HIS KISS WAS TENDER and pure, but Ellie felt the hunger beneath his embrace. Diogo’s demand matched her own, threatening to consume her and burn her in his fire.
He wrapped his arms around her. He towered over her, so much taller and stronger than she, and Ellie felt captive in his arms, unable to pull away. But it was her own longing that trapped her, holding her as no act of force possibly could. His body was hard and warm against hers. The fresh wind blew from the ocean, twisting her blond hair around them, and she felt the hot Brazilian sunshine against her skin. The world seemed suspended in time as his lips demanded the surrender she longed to give.
She realized she was holding him as tightly as he held her. Her fingers clutched his back as his tongue teased hers, causing a sigh to rise from deep in her throat.
She knew she should stop but she wanted another minute in his arms. Her whole body begged for just one more minute…
But no matter how she wanted it, she couldn’t let this happen.
To Ellie, making love to a man meant being in love, while to Diogo it was nothing but a moment’s pleasure, swiftly forgotten before the next break of dawn.
Diogo’s hot kisses lured her to her own destruction.
“Ellie,” he whispered against her hair. “Come to my bed. Now.”
Her heart pounded. She pressed her cheek against his chest, barely able to breathe for the pounding of her heart. “It wouldn’t be wise.”
“Why?”
She licked her lips. “I told you… I can’t just be your one-night stand.”
He ran his hands through her blond tendrils, down her bare arms. “You’re far more than a one-night stand to me.”
She looked up at him. “I am?”
“We will always be connected, Ellie.” His dark eyes crinkled as he smiled down at her. His charming, arrogant, impossible-to-resist smile. “You are the mother of my child.”
Only that.
In spite of herself, her heart sank in her chest. She should have been glad. That Diogo would wish her to be his mistress, and that he’d be an active partner in their child’s upbringing, was far more than she’d once dared hope.
But it no longer satisfied her. Her stupid, greedy heart wanted more. She wanted to be able to make love to him and be secure in his arms. To know that she could trust him with her heart. To know he would forget about pursuing other women, all those beautiful women with brilliant careers and college degrees….
He gently raised her chin. “I will always respect you, Ellie. Always honor you.”
“But no one else will,” she whispered. “Everyone will assume just what you did—that I’m a gold digger who purposefully got pregnant. They’ll always treat me like your whore.”
A rough Portuguese curse escaped his lips. “I will kill any man who dares call you so.”
She shook her head as tears rose to her eyes. “It doesn’t matter. The real question is, can I trust you to be a good father?”
He drew himself up, affronted. “What?”
“You’ve never committed to any woman for longer than a week. Can I truly trust you to love a child for a lifetime?”
“Those two things are entirely different!”
“No.” She shook her head fiercely. “It’s the same. It’s love. It’s loyalty—”
“I will never abandon a child. Do you understand me, Ellie? Because I know what it feels like. I had no father. When I was eight, my mother abandoned me to leave the country with her newest lover.” He looked away, clenching his jaw. “I would never do that to my child.”
She stared at him in shock.
“But you’re a Serrador,” she said, bewildered. “Your father owned half the gold mines in the world before he died. Your older sisters married European royalty. You were rich by birth, long before you made your first million in the steel business!”
His cruel lips curved. “That’s the story.”
“Isn’t it true?”
He grabbed her arms, looking down at her. “What is true is that I want you, Ellie. Raising my child. And in my arms. In my bed.” He stroked down her cheek to her neck and rubbed her plump breast with his thumb, making her nipple ripe and taut. He whispered, “And I always get what I want.”
He lowered his mouth to hers in a searing kiss. She felt the hardness of his body pressed against her. She wanted nothing more than to surrender.
She couldn’t resist Diogo’s desire. His strength. His power. His heat.
As he kissed her, Ellie’s fingers curled around his crisp black shirt. She felt his lips like a current through her body, felt the wind in her hair as they stood in the sunshine on his penthouse balcony over Copacabana Beach, and she could no more push him away than she could stop breathing.
She had to give in. She had no choice…
Blood rushed loudly through her ears. Then she realized the buzzing was the sound of his cell phone vibrating from his pocket.
With a muffled curse, he glanced down at the phone to see the number. His expression changed.
And then he pulled away from Ellie to answer the call!
“Bom dia,” he said warmly. “Catia. Eu vou mais tarde? Por favor!”
Ellie blinked at him in shock, struggling to regain her senses. She listened to the tender, almost pleading sound of his voice, and her cheeks went hot with humiliation.
Two minutes ago, he’d been kissing Ellie, intent on seducing her into his bed.
But he’d already forgotten all about her. He’d ditched her mid-kiss in his eagerness to talk to another woman!
