Within a day, this beautiful place would be ready to host Diogo's next conquest.
Choking down her bitterness, she followed Diogo toward a waiting helicopter on a flat cliff on the edge of his estate. He barely looked back at her as they walked the hundred yards. Her knees suddenly tottered, and she stopped, hand over her mouth.
As if he somehow sensed her feelings, he turned back. He went immediately at her side. “What is it? Are you sick?”
There was no point in denying it. Not when she likely was green. “I think… I think I'm just hungry. And thirsty. I made some toast, but I didn't eat it…”
Diogo barked out orders to one of his bodyguards. By the time Ellie was seated in the plush leather seat of his Sikorsky helicopter, a maid had brought a freshly made ham-and-cheese baguette, an apple and a bottle of sparkling water.
“Have a good flight, senhora!”
The maid's respect and obvious admiration for Ellie made it clear that she thought Mrs. Serrador very grand—and very fortunate. If only the girl knew the truth!
“If you're still thirsty, there is juice and milk,” Diogo said loudly over the noise-muffling earphones. As the helicopter lifted off the ground, he pointed at a small refrigerator. “And cookies and chips and dried fruit in that box. Once we are home, Luisa will be glad to prepare you a full meal of whatever your heart craves.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, but there was only one thing her heart truly craved, and he had already turned away from her. For the duration of the short helicopter ride to Rio, he took notes on his laptop, taking business calls on his phone. How could he be so solicitous and kind one moment, then so cold the next?
Because he only cared about the babies, she realized. He wanted Ellie to be comfortable for their sake, but he cared nothing about her feelings. If he had, he wouldn't have abruptly ended their honeymoon after one night to rush back to his mistress!
All the promises his body had made her in bed, every whisper of love in his touch, had been a lie.
She stared down blindly at the passing earth as the helicopter traveled back to Rio. The jungle disappeared, the landscape became more barren. Finishing her sparkling water and apple, she leaned back against her seat and wondered again about the woman. Catia. What kind of woman could hold such power over Diogo?
For the year Ellie had worked for him, Diogo had been known as the uncatchable playboy, the man who would never, ever commit to any woman. The gossipy junior secretaries had kept a gleeful tally of his conquests. The longest record for his undivided attention was held by a Swedish swimsuit model who strutted around Manhattan wearing nothing but hot pants, six- inch heels and teensy-tiny halter tops—in December. And even she had only managed to keep his interest for eight days!
If someone like Ebba Söderberg could only last eight days, what qualities must this Catia possess, that with a single phone call she could cause Diogo to bolt across Brazil?
She had to be beautiful…that went without saying. But to capture Diogo, she would have to be more. Sophisticated. Smart. Powerful. She probably had a master's degree in business, spoke five languages, owned a company and traveled in her own jet.
And, of course, she was a wicked temptress in bed. Not like Ellie, who'd only had two nights of sexual experience in her life, both with the same man!
Catia was sexy beyond belief with a perfect figure—not like Ellie, who was rapidly gaining weight and looking lumpier with every passing day of her double pregnancy.
How could Ellie compete with such a perfect woman?
She couldn't.
Turning blindly to look out the window, she folded her arms as a rush of emotion threatened to choke her.
Obviously, she'd been delusional on pregnancy hormones to think that because Diogo made love to her, because he'd made her explode with joy, she meant anything to him at all. She'd been crazy to think that because he'd made her his wife, she meant anything to him beyond his children's mother and his own occasional bed warmer.
To him, she was just a knocked-up former secretary who'd never even finished high school, was clueless about designer clothes and had long forgotten her junior-high Spanish. To him, she was simply another possession.
Now that he'd completed his hostile takeover of Ellie, he was already bored and looking for a new challenge.
While she…
As the helicopter descended into Rio, Ellie sucked in her breath.
She was in love with him.
One day as his wife, one night in his arms, and Ellie had fallen in love with Diogo all over again. And though their life together had barely begun, already it was killing her to know that he valued her so cheaply that he would insult and humiliate her like this on the second day of their marriage.