Martinez's Pregnant Wife

* * *

Max’s world rocked violently. Not for the first time today he was unable to utter a single word in either English or his native Spanish. He’d thought she’d come to ensure he would sign the divorce papers, to tell him she’d moved on, had a new lover, but her words still ricocheted through him. Lisa was pregnant? His estranged wife, the woman he’d turned his back on, was carrying his child? A child he hadn’t wanted, a child he wasn’t ready for, not when everything from his past was thrusting into the present with the force of a tidal wave.

He focused his attention on the woman he’d married, the woman he’d never be able to love after learning at a young age that such emotions hurt. His mother had loved his father and that had hurt her—badly. He’d loved his father and when he’d walked out it had almost ripped him apart. He could still hear his harsh parting words echoing from the past, taunting him with the one thing he’d steadfastly refused to acknowledge since that day.

Never forget you have Valdez blood in your veins.

Ever since then he’d tried to forget. He’d been resolutely determined to have nothing to do with the might of the Valdez banking family. He’d been entirely successful until a lawyer had contacted him, informing him of his father’s death. Then his half-brother had done the same and now the whole sorry mess was splashed over every damn newspaper.

He pushed his childhood memories back, but didn’t take his eyes off Lisa as she stood there, holding her nerve, those green eyes locked with his. She was more than a match for him. The only woman he’d ever known who didn’t hang on his every word, didn’t simper and giggle in an act of coyness. Lisa was real and honest. She’d grounded him, made him believe he was worthy of more than one-night stands. Then she’d told him she’d had a job offer in America and he’d known he couldn’t let her walk away, that he had to try and open up to her, to love her.

That was why he’d married her, but very quickly he’d realised that had been a mistake. A big mistake. They didn’t belong together, they should never have married and he cursed the weakness of his desire for this redhead, which had driven him to make her his wife.

Finally he found his voice. ‘Pregnant? What about the pill?’

He couldn’t be a father. He didn’t want to be a father, didn’t want to take the risk that he’d be the same as his father, that the Valdez legacy would rear its ugly head. Now it had. In more ways than he could believe possible.

Lisa was pregnant. From one careless night. How could she calmly stand there and tell him as if it were just one of those things that happened?

‘I think you have some explaining to do.’ He growled the words at her, annoyed at her reluctance to say anything else.

She pulled out a chair and sat wearily at the table and he could clearly see just how pale she was beneath her make-up. Unease and worry threatened but he pushed them savagely away, along with the fear of the past, as he sat opposite her. She clasped her hands in front of her on the table. His gaze lingered on her long slender fingers and the glitter of the diamond engagement ring and band of gold he’d placed on her third finger over a year ago. She still wore his rings? Why, when the divorce papers he hadn’t yet signed were on his desk at home? Had she put them back on once she’d realised she was carrying his child?

‘We had a lot of wine that night, Max. I guess suffering the after-effects of that had an effect.’ She paused and looked at him. ‘It wasn’t something I even considered until I realised that I could be pregnant.’

Did she seriously think he’d buy that? Too much wine? ‘A few glasses of wine?’

‘It was more than a few and you know it.’ Her hot retort fired back at him, much more like the Lisa he knew, then she blushed, the colour bringing life to her cheeks. ‘I was ill after I left.’

He narrowed his eyes as he replayed that night in his mind and then the morning after. He recalled how his head had been splitting in two, how every noise had made him wince, especially the slam of the door as Lisa had left. He’d made several cups of coffee that morning before finally being able to drink one. She was right. They had drunk far too much wine. Or had that been a cover up for the sudden defrosting of his estranged wife? After all, she hadn’t needed much persuasion to return to his bed.

Max put one elbow on the table and pressed his hand over his eyes. Could life get any worse? He’d discovered a family he’d never known of, or even had any desire to know, after his father’s death. Now it was being played out through newspaper headlines, but, worse than any of that, he’d created a new generation to add to the Valdez family. One he did not want.

