AS THE DOCTOR FINISHED Ellie’s preliminary checkup, Diogo left the study to take a phone call.
A phone call that involved business… or pleasure?
Don’t think about it. Ellie clenched her fists as she stared up at the ceiling. She knew Diogo wouldn’t answer questions, anyway.
She glanced at the dark-haired, thirtysomething Dr. Carneiro, who was now preparing the equipment for the ultrasound.
Another of Diogo’s mistresses?
Dr. Carneiro spread a clear gel over the gentle swell of her naked belly, and Ellie murmured, “It’s very nice of you to make a house call like this.”
“I’m happy to do it,” she replied in accented English. “Anything for Diogo.”
She called him Diogo? Ellie bit her lip.
“You are a lucky woman, Miss Jensen,” the woman continued.
The fear in Ellie became intolerable. “And you know this how?”
The slender, dark-haired woman glanced at her. “Ah. You think I was his lover?” She gave a merry laugh. “I am his sister—or the closest he’s ever had.”
Relief flooded through Ellie. “But I thought your last name was Carneiro.”
“It is. I’m no Serrador!” the doctor replied indignantly. “Those half sisters of his don’t deserve to shine his shoes. No. My mother brought him home to live with us when he was eight. She found him shivering on the streets.”
“Your mother saved him?” Ellie blurted out. “After his own mother abandoned him?”
The doctor nodded grimly. “But he’s saved all of us since then. He paid for my college. He hired my younger brother Pedro as his most trusted bodyguard. He would even have helped Mateus, if he’d been willing to leave the favela.” She sighed. “But my older brother is too proud. He refuses Diogo’s help.”
Carneiro. The same name as the leader of the men who’d attacked Ellie in the favela. “I… think I might have met him.”
Dr. Carneiro looked sad. “Diogo will win him over eventually. It took him years to win Pedro’s loyalty, but Diogo never gives up. He funds my free clinic which helps thousands of people every year, people in desperate need of care. New mothers. The elderly. Sick children who would die without the medicine he provides.” She looked at Ellie. “You are fortunate. Not all men are so honorable—or so strong. And after what happened at Christmas—”
“Talking about me, Letícia?”
Diogo stood in the doorway, looking none too pleased.
“You know I can’t stop praising you.” Dr. Carneiro gave her adopted brother a warm smile. “And you’re just in time. Look.”
Moving the wand against the goop on Ellie’s belly, she pointed at the monitor. Ellie looked, as well, and instantly forgot everything as she saw the tiny flicker of her baby’s heartbeat on the monitor.
Diogo’s hand suddenly reached for hers. He sank into a nearby chair, his eyes similarly riveted on the monitor. “That little light….that’s our baby?”
“That’s the heartbeat,” Letícia said. “And there, you can see the legs… the spine. The head. Do you see?”
“A boy?” he asked.
“It’s early to be absolutely sure, but do you see that? Yes. A boy, I think.”
“A boy!” Diogo exulted.
“And there, you see…” She suddenly frowned. “Wait. That’s not… It can’t…”
The doctor’s voice trailed off as she stared at the monitor with her brow furrowed. Ellie felt Diogo’s hand tighten around her own.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Ellie glanced at him. His handsome features were anxious and vulnerable as he looked from the monitor to the doctor. Ellie realized he was trying to hide his fear.
And the thought struck through her like lightning: he loved this child as much as she did.
“What is it?” Heart in her throat, Ellie could barely manage to whisper the words. “What’s wrong with our baby?”
Dr. Carneiro turned to face them, her thin face lit up with a smile.
“You’re going to have a girl.”
“A girl!” Ellie crowed happily. She turned to Diogo triumphantly. “Ha! You see? I told you it would be a girl!”
“Not a boy?” Diogo said, frowning.
“Yes,” the doctor said.
“What?”
“A boy… and a girl. The girl was hiding behind her brother.”
Ellie and Diogo both blinked at her, uncomprehending.
The doctor gave a laugh. “Look.” They stared where she was pointing. In all the unrecognizable lines and blurs of the monitor, Ellie at first couldn’t see what she was talking about. Then she saw it. Another tiny flickering light. Other arms and legs. Another shape of a head. Another baby.
“Two heartbeats. Twins. Congratulations!”
“Twins?” Ellie gasped.
Two babies to love. Two babies to care for. Two babies who would need everything their parents could give them!
Sucking in her breath, she glanced at Diogo. Just a few months ago, he’d had a vasectomy to prevent having a child. Now he was going to be father of two. A ready-made family. How would he take the news?
“Have you picked any names?” the doctor asked.
Ellie shook her head. “It’s all happened so suddenly. We haven’t really thought about it.” She tried to see Diogo’s face. “We could call the girl Lilibeth. Or maybe Lily?”
He finally turned to face her. Ellie was shocked to see his dark eyes were bright with unshed tears in his handsome, rugged face. “She will be called Ana.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” his sister exclaimed. “Our mother would be so proud.”
Ellie lifted her chin and pleaded, “But my grandmother…”
“My daughter’s name is Ana,” he informed her coldly.
Ellie ground her teeth. Just like a man to not listen to anyone’s feelings but his own! But on the other hand, if his adoptive mother really had saved him from starving on the streets, it seemed a small enough thing to ask.
She closed her eyes. “Ana,” she tried aloud. “Ana Jensen.” Opening her eyes, she nodded. “All right. Ana.”
But Diogo didn’t look grateful. He stared at her, his dark brows lowered.
