Claiming His Unknown Son Read online

  They’d wanted their money right then, all of it, and the dark consequences they’d hinted at should she not come up with the goods had been chilling enough, though not as much as the stomach-curdling suggestion that she could reduce the debt by being nice to important friends of their clients.

  She had still been shaking with reaction to the crude suggestion when Rupert had arrived. He’d sat her down, poured her a stiff brandy and had teased the story out of her. It was then that he’d shared his own shocking news, explaining not just his medical diagnosis, but that his disease was terminal. He considered it a private matter, he didn’t want her sympathy, and wasn’t afraid to die—he was ready.

  What he didn’t want, he’d told her, was to die alone, and he’d been alone ever since the death of the love of his life, a man whose funeral Rupert hadn’t even been able to attend because his long-time lover had had a wife and family who didn’t know, or didn’t want to know, that he had been gay.

  Marriage to Marisa, he’d said, would make everything so much easier legally after he died—she’d actually be helping him. And, for some reason he’d refused to disclose, he’d owed it to her father to ensure she was safe. Marisa, ignoring the voice of conscience in the back of her mind, had let herself believe him. Grief-stricken, desperate and so very alone, she’d agreed.

  They had married in a civil ceremony a week later. There had been no honeymoon but they’d shared a bottle of champagne, and that had been the first time Rupert had told her upfront, to her acute embarrassment, that it would be fine with him if she wanted a life outside their marriage. If she had friends, male friends, he’d added, in case she hadn’t got his drift.

  She had got it, but, as she had informed him there and then, that wouldn’t be an issue for her and she had meant it. She had never been a particularly physical person and she had always avoided intimacy of that nature. What she’d been looking for in a relationship was what she had always craved: safety and stability.

  School friends had always envied Marisa her adventurous lifestyle, not knowing about the unpaid bills that her father had cheerfully binned whenever the drawer he’d shoved them into had got full, never dreaming that their friend, who got to mingle with famous people and order her dinner from room service in five-star hotels, instead longed for the security of their boring lives.

  Ironically she now had the dreamt-of security, although this had never been the way she had visualised it coming about, and up to a point it had worked. But to her, at least, it was becoming more obvious with each passing day that there was nothing equal about her and Rupert’s deal, and there was a certain irony in the fact that her attempt to assuage her guilt in a small way had set in motion a sequence of events that would lead to her act of betrayal. And no matter that Rupert had virtually given his blessing to her taking lovers, for Marisa, what she had done remained a betrayal.

  Waiting until Rupert was taking his afternoon nap she had set off to purchase his surprise treat, taking the shortcut through the park because it was such a lovely afternoon—or at least it had been, until the heavens opened and the rain came pelting down!

  She was just wondering whether there was any point getting a taxi when she sidestepped a puddle and walked full pelt into a person—or it could have been a steel wall; the amount of give was about the same—the impact driving the air from her lungs in a sharp gasp as she bounced off him, very nearly losing her balance.

  Grappling with the distracting sensation of hardness and warmth left by the moment of contact while trying to keep her balance, she was saved the embarrassment and pain of landing on her bottom in a puddle by a pair of large hands that shot out, spanning her waist and quite literally putting her back on her feet.

  ‘I’m so, so sorry...’ She began tilting her chin to look up...a long way, as it turned out, but as she finally made it to the face of the man who still had his hands on her waist she promptly forgot what she was going to say, the clutching sensation in the pit of her stomach giving way to a shallow gasp of shock.

  She now knew why it had felt as though she were walking into a wall. Everything about the stranger was hard. He was lean, broad-shouldered and several inches over six feet; the long drovers raincoat he wore open over a suit and tie did not disguise the muscular athleticism of his body.

  If the physical impact had snatched her breath away, the impact as her gaze collided with the dark heavy-lidded eyes of the stranger made her heart almost stop beating, the raw masculinity he projected like nothing she had ever encountered before in her twenty-one years. Strange, scary sensations were zigzagging through her body, as though her nervous system had just received a million-volt hit.

  It was the weirdest sensation. The noise of other people, the busy traffic, the storm raging overhead were all still there but they receded into the background. Instead, her world had contracted into the space, the air molecules between her and this man... There was just this extraordinary man, and he really was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life!

  She knew she was staring at him but she couldn’t stop. His strong-jawed oval face was all sculpted cheekbones, carved planes and intriguing angles, and the skin stretched over bones of perfect striking symmetry was a deep vibrant bronzed gold. Looking at his firm, sensually moulded mouth sent her core temperature up several painful degrees—it was a sinful miracle.

  The thick brows above his eyes lifted and she couldn’t help noticing that they were as black as the curling lashes that framed his deep-set dark, quizzical eyes.

  ‘Are you all right?’

  He had an almost accent—it was there somewhere in the perfect diction and the deep, smooth drawl. There was a smile and something else in his eyes that was as lushly velvet as his voice.

  It was the something else that intensified the violent quivering in the pit of her stomach.

  She lifted a hand to push the hair from her cheek, the rain-soaked strands tangling in her slim fingers while beneath the film of moisture her face felt hot.

