Sighing, Diana leaned back in her chair. She didn’t want to burst her mother’s bubble by informing her that women without reproductive organs most certainly couldn’t have babies, no matter how miraculous, so she abstained.
Swallowing the ball of emotion forming in her larynx, Diana knew she had to tell her the rest of it.
“It isn’t just the condoms… If it were that, I would have told him anyway. Condoms rip, they slip, they expire.” She looked down at her lap where the old coffee stain on her sweatpants was the most interesting thing ever. “David Brenner had an accident years ago, and he was diagnosed as sterile. He shouldn’t be able to have children…so he won’t believe that he did with me.”
There were two twin gasps, and then there was silence. That silence carried more shock than any words they could have spoken.
Chapter 11
She hadn’t been at the party celebrating her own employer’s win in his libel case. She hadn’t been in her office when he’d gone to invite Rick to lunch—not even once of the four bloody times he’d been there that week. Even Rick had noticed that he’d been around more than expected, necessary, or was logical. David kept making excuses to invite him out, and he kept accepting, but David knew his friend was suspicious.
But what else could he do? The woman was making herself invisible, and he knew that even if he used the number Alexei had found for her personal mobile she wouldn’t answer. Why would she?
“It’s like she’s fucking avoiding me,” he grumbled, tossing back the last of his Glenlivet, and roughly replacing the tumbler on the counter in his state-of-the-art, high end, chef’s kitchen. He’d never used it, but he employed a personal chef, and he was absolutely bloody brilliant. Right now, though, the kitchen, just like the rest of his penthouse flat, was empty save himself. And that’s how he liked it. There was no girlfriend to accommodate, no guests to make comfortable, no household staff to monitor… It was just him, his own needs, his own thoughts—and damn those thoughts for continuing to return to one blonde-haired, green-eyed, curvaceous paralegal who seemed determined to act as thought the night they’d shared hadn’t been the best fucking experience of her life. Not that that was the reason he was seeking her out; there was something about her that made the tension in his body skyrocket. He couldn’t help it, his gut told him there was more to her—to their encounter—than a simple one-night stand.
Certainly, he was the one to approach her in the bar, he was the one who asked her up to his room, and he was the one to strip every piece of clothing from her delectable body before he even thought to remove his own. He’d been a man possessed, hungry for her, the woman who smelled of sweet peaches, and he wanted to devour her whole.
Expecting her to be there the next morning, since he’d gone against his instincts to kick her from his bed after their third go ‘round, he was shocked to find she had taken flight. He’d searched the suite for her, wondering if she’d just decided to make herself at home (he wouldn’t put it past a woman to try and extend their stay in his post-coital presence), but she hadn’t been there.
He wanted to believe that his anger was because she’d left him instead of the other way around, but he came to realize since that he was angry at himself for even giving a moment’s thought to inviting her to stay the morning, eat breakfast with him, and then spend the rest of that Saturday in bed, exploring one another’s bodies.
But the desire to see her wasn’t his attempt to demand closure, there was more to it than that. There had to be. There must have been a reason she kept her association with Rick Ayers a secret. Were there company policies against fraternizing with clients? That could very well be it, it would explain why she’d made herself scarce, why she’d left the morning after before he could even lay eyes on her again. And why she’d refused his generous offer of a ride that day outside her doctor’s office.
But he couldn’t get his mind to accept that reasoning.
Diana Bluth was a woman; women often threw aside all caution and risks to gain the attentions of a man like him. She was no different. She’d been in a bar filled with other women, seeking rich and lonely men to seduce, and she’d gone with him easily enough—though, he was far more charming than most all mortal men. And he didn’t look half bad, either.
There was something going on with Diana, and the sensation of weighted apprehension he got whenever he thought of her meant that the something had to do with him. At least that’s where all the signs were pointing.
Immediately, his mind conjured images of Rinna, smiling up at him coyly. There was desire in her eyes, but also a devious glint, one he should have noticed before things got too deep between them. But, he’d been so wrapped up in her beauty and glamor, that he’d chosen to ignore anything that could reveal his weaknesses. Rinna was a weakness he was glad to finally purge, and he refused to let another woman catch him in her silky web. Never again.
Which meant he and lovely Diana were due for a conversation, one in which he would demand answers, she would give them, and he would dismiss her from his life forever.
After he fucked her enough to get her out of his system, of course.
Picking up his mobile, he dialed the number of the PI he’d worked with on a number of corporate “research” assignments. He was David’s go-to man for the ugly work of uncovering the truth
