Even in the dim light of the cab, she could see the seriousness in his gaze. “Because of the agreement we have.” It was a wonder he couldn’t hear the ponderous thudding of her heart.
“Because of you.”
She couldn’t breathe. “Rourke—”
“Meter’s still running, folks.”
She blinked, realizing the cab had stopped in front of Rourke’s building. Even Rourke had seemed oblivious to that fact.
He paid the driver and stepped out of the cab, holding her hand to help her out.
She had a dizzying flashback to the day of their wedding, when she’d stepped out of the limousine almost in this exact spot.
He’d kissed her, crushing her bouquet of flowers. The photograph that had caught them at that moment was still being splashed all over the news outlets, blasting their “fairy-tale” marriage.
And how true that fairy-tale term was.
Because fairy tales didn’t come true.
“Lisa?” Rourke’s hands closed over her shoulders. “You all right?”
She stared into his face. “I need to tell—”
“Lisa.”
She jerked away from the hand that touched her from behind, sinking deeper against Rourke’s chest even as she recognized the man who’d spoken. “Derek,” she gasped.
He looked terrible.
Always thinner than the more athletically built Paul, he looked more like a walking skeleton than the brother she knew. His dark hair had unfamiliar strands of silver in it, there were sunken circles beneath his brown eyes, and his coat looked as if it was barely hanging on his frame.
“Armstrong. What the hell are you doing here?” Rourke was tucking her practically behind him.
But Derek wasn’t so easily waylaid. He angled to the side, his eyes fastened on Lisa. “I’ve been watching the building all night waiting for you. I’ve been calling you for months.”
Rourke shifted. Blocking Derek again. “And she hasn’t called you back. Take the hint.”
“Stay out of this, Devlin. This is between me and my sister.”
“You mean my wife,” Rourke reminded him and there was such loathing in his voice that it penetrated even Lisa’s shock.
“That’s right. Your wife.” Derek suddenly focused on Rourke. “Is that why you don’t want me to talk to Lisa so badly? I’m sure you’re the one who’s kept her from returning my calls. Or haven’t you told her about our history?”
“The only thing I care about is you upsetting Lisa.” Rourke’s voice was flat. Deadly.
She avoided the arm he was using to shield her from Derek. “Rourke hasn’t kept me from anything. What history?”
Derek shot her a glance. “I just needed to talk to you. Try to explain. Tell you I was sor—”
“What history!” Her voice rose. Even Louis, the doorman of Rourke’s building, gave her an alarmed look from across the wide sidewalk. And she could see Tom, the intimidating night security guard, striding through the well-lit lobby toward the door.
Rourke’s hands closed over her shoulders. “It’s old news. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Right.” Derek’s face tightened. “When Taylor left you, you said there’d be a day I’d live to regret it.”
“Taylor!” Her stomach clenching hard, Lisa looked from Rourke to Derek and back again. “What about your ex-wife?”
“Well?” Derek glared at Rourke. “Are you going to tell her or not?”
She twisted out from beneath Rourke’s hands. “Tell me what?”
Rourke’s jaw was practically white. “It has nothing to do with us—”
“Taylor had an affair with me,” Derek inserted flatly. “We met when she was coming to the institute six years ago, trying to get pregnant with the kid he wanted.”
Lisa’s head felt light. Her stomach dipped woozily.
“Only it turned out that she wasn’t the one with the problem,” Derek added. His gaze was on Rourke again. “Did you want to get back at the institute for discovering the fact that you were shooting blanks all along, or did you just want to get back at me because Taylor decided she preferred my bed to yours?”
“She must not have preferred it for long,” Rourke said curtly. “Judging by how quickly she moved on from it. She’d dumped you even before the ink on our divorce decree dried.”
“Rourke’s not infertile,” Lisa inserted faintly.
Derek’s lip curled, not listening to her any more than Rourke was. “But you never got over it, did you? You took the first chance that came along to get your revenge. You married my sister. You sank so much money into the institute we might as well take down the Armstrong part and put up Devlin in its place.”
