The Billionaire's Baby Bargain (A is for Alpha) (22 page)

Andrés spun back to her, the look in his eyes a mixture of wild fear and despondency. “No, Chloe. You know that—”

“What, that you can’t love me back?” she bit out on a sob, helpless to stop the tears that spilled down her cheeks. “Why? Why can’t you take that risk? And why can’t you let me love you?”
 

His nostrils flared and he gripped her arms, giving her a shake. “Because nobody’s ever loved me. Not my family and not you.”

“You’re wrong,” she whispered, her heart aching at his obvious pain and anger. She covered his hands with her own and met his hard stare. “I love you, Andrés. Do you understand? I love you.”

His jaw hardened. “No. You love believing in fairy tales. And you need to realize they are not real. They don’t come true.”

“Sometimes they do,” she pleaded, tears filling her eyes. “If you let them.”

Something flickered in his eyes, something that may have been hope. But then it was gone and his gaze was once again shuttered. “You need to grow up and stop being so damn naïve.”
 

Chloe blanched; felt the color leaching from her face and hope fading from her heart. “Maybe I’m naïve, but you’re a hypocrite,” she said brokenly. “You make love to a woman you will not love. And I say will not, because you can love, Andrés. You just refuse to let yourself.”
 

“
Basta
.”
 

“If you can’t love me,” she pressed on, “can’t love anyone, how can you possibly love our baby?”

Andrés’ face grew ashen as he shook his head. “Chloe, stop—”

“No, you stop!” She jerked away from him and scrubbed a hand across her cheek to wipe away the tears. “I hoped things might be better being your wife, even if you blackmailed me into this marriage. You’re my husband, the one man who’s supposed to love me unconditionally. I can’t…I can’t live like this, Andrés. Please, if you have any mercy, if you can’t love me or even accept my love, let me go,” she whispered, touching the slight swell of her stomach. “Let the baby and I both go.”

“I can’t. Damn you, I can’t,” he ground out and curled his hands around her shoulders. He lowered his head, capturing her mouth in another thorough kiss, forcing the response she was helpless to withhold.

When he lifted his head, Chloe was again breathy and weak in the knees but undeterred from her convictions. It wasn’t enough anymore. It would probably never be enough.

“Yes, we want each other,” she admitted sadly. “You’ve proven that again and again. But in the long scheme of things, I just don’t think that can sustain us.”

He stared down at her, his gaze full of unease and frustration. “I’m sorry, Chloe, but it will have to be.” With a shake of his head, he set her aside and strode from the room.

She’d taken a chance and it had backfired horribly. He didn’t love her. Would never love her. Chloe slid down the wall with a sob and wrapped her arms around her knees, letting go the rush of tears.

Andrés leaned his head against the leather seat of the Rolls-Royce and glanced out the window as they pulled away from Diablo’s Paraíso. He was exhausted. Physically and mentally.

A week had passed since he and Chloe had returned from Paris, and in that time so much had happened.
 

When they’d arrived back at the villa, confirmation was waiting that Estella Martinez had indeed been requiring the employees at the resort to flirt heavily with the guests. Further investigation had led to the discovery that at least two employees had even begun to sleep with guests for extra cash on the side.

What a mess. He pressed the tips of his fingers to his temples and shook his head, trying to put aside the memory of having just fired Estella from her position as manager of Diablo’s Paraíso. She’d been viciously angry, defending her policies and how they’d only created success for the resort. The woman was mad to think he would ever allow such sleaze to continue.

His thoughts turned to his wife. So sweet and sensual, who drove him beyond reason. Chloe made him want to feel things he refused to. There was an innocence about her that was rare and incredible and that time and again he looked for an excuse to try and doubt it. Because of his father and his own experience with women, he’d been so damn quick to convict her without taking the time to weigh the evidence.
 

Andrés closed his eyes with a sigh.
Cristos
, he was a bastard. And somehow, still, she’d managed to fall in love with him. His heart clenched with a mix of amazement and fear at the reminder.

Every night since Paris he’d taken her in bed, almost ruthless in his determination to prove that their passion would be enough to sustain a marriage.
 

But he’d watched her with each passing day, and though at night she came alive in his arms, during the day she was a ghost of herself. She barely ate and had shadows under eyes that seemed to be forever swollen from crying. And he’d begun to realize it wouldn’t be enough. Not for Chloe.

When the Rolls-Royce pulled up the drive to his villa, the first prickle of premonition hit him that there was change about.

Andrés climbed out of the car, slowly approaching the house. The air outside was cool, the skies dark and ominous with the threat of rain. Before he could reach the door it swung inward, illuminating Chloe and the small suitcase she clutched in her hand.

“I’m leaving,” she said unnecessarily, her eyes void of expression. “If you want to try and take our child after it is born, I’ll fight you in court with every penny I have. Maybe I won’t win, but I’m willing to take that risk. I can’t live like this.” Her voice finally cracked. “I won’t.”

But she didn’t move, just stared at him, as if daring him to stop her. Or maybe begging silently for him to say the words he couldn’t speak.
 

Andrés stared down at her. Helplessness and frustration gnawed at his gut. And regret. He’d done this to her, had made her life hell. He’d tried to keep her, knowing how much she believed in finding love. Knowing that he could never be the one to give it to her. She’d given him everything. Her trust. Her body. Her heart. And what did he give in return? Not the one thing she’d needed most.
 

Swallowing hard against the emotion that grew tight in his throat, Andrés jerked his gaze away to look out at the fierce gray clouds gathering. Their darkness and misery matched the mood in his heart. The thought of letting Chloe and his child go made every muscle in his body scream in protest, set his blood pounding with denial.
 

