‘No way.’ She stepped back from him, noticing for the first time that the apartment was now much darker, that the light outside had faded, creating a very different ambiance from the one she’d felt as she’d walked through the door of his apartment a few days ago.
‘No way, what, Lisa?’ he teased.
‘No way am I falling back into your bed—ever again.’
To her horror he moved closer, closing the distance between them. His eyes were so dark, so heavy with desire and she couldn’t help the leap of need that jumped into life within her, defusing the anger she’d been harbouring all afternoon.
‘Are you quite certain about that?’ His husky voice and heavy accent left her in no doubt that passion and desire were fighting for supremacy within him too.
‘Yes.’ The whisper was barely audible, but he’d heard it and she wondered if he could hear her heart thumping too, hear the beat so loudly, calling to him.
Max gathered her unresisting body against his, the masculine smell of his aftershave doing untold things to her senses, making her want him, want to be in his arms, to feel his lips on hers. But she had to resist, had to hold onto her control, her sanity.
‘Very sure.’ She pushed at his chest, trying hard to ignore the muscles beneath her palms. ‘Just as I am about the fact that by New Year’s Eve you will have tired of me, of being the expectant father and maybe even playing the role of diligent brother, which will leave me free to return to my life.’
‘So I have until New Year’s Eve to prove this theory of yours wrong?’ The velvet edge to his deep voice sent tremors of awareness over her and she fought to remain rigid and still as she glared at him angrily—although that anger was directed as much at herself as at him.
‘But you won’t prove anything, Max.’
‘Are you quite sure about that, Lisa?’
She wanted to shout at him, to rail against the way her body even now wanted to feel his touch, his caress. Instead she stepped calmly away, accepting that distance was her only defence right now.
‘Absolutely sure.’
He smiled. ‘Then I look forward to attending my brother’s wedding with my wife at my side.’
‘That will only be temporary. I know you don’t want to be married, much less a father.’
‘But we are married, Lisa. And I am going to be a father to my child. A proper father.’
CHAPTER FIVE
IF LISA HAD thought being in Madrid with Max at Christmas might soften his hard mood, she was quickly realising that was not the case. Since their arrival yesterday he’d been courteous yet as distant as a stranger. That last night in London he’d just been proving his power over her, proving that desire and passion still simmered between them—waiting.
They had left their hotel early that morning and now Lisa found herself shivering against the unusually cold winter winds, in a much less salubrious area than that of the hotel. The kind of area she’d grown up in. Surely Raul Valdez, with all his millions, wasn’t getting married anywhere near here.
‘What are we here for?’ she asked tentatively, pulling the collar of her coat tighter around her neck.
Max seemed impervious to the cold, his attention focused on the shabby apartment buildings and one in particular. ‘This is where my mother and I lived after we left Seville.’
Lisa’s mind reeled. Max was a billionaire in his own right and his stepfather was well known in the world of football. She’d never for one moment considered that Max knew what it was like to live on the wrong side of town.
‘I never knew.’ Her voice was soft, full of thought as she looked around her, turning to see a football ground beyond. It was very different from the grounds of the clubs that Max invested in. ‘Did you start your football career here?’
Finally, he turned to look at her and for the briefest of moments she thought she saw sadness in his eyes. Then he blinked and the usual, ever-present guard was back in place. The protection he always wore.
‘My mother moved us to Madrid soon after my father walked out. I thought at the time we were just making a new start, now I know she was hoping that, by being close to him, she could change his mind.’ His jaw clenched as he turned to look once more at the three-storey apartments. ‘And yes, I started playing football here seriously. It’s also where my mother met my stepfather, when she would stand on the sidelines cheering me on, trying to be the father figure I was lacking.’
Lisa’s heart wrenched as she thought of the young boy he’d been. ‘Maybe your father did a good thing leaving you both to build a new life.’
She was talking from her own experience, from the heartache of being stuck in the middle of warring parents, but the deep inhaled breath that prevented Max from saying anything warned her that was not what he thought at all.