One Night In Collection

by Various Authors

  He stood there like a mythical god—lean, arrogant and impossibly handsome, seeing everything from one point of view only.

  His own.

  ‘One day you’ll learn that you can’t control everything in life, Raul. Accidents do happen,’ she said hoarsely. ‘I am living proof of that, but it doesn’t matter any more, does it?’

  He drew breath, ready to challenge that remark as he automatically challenged everything and she lifted a hand in a defensive gesture.

  ‘No!’ She cut him off before he spoke. ‘Just don’t say what’s on your mind, Raul, because frankly I don’t think I can sit through another session of your thoughts on the subject.’

  ‘You don’t know what I was going to say.’

  ‘Oh yes I do. It would have been something along the lines of “if you hadn’t got pregnant we wouldn’t be married now” or “it’s lucky for both of us that you lost the baby.”’ She’d been trying so hard not to think about the baby, but now there was no escaping it and her eyes filled with the tears that she’d been choking on for the past couple of weeks. ‘Well, do you know what? I don’t feel lucky. I know it wasn’t what you wanted and to be honest, I was surprised myself—but I don’t feel lucky, Raul. I minded that I lost the baby.’

  He was so tense that every muscle in his powerful frame throbbed with it. ‘I know.’

  ‘You do not know! How could you know? I protected you from it. You were in New York on business. I was devastated but I kept it to myself because you were tied up with that meeting, takeover—’

  ‘It was a merger.’

  ‘I don’t care what it was! I just knew it was important to you and I didn’t want to cause you extra stress. But I shot myself in the foot, because you decided that the reason I didn’t tell you about my miscarriage was because I was afraid you might call off the wedding.’

  ‘It was a natural assumption.’

  ‘Only for a man like you, Raul. Any other person would have thanked me for being so thoughtful and selfless.’ She turned her head, her voice a whisper. ‘Go away. Just go away. Why are we even talking about this, anyway?’

  ‘Because we are married,’ he bit out harshly. ‘And we have to sort this out.’

  ‘Some things just aren’t fixable. And this is one of them. Do you realise that you haven’t once thought about my feelings? All you’ve thought about is yourself. You think I trapped you. Well, do you know what?’ Her voice rose. ‘I wish you had ditched me at the altar. You would have been doing us both a favour.’

  ‘I would not have done that. Despite what you think, I do have a sense of decency.’

  ‘Decency? Where was your sense of decency when you said it was a good thing I’d lost the baby?’

  He stiffened, his handsome face pale despite his tan. ‘You are taking my words out of context.’

  ‘I wish I was, but I’m not. And frankly, I would have preferred you to have broken it off, than to find myself married to a cold, insensitive bastard.’

  He inhaled sharply. ‘I’ve never heard you use language like that before.’

  ‘Well, if you stick around, you’ll be hearing more of it.’

  Raul ran a hand over his face. ‘You are extremely upset—’

  ‘Yes. Funny that, really. I lose a baby, discover that my husband is a cold-hearted, ruthless pig, get run over—’ Her heart was pounding so rapidly that she felt dizzy. ‘I can’t imagine why I’d be upset.’

  ‘You need to calm down. The doctors said you shouldn’t be subjected to any more stress.’ Raul lifted a hand in what presumably was a gesture of conciliation. ‘Why are we going over this again? No me importa. I don’t care. It’s history now. We have to move on.’

  ‘Where to, Raul?’ Faith choked, holding it together by a thread. ‘You’re relieved, but that isn’t how I feel. I feel terrible. You have no idea. Our relationship is dead and so is—’ She broke off with a whimper of pain, unable to finish the sentence. ‘I wish there had been a baby.’

  ‘I know you do.’ Raul’s tone was grim and his face was white with the strain. ‘Which is why you should have left me six months ago for some homely, domesticated male whose sole desire was to reproduce and spread his seed. You should have ended it instead of forcing me into something I didn’t want.’

