Jo drew in a swift breath. ‘He didn’t! What did you say?’
‘I suggested DNA.’
‘And?’
‘He backed down a bit.’
‘And the outcome is?’
‘I’m meeting him tomorrow night—for dinner.’
Jo raised her brows.
‘He was in shock,’ declared Sienna with a wry grimace. ‘We didn’t talk much, he needed time to get used to the idea. Can you babysit Ethan?’
‘Of course.’
‘You should see his place, Jo. It’s out of this world. In fact, it’s on top of the world. He lives in a penthouse suite overlooking the Thames. His driver brought me home—in a Bentley no less.’
‘Then you should grab him with both hands,’ said her friend with a wide grin. ‘Why did you ever let him go?’
‘It’s a long story. Do you want a cup of tea?’
Sienna dressed carefully for her dinner date with Adam. She hadn’t many good clothes; as a matter of fact, the trousers and top she had worn to face him were the best things she had, bought a few months ago to attend a wedding. But she couldn’t wear them again or he would think she had nothing else to wear, so she matched a black strappy top—one she sometimes used to sunbathe in, but he wouldn’t know that—with a black floaty skirt that was years old but nevertheless still looked good. She fastened a silver belt around her waist, added a silver necklace and slipped into black sandals. Her hair had been brushed until it shone, and with a slick of lipstick and a dusting of eye-shadow she pronounced herself ready.
Just in time. The car arrived. The impassive driver knocked on her door. Sienna slid into the back seat, inhaling appreciatively the rich smell of leather. And almost immediately wished that she was going anywhere but to meet Adam again. It was going to be an uncomfortable encounter. There would be more recriminations and almost certainly the suggestion that he wanted to meet Ethan.
But she wanted to feel comfortable with Adam first. She wanted Adam to feel at ease as well. Otherwise when father and son eventually met there would be an undercurrent and she didn’t want that. It needed to be a happy meeting. She wanted Ethan to be ready, but even more than that she wanted Adam to treat his son in the way that a father should, with warmth and humour—neither of which were Adam’s strong points.
She wished for the hundredth time that she hadn’t gone to see him. It had been a huge mistake. One she might live to regret.
‘Here we are, madam.’ The driver jumped smartly out of the car and opened her door. Sienna felt almost like royalty. ‘Mr Bannerman is waiting inside.’
Oh, he was, was he? Sienna felt like telling the driver to take her back home. Except just at that moment Adam appeared in the doorway of the restaurant. They were in Mayfair, in the heart of London’s most exclusive district. Shopping, dining, living, all for the very rich.
Sienna felt distinctly out of place. Nevertheless, she kept her head high and her eyes firmly on Adam’s. He wore a grey suit and a white shirt with a grey and red tie and he looked the epitome of the successful businessman. While she felt like the poor relation!
‘Sienna, you look good. I’m glad you made it.’
Liar! On both counts. She didn’t look good, she didn’t feel good. At least, not right now. She had when she had set out, but she hadn’t expected to be wined and dined at one of London’s most elite restaurants. She had thought, she had hoped, that it would be at one of the eating places she had seen near where he lived.
Nothing had prepared her for this.
However, she smiled her acknowledgement of his compliment and when he took her arm to lead her inside she felt a crazy awareness of the man she had once been so madly in love with.
It was insanity. They were here to talk about Ethan. Adam wanted to know more about him. She had brought photographs. But here she was experiencing a reincarnation of the feelings that had once totally consumed her.
With an effort she dashed them away, relegated them to some safe place deep in her body. Hopefully they would never be restored. She was prepared to be civil with Adam, for their son’s sake, but as for anything else—she would fight it every inch of the way. He had hurt her once, and she had no intention of letting him do so again.
Chapter Three
ADAM had half expected Sienna not to turn up that evening. He had thought she would despatch his driver, telling him that she had changed her mind. Her revelation that he had a four-year-old son had stunned him, sent his whole world out of kilter, made a mockery of every thought he’d ever had about not wanting children to interfere with his lifestyle.
