It had taken all her courage to crash his party tonight, but once she’d learned the purpose—a gathering of his potential investors for the project he planned to ruin her land with—she’d been determined to confront him. Right there in their midst. Daring him to lie to her when the entire room knew of his plans.
She hadn’t counted on him denying that he’d ever met her. But then how better to paint her as the village idiot? Or some crazy do-gooder granola bar out to halt “progress.”
The force of just how wrong she’d been threatened to flatten her. She sighed heavily and shook her head. She had to calm down or her blood pressure was going to skyrocket.
Slowly she unclenched her jaw. Her teeth were ground together with enough force to break them.
Where was room service? She was starving. She rubbed her belly apologetically and made a conscious effort to let all the anger and stress flow out of her body. It couldn’t be good for the baby to have her mother so pissed off all the time.
She gritted her teeth before she realized that she’d done so again. Forcing her jaw to relax once more, she performed the arduous task of combing out her hair and blow-drying it.
She was finishing up when a loud knock sounded at her door.
“Food. Finally,” she murmured as she turned off the hair dryer.
She hurried to the door and swung it open. But there was no food cart or hotel employee. Rafael stood there, her abandoned shoes dangling from his fingertips.
She stepped back and tried to slam the door, but he stuck his foot in, preventing her from shutting it.
As indomitable as ever, he pushed his way in and stood in front of her. She hated how small and vulnerable she felt against him. Oh, she hadn’t always hated it. She’d loved how protected and cherished he’d made her feel when she curled her much smaller body into his.
She bared her teeth into a snarl. “Get out or I’ll call hotel security.”
“You could,” he said calmly. “But as I own this hotel, you might have a hard time having me thrown out.”
Her eyes narrowed. Of course he’d own the hotel she’d chosen to stay in. What were the odds of that?
“I’ll call the police then. I don’t care who you are. You can’t force yourself into my hotel room.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I came to return your shoes. Does that make me a criminal?”
“Oh, come on, Rafael! Stop playing stupid games. It’s beneath you. Or it should be. I get it. Believe me—I get it! I got it as soon as you looked right through me at the party. Though I have to say, the ‘have we met?’ line? That was priceless. Just priceless. Not to mention overkill.”
It was all she could do not to hit him again, and maybe he realized just how badly she wanted to because he took a wary step back.
She advanced, not willing for a moment to allow him to control the situation. “You know what? I never took you for a coward. You played me. I get that. I was a monumental idiot. But for you to hide from the inevitable confrontation like you’ve done makes me physically ill.”
She stuck a finger into his chest, ignoring the baffled look on his face. “Furthermore, you’re not going to get away with your plans for my land. If it takes every cent I own, I’ll fight you. We had a verbal agreement, and you’ll stick to it.”
He blinked, then looked as if he was about to say something.
She crossed her arms, so furious she wanted to kick him. If it wouldn’t land her on her ass, she’d do it.
“What? Did you think you’d never see me again? That I’d hide away somewhere and sulk because I learned you don’t really love me and slept with me to get me to agree to sell to you? You couldn’t be more mistaken,” she seethed.
Rafael reacted as though she’d hit him again. His face paled and his eyes became hard, cold points. If she weren’t so angry, what she saw in his gaze would probably scare the bejesus out of her. But Mamaw had always said that common sense was the first thing to go when someone got all riled up. Boy, was that the truth.
“Are you trying to insinuate that you and I have slept together?” he asked in a dangerously low voice that—again—should have frightened her. But she was way beyond fear. “I don’t even know your name.”
It shouldn’t have hurt her. She’d long since realized why Rafael had chosen her. Why he’d seduced her and why he’d told her the lies he told. He couldn’t shoulder the entire blame. She’d been far too easy a conquest.
But still, that he’d stand there before her and categorically deny even knowing her name sliced a jagged line through her heart that was beyond repair.
“You should go,” she said in a barely controlled tone. Damn the tears, but if he didn’t leave now, she wasn’t going to keep her composure for long.
His brow furrowed and he cocked his head to the side, studying her intently. Then to her dismay, he swept his hand out and smudged a tear from the corner of her eye with his thumb.
“You’re upset.”
Sweet mother of God, this man was an idiot. She could only pray their child inherited her brains and not his. She nearly laughed aloud but it came out as a strangled sob. How could she hope for the poor baby to inherit any intelligence whatsoever when it was clear that both his parents were flaming morons?
“Get. Out.”
But instead he cupped her chin and tilted it upward so he could stare into her eyes. Then he wiped at the dampness on her cheek in a surprisingly gentle gesture.
“We can’t have slept together. Besides the fact that you aren’t my type, I can’t imagine forgetting such an event.”
Her mouth gaped open and any thoughts of tears fled. She wrenched herself from his grasp and gave up trying to get the man out of her room. He could stay. She was going.
She gripped the lapels of her robe and stomped around him. She made it into the hall before his hand closed around her wrist and he pulled her up short.
Enough was enough. She opened her mouth to let out a shriek, but he yanked her against his hard body and covered her mouth.
“For God’s sake, I’m not going to hurt you,” he hissed.
He muscled her back into the hotel room, slammed the door and bolted it shut behind them. Then he turned and glared at her.
“You’ve already hurt me,” she said through gritted teeth.
His eyes softened and grew cloudy with confusion.
“It’s obvious you feel as though I’ve wronged you in some way. I’d apologize, but I’d have to remember you and what I supposedly did in order to offer restitution.”
“Restitution?” She gaped at him, stunned by the difference in the Rafael de Luca she fell in love with and this man standing before her now. She yanked open her robe so that the small mound of her belly showed through the thin, satin nightgown underneath. “You make me fall in love with you. You seduce me. You tell me you love me and that you want us to be together. You get my signature on papers agreeing to sell you land that has been in my family for a century. You feed me complete lies about our relationship and your plans for the land. But that wasn’t enough. No, you had to get me pregnant on top of it all!”
His face went white. Anger removed all the confusion from his features. He took a step toward her and for the first time, fear edged out her fury. She took a step back and braced her hand against the TV stand.
“Are you saying that we slept together and that I am the father of your baby?” he demanded.
She stared wordlessly at him, hurt still crowding viciously into her chest. “Are you trying to say we didn’t? That I imagined