by Leanne Banks
Max looked at David, who was clearly in pain, and felt his gut wrench. His son. It was his responsibility to alleviate his pain.
A very young woman in a white coat stepped inside the curtained cubicle. She picked up the chart and glanced at it. “Are you the parents?” she asked.
“Yes, we are.”
“I’m Dr. Jarrett.” She extended her hand and shook his. “Let’s see what’s wrong with your son.”
Lilli continued to hold David close, cradling his head as he let out cries and sobs. As Dr. Jarrett looked inside David’s right ear, the baby howled and the doctor winced. “I think I’ve found the problem. An ear infection. A nasty one at that.” She rubbed the baby’s head. “We can take care of that, sweetheart.
“We’ll start him on antibiotics right away, and I have some other recommendations for pain. The good news is that these little guys tend to respond to antibiotics within twenty-four hours or less.”
“Thank goodness,” Lilli said. “He’s been miserable.”
“And he made sure you knew it, too, didn’t he?” the doctor said with a smile.
“Yes, I guess he did.” Lilli met Max’s gaze. “I’m glad we came.”
“Me, too,” he said and asked the doctor a few more questions. Dr. Jarrett left David’s file open on the tray while she left the area for a moment. Max glanced at the file, seeing David’s birth information, his height, weight and blood type. He digested the information without focusing on it. The doctor returned, apologizing for the interruption.
After picking up the medication from the hospital pharmacy, Max helped Lilli administer it to David. He ushered both of them to his car, and David fell asleep on the way home.
Max pulled into the driveway and Lilli put her hand on his elbow. “I’m afraid to take him out of the infant seat,” she confessed.
Max chuckled. “We can’t leave him in the car the rest of the night.”
“It’s almost morning,” she said and reached closer to touch his jaw. “You are so amazing. And I am so lucky.”
His heart swelled in his chest. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I was ready to panic over what to do about David, and you knew what to do immediately.”
“You would have figured it out.”
“Thank you,” she whispered and kissed him. “I know you don’t believe in love, but you’re making me fall in love with you.”
He didn’t say anything, but she made him feel ten feet tall. She made him feel as if he could conquer anything and he wanted to do it for her and David.
He took a breath to clear his head. “We need to put him to bed,” he said.
“Yeah,” she said reluctantly.
“We can do it,” he encouraged her. “We can do it together.”
She nodded as if she found strength in his words. “Sure we can. Okay, let’s go.”
Surprisingly enough, David only gave a few peeps between the car seat and the crib. He made just enough sound to reassure Max and Lilli that he was uncomfortable, but okay. Lilli placed him in the crib and appeared to hold her breath.
David continued sleeping and Lilli let out a sigh.
“Time for Mama to get some sleep,” Max said, taking her hand and leading her to bed.
She insisted on brushing her teeth then fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Max wasn’t so lucky. Something nagged at him. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something he’d seen or observed at the hospital still bothered him.
Propping his hand behind his head on his pillow, he mentally backtracked his way through the evening.
Finally he remembered viewing David’s file, his birth record, his weight. His blood type. His brother’s blood type didn’t match David’s. Lilli’s blood type had been listed above David’s. David’s didn’t match hers, either.
He shook his head in disbelief. There had to be something wrong, a mix-up. But insidious doubts poked at him. If not Tony, then who was David’s biological father?
The next question hit him so hard his chest squeezed tight with the pain. If not Tony, then who had been Lilli’s lover?
Max felt nausea back up into his throat. Realization coursed through him like a slow-moving poison. Sitting up, he felt himself break into a sweat. Had she deceived him? Had sweet, angelic Lilli who’d baked cupcakes for his birthday pulled off the ultimate charade?
She’d made him believe she was going to give birth to his brother’s son. With her wide blue eyes and fairy hair, she’d looked so innocent, so pure. And she’d played him to the hilt when she hadn’t accepted his repeated offers for money.
He looked over at her sleeping in his bed as his wife and nearly drowned in disgust for himself. Shaking his head, he rose from the bed and thought of the way his father had acted like a fool over a woman. Max had made a vow to himself never to lose his head over a woman. But he’d gone and done just that.
Caught in semisleep, Lilli struggled to open her eyes. They felt as if someone had placed sandbags on top of them. She forced them to open. It took several minutes for her to become conscious.