  ‘It was an accident.’ She covered her face with her hands to hide the tears but clearly she was less than successful because she heard Raul swear and then felt his thigh brush against hers as he sat down next to her.

  ‘Stop crying. I’ve never seen you cry before. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met.’ His strong fingers closed around her wrists and he pulled her hands away from her face, as if he could ease her distress simply by the force of his will. ‘And you wonder why I am so against marriage as an institution! Until we exchanged vows, we were happy together.’

  She sniffed. ‘It isn’t marriage. It’s you—the way you are—’

  ‘And you always knew the way I was. We both knew it, Faith.’ Raul’s tone was rough. ‘There was never any future for us. Eventually you would have wanted marriage and babies. It was inevitable.’

  ‘I hadn’t even thought about it.’ Furious with herself for crying, Faith wiped her eyes with the palm of her hand. ‘I had a career when I met you. The last thing I was thinking of was playing happy families.’

  ‘When you discovered how badly you wanted a baby, you should have left.’

  ‘How are you so successful at negotiation when you don’t even listen to the other person?’ Faith bit back a hysterical laugh. ‘That wasn’t how it happened! I did not plan it. I had a whole career ahead of me. Plans! When I discovered that I was pregnant, I was in shock. But then I realised how much I wanted our baby.’ And him. She’d realised how much she wanted him.

  ‘And the fact that I didn’t wasn’t of importance to you?’

  ‘You asked me to marry you!’

  ‘Because you left me no choice.’

  His blunt admission sliced through her control and brought the tears to the surface. ‘Well, that’s romantic. And having admitted that you married me because I “forced” you, you now want to continue this relationship? Are you mad, or what?’ The tears trickled down her face and Raul’s sensual mouth tightened.

  ‘Don’t cry.’

  ‘Why?’ The tears fell harder. ‘Because it makes you feel bad? Well, good. At the moment, I want you to feel bad.’ The utter desolation echoed in her voice and she saw his emotional turmoil.

  After a moment’s hesitation he reached out a hand towards her but she shrank away from him and he let it fall to his side. ‘How did our relationship reach this point?’

  ‘I don’t know. I was so in love with you.’ Her voice was thick with tears. ‘I didn’t think anything could ever damage what we had. I thought we were invincible.’

  ‘And presumably that’s why you did it.’ His voice grew several degrees colder and she knew that she would never convince him that she hadn’t become pregnant on purpose.

  ‘So just divorce me,’ she whispered, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘Divorce me for unreasonable behaviour.’

  ‘There won’t be a divorce.’ His tone was hard and icy cold. ‘You chose this path, cariño. Now walk it. I have some calls to make. Make sure you rest before dinner.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  WHAT was she supposed to wear for dinner?

  She’d fled from Argentina with nothing more than her passport. She certainly hadn’t stopped to pack a wardrobe.

  Glancing at her watch, she realised that there were still several hours until dinner, so she picked up her bag and stepped into the elevator.

  They were in the centre of Buenos Aires. How hard could it be to find something simple and practical to wear?

  She pressed the button for the ground floor, thinking of Raul. He’d changed so much and she didn’t have to look far to discover the cause of their problems.

  By becoming pregnant she’d committed the ultimate sin.

  The lift do
ors opened and she gave a gasp of shock because Raul was standing there, anger shimmering in his dark eyes.

  ‘Do you have a death wish? You are supposed to be resting.’

  For a long, agonising moment the tension throbbed between them momentarily blinding both of them. She was painfully aware of his sexuality and her stomach swooped and spun like a ride at a funfair.

  Suddenly, looking at his rigid shoulders, she realised that they’d never stood a chance.

  They were worlds apart; not just in terms of wealth, but in life experience and culture.

  They’d talked all the time, but never about his past, and she was only now realising how little she knew about him.

  The phone in his pocket rang and he removed it, scanned the number and then took the call. ‘Sí—I am aware of that.’ He switched between Spanish and English with effortless ease and Faith listened with reluctant admiration, trying not to be impressed but failing because his razor-sharp intellect had always given her a buzz. She’d loved arguing with him because his brain was so fast and challenging him had always resulted in lively debate.

