later she felt herself being lifted and carried in a pair of strong arms, but maybe she dreamed it. After that she remembered nothing.
CORTEZ GAVE UP trying to concentrate on a financial report for Saunderson’s Bank after he’d read it three times and still had no idea what it said. Business had been his life since he’d graduated from university with a first class degree and a determination to succeed. His new role as chairman of the prestigious private bank was more proof that he had come a long way from picking grapes at his mother’s small vineyard in Jerez. But waiting to learn if he was the father of Elin’s child dominated his thoughts and he drummed his fingertips on the coffee table and glanced at his watch for the hundredth time.
When his phone rang and he recognised the number of the paternity test clinic on the screen he took a deep breath before he answered the call. Moments later he ran an unsteady hand across his face.
Santa Madre! He had a son.
Conflicting emotions stormed through him. A fierce joy and pride in his beautiful son, but anger when he thought of the child’s mother. Elin had lied about Harry’s date of birth and Cortez was furious, knowing that if he had not insisted on a DNA test she might have disappeared with the baby and he would never have known he was a father.
He lurched to his feet. He felt drunk although he had not had a drop of alcohol. He was in shock, he realised. When he’d seen Harry’s black hair and dark eyes he had wondered if the baby could be his. But he was unprepared for the overwhelming emotions that poured through him. Driven by a need to see his child, he strode out of the room and quickly climbed the stairs. He heard Harry crying and a feeling he could not begin to describe welled inside him, a fundamental desire to protect his son.
Following the sound of Harry’s cries, he located the nursery and was surprised that Elin was not already there to comfort the baby. He stood next to the cot and felt as if his heart was being squeezed in a vice as he stared down at the screaming, red-faced infant. It was incredible that a small baby could make such a loud noise. Yet still Harry’s mother did not appear.
Cortez opened a door to an adjoining room and recognised he was in the bedroom where he had spent the night with Elin just over a year ago. Memories assailed him of her wearing a scarlet silk dress and not a lot else besides, he’d soon discovered. Their passion had been electrifying and she had been with him every step of the way. He did not know what to make of her assertion that she’d had sex with him that night because her drink had been spiked with a date-rape drug. The sexual chemistry that had ignited between them when he had kissed her earlier today had been undeniable.
The room was dimly lit by the bedside lamp. He switched on the overhead light and frowned when he saw the top of her blonde head poking above the duvet. ‘Elin?’ She did not answer, and when Cortez pulled back the covers her eyes flickered open and she stared at him vacantly. Her skin was pale and beaded with sweat. ‘Your baby needs you,’ he told her. She muttered something incomprehensible and huddled beneath the duvet. Cortez’s concern for his son was paramount. ‘Does Harry want to be fed?’ His jaw tightened. ‘For pity’s sake, you can’t leave him to cry.’
She either did not hear what he said or did not care, and she closed her eyes again. Cortez frowned as he remembered the recent speculation by the media that Elin used recreational drugs. There had been a photo in some of the tabloids of her being carried out of a nightclub in a semi-conscious state. Had she taken an illegal substance this afternoon which had rendered her unable to care for her baby? His baby.
He returned to the nursery and hesitated. His heart was pounding and for the only time in his life he felt terrified. He had never held a small baby before, and Harry looked so breakable. Taking a deep breath, he reached into the cot and picked Harry up. The baby’s cries immediately subsided to little whimpers that tore on Cortez’s heart.
‘Hey, little man,’ he murmured as he held the baby against his shoulder. Harry stared at him with big, dark eyes fringed with long black lashes. He was more beautiful than anything Cortez had ever seen. The baby’s Cupid’s bow mouth curved into a smile and Cortez felt a constriction in his throat. ‘My son,’ he said thickly, wonderingly. He was Harry’s father and he would never abandon his child like his own father had abandoned him. He was instantly smitten with his baby boy, and his heart felt as if it had swelled to twice its size and was filled to overflowing with love for his child. ‘I would give my life to protect you,’ he whispered to Harry.
He heard a noise and looked round, expecting to see Elin, but it was the nanny standing in the doorway. ‘Ah, Miss Lennox.’
‘I would have been back from my daughter’s earlier, but there was a delay on the Tube,’ she explained.
Cortez looked down at the baby he was cradling so carefully in his arms. ‘I am Harry’s father.’
‘Oh, I guessed that,’ she said cheerfully. ‘He has inherited your colouring rather than his mother’s.’
‘Elin is asleep and didn’t hear the baby crying. She seems...spaced out,’ he said tersely.
The nanny nodded and seemed unsurprised. ‘She has these episodes quite frequently. Hopefully, she’ll be back to herself in a day or two.’
Cortez instinctively held Harry a little tighter. The nanny’s words seemed to confirm the suggestion in the tabloids that Elin was a drug user and he resolved to protect his son from his mother, who was obviously unfit to take care of a child. One of the first things he intended to do was arrange for his name to be added to Harry’s English birth certificate under the section for father’s details. Even more importantly, he wanted to register his son’s birth in Spain, which would be Harry’s country of residence from now on. But, to do so, he would need Elin’s agreement.
He handed Harry over to the nanny so that she could change his nappy. The procedure was one of many things he would have to learn how to do, Cortez mused.
‘Miss Lennox...’ he smiled at the nanny and turned on the full force of his charm ‘...may I call you Barbara? You guessed that I am Harry’s father and you might also have realised when you saw Elin and I together at Cuckmere Hall that we are reunited.’
The nanny looked embarrassed by his reminder of when she had caught him and Elin kissing. ‘I’m very glad for the two of you,’ she murmured, ‘and for Harry to have both his parents.’
Cortez did not disabuse Barbara of the idea that he and Elin were going to play happy families. ‘We have decided to take our son to Spain, and before we left Cuckmere Hall Elin gave me her and Harry’s passports.’ It was not a lie, more an elaboration of the truth, he assured his conscience.
‘Certain reasons make it necessary for me to return to Spain earlier than I’d planned,’ he told the nanny. ‘In fact, I need to leave tonight to deal with an urgent business matter. As I am sure you will appreciate, I am reluctant to leave my son and Elin behind in England, especially when we have just got back together.’ He shamelessly pushed the idea that their relationship was the romance of the year.
‘I know it is short notice,’ he continued, giving Barbara another dazzling smile. ‘Would you be prepared to accompany us to Spain on my private jet? Elin will be able to rest during the flight, and I’ll need you to take charge of Harry because I am a new and inexperienced father.’ He thought of a possible problem. ‘You will need your passport.’
‘As a matter of fact I always carry it
