by Olivia Gates
She sighed, led him to her couch, pulled him down with her. “You wanted Megumi to break the engagement.”
“There is no engagement. He’s seen her exactly five times in the past nine weeks and never alone. He’s with you all the time. But when she told her father that, he told her it’s expected that men like Raiden would have a mistress.”
She winced at the word mistress, and the fact that now Megumi’s father, the man who’d become Raiden’s adoptive father, knew about her. But from his nonchalant reaction, it meant Raiden had known what he was doing when he’d started being open about their affair. He’d realized his uncle wouldn’t care, that it wouldn’t jeopardize his marriage adoption. As she hoped nothing would.
She hadn’t given it any thought in the tumult of last night, but now she did. She knew her pregnancy would change nothing, nor did she want it to.
But maybe Hiro had just delivered the best news. If Raiden’s uncle didn’t care, maybe she could remain in Raiden’s life as she’d suggested before her pregnancy had been discovered and the subject had been dropped. She could be with him at least until she started to show. Having a mistress was one thing; having a pregnant one was another. One of the main reasons he was getting married was to have heirs—the legitimate kind. An illegitimate child would be a problem to any man, as illegitimacy was a huge issue here. But for someone in Raiden’s sensitive position, being so newly added to such a noble family register, it would be untenable.
But no matter what happened, it was enough for her to be carrying his baby. His baby.
The fireworks of disbelief and jubilation went off in her blood again.
She’d been shocked, then incredulous, then so frantically elated, she’d shut down again, unable to handle the surge of hope and happiness. Becoming pregnant had been so impossible in her mind, she’d disregarded all the very definite signs of pregnancy she’d been having. But what had been the height of her hopes in the past, and what she’d long given up on, had really come to pass. Antonio might consider it was a physical fluke about her that made this pregnancy possible, and far better, viable, but she preferred to think her love for Raiden had healed all her scars. She also thought maybe fate had finally seen fit to make it up to her, with a miracle whose joy would erase everything she’d ever suffered.
“Scarlett?”
She blinked, and Hiro’s worried face filled her vision.
She’d melted back on the couch as she’d continued her giddy musings. And giddy also described her physical state. She must be looking as dizzy and nauseous as she felt. She hoped she didn’t vomit in Hiro’s presence. Again. She’d done so last week and had thought she was coming down with something, had even made the oblivious comment then.
She struggled to sit up. “Sorry for zonking out on you like that. Seems that bug I caught is tenacious.”
“I know you’re pregnant, Scarlett.”
Her smile froze and her mouth dropped open.
“I’ve seen all the signs during the past two weeks. You vomited, you couldn’t bear the scent of my aftershave though I didn’t change it, nothing tasted the same to you and your perception of warmth and cold had nothing to do with the actual weather.”
She shook her head, stunned. “Wow, you sure know your pregnancy signs and symptoms.”
“I have sisters and ten nephews and nieces. I know everything there is to know about pregnancy.”
“I guess there’s no point in denying it. But I can trust you to keep my secret, right?” She elbowed him playfully.
“Actually, you can’t.”
Her mouth hung wide again. “Huh?”
“That’s what I’m here to confess.” Hiro’s agitation ratcheted with every word. “I wanted to expose Raiden, to corner him into doing the right thing by Megumi and by you. I went to Megumi’s father with my discovery, and I was...loud. I think everyone in his office heard me. It was long after I left that I realized I’d exposed you, too, and betrayed your trust. I still hoped nothing would come of it. Then I woke up this morning and saw it, rushed here to at least explain before you did.”
Her heart seemed to hold its beat. “Saw what?”
“The news of your pregnancy all over the newspapers and the internet.”
* * *
It had been two hours since Hiro had left. She was still sitting where he’d left her. All she’d done since had been reaching for her tablet to check the tabloids.
And it was all there, complete with a thorough photo documentation of all of her appearances with Raiden. The feverishly gossipy articles dissected their torrid affair, and ended with the speculation she’d been having about the possibilities in their future, just in outlandish versions. One article hypothesized that Raiden would convert to a religion that would legally allow him to practice bigamy.
All in all, it was an unqualified disaster.
And its shock waves must have reached Raiden by now.
In fact, it must have reached him long before now. So why hadn’t he contacted her? She had to see him at once to figure—
“Scarlett.”
Raiden. Here. As if she’d summoned him.
She turned her head so suddenly, the world spun again and she slumped back on the couch. He rushed from the wide-open door and swooped down on her, looking exactly as she imagined herself to look. Harassed, unsteady and nauseous.
Not that he could be physically nauseous as she was, but he must be sick to his stomach with the developments.
Before she could say anything, apologize for the trouble this would cause him, he caught her head in both his large hands, hitting her like his namesake with an enervating bolt of craving. He claimed her lips in a devouring kiss that mimicked his latest overriding possession.