“And why did the institute need the money in the first place?” Rourke wasn’t quite as tall as Derek, but he was far more powerfully built. And when he took a step toward Derek, her brother actually took a step back.
It didn’t seem possible that they could come to blows but Rourke’s hands were fisted and so were Derek’s.
Lisa’s mind was reeling, but she quickly wormed her way between them. “Stop it!”
“Stay out of the way.” Derek’s hand started to push her to one side.
“Don’t touch her.” With one arm, Rourke scooped her out of the way as he planted his other hand on Derek’s chest. He shoved him back a solid two feet.
Derek caught himself from stumbling and advanced again. “You think I want to hurt her? She’s my sister! I’m not the one using her to get back at me,” he reminded him.
He finally looked at Lisa. “Yeah. I’ve made some mistakes. Big ones. But I’m finally getting help and facing my gambling and the drugs. I’ve been in rehab for the past two months. I’m trying to make things right again. While he—” he jerked his head toward Rourke “—is just using the situation for revenge.
“He warned me then that I’d live to regret crossing him. I never believed he’d wait all these years to prove it. But now he’s got you shackled to him. Probably convincing you to stay away from the institute, even. Keep you busy so you wouldn’t notice him taking it over right under our noses!”
“Stop.” Lisa covered her ears, though it didn’t stop the sounds of everything crumbling around her. Nausea rose in her throat and she struggled to stop it. “You’re not part of the institute anymore, Derek. You gave up that right when you nearly ruined us!”
“Everything all right, Mr. Devlin?” The security guard, looking very uptight and very large, stopped next to them. His hand was on his radio, almost as if he wished it were a weapon. “If this guy’s bothering you, I can—”
“It’s fine, Tom.” Rourke didn’t take his eyes off Lisa’s brother, not trusting him for a second. It was taking everything he possessed not to pound his fist into the other man’s face and only the fact that the weasel was Lisa’s brother was preventing him from doing just that. “Go back inside.”
Tom gave Derek a hard glare, but he finally turned on his heel and returned to the building. He didn’t go inside, however. Just stopped at the doorway next to Louis and folded his arms across his chest, clearly intending to bar Derek from the building, if the need arose.
“How’d you know I was in New York?” Lisa’s face was pale and pinched.
“Ella told me.” Derek made a face. “She said you’d been here for the past week.”
“Paul knew.”
“I wanted to see you first. Before I saw Paul.”
Lisa swayed as if the words were a physical blow and Rourke tried to reach for her again, but she held him off just as surely as she was keeping away from her brother.
His gut tightened. He should have told her everything. He’d known it and now it was too late. She’d never believe him now. “Princess, don’t let him get to you.”
She fastened her glittering gaze on him. “Then tell me none of it is true.” She made a visible effort to stop her lips from trembling. “Tell me he wasn’t the one your wife cheated on you with. That you and Taylor were never involved at the institu
te before now.”
He wished he could. And not because of Taylor, he knew. But because of the pain on Lisa’s face.
Her lips twisted at his silence. “So. That’s what it was all really about.” A tear slid down her cheek, catching the light from the streetlamp as clearly as a diamond.
And the sight of it cut through him as surely as glass.
He took a step toward her. “No, that’s not what this is about.”
She gave him a disbelieving look. “You didn’t find a whole lot of satisfaction knowing that it was his sister who was going to have to give you the child you wanted?” She waved at her brother. “The child your ex-wife didn’t give you?” Her voice cracked.
“More like the child he couldn’t give her,” Derek corrected, cuttingly. “That’s what they learned at the institute.” He gave Rourke a goading look. “Taylor wanted me to get her pregnant, you know. As soon as the test results came back confirming that you couldn’t cut it, she even suggested burying the results. Said she could pass the baby off as yours. Seeing as how the kid would probably be your only heir.” His lips twisted. “All that money to inherit. It was the one thing about you that she really didn’t want to give up.”
