He shook his head. ‘The initial spark fizzled out very quickly. We both knew it. But she didn’t want to admit failure and I initially left it because I felt a little...guilty.’
Her eyes widened. ‘Guilty? Why?’
‘She overheard me asking Luis about you the day he brought you to the office summer party. Long before we broke up she had a bee in her bonnet about you. She suspected I had a thing for you and she was right. Someone took a picture of us at the Havana event and it made social media. That’s what triggered her nonsense.’
Her breath caught. ‘You had a thing for me?’
‘Each time we met I had a harder time getting you out of my head. I think it was partly why—’
‘You were so mean to me?’
His low chuckle reverberated through her. ‘I couldn’t exactly pull your hair.’
‘You never know. I might have liked it.’
The humorous moment lingered for a split second before it disappeared under the weight of heavier emotions. ‘Ramon—’
His hand tightened in her hair. ‘I would never cheat on you, Suki. I swear. I love you, only you.’
Her heart stopped, then raced wildly in her chest. Blinking tear-filled eyes, she pulled back, searched his face. ‘You love me?’
He squeezed his eyes shut for a second. ‘That night after we made love and I left, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I must have picked up the phone at least two dozen times every day to call you. Hell, I may have hated you a little for wrecking my workday for weeks on end. When Luis told me about the pregnancy, my first thought was that I finally had a reason to be in your life. A permanent reason.’
‘And then it went away?’ she whispered.
He leaned his forehead against hers. ‘That was one of the worst days of my life,’ he whispered back, his gruff voice thick with sorrow.
‘I’m so sorry. For both of us.’
‘No, I’m sorry. For the way I went about righting what I thought was wrong. You have every right to hate me for the things I said to you. Every right.’
‘I tried very hard to save her, Ramon.’
He held her tighter. ‘Dios, I know that now. But losing Luis and my parents on top of losing the baby...it drove me a little insane. I’m not asking you to forgive me now. Just that you’ll forgive me some day?’ he pleaded hoarsely.
‘No, promising to forgive you some day means hanging on to bad feeling now. I won’t do that. I forgave you the moment I agreed to have this baby with you.’
Sea-green eyes swimming with heavy, wild, unstoppable emotion met hers. ‘Belleza, I don’t deserve you.’
She slid her hands over his five o’clock shadow to cup his face. ‘No, you don’t, but I’m yours anyway.’
A deep shudder rippled through him. In the next instant, she was on her back, both her hands trapped above her head in one of his as he levered himself carefully over her.
‘Tell me again,’ he demanded, his mouth hovering a whisper above hers.
‘I’m yours,’ she whispered fervently.
His free hand trailed down her arm, over her waist to splay possessively over her belly. ‘Again,’ he growled.
She couldn’t stop the tears from filling her eyes again. ‘I love you. I’m yours. We’re yours.’
His own eyes misted as he sucked in a long, unsteady breath. His fingers were equally unsteady as he divested her of her clothes.
He paused when his fingers tangled in her panties. ‘The doctors said it was okay, didn’t they?’
‘They said it was okay weeks ago. But you decided to torture us both.’
He grimaced. ‘I will make up for that now, sí?’