She’d become a puddle of longing by the time he pulled back to sear her in the roiling emotions radiating from his gaze and every pore of his body. Then he spoke, and every supporting impulse in her body gave way.
Catching her in a fierce embrace, he repeated what he’d just said, every word expanding inside her until she felt she’d burst with the enormity of it all.
“I love you, Scarlett. I’ve always loved you, and I will love you to the day I die.”
He’d said it again and again before she could at last vent a measure of her shock. “Oh, God, Raiden...you do?”
“What did you think our magical five months were about? And the five years I didn’t even think of having another woman? And the past miraculous eight weeks, with their heaven-sent outcome?”
“I—I didn’t think, I just loved you, just wanted to love you...and loved every second with you.”
“You didn’t know I loved you in the past? You didn’t feel me working up to ask you to be with me forever?”
“I—I thought you loved Hannah, who didn’t exist.”
He ran his fingers through her hair, his eyes a blaze of sincerity. “I only ever saw you, whatever name you used or whatever facade you wore. You admitted that you were always yourself with me, and I already told you it was you I felt, you I wanted. But I never confessed completely. Now I am confessing. I will never again hide an iota of what I feel for you. I love you. I worship every breath you take. You’re everything to me, my darling, everything. You and our miracle child.”
She closed her eyes, wanting to trap that image of him as he looked at her with his whole being, the tremor of truth vibrating through all of him, as he confessed his equal and total involvement.
Then she opened her eyes and she felt as if she’d been born again. Born to a world where she didn’t have to be alone, but had the love of the only person she’d ever loved with everything in her, with all of her past and future, her strengths and scars.
“Now I want you to do something for me,” he said. “Without questions.”
She grabbed his hands, her heart ricoc
heting in her chest with alarm at the darkness that tinged his face and voice. “You know I’d do anything for you.”
“I want you to leave Japan. Today. I want you to pack your essentials and go back to the States. I’ll pack everything else for you once you give me an address to send it to.”
She gaped at him, her mind shutting down, unable to reconcile the purity of his heartfelt confession with his sudden demand for her to leave.
Had he just confessed his love only to tell her he could no longer afford to have her near? She’d always thought his desire for his family name and heritage was the most important thing to him, that she’d end up losing him sooner rather than later. But after he’d told her she was everything to him, and she believed he meant it, what could his abrupt demand mean?
“Do you trust me?” His clipped question cut through her chaos.
She did, with her life, and now the life of their baby. Whether she’d ever be in his life again... That was what she didn’t trust.
He repeated the question, more urgent and agitated, and she nodded weakly.
“Then trust me now. Trust that I love you, and that I’ll do anything for your love. For our love and our child. Trust that without a single second of doubt...and leave. Now. Please.”
The entreaty for an explanation congealed in her throat. She had to trust he had the best reason for jump-starting her heart, which had been smothered in despair, only to rip it out of her chest by tearing her from his side so abruptly.
She hung limp in his arms as he helped her to her feet, then fetched her stuff and fitted it over her shoulder.
“Steve is waiting outside. He’ll be with you all through. Take this phone. Call me the moment you board the plane.”
Her hand trembled around the phone he’d pushed into it. Then he stood back, deprived her of his warmth and touch. She almost heaped to the ground without his support.
But he nodded for her, imploring her to go. Numb, she acquiesced, stumbled away from him to the open door, found most of her colleagues out of their offices, hanging in the corridor, openly watching. They must have witnessed the whole episode. And no doubt documented it, too. It might already be on the internet and trending on some social media site.
Uncaring what they did, or who saw this, feeling destroyed, even more than the first time she’d walked away from him, she turned to take what felt like her last look at him.
Raiden. Her only love.
He was looking back at her as if she’d taken his heart with her and was dragging it away from his body.
Though he’d made it sound as if she’d definitely see him again, that this was merely some emergency damage-control maneuver he had to execute, she felt this was the end.
Saying goodbye in her heart, because hope was more mutilating than despair, she turned and walked away from him.
Ten
Raiden watched Scarlett walk away unsteadily, passing through her colleagues, feeling as if his life force was draining out of his body with her every receding step.
Now that everyone realized this was for real, that he’d just sent her away, their yammering curiosity turned to vocal concern. Some strode by her side, anxiously asking if they could help, if she needed anything. The way she waved away their interest and offers of help told him she was barely holding herself upright and together. He wanted to roar for everyone to leave her alone, but had to stand there and suffer every heartbreaking second of her disappearance.
The moment he could no longer see her, he turned away, struggling with the tears that surged from his depths. He didn’t want one of those people catching a photo of him in this condition. It might undermine all he was trying to do.
Getting his phone out, he called Steve, went over the details of the next few days. The specific bodyguards assigned to Scarlett’s constant guard duty, the protocols they’d follow, the hourly reports they’d relay to him and everything else that ensured she’d have security no head of state ever had.