  As if sensing her scrutiny, his eyes locked onto hers and a muscle flickered in his jaw. ‘No—cancel … I don’t care, I’m busy right now. They can wait until I’m ready.’

  Faith watched as he broke the connection with a decisive stab of one long finger and dropped the phone back into his pocket. She cleared her throat. ‘If you were cancelling a meeting because of me then you shouldn’t have bothered.’

  ‘How else am I supposed to stop you from doing something foolish? If I don’t watch you personally you will no doubt vanish again, and I have no desire to scrape you off the floor after yet another accident.’ He’d obviously come from a meeting because he was dressed in a dark formal suit but the white cuff of his shirt had ridden up slightly and she found her eyes drawn to the hairs that darkened the bronzed skin at his wrist. That tantalising hint of masculinity was sufficient to trigger an uncomfortably vivid image of him naked and Faith turned her head away quickly, wondering how a physical connection could possibly endure when everything else was so catastrophically wrong between them. It was true that Raul exceeded the most exacting woman’s standards of masculinity, but after everything that had happened, she shouldn’t be feeling this way.

  The brain was supposed to be connected to the senses, so why were hers humming and buzzing instead of freezing him off?

  Glancing over his shoulder, Faith saw two burly men standing in the opulent lobby. ‘Who are they?’

  ‘Security.’ Raul stepped into the elevator with her and slammed his hand against a button. He controlled his privacy with the same ruthless efficiency that he used on every other aspect of his life.

  ‘I need to go shopping—’

  ‘You were never interested in shopping.’

  ‘I don’t have anything to wear. All my clothes are at the estancia.’

  He stared down at her for a moment. ‘I apologise,’ he said stiffly. ‘I hadn’t realised. You should have said something sooner.’

  The doors slid closed and Faith suddenly found herself trapped with him in a small, intimate space.

  Erotic images swirled around her brain and she stared straight ahead, trying to concentrate on something else. The utter stillness of his powerful body told her that he was doing the same thing and she knew instinctively that his brain was playing the same tricks.

  So how could not looking intensify the connection between them?

  In this closed-in space Faith was agonisingly aware of the latent power of his lean, strong body and she realised with a stab of pain that this was the first time she’d stood this close to him and not touched. In their relationship she’d been the affectionate one and he’d always teased her about it.

  ‘You can’t go five seconds without checking I’m still here.’

  And it had been true. She’d adored him and it wouldn’t have occurred to her to not show it.

  But now she envied his emotional detachment and wished she’d kept part of herself back.

  If she’d done that, would it hurt less?

  Probably not. Despite everything that had happened between them, part of her wanted to take that final step towards him and feel his arms close around her in that decisive, possessive way that had always thrilled her.

  And it horrified her that she still felt that way.

  She couldn’t be with a man who didn’t trust her, could she? For her, trust was as fundamental as breathing. And she couldn’t be with a man who had such little regard for her feelings. A man who knew her so little.

  Did she have no self-respect?

  Or was it just that she’d totally underestimated the power of love?

  Desperate to interrupt the uncomfortable flow of her thoughts, Faith struggled to make conversation. ‘I didn’t know you had an apartment in Buenos Aires.’

  He loosened his top button and jerked at his tie, the intimate confinement clearly affecting him in a similar manner. ‘Sometimes I work late.’

  The lift rose smoothly upwards and she stared at the view.

  ‘It’s stunning.’

  ‘Actually it’s on the market,’ Raul said stiffly. ‘I’ve discovered that a glass lift isn’t a good choice if you want privacy.’

  And Raul was fiercely protective of his privacy, she knew that. This particular billionaire wasn’t about to become public property, and he invested time and effort into keeping his profile as low-key as possible. His extreme wealth had protected their relationship from the intrusion of the outside world.