After a night lying awake, thinking about its implications, he had not even gone in to work today—which was unheard of. His PA had had the shock of her life when he’d phoned to tell her. Without a doubt his life was going to be disrupted, changed for ever, and it would take a hell of a lot of getting used to.
After Sienna had walked out on their marriage he had buried himself ever more deeply into his work. He had been fiercely angry that she couldn’t accept his need to create a good life for them. In a fit of rage after she had left him, he’d taken out other women to try to get over her.
It hadn’t worked.
Despite what he saw as her failings, and despite the reason he had married her in the first place, he had missed Sienna more than he had ever thought possible, and he’d eventually felt guilty because he’d known that he hadn’t given her the attention that she deserved. In equal parts he had experienced relief. Nevertheless, it had allowed him the space and time to build up his business without Sienna constantly complaining that she never saw him.
Now, though, he found it hard to believe that she had kept something of such monumental importance from him. A son! It did not make sense. It was a nightmare. How could she have done that?
His fingers curled and he wanted to wring her pretty neck.
Being a father would make a marked difference to his life. In the years since Sienna had walked out his business affairs had grown beyond even his own wildest dreams. Success had come to him and he’d embraced it with open arms. He needed no one. He was master of his own universe.
Or at least he had been.
Looking at her now, seeing how nervous she was, he realised that it must have taken a lot of courage to approach him yesterday. He had not thought of that at the time, he’d been too intensely angry to feel anything else. In fact, he was still angry, but he knew that he must hide those feelings if he was to come to any sort of an agreement with her.
‘Would you like a drink before dinner?’ he asked. Sienna not only looked gorgeous in black, she smelled divine too, and Adam felt a swift surge of hunger. The skinny straps of her top revealed velvety smooth, lightly tanned shoulders and the rapidly beating pulse in the long line of her throat gave away the fact that she was incredibly nervous. The swell of her breasts peeping over the top of her camisole made his fingers itch to touch, to feel their weight in his palms, to tease her nipples into tight, hard buds. As hard as he was feeling!
The crazy thing was that she was still his wife. He would be perfectly within his rights making love to her, and yet he knew that she was forbidden fruit. The sweetest fruit, the most tempting fruit.
Damn! It had been a mistake inviting her here tonight. They should have met somewhere far more austere, like in a solicitor’s office, and let a third party work out the best way forward.
‘No, thank you.’
Adam had almost forgotten his question. Sienna’s fragrance was exciting him, her nearness drugging him. He was in danger of making a fool of himself. Instantly he channelled his thoughts away from Sienna’s appearance, reminding himself that she had done the unforgivable. She had wronged him big time and he would find it difficult to forgive her—if he ever did!
They were led to their table and Sienna sat on the very edge of her chair, her back ramrod straight, her eyes wary on his, as though she was expecting him to declare that he was going to take Ethan from her.
M
enus were handed to them and for a few moments they both pretended to be studying them. Twice Adam caught Sienna looking at him, her eyes quickly averted each time, and he gave a grim smile. She too was clearly wishing that she was anywhere but there.
Their food and wine orders given, Adam sat back in his seat and looked at her. ‘Are you ready to talk?’
‘About Ethan?’ Sienna knew that the huskiness in her voice gave away her inner tension. All day long she had been dreading this meeting, and with good reason. The stern look in Adam’s eyes, the mutinous set of his chin told her that he was still furiously angry with her.
Adam nodded. ‘What did he say when you told him that you’d been to see his father? Is he anxious to meet me?’
Sienna swallowed hard. ‘As a matter of fact, I haven’t told him yet.’ She had been waiting for the right moment but had begun to have her doubts that there ever would be one. Ethan wouldn’t understand her predicament. He would want to meet his father, he would be ecstatically happy, he would expect them to all live together like one big loving family. And if he discovered that Adam was wealthy enough to buy him anything he wanted, he would instantly become his best friend.
