The words hung in the air. He drew back and stared down at her. He’d heard the words, knew they’d been spoken, but couldn’t fully comprehend.
“My what?”
Her fingers came up and clenched the pendant around her neck so tight her knuckles turned white. “Your child, Alejandro. I’m pregnant.”
CHAPTER FOUR
THESECONDSDRAGGEDon, each one growing longer as Alejandro stared at her.
Nothing. Not a flicker of emotion in those dark blue eyes. A blank visage, lips turned up slightly at the corners. The perfect poker face. A moment ago he’d been about to kiss her, and weakling that she was, she’d considered letting him, just to have one more taste before she dropped her bombshell.
Her brain had come to her rescue, and she’d forced out the words that would drive a wedge between them. Yet she hadn’t expected this. Anger, shock, even a snide remark or a ribald joke. But of the myriad scenarios she’d planned for, complete and total silence was not one of them. Silence that stretched and filled the library with its oppressing presence, pushing against her until she was thrust back into the past and those terrible, awful mornings of endless quiet, save for the whisper of her mother’s labored breathing.
Say something!
One last boom of fireworks reverberated outside. Another moment of even more oppressive silence. Then music struck up once more, sultrier, more seductive.
Just like that night.Try as she might, she couldn’t shake the memory of a darkened ballroom and a handsome man with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, tan skin contrasting sharply with the white of his shirt.
The shirt she’d ripped off him less than an hour later in a passionate frenzy she’d never thought herself capable of.
Her lips thinned. Alejandro was dangerous. He brought her to the edge of control. Like now. Anyone else could have given her the silent treatment and she would have shrugged, turned and left.
But for him, she lingered. Waited. She hated it, yet she couldn’t seem to walk away.
At last, he moved. He slid his hands into his pockets, broke eye contact and looked down at the balcony.
“Huh.”
Blood pounded in her ears. She’d flown across an ocean, nearly two thousand dollars on plane tickets, a hotel room and a cab to sweet-talk her way into a party to tell the spoiled second son of a billionaire family she was pregnant with his child, and all she got was a damnhuh!
She shouldn’t have expected anything more. But she had.
In that moment, she hated Alejandro Cabrera. Hated him and his cavalier attitude, his lack of thought for anyone but himself. Common sense kept her from slapping him across the face. It would only be another display of emotions, a sign of weakness.
No matter how satisfying it would be.
Alejandro walked over to the balcony door, opened it and signaled to someone outside. Moments later, a waiter dressed in a silky black vest and bow tie appeared in the doorway, a silver tray with bubbling flutes of champagne perfectly balanced on his gloved hand. Alejandro plucked a glass from the tray and dismissed the waiter before he moved to a bank of windows. With a quick tug on a cord, the curtains fell back to reveal the sparkling lights of Paris on the horizon. The way he leaned against the windowsill, one trousered leg crossed casually over the other, glass in hand, looked like an ad selling thousand-dollar bottles of champagne.
“I’m not here for money. I’m taking care of everything.”Barely.“But she—”
“Have you picked out names?”
Calandra blinked. A simple question, and yet how strange coming from his lips.
“We’ve picked out a few.”
His head whipped around. She barely stopped herself from taking a step back at his darkening eyes.
“We?”
He uttered the word in a silky voice, but uncharacteristic anger lurked in his tone.
“My sister, Johanna.” His shoulders relaxed. “She lives with me.”
He looked back down at his drink. “So, if it’s not about money, then what do you want?”
“To do the right thing. To let you know you have a child on the way.”