But for once in his damn life, he was going to try and do the right thing. After everything he’d done to her, she deserved to be happy. He owed her that much. He drew in an unsteady breath and looked back at her.

“Go, Chloe,” he said tonelessly, welcoming the numbness that settled in his heart. “I’ll have the papers drawn up for a divorce.”

She made the tiniest sound of anguish; her small teeth clamped down on her lower lip. Giving a brief nod, she stepped forward and leaned on her tiptoes to press one last kiss against his cheek.
 

“I’ll always love you, Andrés,” Chloe whispered brokenly. “Goodbye.”

Andrés didn’t turn around as she walked past him to the Rolls-Royce. He was frozen, emotionally and physically, even while his heart pounded a tumultuous ballad of grief that she was leaving.
 

He listened to the car door slam shut and then the purr of the engine starting. Soon after came the crackling of tires on the paved drive.
 

Chloe was gone.
 

Almost climactically, thunder boomed through the Catalonia countryside, shaking the house and dragging him from his numb shell.
 

He turned to watch the car disappear, just as the first fat drop of rain hit his face. Followed by another. And another. Soon the rain was falling in merciless sheets of water.
 

It didn’t penetrate in his mind that they were having the first massive rainstorm in months until he was drenched. Then consequences of what would soon follow such a rain in this region began to sink in.
 

The pain in watching Chloe leave blasted away as the icy grip of fear and realization clutched his chest.
 

No.
Dios
, no!

He shook his head, his mouth bone-dry with horror as he spun and ran into the house to grab the keys to his Land Rover—the fear of God instilled in him.

Chapter 11

It took everything in her power for Chloe not to beg the driver to turn around.
 

Tears streamed down her face, blurring her view as much as the rain pounding the windows of the car.
 

Why was she leaving him? Was she completely insane? Surely being with Andrés, even if he didn’t love her, was better than going home to Seattle and completely cutting him from her life?

She moved her hand over her belly, feeling the small weight of their child nestled there, so innocent and unaware. And being taken farther away from its father with every passing moment.

When she’d made the decision to leave, she’d been hopeful Andrés would force her to stay again. Or would finally break down and admit that he loved her. But he hadn’t. He’d actually let her leave. Her heart clenched and she wondered again if she was making a mistake.

“
Dios
mío
,” the driver muttered.

Chloe glanced up when the Rolls-Royce slowed. “What’s wrong, Felipe?”

“
Esto no es bueno, Señora
.” The driver shook his head. “The rain, it comes too fast and the road is going to flood.”

Her pulse quickened as she scrubbed the tears from her eyes and tried to focus for the first time out the window. The streets had become a wave of brown from the rain and the deteriorating land around them.

The need to turn around consumed her. Not just for their safety but because suddenly she knew, with every fiber of her being, that leaving Andrés had been the wrong decision.

Maybe living with a man who didn’t know how to love would be hard, but living without him would be agony. And still, the conversation in the foyer from the other night gave her hope. He didn’t believe himself worthy of love, but he was wrong. Heaven help her, she would prove it to him.

But first they had to turn around and drive back up the hill to the villa.

“Can you turn around? Return us to Andrés’ villa?” she asked quickly, the first seeds of fear burrowing themselves in her chest.

“I tried, but it does not look good,” Felipe muttered. “We must get out of the car,
Señora
Montero, and try to get to higher ground.”

“Is that wise?”

“It is our only hope now.”
 

Her heart almost stopped when the gravity of their situation hit. She’d seen news reports about people and cars getting swept up in flash floods, led to their death. But the idea of getting out of the Rolls-Royce and trying to cross the street—which had become several inches of rapidly flowing water—had her almost frozen with terror.

“Now,
Señora
!” Felipe screamed, pushing open his door and stepping out into the water.

Chloe grabbed the handle of her door and thrust it open. The roar of the water greeted her as the rain ruthlessly pelted against her face.

“
Señora
!” Filipe yelled, trying to move around the car to her, but the rushing water kept pushing him back. “
No.
I can’t get to your side. ¡
Corra
! Run toward the hillside,
Señora
!”

The water continued to rise. Chloe knew with each second that passed, the more dangerous it would be. Oh God, if anything happened to her baby…

Thrusting aside the almost debilitating fear, she took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, and then pushed herself out the door.
 

Andrés pressed the accelerator to the ground, plowing through the water that rushed down the dirt road. He dragged in uneven breaths, his chest tight with terror. His heart slammed against his ribcage; his pulse pounded with adrenaline.
 

Flash flooding wasn’t uncommon in Spain around this time of year, and especially around the area he lived, where there were more dirt roads than paved ones.

If he had been thinking straight he would’ve realized there was a storm coming and the risks that could follow. He would have forced Chloe to stay at least until the danger passed. But he wasn’t thinking straight. He’d been so tormented with the pain of her leaving that he’d been blind to anything beyond watching her drive away.

What if something happened to her? To the baby?
Dios
, he would never forgive himself for driving away the woman he—

Andrés tightened his fingers around the steering wheel, blinking in shock at the thoughts running through his head. No. Could it even be possible?
 

But whether he’d thought himself capable of it or not, he knew now without a doubt that he was in love with Chloe. Whether he deserved her or not, he loved her.

The sudden awareness of his feelings just hastened his need to find her. Forging through the water on the road, which was deeper now, Andrés steered the car around a corner. And that’s when he saw the car.