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He’d spent almost twenty years focused on building Velazquez International to be a huge multinational conglomerate, owning a host of brands of everything from food and soft drinks to running shoes and five-star resorts. He’d spent the last five years at an almost obsessive expansion, buying up small companies with an eye to a future where he owned the world.
But now, as he signed documents to purchase his latest company, a valuable nutritional supplement firm based in Copenhagen, instead of triumph he felt only irritation.
He didn’t give a damn about vitamins or protein powders. He wanted to be home with Belle. In her arms. In her bed.
And it was getting worse. At night, when he was in her arms, lost in her deep, expressive brown eyes, kissing her sensual mouth, he’d started to feel something he’d sworn he never would again. Something more than desire.
He found himself caring about her opinion.
He found himself...caring.
In daylight, the thought chilled Santiago to the bone. He couldn’t let himself be vulnerable. He’d be marrying her in a matter of weeks, and soon afterward, they’d be raising a child together.
Marriage he could justify, as a mere piece of paper to secure his child’s name.
But actually caring about Belle...
Needing her happiness...
Needing her...
That was something else.
He could never risk the devastation of loving someone again. He couldn’t be that stupid. He couldn’t.
But as the weeks passed and their wedding date approached, Santiago grew increasingly tense. Every day he was with Belle, every night, he felt intimacy building between them. The wedding he’d once insisted upon now started to feel like a ticking time bomb. Waiting to explode. To destroy.
It made him want to run.
I made a promise, he told himself desperately. To Belle. To our child. I’m not going anywhere.
But as their wedding grew closer, his fears intensified. No matter how much he tried to shove down his feelings. No matter how he tried to deny them.
I have to marry her. For my child’s sake. It’s just a piece of paper. Not my soul!
But the closer their wedding date became, the more edgy he felt.
* * *
Belle woke before dawn on her wedding day, and when she opened her eyes in the gray September light, she looked across the bed. A smile burst across her face brighter than the sun.
It was an omen. Today was their wedding day. And it was the first time she hadn’t woken alone.
Santiago was sleeping in bed beside her.
With a rush of gratitude, Belle smiled to herself happily, listening to his deep breathing beside her in the shadows of their bedroom.
After all her fears and plans, she would marry him tonight. And just in time, since at three weeks from her due date, her belly had gotten so huge that she barely fit into her simple, pretty wedding dress. Tonight, in a candlelight ceremony on their rooftop garden, she would officially become Mrs. Santiago Velazquez.
The past month in New York had been filled with unexpected joys, like fixing up this house. It hadn’t been a makeover, but a make-under. Seven stories, elevator, rooftop garden, wine cellar and all, it had become a real home as she believed a home should be: comfy and cozy. She’d softened the cold, stark modern design, replacing the angular furniture with plump sofas that you could cuddle in.
The master closet, sadly, was now full of fashionable, scratchy black dresses and stiletto heels, but on the plus side, if she still hated going out into society, at least she loved coming home.
This house had somehow become her home.
After their rocky start, she’d become friends with the live-in staff—Dinah Green, the cook, and Anna Phelps, the maid. Belle often helped them with their tasks, just for the company, and because she liked taking care of her own home. She’d helped Anna study for tests for law school. Dinah had taught her some delicious new recipes, and Belle had already volunteered to cook on every holiday so the older woman could have the time off to visit her grown-up son in Philadelphia.
Together, the three women had worked together to plan everything for the wedding tonight.
