Pregnant By The Ceo: Sensible Housekeeper, Scandalously Pregnant / She's Having the Boss's Baby / The Baby Who Saved Dr Cynical

Lie! A voice inside her screamed. Lie!

But she could not. Even after everything she’d done, she could not look into his face and deny him the truth that was obvious. Everything about their son looked exactly like Rafael, from his black hair to his beautiful gray eyes.

“Is he my son?” Rafael said in a low voice.

Closing her eyes as if bracing for a blow, she took a deep breath.

“Yes,” she whispered.

The simple, clipped word from her lips—Yes—nearly caused Rafael to stagger back, as if struck by a mortal blow. Even though he’d known the truth from the instant he saw the baby on Louisa’s hip.

But hearing the word, beads of sweat broke out over his forehead. His entire body felt like ice.

She’d had his baby. And she hadn’t told him.

Louisa had caused him to unknowingly abandon his son.

His hands tightened as he stared at her across the warmth of the bakery. A large group of tourists entered the shop behind him with a happy chime of the bell.

With a snarl, Rafael opened his mouth to speak, to accuse. Grabbing his arm, still holding her baby against her hip, Louisa pulled Rafael up the flight of stairs behind the counter.

At the top of the stairs, he looked grimly at the second-floor apartment around him. It was a small, pretty, feminine home. Anxiously tugging on his arm, Louisa pulled him into a bedroom and closed the door behind him.

“Please understand,” she said desperately, turning to face him. “You left me no choice!”

He stared around the small room. It contained a single bed, a crib and a changing table. The bed was covered by a handmade quilt. On the wall over the crib, soft fabric letters spelled out N-O-A-H beside a framed picture of a giraffe that looked like it was from an old children’s book.

There was no lavish luxury here. This apartment wasn’t a palace, but it was homey and cozy. It was bright and warm. The bedroom was decorated with warmth and simplicity—and kept absolutely clean.

Warmth. Love. Care. Everything Louisa had denied Rafael for the last year and a half. Along with the truth. Along with his child.

The rage of betrayal ripped through him.

“Rafael, please. Won’t you talk to me?”

Slowly he turned back to stare at her. He’d thought Louisa Grey was different from any woman he’d known. He’d thought her an intelligent woman with a bright mind and a rare sense of dignity—of loyalty. In the years she’d worked for him, he’d looked forward to seeing her every night after he returned from a date. He’d become accustomed to seeing dark eyes gleam through her glasses as she made him a late-night turkey-and-baguette and listened with some amusement to his latest dating woes, which always involved some woman going to pieces after he dumped her.

“It’s your own fault, you know,” she’d chided him gently. “You treat them badly.”

“I make them no promises,” he’d protested. “I tell them our affair cannot last. I am not a man made for marriage.”

“You might tell them that, but your eyes say something else,” she’d said quietly. “I’ve seen you. You look at every woman as if she, and only she, might be the one to make you faithful.”

Rafael exhaled. She’d been right, of course. Louisa saw through all of his lies—even the ones he hadn’t realized he was telling. She’d made herself indispensable in his life. Unique.

And now this. Her vengeful cruelty took his breath away.

Had Louisa Grey always been a liar? Or had Rafael turned her into a liar—when he’d slept with her?

No! He wasn’t going to think that way—wasn’t going to give her any excuse to say he was the one at fault for her crime. He wasn’t the one who’d done this! All these months, he’d felt so guilty, thinking he’d treated her badly. And all along, she was the one who’d lied to him. She’d stolen his child.

If not for the anonymous letter, he might never have come here. His baby might always have grown up believing Rafael had abandoned him.

His hands clenched into fists. He’d once thought Louisa a gold digger. Now he wished she were. A gold digger would have at least contacted him for a payout. This was far worse. Louisa Grey was a vindictive, cold, ruthless woman.

Rafael looked at the child in her arms. What kind of woman could keep a baby a secret from his own father?

“What is his name?” he said harshly.

She looked at him with pleading eyes. “You told me you never wanted a child, Rafael. You said—”

“That’s your excuse?” he bit out furiously. “You use my own words against me? I also told you that if you were pregnant, I would marry you.”

