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‘This is one of my lawyers, Petronella Casey,’ Angel informed her calmly.
Gaby lifted her head high and squared her shoulders. ‘I’m not prepared to talk to you with a third party present,’ she told him, scanning him with veiled eyes, taking in the superbly tailored grey designer suit, the wine-red shirt, a gold playing card cufflink visible at one wrist. Tall, dark, breathtakingly handsome and sophisticated, but still flawed and imperfect when he could greet a brief email with such cynical distrust and distaste.
She marvelled that he could still look so beautiful and yet act as remote as the Andes from her, as if that night in Alharia had never happened, as if she were an absolute stranger. It hurt, of course it did, but she rammed that hurt down deep inside her and strove to rise above it, trying not to dwell on the lowering awareness that any kind of involvement with Angel had always caused her pain. It was a little too late to be reminding herself now of that sobering reality, she conceded wretchedly.
The brunette stepped forward. ‘I assure you that whatever is said in this room will remain completely confidential,’ she declared, with a cool smile that might have been intended as reassuring but which missed its mark when she had ‘legal shark’ written all over her.
Gaby had no intention of being humiliated by the presence of another woman in the room while she staged a deeply personal and private conversation with Angel. ‘I’m afraid it’s a question of you leaving...ormeleaving,’ she explained with quiet dignity.
‘Be reasonable, Gabriella,’ Angel intoned in the most forbidding tone she had ever heard from him.
Angel studied her in frustration, absently wondering if she had come direct from a funeral, because the long all-black outfit seemed like overkill otherwise and, what was worse, swallowed her tiny stature alive, literally covering her from head to toe. But simultaneously the colour black also threw the splendour of her shining copper hair, dark blue eyes and faultless porcelain skin into prominence, lending her the luminous quality of a star against the night sky, a poetic thought so unlike his usual thought processes that Angel almost winced for himself.
‘Why should I be reasonable when you’re being so unreasonable?’ Gaby asked sharply, flinching as her baby boy tumbled inside her and kicked hard against her bladder. He was a very active baby and a large one. A date for her C-section delivery was already set. ‘I came here to speak to you in private but if you can’t even grant me that courtesy, I’ll leave.’
The lawyer, Petronella, stepped forward without warning. ‘If you’re in agreement, I’ll wait outside, sir. You can call me back in at any stage.’
Colliding with Petronella’s intent gaze, Gaby reddened as she grasped that the lawyer had recognised the reason behind her desire for privacy. Of course, another womanwouldnotice that she had dressed to hide her body faster than the average man and have worked out why.
Angel shifted a hand in a gesture of agreement but settled angry dark golden eyes on Gaby. Such stunning eyes, she thought with regret at the prospect of what was coming, tawny brown with the glow of honey in sunlight and ringed by lush black spiky lashes.
As the door snapped shut on the lawyer’s exit, Angel stared at her. ‘Right...just get to the point quickly and we’ll wrap this up,’ he urged harshly.
‘What did I ever do to you to deserve such a lack of good manners?’ Gaby asked in helpless condemnation.
A faint rise of red over his high cheekbones told her that she had made a direct hit and the bad side of Gaby rejoiced while the more sensible side of her winced, because riling Angel was scarcely in her best interests in her current predicament.
‘I apologise if I’ve been curt,’ Angel breathed between gritted teeth. ‘But it has been many months since our last meeting in Alharia and naturally I am curious as to why you have demanded this meeting.’
‘It wasn’t a demand, Angel. I believe it was a polite request,’ Gaby protested, struggling to keep her hot temper under control. ‘But since you urged me to get to the point, I’ll do that and free us both from this unpleasant confrontation.’
‘It isnota confrontation!’ Angel bit back at her in a seriously rattled undertone.
‘Oh, I think itiswhen you greet me with a lawyer by your side,’ Gaby contradicted with confidence, an icy flash lightening her blue eyes. ‘Relax, Angel. I’m only here as a courtesy and I have no intention of approaching the press in any shape or form. However, you do have the right to know that I’m...’ she hesitated ‘...pregnant.’
And the word fell like a giant rock dropped into a still pond. That imaginary resounding splash was as loud as the shattering silence.
Later she thought that she would never, as long as she lived, forget the look of pure naked antipathy and contempt that flared in Angel’s lean, hard-boned features as he intoned very drily, ‘Well, if youare, it can’t possibly be mine!’
CHAPTER FOUR
STATEDRIGHTUPFRONT,before she even got the chance to speak in her own defence, Angel’s explicit rebuttal was a daunting challenge.
‘You seem very sure of that,’ Gaby responded without any expression at all, although her small figure was stiff and her face pale. His icy expression and the rigid tension spliced into his lean powerful frame were totally unfamiliar to her. It was as if something had flipped in Angel, something she hadn’t met with in him before.
‘I am. Have you any idea how often I’ve been through this scenario with other women?’ Angel derided with a curled lip. ‘Fourtimes at the last count! I know exactly what happens next. You will threaten me with legal action and take it to court for a DNA test and only then will your claim be exposed for the lie that it is. As I’m sure you know you can make a great deal of money out of the publicity that any paternity case against me will give you.’
‘I’ve already told you that I don’t want publicity and the only claim I would make would be support for our child.’
‘Don’t say “our”!’ Angel incised. ‘It’s offensive! If you are carrying a child, it isnotmine.’
Gaby breathed in slow and deep, tamping down her ire with difficulty. But, if Angel had already been falsely accused on several occasions of having fathered a child, she could at least understand his distrust even if she resented it. ‘I am not those other women, Angel,’ she began. ‘And—’
‘But you’ve just proved that youareby forcing me to meet up with you and trying to pass off some other man’s child as mine!’ Angel condemned, nostrils flared on his classic straight nose, his strong masculine jaw at an aggressive angle. His eyes shimmered gold, narrowed, dagger-sharp and angry.
‘Why are you so convinced that this is not your child? Aside from your outrage that I shoulddareto confront you with this development, please explain,’ Gaby urged thinly. ‘Are you infertile? Specially blessed not to reproduce by your throne? There is no such thing as one hundred per cent efficiency with any form of contraception!’
‘But it’s remarkable how often itallegedlyfails for me,’ Angel intoned very drily.
