Reckless Night in Rio (12 page)

She’d never felt so beautiful—or so adored. This ball was truly a fantasy, she thought in wonder.

Silence fell around them as Gabriel, the dashing, powerful Brazilian tycoon, led her onto the empty dance floor. Laura hesitated beneath the gaze of so many people. Then, seeing them, the orchestra changed the tempo of the music, and it was irresistible.

Within twenty seconds, other couples had joined them. By the second song, the floor was packed with people. But Laura hardly noticed. As Gabriel held her, she felt hot and cold, delirious in a tangle of joy and fear and breathless need.

He swirled her around on the dance floor, in perfect time with the music. She felt his heat through the sleek tuxedo that barely contained the brutal strength of his body, and all she could think about was the night he’d made love to her, when he’d pressed her against his desk and ripped off her clothes, taking her virgin body and making it his own. He’d filled her with pleasure that night. Filled her with his child.

Now, his dark eyes caressed her as he moved. Leaning her back, he dipped her, his handsome face inches from hers. Pulling her back to her feet, he kissed her.

His lips moved against hers, soft and warm, whispering of love that was pure and true. Promising her everything she needed, everything she’d ever wanted.

Promising a lie.

With an intake of breath, she jerked away from him, tears in her eyes. ‘Why are you doing this to me?’

‘Don’t you know?’ he said in a low voice. ‘Haven’t I made it clear?’

‘We had a deal,’ she whispered. ‘One night in Rio. One million dollars.’

‘Yes.’ He looked down at her. ‘And now I’m not going to let you go.’

She stared up at him, frozen, even as other couples continued to swirl around them in a dark, sexy tango.

‘I’m not going to let you seduce me, Gabriel,’ she said, her voice shaking. ‘I’m not.’

He looked down at her, his eyes dark with desire. He didn’t argue with her. He didn’t have to.

With a gasp, she turned and ran, leaving him on the dance floor. Looking wildly for escape, she saw open French doors that led outside to some sort of shadowy garden. She ran for them, only to smack into a wall.

Except it wasn’t a wall. A man grasped her shoulders, setting her aright as he stared down at her. ‘Good evening, Miss Parker.’

‘Mr. Oliveira.’ She licked her lips. Dressed in a tuxedo that only served to accentuate his bulk, he was drinking a martini beside the bar. Behind him, she saw the gorgeously pouting Adriana in a skimpy silver cutout dress that clung like spackle over her breasts and backside, leaving everything else bare down to her strappy silver high heels.

‘Lovers’ spat?’ Felipe Oliveira said mildly.

Gabriel appeared behind her. He put his hands possessively on Laura’s shoulders. ‘Of course not.’

Swallowing, Laura leaned back against Gabriel, feeling the hardness of his body against hers, and tried her best to look as if her heart wasn’t breaking. She forced her lips into a smile. ‘I, um, just wanted a little fresh air.’

Gabriel wrapped his arms around her more tightly, nestling her backside firmly against his thighs as he nuzzled her temple. ‘And I wanted to dance.’

Oliveira looked at them, his eyes narrowed. ‘You’re both liars.’

Gabriel shook his head. ‘No—’

‘I’ll tell you what is really going on,’ the older man interrupted. ‘You think I am stupid enough to fall for this. But if I sign those papers tomorrow selling you the company, you know what will happen?’

‘You’ll make a fortune?’ Gabriel drawled.

His hooded eyes hardened. ‘You will end this charade and be once again free to pursue what does not belong to you.’

Gabriel snorted. ‘Why would I possibly be interested in your fiancée, Oliveira, when I have a woman like this?’

The other man looked at Laura, then shook his head. ‘Santos, you change lovers with the rise of each dawn. Miss Parker is beautiful, but you will never commit to her for long. There is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise.’ He finished the last of his martini. ‘I will sell to the Frenchman.’

‘You will lose money!’

‘Some things, they are more important than money.’

Gabriel exhaled. Laura felt his body tense behind her, tight and ready to snap. ‘St. Raphaël is a vulture,’ he growled. ‘He will break my father’s company up for parts, fire the employees, scatter the pieces around the world. He will crush Açoazul beneath his heel!’

‘That is not my problem. I will not give you any reason to remain in Rio.’ Oliveira’s jowly face was grim as he started to turn away, holding out his arm for Adriana, who could barely contain the smug look on her beautiful face.

They’d lost.

Laura’s heart leaped up to her throat, choking her.

