The driver’s door shut with a thud and the car sat motionless, idling in the night.
“What are you doing here, Anna?” Leo asked. His voice was hard, cold, unlike the man she’d known on the island. The man who, a moment ago, had gathered her close and put her into the car. For a moment she’d been thrown back to another time. To the tenderness and passion that had flared between them.
She shivered, a long ripple that slid down her spine and over her skin on icy little feet.
“I need to talk to you,” she said, turning her head to look out at the traffic on the street. She could not look at him, or she would crumble. She would blubber everything, regardless of the woman who sat across from them, radiating disapproval and anger.
And that she could not do.
Leo pressed a button and gave his driver instructions, and then they were moving. The woman sat on the seat opposite, arms folded over her ample breasts, jaw set stubbornly as she glared at Anna. Not a business associate, then.
“It’s private,” Anna added, just in case Leo expected her to say anything with his girlfriend present.
“I gathered,” he said shortly.
“Leo,” the woman said—whined, really. “You promised you’d take me dancing tonight.”
Anna could sense Leo’s irritation, even if she couldn’t see the expression on his face. “The plan has changed, Donna,” he said crisply.
Oddly enough, Anna felt a burst of sympathy for Donna, who seemed to shrink in on herself with Leo’s words. It wasn’t her fault after all. Donna didn’t say another word as the car moved through the city, finally coming to a halt somewhere residential. The door swung open and Leo turned to Anna. “I’ll be right back.”
He exited the vehicle, held out his hand for Donna, who took it and scooted out the door. Anna could hear raised voices on the sidewalk. Her skin burned, indignation a hot flush beneath the surface.
Leo had been dating. While she’d shut herself away in Amanti and tried to get over their two days on the island, he’d moved blissfully onward, compelled by the strong sensuality that she knew was as much a part of him as breathing.
Had he done the things to Donna that he’d done to her?
Anger was a cyclone inside her, whirling through her with a force that threatened to split her apart at the seams. It made no sense, since she’d known what he was—since she’d pushed him away—but it was true nonetheless.
Leo returned to the car and the door closed behind him. Anna suddenly felt as if she would burst with the fury she felt. It welled inside her with the force of a nuclear reaction. She’d missed him, missed what they’d had, and he’d been with another woman.
She knew it was her fault, knew she’d pushed him away, and yet she couldn’t help what happened next, as if it were a chain reaction that had begun the instant he’d walked out of his building with another woman on his arm.
She slapped him.
His head snapped back, the sound like a thunderclap in the quiet car. And then he was glaring at her. She felt wild, dazed, and she lashed out again, an angry sound escaping her as she did so.
This time he caught her wrist in an iron grip. Anna growled, swung with the other hand. It made no sense, but she couldn’t stop. He caught that wrist, too, pinned her hard against the seat. And then he was pushing her back, stretching over top of her, pinning her against the seat with his lean, hard-muscled body.
“Did you think I’d be waiting for you, Anna? Is that why you’re angry?”
“Let me go,” she said, her voice as cold as she could make it. And yet a part of her thrilled at his touch. Her core softened, her body aching for his possession once more. Liquid heat flooded her sex.
He was so close. Too close. His breath fanned across her cheek. “I’m afraid not, darling. I’d rather like to keep my head attached to my shoulders.”
Her breath hissed in as he moved against her, so warm and hard and familiar. Anna closed her eyes as a sob built inside her chest. She couldn’t want him, not like this. How could she let herself feel this way? How could she want him inside her again, possessing her, making her his in a way no man ever had before? One month since they’d been together, and he’d forgotten her so easily.
What did you expect? You pushed him away.
Anna bit down on the angry tears that threatened to spill free. She’d done what was necessary, and she’d thought of him almost nonstop since. He clearly hadn’t had the same problem.
She started to struggle, her body twisting beneath him. A sob broke free as he deflected the knee she’d aimed at his balls.
“Dammit, what is the matter with you?” he growled.
“You,” she choked out. “You’re a bastard.”
She could feel the leashed violence in him. “I am, in fact,” he said coldly. “But I doubt my birth is what you’ve come to discuss.”
She lay against the seat, her body trembling beneath his, his heat soaking into her, warming her. Perversely, she wanted to turn her face into his neck, wanted to nibble the skin there.
She would not.
“What do you want, Anna?” Leo demanded. “Why did you come here?”
It was all wrong. Everything she’d wanted to say, wanted to tell him. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to be happy to see her again. He was supposed to want her, and she was supposed to be the strong one, the one who pushed him away. As she’d done on the island. She was supposed to tell him in a dignified tone that she was expecting his child.
He was supposed to be grateful she’d returned to his life.
Grateful?
Heavens above, this man was anything but happy to see her. He would be anything but grateful. How could she tell him?
How could she not?
“Not like this,” she said. Whimpered, actually.
His grip on her wrists tightened until she nearly cried out in pain, but he released her and shoved back away from her. Then he was pushing his hand through his hair and cursing softly.
Anna sat up. Straightened her damp trousers. Fiddled with the cuffs of her raincoat. All the while breathing deeply, telling herself she would not cry. She’d survived Alex Santina—she could certainly survive Leo! Alex hadn’t meant anything to her, but his betrayal had been far more humiliating.
