“Stop,” he ordered, and she stopped. She heard him come behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders. The weight of them pressed down on her like the burden of her heart's hopeless yearning.
He turned her around in his arms.
“You will stay here until the child is born,” he said. “That is nonnegotiable. I can't take the chance you might return to Timothy Wright—or any other man like him. You will remain here where I can keep an eye on you.”
She fought back tears. The Brazilian sunlight must have glazed her brain to make her think that she could ever trust Diogo! “So you can keep me prisoner, you mean!”
“So I can keep you safe,” he said coldly. “You don't know Wright as well as you think you do.”
“I know he's my friend. I know he's got more honor and decency in his little finger than you've got in your whole body!”
He gave her a grim smile. “And it's that blind lack of judgment that shows you're not fit to raise my son. I simply cannot trust you to—”
“You can't trust me?” she gasped. “That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! You are nothing but a rich, spoiled womanizer who's never had to struggle for anything in your life. While all I want, all I've ever wanted, is to take care of the people I love!”
He ground his jaw. “I do not want a custody battle, Ellie. Give the baby up to my care. He will be happy and secure.” He paused. “And I will compensate you for your trouble. I will make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.”
“What?” she gasped, confused. What did money have to do with custody of their baby?
“Ten million dollars.” He looked down at her. “I will give you ten million dollars to go.”
For a moment, she couldn't breathe.
Then outraged fury rushed through her. “No!”
“Is ten million not enough?” He leaned closer to her, his black eyes holding an unfathomable darkness in their depths. “You're holding out for twenty?”
“I won't sell her for any price!”
“Him,” he corrected unthinkingly. “You have a price. We both know you do. Just tell me what it is.”
“I don't want your money, I just want you to let us go!”
“A hundred million dollars. That's my final offer, Ellie. I advise you to take it.”
A hundred million dollars.
She stared at him in shock. It was an unimaginable number. And Diogo meant it. She could see it in his eyes. A powerful billionaire like Diogo Serrador could make a single call, and the forty dollars in her bank account would instantly be transformed into a hundred million dollars.
He truly thought he could buy her baby. Just like that.
His reckless arrogance made her catch her breath. What kind of man would think he could buy and sell anything he wanted—even the precious relationship between mother and child?
“But you don't even want to be a father!” she choked out. “You had a vasectomy. You don't want children. Why try to take mine?”
He clenched his jaw. “I had the vasectomy to make sure that no child of mine was in the world without my knowledge, to be hurt by someone who doesn't have the judgment or resources to be a decent parent.”
Fury raced through her.
“And you think you'd make a decent parent just because you're rich? You've never been able to commit to anyone for longer than a week. You'd likely grow bored raising a child and abandon her. I wouldn't choose you as my child's father if you begged me!”
The hard look in his eyes could have shattered diamonds into dust.
“Agree to my terms, Ellie. Until the baby is born, I'll treat you like a queen. Then you will be a rich woman, free to pursue life and enjoy your own romances to your heart's desire. What is your answer?”
She clenched her hands. He really thought she would sell her child to the highest bidder then go gallivanting off to find a boyfriend and spend her millions?
She set her jaw, facing him with eyes full of hate.
“My answer? That's easy,” she spat out, clenching her hands. “Go to hell.”
Go to hell?Diogo cursed softly in Portuguese.
He was already there.
He'd been a fool to sleep with Ellie in the first place. An employee—a small-town girl—a virgin. What had he been thinking?
He hadn't been thinking. That was the problem. Returning from an all-night deal in Rio, triumphant over an acquisition, they'd been stopped on their way back to the hotel when their car was halted by an impromptu street celebration along the Avenida Atlântica. Samba music and dancers had poured from Copacabana, some samba dancers dressed in sequins and feathers, others barely dressed at all.
Diogo had pulled Ellie from the car. He'd cleared a path for them, walking the last blocks to the Carlton Palace. They'd passed an alley where a man was making love to a woman against a wall. As he kissed her lips and caressed her breasts, a different man knelt reverently between her naked legs.