by Olivia Gates
Before she could muster an explanation for those words, Rafael spoke and ended her fumbling efforts.
“Destroying him anonymously will do, as well.”
“Stick with your original plan, Numbers.” That was Raiden. Deceptively suave and even more deadly for it. “Once that guy is rotting in prison, you can walk up to him and tell him it was you who put him there. He wouldn’t be able to do anything about it or say anything to anyone.”
“Actually, your original plan is nothing compared to your new one,” Numair said. “Landing his daughter, making her spill his secrets, is your best weapon yet. Right after the wedding, you can use it to strike him down and be done with it.”
“Then you can tell him,” Raiden added. “With his daughter in your bed and at your mercy, he’d keep silent forever.”
Graves cracked a harsh laugh. “You, my boys, have no idea what kind of land mine you’ve just tripped over here.”
Their voices kept coming closer. It was only when she found herself on the threshold of the room where her life had once changed forever that she realized she’d walked in on them.
They all rose as one. Dismay was the one thing she saw in their eyes. Something made her seek Rafael’s last. Dread that she’d find confirmation in them. And that was exactly what she found.
“You want to destroy my father?” The voice that croaked out of her didn’t sound like hers anymore. “You ‘landed’ me to bring down my father? That’s why you’ve been milking me for information? Why you’re marrying me?”
“Eliana, no...” He stopped, swung toward the others. “What are you waiting for? Get the hell out.”
Raiden and Numair looked at him as if he’d gone mad. Then, with no trace of their earlier dismay, they regarded her stonily as they passed her on their way out. It was only Graves who looked almost as apologetic as he did.
Once alone, Rafael neared with the caution he’d use to approach a frightened gazelle. “I’m sorry you heard that.”
Numbness spread. “That’s all you have to say?”
His lips thinned, his jaw hardened more. “I would have given anything for you to never know that. Especially now.”
“Now? That’s your only problem? That I heard it before your plans come to fruition? That’s the only reason you’re upset? Because now that I’ve heard them, they won’t?”
“I didn’t want to upset you.”
“You want to send my father to prison, but you don’t want to upset me?”
His eyes, the eyes of the man she’d loved with every fiber of her being till minutes ago, sparked with danger. “Your father deserves whatever I will do to him. But I wanted to spare you as much as I could.”
And it registered at last. The blow of realization. What rewrote the past ten weeks, explained them far better than what had seemed too good to be true. Because it was.
This was the truth.
The ice that encased her started cracking. “Everything we’ve had...from the first moment...it was all a plot. A lie.”
“No.” He hauled her to him. “That first night was all true. I didn’t realize who you were until I saw you with him.”
She tore out of his embrace. Unable to go far, she slumped to the ground by the couch where they’d shared their first intimacy.
Swearing harshly, Rafael swooped over her, swept her up into his arms and sat down on the couch with her on his lap. Unable to push away again, she lay limply against him, tremors racking her body.
“That’s why you walked away,” she choked. “Then you realized you could use me...and came back as soon as you had another plan in place. Everything ever since...a lie. Everything.”
His arms convulsed around her. “No, Eliana. Everything between us was real. Is real.”
Her head rolled weakly over his shoulder, her eyes refusing to meet his, tears beginning to fall. “I can see it all now. Everything that didn’t register at the time. I always sensed something in you—a calculation—but I couldn’t find any reason you’d be playing me. I would have never been paranoid enough to imagine it was never me you wanted, but just a weapon to use against my father.”
“It was always you I wanted.” Gripping her head, he tried to make her look at him. She finally did and tears flowed thicker. He looked exactly like the man she loved. That man who didn’t exist. “I never intended to use you against him. And the only calculation you felt targeted your father.”
“Now it all makes sense. The...viciousness I felt from you toward him. And I kept rationalizing it so I could be with you. And I ended up giving you everything you needed...to destroy my father.” The first sob tore out of her. “All an act...”
He squeezed her tighter. “I never acted with you.”
“I don’t believe...anything you say...anymore.”
“You have to. Eu te amo, Eliana—I love you and that’s the only truth. And when you remember everything we had...”
“I do...remember.” Her every word now got hacked in two, the pain unbearable. “Every touch...and word...and look. And they’re all tainted with...what I now know.”
His hands roamed her face and body, as if he’d wipe away what she now knew. “That’s shock talking. You’re just angry.”
Sobs caught in her lungs, almost tore them apart. “I’m not...angry...I’m...destroyed. You...destroyed me...Rafael.”
“No... Deus, Eliana, don’t say that. I would never hurt you. I only care about you, about us.”
“There is...no...us.”
“There is nothing but us. My plans for your father have nothing to do with us. Nothing. And after our wedding...”
It finally hurt enough. It made her lurch out of his arms, tumble onto the couch, pushing against him as if he burned her. “You...think I’ll go ahead with the wedding...as if nothing happened? As if you’re still the man I loved?”