Lisa’s hand flashed out and she slapped her brother’s face.
Derek slowly lifted a hand to the red mark she’d left on his cheek. He looked pained. “Lisa, I just wanted you to know the truth. I’m not trying to hurt you.”
“No,” she said thickly, “you’ve done enough of that, already, haven’t you? And not just me. But Paul and…and everyone else at the institute. We would have had to close our doors if not for Rourke.”
“Are you really going to paint him as some hero?”
Lisa laughed, but there was no humor in it. Only a deep dark pain that made Rourke ache inside, knowing that Derek wasn’t the only reason it was there.
Rourke was responsible for plenty of it.
“Everybody has had secrets,” she told them both. Or neither one in particular. “But they always come out.” She looked at Derek. “If you’re really trying to get better, then I…I wish you luck. But as far as what went on with you and Taylor and the institute, obviously, someone was mistaken about Rourke.”
She slanted her gaze to Rourke. More diamond-sharp tears glittered on her lashes. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be pregnant with your baby now, would I?”
Her words jerked through him. “You’re pregnant?”
Her chin lifted. “Yes. So we can put an end to this whole charade even sooner than I’d hoped.”
His hands went out toward her, but she sidled out of his reach, holding the folds of her cape closely, protectively, around her body.
“There was no mistake.” Derek’s voice reminded Rourke that he was still there. “I saw the test results, myself. Dr. Adams was on staff then. He met with Rourke and Taylor after hours. Kept everything nice and hush-hush and off the books so nobody would suspect that the Midas-boy and his beautiful wife were having trouble in the baby department. Rourke couldn’t have gotten anyone pregnant.”
Rourke eyed the other man. He’d always wondered how he’d feel, facing the man who’d been the final ruination of his marriage to Taylor, and knew the murderous anger inside him now had nothing to do with old history. It had everything to do with the here and now. With the fear of losing the woman he’d never expected to love. “I’m going to give you twenty seconds to get the bloody…hell…out…of… here.”
“I’m not leaving until Lisa tells me to go.”
Lisa looked straight at him. “Go.”
Rourke could almost have felt a little sorry for the man if he weren’t so close to wanting to kill him.
Derek’s face fell. He nodded. “For what it’s worth, Lis, I am sorry.” Then he turned on his heel, holding his coat close around his skinny body, and disappeared around the corner of the building.
Lisa looked at Rourke. “You’re the subject in Ted’s study.” There was no question in her voice. Only realization.
His hands curled at his sides. The truth. But it was too little. And way too late. “Yes.”
She pressed her lips together. Her lashes swept down, hiding her eyes. Another gleaming tear was slowly creeping down her cheek. Her shoulders moved.
Then she suddenly lifted her head. Swiped her hand down her cheek. No longer was there an ocean of warmth in her eyes. No pain. No…anything.
Except ice.
“Then I guess you and Doctors Bonner and Demetrios all have reason to celebrate.” She swept her cape more securely around her and looked over her shoulder toward the door. “Louis—” she raised her voice so the doorman could hear “—would you please hail a cab for me?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Louis grabbed his whistle and headed toward the curb.
Rourke wanted to grab her. Keep her from going. But he feared that if he did, she would shatter. And he had nobody but himself to blame. “Where are you going?”
She didn’t so much as look at him again. “Home.”
Chapter Fourteen
“All right.” Lisa tucked her pen back into her portfolio and looked around the boardroom table at the members of institute’s management team gathered there. “Thank you all for coming this morning. Let’s all have a good week.” She smiled as everyone began filing out of the meeting, though she felt nothing.
Had felt absolutely nothing since every hopeful dream she might have felt where her marriage was concerned had died an ugly death on the cold sidewalk outside of Rourke’s beautiful apartment. She hadn’t cared about the curious looks her formal gown had gotten when she’d managed to catch a late plane home to Boston. Hadn’t been interested in the lights blinking on her message machine when she’d let herself into her chilly, dark town house.
