Luiz flushed darkly, caught off-guard by the pained bitterness in her voice. He leaned back and folded his hands behind his head. If she wanted to get to her point via a circuitous route, then he would let her but, the ‘arrogant bore’ label rankled.
‘But the arrogant bore sitting in front of you is the guy I really am,’ he murmured smoothly.
‘You were never arrogant when you were with me,’ Holly said in a strained voice.
‘But then, I was Luiz Gomez when I was with you. Here I am Luiz Casella, and I don’t have time to go round the houses with you, so why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here and have done with it?’ Arrogant bore… More than anything, he loathed the disappointment and pity in her face when she had said that. When he had walked out, he had left her angry and hurt. Now, surrounded by the trappings of his vast empire, she wasn’t impressed, she was disenchanted. Wealth didn’t seem to make him more of a man in her eyes.
Nerves making her fidgety, Holly glanced away and said abruptly, ‘I read somewhere that you’re going out with… someone now.’
Luiz’s immediate thought was to ask whether she was jealous… jealous enough to trek all the way down to London to confirm a rumour… jealous enough to realise that she had lost a good thing, whatever her high-minded reasons might have been at the time.
‘Where did you read that?’ he asked.
‘On the Internet.’ Holly blushed at the admission.
‘Really? I’m surprised that you were interested enough to try and check me out.’ But he had to admit that it gave him a kick to think that she had been.
‘I wanted to find out who the person I’d been seeing for the past year and a half really was,’ she said defensively. ‘You’re famous.’
‘I’ve acquired some standing in the business community.’
‘I felt like I was reading about someone I didn’t know. You own properties all over the world; your have companies and businesses all over the world. What on earth did you ever see in me? Didn’t I bore you to death?’
‘You were…’
‘A novelty,’ Holly bitterly filled in the blanks. ‘A change of scene—and a change is as good as a rest, isn’t it? And your usual scene when it comes to women are glamorous models and celebrities. There were reports and pictures about the new woman in your life… Cecelia Follone. I guess she’s the sort of woman you described as your ideal long-term partner…the right background…the right look.’
‘And that’s why you came here? To find out whether there was any truth behind the rumours?’ He had temporarily forgotten about Cecelia and didn’t care for the reminder that she was supposed to be his ‘ideal long-term partner’.
‘No,’ Holly said quietly. ‘I’m sure there’s a lot of truth behind the rumours. And I haven’t come here because I care. I don’t. The Luiz I cared about and fell in love with disappeared and was replaced by a Luiz I don’t know.’
And yet, even as the words poured out, she was drawn and shaken by the fierce tug of familiarity, of somehow knowing that, underneath the polished surface veneer, there would surely be the person she had grown to know. She shoved aside the wimpish, craven urge to see the three-dimensional man, to marry the two sides of the coin, and instead reminded herself of the undeserved suspicions he had levelled against her. The distrust that had shaken her belief in him, the ease with which he had written her off as a potential opportunist when, after all the time they had spent together, he should have known that he was miles out in his assumptions.
‘Your somebody else,’ she said, drawing in a deep breath.
‘Do you love her?’
‘Come again?’
‘The girl you’re going out with… do you love her?’
‘That question is inappropriate.’ He glanced pointedly at his watch. Every single thing she had said since she had walked into his office had offended him. He was savagely aware that, while her very presence should repel him, he still couldn’t prevent himself from responding to her with a physical reaction that seemed to be utterly out of his control. He was riveted by the incongruity of having her sit in his office which was so distant from her comfort zone.
‘No, it’s not.’
‘She’s suitable.’ Luiz delivered this with scathing honesty. Cecelia was eminently suitable and, the sooner that message was received by whatever rebellious bit of his brain insisted on telling him otherwise, the better.
‘Your family must be very pleased. You told me that your father had been so keen to see you settle down.’
‘Did I? I can’t remember.’ He had told her lots of things. They had talked a lot. She had always enjoyed talking. He once thought that she could coax anyone out of a bad mood with her cheerful chatter. ‘Furthermore, I don’t see where this is going. If you’re not here for a hand out then what are you here for?’
‘What I’m about to say to you might come as a bit of a shock, but I just want you to know that I’m very happy for you; happy that you’ve found someone…’ It physically hurt to say that but say it she did, partly because she knew that she had to be dignified, given the situation, partly because she didn’t want him to feel responsible for her when she told him what she had to.
Luiz stilled. For once he was at a complete loss. Was she ill? Panic flared inside him, obliterating every thought and every feeling.
‘I’m pregnant, Luiz. I wish there was a kinder way of telling you, but I can’t think of any.’
It took a few seconds for his wayward brain to catch up with what she had just said. In fact, even when it did catch up, Luiz didn’t believe that he had heard correctly. His body was tense as he leaned forward, hands flat on the desk, and looked at her with frowning intensity.
‘Sorry. Repeat that. I don’t think I quite caught what you said…’
‘I’m having a baby.’
‘No. No, you’re wrong. You can’t be.’ He was overwhelmed by a sensation of unreality. He wondered if he might be hallucinating.
‘The doctor thinks it might have happened that weekend of the party. I was sick, do you remember? Apparently there’s a chance of the contraceptive failing if you’re sick. I never noticed anything, because as soon as we broke up I came off the pill and I just assumed that I hadn’t had a period because my body was adjusting. Okay, so I was putting on a bit of weight, but I was eating more. I only found out a few days ago when I went to the doctor. The thing is, he did a check and there’s no doubt.’
Her voice was calm and level but she had had a few days to think about it all, to come to terms with her life never being the same again. She had already gone past that state of shock which she could now see Luiz experiencing as his healthy golden colour turned ashen and he stared at her, not really focusing.
‘I don’t believe you.’ But again his eyes were drawn to the fulsome curves which the shapeless sack dress was keen to conceal. She wouldn’t lie. He heavily admitted to himself that she was nothing like Clarissa.
‘Look, I know you’re involved with someone else, and I haven’t come here to try and… and ruin anything for you.’
‘You tell me you’re pregnant and then say that you don’t want to ruin anything for me?’
Holly flushed but maintained eye contact. ‘I didn’t have to come,’ she said quietly. ‘In fact, for a while I was tempted not to, but I thought that you deserved to at least know the truth. I don’t expect you to do anything about it and I don’t want anything from you. I just felt that it was important for you to… to know.’ She stood up and nervously wiped her clammy hands on her dress.
‘Where