Proof Of Their One Hot Night by Emmy Grayson

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ALEJANDROKNOCKEDONCalandra’s door. He’d closed the laptop on his meeting in the library and come straight to the guest suite. Over the last eleven hours, eight of them had been spent poring over records and reports or engaging in heated arguments with his sire.

If he wasn’t exhausted, he would question why his first thought had been to come see Calandra. However, since he could barely keep his eyes open, he didn’t care to examine his reasoning. He just wanted to see her. Her offer of time together had been an olive branch, one that had surprised him after last night’s acrimonious parting. Pride had inspired his refusal. Pain had flared in her eyes, spurring his flight from the patio.

Coward.

This time, he didn’t shove the thought aside. He’d labeled his previous departures from uncomfortable situations as spur-of-the-moment, a distaste for conflict or, in the case of his father, survival.

But the more he thought about it, the more he realized those had just been excuses. Excuses for running away.

Just like your father.

The thought angered him. He was nothing like his father.

But aren’t you?that nasty little voice whispered. Javier had rarely been a part of family functions, from dinners to vacations. But after Alejandro’s discovery, he’d been even more absent.

He hadn’t been lying about his meetings with Javier. Yet he’d grabbed onto that excuse with both hands. Had seen the hurt flare in her eyes, felt the vulnerable price she’d paid and the pain of rejection in his soul.

The same rejection he’d experienced when she called last night a mistake. The same rejection that, no matter how many successes he’d accumulated, his father still heaped on his shoulders with every criticism of Cabrera Shipping, every snide remark about the women he spent time with—as if the bastard had any room to talk.

The truth of what had happened that morning—that instead of savoring the victory of having Calandra finally offer him what he wanted, he’d run away like a damned pollo—had clung to him like a shroud. The stronger the rain had pounded against the window of his office, the blacker his mood had grown. To the point that when Javier had asked in that brisk, holier-than-thou tone if Alejandro would prefer to continue their review at a later date, he hadn’t hesitated to say yes.

Javier had blinked, eyes so round with surprise he’d reminded Alejandro of an owl.

“What?”

“I said sí.”

“But—”

“We both know you’ll make the decisions in the end, Javier, especially if you get your way Saturday night. So,” he continued, ignoring his father’s gaping mouth, “if you don’t mind, I have something more important to deal with.”

Slamming the computer screen shut on Javier’s face had been gratifying and fortified him for the long trek through the villa to the guest quarters.

And now he stood there, waiting to see which Calandra would open the door. The cold, efficient planner? The passionate lover? Or the vulnerable woman who hid so well behind her wall of ice?

He rubbed the bridge of his nose. A couple days ago, everything had seemed so simple. But he’d been so focused on getting her to see him that he hadn’t thought about what getting to know her would do to him. To be reminded not just of their mind-numbing, body-tingling sexual heat, but of the rapport they’d unknowingly developed over the years.

Knowing her better, seeing the woman who cared about supporting a small culinary school and who would fight tooth and nail for her baby, and feeling the urge to share more and more of himself, placed him at a crossroads. He was free-falling into an intoxicating, terrifying emotional tangle he’d never experienced before.

The temptation to go to one of Marseille’s lavish clubs, imbibe too many cocktails and leave with some beautiful dancer who would make him forget the last twenty-four hours had been strong last night. But when he thought about actually kissing another woman, touching someone else after what he’d shared with Calandra, he couldn’t do it.

He didn’t want to seduce just for the sake of physical pleasure. Not anymore. He wanted something more. If someone were to ask him what, he wouldn’t be able to answer. Not yet.

Calandra was at the crux of all this confusion. Maybe more time would not only get him what he wanted in regard to their child, but some answers for this web of feelings he’d become ensnared in.

A shuffling came from behind the door. A moment later a click sounded, and the door swung open.

“Alejandro?”

He didn’t even bother trying to hide his stare. In loose linen pants and a seashell-pink tank top, hair unbound and flowing over her shoulders, she looked stunning. The shirt brought out the faintest rosiness in her cheeks. She wore no makeup, no battle paint slashed across her eyelids or bloodred stain on her lips that made women eye her with envy and men with desire and intimidation.

This was Calandra at her rawest. And he couldn’t stop looking.

“Is everything all right?” she asked hesitantly.

“You’re wearing color.”

She glanced down with a frown. “Yes. My usual pants are a little tight. My sister insisted on helping me pack before I flew out and must have snuck them into my suitcase.” She tugged at the shirt hem. “The last time I let her do that.”

