This was the portrait he presented to most of the world, but she knew another side of him. The one that wore jeans to relax. When he went from powerful to charming, from a businessman to a rakish, untamed seducer. But she wouldn’t see that side of him today, because today she was the enemy.
“Never over estimate your worth, Sabrina. It’s not attractive.” He flicked his wrist to reveal a gold vintage Rolex. He loved that watch. Not because of the manufacturer, but because it had been his father’s. “What I’m asking you to do is not unreasonable and I need an answer now. Yes or no? The papers have been drawn up, and all we need to do is drop in the dollar amount and sign the documents. What will it be?”
“I’m not signing a contract written in Portuguese that your attorney prepared. If you would give me a little time—”
“Again, time for what?” Renaldo asked. “Your hesitation makes me think you don’t want to. Are you prepared to walk away from all that money? This offer is only open right now. It would be foolish of you to miss out, especially after such a dogged pursuit of money since I’ve known you.”
He was mocking her now. Her ambition, a trait he’d hailed as positive when they met, he now twisted and used against her.
“You didn’t complain when I helped improve your bottom-line.”
“I did complain,” Renaldo reminded her. “But you didn’t care. You continued to work long hours.”
“I did it for us.”
“No, you did it for you. I always told you, there must be a balance. You cannot work all day, all the time.”
“I’m not having this argument with you,” Sabrina said.
Her work schedule had been a major bone of contention between them. But no matter how upset he had become, she hadn’t been able to cut back. Yes, she was ambitious, but there was nothing wrong with that. Yes, she wanted to be successful; not just for herself, but for him, too.
Renaldo had worked hard for years, foregoing a university education in favor of rebuilding his family’s name and reputation after they’d lost everything. He’d achieved a lot in a short time, managing to amass a fortune in real estate, and he was loved and respected by many. She’d understood that and had wanted to support him. Now he was using it to disparage her character.
“I refuse to sign the contract without fully comprehending it on my end. Five million dollars, you give me more time, and I keep my own apartment.” She could play hardball just like he could. She needed that money and he needed her. If she could stall him, then that would give her time to find a new attorney—someone she could trust. Hopefully, she could keep them on her side this time with a nice bonus.
“I don’t have the luxury of waiting for you to get a new attorney and a translation. Five million dollars, and you move back in. Accept the deal today, or it’s off the table. There is no negotiating on this point.”
“I—”
“And another thing,” he added, clearly on a roll. “I’ll need you to report your comings and goings to me at all times.”
“What? You’re being ridiculous.”
“Do you really need me to spell it out?” A hard look came into his eyes, and the cool mask began to slip away, something she rarely saw because Renaldo seldom lost his temper. Very little could crack his cool exterior, but apparently she could. “We need to appear as if nothing has changed in our marriage, period, and that means you can no longer see your boyfriend. You’ll have to end your relationship with him.”
“I’m not in a relationship with—”
“And any other man you’re seeing.”
“You’re suggesting—”
“Because for this to work, you’ll have to keep your legs closed. Do you think you can manage that? When it’s all over, then you can resume…whatever it is you do.” His jaw hardened. “Just think about the money.”
His words cut through her. He wasn’t going to stop. She could see it. “Does it make you feel better to tear me apart?”
“No, actually, it doesn’t. What would make me feel better would land me in prison.”
The chilling words sent a shiver down her spine. She didn’t doubt he meant it. He hated her.
She had to convince him she wasn’t the horrible person he thought she was. She had doubts about that night, wondered if she could have been drugged by Mateo. If he’d just let her explain. “Renaldo, listen to me. That night—”
“I should have known, though,” he said, his face set in hard lines as he stared out the window, rubbing his thumb across his knuckles. “The first night we met, you came back to my hotel room.”
Sabrina drew a sharp breath. “Don’t. Don’t make it ugly.”
“Because your…what do you call it in English?” His gaze came back to her. “Friend with benefits—yes, that’s the phrase. He canceled on you, so you easily picked up another man in the bar.”
“I didn’t pick you up.”
“Is that how you found your lover, too?” He spoke with unveiled distaste, delivering the words with contempt-filled eyes.
“You came on to me.” She wasn’t letting him twist that night. It had been the beginning of their love affair. An affair that had changed her life and altered her world.
“You didn’t turn me down. A complete stranger.”
“We had a connection.”
“We had sex.”
“You’re saying that to hurt me, and I understand.” Her temple throbbed as her blood pressure rose. “What we shared was deeper than that, though, and you know it. What I did—”
“What you did was inexcusable.”
“People make mistakes. I never planned it. It was one time. I’m not even sure—”
“Do you think that makes a difference?” he asked with an incredulous hiss. He balled his hand into a fist and leaned across the table. “You are my wife. You let another man inside of you. Do you know what I wanted to do to you when I saw those pictures? Do you know what I want to do to you right now?”
She could only imagine. She stared down into her untouched coffee, feeling the scalding heat of his rage.