When that morning had rolled around and she’d automatically prepared for work, arriving at the institute well before it opened, she hadn’t even worried whether or not she might run into Sara Beth.
Her body was on autopilot. Anything but focusing on what needed to be done at the institute was cordoned off in another part of her brain.
And that was just the way Lisa wanted it.
“You going to sit in here all morning and stare at the walls?”
She blinked and looked toward the doorway. Sara Beth was standing there, wearing a pair of deep blue scrubs.
Lisa folded her portfolio with a snap and pushed out of her chair. She headed to the door, prepared to walk past Sara Beth, but Sara Beth stepped right in her path. “I’m not going to let you avoid me forever,” she said bluntly.
“I’m not avoiding you.”
Sara Beth’s eyebrows shot up. “Could have fooled me.” Her gaze was assessing. “You look terrible.”
“Blame it on morning sickness.”
Sara Beth’s lips parted softly. “You are pregnant.” She couldn’t seem to help herself as she touched Lisa’s arm. “Do I give you congratulations, or—”
“Congratulate your husband and Dr. Demetrios.” Lisa stopped her before she could bring up Rourke. “Since they’re the ones responsible for it. If either one of them had been present at our management meeting, I would have congratulated them myself.”
Sara Beth’s brows drew together. “What are you talking about?”
“Ted hasn’t told you?” A tremble entered her voice and Lisa quickly plugged the trickle in the emotions she’d carefully dammed away. “About the study he and Chance have been working on?”
“You mean the sperm motility thing?”
“Rourke’s been the study subject. If their success with him can be replicated, Bonner and Demetrios are going to make this institute famous all over again.”
“Lisa.” Sara Beth caught her arm as she slipped past her. “I swear to you. I didn’t know Rourke was the one.”
“That makes two of us.” She started to turn away, only to stop. “About the stuff I said—”
“You were upset,” Sara Beth said quickly. “And my timing couldn’t have been worse.”
“That’s not true,” Sara Beth dismissed. “What about Rourke? You’ve told him?”
“Yes.” The trickle was in danger of becoming a deluge. She deliberately stepped away from Sara Beth, aiming blindly for the elevator down the hall. “I’ve got to get back to my office. I have a conference call in a few minutes.” It was a bald lie. She wouldn’t know what was on her calendar if she’d had it opened in front of her.
“What did he say?” Sara Beth trotted after her.
“There was nothing for him to say.” Not even with Sara Beth, not even now, after all the secrets, the half-truths, could she bring herself to tell her what part she’d really played in Rourke’s plan. She jabbed her finger viciously into the call button and the elevator doors immediately slid open. “He wanted an heir. He’s getting one.”
Sara Beth stepped into the elevator with her. “You didn’t tell him you loved him.”
Lisa looked up at the floor display above the door. The numbers wavered, like a wave of heat was shimmering in front of them. She blinked. The shimmer disappeared. “No point. I know exactly what Rourke wants.” Her crisp voice cracked. “It is not me.”
“Then he’s a fool,” Sara Beth said quietly. “What can I do?”
Another trickle broke through the dam. Lisa shored it up as best she could. “Just…be my friend.”
Sara Beth nodded. Her eyes were moist but her gaze was steady. “Always.”
Lisa smiled shakily. “Be my sister.”
Sara Beth’s nose turned pink. “Always.” She reached out. Caught Lisa’s hand and squeezed it.
A faint sob sneaked out of Lisa’s throat. She coughed, trying—failing—to cover it.
Sara Beth laughed, just as brokenly. “What, um, whatever happened to the birthday invitations?”
The elevator reached the first floor and Lisa dashed her hand over her cheeks, stepping out. The waiting room beyond the receptionist’s desk was already full of patients. “I dumped them back on my mother’s desk to deal with.”
The Billionaire’s Baby Plan Page 18