He looked down at various copies of today’s newspapers spread out on the table before him. Each headline different, but saying the same thing. He looked again at the newspaper on the top. His throat tightened as he read the headlines again. Bold black words screamed from the page, hurtling him into a past he’d rather forget, colliding wildly with a future he didn’t want.

Billionaire’s Illegitimate Heir Found!

‘Max?’ Lisa’s question sounded far off and he fought to get himself back under control, to be in charge of a situation that was escalating with alarming speed.

He couldn’t speak, couldn’t say anything to her, not after the way she’d deceived him—tricking him into being a father.

‘Max? What is it?’ She reached out and slowly pulled the newspaper round so that she could read it. He looked up and watched her lashes lower as she read the headlines, annoyed that his thoughts rushed back to the times he’d watched her sleep. To the morning, just moments before she’d left him. How could such a beautiful and beguiling woman be so deceitful? How could she do this to him? And why now?

She looked up at him, her soft green eyes full of shock. ‘This is about you. You have a brother?’

He pressed his lips firmly together. ‘A half-brother.’

In the same day he’d found his connection to Raul Valdez, the billionaire banking tycoon, had been plastered everywhere, he’d been told he was to be a father. Was he in the middle of a nightmare? If he opened his eyes would it all go away?

‘And you never knew?’ Lisa looked at him and he was certain she hadn’t known any of this. He could see so many questions in her eyes but was grateful that she didn’t ask them now. Hell, he didn’t even know the answer to any of them himself. All he could think about was that he’d done exactly what his birth father had done. He’d created a child he didn’t want.

‘No, but that is not important now. We need to discuss the baby.’ Saying that word made it so real it came out in a growl of harshness and he saw her sit back away from him as if he were the devil himself. He hadn’t wanted it to sound so cruel.

‘There is nothing to discuss.’ She pushed back her chair and stood up, forcing him to look up at her. ‘I’m going to have your baby, but you needn’t worry, I won’t make any demands on you whatsoever. You made it very clear when you walked out on our marriage that any kind of commitment is very much off the agenda for you.’

‘Sit down, Lisa.’

‘No.’ She buttoned up her coat and he knew if he didn’t get this right, didn’t say the right thing she would walk out on him—again. Only this time she would take with her his child, a child that would grow up wondering where in the world its father was and why he didn’t want them in his life. He knew only too well what that was like and didn’t want that pain, that rejection for his child.

‘We need to talk about this. Sit down, Lisa.’ Anger simmered in his voice and he bit down hard, stopping himself from saying anything else. Something that would make this even worse than it already was. He needed to sort things with Lisa, then he could deal with the other avalanche that had crashed into his life. His brother.

‘Why? So that you can tell me it’s not what you want and walk away from me again?’ The truth of her words stung. Just as the truth of the headlines smarted like salt in an open wound.

He wanted to demand to know why she’d let this happen, why after living apart yet working together professionally she had agreed to have dinner with him, turning it into a date, then a one-night stand. Inwardly, he savagely cursed. He’d been the one to invite her to dinner, the one to suggest that avoiding each other wasn’t professional. After all they were both shareholders, both had a stake in the club. Neither of them could just walk away.

‘I don’t want children and this is why.’ He picked up the newspaper and shook it, anger making his movements sharp. ‘It’s all here.’

‘You are not the only one to have had a bad childhood, Max.’ His gaze snapped to hers and the one and only time they’d discussed her childhood surfaced from his memory. The way she’d told him she’d hated the family arguments, especially at Christmas.

‘My point exactly.’ His reply was swift.

‘I am having this baby, Max, and, as I said, I expect nothing from you.’ Her chin lifted and her eyes glittered with defiance.

‘So you think you can just arrive here, today of all days, and tell me I am to be a father then walk away?’

‘The timing is bad, I admit.’ Her voice softened slightly, snagging at his senses, pulling at his conscience. ‘But I am having this baby, Max.’

‘And I intend to be there for my child, no matter what. It will not grow up thinking I cared so little I walked away.’ As he spoke he knew that it was the one and only thing he was certain of at the moment. If his brother wanted nothing to do with him and Lisa hated him, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was to be a part of his child’s life. But to do that he would have to be a part of Lisa’s life. He pushed the paper at her, stabbing coldly at the image of the father he could barely remember. ‘I will not be this man.’