Leo was the man she’d given herself to, the man she’d bared her soul to—and the man she’d pushed from her life. Could she blame him for being so angry with her, so cold?
“Where are you staying?” he demanded in clipped tones.
“The Crescent,” she shot back.
“Ah,” he said.
Heat flared to life inside her. “And what is wrong with that?”
“Nothing,” he said a moment later. He gave instructions to the driver and the car slipped into traffic again.
They rode in silence for some time, until the feelings knotting in her belly demanded release. “It didn’t take you very long, did it?”
His head swung toward her. “I beg your pardon?”
“You know what I mean, Leo. The woman. Donna. Is she the first?”
She could feel him stiffen beside her. “If I recall correctly, you’re the one who said a relationship between us was impossible.”
Shame roiled inside her. “You know why.”
“I know why you believed it to be true. Have you changed your mind, sweet Anna? Is that why you’re here?”
Her skin prickled at the name he used. He’d called her that on the island, and while she knew it had first been done in jest, it had come to mean so much more in the two days they’d shared.
It meant nothing now.
How had she let this happen? How had she lost her sense of right and wrong in so brief a time on the island? She’d been weak, and she’d allowed him inside the walls she’d erected. She’d wanted to be close to someone, and he’d offered her that. She’d known better, but she’d been weak.
“No,” she breathed, unable to say anything else.
But
it was a lie. Because she needed him if she were to have this baby and keep scandal from raining down on her head—their heads—like hellfire. She would endure whatever she had to endure for herself, but for her baby she would fight tooth and nail to provide the happiest, safest environment possible. And she needed Leo to help her do it.
“Then what is there to say?” he demanded. “Surely you have not come all this way to see if I have moved on with my life.”
Anna folded her arms over her breasts. Her body was trembling, but whether from anger or cold she wasn’t certain. “Which wasn’t so very hard to do, was it?”
Yes, it stung, and yes, she knew she had no right to be hurt. It didn’t change the way she felt seeing him with another woman, however. She’d felt as if someone had reached inside her and ripped her heart from her body. It stunned her, and worried her.
Leo swore. She didn’t blame him. “You can’t have it both ways, Anna. You might sit in your cold lonely house and congratulate yourself on avoiding another scandal, but you can’t expect others to do the same.”
“I don’t,” she said softly.
They traveled in silence for several minutes, the air as crisp and electrical as if a lightning strike had occurred in the center of the car. Anna’s throat hurt from the giant lump that wouldn’t let her speak the words she needed to say. Leo didn’t make it easy on her, either. He sat with his fingers drumming the armrest, his face turned away from her to look out the window. He was so remote, so distant, and she didn’t know how to breach that distance. How to say what she had to say.
She’d had no trouble breaching the distance between them on the island, but they’d been stripped to their barest elements there, incapable of erecting the walls that now separated them from each other. These walls were seemingly insurmountable, and yet she had to find a way.
The car pulled to a halt beneath a bright red awning, and she realized they’d reached the Crescent Hotel. Her heartbeat sped up as the uniformed doorman came down the stairs and reached for the car door.
Leo turned to her, his eyes glittering, his jaw hard. He looked so cold and remote, so untouchable, and her stomach knotted in panic.
“Unless you have something you wish to say, I’ll say good-night now.”
“So you can return to Donna?” she lashed out.
“You assured me this was the way you wanted it, Anna.”
Where had he gone, that man who’d been so fierce and tender on the island? In spite of her wish to be strong, a single tear slid down her cheek.
“Something has changed,” she said, pushing the words past her aching throat.
He clenched the fingers of one hand in his lap. She sensed that he had grown very, very still. Waiting for her to continue. Waiting for that moment when she would speak the words that would change everything. Did he know what it was? Did he suspect? Or did he simply think she was crazy?
The door swung open, the sounds from the street suddenly louder. The scent of some kind of food on the wind—an Indian curry, perhaps—skated inside the car, made her press a sudden hand to her mouth.
“Anna?” He still sounded cold and distant compared to the island—and yet his hard veneer seemed to crack just a shade.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough to give her the sliver of courage she needed. Her heart thudded, her stomach twisting in fear. She rubbed damp palms along the fine weave of her trench coat.
And then the words fell from her mouth as if they’d been hovering there all along.
“I’m pregnant, Leo.”
CHAPTER NINE
HE HADN’T heard her correctly. Surely he hadn’t. The world seemed to slow, the sounds from outside the car distorting in his ears like he was on a carnival ride. Leo could only focus on her, on her tired face and huge eyes. Her long hair was twisted up high on her head, as always, and she wore the pearls she’d had on the island. Her white raincoat stood out starkly in the dark interior of the car, contrasted with the black V-neck sweater and trousers she wore.
No color, as usual. Anna didn’t like color.
“How?” he asked, his voice colder than he wanted it to be. Shocked.
She looked away. Shrugged. “I don’t know. I—I was on the Pill, but of course I didn’t have it for the two days we were marooned.” Her chin dropped to her chest. “I might have messed up the dosage after we returned.”
