There was a frozen second of astonishment as they stared at each other, then Lottie’s eyes moved from the hand that gripped her forearm to the darkening face of the man it belonged to. Instantly dropping her arm, Rafael stepped back, pushing the ruffled hair away from his forehead.
‘I’m sorry. Forgive me.’
‘Rafe? Whatever is it?’
Throwing back his shoulders, he fixed her with a penetrating stare.
‘Okay, Lottie, if you must know I will spell it out for you.’
His voice was harsh, but the anguish and pain held deep in his eyes sent a shiver of alarm through Lottie.
‘The fact is that, as of four weeks ago, I am no longer able to father a child. You and our frozen embryo are my only chance of ever producing an heir.’
CHAPTER TWO
‘YOU CAN’T EVER have children?’ Lottie stared at him, her face a picture of horror.
‘Correct.’ Rafael remained where he was, his feet firmly planted, his arms behind his back.
‘You are...infertile?’
‘I think we’ve established that.’ He glowered at her. ‘And, before you let your imagination run away with you, that’s all it means. Everything else is working quite normally, thank you.’
Lottie flushed. He had, of course, read her mind perfectly.
‘But why? How?’
‘I’ll spare you the details, but basically the tree that saved my life prevented me from being able to produce another. A bizarre twist of fate, I think you’ll agree.’
The flush turned into an exaggerated wince. Lottie simply didn’t know what to say. She could only imagine the devastating effect this must have had on Rafael. Not to mention the physical pain at the time.
‘But is it permanent? I mean, won’t it heal? Or isn’t there some medical procedure that can make it right?’
‘It would seem not.’ Rafael shifted his position, alerting Lottie to the fact that she was staring at his groin. ‘Believe me, I have explored every avenue.’
‘Oh, Rafe.’ Suddenly Lottie was rushing over to him, flinging her arms around his neck and hugging his unyielding body. ‘I’m so sorry.’
Picking her arms from around his rigid neck with a look of distaste, Rafael let them drop by her sides and took a step back. ‘It’s not your sympathy I am looking for. It is an arrangement of a much more practical kind.’
Lottie gazed up at him, eyes wide with concern.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she repeated, her mind still struggling to take in this shocking disclosure. ‘This must be very difficult for you to come to terms with.’
She put a hand out to touch him but he moved out of her reach, crossing his arms in front of him to form a barrier.
‘Have you talked this through with anyone? Had any counselling? You mustn’t keep it all bottled up inside.’
‘Pah!’ Rafael gave a derisive snort. ‘I do not need counselling, thank you, what I need is a solution to the problem.’
No change there, then; Lottie didn’t know why she had even asked the question. She stared at the proud, haughty man who stood stubbornly a few feet away from her. Here was someone who would rather die than give in to his emotions, whose approach to any problem was to get it fixed and move on, rather than take time to grieve or heal.
‘Sometimes there is no solution, Rafe. You just have to accept it.’
‘Of course there is a solution,’ he bit back, ‘and it lies with you.’
So this was it, then. The reason she was here. Not to sign divorce papers, to end their marriage, but as part of a last desperate attempt by Rafael to provide a Revaldi heir. Lottie bent her head, covering her eyes with her hand as she tried to order her thoughts, formulate some sort of response, explain to him that, no matter how deeply she felt for his predicament, she simply couldn’t do it.
‘I realise that you hold all the power,’ Rafael cut in quickly, hurrying to fill the empty silence before Lottie could say anything negative, ‘and that puts me at a disadvantage.’
Power? Disadvantage? Why was he talking like this? As if it were some sort of business merger instead of the birth of a baby, the creation of a new life that should be born of love and commitment and caring. That explained the suit, she thought suddenly. Rafael was simply trying to broker a deal.
‘I will agree to your terms, Lottie. Anything. Just say the word and it will be yours.’
‘No, Rafe.’ She had to stop him now, before this got any worse.
‘If it’s a question of money...’
Too late. Lottie felt heat rising up her neck, sweeping across her face, as the hideousness of his suggestion took hold.
‘Stop it!’
She was starting to shake with a mixture of outrage and sadness—sadness that he could get her so wrong, that he had never understood her at all.