* * *

‘No, Max, it’s not possible, not when you have already made it clear you don’t want me in your life.’ Lisa stepped back from Max, away from the temptation of reaching out to touch him, to go to him and soothe his pain. He was dealing with two life-changing things in one morning, but, from the cold expression on his face, neither had made any great impact other than to make him angry. He didn’t want a brother or a baby.

‘There wasn’t a baby involved then. My baby.’

‘And that changes things?’

‘You’re damn right it changes things.’

He glared at her and the sensation of being in control, of being able to drive the situation how she wanted, vanished as he looked at her. Only a small distance separated them but right now it felt like an ocean. Deep and unnavigable.

‘No, it doesn’t.’ Her life-long instinct to protect herself and stand up for herself, to fight her corner, kicked in. ‘I’m doing this on my own.’

‘No.’ That one word thundered around the room and she blinked in shock. She’d never seen Max so angry. Would she have told him about the baby if she’d known his reaction would be this bad? Yes, the answer fired back into her mind. She didn’t want him turning up when the child was older as her father had done, creating hell in an already dysfunctional family and giving her false hope of being wanted, of being rescued from the latest stepfather, a spiteful older stepbrother and uncaring mother who seemed only to want to make her feel useless.

‘What do you mean, no?’ she demanded hotly, the pain of her childhood almost too much in the emotional state she was in.

‘I mean we will remain married.’ He paused as his expression hardened further and she braced herself against what was to follow. ‘And we will live as a married couple.’

‘No. I don’t want to.’ Anger made her irrational. ‘I want a divorce.’

‘Divorce is not an option now, Lisa.’ His words had calmed, become laden with iciness. His expression was severe, his eyes dark and watchful.

She lifted her chin. ‘It is the only option for me.’

‘Not for me.’ Those words were hard and forceful.

‘Why?’ The response blurted from her as if it had been catapulted across the room. He didn’t flinch at the accusation firmly loaded within it.

‘Because I will not be the man my father was.’ His mood softened and he moved toward her, the man she’d fallen in love with showing through the tough façade like an echo of a ghost. ‘I will not abandon my child because it doesn’t fit in with my life.’

All her past pain from her childhood melted away and her heart went out to him; the pain was so clear in his voice. Whatever had happened she’d loved this man, even if he’d destroyed that with his coldness that morning two months ago. She had once loved him enough to marry him and promise to be there for him in good times and bad. Didn’t that count for something?

Marriage for ever was something she’d dreamt of as a young girl, yearned for as a young woman, and then she’d met Max. He’d swept her off her feet, made her feel special, wanted and very much desired. He’d never told her he loved her, no matter how many times she’d said it to him, but when he’d asked her to be his wife, that hadn’t mattered. She’d had enough love for both of them.

Only she hadn’t, she thought as she watched him press the pads of his fingers over his eyes in an uncustomary display of inadequacy. Her heart lurched as she weakened. This was her baby’s father, the man she’d fallen in love with, the man she’d married.

‘I understand why you are saying that,’ she said more softly now as she moved closer, physically bridging the gap if not emotionally. ‘But we shouldn’t make any decisions now. Not until you have met your brother. This is too much to deal with in one go.’

‘You’re right,’ he said firmly and looked up at her. ‘First I will meet my brother and then we will sort this out.’

He made their baby sound as if it were a little mistake that could be swept to one side, but she kept her nerve, hid her pain and looked him in the eye. ‘So when are you going to meet him?’

‘He’s here now.’ The curtness of his reply shocked her as much as what he’d said.

‘Here?’

‘No, in London. We have a meeting planned for today.’

‘And he thought it would be a good idea to blast it all over the British papers on the very same day?’ Furious loyalty suddenly sprang up inside her and she couldn’t keep the spike of venom from her voice. What kind of man would do such a thing?

