Chapter Ten
“What? I can’t move in with you!”
“Why not?” Joaquin asked the question, but then held up a finger as he brought his phone to his ear.
She stewed while he spoke to his driver.
“He’s happy to collect overtime.” He ended the call. “He’ll meet us downstairs in a few minutes.”
“What on earth makes you think I want to move in with you?” she cried.
“Your tone?” he suggested drily as he pulled on his own overcoat.
“Why would you even want me to?” she demanded. The belt on her coat felt too tight.
“Half the building saw us leave together today. I would love to believe I’ve ferreted out all the moles, but rumors are liable to get back to my father. I won’t underestimate what he might do with that information. You can’t work there, not while he’s still trying to reclaim it.”
“You’re not firing me.” She put her foot down.
“No, I’m protecting you,” he said in his most implacable tone. “You heard today how he’s going after Oladele.” He muttered a distracted curse and rubbed his jaw. “I still have to deal with that. But he could target you just as ruthlessly.”
“So I should lie down and let him quash my career before I’ve properly got it off the ground?”
He glowered at her.
She lifted her chin and gave him a too-sweet smile. “Yeah. It turns out I’m smart enough to see the holes in your logic.”
“As your employer,” he said very patronizingly, “and the father of your unborn child, I insist you stay off work until you have your health in order. Then we will discuss if and where you can work.” Oh, he was smug over that.
“I’ll make my own decisions, thank you very much.”
“Then make smart ones!” He opened the door.
“How does quitting my job and moving in with you serve me in any way?”
“We just agreed we’re doing this together.” He nodded at her middle. “How does that happen if I’m in Barcelona and you’re here? Because as soon as this acquisition is finalized, I’m finding a new CEO for LVG and will only be here quarterly.”
“And you expect me to pick up sticks and go to Barcelona with you? For how long?”
“Twenty years?” he replied, shrugging.
“You’re unbelievable.”
The driver arrived at the curb as they exited the building. Siobhan got into the car because she had a feeling Joaquin would have the driver take him to her building regardless.
After ten minutes of stewing in bumper-to-bumper traffic, she leaned forward to ask the driver if he spoke English.
“No, senora,” he said with an apologetic shake of his head.
“No problem,” she assured him in Spanish. “Please disregard any raised voices you hear in the next few minutes.”
The driver chuckled and Siobhan switched to English.
“You don’t get to order me to quit my job and move in with you,” she hissed.
“What are you? A vampire? You’re invited.”
“To be what?” she challenged. “Your houseguest? Are we going from pretending not to be a couple to pretending to be a couple? Will we be roommates who coparent or are you inviting me—” she wrapped the word in a layer of sarcasm “—to start a relationship with you?”
He seemed to retreat a little more into the shadowed backseat. “We’re already in a relationship.”
“Hardly.” He ignored her more often than he spoke to her.
“You’re asking if I want to have sex with you?” he growled. “I think I proved that yesterday.”
A choked noise of embarrassed skepticism left her.
“Again, I was protecting you. The door wasn’t locked,” he reminded her through his teeth. “I don’t care who sees my ass. I’d happily finish what we started right here, right now, but you fainted today so sex is off the table.”
Her pulse skipped at the lewd image he painted. She almost told him the doctor hadn’t said she couldn’t have sex, but she refused to beg for crumbs from him.
“What I’m hearing is you want me to move in with you, be a mother to your child and conveniently sleep with you. Essentially, be a wife without being your wife.”
“We can talk about marriage,” he said with a note of surprise. “I’m open to it.”
“We don’t even know each other! A few weeks ago, you made it clear you weren’t interested in sharing anything more than one night. Not even that,” she reminded hotly. “So excuse me if I don’t rush to move in with a man who might want his baby, but doesn’t really want me.”
He did want her, though. It was torturing him how much he wanted her because he had learned to only care about the things he needed. He would battle to the death over food and air. Sleep was a necessity, but a comfortable bed was a want. Sharing a bed with her was…
An old, twisting sensation went through him, the one that reminded him not to reveal his wants. Wanting her meant exposing a flank. It meant putting her in the line of fire. And their baby? He could hardly stand how vulnerable that made him.
Yet, a dark part of him was pleased her pregnancy forced him to bring her more fully into his life.
“I wasn’t prepared to start something long-term when I met you. Not with all of this going on with my father. A relationship would have been a distraction. But now…”
He sensed her head turn. She was listening attentively.
“I know I’m difficult to read. You’re not the first woman to say so, but I don’t like people to know what I’m thinking or feeling. That’s not comfortable for me.”
“It’s not comfortable for anyone,” she said impatiently, tucking her chin on her palm and her elbow on the armrest as she looked out her side window. “But at least tell me…” She dropped her hands into her lap. “Is that the only reason you gave me the brush-off that night? Or…”
“What?” he prompted.
“It’s not that long since you were engaged. Was I a rebound from that?”
“No.” The car stopped. He stepped out to put an end to the conversation.
His driver opened her door and Joaquin arrived on the sidewalk in time to offer his hand as she rose from the car.
“Thank you,” she said stiffly. “But you don’t have to walk me in. We can talk tomorrow.” She nodded at the car as though dismissing him.
Did she really think she could out-stubborn him? “You’re not spending the night alone. Not until you’ve had all the bloodwork and whatnot from the doctor.”
“What are you going to do? Stare at me while I sleep? Because I don’t see a point in spending time with you if you refuse to talk to me.”
“I’m not refusing.” Just avoiding certain uncomfortable topics. “We’re staying here tonight,” he told his driver. “Come back for me at seven tomorrow morning.”
Siobhan huffed a noise of muted outrage and started toward the front doors.