  She’d been spoiled, cosseted, protected and most of the time she hadn’t even been aware of that fact because everything in his life ran so smoothly and discreetly.

  His main residence was the Beach House in the grounds of the estancia, ten thousand acres of prime real-estate that stretched from the Atlantic coast of Argentina into the grasslands. Under Raul’s watchful eye, his dedicated staff, which had once included her, bred and trained polo ponies, and the estancia was the first port of call for the super-wealthy who enjoyed that particular sport.

  With typical flare and vision, Raul had tapped into a market where the very, very rich would pay for the privilege of receiving the very best polo instruction and advice on the purchase of a string of ponies, safe from the prying eyes of the world’s press. It also allowed Raul to indulge his daredevil streak—as one of the country’s most daring polo players, he thrived on the thrilling adrenalin rush of the game.

  But the stud-farm was only a small part of an empire that encompassed hotels, finance and export. Applauded by the financial pages of the world’s newspapers for his astonishing vision, Raul had diversified sufficiently to ensure that any change in the markets would have no effect on the overall profitability of his business.

  The lift doors opened and Raul strode out, as if he couldn’t wait to get away from her. After a moment’s hesitation Faith followed, knowing that if she didn’t do so voluntarily, he’d simply haul her out himself.

  The penthouse apartment spread over the top of the building, a dazzling, soaring living-space designed to give the occupant breathtaking views over Buenos Aires.

  ‘It is stunning,’ she muttered weakly. ‘Another world.’ And at that moment she almost laughed at herself.

  It was another world. The world he lived in. How had she ever thought she could just step into his life with no problems?

  A frown touching his strong, dark brows, Raul turned his head and stared out of the window, as if the view wasn’t something he’d noticed before. ‘It’s a city.’

  His reply was so rigidly polite that Faith felt as though she was on a blind date with a stranger. ‘If you didn’t buy it for the view, why did you choose it?’

  He gave a careless lift of his broad shoulders, as if he considered it an odd question. ‘I needed somewhere to shower and change in between meetings. And it’s an investment.’

  He was standing still but she could feel the energy pulsing from every centim
etre of his powerful frame. She’d never met anyone as driven as Raul. ‘Does money come into every decision you make?’

  ‘Not always.’ His charcoal-dark eyes locked on hers, his gaze boldly explicit and she understood the unspoken message in that one blistering look.

  If he’d been thinking about money, he wouldn’t have chosen her.

  Looking at him now, at the careless arrogance he wore with the same ease as his expensive clothes, she wondered how she’d ever felt comfortable with him.

  Everything about him screamed power and success but on top of that he possessed a raw, dominant sexuality that had always rendered her breathless.

  For a moment his burning gaze held her captive, the sheer force of his personality preventing her from looking away.

  In the end it was Raul who broke that connection, turning from her with a sudden movement that suggested an underlying tension of almost unbearable proportions. ‘I haven’t shown you round properly, but the bedroom is up the stairs.’ His voice was tight, clipped, as if he were restraining himself not to say a great deal more. ‘Take a shower and help yourself to some clothes from the wardrobe.’

  Clothes? Her heart lurched and the dull, sick feeling in the pit of her stomach returned. Since when did he keep a spare set of clothes for female guests? She’d never been here, which could only mean that …

  Reminding herself that the way he chose to live his life was no longer any of her business, Faith curled her fingers into her palms.

  ‘Upstairs?’

  ‘It’s a duplex penthouse.’ With a spare, minimal gesture he angled his glossy, dark head and she belatedly noticed a curving staircase in one corner of the room.

  ‘Fine.’ Not trusting herself to stay cool in front of him, she stalked across the apartment and up the stairs, horribly conscious of his eyes tracking her every movement.

  She found herself in a sumptuous master-bedroom suite that extended over the whole of the top floor. Gripped by the sharp claws of jealousy, she kept her eyes firmly averted from the enormous bed. Raul had had women before her, she knew that. But she’d always told herself that they were part of his past.