Afterward, he stood there, in the office that was no longer hers, waiting for Steve to take her away from him, struggling not to run out after her, come what may. Letting her go was the hardest test of his control ever.
But he had to do it. He had to make the Yakuza think he’d given her her marching orders. And he had to do it where people would witness it and run to make it public knowledge.
He didn’t know how long it would be before the plan he’d concocted with his brothers worked, and worked perfectly. And the next two weeks, until the date of his supposed wedding, were the most dangerous time for Scarlett to remain here.
After the threat had been made, her continued presence, especially now that her pregnancy was a widespread scandal, would be considered a direct danger to the Yakuza’s interests, and a flaunting of their displeasure. The Yakuza might consider both transgressions worthy of a disciplinary strike.
He’d hoped he could have only explained why he couldn’t risk her staying even the night here. But all he’d been able to do was tell her how he felt, promise her forever, even as he begged her to leave. He’d hoped she’d believe him, in her heart at least, until he could explain more. And that her stunned confusion as she’d walked away would convince anyone this was an abrupt and permanent separation.
Now he’d wait until she was out of even his bodyguards’ earshot to call her on the secure line he’d given her and explain. He was taking no chances she might be monitored now, since he couldn’t be. He had to convince the Yakuza he had complied.
But he wouldn’t fully explain the kind of danger he was protecting her from, couldn’t bear causing her even more agitation. But at least, until he resolved this situation, she was safe.
Yet even he, with his unlimited resources, knew there was no way to keep her perfectly safe for more than a few days without imprisoning her, and alerting her stalkers to the fact that they were on to them. So those days would have to do. He and his brothers had a brief window of time to bring this to a permanent end.
Needing to put the last touch on this scene, he walked out. The office denizens flocked around him as they would a rock star, asking him questions as the paparazzi would.
Once outside, he finally acknowledged he wasn’t walking alone, turned to them and gave the statement he knew would travel around Japan in minutes afterward.
Every lie cut him deeply, but he forced them out with what he hoped was a smile of nonchalance and not a grimace of agony.
“Regretfully, Ms. Delacroix won’t be back. But she will continue her excellent work remotely until her projects are up and running. As for her pregnancy, it was a false alarm. And yes, my wedding is still in two weeks’ time.”
A dozen voices rose with a dozen questions, but this time he waved them away and entered the other limo waiting for him.
As they drove away, he put up the privacy barrier and sagged back into his seat, counting the minutes before he could call Scarlett again. After that, he’d begin counting the seconds until he could see her again.
And this time remain with her forever.
* * *
“This damned plan is taking forever!”
Raiden’s vicious growl was followed by a minor crash.
He’d startled the flight attendant placing his meal in front of him out of her wits, making her drop the tray.
Gritting an apology and waving away her attempt to put things straight, he turned a blind gaze out of the window of his private jet, trying to rein back the constant boiling inside him. Not even the martial arts techniques he’d perfected had managed to bring him a measure of relaxation. He was spira
ling out of control.
“It’s been only two weeks.” Numair’s calm response through the phone line only poured fuel on his fire.
“That’s temporally speaking,” Raiden bit off.
“I wasn’t aware there was another parameter we can measure time with.”
“Phantom, attempting wit on me right now might cause me that stroke you all keep saying I’m trying to give myself.” He paused for a second then almost shouted, “I don’t care how long it’s really been. It’s been longer than my endurance.”
“Your endurance lasted two seconds after she left.”
He opened his mouth to blast him back with something, then closed it. For said endurance had been depleted before she’d left.
Numair was also right. Logically speaking, it hadn’t been too long. Though the combined might of his brothers was mind-boggling, it couldn’t have possibly taken them less than two weeks to untangle and reroute the web of interests, to tie all loose ends and to put all safety measures irrevocably in place.
But his brothers had already done that. It wasn’t until the wedding invitees had filled the ballroom hours ago that Numair and Richard had given the signal that all danger was over. Hashimoto had then walked in to announce the cancellation of the wedding. Raiden had followed his speech, apologizing for the last-second change of plans and assuring everyone dinner and entertainment were still on. Then he’d hurtled out of the hotel and onto his jet heading to New York. To Scarlett.
Then damn Numair had called him after takeoff to tell him to come back, or at least not to go to Scarlett, and wait in New York until he told him he could see her. Numair claimed they weren’t finished yet, and that he’d jumped the gun.
Numair insisted that they had yet to put on the finishing touch, what would have everyone willing to kill each other to keep Scarlett and their child safe.
Now everything inside him snapped. “Finish this, Numair. Kill whomever you have to kill and finish it. And don’t say I have to wait again. I can’t. And even if I can, I already called Scarlett and told her I’m on my way. And I won’t disappoint her again. I won’t. Do you hear me?”