He burst to his feet, his frustration pummeling her. “If this had happened a month after the wedding, I would have already secured you, us.”
This made tears and sobs stop abruptly. “If we’d been married ten years, it would have still ended things between us.”
Stabbing his fingers through his hair, he exhaled heavily. “I can see I’m not talking you down but just making it all worse. But I swear to you, Eliana, we have nothing to do with anything I ever planned for your father. I never lied to you about my feelings, and I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Then prove it. Don’t hurt him.”
The fire went out in his eyes, that terrible, terrifying ice impaling her. “Your father has to pay.”
And she wailed, “Pay for what?”
His face became an opaque mask. “It’s nothing to do with us, Eliana. Nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me. He’s the most important person in my world.”
His eyes flared again. “I thought that was me.”
“I don’t even know who you are anymore. But I know who he is. He’s the man who’s been there for me every single hour since I was born. He’s my father.”
She pulled at her finger in a frenzy, almost pulling it out of its socket. By the time she yanked his ring off, she was panting, weeping, shaking all over.
“Put my ring back on your finger, Eliana. Now.”
Holding his volcanic gaze, she let the ring drop to the pristinely polished hardwood floor.
For one last moment, she looked up at him—the most incredible dream of her life, who’d turned out to be its most devastating nightmare. And said goodbye.
“If you’re my father’s enemy, you’re my enemy, too.”
Staggering around, she stumbled out of the room. Out of his mansion. Out of his life.
Where she’d never truly been.
Ten
Crumpled on a bed in some hotel, Ell
ie lay like something broken and discarded, the storm of misery buffeting her.
She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d told Rafael he’d destroyed her. He’d crushed something inside her. Her belief in her judgment, which balanced her, which she depended on to guide her through life. He’d done so once before only to heal it, then boost it to no end. Now he’d crushed it again, irrevocably this time, along with everything beautiful and hopeful inside her.
Just hours ago she’d been on top of the world, secure in the love of the man she adored, pregnant with his baby, and a couple of weeks away from marrying him. Now everything lay in ruins at the bottom of the hollow shell she’d become.
Everything had been a lie.
But how had she ever believed it had been real? The more she thought back, the more she remembered how he’d made her give him every detail of her father’s work, the clearer it became that she’d always been a means to an end to him. And this made sense. That she’d been just an instrument to him. How had she ever believed a man like him could love her like she loved him? Hadn’t she already known that he was too much for her?
Then the avalanche began again.
Every second from the moment she’d laid eyes on him, every memory, so brutal in clarity, so heartrending in beauty, blasted holes in her heart. The cascade strengthened with every snippet of remembrance, decimating her self-worth, submerging her in humiliation. Every word she’d uttered, admiring and believing in him; every glance that hungered for him and adored him; every liberty she’d begged him to take with her body, with her being; every surrender and trust she’d bestowed on him, certain he’d treasure it.
The damage would only spread, deepen, until there was nothing left of her but ashes. And it had all been for nothing. She’d been nothing to him. Worse than nothing. She’d been the knife he’d been honing to stab her father with.
She could only be thankful he’d broken that knife before he had a chance to use it.
Suddenly, she bolted upright before slumping back, faint with the hours of soul-tearing weeping...and with true terror.
For her father.
Rafael was too powerful, could be—was—ruthless. Whether he wielded her as a weapon or not, there was no stopping him.
If only she could find out the reason for Rafael’s enmity, she might find a way out. But she’d seen it in his eyes. He was never telling her why.
There was only one other possible source of info.
* * *
“Are you sure it’s only a stomach bug?”
That was the fifth time her father had asked her that question inside five minutes. That had been the one thing she could think of to explain how horrible she looked.
Ellie nodded. “The worst of it is over.”
Her reassurance did nothing to allay his anxiety. After her mother had complained of what they’d thought digestive troubles, which had turned out to be terminal cancer, her father had been a full-blown, worst-case-scenario worrywart. All her life, he’d been obsessed with her health.
“Daddy, please answer me.”
She’d asked if he’d ever committed any serious indiscretion. He’d thought she was asking because she didn’t believe untimely decisions were the only reason for the trouble his business was in. He really had no clue Rafael was after him or why he would be. At least this reassured her she wouldn’t discover she didn’t know her father, either.
Her father sagged down beside her on the couch, his unseeing eyes scanning the expansive living room, which was furnished in warm earth colors and had perfect panoramic views of the Atlantic.
He’d given this villa to her mother as a wedding present. She’d been the one to decorate it, and he hadn’t changed a thing since. He’d been loath to come back for years after her death. Now it seemed it was where he found his only comfort.
“I’m sorry I never worked up the nerve to tell you, Ellie. I didn’t want to lose your respect.”
Heart pounding painfully, she squeezed his hand. “I’ll never love you any less, Daddy. Just tell me.”
