Proof Of Their One Hot Night by Emmy Grayson
CHAPTER NINE
CALANDRA’SEYESWIDENED, just a fraction, but enough to show her surprise.
God, he’d missed this. Four months of no witty banter, no gray eyes snapping at him, no cool retorts that heated his blood. Compared to the uncertainty regarding Cabrera Shipping’s future and his father’s threats, Calandra’s familiar presence, not to mention her incredible revelation, were rays of light warming him during one of the most challenging times of his life.
His eyes drifted down once more to her stomach. In five months, he would meet his child.
His child.He hadn’t really contemplated having children before. His casual romances and liaisons had excluded that type of commitment, one even more binding than a marriage license. Most probably assumed his first thought would have been horror.
Surprisingly, the more he’d thought about it after their conversation yesterday, reflected on Calandra’s dream of taking their child to the top of the Eiffel Tower, the chief emotion had been wonder. Wonder and excitement.
However, he reminded himself, only if the woman across from him would let him be a part of their child’s life. Yes, he could absolutely throw his weight around, hire lawyers and drag her to court. And if he had to, he would.
But that was something his father would do. Wowing, charming or even seducing what he wanted from Calandra was preferable to following in his father’s footsteps in any fashion.
The thought of Javier taking away the one thing he’d dedicated himself to, the company he’d literally poured blood and sweat into, made his chest burn with the same fury he’d felt the day he’d discovered Javier in the library with his cheating bitch.
Now, though, it wasn’t Javier’s threats and attempts to control his life that pushed him. The determination to be the father Javier never had been added a light to the darkness. Even if Cabrera Shipping fell apart, he’d have a son or daughter. He’d fought for Cabrera Shipping, poured his soul into something for the first time in years. But it was something that had been gifted to him, a scrap thrown to the mongrel of the family. La Reina was the first thing in his life that would be his. Yet Javier had even managed to taint that with his interference.
The baby was the first thing he’d cared about that his father couldn’t take away from him. And he’d be damned if he was going to let Calandra keep him from his child.
Alejandro grinned at Calandra, his casual smile hiding his turmoil. By the end of this week, she’d agree to his terms.
“Your father wants to head Cabrera Shipping?”
Her cold question snapped him out of his erotic musings. Anyone would have thought her completely in control, ivory skin so smooth and pale she could have been carved from marble.
Only he saw the drum of her fingers on her thigh, the pulse beating just below the elegant curve of her jaw.
“Yes.”
A tiny V appeared between her brows. “Why? Doesn’t he already oversee multiple other businesses?”
He glanced down at his drink, his muscles tightening as the memory of that phone call echoed in his head.
“Cabrera Shipping is losing money, Alejandro. Fix it.”A heavy sigh. “Or I’ll have to fix it for you.”
“I mentioned we’re behind on construction, yes?”
“Yes. Two ships?”
“Yes. By about a month on one and three on another. It may not seem like much, but four weeks behind means two to three trips down the drain. Millions upon millions of dollars in cargo going to other shippers.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. Unfortunate,” he added with a flippancy he didn’t feel. “But the loss has, understandably, made stakeholders and the board nervous. Convincing them to spend more money on renovating an aging ship when we just lost so much and saw clients move, at least temporarily, to other companies is not an easy feat.” He leaned into the plush cushions of his seat and closed his eyes as the enormity of the task before him weighed on his shoulders. “My father, the majority stakeholder, does not support the alternative use of La Reina. He holds considerable influence over the board. If they vote no on this proposal, Cabrera Shipping will no longer be mine.”
“That seems harsh.”
He shrugged, the casual gesture masking decades of pain. “He’s not a kind man. I see the loss in revenue as a temporary setback. He sees it as a catastrophic blow to our bottom line. Not that he was a fan of my idea about La Reina to begin with. In his mind it’s further evidence that I have no head for business. I’m squandering company finances to create a playground for the rich.”
Sentiments his father had expressed multiple times over the last few weeks. Thankfully, the comments had been delivered over the phone so Javier couldn’t see the effect his lack of faith had on his middle son.
Ridiculous, really. Alejandro loathed his father. Had for over twenty years now. His opinion shouldn’t matter.
Silence. At last, he opened his eyes. Calandra stared out the window at the ground passing by, one hand resting lightly on her belly.
Despite the warmth of the afternoon, she wore her customary black. Slashes of black eyeliner reminded him of war paint instead of makeup.