  ‘Fine, fine... I’m fine.’ And surprisingly she was, for someone who had quite clearly lost her mind and couldn’t stop shaking.

  She just hoped the internal tremors did not show on the outside, but she realised that on the plus side she would no longer need to pretend to have a clue what people were talking about when they mentioned lust at first sight.

  On the minus side, she knew in a distant corner of her mind that she was making a total fool of herself because she didn’t have the skill or the experience to hide what she was feeling.

  His incredible cynical eyes said he knew exactly what was happening between them.

  ‘You’re wet,’ he said, dragging a hand across his own hair, removing the excess moisture from the jet-black strands, then he reversed the gesture, causing his hair to stand up in sexy damp spikes. As he stood there just staring at her, Marisa had the oddest feeling he could see the thoughts swirling in her head, so maybe that was why he suddenly said abruptly, ‘Would you like to come inside?’

  ‘Inside...?’ she echoed stupidly.

  Without taking his eyes from her face, he gestured with a tip of his head towards the entrance of the Madrigal Hotel.

  She paused long enough so that he had to know she’d considered it before she began to babble, hating the breathy sound of her own panicked voice as she took refuge in good manners.

  ‘No, no, I’m fine. I’m sorry I got you wet and thank you for...’ She stopped short, figuring she had already made herself look as ridiculous as it was humanly possible to. She shook her head but didn’t move, her soggy feet feeling as glued to the ground as her eyes were to the face of this tall, imposing stranger.

  He arched a dark brow. ‘Well, if you change your mind I’m here all week.’

  His offer, if that was what it was, broke her free of the paralysis that had gripped her, and with another shake of her head, this time with her eyes safely on the
pavement in front of her, she turned around and in seconds was lost amongst the body of people surging along the wet pavement. Her heart was pounding so loudly it felt like a sonar locator as she rushed on, welcoming the cooling caress of the rain as it hit her hot face.

  After the initial surge of relief that she’d escaped—from exactly what was not a question she wanted to explore—she found herself wondering what would have happened if she had accepted the stranger’s invitation.

  Really, Marisa, you’re not that naïve, are you? mocked the voice in her head as she squelched along, the rain numbing the heat of embarrassment in her cheeks. Or was that excitement?

  That would have been the end of it, and should have been the end of it had fate and her school friend Cressy’s domestic emergency not intervened.

  ‘It would be good,’ Cressy had said when they’d bumped into one another the previous week, ‘to catch up.’

  It was the sort of vague, socially polite thing that people said without actually meaning it and Marisa had responded in the same vein, never for a second expecting to be asked to follow through.

  But Cressy had invited her out for a meal, and in the end it had been Rupert, so cheered at the prospect of her getting out, who had made her agree.

  That evening she left him with his chocolates and a video of his favourite film and went out, and it was actually quite nice to dress up and get out of her comfortable clothes for once.

  That was the funny thing about clothes—especially when you added some bold red lipstick—and she left the house looking everything she knew she wasn’t: sexy and confident.

  Cressy, who was still struggling, she said, with her post-baby body, pronounced herself envious, but when Marisa watched her face as she scrolled proudly through the photos of her husband and baby twin boys on her phone Marisa knew her old friend was lying. Cressy wouldn’t swap what she had for a size-eight figure and a few glamorous outfits!

  They had not even selected their food when Cressy received the phone call from home.

  ‘Yes, give him one spoonful if his temperature is up. It’s in the bathroom cabinet in the boys’ room, top shelf. Yes, I know you’ll be fine and I will have fun... Love you...’ Cressy slid the phone back in her clutch bag but she gave Marisa a rueful look and sighed. ‘Sorry, Marisa, but...’

  ‘Rain check. Don’t worry, I get it. You go home...make sure your boys are all right.’

  Cressy’s relief was obvious.

  Marisa finished her own cocktail and the one Cressy had not touched, and it was still only nine p.m. She was left all dressed up with nowhere to go but home again, where Rupert, who always retired early, would already be in bed, helped by the live-in nurse who had been with them for a few weeks now. Marisa decided to walk back as it was a lovely evening, and somehow she found herself standing outside the Madrigal, which was almost on her way home.

  The stranger wouldn’t be there, she reasoned, shivering as she thought of him. It was still so early...why not go in for a nightcap? She’d always wanted to see what the Madrigal was like inside and she was certainly dressed for it.

  A combination of self-delusion and the cocktails that were not as innocuous as they’d looked got her through the doors and into the expensive-smelling wood-panelled foyer when the reality of what she was doing hit her, shame and mind-clearing horror following close behind.

  She turned and would have headed back through the door had a voice not suddenly nailed her feet to the Aubusson carpet.

  ‘Would you like a drink?’

  Shocked recognition and stomach-tightening excitement grabbed her as, her breath coming faster, she spun back slowly on her heels.

  With her heart trying to batter its way through her ribcage, her eyes travelled in an upward sweep over the long, lean length of his body, clad this evening in a beautifully cut dark grey suit, underneath which was a pale blue shirt open at the neck to reveal the tanned brown skin of his throat, and fine enough to suggest the musculature of his chest and torso. The expensive tailoring didn’t do anything to lessen the aura of raw, head-spinning masculinity he projected.