A ragged exhalation. “After those losses hit me hard, I did some tax evasion to compensate, and everything got twisted out of all proportions. Now it’s gone from bad to worse and I might declare bankruptcy soon.” He dropped his head in his palms. “Oh, my little darling, I’m so sorry, but I have to confess something else. I was actually feeling desperate enough to ask Rafael for help. I know you don’t want to ever mix your marriage with business, but I was thinking it would be child’s play for Rafael to solve all my problems.”
While tax evasion was bad, it didn’t warrant Rafael’s cold-blooded plan of revenge. She didn’t believe her father could do anything to warrant it. But this was clearly a dead end.
Rising to her feet, she bent to kiss him. “Next time, promise you’ll tell me everything so I can help before things snowball into a huge mess, okay?”
After her father promised, and she reassured him that they’d see this through, he saw her to the door, totally oblivious to the danger he was in and the devastation in Ellie’s life.
Back at the hotel, she fell into bed, her mind churning as exhaustion dragged her under into tumultuous darkness.
She had to seek Rafael again. It was all in his hands. Everything was.
Her world, her being...her destruction.
Rafael. Always Rafael...
* * *
Warm power rejuvenated her drained body; delicious fire roamed her aching flesh. Sighing softly, she drove deeper into the solace, a moan of longing on her lips.
“Rafael...”
“Si, meu amor, si...I’m here, I’m yours.”
The pledge felt like a resurrection, after the death her spirit had suffered.
Her eyes fluttered open. The phantasm had Rafael’s face, his body, his hunger...and it—he...
He was really here!
Suddenly drowning, her body violently lurched against his, as if kicking up to a surface that didn’t exit.
“Don’t push me away, meu alma...”
And they overtook her, every agony and bitterness and desperation, burning from her depths and gushing from her lips on racking, uncontrollable heaves.
Lost in the tumult, she felt Rafael carrying her to the bathroom, securing her in his infinite strength as the misery overpowered her. He held her, kissing and soothing her. Finally collapsing against him, empty and depleted, he stretched her in his arms on the floor, kneading the muscles that had almost torn with the violence of her retching. Then ridding her of her soiled clothes, stripping himself, he took her into the shower.
He held her up beneath the warm cascade, caressing and coddling her with such gentleness and patience. At last, he took her down on the floor of the shower, and the potency that had planted the miraculous seed of life inside scorched a furrow in her buttocks. He made no sensual overtures, his touch bolstering, not arousing, his body pressed to hers only to transfer his vitality into her. Yet the unwilling bliss she felt at his ministrations caught fire. Her insides cramped, clamoring for his occupation.
As always, in tune with the slightest nuance of her needs, he adjusted her position over his lap, pressing the wide crown of his erection against her opening. Her body melted, inside and out, her thighs splayed wider in submission.
Holding her eyes, hunger and entreaty and determination mingled in his. Reading her capitulation, he flattened her breasts to his chest, flexed his hips and forged inside her. Her flesh fluttered around his hardness, delight searing from every inch he stretched beyond its limits. Once buried inside her, he stilled at the gate of her womb. Twisting his long-healed hand in her wet hair, he withdrew so agonizingly slowly.
He whispered as he thrust back, his voice the deepest, darkest spell it had ever been.
“You’re mine, Eliana. Mine to pleasure. Mine to protect.
Mine to love.” He nudged her very heart. “Mine.”
That was all it took. Her core spasmed over his hardness in the exquisite scalding of release. Baring his teeth, a harsh hiss flayed her cheek as he unleashed his pleasure inside her, marking her, mastering her, intensifying her orgasm. She shook against him, eyes clinging to his as he finished her.
Long after she lay in his arms quivering, body replete, heart shattered, he gently withdrew from her depths, then finished cleaning her. Taking her out of the shower, he dried her off and carried her to bed.
Gathering her in his arms under the covers, he kissed her all over her face, his caressing hand moving down to her belly. “You’re carrying my child.”
She huffed weakly. “Whatever tipped you off?”
His gorgeous lips twitched. “The morning sickness fest just confirmed it...but I’ve been noticing changes in your body.” He tasted her nipples, sent pleasure forking through her to lodge in her womb. “Those delights are becoming thicker, darker, and they give you even more pleasure when I do this.” He suckled each hotly, had her arching helplessly, surrendering her flesh to his mastery. “You’re also more responsive, when I thought that impossible, igniting into a conflagration much more quickly.”
“That’s just your overachiever self. You taught my body to expect more pleasure each time, until you had it perpetually ready to go off at a touch.”
Her confession was rewarded by a look of supreme male satisfaction before he rose off the bed, knowing what the sight of his arousal would do to her.
Striding into the bathroom, she heard him rustling around. Then he rejoined her, took her hand and slipped his ring again on her finger.
Looking down at her, he pressed her hand to his heart. “You’ll never take my ring off, never leave my side again. I let you go only so you could calm down, but I won’t let you do this to yourself. Take your anguish out on me, never on yourself.” At her miserable silence, he gritted his teeth. “Weren’t you going to tell me about the baby?”
“Don’t you know me at all?” she countered.