“You look beautiful.” Her eyes narrowed, and she opened her mouth. He held up his hand. “Just take the compliment.”

She stared at him for a moment, then inclined her head toward him. “Thank you.”

He bit back a grin.

“Would you like to take a walk with me?”

She eyed his outstretched hand with uncertainty. “A walk?”

“Yes. You move one foot in front of the other and—”

“Thank you.” She shook her head. “You’ll fit right in with a child since you have the humor of one.”

His heart beat a little faster. After last night, he’d been certain that their heated encounter on the yacht had done anything but convince her he was father material. He’d never been good at waiting, had wanted to press her for an answer, but he didn’t. This was by far the most important thing he had ever wanted. It was worth a little patience.

The most important thing?

He pondered that for a moment, held the thought in his hand and weighed being a father against maintaining control over Cabrera Shipping.

Yes.

“Where are we walking to?”

“Just along the beach. The storm has passed and the sun’s setting.”

Calandra arched a brow. “I thought you were busy with your father?”

“I was. But an entire day with him is more than enough.”

Finally, she reached out and took his hand. His fingers closed around hers for the second time in less than twenty-four hours as possession reared its head.

“Shall we?”

He managed to escort her out onto the back patio without dropping a kiss on her bare shoulder. Impressive, given that last night he’d locked himself in his suite with an erection so hard even stroking himself hadn’t helped. It had taken a very, very cold shower to cool his ardor.

And even that hadn’t stopped him from waking up with his hardness throbbing, muscles taut with desire.

If all he could do right now was hold her hand, then he would do it.

They walked along the beach, the sand still warm from the sun.

“If you’re free tomorrow, I’ve canceled my meeting with him.”

Her hand tightened in his. A quick glance at her face revealed nothing.

Then, finally, “I can make some time. Where are we going?”

“Somewhere.”

“Somewhere like...?”

“Somewhere like it’s a secret.”

Her customary roll of the eyes, but this time it was coupled with a small twitch of her lips.

Companionable silence descended, backlit by the ocean waves crashing onto the beach and the damp sand clinging to their bare feet. They circled a bleached hunk of driftwood and headed back toward the house.

“I met your father a couple years ago. I don’t recall him coming across as controlling or patronizing.”

Alejandro’s laughter sounded just like his padre’s—sharp and harsh.

“No, he doesn’t. He presents one face to the ‘genteel world’ and another to those he thinks are beneath him. I fall into the latter category.”

“What makes you say that?”

Did she see the sudden rise in his chest as he breathed in deeply, trying to control the anger that was never far out of reach when he thought about Javier?

“He’s been breathing down my neck since I took over Cabrera Shipping. Every time I’ve brought up La Reina, he points out every possible scenario where the whole plan falls apart. Never anything that could go right.”

Calandra frowned. “Perhaps he’s worried about you.”

This time his laughter rang out down the beach, startling a couple of seagulls who squawked in indignation and took flight.

“My father doesn’t get worried about me. He gets worried about three things—my mother, business and if I’m going to do something to embarrass him.”

Her frown deepened. “Have you embarrassed him often?”

“Oh, all the time,” he responded cheerfully. “It became a bit of a game in my Eton days. How far could I push him until he snapped.”

“Oh.”

The way she said it made it sound as if she’d just had a revelation.

“Oh?”

“Sometimes I see a different side of you. This morning when you stood up to your father. Yesterday with Suzie. That night in New York...”

“That night in New York?” His casual tone belied his erection hardening once more, so heavy the cloth of his jeans rubbed against his hot skin. “Hmm...not coming to mind. Perhaps you can describe it for me. In lurid detail, please. My mind’s a bit fuzzy.”

“If I did describe it, I imagine you wouldn’t be able to finish our walk,” she said dryly.

“Touché. By the way...” He leaned in, savored the flare of heat in her gaze. “If we ever make love again, it’ll be because you initiated.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I did last night.”

The pert response, delivered with such class, made him grin.

“I want you.” He leaned in closer still. There would be no doubt in her mind that he wanted her. “But I’m not going to jeopardize my future with our child by overstepping.”

As soon as she made that first move, he would take up the reins and show her everything one night of sex and a hot session of foreplay hadn’t afforded them.

“Now that that’s established, back to your fascinating psychological profile of my father.”

She glanced at him from beneath her lashes. Would she choose now to challenge him?

“I just wonder if, deep down, your father responds like that because he’s worried about you. Worried you’ll get caught by some gold digger.”