  ‘No, I didn’t come here for—’ She blinked and stopped. What had she come here for?

  Exactly what he thinks you did, the voice in her head responded.

  He took a step forward and held out his hand. ‘I’m Roman Bardales.’

  After the faintest hesitation she reached out, a shock of electricity of a lethal voltage running through her body as his warm brown fingers closed around her hand and didn’t move, and she saw his polished brown eyes widen as though he too had felt the same stinging shock.

  ‘Marisa Rayner.’ She pulled her hand away.

  ‘I’m glad you came.’

  ‘I... I didn’t...’ One darkly delineated brow lifted to a sardonic angle and she rushed on. ‘Well, I am here.’

  ‘So I see.’ The comprehensive sweep of his brown eyes as they slid over her body made her shiver. ‘And now?’

  ‘Now?’ She had to force the word past the ache in her dry throat.

  ‘Are you coming up?’ The slight jerk of his head was directed at the lift behind him.

  He didn’t say for a coffee, or a nightcap, because they both knew that wasn’t why she was there.

  ‘I... I don’t do things like this.’

  ‘OK,’ he said slowly in acknowledgment, and then he did nothing else to influence her decision besides standing there looking gorgeous enough to melt her bones.

  Marisa had known deep down that she was just going through the motions pretending to delay. The decision had already been made as soon as she had made her way to the hotel this evening. Her struggle now was for appearances—her own, not his.

  His impressive shoulders lifted in the faintest of shrugs. ‘We could go for a walk instead?’

  She shook her head. ‘No, I’ll...’ She expelled a deep breath and started to move towards the lifts.

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE YOUNGEST ADDITION to the Bardales company was anxious to make a good impression, having checked and double-checked everything on board the private jet was as it should be. Instead of joining the other staff, who were chatting and drinking coffee while they waited for their passenger to arrive, Alex made his way down the steps looking for the chief steward to ask if there was anything else he could do.

  He was a shiny foot off the tarmac of the private landing strip when he spotted the man he was looking for in conversation with the plane’s pilot. Probably not the best idea to disturb them, he decided. Besides, there was such a thing as being too keen.

  Alex was about to turn and retrace his steps when he spotted the cloud of dust in the distance on the road that snaked its way across the red earth with the mountains as a stunning backdrop.

  He paused, watching the cloud of dust getting nearer, feeling a pang of envy as the sleek outline of the designer car emerged, barely slowing its breakneck speed as it passed through the tall security gates that magically opened as it approached.

  The car drew to a halt on the tarmac and a tall, dark-haired figure emerged. He slammed the door hard enough to take it off its hinges and removed a pair of dark shades, tucking them into a pocket before sweeping the area with eyes that, even at this distance, appeared arctic cold to the new recruit. Alex took an involuntary step backwards, experiencing a stab of relief when a member of the security team, a fellow newcomer, moved forward to intercept the stranger, albeit without a lot of enthusiasm, and who could blame him? The broad-shouldered figure was emanating an aura of danger that enveloped his frame as visibly as the dust had enveloped his supercar.

  Alex looked on curiously as the security guard moved back again...everyone present on the landing strip was stepping back to allow the unimpeded progress of the tall man, who looked capable of demolishing anything that got in his way.

  Initially confused, Alex began to make more sense of th
e scene as the figure got close enough for him to recognise the carved contours of his face—some sense at least, but now the confusion remained for another reason.

  Did his employer lead a double life?

  True, Alex had never met the man in person, but he’d seen him in a photo when he’d pored over the company website before his interview, until he’d felt he knew everything about the Bardales brand that stood, so the logo proclaimed, for ethical quality.

  In the photos the head of the company had looked sharply tailored and pristine; today he was wearing faded jeans that possessed more than a few frayed holes that had certainly not been placed there by any designer, and a dark tee shirt that clung to the well-developed contours of his powerful chest and bagged around his washboard-flat belly, giving a glimpse of the muscle ridges there, his dusty boots kicking up little flurries of earth as he walked.

  In every photo Alex had ever seen, his employer’s black hair had been fashionably cropped, but the man approaching now wore it long enough to curl on his neck with enough length on top to cause it to cover his strongly delineated dark brows. At regular intervals he swept it back with an impatient long-fingered brown hand.

  The aquiline features looked to have the same carved symmetry of the internet version, though it was hard to tell as the previously clean-shaven lines were heavily dusted with facial hair that stopped just short of being a beard and gave its owner a look that could only be called menacing.

  Looks, his mother always said, could be deceptive. Alex really hoped so because this man’s appearance alone would have made any person with an ounce of common sense cross the street to avoid him, and he considered himself very sensible.

  ‘Roman...!’

  Alex registered the genuine warmth in the pilot’s voice as the older man stepped briskly forward, skirting the plane and moving towards the new arrival, and comprehension finally dawned.

  So this man was actually Rio Bardales’s brother, the identical twin who, the carefully worded website blurb had explained, did not at this point take an active part in company operations. It had gone on to list the several innovations and successful financial ventures that this currently absent Bardales twin had been responsible for, before briefly mentioning his new career as a bestselling author.