There was a cough as one of the bodyguards slid open the glass door to the balcony.
Diogo turned on him with a scowl. “Sim?”
“A médica está aqui, senhor.”
Diogo's eyes were still dark as a midnight storm as he turned back to her. Clenching his jaw, he said, “The doctor is here.”
“Doctor?” she repeated, still scowling.
“Yes.”
“But I told you. My wrist is fine!”
“The doctor's not for your wrist. She's for our baby.”
Our baby. Hearing those words on his lips did strange things to her insides—made her want to forgive him anything. She desperately fought the feeling!
“Since you only just realized you were pregnant,” he continued, “I'm guessing you didn't have much prenatal care in New York?”
She shook her head. “Just a drugstore pregnancy test.”
“I thought as much. From now on, my son will have the best quality care. Letícia is coming to give you a checkup, an ultrasound.”
Letícia? He called the doctor by her first name?
Diogo suddenly smiled, and his handsome face glowed with charm. “Come. Enough arguing. Let us see our baby.”
He held out his hand, waiting.
See their baby. There was no way she could resist something like that…
Ellie reluctantly placed her hand in his. As she felt his fingers enfold her own, a sizzle went through her—not just desire, but of something more.
Completeness.
No! She could allow herself to imagine they were a family. A real family loved each other, protected each other—trusted each other. Diogo and Ellie might raise a child together, but they could never be more than two single parents….
She told herself these things, but her body wouldn't listen. As he led her inside from the balcony, she couldn't stop the feeling of rightness.
This man is for you, her body insisted. You are for him.
As Diogo smiled down at her, her heart give a strange new flutter—a sensation different from any she'd ever felt before. She marveled at the masculine beauty of his face. The bright Brazilian sunshine caressed his olive skin, haloing his black hair, making him handsome and dangerous as a shining dark angel.
“Você está pronta, meu amor?” He lowered his head to kiss the knuckles of her hand. “Come, my love. Let's see our baby.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
AS THE DOCTOR FINISHED Ellie's preliminary checkup, Diogo left the study to take a phone call.
A phone call that involved business…or pleasure?
Don't think about it. Ellie clenched her fists as she stared up at the ceiling. She knew Diogo wouldn't answer questions, anyway.
She glanced at the dark-haired, thirtysomething Dr. Carneiro, who was now preparing the equipment for the ultrasound.
Another of Diogo's mistresses?
Dr. Carneiro spread a clear gel over the gentle swell of her naked belly, and Ellie murmured, “It's very nice of you to make a house call like this.”
“I'm happy to do it,” she replied in accented English. “Anything for Diogo.”
She called him Diogo? Ellie bit her lip.
“You are a lucky woman, Miss Jensen,” the woman continued.
The fear in Ellie became intolerable. “And you know this how?”
The slender, dark-haired woman glanced at her. “Ah. You think I was his lover?” She gave a merry laugh. “I am his sister—or the closest he's ever had.”
Relief flooded through Ellie. “But I thought your last name was Carneiro.”
“It is. I'm no Serrador!” the doctor replied indignantly. “Those half sisters of his don't deserve to shine his shoes. No. My mother brought him home to live with us when he was eight. She found him shivering on the streets.”
“Your mother saved him?” Ellie blurted out. “After his own mother abandoned him?”
The doctor nodded grimly. “But he's saved all of us since then. He paid for my college. He hired my younger brother Pedro as his most trusted bodyguard. He would even have helped Mateus, if he'd been willing to leave the favela.” She sighed. “But my older brother is too proud. He refuses Diogo's help.”
Carneiro. The same name as the leader of the men who'd attacked Ellie in the favela. “I…think I might have met him.”
Dr. Carneiro looked sad. “Diogo will win him over eventually. It took him years to win Pedro's loyalty, but Diogo never gives up. He funds my free clinic which helps thousands of people every year, people in desperate need of care. New mothers. The elderly. Sick children who would die without the medicine he provides.” She looked at Ellie. “You are fortunate. Not all men are so honorable—or so strong. And after what happened at Christmas—”