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Maybe she should put it off forever.
She pushed the traitorous thought aside. Even if Antonio rejected her and the baby outright, didn’t he have the right to know? Didn’t her baby at least deserve the chance to have a father?
“I need to tell you something,” she whispered. She glanced uneasily toward the two men sitting in the front seat, who were pretending not to listen. “About...that night.”
Antonio looked at her, his dark eyes like ice. “Which night is that?”
Did he truly not remember? His handsome face was so arrogant and cold, she almost wondered if the night he’d taken her virginity had been a dream. But the pregnancy test had left no doubt.
Hana lifted her chin and said clearly, “Our night together in Madrid. Two months ago.”
The eyes of the men in the front seat went wide. Antonio calmly pressed the button to close the privacy screen between the front and back of the luxury sedan. Once it was closed, he turned on her fiercely.
“You promised never to talk about it.”
“I know, but—”
“There’s no but. You gave me your word.”
“I have good reason—”
“I can imagine.” His jaw clenched as he turned away. “You will put that night from your mind, Miss Everly. It never happened.”
As the Rolls-Royce Phantom turned up the sweeping curve in front of a gleaming skyscraper overlooking the wide green-and-pink vistas of the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, her voice was a squeak. “But—”
The car stopped, and a waiting doorman reached to open his door.
“It never happened,” Antonio repeated, and without bothering to look at her, he swept out, all masculine power and hard muscular angles in his dark suit and sharply tailored black cashmere coat.
Pulling her handbag over her shoulder, Hana climbed out behind him numbly. Her heart was pounding. She held her notebook and briefcase tightly against her chest, as if they could protect her.
“Welcome, Mr. Delacruz,” Emika Ito, the Tokyo team lead, greeted them in English with a respectful bow of her head. She was pretty, black-haired and chic. She smiled at Hana, who tried to smile back. “All is ready, sir.”
Standing on the sidewalk, Hana glanced at the building. Inside the glass and steel lobby, she saw the rest of the lead team already assembled, waiting for their arrival so they could go to their new office on the top three floors.
“Yes, of course,” Antonio said. “Thank you, Miss Ito. Give me a moment.” With a nod, the girl returned to the lobby, leaving Hana and Antonio alone, with his bodyguard at a discreet distance. He looked down at her.
“So you agree?” he said tersely. It was intimate, having them so close together on the sidewalk in the cool spring morning. “It’s forgotten?”
Hana felt a breeze against her hot cheek, saw a single cherry blossom floating and twisting in a tumult on the wind, before disappearing into the traffic of Hibiya Dori.
She couldn’t tell him. She just couldn’t. She’d nod and quietly go into the building, and be the assistant he needed during this important meeting. Afterward, she would quit. She would disappear. She bowed her head.
“Good,” he said. She saw the glint in his eyes as he turned toward the door. She tried to follow. To be silent.
But her heart wouldn’t let her.
“I’m pregnant, Antonio,” she heard herself blurt out.
* * *
Pregnant?
Antonio Delacruz froze, sure he’d heard her wrong. Above them, the sky was overcast as from a distance he heard ominous thunder.
Slowly, he turned to her on the sidewalk. “What?”
“You heard me.”