They’d failed.
She
had failed.

‘You’re wrong about me, Oliveira,’ Gabriel said desperately. ‘I can commit. I’ve always been ready to commit. I was just waiting for the woman I could love forever.’

Frowning, the older man and Adriana glanced back at them. They stopped. Their eyes went wide.

As if in slow motion, Laura turned to face Gabriel, who was standing behind her.

Except he was no longer standing. He’d fallen to his knee.

He’d pulled a black velvet box out of his tuxedo pocket.

Opening it, he held up a ten-carat diamond ring.

‘Laura,’ he said quietly, ‘will you marry me?’

Laura’s jaw dropped.

She looked from the ring to Gabriel kneeling in front of her. She looked back at the ring.

I was just waiting for the woman I could love forever.

He’d changed his mind about love and commitment? Did he want her in his bed so badly he was willing to marry her?

He smiled, and everything else fell away. She was lost in his dark eyes.

‘What is this?’ Oliveira demanded. ‘Some trick? Now she’s your pretend fiancée?’

Gabriel just looked at Laura. ‘Say yes. Make this an engagement party.’

And Laura exhaled.

All her wedding dreams came crashing down around her. This proposal had nothing to do with love, or even sex. It was entirely about business.

This
was his plan B.

Tears rose in her eyes, tears she hoped would appear to be tears of joy. Unable to speak over the lump in her throat, she simply nodded.

Rising to his feet, Gabriel kissed her. Tenderly, he placed the diamond ring on her finger. It fit perfectly. Laura stared down at it, sparkling on her hand like an iceberg. It was beautiful. And so hollow.

‘Hmm,’ Oliveira said, watching them thoughtfully. ‘Maybe I was wrong about you, Santos.’

‘You said you’d never marry anyone!’ Adriana sounded outraged.

Never looking away from Laura’s face, Gabriel smiled. ‘Plans change.’

‘But people don’t,’ she spit out. ‘Not this much. You would never marry a woman with a baby!’

Stiffening, Gabriel turned to her.

‘She has a baby,’ Adriana said spitefully to Oliveira. ‘They were seen together on Ipanema Beach. He just brought Laura here this morning, after they’d been apart for a year. Why would he suddenly decide he’s in love with a woman after being apart for over a year? It’s a trick, Felipe,’ she declared. ‘It’s a lie. He’s not committed to her. He won’t commit to anyone.’

‘I can explain, Oliveira,’ Gabriel said through his clenched jaw.

Felipe Oliveira’s jowly face hardened as he slowly turned to face his younger rival. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid you can’t. I don’t appreciate this elaborate theater you’ve performed. The deal is officially off.’

The man turned away. Laura saw Gabriel’s frustration, saw his vulnerability and the desperate expression on his face as he lost his father’s company forever.

‘Wait,’ Laura gasped.

Snorting a laugh, Felipe Oliveira glanced back at her with amusement. ‘What could you possibly have to say, little one?’

‘Everything that Adriana said is true,’ she whispered. ‘I have a baby. And I hadn’t seen Gabriel since I left Rio over a year ago. But there’s a reason why he came for me. A very good reason he’d want to marry me.’

Folding his arms over his belly, Oliveira looked at her with a shake of the head. ‘I am dying to hear it.’

Laura didn’t glance at Gabriel. She couldn’t, and still say what she had to say. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Then she spoke the secret she’d kept for over a year.

‘Gabriel is the father of my baby.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

T
REMBLING
,
Laura folded her arms.

‘Ah,’ Felipe Oliveira said, stroking his chin with satisfaction as he looked from her to Gabriel with canny eyes. ‘Now I understand.’

‘No!’ Adriana gasped. ‘It can’t be true!’

Laura’s gaze rested anxiously on Gabriel. His dark eyes were deep as the night sky. She saw him take a deep breath. Then slowly, very slowly, he came toward her. Never looking away from her face, he took her in his arms. Biting her lip in apprehension, Laura waited for his jaw to clench with fury and resentment. Waited for him to say something biting and cruel.

Instead, he gently kissed her cheek, then turned to face Oliveira and Adriana.

‘We weren’t going to tell anyone yet. But yes, Robby is my son. I wanted to wait until after our wedding to make it public. It seemed more proper.’

‘Proper?’ Adriana sneered. ‘When have you ever cared about
proper
?’

Gabriel stiffened, glaring at her. ‘I have always cared about doing what is right,’ he said in a low voice. ‘I would never leave my child without a father, without a name.’