‘I’ve read it over several times and I don’t think he is responsible. He would be dragging his own name through the dirt too. He’s been accused of blackmailing a woman into an engagement. Maybe by meeting him I will discover just who is responsible for this.’ He picked up the newspaper again and glared at it.

‘So you are going?’ She frowned at what he’d just told her, the puzzle over who would gain from leaking such a story taking her mind from her own problems.

‘Yes, but first we have things to sort out.’

‘What things?’ She curled her fingers together; the engagement ring she’d picked out with such enthusiasm and hope for the future cut cruelly into her palm as it turned on her finger. Was that a sign they were doomed? Whatever duty and honour kept them together?

‘Our marriage. How we are going to make this work.’

‘Our marriage is over, Max.’ She didn’t dare mention that once she’d loved him so much she’d thought nothing could ever change that. If she mentioned the word love now it would push her over the edge, even if it didn’t do that to him.

‘Not until I return the signed papers saying I agree to the divorce and right now I have no intention of doing that.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘YOU HAVE TO AGREE.’ There was a hint of panic in Lisa’s voice and Max realised how much work he would have to do. Whatever Lisa had once felt for him, it was gone. Maybe she even hated him. But what of the passion of that night two months ago? Didn’t that count for something?

‘You are expecting my child, Lisa. What kind of man would I be if I didn’t contest the divorce?’ The words were out before he’d had a chance to check them, to rationalise the deeper level they came from.

The door to the bar burst open and a group of office workers entered on a rush of cold winter air, their revelry matching the season but not his mood. He glanced one last time at the newspapers, the image of the father he hadn’t seen for years and that of the brother he’d never met staring up at him. That particular problem would have to wait.

He pulled his heavy wool coat on, his eyes meeting the question in Lisa’s green ones. ‘We can’t talk about this here.’

‘There is nothing else to talk about.’ The passionate retort fired hotly back at him as the group of men and woman laughed loudly at their private joke. This was not the place to have such a discussion.

Max moved toward her, inhaling her perfume, its light floral scent taking him far from the coldness of winter in London. The determination to do what was right by his child made his words sharper than he intended. ‘That is where you are wrong, Lisa. We have a child to talk about. Our child.’

‘A child you don’t want.’ This time her hot words were barely above a whisper.

He looked at her, the rising noise levels of the lunchtime crowd now arriving only increasing his anger, his frustration that she was so hell-bent on pushing him away, out of his child’s life. ‘A child I hadn’t planned on ever having, but that will not stop me from being a father.’

Anger at the way his father had so willingly turned his back on him rushed from the past, threatening to drag him back into the pit of hell he’d lived in as a teenager. All those doubts, the questions, the hatred and the overwhelming sense of worthlessness swirled around him. In one breath it made what he had to do completely clear and in another it clouded it completely.

‘Let’s get out of here.’ He took Lisa’s arm, ignoring the startled look she shot at him as he propelled her toward the door.

Outside the cold winter wind, as it whipped wildly around them, the hint of snow wrapped up in it, matched his mood. He sucked in a deep breath and, still holding Lisa’s elbow, marched across the car park toward his car. He pressed the remote and the orange lights flashed as the car unlocked.

‘You can’t just march me out of here and bundle me into the car like a troublesome package.’ She lifted her chin and looked at him, the wind snatching at the glorious red hair, reminding him yet again of the morning two months ago when he’d woken to find her in his bed.

Why the hell had he given into lust then? Why hadn’t he been able to control the wayward desire and walk away before things had got heated?

Because it was Lisa.

‘So you’d rather discuss our marriage, our child, against the backdrop of an office Christmas lunch?’ He let go of her arm and shoved his hand deep into his coat pocket, taking away the temptation to prevent her from leaving. If she turned and walked away, left him standing here like the young boy who’d watched his father leave, then he’d know it was all over. He’d know that there was no point.

Lisa didn’t move. She stood proudly looking up at him, a haughtiness that was born out of the hurt he’d caused her when he’d told her their marriage was over, that he didn’t love her. ‘So where are we going?’

