‘You are coming home with me. You are my wife.’ The feral growl of his voice served only to spike her mutinous anger even higher.
‘Only when it suits you, it seems.’
‘Don’t challenge me now, Lisa. You have just told me you are expecting my child. And that changes everything. We are married and will remain married—living under the same roof.’
Like an angry lion he stood and almost snarled out his demands and instantly she became the defensive woman she’d grown up to be. The need to fight her corner, to stand up for herself and be heard, dominated all her thoughts and she lashed out verbally.
‘You might have watched your father walk away but I will not allow that to happen to my child, not when I know what it’s like to be despised by my own father and then stepfathers.’ She hadn’t meant to let the past creep out, but as he took a step toward her, towering over her, she stood steadfast, refusing to be dominated. Ever. Not by anyone, least of all the man she’d married.
‘I’m not the only one with a past to hide, or hide behind, am I, Lisa?’
‘No, you’re not,’ she raged against him and the past she’d been trying to escape all her life. She’d thought marrying Max had finally meant that she could put all that behind her, that she could finally settle and make a home, but how wrong she’d been. The situation she had been plunged into meant she had to face that head-on. ‘But I’m not the one still running.’
The barb, laced with recrimination, hit its mark. His eyes glittered with anger but she matched his with her own. Being brought up on the wrong side of town had made her always ready to leap to her defence with anger. She didn’t need him—or any man. She was more than able to look after herself and now she would do the same for her baby, just as her mother had had to do. But with one difference. She would not be inflicting a constant stream of father figures on her son or daughter. She’d rather do this alone than risk that.
‘You think coming here today, meeting a brother I never knew I had, is running away? You think saying we will remain married—living together for the sake of our child—is running away?’ He moved closer to her, his intoxicating presence making her head swim, increasing the nausea, but she remained, tall and strong.
‘It is not a physical presence that counts. It’s more than that and it’s something you have already proved you are unable to do when you walked out on our marriage. I’m not going anywhere with you.’
As the words flew like accusing bullets from her lips the nausea took over, weakening her body. The luxury of the hotel foyer blurred and the last thing she could focus on was the Christmas tree, resplendent in gold, its lights twinkling like a thousand stars. She couldn’t hold on any longer and slipped into the bliss of soft darkness and the sanctuary it offered.
* * *
‘Lisa.’ She heard Max say her name and smiled weakly. She’d always loved the way his accent lengthened her name, made it sound so exotic and sensual, but this time there was a hint of panic.
In the depths of darkness, she was aware of her body beginning to fall but before she reached the floor Max’s arms were around her, his strong and muscled chest now a cushion for her head. She leaned against him, finally finding the will to fight the blackness as she inhaled the scent of the man she loved. The only man she would ever love. A man, by his own admission, incapable of love.
That last thought lingered in her mind like the frost that had covered the ground this morning; its chill revived her mind, her body, bringing everything once more into stinging focus.
‘I’m okay.’ She pushed against him, but his arms held her tightly. Weariness and confusion muddled her mind.
‘Is she all right?’ Another male voice, one as strong and commanding as Max’s, forced her to open her eyes.
She looked into a handsome face, one so familiar to that of the man whose strong arms now carried her to the chair she’d been sitting in only a short time ago. His brother. Her mind processed the information slowly but she knew that there could never be any doubt about that fact.
‘This is my wife, Lisa.’ She looked up at Max as his arms slipped from her, allowing her to sit in the chair again, but he stayed, crouched low, at her side, lines of anger on his face, and she wished he could look as concerned for her as his brother did. ‘Pregnancy is not agreeing with her.’
Not agreeing with her. How very dared he? He was the one who found this pregnancy disagreeable.
‘You should take her home. Call the doctor.’ The dominating male voice of Max’s brother spoke again and she looked up at him, standing over them like a demon.
‘That is precisely what I intend to do.’ Max stood up, matching his brother’s height, and Lisa watched as a silent challenge passed between them, spiking the air with tension. ‘I suggest you leave me to my wife and deal with your own issues.’
‘My issues?’ Even his voice was similar to Max’s. The same strength, the same determination. The same icy control.
‘She was crying,’ Lisa said without thinking, knowing they were referring to the woman who’d fled the restaurant earlier, and both men looked down at her. ‘One of you must have said something terrible because she couldn’t get out of here fast enough.’
Max looked at his brother. ‘As I was saying.’
Raul looked first at her then back to Max. ‘I will call you later, to see how your wife is.’
A little flicker of hope leapt to life inside Lisa. Did this mean Max and his brother were to begin building a relationship? Would it prove to Max he did deserve to be loved? It might be enough to bring back the man she’d married, the man who hadn’t been afraid to feel her love even if he’d been unable to show any in return. She’d hoped it would be just a case of needing time, but time had only closed him off from her. It had built an impenetrable wall around his heart and locked her out.
‘I’m fine now,’ she said, and looked into his dark eyes, so like Max’s.
Without another word to her or Max his brother turned and strode from the hotel; the sound of London traffic rushed in briefly as the doors opened. Then he was gone and she looked up at Max and knew that the meeting with his brother had changed him, but, from the expression on his face, it wasn’t the change she’d briefly hoped for. He was colder and far more distant than ever before.
* * *
Max watched his brother walk away. He had looked him in the eye, had assessed him and known without a doubt that his brother was as commanding as he prided himself on being. Raul Valdez possessed the same kind of character, the same depth of determination. The similarities already went much deeper than their physical likeness, of that there was no doubt.
He pushed the jumble of emotions to one side and pulled out his phone and dialled, still unable to believe he’d been told what he should do by the brother he’d only just met. He did, however, agree with him. Memories of his mother and all she’d been through while pregnant with his little half-sister, Angelina, rushed at him. Lisa would see a doctor, his doctor, and then he intended to take her to his home in the suburbs of London, even if that meant dragging her kicking and screaming.
The call connected. ‘I’d like to make an appointment for my wife, who is eight weeks pregnant and feeling unwell.’
He saw the confusion and shock on Lisa’s face as she registered what he was doing, but right now he didn’t care what she thought. All he wanted to do was ensure she was well, that the symptoms were nothing more than to be expected in the early stages of pregnancy.
The very word, pregnancy, struck through him like a sword of fear, reminding him he would be responsible for another human being for evermore, that he would have to somehow find a way past the hurt his father had inflicted on him and connect with that child. But would it be enough? Would his child grow up resenting him as he had his father?
‘I don’t need to see anyone,’ Lisa protested as an appointment time was given to him for later that afternoon.
He ended the call. ‘You will see a doctor this afternoon for a scan and that is not negotiable.’
‘Why are you doing this?’ Lisa looked at him, sparks of anger in her eyes. ‘What are you trying to prove and to who?’
‘I have nothing to prove, other than to you, it seems. You are my wife, Lisa, and now you are carrying my child so we shall live together once more. We crossed the boundary of professionalism and must now deal with the consequences.’
He watched as a myriad emotions danced across her face, sending a stab of guilt through him, but this wasn’t about the two of them any more, this was about a new life—his child.
‘I can’t do that, Max, not after you walked out on me. What happens when you feel the same again? Am I to stand by and watch you hurt our child? You of all people should understand that.’
The pleading in her voice only increased the fury that erupted like a volcano around him. Was she saying he wasn’t capable of being a father? He bit down hard on the bitter taste of the truth, knowing that was exactly what he himself had thought. There was no way he would allow Lisa to know his uncertainties.
‘We should have thought about that before spending a night together.’ He was angry at her, at himself. ‘But fate has seen fit to bring us together once more and this time it will not be so easy for either of us to walk away, not when our child needs us—both of us.’