Still, she’d softened since he’d last seen her. He’d first glimpsed it on the Eiffel Tower yesterday, but now he saw it in more vivid detail. Perhaps it was the gentle curve of her lips as her fingers traced back and forth over her stomach. Or maybe it was the occasional flashes of emotion he caught on her face, glimpses into the woman who’d seduced him with her intelligence and no-nonsense attitude.
“Why do you want to repurpose La Reina?”
An innocent question he wanted to answer glibly. But she sounded like she truly wanted to know, a notion that made his chest swell with pride.
“La Reina was the first ship I sailed on when I took over.” He could still taste the salt of the sea the first time the bow had carved through the waves of the Atlantic. His first bit of freedom from the confines of the persona he’d trapped himself in. “Helped out on the crew to understand how everything worked. She’s thirty years old, which is ancient in cargo ship years. But it’s hard to picture the old girl being sailed off to a graveyard and stripped down to nothing.”
“That’s an expensive endeavor for the sake of nostalgia.”
“Nostalgia’s part of it,” he conceded. “But I want Cabrera Shipping to go in a new direction. Our latest ships are being constructed to meet new environmental standards. I want La Reina to be a part of that trend, not contributing to waste but being reused.”
An unexpected wistfulness crossed Calandra’s face. “I wasn’t expecting that sort of viewpoint from someone so...”
“So what?”
Naked pain flashed in her eyes before she shut down, misty silver shifting to steel gray in a heartbeat. Her fingers clenched around the armrest for the briefest of moments before he saw her intentionally relax her body and recline back.
“Someone who views people as inconsequential, playthings to be discarded when they cease being interesting.”
The harsh remark hit him hard. He started to retort, to snap out a comment that both covered his pain and delivered a blow of his own, but stopped. Unlike his father, her words weren’t designed to hurt. They were coming from a different place, something rooted in Calandra’s past.
“Do you truly think that of me?”
She continued to stare, so intensely that he had to stop himself from shifting in his seat beneath her perusal.
“I don’t know what to think,” she finally said. The coldness slipped, and he got a glimpse of vulnerability in the crinkling of her eyes, the little V between her brows. “One minute I think I have you figured out and the next...”
She blinked and the vulnerability disappeared. “Tell me more about the event. What you want to accomplish, what you envision, what still needs to be done.”
So, he did. He talked for what felt like forever, though a glance at his watch revealed it had only been thirty minutes or so. No one, not even the board members who supported La Reina, had shown as much interest as Calandra did.
It was unsettling, the way she watched him so attentively. Like she could see everything about him. The women he’d dated the past year had been the exact opposite. They’d never looked past his money, the fancy cars or the glamorous vacations he whisked them off to on his private jet.
However, no matter how much he was embracing this new phase of life, he had no desire to invite a woman into it permanently. As far as the world knew, he was having too much too fun to settle down.
Let them think whatever they like.
Being a father to their child would enable him to step up and be a parent the way Javier had never been. But marriage...no one, not even his parents, had managed to maintain a true and loving relationship. His mother didn’t know it, but she was married to a lie.
He didn’t want to even tempt that kind of fate. Nor, that nasty little voice in his head whispered, did he want to risk the other possibility.
That he was more like his father than he wanted to admit. That one woman would never be enough.
“Before you dive in, you need to see the ship.” He glanced out the window and spied the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean on the horizon. “We’re close. Once we land, I’ve arranged for you to tour La Reina.”
“Good idea. Who’s giving me the tour?” she asked.
He grinned. “Me.”
An hour later, he watched Calandra as she circled around the ballroom for what had to be the ninth time. Eyes flickering over every last detail, her face revealing nothing.
He glanced over the ballroom. Most of the floor had been done in white marble flecked with gray, with a light gray wood for the dance floor in the middle. White columns soared up to the ceiling. A custom, hand-blown glass chandelier dominated the room, casting a warm glow over the tables below.
The all white had not been his first choice. Adrian’s dining room in Paris was all white. Boring. Flat. Interesting to see how long that color scheme lasted once his and Everleigh’s child started running around.
But here...here it screamed elegance. Wealth. Power.
Even if the board voted against this endeavor and Javier yanked Cabrera Shipping away from him, he would make La Reina a success. Everyone, including his father, thought he squandered his money. Few knew that ever since he’d taken over a year after college, he’d stashed away most of his profits in a Swiss bank account. He’d spend every last dime he had until the very end if he had to.