“But I didn’t want to marry you!”

He stared at her, then shook his head in fury. “No, you didn’t, did you?” he said. “You wanted revenge for the way I treated you. And you knew this would hurt me as nothing else ever could.”

“That’s not true!” she gasped. “You made it clear you never wanted a wife or child! Do you think I would share my precious baby with a man who didn’t even want him?”

He narrowed his eyes. “It wasn’t your decision to make.”

She took a deep breath, shifting position from her left leg to the right as the baby squirmed in her arms.

Without warning, Rafael took the baby away from her. He saw Louisa choke back a protest, saw her clench her hands at her sides, as if fighting her initial instinctive reaction to snatch the baby back into her own arms.

He looked down at the baby. “My son,” he whispered. “You are my son.”

“His name is Noah, after my father,” she said unwillingly behind him. “Noah Grey.”

Holding the baby tenderly, he whirled to face her in a swift and decisive motion. “Noah Grey? You did not even give him my name?”

She shook her head stubbornly.

“You lied to me, Louisa,” he said softly. He looked from his precious young son to the lying woman who had given birth to him. He saw her tremble, but kept himself from touching her—from raging at her, from shaking her—by an act of fierce will. “You are a far greater liar than I ever imagined.” He gave a low, harsh laugh. “And to think you said you loved me,” he sneered. “That’s what your love was worth!”

Her cheeks went hot. “I did love you,” she said quietly. “It nearly killed me.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “So that is why you lied to me about being on birth control? Because you thought you were in love with me?”

“I didn’t lie!”

“Then how did you get pregnant?”

“I was on the Pill in Paris, like I told you,” she whispered, then shook her head. “The whole staff ate some bad fish from the market. I threw up for days. I never thought that it might make the Pill useless, but then,” her cheeks colored, “I never paid much attention to the birth control aspects of the medication. I never expected you to seduce me!”

Silence fell. Through the sheer curtains at the large sash window, with its brightly painted open shutters, he could see clouds trailing across the blue sky, above the distant turquoise sea. He took a deep breath.

“Perhaps you’re not lying,” he said quietly. “For if you were truly a gold digger, you would have jumped at the chance to marry me. The pregnancy must have been an accident.” He set his jaw as he looked down at his son. “But your lie to me for the last year and a half was not.”

“You’re not being fair!” she cried. “You told me you never wanted a child. If I’d told you I was pregnant, you’d have insisted I was a gold digger who’d purposefully set out to ‘trap’ you!”

“Like the devil, you twist my own words against me,” he said, then gave a low laugh. “You are the most cold, heartless woman I have ever known. Which is a high mark indeed.”

“I’m not,” she whispered.

“You looked into my face and lied to me. I’m not pregnant, you said.” He nearly choked on the words. “When were you planning to tell me the truth, Louisa? After he was a grown man? Or did you mean to punish our son as well as me,” he said harshly, “by only telling him the truth after I was dead?”

She went pale. “I would never do that to you.”

“You already have.”

Pain racked his body. Louisa had hurt him in the most devastating way possible.

And when he thought of how, just a half hour ago, they’d walked along the beach, he’d humbly held his heart in his hands and asked her to be his lover…

He shuddered with humiliation and fury. Then, still holding the baby, he turned without a word.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m taking my son home.”

“No!” she shrieked. Racing ahead of them, she blocked the door. “You can’t take my baby away from me—you can’t!”

“We’ll come to a custody arrangement.” He had the satisfaction of seeing her shoulders sag with relief before he mercilessly continued, “You’ve had Noah for the last eight months. I will take him for the next eight months.” Cradling his baby son against his shirt, he turned to go. “You will hear from my lawyers sometime before next Christmas.”

“No!” she screamed, pulling on his arm. “You can’t take him from me—his mother! Not for eight months!”

He glanced back at her coldly. “Can I not? But that is what you have done to me. You’ve had your time. I will have mine. Is that not ‘fair’ enough for you?” he said mockingly.

“No,” she wept freely. “Please. It would kill me.”