Nothing like talking about his father to cool his libido. “Not his style.” The cavalier response covered a bone-deep hurt, that of a young boy whose father had no time for him as he traveled the world.

They reached the stone path leading back up to the villa. Electric lanterns lit the walk, casting a romantic glow over the landscape.

“I pulled out the file I’ve been keeping on La Reina, some of the old ships that inspired her renovation.” He nodded toward the floor-to-ceiling windows of his office, glinting in the light from the setting sun. “I can show them to you.”

“I’d like that. I got a good impression when I toured, but more information is always better.”

Pride straightened his shoulders. He’d shown the plans to plenty of people, some who had appreciated, some who had seen dollar signs and some who had seen nothing but an old ship. Sharing the plans with someone who would not only see the business possibilities but the motivation, the inspiration, made him feel as excited as a child showing off their first school drawing.

They walked across the lawn and up the stairs to the glass doors that led into his office. Calandra stopped in the doorway as he flicked on the lights.

“What?”

She surveyed the room for a moment, narrowed eyes darting back and forth. “Just looking.”

He turned and looked over the cathedral-size room, trying to see it through her eyes. Sleek gold-and-white office furniture sat atop a shiny, black marble floor. A modern white desk was positioned in one corner, the black executive chair facing the bank of windows that looked out over the backyard.

The first time his father had set foot in this office, it had done exactly what it was supposed to do—made him grimace and shift uncomfortably in the chair placed in the middle of the room, directly across from Alejandro’s desk. A trick he’d learned from Adrian’s office in Granada.

But now, as Calandra walked through, her eagle eyes missing nothing, something shifted. Something uncomfortable. She saw the office for what it was. Something he’d picked because it was what people expected, not because it was what he wanted.

Her eyes landed on the one untidy space in the room—the mound of paperwork spread across the desk.

“What’s all this?”

“Research. If the worst should happen, at least I’ll go down fighting. Use the money I have saved up to make a go of La Reina on my own.”

Her gray eyes fixed on him.

“I stand by what I said.”

He arched a brow. “Which part?”

She gestured to the stack of papers. “I knew you were in charge of Cabrera Shipping. But I didn’t realize you took such an active interest in the company.”

“Thought I just drank and smoked cigars and laid about with models while much lesser paid men took care of the real work?”

Her blush reappeared, but she didn’t blink. “Yes.”

“I do. Did,” he amended. “Not as much the past year.”

“Why?”

“Cabrera Shipping took up more of my time.” He glanced down at the two-dimensional rendering of La Reina’s top deck, his fingers tracing the lines with pride. “The company has always been the one thing I felt tied to. But it was still given to me by my father. I didn’t earn it.” Bitterness warred with the discomfort of knowing his increasingly outrageous antics in college had not given Javier any incentive to bestow one of his more lucrative holdings upon his middle son. “At the time I inherited it, I hadn’t done much with my life. The company was not in good shape. My father probably thought it was a safe bet to give me because they were already planning for it to die.”

“And then you did the impossible.”

It was ridiculous how much warmth her words triggered.

“I did. Ruined my father’s expectations again,” he added with a cheerful note that belied the pain of rejection that still stung so many years later, “just in a different way. But La Reina is the first thing that’s truly mine. Well, that and...” He nodded toward her stomach. “Two things now. So long as I didn’t make too big of a mistake last night.”

She flinched, and he inwardly cursed.

“I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad, Calandra, just—”

She held up a hand. “Don’t. I said it this morning, but I’ll say it again. I’m so very sorry, Alejandro, for the way I treated you last night. I was embarrassed by my own behavior and I took it out on you.”

He risked a step in her direction. “Why?”

“Because I’ve never acted like that. And I...” Her voice trailed off, grew quiet. “I don’t want to make the same mistakes.”

“The same mistakes as your mother?”

She moved over to a window and looked out over the ocean, the waves capped with the oranges and reds of the setting sun, her back to him. Her hair tumbled uncharacteristically down her back, but her neck was straight as a board, shoulders thrust back proudly.

But now he knew to look for the other signs. The tension tightening her muscles, arms wrapped around her waist. Funny how he’d always thought of those gestures as cold, a lack of interest in people or relationships. He knew better now, the depth of emotion she was capable of, the relationships she could build with people like Suzie in a matter of hours.

“My father...” She paused and inhaled deeply. “My father was very wealthy. Not quite Cabrera level of wealth, but wealthy enough that we had a house on Lake Geneva.”

Alejandro’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?”

