* *
Lisa closed her eyes and sank into Max’s embrace. He’d shared his secrets with her, opened up to her. Now, at last they could move forward, become a family and bring up their child together. It was all she’d ever wanted and with the exception of Max’s love she had it all.
She looked up into his face and the sadness in his eyes made him look so different—real. He’d lost that hard edge that gave him the command of total control. Was this the real man?
‘It’s cold out here.’ She snuggled tighter against him, anything to stop herself saying something stupid, like I love you. She could never let those words past her lips again.
‘Now you’ve noticed.’ He laughed, looking and sounding more relaxed than he’d ever done. Was it because he’d unburdened his past, confided in her in a way she’d only ever dreamt possible? ‘Shall we go back?’
‘No, let’s walk a while. The cold is invigorating.’
He kissed her so gently she was sure it tasted of love and as her body began to hum with desire she wished she’d asked him to take her back to his apartment, to his bed. The kiss intensified as the stirrings of passion began to boil higher and she kissed him back, deeply and passionately.
Inside her mind she was shouting to him. I love you, Max, with all my heart.
She continued the kiss, wanting to stop the words from tumbling from her mouth, and as the fury of passion threatened to spill over, like a dam about to be breached, she wanted to show him with the kiss how much she loved him.
He pulled away from her slightly, the cold night air tingling on her lips, still warm and bruised from the ferocity of his kiss. ‘It’s a damn shame I can’t lure you into my bed instead of walking in this weather.’
Pleasure and heat rushed around her as his desire filled eyes that held hers, calling her into his bed in a way she was powerless to resist. ‘On second thoughts—’
His brow raised in amusement. ‘Yes?’
‘That sounds a much better idea—and warmer.’
He took her hand and led her back along the embankment footpath, retracing their steps. ‘I can guarantee it will be warmer—a lot warmer.’
* * *
Lisa woke late the next morning to find the bed cold and empty beside her, but memories from last night warmed her as the fire at the cottage had done. She’d poured all her love into last night’s lovemaking, had tried so hard to show him what she wanted him to know without a word passing her lips. Were those three words really necessary?
If she could silence them, show her love with every caress and kiss, every gesture and thought, did it mean that Max was doing the same? Was her Christmas cottage a way of showing he loved her? What about the brilliant diamonds? Were they a token of his love and not the sordid conclusion she’d jumped to? Did he love her and not even know it yet?
Hope surged through her as she dressed and went in search of Max. He loved her and as soon as he’d wrestled the demons of his past into submission he would tell her as well as show her.
‘How are you this morning?’ he asked when she looked into his study, to find him busy with paperwork as usual. The concern in his voice touched her and pushed the hope a little higher as she walked in and stood by the window, looking out at London nestling beneath a toneless grey sky, where the promise of snow still lingered.
‘Good, thank you. I seem to be escaping the sickness now.’ It was the first time she’d thought about it, noticing that it was only when things weren’t good between them that she felt ill.
‘That’s good to hear, because I’m looking forward to seeing you in that black dress at Angelina’s party tonight.’ He smiled wickedly at her, stood up and walked over to join her. Standing behind her, his arms winding round her, he pulled her against him, kissing her neck. ‘And to taking it off again when we get home.’
‘Maximiliano Martinez, you are unbelievably bad.’ She wriggled round in his embrace and wound her arms around his neck, loving the intimacy of the moment.
He kissed her lightly on the lips, pushing her hair from her face until it fell behind her shoulders. ‘Would you prefer I don’t say things like that?’
She shook her head and he kissed her again, but this time the shrill ring of her mobile phone cut dead the rise of passion. ‘That, I think, is your phone.’
‘I will be back to finish this in a moment.’ She slipped from his embrace with a smile on her lips.
‘Promises, promises,’ he called after her as she rushed to retrieve her phone from her bag.
The word mother flashed on the screen and with a sinking heart she answered the call.
‘So you are back with Max.’ Her mother’s harsh voice shattered all the soft, gentle emotions the exchange with Max had just created. The warm sensation his words had stirred in her froze.
‘Yes, Mother, I am.’ Lisa bristled with indignation. Why couldn’t her mother ever be happy for her? Why did every achievement she made, every choice she followed, have to be questioned and torn apart?
‘I saw it all in the papers. He’s now a very wealthy man, heir to an impressively large fortune—no wonder you went back to him.’
‘Mother,’ Lisa snapped, and wished now her mother had had the nerve to say this to her face, to stand in front of her and accuse her daughter of being as shallow and mercenary as she herself was. ‘I’m not like you.’
‘No?’
‘No.’ Lisa walked to the windows that looked out over the dark, fast-moving waters of the Thames, not wanting Max to hear their exchange. After last night’s discussion as they’d walked, the last thing he needed to hear was her cold anger toward her mother.
‘Pregnant, then?’
Lisa couldn’t answer and rested her forehead against the cool of the glass as the nausea she’d just thought she was avoiding came back at her with a vengeance. Her mother’s vengeance.
‘So, you are pregnant.’ Her mother’s jubilant righteousness echoed out of the phone.
‘I haven’t even answered you.’ Lisa defended herself just as she’d always had to do when her mother was in one of these moods. The kind that usually ended up destroying everything she’d wanted or worked for. Well, it wasn’t going to happen this time. This time she wouldn’t try and keep anything a secret from her mother; this time she would tell her everything and hope that satisfied her.
‘Your silence says it all, darling.’ The endearment was said in a sickly tone, reminding Lisa of the wicked witches in the children’s films she’d always loved to watch when she was younger. She’d never thought her own mother would take on that role though.
‘Yes, I’m pregnant. Max and I are back together. I’ve got what you have never had, Mother, or should I say what you’ve never respected yourself enough to hang around for.’
‘So you still think a man like Max can love you, give you all those foolish dreams of happy ever afters, like those