Her first thought was of David. Her second was of Max. She looked beside her on the bed to find her husband gone. Type-A overachiever, she thought then glanced at the clock—8:00 a.m. She immediately pushed aside the covers and headed for the nursery. No one had called her, she reminded herself, as she stepped inside to find David being fed by Maria.
The nanny smiled. “He’s much better this morning. Just a little cranky. A few more doses of his medication and he will be good as new.”
David was focused on his bottle, clearly intent on getting every last drop. Lilli gave a sigh of relief. “Thank you for getting up with him.”
“My pleasure,” Maria said. “Mister De Luca is downstairs. He asked for you to go see him after you wake up.”
“He’s not at work?” Lilli asked, surprised.
Maria shook her head. “No. He’s downstairs.”
“Thank you again,” Lilli said and returned to the bedroom to throw on some clothes, wash her face and put on some concealer. She didn’t want to make a practice of looking like a hag first thing in the morning.
She went downstairs and spotted him on the patio. He sat on one of the plush chairs, staring at the fountain next to the Jacuzzi. Admiring his strong profile, she felt a rush of love. She gave herself a mental pinch. This was her husband.
She walked toward him and smiled. “Good morning, Mr. Amazing.” She shook her head. “I don’t see how you can go to sleep after I do, and still get up earlier than I do.”
He met her gaze, but his eyes were cold. “I have things on my mind.” He set his coffee cup on the patio table. “I saw David’s medical file at the hospital last night.”
“Is he okay? Is there something wrong that they didn’t tell us?”
He lifted his hand. “No, no. Not that. What I noticed was David’s blood type. It didn’t match yours.”
Max watched her carefully.
“Then it must match Tony’s,” she said, as if she were certain.
Feeling his gut begin to twist and turn, he shook his head. “No, it doesn’t.”
Lilli frowned. “It has to. There must be some mistake.”
Max sat silently for a long moment. Awed by her ability to lie without so much as a twitch, he continued to study her. “There’s no mistake, Lilli. David’s blood type doesn’t match Tony’s. Tony cannot be David’s biological father.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “He is,” she said her voice rising. “There’s no other possibility. There’s no—”
“Are you sure?” Max asked. “Who else did you have sex with while you were seeing my brother?”
Her mouth dropped wide in horror. “No one, I mean—” She broke off. “I wouldn’t—”
She was still sticking to her story, but he was beginning to see some cracks in her composure. “Funny, that’s what I thought, too.”
“No, really,” she said, knitting her fingers together. �
��I didn’t have sex with anyone else. Tony has to be David’s biological father. There’s no other possibility,” she said. “There was no one else. How could it be anyone else?”
Max stared at her in silence. Disappointment stabbed at him. Some part of him had held out hope that she would be honest with him. That she would give him that much.
Panic shot across her face and she ran to him. “You must believe me. You must. That blood test is wrong. It has to be. It has to—”
He stepped aside before she could touch him. He didn’t want her to touch him. He didn’t want his body to betray him. There was only one explanation for her hysteria. She had indeed lied to him and she was terrified of losing her meal ticket.
“I need to leave,” he said and headed for the door.
“Max,” she called after him, her voice full of tears and desperation.
But Max kept on walking.
Watching him leave, Lilli felt her throat and chest close so tight she could hardly breathe. He didn’t believe her. He thought she had deceived him. Her heart died a little with each step he took away from her.
She sank into her chair, feeling as if she were going to splinter into a million pieces. How had this happened? What had happened? Who had done this to her?
Her mind reeled and she tried in vain to remember more details of that last fateful night with Tony. It had been hard enough for her to deal with the idea of Tony taking advantage of her, but knowing some anonymous faceless monster had done this to her made her feel more victimized than ever.
How could Max believe her when she couldn’t believe it herself? And now he hated her. She’d read it on his face as clear as the writing on their prenup, on their marriage certificate and on the adoption papers.
She closed her eyes and felt her stomach and chest twist so hard she feared she would get sick. She broke into a cold sweat. Her mind raced. If he hated her, then how much more would he hate David?
Her first instinct was to leave. To get as far away from Max and this house as she could.
But why? She had done nothing to be ashamed of. She was the victim.
But she wouldn’t be the victim any longer.
All day at work, Max tried to wrap his mind around the idea that Lilli had deliberately deceived him. But as his anger had cooled, he had trouble believing it. If she was acting, she could win an Academy Award.
