he gently kissed her cheek, then turned to face Oliveira and Adriana.
“We weren’t going to tell anyone yet. But yes, Robby is my son. I wanted to wait until after our wedding to make it public. It seemed more proper.”
“Proper?” Adriana sneered. “When have you ever cared about proper?”
Gabriel stiffened, glaring at her. “I have always cared about doing what is right,” he said in a low voice. “I would never leave my child without a father, without a name.”
“And yet,” Oliveira said, shifting his savvy gaze between them, “you allowed your fiancée to raise your baby alone, for all these months.”
Gabriel set his jaw. “I—”
“He didn’t know about Robby,” Laura interrupted in a whisper. “I didn’t tell him. It wasn’t until he came to my sister’s wedding that he first saw his son. I knew Gabriel didn’t want a family—”
“So he always insisted,” Adriana said resentfully.
Gabriel’s dark eyes glowed with warmth and love as he looked down at Laura, who was shivering in her red strapless gown and opera gloves. “But Robby changed my mind.” He wrapped his warm, tuxedo-clad arms more firmly around her. “From the moment I saw Laura with our son, I knew I couldn’t part with them. We were meant to be a family.”
Laura blinked back her tears, hardly able to breathe as she heard the words she’d always dreamed of.
She’d told him the truth about Robby, and he knew it. She could see it in his eyes. Robby was his son. And this was Laura’s reward for being brave enough to tell the truth. He wasn’t rejecting her. He wasn’t rejecting their baby.
All this time she’d thought it would be so hard to tell him the truth, but it wasn’t. It was easy.
Staring at them, Felipe Oliveira stroked his chin. “You might be a bastard, Santos, but you wouldn’t desert your son. Or your son’s mother.” He looked from Laura to Gabriel with a sly smile. “And I see the passion between you. I have been a doddering old fool to feel threatened. The two of you are in love.” He gave a sudden decisive nod. “Está bom. We will sign the preliminary contracts tomorrow. Be at my lawyers’ office at nine.”
Gabriel put his arm around Laura’s waist, smiling at the other man. “Sure.”
Adriana glared at Laura. “You got pregnant on purpose! You tricked Gabriel into marriage!”
As Laura stiffened, Oliveira grabbed the supermodel’s arm grimly.
“There’s only one person you should worry about getting tricked into marriage,” he said, “and that’s me. I look at them—” he nodded toward Laura and Gabriel “—and I see love. I look at you, Adriana, and I see…nothing.”
She stared at him, her eyes wide.
Oliveira lifted a white bushy eyebrow. “Our engagement,” he said mildly, “is over.”
He marched off across the ballroom. Adriana’s cheeks went red as an amused titter flowed through the nearby crowd.
“Fine,” she shrieked after him. “But I’m keeping the ring!”
Oliveira didn’t even turn around. Frustrated greed filled Adriana’s eyes, and with an intake of breath, she started to push forward. “Felipe,” she whined, “wait!”
When they were alone in the crowd, Gabriel looked down at Laura. She took a deep breath, waiting for the onslaught of questions she knew were coming. “Oh, Gabriel. I know we have so much to talk about—”
“Wait.” He glanced at the people around them, amused celebutantes and movie actors in designer clothes, rich and beautiful and dressed in sparkling, sexy gowns. “Come with me.”
Grabbing two flutes of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter, Gabriel pulled her through the glorious, gilded ballroom, filled with music and magic, and out a side door.
The private garden was dark and quiet. Laura looked up and saw black silhouettes of palm trees swaying against the purple sky. The night was tropical and warm, and on the wild southern coast so far from the lights of the city, she could see stars twinkling down on them.
Biting her lip, she faced him. “So…so you don’t mind?”
“Mind?” Smiling, he handed her a glass of champagne. His dark head was frosted with silvery moonlight as he leaned forward to clink his crystal flute against hers. “You are the most incredible woman I’ve ever met,” he whispered. “Brilliant. Beautiful.”
She stared up at him with trembling lips as joy flooded her heart. “You’re not angry?”
“Angry?” His brow furrowed. “Why would I be angry? Because you lied?”
She licked her dry lips. “Yes.”
He shook his head. “No, querida.” His expression was tender. “I’ve just gotten everything I ever dreamed of. Because of you.”
He drank deeply from his champagne flute, and she followed suit, her eyes wet with tears of joy. She’d never imagined he would react this way, not in a million years. What had she ever done to deserve this miracle—that Gabriel would so easily accept their child as his own? That he would be glad to be a father after all?
“I’m so happy,” she whispered. Smiling, she wiped tears from her eyes. “I never dreamed you would react like this.”
He looked down at her with a frown. “Querida, are you crying?”
“I’m happy,” she whispered.
“So am I, my beautiful girl.” He stroked her cheek, his fingertips lightly caressing her flushed skin. “You sexy, incredible woman,” he breathed in her ear, causing prickles to spread down her body. Cupping her face, he lowered his mouth to hers. “I will never forget this night.”
When he kissed her, his lips were hot and smooth on hers. He seared her with the sizzle of his tongue against her lips, teasing her. She gripped his shoulders, instinctively pulling him closer.
They heard a sudden burst of laughter as other guests came into the garden. Grabbing her hand with a low growl, Gabriel pulled her deeper into the trees, into a shadowy corner. Above them, palm trees swayed in the violet-smudged night. The other voices continued to come closer, and he pushed her all the way back against the palace wall. She felt the hardness of his body, the roughness of the stone behind her.
Without a word, he slowly kissed her throat. She closed her eyes, tossing her head back with a silent gasp. She felt his teeth nibble her neck, felt his hands skimming from her bare shoulders down the length of her arms, over her long white gloves. He kissed her bare collarbone, his hands cupping her breasts below the sweetheart neckline of her strapless gown. Pressing her breasts together, he licked the cleavage just above the red velvet, and she sucked in her breath.
Samba music poured out of the palace as the doors to the garden continued to bang open and more guests discovered the garden. Voices grew louder, laughing and sultry, murmuring in Portuguese and French, as other