“What exactly do you want to know?” he asked reluctantly as he caught up to her.
She paused with her key fob in her hand, surprise in her expression. “About your engagement? What was her name? How did you meet her?”
“Esperanza. She works in real estate. She found my penthouse in Barcelona for me.”
“Why did you break up?”
“My father.” He took the fob from her loose grip and waved it at the sensor, then held the door.
“I wasn’t involved in LVG when I proposed, but after Fernando passed, I came here to support Zurina through the funeral.
My father assumed I was here to fight him for LVG and turned his spite onto Esperanza. ”
“In what way?” She wasn’t watching where she was going. She was looking at him so he took her elbow as he led her to the elevator.
“Insults. Tantrums,” he said tiredly. “Veiled threats. Nothing illegal. He’s very clever that way.
And manipulative. When I called him out on his behavior and ordered him from Zurina’s home, he accused me of trying to prevent him from seeing his grandchildren.
I couldn’t be around him without wanting to strangle him.
That’s how he got Zurina to allow him to take over at LVG.
She was trying to keep the peace and lived to regret it.
He still saw me as a threat, though, and began interfering in Esperanza’s real estate deals.
She said she couldn’t marry me if it meant losing her livelihood.
I couldn’t abandon Zurina so I agreed we should break it off. ”
“I think I mentioned not wanting to lose my livelihood,” she muttered as they stepped into the elevator. “Are you…still in love with her?”
“No.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
“Really?” Her eyes flared wide with surprise. “Then why were you planning to spend your life with her?”
“Compatibility?” He shrugged.
“You mean…in bed?” she asked warily.
Dios, she was persistent.
“She didn’t want children,” he said flatly.
Siobhan took a sharp breath, staggering back a step.
“I’m being frank so you don’t think I’m harboring secrets.
” The doors opened and he held them for her.
“Esperanza has a likable personality and she’s very career focused.
Marriage was never a goal for me, but after we’d been seeing each other for a year, she asked if I intended to propose. We were comfortable, so I did.”
“She wasn’t in love, either?”
Here he vacillated before telling the truth. “She said she was,” he admitted. “That’s another reason I didn’t fight her leaving. I didn’t want to lead her on.”
Siobhan stopped at her door, expression deeply vulnerable.
“I’m not built for that sort of depth,” he admitted with a wince, feeling as though he stood on quicksand. He felt inadequate. But it was best to make that clear to her now. “I promise to be a good partner to you, though. I will support you. I will protect you.”
Her brows pulled with uncertainty as she took back her fob and opened her door, striding in ahead of him.
He followed, coming up short as he saw her flat had been overturned.
As she reached for the door on the closet, Joaquin caught her arm and scooped her behind him, corralling her against the door to the hall.
“What—?”
“Leave. Go to your neighbor’s. He might still be here.”
“Who?” Her fists instinctively closed in the folds of his coat.
“Whoever searched the place. I’m calling the police!” he called out, reaching into his pocket. “He’s gone too far this time,” he added in a mutter of barely contained rage.
She peered around him into her silent flat, glimpsing the chaos of wrapping paper, ribbons and unwrapped toys. Nothing else looked amiss.
“Wait,” she said sheepishly. “I left it like this.”
His shoulders dropped. He angled to look down on her, astounded.
“I’ve been trying to do the wrapping all week.
” Acute embarrassment rose in her. She walked into the mess and discarded her coat over a chair, kicking off her shoes.
“I told you it was Christmas when Ramon told me what Gilbert had done. I was actually wrapping gifts.” She waved hopelessly at the wrapping paper she had unrolled across her dining table.
A train set was centered on it. Tape, scissors, ribbons and labels were scattered next to it.
“I used to love this time of year. Now it stresses me out. That’s the real reason I don’t have a tree. Christmas is ruined for me.”
He frowned. “What have you been doing since it happened?”
“Asking Mom and my sisters to join me in Australia.” She pulled her shoulders up defensively.
“It feels different there. It’s summer. We kept it no gifts and went snorkeling or had a barbecue.
I didn’t have to face it. But Cinnia will have all the children there this year.
I couldn’t say no. I want to be there, but also…
” She clutched her stomach. Her chest felt tight.
“This is genuinely difficult for you.” He came across to rub her arms and frown at her.
“It is.” She grimaced at the sheer volume of the task ahead. “I feel so silly for reacting like this, but each time I try to do it, I just can’t.”
“I’ll do it.” He wasn’t laughing at her, which kind of made her feel extra wobbly inside. “Remove your contacts or whatever it was you needed to do.”
“You’re not going to wrap all these gifts,” she said with disbelief.
“I am.” He released her and shifted the train set on the paper. He lifted the roll to better estimate how much was needed then picked up the scissors and slid them in a smooth hiss, cutting a precise line.
“Do you like it?”
“I don’t mind it.” He knew what he was doing, too.
He was economical and very tidy, keeping everything square, folding edges for clean lines, tucking and taping with smooth expertise.
“The first component I manufactured was a type of gaming goggles. My initial order was two thousand. I sold out in three days, partly because I promised to gift wrap them. Do you know how many employees I had at the time?”
She shook her head, bemused.
“One. Me.”
“Really?” A smile tugged at her lips, picturing him both proud and overwhelmed by his own success.
“I had to become very good, very fast.” He pulled a stretch of ribbon from the roll and wrapped it in jaunty angles around the corners of the gift.
He tied it off and, with a quick zip-zip of the scissor blades, bounced a few curlicues into the tails.
He topped it with a bow and offered it to her. “Santa’s helper unlocked.”
It was beautiful.
And it was such a kind gesture, she thought she might cry.