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‘You are so I won’t.’
She inhaled, shakily at first, then she rallied, her fingers linking under her extended belly. Like the exquisite goddess she was, her chin tilted upward, her eyes glancing over him before she looked at a point over his shoulder. ‘I’m not going to debate that with you. It’s not worth my time.’
He sighed. Ventured closer. ‘Why haven’t you touched your laptop?’ he asked, nudging a chin at the neglected gadget on her bedside table.
She cast an uninterested glance at her favourite device and shrugged despondently. ‘Nothing on there that can’t wait.’
‘Wait for what exactly? For me to do as you wish and leave? Because, in case you didn’t hear me, I’m not going.’
‘Then what do you want?’
‘For you to come home. With me. With Lita.’
Her chin wobbled for a handful of seconds before she controlled it. ‘I don’t have a home, not any more. I probably never did.’
‘You did. You do. Always.’
Another wave of pain, then she shook her head. ‘Don’t you have apresidencyto step into?’
The word was a curse that flayed his skin. Deservedly. Teeth gritted, he replied, ‘No, I don’t.’
Surprise slid through the despair. ‘What do you mean? I saw you and your people on TV making an announcement. Proudly citing yourgroundworkand how you turned your recent challenges into advantages. Tell me you didn’t mean me. That you didn’t mean our baby?’ she shot at him, daring him to refute it.
Shame gripped him, the ground beneath his feet shifting dangerously. ‘I did,’ he confessed gruffly.
Her pale face whitened and he cursed himself to hell.
‘Genie—’
‘No. No more. I can’t...’ Her voice wobbled but she rallied. ‘It may not have been part of your plan, but you used me...us...as a tool to battle your uncle, didn’t you?’
His jaw clenched. ‘Not as a tool. As an armour. My armour. Because that’s what you’ve been for me.’
She laughed and his insides ripped to shreds at the bitterness he heard. ‘That’s great for you, I guess. But using me as your armour leftmevulnerable. Do you know how it feels to know you didn’t want me or a child but used us anyway because you saw us as anopportunity?’
He rushed forward, then stopped at the foot of her bed. It wouldn’t do to rush this, as much as he wanted to. He needed to explain himself. ‘That’s not true. I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you.’
Her lips turned down. ‘Well, I’m glad it all worked out for you, Seve...’ She paused, a wave of pain washing over her face before she shook her head.
He braced his hands on the footboard. ‘Just before our wedding I got wind that my uncle was striking a half-a-trillion-dollar deal to sell off every single diamond mine in Cardosia to a foreign government. If it had gone through, the country would’ve been begging for scraps from other nations for the next five generations. I couldn’t let that happen.’ He paused, took a breath. ‘I couldn’t let what he did to me go unanswered either. I needed to confront him. On all fronts.’
A sliver of softness washed over her face, but she still shook her head. ‘I get that. But I had to find out via the news. And what Santiago said, about you becoming a family man giving you the advantage... It all sounded so calculating.’
‘It was mistimed, misguided and not at all what I intended when I left you that morning,pequeña.’
‘But you happen to have the very tools you need,’ she replied, scathing condemnation in her voice. ‘How very convenient.’
‘If you’re talking about the presidency, Santiago is about to announce that it was all a misunderstanding. I’ve told him to withdraw my name with immediate effect.’
Shock widened her eyes. ‘You have?’
‘I told you. All this snowballed out of control before I could stop it.’
‘So you don’t want to be president?’
Unable to resist, he crept closer and perched on the edge of her bed.
This close, her scent washed over him, renewing him as surely as food and water. ‘I never wanted the position. And especially not if it drove you away. You’re the most important thing in my life, Genie. You and our baby. And don’t forget, I have an insanely successful venture capitalist empire to run. I know you feel I’ve betrayed and used you and our baby, but I meant what I said. You empowered me to do what I should’ve done two decades ago. To stand up to my uncle, and not let his brutality shadow my life. I love my country but, before I brought you here, I only helped it from afar because the memories were too harrowing for me. You deserved better than a man stuck in the past, residing in bitterness, licking his wounds. I wanted to give that to you.’