Her gaze stayed trained on the landscape outside, but he noted the slight tightening of her arms, as if she were hugging herself tighter. An ache built in his chest and he almost stepped forward, to pull her back against his chest and cradle her, to make her feel safe as she finally opened up.

That last thought stopped him. Would she lean into his embrace? Or would his touch snap her out of her confession and drive her away? It wasn’t worth the risk to find out. So he fisted his hands at his sides and listened.

“The wealth didn’t last. After he died and Aunt Norine came to collect Johanna and me, we found out that he’d maxed out his credit, held two mortgages on the house and hadn’t paid on loans for his car in months. He used money to control, to manipulate.”

A piece of the puzzle slid into place. Her aversion to money, her insistence on paying for everything. No wonder she had reacted to the teddy bear with such disdain. He’d taken her lack of enjoyment personally, a rejection of him and his attempt to start being a part of their child’s life. And she hadn’t wanted to be manipulated by lavish gifts.

“He sounds like an ass.”

His bald comment startled a small laugh from her. She glanced over her shoulder, the sunlight playing with her dark hair and creating beautiful streaks of orangish gold that brought out the rosiness in her cheeks. She looked as she had last night when she’d smiled up at Suzie—soft. Warm. Alive.

How had he ever thought her cold?

“My early years with him were pleasant.” She started to circle around the room, eyes roving over everything but him. “Picnics on the lakeshore. Train rides around Europe. Summers at beach resorts. He and my mother were happy.” She stopped by a globe in the corner, the map covered with little red Cs that marked the location of a Cabrera business, and ran a finger over the blue of an ocean. “Until they weren’t. Until my mother realized she, and I, were nothing more than passing fancies. The more she held on, the more my father tried to escape through spending sprees and other women.” She spun the globe, eyes focused on the earth as it revolved. “He loved new things, the more expensive the better. So he tried to appease her with things he thought would make her happy. Jewelry. Clothes. A new car. And all she wanted was his love.”

Beneath her detached recitation of her parents’ failed marriage, he caught something else.

“What did you want, Calandra?”

Silence descended, save for the soft whish of the globe as it spun.

And then, so softly he almost didn’t hear it: “The same thing.”

He moved to her then, reached out and took her limp hand in his. When she didn’t look, didn’t respond to his touch, he gave in to a desire he’d never experienced before and laid his fingers gently on her cheek, guiding her face up until her eyes met his.

Eyes that had turned steely once more. Except this time he wasn’t going to back away. Not when he knew so much more about her, about why one minute she was passion incarnate and the next disappeared behind her icy exterior. He’d seen in it in her eyes last night, felt it in her lips beneath his, heard it the tiny sigh that had set his body aflame with desire.

She wanted him. She wanted him just as badly as he wanted her.

“How is wanting lovemaking the same mistake as your mother?”

“She died,” Calandra said flatly. “I loved her. But by the end she was weak. She left two daughters alone with a father who treated us more like dolls to be dressed up in couture as a sign of his prominence instead of his children.” Her free hand drifted to her stomach, fingers splaying across her belly. “I will never let my child experience the pain of being abandoned.”

“And you think I would abandon it?”

Her face twisted into a frown of confusion. “I did... I don’t know...” A heavy sigh escaped her lips. “I don’t know what to think anymore, Alejandro. You tie me up in knots and I can’t think straight.”

Focus.Focus on the fact that she wasn’t running away, that she wasn’t pushing him out, and not on how she had, at least at one point, thought he would abandon their child once he got bored. That someone else thought so little of him.

Although, his mind argued, he had brought it on himself. Until recently, Calandra had seen mainly what he’d allowed the world to see. A carousing billionaire without a care in the world. Few saw the serious side, the dedicated CEO, the hard worker. Easier, and more fun, to live up to the expectation of not doing much except partying his life away.

Safer, too, if he was being completely honest with himself. Safer than trying and risking failure. Hurt. Rejection.

“Let’s take a break from the serious talk.” For her sake, he assured himself. Not because he was trying to avoid confronting unpleasant truths of his own. “But know this, Calandra—I will never abandon our child.”

No scoffing. No roll of the eyes. Just the slightest nod that filled him with relief and a touch of panic. What if he couldn’t fulfill that promise? What if he did fail and hurt not just his child, but Calandra, too?

Calandra yawned, and he jumped onto the reprieve she offered. “I’ll escort you back to your room so you can get some sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow.”

“Where are we going, anyway?” she asked as he tugged her toward the door.

“It’s a surprise.” One that, despite his inner turmoil, he was very grateful he’d planned out given her revelations tonight. “Trust me.”