“You will move back into my house, and you will report your comings and goings to me at all times.” When she remained silent, he continued. “I mean it, Sabrina. It is the only way, because I will not let you out of my sight until this deal is finalized.”
“You can’t expect me to live like that. You want to treat me like some kind of prisoner.”
“I don’t care what you think or what you feel. Anything I ever felt for you is dead. I regret the day I married you. Am I clear? All I ask is that you behave yourself, or we could both lose a large sum of money. I don’t care how long you’ve been seeing him. It ends today. Starting right now, you will behave yourself in a respectable manner, like the wife you should be. Not like some filthy puta who—”
Sabrina bolted from the chair as her heart rate escalated. He’d called her a whore.
“Sit down.” His eyes glittered with anger.
She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t live in the same house with him again, knowing how he felt.
“I’m leaving. I think we should go back to letting our attorneys work out the details of the divorce.” Or rather, his attorneys, because she really didn’t have one.
“Sit down. You’re making a scene.”
Sabrina glanced around at the other diners watching them.
“Why? I won’t sit here and be attacked by you. You want me to move back in so you can make me pay for what I did. I won’t move back in, Renn—Renaldo. Since you said that’s nonnegotiable, then the negotiations are over.”
She didn’t wait for a response. She turned quickly and hurried toward the exit, winding her way through tables and past curious faces. Stepping out onto the sidewalk, she took a fortifying breath and swallowed the hurt of Renaldo’s words. She couldn’t take his cruelty. The soft smiles she’d grown accustomed to were long gone. In their place, his sensual lips had been set in rigid lines and his eyes as hard and cold as an Antarctic glacier.
/> Why hadn’t she gotten rid of the photos right away? The one time she hadn’t immediately destroyed them she’d been caught in her deception.
Now she’d lost everything. Her home. The love of her life.
She’d grown too dependent on him. He’d taken care of her—something she’d never experienced before. She’d always had to be independent and taken care of herself and Jewel.
She’d lost her anchor and killed his love.
Suddenly, her thoughts were disrupted by the searing heat of fingers that clamped around her upper arm like hot steel.
“What are you—”
“Not a word.” Renaldo moved briskly, dragging her along with him, forcing her to double time it for every step he took.
Chapter Five
They moved through the crowded street in silence with Renaldo clearing a path through the other pedestrians until he pulled her down an alleyway between two buildings.
When they came to a stop, she yanked her arm out of his grip. She could still feel the harsh impression of his fingers. But in the past, those fingers had stroked across her damp skin, made her throb, ache, and beg for release. She fought down the erotic thought and summoned the strength to look him in the eye.
He stood before her, a six-foot-five bronze pillar, making her feel small because of his height, despite the fact that at five-foot-ten she was over six feet in heels.
He stared down at her, struggling to keep his anger in check. The planes of his face looked harsh, but none of it changed the fact that he was the most handsome man she’d ever laid eyes on. She missed him and what they’d had so much.
“You never walk away from a negotiation until every option has been exhausted,” he finally said, anger lending a rougher edge to his voice.
“I’m not interested in anything else you have to offer. I just want to get my divorce and leave. You’ve made it clear how you feel about me.”
His eyes narrowed. “Is this your way of getting more money? Because if it is, I’ve offered you plenty. You know it and I know it.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, this has nothing to do with money. I’m simply not interested anymore.”
“I don’t believe you. No one walks away from that kind of money.”
“I don’t care about it,” Sabrina shot back. “Aren’t you listening?” She wanted to scream at him but kept her voice at a level to match his.
“What is it then?” His eyes searched her face. “Is it him? Because I won’t allow you to see him, Sabrina. Do you understand me? So help me—” He shook with rage, his fists clenched at his sides.
“No!” Sabrina screamed in frustration. “It has nothing to do with him or anyone else. It’s you.” She stopped, afraid to share what she felt, but the words just kept coming. “I don’t want you to look at me the way you did in there.”
“And how did I look at you?”
She drew a shaky breath. “Like you hate me.”
A muscle in his jaw jumped. “And how would you prefer that I look at you?” he asked in a lowered tone.
She took her time answering, needing to gain some semblance of control. “The way you used to,” she said huskily, her voice trembling with emotion.
“With love in my eyes?” Renaldo asked caustically. “Those days are long gone.”
His eyes roved over her, and she felt it as if he actually touched her. The tips of her breasts became hard knots beneath her shape-hugging dress. Her whole body came alive in reaction to the slide of his dark gaze. She would do anything to touch him again—to have him touch her—with tenderness and love.
If he wanted to take her against the wall right this minute, she feared she would aid him by hiking up her dress. She would do anything to have his muscular thighs slide between hers. To be pinned beneath him and have him pushing his hard length into her, driving her to the point of delirium.