Rafael looked down at her. Somehow, in her abject grief and surrender, even with her nose red and tears streaking down her cheeks, she was still beautiful. He still wanted her. It infuriated him.

He heard the baby start to cry, his loud wailing mingling with Louisa’s. Rafael awkwardly tried to comfort the baby, but could not. He had no experience with babies and no idea how to comfort Noah. He did not know his own son. The injustice of it raged in his heart as, setting his jaw, he gently handed the baby to Louisa.

“Noah. Oh, Noah.” Louisa’s weeping only intensified as she cradled her baby against her, whispering words of love, kissing his chubby cheeks again and again. “Oh, my sweet baby.”

Rafael stared down at them. He took a deep breath. And came to a sudden decision.

“Vale,” he said through clenched teeth. “I will not separate you.”

“Thank you,” Louisa whispered.

He stared at her coldly. “It’s for my son’s sake. Not yours.”

She rocked the baby in her arms, her breath still uneven between sobs and hiccups. Rafael looked at her, then looked slowly around the room, from the sheer curtains over the window to the giraffe on the wall above the crib.

She was, he thought grudgingly, a decent mother. What she would not be—what she could never be again—was a woman he could trust.

But that didn’t stop Rafael from wanting her.

There is someone else, she’d said.

Who was the man? Rafael’s hands clenched. How many lovers had been in Louisa’s bed over the last year, while he’d tossed and turned, tormented by longing for his fantasy of her as he’d believed her to be—honest, loving, chaste?

For all these years, Louisa Grey was the one woman he’d never been able to completely possess.

Now, he wanted to punish her. To break down her elusiveness. To own her.

Then discard her like the rest.

An idea occurred to him. A cruel, perfect idea.

It would be a neat, tidy, perfect revenge.

He smiled grimly. Walking across the nursery, he placed his hand on her shoulder.

“There is just one condition,” he said brutally.

“Anything,” she whispered. “Just don’t separate me from my son.”

Lowering his head, Rafael gave her a seductive kiss. He possessed her mouth with his, luring her with his tongue. He felt her shiver in his arms. He felt her sigh, then surrender.

When he pulled away, he saw the haze of longing in her eyes, and hid a smile.

She thought she’d beaten him, but he would make her pay. He was the master of the coldhearted seduction. Soon, his possession of her would be complete.

“You will be completely mine,” he whispered. He stroked her cheek as he looked down at her, his eyes glittering in the shadowy room. “You will marry me, Louisa.”

Chapter Eight

“WELCOME to Buenos Aires, Señora Cruz.”

As the doorman greeted her, Louisa barely had time to wonder how he already knew about the marriage before bodyguards hustled her inside the Belle Époque high-rise in the exclusive Recoleta district. In two seconds, they’d crossed the lavish marble floor and were in the elevator.

Tall, hulking men clustered all around her, making Louisa feel small as she cradled her baby nervously in her arms. Worst of all: the tallest and most powerful of the men around her was Rafael. Her new husband.

When she’d woken up in Key West that morning, Louisa had never imagined she could find herself taken to Buenos Aires as the wife of a man who hated her. He kissed her so well that she almost imagined, in his arms, that he could forgive her. But when he pulled away from her, he could not hide the coldness in his slate eyes.

Within minutes after he’d demanded marriage, he’d dragged her to the courthouse. He’d somehow managed to convince the clerk Louisa was not a Florida resident and to skip the three-day waiting period. Before they’d even left Key West, Louisa had been his lawfully married wife. He’d spent the long flight on his private jet working. Ignoring her.

Now, in the elevator, Rafael’s dark eyes gleamed at her malevolently. What did he intend to do to her?

I would make you pay for trapping me into marriage. I would make you pay…and pay…and pay.

At least she still had her baby in her arms, she comforted herself. That was what mattered. When she’d thought Rafael meant to take their son away, she’d been so frightened, she’d known she would do anything—anything—to stay with Noah. And so she’d said farewell to her sister and niece, telling her she was eloping with Rafael.

Katie had been ecstatic for her. “We’ll be fine with the bakery until you get back,” she’d said joyfully. “Have a wonderful time!”

