Then he’d seen her on the dance floor tonight, in the arms of another man.
Lola.
She’d looked even more dazzling than he remembered, her hazel eyes huge in her beautiful face, her hips swaying in a slinky dress that fit her slender, curvaceous body like a glove. For a moment, when he first saw her, Rodrigo’s heart had twisted.
Then he’d remembered how she’d deceived him, and taken the million-dollar check he’d thrown in her f
ace in his fury. Cold rage had filled every space in his heart, leaving no room for any other emotion.
Lola Price had no shame. She was a liar, a deceitful gold digger. But he’d never imagined that even she could try something like hiding a pregnancy. Stealing his child away.
Rodrigo’s arms tightened as he looked down at her.
She’d lost the tan she’d had in California. Her skin was pale, and she was dressed in head-to-toe black, like a true New Yorker. The knit dress had long sleeves, a high neckline and a hem to the floor. The only skin showing was her face and her hands.
It shouldn’t have been sexy, but it was.
Everywhere he looked, Rodrigo saw something to tempt him, from the shocking beauty of her perfect face, with her high cheekbones, changeable hazel eyes and bee-stung lips, to her long, elegant throat. Even her hands drew him, with their graceful tapering fingers.
As his assistant, Lola had always been well-groomed and professional, as befitted the powerful executive assistant of an entertainment mogul. Now, he saw her beauty and wondered if she was trying to lure the burly, gray-haired Russian scowling beside her. Who was he? Her lover? Her soon-to-be husband?
The thought made him sick.
As the CEO of Cabrera Media Group, an international entertainment conglomerate, Rodrigo was surrounded by beautiful women on a regular basis. His companies produced films and TV series around the world. He owned studios and networks and was about to launch a new streaming media company in South America. He should have been immune to Lola Price’s charms.
But he wasn’t. He still wanted her. Now more than ever. Maybe that was why, for the last year, he hadn’t been able to touch another woman.
After a year of hot, frustrated need, no wonder his whole body felt the effect of being close to Lola now. Even as he learned of her latest betrayal.
Damn her.
“You were pregnant when you left California,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. “And you never told me.”
The sparkling lights of the chandeliers, soaring high above in the hotel ballroom, seemed to leave shadows across her beautiful face as couples continued to move around them on the dance floor.
Only the three of them did not move. The burly Russian turned to Lola in shock. “This is your baby’s father? This man?”
She looked pale. “I think you should go, Sergei.”
The man glanced uncomfortably toward Rodrigo. “If you would like me to stay, Lolitchka, if you need help—”
“No, thank you,” she whispered. “It’s better I do this alone.”
“You heard what she said,” Rodrigo bit out. “Get the hell away from her.”
The older man’s eyes narrowed, but he just turned to kiss Lola’s cheek. “If you need me, I am always here.”
The grateful look she threw Sergei made Rodrigo suddenly want to bash his face in. His hands tightened into fists at his sides until the other man left.
Taking Lola’s hand, Rodrigo grimly pulled her away from the crowds. He tried not to notice how soft her palm felt against his. He tried not to feel the electricity that pulsed through his body at that innocent touch.
In a darkened, empty corner of the ballroom, he turned to face her accusingly. “How could you not tell me?”
Lola wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Because I don’t need anything from you. I don’t want anything.”
I want you, Rodrigo. The memory went through him of the trembling ecstasy of her voice, long ago. And I... I love you.
As he looked down at her beautiful face, shadowed by the chandelier’s light, he felt a rush of unwilling emotion as he remembered when she’d first spoken those words.