weeks.”
Alejandro dropped the book on the table and raked a hand through his hair. Dios. If this baby were really his, how could he go through it again? How could he live each day wondering if it would be the day his baby would die?
He thought of his precious Anya, of her little body turning blue, the trip to the emergency room, the frantic efforts to revive her. Her eyes haunted him to this day. He would never survive it a second time.
Hurricane-force emotion whirled inside him. Which was the easier to digest? Rebecca sleeping with another man so soon after she’d left him—which would require the doctor to be wrong about the dates—or the knowledge her baby was his and might very well be vulnerable to the genetic defect that took Anya’s life?
Solving the baby’s parentage would be easy enough to do. She knew it as well as he did. Which meant she was telling the truth. He went over to where she sat on the couch, her expression one of hurt and misery. She tilted her head back to look up at him.
He would not be moved by what he saw in her face, no matter than he wanted to drop to his knees and gather her in his arms. “You said you were taking the pill. Did you lie about that? Did you get pregnant on purpose thinking it would gain you Layton International?”
She shot up from her sitting position, but he was too quick for her. Grabbing her wrist, he prevented the slap she tried to deliver. Her blue eyes reflected hurt and surprise. Awareness shot through him at the contact of skin on skin, though it was only his hand on her wrist. He wondered if she felt it too. What would she do if he lowered his head and kissed her?
He wanted to. The compulsion shocked him.
She jerked free and moved out of his reach. “You can be so vicious, Alejandro. Why do you always need to think the worst of people? Sometimes things just happen.”
He rolled a shoulder irritably. Her barb hit too close to home. “I’m a wealthy man, querida. It wouldn’t be the first time a woman thought to gain advantage by claiming I’d fathered her child.”
Her jaw went slack as she gaped at him. He could see her processing his words. Imagining children scattered across the world.
“I have had one child, Rebecca, in spite of what you might think. Fatherhood is not a responsibility I take lightly.”
Her lips closed in a firm line. “I’m glad to hear it, for our baby’s sake. But I am—was—on birth control. It was a new prescription that obviously didn’t do the job it was supposed to do.”
He took his phone from his pocket and called the airport, giving instructions to ready his jet for takeoff.
“What are you doing?” Her voice sounded strained. He ignored her. “Alejandro.” The sound was sharper this time.
He pocketed the phone and prepared to do battle. “We are returning to Madrid. Tonight.”
She folded her arms beneath her breasts. He ignored the arrow of heat knifing into his groin. Had her breasts gotten fuller?
Sí.
As if she wasn’t beautiful enough already. Need washed over him. To strip her slowly, to lick his way from nipple to nipple, to drop lower and taste her before thrusting hard into her—Dios, he very much wanted to do all these things, and often. For a month he’d thought of almost nothing else. Then she left, and he’d still thought of little else.
She had more of a spell over him than he cared to let her know.
“Have a nice flight,” she said with a little wave. “Glad you could stop by.”
He bared his teeth in a smile he knew she couldn’t mistake for a friendly overture. “I do not use the royal we, Rebecca. You are coming with me.”
She paled. “No. You aren’t taking this baby away from me, Alejandro. I’ll fight you with everything I have.”
“And what would that be, mi amor?” He stalked closer, satisfied when she backed away. He was too furious to play games with her. “I have more money and resources at my disposal than you could ever hope to muster in a year of phone calls to all your former contacts. You will accompany me.”
Her throat worked. “Why are you doing this? I have a job in London, I have a life—”
“Your life is with me now. You will pack a suitcase, inmediatamente, and come with me.”
“This is America, Alejandro. You