If only her sister knew the truth. Louisa feared she was never going back to that warm, loving home in Key West. Rafael would never let her go.

When the elevator reached the top floor, Rafael pushed open the double doors.

“Welcome home,” he said sardonically.

“Home?” Louisa looked around her in dismay. The old luxury apartment was old, musty and desperately in need of cleaning and refurbishment. All the furniture was covered with white sheets, which gave it a ghostly appearance. But in spite of her anger and fear, she could not help but observe the space with a professional eye and see the loveliness beneath the neglect. It had high Edwardian plaster ceilings and a view of the city through wide windows. Against her will, she could almost see how to make this apartment beautiful again. How to make it a home.

“I had no idea it was in such disarray,” she whispered.

He shrugged. “I’m not here often.”

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “I could make it nice,” she offered.

“Don’t bother,” he said shortly. “We won’t be here for long.”

Louisa shivered. Now that she was his bride, now that they shared a child, he had more power over her than ever before. After five years of obeying his orders as his housekeeper, it would have been easy to return to the habit of trying to please him. But her time living in Key West had changed her. She had finally found her voice.

“This house could be so lovely,” she said softly.

His lips twisted. “Do not fall in love. We will be here only a few days.” He pushed open a door. “You will sleep in here.”

This bedroom, at least, had been neatly tended. A small crib had been set up in the darkest corner near the large, modern bed.

With an intake of breath, Louisa turned back to him, her eyes shining. She’d wondered if he had any goodness left in his soul, but he must. Or why else would he have been so kind? “Thank you for letting me sleep in the same room as the baby. I promise you can trust me. I won’t take Noah anywhere without your permission.”

“I know you won’t.” His eyes were dark. “Because you and I will be sharing a bed.”

She looked sharply at the bed. The enormous bed. And imagined what he planned to do to her there.

She’d thought she would do anything to keep her baby…but this?

Give her body to the man who hated her? Who had such power over her? Who wanted revenge for the way she’d kept his son a secret?

She repressed a shiver, remembering the last time they’d been in bed together on the private Greek island. She’d been so happy then. He’d made her light up with joy from without and within, given her such pleasure she hadn’t even imagined it possible.

If she gave him her body ever again, how much longer would it be before he owned every inch of her soul?

Any woman who loved Rafael Cruz would ultimately be destroyed by that love. Because he had no love to give. He offered only seduction, not love. He had a heart of ice.

And if at times he seemed to care, if he seemed to be vulnerable after all, that was the most dangerous illusion of all.

Straightening her shoulders, she turned to face him. “I won’t sleep with you.”

“You will,” he said, a sensual smile tracing his mouth. “You are my wife.”

She licked her lips. “Just because we are legally married does not mean you own me!”

“Does it not?” he said softly.

He approached her, and for a moment she thought he intended to kiss her. Then the baby started to whimper and squirm in her arms. He stopped.

“Take care of my son,” he said. “When you are done, I will be waiting.”

Cuddling Noah in the bedroom, she fed him once they were alone. When he was asleep, she tucked him tenderly into the crib. The only sound was the quiet, even breathing of their sleeping baby as she finally left the bedroom, closing the door softly behind her.

She looked up with an intake of breath when she saw him waiting for her at the end of the hall, a dark, towering figure in a house full of shadows.

Rafael’s eyes never left hers as he came slowly toward her. He put his hands on her shoulders, and she shivered.

How long could she resist him?

God help her if he ever reverted to the charming, seductive man she’d once known, the man with a gift for words and a light in his dark eyes that could convince any woman that she, and only she, could bring out the good in his heart.

God help her if Rafael decided to make her love him again.

“Come,” he whispered.

Taking her hand, he pulled her down the hall. Dinner had been catered in and served on the massive oak dining table overlooking the wall of windows and the view of the city. The servers set up the food, then departed, along with the bodyguards.

Louisa was alone with Rafael, with no chaperone but their sleeping baby down the hall. She looked out toward the windows, past the ghostly white furniture covered with sheets. He opened a bottle of Argentinian red wine and poured it into two crystal goblets.