She’d been stunned when he’d confronted her, certain there’d been a mistake. Her face had been full of confusion, horror and disbelief. Everything he’d been feeling.
If she’d truly been after his money, wouldn’t she have insisted on more in the prenup agreement? He sat in his office, gazing blindly at the mountains in the distance. None of this added up. She had looked at him in complete disbelief when he told her Tony couldn’t be David’s father.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he knew what the only explanation could be. Tony had not taken advantage of Lilli that night she’d been drugged. Some other man—some perverted stranger—had violated her. The only consolation he could find was that at least Lilli had no memory of the event.
He thought of little David and felt a surge of protectiveness. The baby was his. In every way that mattered. That child had burrowed into Max’s heart so deeply he’d never be able to extricate him. Nor would he ever want to.
And Lilli. Max took a deep breath.
They’d made irrevocable vows to one another. He’d sworn to care for David as if he were his own. Now that the harsh emotions of the moment had passed, he knew he needed to go to her again. This time, he would listen.
After Lilli brought David back from his stroll, she rocked him for a long time. His soft warm body and sweetness were the only thing that reminded her she was alive. Setting him into his crib, she bent over to kiss his forehead and stared at him for a long while.
Softly closing the door to the nursery, she walked downstairs. Halfway down the steps, she heard a sound and saw Max standing just inside the front door. Her breath just stopped. She stared at him for a full moment, wondering if he was real.
“We need to talk,” he said.
Her heart squeezing tight with dread, she followed him out onto the patio. The sunny afternoon provided a stark contrast to the desperation she felt inside her. She swallowed over a lump in her throat. “I understand if you want David and me to leave. I don’t expect your support, especially now.”
He held up his hand. “Lilli, I’m sorry I jumped to so many conclusions. I can guess what happened.”
She closed her eyes. She couldn’t look at him as she recalled that terrible night she’d tried to forget. “Like I told you before, I told Tony I wanted to leave that night. He begged me to stay for just one more song, one more drink. I ordered a soda. I remember feeling dizzy, then nothing…until I woke up hours later in the back room of the club. I could tell something had happened,” she said in a halting voice. “Tony was passed out next to the door. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I got home and sat under the shower until the water turned cold.” Opening her eyes, she shook her head, her tight throat reducing her voice to a whisper. “I’m so sorry, Max, but I swear I didn’t know. I don’t remember anything. And now there’s this image of a faceless monster—”
“That’s enough.” He moved toward her and wrapped his arms around her. “No more,” he said. “You’ve been through enough.”
Lilli was afraid to believe her ears. Yet his strength surrounded her. His warmth, the scent she knew and loved. Could it be real?
Swiping at her tears, she cautiously searched his face. What she saw there almost made her knees buckle in relief. He believed her. She could see it clear as the sunlight. “You believe me, don’t you?”
He nodded. “Yes, I do. I should have given you a chance to explain, but—”
She sniffed. “You thought you were looking after your brother’s child and—” She lifted her shoulders. “And you’re not.” She took a deep breath and tried to steady herself. “If you want David and me to leave, we will.”
“No,” he said, the word as hard as steel. “I want you and David to stay. You two belong to me.”
Lilli felt a surge of relief, but had to make sure. “But won’t you resent us? Won’t you feel as if we’re a burden that’s been pushed on you?”
He shook his head. “I chose to marry you. I chose to adopt David. None of that has changed.” He paused, slicing his hand through his hair. “The only thing that has changed is that now I know how vital you are to me, to my life. I never thought this would happen to me, but I love you. I don’t want to live without you. Either of you.”
Lilli felt as if the room turned upside down and this time her knees did buckle. Max caught her against him, sank into a chair and pulled her onto his lap. She lifted her trembling hands to his hard, but precious face. “I thought I was going to be all alone in my feelings. Loving you, but never having your love.”
“But you married me anyway.”
“How could I not? If there was a chance that I could make your life happier by being in it, then I wanted to be there for you. I love you so much.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head as if he was overcome with emotion. “I kept saying I didn’t understand how Tony could have been so damn lucky to find you. But I’m the lucky one. I get to keep you. Forever,” he said, sealing the words with a kiss.
“Forever,” she echoed, “But I’m the lucky one. I got the man of steel who has a heart of gold.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1504-1
BEDDED BY THE BILLIONAIRE
Copyright © 2008 by Leanne Banks
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