by Jennie Lucas
Now, Louisa was numb. She shivered and shook in the cold, then rose and put on a T-shirt and pajama pants before her knees became weak and she collapsed back on the carpet. She stared up at the ceiling, staring blankly at a long, thin crack in the plaster.
She had cried until there were no tears left. She was numb. No: she was dead. When Rafael had left her, taking their sobbing baby with him, she had died inside.
Now nothing was left of her. She rose slowly to her feet. Opening the screen door, she went out to stand on the balcony. She stared out at the night. She felt the cold breeze against her hot face.
Across the river she could see the lit-up Eiffel Tower. She looked down into the darkness beneath the balcony. It would be so easy, she thought. So easy to end all the grief and pain with just one easy jump. She gripped the railing of the balcony, looking down at the street.
But she had to believe there was some chance she might see her husband and child again. She had to live in the hope someday she would hold them both in her arms.
She felt something cold and stinging against her face and realized she’d been wrong. She did, after all, have some tears left.
A hard knock sounded at the door.
Who could it be at this time of night? Who would the bodyguard even allow to come to her door?
For a moment, she didn’t move. She stayed outside in the darkness. Then she heard something that ricocheted through her like a bullet.
Her son’s cry.
With a choked gasp, Louisa ran inside, rushing across the apartment to fling open the door.
“Madame Cruz,” she heard the elderly French nanny say, “your husband sent me…”
But Louisa heard no more. With a sob, Louisa took her son from the other woman’s arms. She whispered words of love to her baby as she cradled him close, kissing his plump cheeks, his downy head, his fat arms. Noah hugged her desperately, and in a few moments, he ceased crying. He finally became calm, then abruptly fell asleep in her arms.
“Ah,” the French nanny said tenderly, looking down at the baby in Louisa’s arms. “Enfin, he sleeps.”
For the first time, Louisa looked at her. “What are you doing here?” she said, feeling like she was in a dream. “Why did Rafael send Noah back to me?”
The Frenchwoman shook her head. “I do not know, madame. But he wanted the baby brought to you immediately, even though it’s the middle of the night.” Stretching, she gave a discreet yawn. “If you please, I will go home now.”
“But—he isn’t demanding I send him back?”
“No,” she replied quietly. “Monsieur Cruz said I was to make it particularly clear that he would never try to take Noah away from you again. He did ask if you would meet him for breakfast tomorrow.”
Louisa’s eyes narrowed. Meet Rafael for coffee and croissants, pretending nothing had happened, after all he’d done to her? Or worse—a preliminary meeting to discuss their imminent divorce? “No.”
The other woman nodded with a rueful shrug. “I will relay your answer to him, madame. Now, if you will excuse me, I must go home to my bed.”
Louisa cradled her sweet baby in her arms all night. She slept slumped on the rocking chair, unwilling to be apart.
When she woke the next morning, she heard a knock on the door and answered it, her heart in her throat. She expected to find Rafael on her doorstep, demanding in his cold way for her to come with him to breakfast so they could meet with his lawyers.
Instead she saw a delivery boy staggering beneath the weight of a huge arrangement of roses, hundreds of them in every color.
“Flowers for you, madame,” he gasped.
“Who sent these?” Then, behind him, Louisa saw the bodyguard smile, and she knew.
“Send them all back!” she thundered, and slammed the door.
But for the next three days, the gifts kept coming. No matter how firmly she sent them back, they didn’t stop arriving. First there were the flowers, then after that came a team of manicurists and masseuses from the day spa. She received packages of clothes from all the top French designers. Handbags, exotic shoes, ball gowns. The capper was when a sports car in hot pink, with a big bow on the hood, was dropped off at the curb.
She refused them all.
Next came multiple deliveries from the finest jewelers in the city. Long ropes of priceless pearls. An emerald bracelet. A necklace of hundreds of sapphires. And finally: a diamond solitaire, as big as a robin’s egg, set in platinum.
Louisa sent them all back.
For one long morning, her doorbell was silent. She spent her morning playing with the baby, baking a chocolate cake and trying not to think about Rafael. He wanted her back. That much seemed clear. But when was he going to stop sending her gifts? How long would it take to show him that her trust and forgiveness couldn’t be bought?
Was Rafael ever going to come to her himself?
Then, the doorbell finally rang at last, and she braced herself to open it, knowing it would be Rafael.
Instead there was a messenger holding only a single rose—and a note.
I have something to tell you. Meet with me.
Please.
Rafael
She took a deep breath. Then, she nodded. “D’accord,” she told the messenger. She was curious, she told herself. That was the only reason. That, and the fact that Rafael had actually written the note himself. She supposed she should be flattered!
The messenger nodded with a smile and said in French, “There is a car waiting outside to escort you and your baby to the airport. No need to pack anything for either of you. Monsieur Cruz, he has arranged for everything.”
But Rafael wasn’t waiting for them on his private jet. By the time the plane touched down at the private island, the Greek island she remembered all too well, Louisa could not pretend to herself anymore that she felt only curiosity. She wanted to see Rafael. No matter how she tried not to feel it, she missed him. Wanted him. And some part of her still wished he could love her. Though she now believed he never would love anyone.
But Rafael wasn’t waiting for her on the tarmac. He wasn’t waiting for her in the beautiful whitewashed house on the private island.
This was her island, now.
Had he changed his mind about meeting her here? Had he given up his pursuit? Was he just going to leave her in sole possession with the baby, the lonely queen of this island?
The house was empty. A strange disappointment went through her as she passed empty room after empty room.