“Jensen?” he demanded. “Their last name will be Serrador.”
She shook her head. “You expect me to raise the babies in Flint with a name different from mine?” she protested.
“Raise them in Flint?” he thundered. “Are you out of your mind? You are going to live here with me—all of you!”
“I might stay until they’re born. But longer than that? You can’t honestly expect me to remain here forever, sequestered in your penthouse like some trapped princess in a tower!”
“I thought,” he ground out, “that we could raise the children together. I am their father.”
She nodded. “And you will always have access to the children. We’ll work out custody. But—” she raised her chin “—you are not my husband. You will not have access to me.”
Looking back at the heartbeats on the monitor, Diogo suddenly saw everything clearly for the first time.
He’d thought that it was enough for him to bring Ellie to Rio. To take care of her, to keep them all safe. But now he saw that he’d been wrong… so wrong.
A son. A daughter.
Without his name.
His precious newborn children wouldn’t be protected. They would be… bastards. Just like Diogo had been.
He still remembered the pain of his childhood. First he’d had no father—then later, no mother. No money. No home.
He’d had to toughen up fast.
He didn’t want his children to grow up that way. He had to protect them. He had to keep them safe.
His hands gripped the edge of the sofa as he looked up again at the blinking lights on the monitor.
He heard the plaintive whisper of a woman’s voice from long ago. Will you marry me? Will you?
But he hadn’t asked her questions; he’d just been furious. Marry her? He’d been incredulous that she would try to pin him down after three dates in as many weeks. If you don’t care about me, she’d whispered, then I’m done with you.
He’d never seen her again. He’d forgotten her swiftly. Until he got the call from the Brazilian lawyer at Christmas last year. She was just found—beaten to death. Your name was in her will.
Diogo’s whole body was tense as he clenched his jaw. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again. Too much was at stake. Ellie was his new chance to do it right—from the very start. The happiness of his children depended on it.
Allow Ellie to take them to the States?
What kind of home would it be for them, caught between two continents, between two families? His children would barely know their father. Perhaps they, too, would hate him….
Maldiçâo, he swore soundlessly, no! He would not let his children suffer—not let them be torn away from the father that loved them! They would be respected. They would be loved.
By both parents.
Ellie was traditional, not like the modern women of the age who were happy to make a go of parenthood alone.
Isn’t it bad enough that my baby will be born without a name? she’d cried. Bad enough that I’m an unwed mother—bad enough that everyone thinks I’m your whore? Are you so selfish that you want to make it true? To take the last bit of pride I’ve got left?
He could solve this problem. For all of them.
Suddenly, it was all so clear.
He looked straight into Ellie’s eyes.
“You will marry me.”
Ellie’s jaw dropped. “What?”
He’d never thought he would propose to any woman, but it was strangely easy. “You will stay here. We will raise our children together. It is simple, Ellie. You will be my wife.”
He waited for her to exclaim with joy, to throw her arms around him, to proclaim her thrilled gratitude. But she didn’t.
She flinched.
“Stop it, Diogo. We know you’re not the marrying kind.”
He frowned at her. “I’ve changed my mind.”
“Just stop it!” Blinking hard, she turned to the doctor. “The babies are healthy, aren’t they? My cycle has never been even, so I didn’t even take a pregnancy test until recently. But I never drank alcohol or—”
“Do not worry. They look fine,” the doctor said soothingly, glancing between them. “The pregnancy is going well. You’ll just need to take good care of yourself.” She gave Diogo a hard stare. “You’ll need to help her.”
“Sim, of course.” Biskreta, he was trying to take care of her as he’d never taken care of any woman—he was trying to make her his bride! Leaning forward, he persisted, “Ellie, I am serious. I wish to marry you.”
She cast her blue gaze on him, then looked away. She didn’t believe him.
The thought was ironic. He’d never thought he would so willingly give up his freedom, but here he was, begging a woman to marry him. Only to have her turn him down!
But Ellie would be his. Diogo wanted to keep her for his children, sim. But also for himself. He would keep her in the nursery. Keep her in his kitchen.
Keep her in his bed.
Diogo had made up his mind. Marriage was the best—the only—solution for all of them.
He glanced back at the monitor. Watching the tiny flickers of two heartbeats on the ultrasound screen, his own heart enlarged in his chest. He glanced down at Ellie. Her sweet, pale face looked back at him.
“Twins,” she said in a low voice. “Can you handle two?”
“I can handle more than that.” But two children needed two parents. He opened his mouth to inform her that they would be married today, whether she wished it or not.
Then, looking at her pale, beautiful face, he stopped.
He’d seduced Ellie. Gotten her pregnant. Broken up her wedding and dragged her to Rio. He had completely turned her life upside down.
She was the mother of his children. She deserved his care. So why not be gentle? Instead of bullying her into marriage, why not simply woo her? After all—he smiled to himself—he’d never had any woman resist him for long.
“It’s all going to be fine.” He reached out to stroke her hair, quelling the impatience in his blood. “You’ll see.”
Their need to marry was so obvious to him now. He couldn’t imagine why she’d turned him down, but he wouldn’t let any foolish feminine whims prevent him from doing what was best for all of them. He couldn’t.
Tonight, he would give her a chance to catch her breath. Both she and the baby needed a full night’s rest. Tomorrow, he’d lure her with all the skill he possessed. Entice her with the romance all women craved. He would convince her. He would persuade. He’d give her a day of romance. One day.
Then, willing or not, Ellie would be his bride.