She fingered her pearls, a nervous gesture he knew all too well.
Leo could only blink. A current of ice flowed through him, freezing him to the spot. A baby. His baby. He had no doubt the baby was his. No doubt.
But he couldn’t be a father. He was the last person in the world fit to be a father. What if he was too much like Bobby? What if he didn’t know what to do when this tiny being came into the world and needed him?
Panic threaded through the ice, melting his immobility. He exited the car smoothly and held out his hand for her. After a brief hesitation, she slipped her fingers into his palm. Fresh sensation rocked him at the touch of her skin on his.
She didn’t say anything as he led her inside the hotel and over to the brass-and-wood lift. “Which room?” he asked as the lift operator waited patiently.
“Five-oh-four,” she said quietly.
The lift began to move, its speed belying its age as they reached the fifth floor very quickly. “Here you are, Mr. Jackson,” the operator said.
Leo took a bank note from his breast pocket and shoved it into the man’s hand, uncaring how much it was for, and escorted Anna down the hall to her room. She fished the key card from her pocket, and then he opened the door and let her pass through before he closed it behind him and took a deep breath.
Pregnant.
A lamp burned in the suite, illuminating the sitting area. The room was furnished with the finest antiques, the best silks, the latest electronics—but Leo could focus on none of those things. All he could see was the woman standing across from him. Her raincoat was still buttoned up, her hands shoved in the pockets. Her eyes said she was tired, worn, wary.
Fury burned through him. She was afraid of him? Of him? After all they’d been through together?
“You have confirmed this pregnancy?” he said. It wasn’t the first time a woman had claimed to be having his baby, though it was the first time he thought it was true.
Her head snapped up, her chin thrusting forward defiantly. “I only took the test this morning. It was positive.”
“You have not been to a doctor?”
She shook her head. “I … I panicked. I had to see you.”
“And what is your plan now, Anna? What do you want from me?” He knew he sounded callous and cruel, but he couldn’t seem to quite wrap his head around the fact he’d fathered a child. An innocent child who deserved far better than Leo could give. “If you are considering terminating the pregnancy, I won’t interfere,” he added.
Her jaw dropped, her eyes growing wide. She clutched a hand over her stomach, and he felt like an ass.
“I’m not,” she said firmly. “I want this baby.”
“Why?” He didn’t mean to be cruel, but he had to know. His mother had been a single parent up until her death. He’d often wondered if she would have chosen differently if she’d realized how difficult it would be.
“Because I do. Because I’m not without means, and because I’m not so selfish as to deny this baby a chance at life when I have so much to give.”
“It won’t be easy,” he said. “You have to know that.”
She looked determined. Fiery. Dragon lady.
“I am well aware.”
Leo walked over to the stocked liquor cabinet and poured two fingers of Scotch. He needed something to calm the rat-a-tat-tat of his heart, something to ease the jangle of shock coursing through him. Pregnant.
He’d always been so cautious. No doubt it was because of the circumstances of his birth—something he swore he would never do to his own child. Leo hadn’t even known, until he was ten years old and motherless, that he act
ually had a father.
He lifted the crystal tumbler. The first sip of liquid scalded his throat, his gut. He welcomed it. Needed it. Craved it.
“I will support you and the child, of course,” he said, turning back to her. Because he would not abandon his child. He would do the best he could, though he had no idea just yet what his best was.
“We don’t need your support,” she shot back, head held high. He knew she was still offended that he’d said he wouldn’t stand in the way of a termination. But he’d had no idea what else to say. He didn’t know how to be a father. In fact, he didn’t know what he felt about anything at this moment. “Money is not the issue.”
“No, of course not,” he said. Anna came from money, and she had an inheritance of her own—rather like his mother had had. But his mother’s money hadn’t protected her in the end. She’d still died alone, and she’d left him to the care of a father he’d never known existed until she was gone. What a shock that had been, going from one household to another in a matter of weeks. From one loving parent to the other who was a stranger.
Leo knew in his mind where this conversation was leading, where he had to take it, and yet part of him resisted doing so. He sipped the Scotch as if he were savoring the last moments of his freedom.
“I need something else from you,” she said, her accent growing heavier with the emotion she was feeling. “Something other than money.”
He thought for one terrifying moment that she would sink to her knees and beg, but of course she didn’t. This was Anna.
She lifted her head higher, if that were possible, her eyes gleaming with determination. With fire. A bolt of desire shot through him, reminded him forcefully of why he’d wanted her in the first place.
“And what is that, sweet Anna?” But he already knew what she would say before she said it. Because he knew her. Knew what drove her.
The words fell from her lips exactly as he expected they would. “I need your name.”
He didn’t speak, and she wondered if he’d heard her. He looked so distant, so detached. And so gorgeously male she wanted to weep. He wore a dark suit, custom fit, of course. He wore no tie, but a deep blue shirt open at the neck. He looked like the ladies’ man he was, she thought bitterly. His dark hair was combed back from his face, the ends curling up over his collar in sexy little waves she wanted to touch. His perfect face was serious, troubled. Not at all the carefree playboy he was reputed to be.
The Girl Nobody Wanted Lynne Raye Harris Page 10