‘And yet,’ Oliveira said, shifting his savvy gaze between them, ‘you allowed your fiancée to raise your baby alone, for all these months.’

Gabriel set his jaw. ‘I—’

‘He didn’t know about Robby,’ Laura interrupted in a whisper. ‘I didn’t tell him. It wasn’t until he came to my sister’s wedding that he first saw his son. I knew Gabriel didn’t want a family—’

‘So he always insisted,’ Adriana said resentfully.

Gabriel’s dark eyes glowed with warmth and love as he looked down at Laura, who was shivering in her red strapless gown and opera gloves. ‘But Robby changed my mind.’ He wrapped his warm, tuxedo-clad arms more firmly around her. ‘From the moment I saw Laura with our son, I knew I couldn’t part with them. We were meant to be a family.’

Laura blinked back her tears, hardly able to breathe as she heard the words she’d always dreamed of.

She’d told him the truth about Robby, and he knew it. She could see it in his eyes. Robby was his son. And this was Laura’s reward for being brave enough to tell the truth. He wasn’t rejecting her. He wasn’t rejecting their baby.

All this time she’d thought it would be so hard to tell him the truth, but it wasn’t. It was easy.

Staring at them, Felipe Oliveira stroked his chin. ‘You might be a bastard, Santos, but you wouldn’t desert your son. Or your son’s mother.’ He looked from Laura to Gabriel with a sly smile. ‘And I see the passion between you. I have been a doddering old fool to feel threatened. The two of you are in love.’ He gave a sudden decisive nod. ‘
Está bom
. We will sign the preliminary contracts tomorrow. Be at my lawyers’ office at nine.’

Gabriel put his arm around Laura’s waist, smiling at the other man. ‘Sure.’

Adriana glared at Laura. ‘You got pregnant on purpose! You tricked Gabriel into marriage!’

As Laura stiffened, Oliveira grabbed the supermodel’s arm grimly.

‘There’s only one person you should worry about getting tricked into marriage,’ he said, ‘and that’s me. I look at them—’ he nodded toward Laura and Gabriel ‘—and I see love. I look at you, Adriana, and I see…nothing.’

She stared at him, her eyes wide.

Oliveira lifted a white bushy eyebrow. ‘Our engagement,’ he said mildly, ‘is over.’

He marched off across the ballroom. Adriana’s cheeks went red as an amused titter flowed through the nearby crowd.

‘Fine,’ she shrieked after him. ‘But I’m keeping the ring!’

Oliveira didn’t even turn around. Frustrated greed filled Adriana’s eyes, and with an intake of breath, she started to push forward. ‘Felipe,’ she whined, ‘wait!’

When they were alone in the crowd, Gabriel looked down at Laura. She took a deep breath, waiting for the onslaught of questions she knew were coming. ‘Oh, Gabriel. I know we have so much to talk about—’

‘Wait.’ He glanced at the people around them, amused celebutantes and movie actors in designer clothes, rich and beautiful and dressed in sparkling, sexy gowns. ‘Come with me.’

Grabbing two flutes of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter, Gabriel pulled her through the glorious, gilded ballroom, filled with music and magic, and out a side door.

The private garden was dark and quiet. Laura looked up and saw black silhouettes of palm trees swaying against the purple sky. The night was tropical and warm, and on the wild southern coast so far from the lights of the city, she could see stars twinkling down on them.

Biting her lip, she faced him. ‘So…so you don’t mind?’

‘Mind?’ Smiling, he handed her a glass of champagne. His dark head was frosted with silvery moonlight as he leaned forward to clink his crystal flute against hers. ‘You are the most incredible woman I’ve ever met,’ he whispered. ‘Brilliant. Beautiful.’

She stared up at him with trembling lips as joy flooded her heart. ‘You’re not angry?’

‘Angry?’ His brow furrowed. ‘Why would I be angry? Because you lied?’

She licked her dry lips. ‘Yes.’

He shook his head. ‘No,
querida
.’ His expression was tender. ‘I’ve just gotten everything I ever dreamed of. Because of you.’

He drank deeply from his champagne flute, and she followed suit, her eyes wet with tears of joy. She’d never imagined he would react this way, not in a million years. What had she ever done to deserve this miracle—that Gabriel would so easily accept their child as his own? That he would be glad to be a father after all?

‘I’m so happy,’ she whispered. Smiling, she wiped tears from her eyes. ‘I never dreamed you would react like this.’