Pregnant By The Ceo. Kate Carlisle
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she lifted the tray full of all the dirty dishes, whiskey and brandy bottles and small plates of half-eaten desserts.
“What did he say to you?”
Rafael’s voice was harsh behind her.
Louisa almost dropped the tray as she whirled around. He took the tray from her grasp and set it back down on the stone table. His gray eyes flashed.
“What did Novros say?” Rafael demanded in a low, dangerous voice.
She shook her head, frowning in confusion. “Nothing.”
“You’re lying. I heard him speak to you. Did he offer you a job?” He grabbed her wrists and suddenly the expression on his handsome face was so hard and full of repressed fury, she felt afraid. “Did he offer you something more?”
Bewildered at his strange reaction, she shook her head. “No.”
“Then what?” he demanded.
She swallowed. “He didn’t make sense.”
His grip tightened on her. “Tell me,” he ordered.
She whispered, “He offered me a million dollars for my brownie recipe, then when I wouldn’t, he just said…‘Good for you.’”
Rafael’s jaw clenched. His impossibly handsome face looked like stone in the moonlight.
“Do you know what he meant?” she asked.
With a coldly furious expression, he shook his head.
She licked her lips nervously. Why was Rafael acting so angry? She felt a lump in her throat, a nausea right beneath her ribs.
He wouldn’t release her wrist, and a hard knot of anger grew in her own throat. She thought she’d known him—known all his faults. But she’d never seen Rafael so dark, so altogether brutal.
Ripping her hand away, she demanded, “Why are you acting like this?”
“You know why,” he growled.
Grasping at straws, she asked, “Did something happen to your business deal, Mr. Cruz?”
His lips twisted into a harsh, ironic smile at the Mr. Cruz. “An interesting suggestion. It’s always about money to you, isn’t it?”
He wasn’t making any sense—any more than that Greek man had! Louisa’s hand tightened into a fist as she picked up the wet, dirty towel she’d been using to scrub the stone table. She took a deep breath. “Miss Lepetit is no doubt looking for you.”
“Miss Lepetit,” he ground through his teeth, “is gone. All the other guests have gone. We are—” his lips curved “—alone.”
“Oh,” she whispered, licking her suddenly dry lips. So this was her chance, then. Possibly her only chance to tell him she was pregnant…
But how could she tell him now, when he was acting so dark and strange?
She twisted the wet towel in her hands as she looked up at him nervously. “There’s something I need to tell you, Rafael,” she whispered. “It’s important.”
He grabbed her shoulders. Startled, she dropped the towel heavily against the stone terrace floor.
“What is it?” he demanded in a low voice.
She sucked in her breath, searching his gaze. Did he already know she was pregnant? Had he somehow guessed?
She licked her lips. “It’s not something I thought could happen. I denied it, even to myself…”
“Let me guess,” he said sardonically. “You’re desperately in love with me.”
She nearly gasped. Then, looking up into his face, she told him the truth.
“Yes,” she whispered.
His face hardened. “For so long, you’ve been such a mystery. An intriguing problem to solve.” He brushed back tendrils of her dark hair the wind had blown across her face. “But now I understand you. At last.”
She shivered beneath his touch, closing her eyes.
Was it possible that everything she’d dreamed of for so long was about to happen? Was it possible he was about to tell her he loved her as well, and in a moment, when she told him shyly about their coming baby, he would take her into his arms and kiss her?
She could barely breathe…
“You’ve been setting me up,” he said harshly. “Just like you and your sister did with your last employer.”
Her eyes flew open.
“My…my sister?”
She felt Rafael’s fingers clench into her shoulders, and she gasped. He looked down at her with something close to hatred in his eyes.
“I thought I could trust you,” he said in a low voice. “But it was all just a trick, wasn’t it?”
“No,” she whispered. She shook her head. “You’re wrong.”
He gave a harsh, cruel laugh.
“I trusted you. Trusted you as I trusted no other woman alive. But have you spent the last five years of your life setting me up for a con?”
“What?” she gasped. Unshed tears stung her eyes as she shook her head fiercely. “I don’t—”
“Tell me the truth!” he said coldly. “Was I a fool to trust you? Did you lie when you said you were on the Pill?”
Horrified, Louisa sucked in her breath.
For a moment, silence fell. The cool breezes from the sea caused the colorful paper lanterns to sway amid the darkness of the garden.
Rafael’s jaw was set in a grim line as his hands tightened on her.
“I thought I’d done due diligence by calling your last employer personally. I spoke to his wife, not realizing she was your sister. Of course she gave you a glowing recommendation—she wanted to help you get your wealthy man, as you helped her!”
Louisa drew back, tears suddenly in her eyes as she thought of all the pain. “That’s not how it was!”
“No?” His lip curled. “Then how was it?”
Louisa took a deep breath. She didn’t want to speak of the past, but she had no choice. For their child’s sake, she had to make him understand that her pregnancy was an accident—not a trap!
“Five years ago, I fell in love with my boss,” she whispered, then stopped.
Rafael gripped her shoulders. “Go on.”
“I’d only been working as his housekeeper for a few months when Matthias asked me to marry him.” Every low, hoarse word felt painfully ripped from her. “But I wouldn’t go to bed with him. I told him I wanted to wait for our wedding night. I was so young, so young and idealistic. Then my little sister came to visit from college.” She looked up at him, blinking back tears. “The night of our engagement party, Katie told me Matthias was going to marry her instead. Because…she was pregnant with his baby.”
Staring down at her, he took a deep, shuddering breath. For a moment, she thought he meant to comfort her. Then his dark eyes looked at her with the fire of betrayal.
“Just as the two of you planned all along. You left him sex-starved, your sister lured him into her bed and he fell into her trap. Just as I fell into yours,” he said in a low, cold voice. “I trusted you, Louisa. Although I should have suspected something when I first took you to bed. There would be no reason for a virgin with no boyfriend to be on the Pill—”
“I told you, it was for cramps, to regulate my cycle—”
“I thought it was just an unfortunate coincidence,” he spoke over her ruthlessly, “that when I came home