Adam’s reaction was exactly as she had known it would be. He roared with rage. His eyes grew even harder, shooting swift bullets of anger across the table, making a mockery of its fine linen tablecloth and elegant silver cutlery. ‘You have not told him? Why not? Why did you come to see me if it was not to acquaint me with my son?’
Sienna closed her eyes. ‘I made a mistake. I—’
‘No! I will not let you change your mind. You cannot hide him away from me any longer. I have a right to see him.’
Adam’s voice roared into her consciousness, overpowering her, stunning her. She snapped her lids open and stared straight into the harsh blue depths of cold-as-ice eyes. A shiver slid down her spine, reaching out icy tentacles to every part of her body.
‘And so you shall,’ she said, horrified to hear the tremor in her voice. This was not the way to react. She needed to be strong. Drawing in a deep steadying breath, she stared at him unflinchingly. ‘Once I have told him about you.’
‘And when will that be?’ came the caustic reply. ‘Today? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? It’s not good enough, Sienna. You cannot drop a bolt from the blue like that and then expect me to sit back and wait patiently. I demand to see him. In fact, I don’t see why we shouldn’t walk out of here right now and—’
‘No!’ Sienna’s voice rose. ‘I will tell him, but in my own good time. And he’ll need to get used to the idea that he has a father before I introduce you. It will be a big thing for him.’
‘No bigger than it was for me.’ Adam’s face contorted into a scowl that scored deep lines on his forehead and narrowed his eyes until they were no more than two silvery-blue slits. ‘I’m still finding it hard to believe that you waited so long to tell me. You shouldn’t have had to go through Ethan’s illness alone. For pity’s sake, Sienna, I’m his father. I deserved to be told.’
He was right, of course. And she would have felt so much better during Ethan’s illness if she’d had Adam to lean on. It had been a terrible time, not knowing whether her son was going to live or die. As she’d sat for hours beside Ethan’s hospital bed she had longed for Adam’s strength, had told herself constantly that he ought to be here, that she should have told him about Ethan. The burden had been almost too much to bear.
Yet still it had taken immense strength to seek him out—and now she almost wished that she hadn’t. His anger was doing nothing to make her feel any easier about the situation.
She was given a tiny respite while her wine was poured. Adam as usual touched nothing stronger than water. Nevertheless, he tipped his glass towards hers. ‘Here’s to a promising future.’
Tension tingled in the air between them. His eyes locked with hers and Sienna felt her heart beating heavily in her chest. When she had sought Adam out yesterday she had never envisaged that she would be sitting here with him tonight, drinking expensive wine, experiencing shock waves of sensation because feelings she had thought long dead were making themselves felt.
It was actually impossible not to feel. Her love for him had once been so strong that she began to wonder now whether it had ever died. Or was it because he was dynamically sexier these days? Success sat on his shoulders like an invisible cloak. And a successful man was always irresistible. At least, to some women. She had never put herself in that category but looking at Adam now, seeing the man he had become, she could not contain a frisson of awareness. It ran through her veins like molten metal, hot and swift and consuming.
‘It might take Ethan time to get used to the idea that he has a father,’ she said quietly. And she needed time too. Their meeting, when it happened, would be an emotional one, there would be a big change in her life. Also in Ethan’s.
She didn’t allow herself to think of the effect it would have on Adam. He had been absent for so long that all she could think of at this moment was herself and her son.
Clearly she hadn’t been thinking straight when she had decided to seek Adam out, and she had not reckoned on the enormous personal trauma it would cause. If only she could turn back the clock. But, of course, that was impossible. She had started this, so now had to suffer the consequences.
Their first course arrived and for a few minutes there was silence between them, Sienna cautiously tasting her vinaigrette of white asparagus with truffles. It was, of course, superb. Adam would not have taken her to a restaurant where the food was not first class. He moved in completely different circles to her these days. It was a life she could have once had but had chosen not to. And she did not particularly want her son to be brought up in this exclusive society.