Well, almost every last dime, he amended as he glanced again at Calandra. Hiring her had solved two problems—knowing his event was in good hands and finding a way to get her to accept money. He’d had a private investigator look into her circumstances. He knew she and her sister were living in a tiny house in a little town on the coast. He knew the exact amount of her bank account. Her savings, while admirable, would barely cover her medical bills and living expenses through the end of the year.
Stubborn woman.
“It’s beautiful,” she said as she joined him.
Having her approval shouldn’t affect him. But it did.
“Gracias.”
“I have an appointment tomorrow with the caterer to confirm details. Then Thursday for final planning and evaluation—”
“And hopefully some time in there for us to spend together.”
Her brows drew together. “What?”
“We’re supposed to be getting to know each other. Not in the biblical sense, of course, since we already checked that box.”
“Twice,” she replied dryly with that so-sexy arched brow. But sadly, the flirtatious glint disappeared as quickly as it had unexpectedly appeared. “I have a lot of work to do, Alejandro.”
“I’ll accompany you.”
She held up a hand. “No. I work best alone.”
He frowned. Being told no was not something he was used to. Nor, he acknowledged as his jaw tightened, did he like it.
“Dinner, then. This week.”
The narrowing of her eyes indicated a protest was incoming.
“I insist.”
She chewed on her lower lip, a gesture of consternation but one that nonetheless conjured images of her naked, stretched across his bed and watching him not with an icy gaze but a hot stare that demanded he come over, strip off his clothes and join her.
It had been way too long since he’d had sex.
“Fine.”
She turned and started toward the exit. For some reason, the sight of her walking away nicked his pride. He caught up to her in several swift strides.
“Where are you going?”
“Into Marseille. I have a lot of work to do.”
“You do know most of the vendors have phone numbers. There’s no need to traipse around and tire yourself. I can take you back, or,” he added testily, “if you’ve tired of my company, I can send for the limo.”
She stopped so quickly and turned around that he nearly careened into her.
And then they were close. Too close.
“I don’t need your limo.” Her voice was eerily calm, devoid of emotion, as was the rest of her countenance.
Save her eyes. Those glittered with some emotion he couldn’t discern. Normally he could read women with astonishing accuracy. It’s why they enjoyed him so much. He knew, and gave, exactly what they wanted.
What did Calandra Smythe want?
He watched her for a moment, eyes sliding down the curve of her neck, the slenderness of her waist, although now as he looked closer he saw the tiniest swell beneath her black dress.
That’s my child.
The thought simultaneously thrilled and terrified him. He wanted to be a part of that child’s life more than anything. But could he do it? Could he be a better father than his own?
“I was very successful when I worked for Cabrera Wines,” Calandra replied testily. “That is why you hired me, right?”
“Of course.”
“Not because you’re trying to pad my bank account?”
“I would never be so underhanded.”
She stared at him for a long, long moment. Then leaned in closer.
He went hard. Almost instantly. His eyes caressed her smooth, pale face, the column of her neck, the enticing place where her pulse pounded at the base of her throat...
His gaze snapped up. Calandra Smythe was just as affected as he was. Her pupils dilated as a slow smile curved across his face. Her lips parted. Her quick intake of breath sent heat careening through his veins.
“Let me do my job, Alejandro.” Her words came out breathy this time, all sense of calm laid waste by the attraction crackling between them. “And for the rest of the day, please leave me alone.”
She turned away again and started for the door. This time, he didn’t pursue. The uncharted territories of parenthood and interest in a woman beyond her body were unfamiliar and uncomfortable.
But the game of seduction was one he knew very well.
He had one week. One week to impress, to woo, to get her to agree not only to let him be involved in their child’s life, but to perhaps have her in his bed once more. The thought of feeling her body beneath him, of the novelty of making love to the woman who carried his child within her, made him positively giddy.
“Your wish is my command.”
She didn’t respond, didn’t even acknowledge she’d heard him, as she disappeared into the main corridor.
Unexpected parenthood. His company on the brink of being torn from his grasp. His arrogant bastard of a father still interfering in his life. With all the uncertainty, and all the things that could possibly go wrong, he should have felt concerned, on edge, nervous.
All that paled in comparison to the memory of that sharp intake of breath.
His smile grew wider still. In one week, he would achieve his desires. Cabrera Shipping. La Reina. His child.
And Calandra Smythe in his bed.