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Her mouth parted, closed. She shook her head helplessly, then searched his eyes.
“Are you happy, Rafael?”
“Of course,” he stated promptly. “We’re achieving everything we set out to achieve.” He nodded toward the room at large, where he’d been welcomed warmly all evening. “Once the deal is signed with Gio, my position will be secure.” He would always have room for growth, but there would be less chance of a serious backslide into losing everything. “My heir is on the way and you’ll soon have the means to pry your stepfather off your fortune. This is a very good moment for us.”
“But what about us? Babies put more pressure on a marriage, not less. We’re in trouble, Rafael.”
“It’s nothing we can’t fix.” She was taking sandpaper to his organs. He looked around, but people had lost interest in them. He still felt the heat of a spotlight.
“How?” she asked with misery. “This isn’t about the baby. It’s about us. Sometimes I think that if you loved me, I could trust you enough to...” Her desolate gaze cast about the room, looking for something that had him tensing as though bracing for a blow.
This was edging into places he had closed off a long time ago, places that she occupied to some extent, but he was careful about how far inside him she infiltrated. Otherwise, he would be too exposed. Too vulnerable.
“Love is a liability.” It was power. If you gave it to someone, they held that power over you. Or they could be used against you. Your own feelings could be. “We agreed on a partnership that benefits both of us,” he reminded her.
She looked at him with profound disappointment. “Yes, well, you said I’ve changed and I have. I’ve fallen in love with—”
The gravel in his stomach turned to curdled milk. His ears filled with water.
“—you.”
His relief was so intense, he laughed. “I thought you were going to say Molly.”
“What?” She snapped her head back. “No! You. Although God knows why.” Her eyes gleamed with angry tears. “I love you, Rafael. And you don’t love me back. Do you?”
His next breath came in like powdered glass. In some ways, it glinted like magic dust, filling him with an unfamiliar type of joy, but another part put the brakes on. Hard.
Was she even telling the truth? There had been a time when he wouldn’t doubt her word, when he would believe anything she told him because they were always honest with each other. They might not have married for love, but they had trust.
Or did they? He had begun to suspect there was much more he ought to know, but she was a closed book.
“Love wasn’t something we expected to happen, was it?” It was a grasp of the wheel to steer them from a dangerous cliff, but he overcompensated, sounding cool and impatient when he ought to be kinder.
“You don’t,” she confirmed, holding his stare with betrayal clouding her eyes.
Before he could backtrack, she stalked to their table where she gathered her wrap and clutch, claimed a headache and said good-night to their tablemates.
The silence as they climbed into the car was thick enough to slice with a knife.
Rafael should have left it that way. Instead, he instructed their driver to put in his earbuds so he and Alexandra could have some privacy. He should have waited until they were back in their hotel suite. He would tell himself that again and again over the next months.
I should have waited.
But he didn’t.
“I’m entitled to be surprised,” he said as the car pulled into traffic “When you proposed to me—” He deliberately reminded her of that. “You told me this wouldn’t happen. Our marriage is a practical one.”
“And once we have what we wanted, do we stay married?”
“Don’t throw out ultimatums you’re not prepared to back up,” he commanded.
“I’m not. Everything is in place for a clean split.” She was talking about their prenuptial agreements, which had been very meticulously crafted for such an eventuality.
“We’re not divorcing,” he said through his teeth. “We have a baby on the way.”
“I know that!” she cried loud enough to catch the driver’s attention.
That was what Rafael would live to regret forever, that he had prodded her into that burst of emotion. It distracted the driver long enough to touch the brakes in the middle of racing through an intersection.