‘My apartment.’

He saw the shadow of doubt enter her eyes, obliterating the angry spark, then her delicate brows lifted gently. ‘Your apartment? Can’t we talk here?’

‘In this freezing wind?’ He opened the passenger car door for her then stood back. ‘We need to sort things out, Lisa.’

‘Very well, but nothing is happening between us again.’

Her insistence almost made him smile. ‘I think enough has happened already, don’t you?’

As she slipped into the low sports car he tried to eradicate the memory of those long legs wrapped around him. Now was not the time to be carried away by lust, but he would have to be careful. As he manoeuvred the car out of the car park and onto the road, joining the busy afternoon traffic, he ignored the fact that Lisa was the only woman who’d made such control impossible. The only woman who had affected him like this.

* * *

Lisa looked around the apartment she hadn’t been in for months, the memories of her foolhardy expectation of love and happy ever afters almost mocking her from every corner. It felt strange to be here, to be following Max across the polished wooden floor as if the last year hadn’t happened.

But it had.

Nothing could erase those words he’d said to her, the admission that he didn’t love her, never had and never would. Just as nothing could erase the fact that after one reckless night they had created a new life. A baby that would join them together for evermore, whatever the outcome of this discussion he was so insistent on.

‘I should have thought,’ he said as he turned from hanging up his coat, waiting to take hers. ‘This maybe wasn’t the best place. I could have been a little more sensitive.’

She frowned at him, knocked off balance emotionally by the sudden show of consideration. Was it possible that he cared for her still?

‘This is far from neutral territory and not the best place to make a deal.’ The hint of his Spanish accent had deepened. It tugged at her heart, unleashed memories of happier times and she instantly went into defensive mode.

‘We are not making a deal, Max. Our child is not something that can be bartered over.’

‘I’m aware of that.’ He took her coat from her, the warmth of his fingers brushing against hers, sending a shock wave of heat through her. He’d felt it too, she was sure. His eyes had widened, the darkness of his eyes holding hers. Tension had stretched between them, only breaking when he once again spoke. ‘But this has to be settled.’

‘We both know we can’t remain married, so I don’t see any other option but divorce.’

He turned and walked away from her and she watched him, watched the rigid line of his shoulders as he looked out over the river Thames. She couldn’t move even though somewhere deep inside her she wanted to, wanted to go to him, tell him she loved him that it was enough for her. But it wasn’t. She’d tried that.

‘I grew up in Seville.’ He turned to face her and she wondered where this was going. They’d never really discussed their past, their childhood. They’d always lived for the moment, which had suited her perfectly.

‘So how—?’ She stumbled over the question that came to mind after having read the story in the newspaper. ‘Your father?’

‘How did he have two families and neither knew about the other? Because my mother and I were in Seville and his other family, his wife and legitimate son, were in Madrid. It’s only now I realise why we moved to Madrid when I was a young boy, why my mother thought it best to leave behind her family and follow him—my father.’

She blinked a few times and took a deep breath as a wave of nausea threatened. ‘I hope my child never goes through anything like that.’

The words were out before she could stop them. The pain of her childhood blending with the hint that his had been far from filled with love and happiness.

‘Then we want the same things, Lisa. A happy home for our child.’

She turned from him, frowning as questions cascaded over her like a torrent of floodwater. He made it sound as if he wanted to give them a chance, to build a happy marriage for their child, but how could that be when she knew he didn’t love her and, worse, that he didn’t want to be loved?

The heels of her boots made a soft tap as she walked away from him, excruciatingly aware of his gaze following her, taking in every move she made, as if he could read every question, every doubt she had and was preparing his answers, his arguments.

She turned and looked at him. ‘We don’t have to remain married to give a child that.’

He walked toward her, long strides that brought him far too close to her. ‘We owe it to our child to try.’

Her heart ached. He’d said nothing about them. She shook her head slowly. ‘No, Max.’

He touched her cheek, the palm of his hand warm, and she sucked in a deep breath. ‘We had something good once, Lisa, something that brought us back together and created a child—our child.’