up her glasses, she glared at him. “Of course I love him. What kind of question it that?”
Gabriel’s black eyes burned through her. “So how could you allow yourself to get pregnant without also giving him a father? You always told me you wanted marriage, Laura. A home near your family. A career that would allow you time to raise your children. How could you toss all that aside for the sake of a one-night stand?”
She swallowed, blinking back tears. Yes, how could she?
His eyes turned back to the road. “You quit without notice last year,” he said coldly. “That was inconvenient.”
She stiffened. “Inconvenient to replace me in your office—or your bed?”
His lips tightened. “Both.”
“So difficult, and yet you didn’t bother to even try to talk me out of it.”
They stopped at a red light. He turned on her, his eyes glinting with fury. “I let you go, Laura. For your own good, so you could have the life you wanted. But instead of following your dreams, you threw it all away. You made my sacrifice worthless. How could you? How could you be so careless?”
“It was an accident!”
“I told you.” His eyes were hard. “There are no accidents. Only mistakes.”
“And I told you, my baby is not a mistake!” “Are you saying you got pregnant on purpose?” Her mouth went dry.
He waited, then the light turned green. His lip twisted as he turned back to the road. “Every child deserves to be born into a stable home with two parents. I’m disappointed in you, Laura. You should have been careful.”
Laura stiffened. “Careful like who? Like you?”
“Yes.”
She longed to have the satisfaction of wiping that scornful, judgmental look off his face. She wondered what he would say if she told him that he was the father.
But she knew the satisfaction would be short-lived. If he knew Robby was his child, he might feel duty-bound to take responsibility for a child he couldn’t love, and be pinned down to a domestic life he’d never wanted. And he would hate not just Laura for that, he’d hate Robby, as well.
She had to keep the secret. Had to. Leaning back against the black leather seat, she pressed her lips shut. Just a few more hours, she told herself desperately. Tomorrow she and Robby would be on the plane back home, a million dollars richer.
“I thought family meant everything to you.”
She opened her eyes, blinking back tears. “It does.”
“I thought you were better than that.”
“Don’t you think I want a father for Robby? Don’t you think I want to give him the same loving family I had?”
“So why didn’t you?” Gabriel took a deep breath and said in a low voice, “Badly done, Laura.”
She started to deliver a sharp retort; then stopped when she saw the stark expression on his face.
“Why are you like this?” she said. “Why do you care so much?”
“I don’t,” he said coldly.
“You do. You’ve always acted like you despise the idea of matrimony and commitment and children—all of it. But you don’t,” she said softly. “You care.”
Gabriel pulled the Ferrari to an abrupt halt. He didn’t look at her. “We’re here.”
Blinking in surprise, she saw they’d arrived at the enormous, exclusive Zeytuna boutique in the Leblon district. Her door opened, and she saw a young, smiling valet in a red jacket. Gabriel handed him keys, then held out his hand to her.
“Come,” he said coldly. “We haven’t much time.”
Reluctantly, Laura placed her hand in his, and felt the same shock of sensation, the brush of his warm skin and strong grip of his fingers around hers.
“Are you cold?”
“No,” she said.
“You’re shivering.”
She ripped her hand away. “I’m just afraid we will fail. That I will fail.” “You won’t.”
She looked down at her tight black dress, seeing her big hips and oversize breasts and a belly that was far from flat. She thought again of competing against Adriana da Costa in a bikini, and shuddered. “I don’t see how.”
Gabriel’s sensual lips curved up into a smile. “Trust me.”
He folded her hand over his bare forearm as if she were a medieval French princess and he was her honored chevalier. He looked down at her with eyes of love, and even as she told herself that he was only practicing, this time the shiver was not in her body, but her heart.
Pretending to love him was too easy. She was playing with fire.
Just a few hours more, she told herself desperately. Then she’d never see him again. Her family would never need to worry about replacing parts on the tractor or losing their home after a bad harvest. They’d never need to panic when a glut on the market suddenly lowered prices of wheat to nothing. Her family would be safe. Her baby would be safe.
Her baby.
Laura swallowed. This was the first time she’d left Robby with a babysitter since he was born. It felt strange to be away from him. Strange, and dangerous to feel this young and free, with Gabriel beside her. He smiled down at her, and for an instant she was lost in his eyes, so dark and deep against his tanned skin.
It would be so easy to love him when he treated her like this. Even after she went home, she knew she would always remember his low, husky voice saying, “I want you, Laura, more than any woman. I’ve always wanted you.” She would feel the heat of his body against hers when he’d seized her on the terrace and kissed her. She had new memories to add to the time they’d first made love, when he’d pushed her back against his desk, sweeping everything aside in his reckless, savage need. When their sweaty, naked bodies had clung together, their limbs intertwined in explosive passion.
Now, Laura’s legs trembled as Gabriel drew her toward the two tall brass doors held wide by doormen.
“Boa tarde, Senhor Santos,” the first doorman said, beaming.
“Good to see you again, Mr. Santos,” the second doorman said in accented English.
Once they were inside the foyer, Laura looked up in amazement at a center courtyard two stories high, with a dome of colored Tiffany glass on the ceiling. But if the glamorous architecture was straight out of the nineteenth century, the boutique’s clothes were as cutting-edge as anything she’d find on Fifth Avenue.
A bevy of pretty shopgirls rushed to wait upon Gabriel. “Allow me to help you, senhor!”
“No,