I must be out of my mind, she thought, putting her hands on her head in consternation. Truly insane!
Diogo put his hand over the phone. “Excuse me,” he said as coolly as if Ellie were still just his employee. “I will return in a moment.”
She watched him leave the balcony through the sliding glass doors. Shocked and fighting back tears, Ellie whirled back around to stare blindly toward the vista of Copacabana Beach and the wide blue sea.
She’d been so close to giving in!
How could she have thought she could possibly trust Diogo? He was nothing like the calm, steady, loyal man she needed. Nothing like Timothy…
But wait. Timothy wasn’t a good man, either.
He’s been buying and selling babies on the open market. Taking children from poor mothers and giving them to rich, childless couples who can afford his illegal fees.
Timothy a cold, calculating baby seller? She still found it hard to believe. Although it was true she had been uncomfortable around him at times. When he’d first proposed, she’d been only fifteen, working long hours at the Dairy Burger and struggling to take care of her sick mother. Timothy had been twenty-five, a fresh graduate of Yale Law. She’d been incredulous at his first proposal, but he’d kept trying. He’d even offered to support Ellie and her dying mother.
But she hadn’t wanted Timothy’s charity. It wouldn’t have been right to take advantage of his feelings, or make him think their relationship could ever be more than friendship.
Until last year. With her mother gone, Ellie’d had no reason to remain in Flint… and Timothy had offered her something she couldn’t resist. A job in New York City.
Perhaps she’d been wrong to accept. But she couldn’t kid herself that she would have gotten her job without his help. All of Diogo’s other secretaries had not only finished high school, they’d graduated from college. And yet, against all odds, she’d done well in her position of junior secretary. She’d learned quickly. She’d been popular with the other employees.
At least until Jessica had spread the rumors far and wide that Ellie was trying to climb the corporate ladder by climbing her boss.
She sucked in her breath. Maybe she really was the slut they all thought she was! She’d nearly agreed to be Diogo’s mistress, knowing that he’d never marry her. Knowing that he would never even love her, and when he tired of her in bed he’d move on. Knowing that all the world would believe her to be a gold digger—a greedy secretary who’d retired from her job as soon as she’d gotten pregnant by the boss!
Diogo came back onto the balcony. “Com licença, querida,” he murmured, reaching for her. “Now. Where were we?”
She jerked away with a gasp. “You must be kidding!”
“You are upset?”
“Because you were kissing me, then stopped to take a call from another woman!”
His eyes grew cold. “You do not own me, querida. Do not presume to think you have the right to know my secrets.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” she demanded, fighting back furious tears. “From the moment you first seduced me, you’ve acted like you own me. Like I’m your possession to ignore or enjoy as you please—”
There was a cough as one of the bodyguards slid open the glass door to the balcony.
Diogo turned on him with a scowl. “Sim?”
“A médica está aqui, senhor.”
Diogo’s eyes were still dark as a midnight storm as he turned back to her. Clenching his jaw, he said, “The doctor is here.”
“Doctor?” she repeated, still scowling.
“Yes.”
“But I told you. My wrist is fine!”
“The doctor’s not for your wrist. She’s for our baby.”
Our baby. Hearing those words on his lips did strange things to her insides—made her want to forgive him anything. She desperately fought the feeling!
“Since you only just realized you were pregnant,” he continued, “I’m guessing you didn’t have much prenatal care in New York?”
She shook her head. “Just a drugstore pregnancy test.”
“I thought as much. From now on, my son will have the best quality care. Letícia is coming to give you a checkup, an ultrasound.”
Letícia? He called the doctor by her first name?
Diogo suddenly smiled, and his handsome face glowed with charm. “Come. Enough arguing. Let us see our baby.”
He held out his hand, waiting.
See their baby. There was no way she could resist something like that…
Ellie reluctantly placed her hand in his. As she felt his fingers enfold her own, a sizzle went through her—not just desire, but of something more.
Completeness.
No! She could allow herself to imagine they were a family. A real family loved each other, protected each other—trusted each other. Diogo and Ellie might raise a child together, but they could never be more than two single parents….
She told herself these things, but her body wouldn’t listen. As he led her inside from the balcony, she couldn’t stop the feeling of rightness.
This man is for you, her body insisted. You are for him.
As Diogo smiled down at her, her heart give a strange new flutter—a sensation different from any she’d ever felt before. She marveled at the masculine beauty of his face. The bright Brazilian sunshine caressed his olive skin, haloing his black hair, making him handsome and dangerous as a shining dark angel.
“Você está pronta, meu amor?” He lowered his head to kiss the knuckles of her hand. “Come, my love. Let’s see our baby.”