‘Does Ethan look like me?’
Sienna drew in a deep breath and nodded. ‘I have photographs.’ She reached for her bag and passed Adam an envelope.
He was silent for a few minutes as he scrutinised each photo in turn and Sienna took the opportunity to study him. She could see so much of her son in Adam that it was frightening.
Her lovable little boy was going to grow up in the very image of his father. Tall, devastatingly handsome, a real ladies’ man. And she would worry herself sick over the years, wondering what sort of a life he would carve out for himself. Would he be as driven as his father? Would he put success and riches before everything else? Before human relationships? Human emotions?
There had been times when she felt that Adam had never loved her, when she had wondered why he had asked her to marry him in the first place. His goal hadn’t been a happy marriage and children and she couldn’t help wondering now whether his relationship with Ethan would suffer as a result.
‘May I keep these?’
Sienna nodded.
‘There’s no mistaking that he is my son.’
The words were said calmly and with no malicious intent, but Sienna couldn’t help flaring. ‘If you thought that I would lie to you, you don’t know me very well at all.’
‘But you can surely understand? All these years and not a word.’
Their eyes met and held and Sienna was the first to look away.
‘I’m going to enjoy getting to know him. I’ll take him along the Thames on my cruiser, we’ll fly over to Paris to see my place there and—’
‘Adam Bannerman, don’t you dare!’ Sienna felt herself exploding. She felt sparks of white hot anger sizzling inside her head. If he thought money was the way to impress his son, he was sadly mistaken. ‘A walk along the river, feeding the ducks, a ride on some swings is all Ethan needs. Even just sitting down and talking to you, finding out he has a daddy, will be the most exciting thing that has ever happened to him. You can’t buy his love, Adam. Kids need companionship and love and caring. Doing little things together. And if you can’t get your head round that then it might be better if he never finds out about you.’
‘It’s too late for that.’ Adam’s eyes glittered into hers. Hard eyes,
cold eyes, that told her she couldn’t back out now. That he would demand access to his son whether she liked it or not.
‘Nevertheless, we need to set out some ground rules,’ she declared sharply. ‘I don’t want you trying to impress him with your wealth. He needs to get to know you properly first.’
‘I agree,’ he answered with surprising quietness, ‘and the sooner the better.’
The subject of their son drew them closer by an invisible thread. Adam’s eyes had never seemed bluer. Or more fierce. Or more direct. They burned through into the very heart of her, making her wriggle uncomfortably on her seat.
‘Do I have to come knocking on the door and announce myself? I could do that, you know.’
And he would, thought Sienna. He would turn up without warning and she would be left quivering with apprehension. What if the two of them didn’t get on? Adam clearly knew nothing about children and their needs. He would overwhelm his son, maybe even frighten him.
‘I’ll tell him tomorrow,’ she promised. ‘But he’ll need a few days to get used to the idea. I’ll ring you.’
Adam threw her a look of disbelief. ‘And how long will I have to wait? Maybe I should come back with you tonight and—’
‘No!’ yelped Sienna, then looked around swiftly to see if anyone had heard her panicked cry. Fortunately not. ‘He’ll be in bed, for one thing. I’ll tell him tomorrow, I promise, and then I’ll leave it up to Ethan.’
‘What if he doesn’t want to meet me?’
Sienna shrugged. ‘That’s something you’ll have to deal with.’ Though she couldn’t see it happening. Ethan would be so excited he’d want to see his daddy immediately.
‘If you think that I’m going to ignore my son now that you’ve told me about him, you’re wrong.’ Hard eyes met hers. ‘Very wrong. But I appreciate that he’ll need a little time. I’ll give you two days then if I haven’t heard from you I shall turn up on your doorstep.’ He whisked a card out of his pocket. ‘Here’s my personal phone number. Use it.’
Married Again to the Millionaire Page 3
