Virgin Mistress, Scandalous Love-Child

Instead, she said, “I… I'm leaving you.” She licked her lips. “Resigning. Effective immediately.”

Relief rushed through him. Then…

Sharp regret.

Regret? Ridiculous. He was just surprised, that was all. And rather sorry to lose a competent secretary.

And yet…

He sat down heavily in his chair.

“I'm sorry to hear that. But I understand why you want to leave. I'll write you a recommendation that will get you hired by any firm in the city.”

“No.” She shook her head. “You don't understand. I don't need your recommendation. I'm getting married.”

He stared at her, shocked.

“Married?” The center of his chest went cold. “When?”

“This afternoon.”

That soon? His hands tightened. “That's fast.”

“I know.”

He took a long breath. All these months, she hadn't been heartsick over him. He hadn't hurt Ellie at all by seducing her. Since then, she'd just been distracted by a hot new romance. Diogo should have been glad.

But something like cold fury went through his body. For no good reason, he had the sudden urge to punch the man who would soon have Ellie Jensen in his bed every night, doing his bidding and moaning his name. Giving him her body…

He ground his jaw. “Who is he?”

Her posture went straight in her chair. “Do you really care?”

“No.” He clenched his jaw. “I don't.”

She stared at him for a long moment.

“You really don't, do you?” she whispered. She shook her head. “Women are interchangeable to you. Useful only for organizing your schedule, making your coffee or warming your bed.”

Warming his bed? If he'd followed his own desires, he could have had her in his bed every night for the last three months. Diogo tried to remember why he hadn't. Something about being noble. He cursed under his breath. He should have just enjoyed her. Now he'd lost the chance—forever.

He'd been replaced so easily!

Diogo had never had the experience of being left by a woman he still desired. This was his reward for doing the right thing? To see his prize carried off by some other man?

He leaned forward in repressed fury, placing his fingers on his desk. “Useful, Miss Jensen? Hardly. Your distraction over your love affair has just caused me to lose the Trock deal—”

“I told you, call me Ellie!” she cried. “And I'm not finished!”

Feeling like a saint, he folded his arms and forced himself to wait.

She rose slowly to her feet. There was a sheen of tears in her eyes. She seemed to sway with emotion.

“I'm sorry about the Trock deal, Diogo. But there's something you need to know.” She spoke so softly he could barely hear. “I'm…having a baby.”

The coldness in him spread, turning to ice. A baby?

Ellie was pregnant. With another man's baby.

For a second, he couldn't even breathe. He heard the echo of a woman's voice long ago, pleading in Portuguese. “Will you marry me, Diogo? Will you?” And later, a man's voice in the same language. “I'm afraid she's dead, senhor. Beaten to death…”

“Diogo?”

Ellie's voice brought him back to the present.

Pregnant. That certainly explained the weight gain and the pallor and all the time she'd been spending in the ladies' lounge. She hadn't been suffering tears of unrequited love. It had been morning sickness.

Pregnant. Ellie had been in bed with another man. Her legs had wrapped around his as she pulled him down on her naked body with an ecstatic cry of joy. How many times had they made love for her to get pregnant? Three times a week? Three times a day?

Anger rushed back in force, careening over the numb shock like raging water filling a dry riverbed. Ever since they'd returned from Rio, he'd been celibate as a monk, striving night and day to bring the Trock deal together. And while he'd been blaming himself for taking the poor, sweet, innocent girl's virginity, she'd nonchalantly gone from his bed into a hot love affair with another man. As if her night with Diogo had been a mere stepping stone to bigger and better things.

She was pregnant.

Engaged.

And getting married in a hurry.

Suddenly, he saw the whole situation in a new light.

He sucked in his breath. He turned to face her, and his lip curved into a sneer.

“Ellie, you've got quite the act going, don't you? Playing the part of a sweet, innocent girl. But when you realized that giving me your virginity wasn't going to pay off, you quickly moved on to the next man, didn't you? You accidentally got pregnant. I assume he's very rich? Congratulations.”

Her jaw fell open. She stared up at him in shock, her eyes large and limpid and blue as a summer storm over the Atlantic.