She tucked her sleeping baby into the lovely elliptical crib she found in the newly decorated nursery. Closing the door softly behind her, she looked out at the orange and scarlet sunset. She walked across the empty house. She opened the screen door and went out on the terrace beside the infinity pool. Blinking back tears, she looked around her and remembered all the places where they’d once laughed, where they’d shared meals, where they’d made love. Past happiness surrounded her like the echo of ghosts.
Folding her arms, blinking back tears, she lifted her chin and stared out at the red twilight over the darkening blue sea. How had everything gone so wrong?
Her love hadn’t been enough to save him.
It hadn’t been enough to make him love her back.
But as she wept, Louisa suddenly heard a voice behind her.
“Forgive me.”
With an intake of breath, she whirled around and saw Rafael. He was coming toward her. His figure was dark as a shadow in the deepening night. Only his eyes seemed like pools of light, gleaming at her with the intensity of fire.
“Forgive me,” he said again. She was frozen by his gaze, unable to move as he came toward her. He took her in his arms. Holding her with his gaze, he brushed tendrils of hair back from her cheek. “I was so wrong.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he stopped her by placing a finger on her lips. He looked down at her, and she realized he had tears in his eyes as well.
“I love you,” he whispered. “I love you
, Louisa. You and only you. Since the day I took you to my bed, there has never been another woman for me. You are my lover. My friend. The mother of my child. Most of all—you are my wife. I love you.”
She stared up at him, unable to breathe.
He lowered his head toward hers as his hand stroked her face. “Can you ever forgive me?”
She shook her head, unable to speak.
“You sacrificed so much to protect me. I know everything now. My mother told me everything. I cannot live without you. Not just for Noah’s sake, but for my own. Everything I am, everything that’s good, is because of you.”
“Oh, Rafael…”
He gave a ragged intake of breath. “I know you can’t forgive me for taking Noah from you like I did. But I swear to you I will spend the rest of my life trying to earn your love back again. I can think of nothing but you. I want you, love you, need you and I always will…”
Louisa stopped his words with a kiss. When she pulled away, his handsome face was dazed with joy.
“Louisa…”
“I love you,” she whispered tenderly. “And I never stopped loving you.”
Pulling her back into his strong arms, Rafael kissed her fiercely beneath the dark sky, beneath the stars that fell into the deepness of the sea, twinkling light into eternity.
“We’re engaged!”
Six months later, Louisa looked up from the poolside chair to see her sister holding out her left hand with a shyly joyful smile.
“Engaged?” Louisa exclaimed. “To who?”
Katie grinned back at Rafael’s chief bodyguard. “All the times Madison and I have visited this island…I never thought I’d come back with a souvenir like this!”
“A husband is your idea of a souvenir?” Evan Jones said with a grin, then took Katie’s hand in his own and said earnestly, looking into her eyes, “This time, I wasn’t going to let her go back to Florida without me.”
Louisa leaped to her feet, clapping her hands. “I’m so happy for you both.”
All this time, she’d hoped her little sister would find true love…and now she had. She looked out toward the surf, where Rafael was playing with his little niece, Madison, and his son, Noah, who at fourteen months old was now running like crazy all over the sand as fast as his chubby little legs would carry him. “Does Rafael know yet?”
“Not yet,” Evan said with a rueful grin. “We thought we’d better tell you first. We might need you to smooth things over. You know how Mr. Cruz hates staffing changes. He’s not going to like getting a new chief bodyguard.”
The three of them looked down at the beach. The sun was shining against the white sand. Baby Noah had picked up a little pail and shovel, and was running frantically in pursuit of his cousin Madison across the sand. Louisa heard her husband laugh as he scooped his son up, swinging him around. His deep laughter, along with the higher-pitched giggles of their son, was Louisa’s favorite sound in the world.
“But it’s too bad for him,” Evan Jones said, turning back to Katie with a smile. “I’ve decided to quit the bodyguard gig to become a baker.”
“So don’t make Louisa do your dirty work,” Katie said, nudging her new fiancé with her shoulder. “Go on, tell him you quit. You’re the one with the gun!”
“Actually I don’t have…” he started, then squared his shoulders. “All right. I’ll do it.”
He marched off toward the beach.
Once Evan was out of earshot, Louisa asked softly, “Are you sure about this? He’s so different from Matthias…”
“I know.” Katie looked at her, her eyes shining with tears of joy. “Evan is better than rich. He’s an honest, loving man with a good heart.”
“Not to mention brave.” From a distance, Louisa saw her husband scowl at Evan, folding his arms as he received his now ex-bodyguard’s news. She gave a little laugh. “Uh-oh. We’d better get down there!”
Once Louisa joined her husband on the beach, the situation was easily managed. Within three minutes Rafael was congratulating the man and wishing him all the best with a hearty clap on the back.
Afterward, Louisa took her husband’s hand. Rafael turned to her, kissing her palm, looking down at her with eyes shining with love. Her heart turned over in her chest. Was any woman ever so lucky, to be so adored?
Then, with a laugh, she picked up their giggling baby and ran off into the surf to frolic. They were swiftly chased by the man she loved: her former boss, her forever lover, her beloved husband who’d had a good heart all along but just needed a little help to find it.
A housekeeper always knew just what to do. Just what her boss needed most.
And sometimes, Louisa thought, smiling as she looked back at the most handsome ex-playboy on earth, she knew it even before he did.
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises II B.V./S.à.r.l. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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First published in Great Britain 2010
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Jennie Lucas 2010
ISBN: 978-1-408-91911-8