“I no longer want you,” he said, but she knew he was lying because of the flaring of his nostrils, and his breathing had become labored, making his chest move up and down beneath his expensive suit. When his gaze came back to hers, there was a heat in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. “I know the kind of woman you are now, and I can’t bring myself to touch you. I can barely look at you without seeing…”
The words had the same effect as a hard slap to the face, jolting her from her desire-induced haze. Sabrina closed her eyes, but even with them closed, a sixth sense told her when he’d distanced himself from her. She opened her eyes and saw that he’d stepped away and was staring across at the wall of the opposite building with his hands shoved into the pockets of his trousers. To a person who didn’t know him, they might mistakenly assume this was a relaxed pose, but she knew him well, and the tension in his body spoke volumes.
“I know I hurt you,” she whispered, wanting to stop both of their pain, “but I wish you would let me explain my side of the story.”
“I already know your side of the story. I left you alone and you found ways to occupy yourself.”
“It wasn’t that simple.”
He whirled around. “Then explain it to me. What happened?”
“I’m not even sure…I…I think I was drugged.” Sabrina faltered. “I know, I know it sounds farfetched, but…I only had a couple of drinks, and I don’t remember what happened after that.”
“Drugged?” he asked in a mocking tone, walking slowly back to her. He tilted his head to the side. “First you were drunk, now you were drugged. How convenient. And you don’t remember how another man ended up in our bed.”
“It’s the truth. Don’t you see,” Sabrina said, trying to appeal to him. “I would never have done anything like that under normal circumstances. I could never do that to you—to us.”
“I don’t know that, do I? Our relationship moved very fast, and we were engaged within a short period. I didn’t know you at all.”
“You’ve come to know me over the past year.”
“Apparently not.” His gaze sharpened on her. “And you gave him money, didn’t you? I saw large withdrawals from your account. Twenty-thousand real on two separate occasions.”
“You were snooping in my account?” Sabrina gasped. Was there nothing he couldn’t do?
He showed no remorse. “Did you give him money?”
“It’s not what you think. I had no choice. He was blackmailing me. Those pictures he took…he promised they would get out. He promised to send them to you, break up our marriage, and hurt and embarrass you. I couldn’t let that happen.”
She’d been frantic—petrified. She’d known once Renaldo saw those pictures, not only would he be hurt, she’d lose him, so she’d given in to the blackmail.
Renaldo sneered. “So you gave him forty-thousand real? If what you’re saying is true, what do you think will happen when the money runs out? He’s going to come back again and ask for more.”
“If he does, it would be pointless, because you know now. He can’t hold it over my head anymore because our marriage is already over.”
“But he still has the pictures, Sabrina. If you don’t give him what he wants, what do you think he will do?”
“I know. I’ve thought about that.” While Mateo still had the pictures he had control because they could surface at any time, but she had no way of getting in touch with him. He had always contacted her, and she hadn’t heard from him in weeks.
Renaldo appraised her in silence. “What was it about him?” he asked quietly. “What attracted you to him?”
“Nothing. I wasn’t attracted to him.”
“I find that hard to believe. There were times—there were times you acted like you didn’t want me to touch you. I thought you were just overworked, but now it makes sense.”
“It wasn’t because I didn’t want you, but because of the guilt. Knowing what I’d done and keeping it from you. Sometimes I couldn’t face you. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how. I didn’t want to lose you and I thought I could handle it myself.”
“So you
lied to me. You deceived me into thinking that we had a good marriage. I was worried you might be working too hard, and I thought we should plan some kind of getaway. But the whole time, you had this secret.”
“I can’t tell you enough how sorry I am. I would do anything to fix this and take back what I did,” Sabrina said, her voice distressed. She tried to keep the tears from overwhelming her.
“But you can’t take it back.” He shook his head in disgust. “It’s never enough, is it?”
“I don’t know what you mean by that. It was enough. I was happy.”
“Obviously not.” He paused. “So tell me, how was he?”
Her heart started beating faster. “I told you—”
“Was he so good you had to beg him not to stop—the way you beg me?”
Talking to him was pointless. He wasn’t ready to hear her yet. “Don’t do this.” She started to back away, but her back hit the wall behind her.
He used the opportunity to come closer and braced an arm on either side of her, forcing her to stay put. “What did you let him do to you?” His voice was thick and his accent more pronounced.
“I don’t remember,” she replied, shaking her head.
“How many times did you bring him into our home?”
“There were no other times. It was just the one time. I swear.”
“I don’t believe you. How often did you see him? Are you seeing him now? Are there others?” He dipped his head to look her in the eye. “Tell me.” He slammed his hand into the wall above her head. “Tell me!”
“Stop!” Sabrina’s heart stuttered in her chest. She’d never been afraid of him before, but she didn’t know him now. He’d never been so angry at her. “There is no one else. There were no other times. I can’t explain to you what happened that night. I only know I wasn’t myself.”
“Como?” His brows lowered over his eyes. “You destroyed our marriage because you weren’t yourself?” His breathing became harsh. “I will never forgive you,” he said in a low voice.
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