Although memories of what a jerk he’d been today could provide plenty of protection. Then she thought of the tiny life growing inside her and knew she didn’t have any choice. Certainly this was a surprise baby at a time when she’d begun to wonder if perhaps motherhood wasn’t in the cards for her. But from the moment she’d seen the heart fluttering on the ultrasound, she’d known she would do anything, absolutely anything for her child.
Including spend seven tempting days alone with Carlos Medina.
Outside Lilah’s condo building, Carlos closed the door on his Mercedes SUV and hooked his arm over the steering wheel.
Puget Sound stretched out beyond his windshield, hazy through the misty rain. Through the tinted windows, he soaked in the sight, gaining some mystical comfort from the light roll of waves.
Water locales drew him, his brothers as well, likely because it reminded them of their island homeland of San Rinaldo. His middle brother, Duarte, had left their father’s fortress to scoop up seaside investment resorts before settling in Martha’s Vineyard. Antonio, the youngest Medina son, had been drawn to the warmer climate of Galveston Bay, where he’d become a shipping magnate. Ironically, even their half sister, Eloisa, spent most of her life in Pensacola, Florida, before settling with her new husband in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
He could only conclude that the shores called to something centuries old in their genetics. The scientist inside him didn’t make so much as a peep in protest of the illogical thought. He felt the proof surging through his veins. Only once had he felt anything as strong—the night he’d spent with Lilah. The past few months he’d been fighting the temptation to lose himself in her again. He’d tried to move on.
Today had proved his failure on that front all too well. Now, he had a full week with her. Seven days to level things with her, setting the course for the rest of his life. He would either tie her to him so they could parent their child or work her out of his system so he could walk away if she’d lied about the baby’s paternity.
To accomplish his goal, he needed to get her away from here, in a setting under his control, no surprises from work or the press.
He fished his phone from the inside of his suit coat and thumbed speed dial for his brother Duarte, the next in line after him for their father’s tarnished crown.
Before the second ring even finished, his brother’s voice came across speakerphone, “Speak to me, brother.”
Carlos didn’t bother apologize for calling late, even more so for Duarte who was three hours ahead on East Coast time. He and his siblings didn’t speak every other day by any means, but when one called, they dropped everything else.
“Just calling to check up on our father.” Enrique Medina had been near death for over six months from a failing liver. “How’s he doing?”
“Still holding on. He’s tough. I’m starting to wonder if maybe he will beat this after all.”
Carlos knew the poor odds too well from a medical perspective so he opted to switch the subject instead. “I may be coming for a visit in a few days. I’m not going to say anything to him until I’m sure—” sure if the baby is mine “—but want to give you the heads-up.”
“Just name the time and Kate and I will be there.”
The sound of rustling sheets and a sleepy female mumble echoed through the phone line. Duarte was engaged to a reporter, a surprisingly illogical choice, especially given his brother’s usual methodical ways. But he’d fallen and fallen hard. There’d been no doubting that when Carlos had seen him with her at Antonio’s wedding a couple of months ago.
Normally, he balked at returning to the isolated compound where they’d relocated after escaping San Rinaldo, so many bad memories linked to their new “home.” The island complex had been outfitted with a top-notch physical rehab center, where he’d spent most of his teenage years. His brothers had been his only friends during those days, and even so with the surgeries and recoveries, there hadn’t been much time to learn about relationships.
Although he felt anything but “brotherly” around Lilah.
His gaze shifted from the shoreline to the historic brick complex housing Lilah’s restored condo. “I may be bringing someone with me.”
“Care to share details?”
“Not yet.”
Looking up to the tenth floor—the penthouse—he could swear he saw Lilah outlined in her window for a second before she clicked off the light. Preparing for bed? He hardened at the thought of peeling off her clothes. Lowering her onto the mattress. Imprinting himself on her. And hoping like hell that baby was his so he could take Lilah again and again, and damn the consequences to his carefully constructed world.
He hauled his attention off her condo and back to the conversation. “She and I are going to spend some time together over the next few days while I check on a couple of Father’s holdings.”
Enrique owned investment properties around the U.S., and even a few outside the States. Savvy financial purchases, yes, but they’d also been bought to create more confusion over where the deposed king had settled.
Enrique had already begun parceling off parts of his estates to each of his sons. While Carlos couldn’t have cared less about any inheritance, he saw the wisdom in protecting the family interests if for no other reason than he could donate additional monies to the charities of his choice. He could make it possible for more children to receive the surgeries they needed, to have a chance at enjoying their youth in a way he couldn’t.
However, he refused to wallow in self-pity or bemoan all he’d lost. He preferred to charge forward and take control of the future, and normally he succeeded. Except on a day like today, the past, the injury, the acute cut of loss, were thrown in his face in an unavoidable way. Flexing his aching leg, he pushed back the temptation to imagine the face of an infant, his child.
God help Lilah if she’d lied to him.
And God help him if she hadn’t. Because then he couldn’t seal himself off from the past with a solitary existence any longer.
“Duarte, I’ll keep in touch. Sleep well, my brother.”
He disconnected the call, his eyes drawn up to the darkened penthouse where Lilah slept. Alone for tonight, but not much longer.
Tomorrow, he would begin his campaign to get back in her good graces with a trip to the family lodge in Vail, Colorado. Hopefully a few intimate nights by the fire would melt her walls and burn away the cold fist that had stayed lodged in his chest since the morning she’d left his bed.