his voice as the needs of his body fought with the demands of his mind. ‘And I think it’s better if you go right now.’
‘And what if I stay and do…this…?’ Her hand swooped towards him and he knew immediately just where she intended to touch him.
‘I don’t want you to.’ With razor-sharp reflexes, he snapped his fingers around her wrist to stop her. ‘I don’t want you to,’ he repeated deliberately. ‘Ever again. Got that?’
She stared into his eyes, like a woman who had never encountered rejection before and snatched her hand back. ‘Why not?’ she sneered. ‘You want to do it with Bella, I suppose?’
He didn’t have to tell her to get out; the look in his eyes must have done that effectively enough. He just heard her running down the hallway and slamming the front door so loudly that it echoed through the house like gunfire.
He waited until the automatic response of his body had died away completely, and he felt an ugly kind of taste in his mouth. Quietly, he turned the computer off and went to find himself a drink.
Barefooted, he went silently along to the kitchen where he poured himself a glass of water and stood drinking it, looking out of the window into the night sky. Outside, silver-white stars pin-pricked the darkened night and he found himself picturing Isabella’s father’s ranch in Vitória da Conquista. Where the stars were as big as lollipops—so bright and so close that you felt you could lean out and pluck them from the sky.
He pressed the empty water glass to his hot cheek as he anticipated the fireworks to come. What the hell was Isabella’s father going to say when he discovered that his beloved daughter was going to have a baby? By a man she was refusing to name! He was going to be absolutely furious.
He was just thinking about going back to bed when he turned to see Isabella standing in the doorway, silently watching him.
She had changed into a big, white nightshirt and a pair of bedsocks and had plaited her
