From the corner of his eye he saw two security guards approach. They would be making a sweep of the theatre before locking up for the night; the aftershow party taking place in a basement conference room.
If there was one thing Javier despised it was people knowing his business. His family had been fodder for the world’s consumption since before his birth.
He might still be trying to process that he was going to be a father but already he knew that he would do whatever it took to protect his child.
Rubbing his jaw, he took a deep breath. ‘Whatever you say your motives are, our unborn child is the only thing that matters.’
‘Yes,’ she interjected softly.
‘It is late. This is something that needs to be discussed when we have fresh minds. I have had an incredibly difficult day.’ She couldn’t begin to understand how difficult it had been. ‘My driver will take you to your hotel. Get some sleep. You look tired.’
That made her eyes flicker.
‘I’ll have you brought to me in the morning,’ he continued, now walking back to the stairs. He kept his eyes focussed straight ahead of him, no longer wishing to look at the woman who had just detonated a bomb into his already turbulent life.
The bomb was of his own making, he accepted grimly. He was the damn fool who had failed to use a condom for the first and only time in his life.
He was the fool who’d invited her into his home.
Their baby was the consequence of that foolhardiness and, as Sophie had already pointed out, an innocent in all of this.
She remained silent as she kept pace beside him, silent all the way down the stairs and through the foyer. Only when they reached the exit door did she turn to him and say, ‘What time will your driver collect me in the morning?’
‘Arrange that with him.’ He stepped out into the warm night air and strode to his waiting driver.
‘Take Miss Johnson to her hotel,’ he said, then, without a word of goodbye or a second glance at her, set off for his home.
He could feel Sophie’s gaze upon him but kept his sight fixed ahead, increasing his pace.
As he power-walked the three miles to his home, the memories he’d spent two months suppressing came back to him with crystal clarity.
He’d woken that fateful day to the news Freya and Benjamin had married and a barrage of hate mail. Someone had leaked his personal email address online and keyboard warriors had had an excellent time aiming their poisoned ire at him. So angry had he been that he’d dismissed his household staff for the day.
His rage was best kept private. It was safer that way. For everyone.
And then his intercom had rung and he’d looked through the monitor to see Sophie standing there, a thick folder in her arms, which, she had claimed over the intercom, contained private documents of his.
He’d recognised her immediately. Freya’s dance colleague and flatmate. The wallflower who had never met his eye on the few occasions he’d been in her presence. If anyone had inside information on Freya and Benjamin’s treachery that he could use to his advantage it would be her.
It had been a baking summer’s day. She’d been dressed in a thin pale grey shirt dress, her long light blonde hair tied in a loose plait. When she’d removed enormous sunglasses to speak to him and fixed huge pale blue eyes on him, he’d seen compassion shining from them.
Not once in his adult life had he stared anyone in the eye and not seen a glimmer of fear shine back at him. Grown men, titans of industry and power brokers would shake his hand with a nervous laugh; glamorous, self-confident women would give him the come-to-bed eyes with excitement-laced fear.
This young English woman, a petite ballerina with the appearance of a waif, had turned up at his home and displayed not an ounce of fright.
The rage that had been bubbling so furiously inside him had suddenly reduced.
She had given him the sweetest, most sympathetic smile he’d ever been on the receiving end of. ‘How are you holding up?’ she’d asked softly.
In the week since Benjamin had stolen Freya from him, Sophie was the first person to have asked him that. The most he’d received from his twin had been a stoical slap to the shoulder.
He’d invited her in, made her a coffee, led her to the dining room, sat beside her at the huge table with the documents between them and quizzed her.
When she’d professed her innocence in the matter of Freya and Benjamin, he’d been surprised to find he believed her.
This belief had disconcerted him.
She had disconcerted him with those non-judgemental eyes and her subtle yet obvious compassion.
He’d found himself trying to get a rise out of her, asking if she’d read the documents, making it sound like an accusation.
She’d been unfazed and unabashed. She’d nodded and said, ‘Yes, I read through them with Freya. I won’t be sharing them with anyone, so don’t worry.’
‘You won’t share the details with the media?’ he’d asked cynically.
‘If I wanted to share anything with them I would have done so by now. They’ve been camped outside my apartment block all week.’
Something had crept into his veins at that, something he’d never felt before.
That this petite young thing should be harassed with no one there to protect her had set the anger boiling again.
Of course, he knew her waif-like frame belied a physical strength all ballerinas had but that didn’t change what his eyes saw when he looked at her.
Dios, he’d been unable to tear his eyes from her. He had never seen such naturally pink rosebud lips before...
A new kind of tension had sparked to life.
Sophie’s eyes had kept flickering to him, then darting away, pretty colour flushing across her pretty cheeks.
She really was incredibly pretty. How had he not noticed it before...?
He’d found himself leaning closer to her, catching a whiff of a light, floral perfume that had delighted his senses.
‘Speaking with the media would boost your profile,’ he’d pointed out.
A burst of antipathy had glittered in her eyes. ‘I don’t care. I’m not going to add to the frenzy and make things worse for you.’
Again, he’d found himself believing her but also curious...
Worse for him?
She didn’t even know him.
Professional dancers spent their lives fighting to get to the top and when you were as driven as that any advantage for name recognition would be snatched upon. His own mother had been shameless in her quest for media attention.
Sophie had ducked her head and refused to answer questions even when it would have seen her face plastered over the tabloids as a bit player in the biggest scandal Spain—indeed, most of Europe—had had for years.
What was her agenda? Everyone had one, so what was hers? Why go out of her way for him?
He’d leaned even closer and dropped his voice to a murmur. ‘Why are you here?’
The colour already staining her cheeks had darkened, the pale blue eyes darkening with it. It had been the most beguiling sight.
She had cleared her throat, the pink rosebud lips opening and closing as if she were trying to get out words that did not want to be revealed.
It was sheer