It should have felt intimate, and yet in the neglected penthouse it felt cold. Soulless. The food was delicious, but this place didn’t feel like home. It felt dead. It felt like a prison.

And Rafael was her jailer.

She thought of the snug little apartment she’d left behind in Key West, of the sunshine and sound of the sea and her niece’s laughter, and felt a lump in her throat. She set down her fork with a clang against the china plate.

“Don’t you like the empanadas?” he asked.

“They’re delicious,” she murmured. “But it doesn’t feel like home.”

“Still a housekeeper at heart?” he said mockingly.

She lifted her chin. “I’d rather cook for us. For our family.”

“Just take care of Noah. That is enough. We won’t be here long.” His eyes narrowed, and the darkness in his gaze scared her. “I have some business in Buenos Aires. A payback that has been a long time coming.” He smiled. “Once that’s done, querida,” he said, “we will return to Paris.”

Paris. She thought of her memories there with a shiver. Back to Paris. Where she’d first surrendered to her desire for her playboy boss. Where she thought he’d opened up his soul to her.

She couldn’t let herself fall for him again—couldn’t!

He might have some kind of sensual power over her that she could not fight—but she wouldn’t let him have her soul!

She took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders.

“I cannot just live with you, doing nothing,” she said quietly. “I married you and came to Buenos Aires because you left me no choice, but you must see that this cannot last. Let me at least act the part of your housekeeper. Because you do not want me as your wife.”

“And you?” he said mockingly. “Do you want me as your husband?”

She swallowed, trying not to remember the ridiculous dreams she’d had after she’d first found out she was pregnant, when she’d dreamed of Rafael falling in love with her. When she’d imagined him changing somehow into a good father, a good husband. Then, she’d wanted…

She shook her head. She wouldn’t think of it! “I was doing fine on my own. Noah and I were happy in Key West.”

“Too bad.” He took a drink of the expensive red wine from the crystal glass. “You’re never going back.”

It was exactly what she’d feared he would say, but she lifted her head defiantly. “Of course we’re going back. I have a business to run, and a family that needs me—”

“Consider the bakery a gift to your sister,” he said carelessly. “She now owns it.”

She stared at him in shock, then narrowed her eyes.

“You are out of your mind,” she said tersely, stabbing her fork toward him in midair for emphasis, “if you think I’ll let you just give away the business I love, the business I built and created with my life savings after I worked for you for five hard years—”

“Yes, I am certain that was a fate worse than death,” he said coolly, taking another sip of the red wine. “But your sister and her daughter will do well with the bakery. They will be happy and secure. That is what you want, is it not?”

She ground her teeth.

“Of course it is. But I want to be there with them! I’ve missed too much time with them already,” she said softly, then shook her head. “Florida is my home. You cannot take me away from a place where I’ve made friends—”

“Sí,” he said sardonically. “I saw your many friends when I was there. Why don’t you admit the truth about why you’re so desperate to return?”

“Because I hate the sight of you?”

To her frustration, he seemed untouched by her jab. He only gave her a cold smile. “Who is he?”

“He?”

“The man you have been seeing. Or was there more than one? I might have been your first experience in bed, but how long did you wait for your second and third and fourth?” His cold eyes met hers over the table. “Tell me, Louisa. How many men did you invite to your bed while you were still pregnant with my child?”

She stared at him in horror. Then, she rose from the table. Looking down at him, she raised her hand but he grabbed her wrists. He was so strong she could not pull away.

He stared at her for a moment in cold fury. She felt the pounding of her own heart, heard the soft gasp of her own breath. Felt the electricity in the air suddenly change between them.

Then, lowering his head to hers, he claimed her mouth in a punishing kiss.

Louisa tried to fight. Tried to push him away. He was bruising her, hurting her—

Then his kiss suddenly gentled. His hold on her became seductive, his arms caressing her softly, so softly, that her shirt and shorts disappeared as if blown off her body by a light warm breeze. His lips moved against her so tenderly, so lovingly, that she could not resist.

She wrapped her arms around his neck as he lifted her up into his arms and carried her, not to the bed, but to the nearby couch covered with a white sheet. There, he made love to her with such amazing tenderness that she wept.