But it no longer satisfied her. Her stupid, greedy heart wanted more. She wanted to be able to make love to him and be secure in his arms. To know that she could trust him with her heart. To know he would forget about pursuing other women, all those beautiful women with brilliant careers and college degrees….
He gently raised her chin. “I will always respect you, Ellie. Always honor you.”
“But no one else will,” she whispered. “Everyone will assume just what you did—that I'm a gold digger who purposefully got pregnant. They'll always treat me like your whore.”
A rough Portuguese curse escaped his lips. “I will kill any man who dares call you so.”
She shook her head as tears rose to her eyes. “It doesn't matter. The real question is, can I trust you to be a good father?”
He drew himself up, affronted. “What?”
“You've never committed to any woman for longer than a week. Can I truly trust you to love a child for a lifetime?”
“Those two things are entirely different!”
“No.” She shook her head fiercely. “It's the same. It's love. It's loyalty—”
“I will never abandon a child. Do you understand me, Ellie? Because I know what it feels like. I had no father. When I was eight, my mother abandoned me to leave the country with her newest lover.” He looked away, clenching his jaw. “I would never do that to my child.”
She stared at him in shock.
“But you're a Serrador,” she said, bewildered. “Your father owned half the gold mines in the world before he died. Your older sisters married European royalty. You were rich by birth, long before you made your first million in the steel business!”
His cruel lips curved. “That's the story.”
“Isn't it true?”
He grabbed her arms, looking down at her. “What is true is that I want you, Ellie. Raising my child. And in my arms. In my bed.” He stroked down her cheek to her neck and rubbed her plump breast with his thumb, making her nipple ripe and taut. He whispered, “And I always get what I want.”
He lowered his mouth to hers in a searing kiss. She felt the hardness of his body pressed against her. She wanted nothing more than to surrender.
She couldn't resist Diogo's desire. His strength. His power. His heat.
As he kissed her, Ellie's fingers curled around his crisp black shirt. She felt his lips like a current through her body, felt the wind in her hair as they stood in the sunshine on his penthouse balcony over Copacabana Beach, and she could no more push him away than she could stop breathing.
She had to give in. She had no choice…
Blood rushed loudly through her ears. Then she realized the buzzing was the sound of his cell phone vibrating from his pocket.
With a muffled curse, he glanced down at the phone to see the number. His expression changed.
And then he pulled away from Ellie to answer the call!
“Bom dia,” he said warmly. “Catia. Eu vou mais tarde? Por favor!”
Ellie blinked at him in shock, struggling to regain her senses. She listened to the tender, almost pleading sound of his voice, and her cheeks went hot with humiliation.
Two minutes ago, he'd been kissing Ellie, intent on seducing her into his bed.
But he'd already forgotten all about her. He'd ditched her mid-kiss in his eagerness to talk to another woman!
I must be out of my mind, she thought, putting her hands on her head in consternation. Truly insane!
Diogo put his hand over the phone. “Excuse me,” he said as coolly as if Ellie were still just his employee. “I will return in a moment.”
She watched him leave the balcony through the sliding glass doors. Shocked and fighting back tears, Ellie whirled back around to stare blindly toward the vista of Copacabana Beach and the wide blue sea.
She'd been so close to giving in!
How could she have thought she could possibly trust Diogo? He was nothing like the calm, steady, loyal man she needed. Nothing like Timothy…
But wait. Timothy wasn't a good man, either.
He's been buying and selling babies on the open market. Taking children from poor mothers and giving them to rich, childless couples who can afford his illegal fees.
Timothy a cold, calculating baby seller? She still found it hard to believe. Although it was true she had been uncomfortable around him at times. When he'd first proposed, she'd been only fifteen, working long hours at the Dairy Burger and struggling to take care of her sick mother. Timothy had been twenty-five, a fresh graduate of Yale Law. She'd been incredulous at his first proposal, but he'd kept trying. He'd even offered to support Ellie and her dying mother.
But she hadn't wanted Timothy's charity. It wouldn't have been right to take advantage of his feelings, or make him think their relationship could ever be more than friendship.