Laura’s mouth fell open.
“She never understood our relationship,” Gabriel said. “How we could be so close without being lovers. Which we weren’t.” He paused. “Not until…Rio.”
The huskiness of his deep voice whipped through Laura, causing a sizzle to spread down her body.
“Adriana has made it clear she wants me back,” he said in a low voice. “She’d leave Felipe Oliveira in an instant for me, and he knows it. Only one thing will convince them both I am not interested in her.”
Laura stared at him.
“Me?” she whispered.
He looked right at her. “You are the only woman that Adriana would believe I could love.”
A roar of shared memories left unspoken between them washed over Laura like a wave, and her heart twisted in her chest. She’d been only twenty-one when, on her second day in New York City, the employment office had sent her to Santos Enterprises to interview in the accounting office. Instead, she’d been sent up to the top floor to meet with the CEO himself.
“Perfeito,” the fearsome, sleek Brazilian tycoon had said, looking at her résumé. Then he’d looked at her. “Young enough so you will not be planning to immediately quit to have a baby. At least ten or twenty years before you’ll think of that. Perfeito.”
Now, Gabriel looked at her with dark eyes. She felt a cold winter wind sweep in from the north and shivered.
“Be my pretend mistress in Rio,” he said. “And I will pay you a hundred thousand dollars for that one night.”
Her lips parted as she breathed, “A hundred thousand!”
She almost said yes on the spot. Then she remembered her baby, and her heart rose to her throat. She shook her head. “Sorry,” she choked out. “Get someone else.”
His brow furrowed in disbelief. “Why? You clearly need the money.”
She licked her lips. “That’s none of your business.” “I deserve an answer.”
She set her jaw. He didn’t know what kind of trouble he’d made for her by coming here. Didn’t know and didn’t care. He couldn’t see how Laura had changed through the anguish of the past year. Who would be the first neighbor to gossip that her ex-boss bore an uncanny resemblance to her son?
She exhaled, clenching her hands. He still thought all he had to do was tell her to jump, and she’d ask how high. But she wasn’t his obedient little secretary anymore.
With a deep breath, she closed her eyes. It was time to let it all go.
Let go the sound of Gabriel’s warm, deep voice for the last five years as his executive assistant. Miss Parker, there’s no one as capable as you.
Let go the brightness of his delight when he came home at 6:00 A.M. to find her silently waiting with freshly made coffee and a pressed suit for his early meeting. Miss Parker, what would I do without you?
Let go the memory of their time in bed, when his dark eyes, so vulnerable and warm, had caressed her face with unspoken words of love. Let go the memory of his lips hot against her skin. Let go the feel of him inside her. Laura, I need you.
She opened her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice shaking. “You don’t deserve an explanation. My answer is just no.”
Around them, the dusting of snow reflected light into the white-gray lowering clouds, in a breathless hush of muffled silence. He blinked, looking bewildered.
“Did it end so badly, Laura?” he said softly. “Between us?”
She pressed her fingernails into her palms to keep from crying. Robby. She had to think of Robby. “You shouldn’t have come here.” Her cheeks felt inflamed in the winter air, her body burning up and yet cold as ice. “I want you to leave. Now.”
He took a step closer, looking down at her. A sliver of moonlight pierced through the clouds to illuminate his face. She noticed the dark shadow on his hard jawline, saw the hollows beneath his eyes. She wondered when he’d last slept.
Her heart twisted in her chest. No. She couldn’t let herself care. She couldn’t! Choking back tears, she edged away. “If you won’t leave, I will.”
He grabbed her wrist. He looked down at her, and his eyes glittered. “I can’t let you go.”
For a moment, she heard only the panting of their breath. Then a door banged open, and she heard a baby’s whine. A chill went down her spine and she whirled around with a gasp.
Too late!
“Where have you been, Laura?” her mother called irritably, holding a squirming Robby in her arms. “It took me ages to find you. What on earth are you doing out here in the cold?”
Ripping her arm from Gabriel’s grasp, Laura gave her mother a hard, desperate stare. “I’m sorry, Mom. Just go back inside. Go back. I’ll be right there!”
But her mother wasn’t looking at her. “Is that—is that Mr. Santos?” she said tremulously.
“Hello, Mrs. Parker,” Gabriel said, smiling as he stepped towards her and held out his hand. “Congratulations on Becky’s wedding. You must be very proud of your daughter.”
“I’m proud of all my daughters.” She came closer to shake his hand. “It’s nice to see you again.”
Laura stared at them, her heart in her throat. Her mother had always liked Gabriel, ever since he’d paid for the family to take a vacation to Florida four years ago, one they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford. The Parkers had traveled in his private jet and stayed at a villa on the beach. It had been a lavish second honeymoon for Laura’s parents, a big change from their first at a cheap motel in Niagara Falls. Pictures of that Florida vacation still lined the walls, images of their family smiling beneath palm trees, building sand castles on the beach, splashing in the surf together. With that one gift, Gabriel had won her mother’s loyalty forever.
“I’m glad someone had the sense to invite you to Becky’s wedding,” Ruth said, smiling.
He smiled back with gentle courtesy. “I’ve always asked you to call me Gabriel.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t,” she said. “Not with you being Laura’s employer and all. It just wouldn’t be right.”
“But I’m not her employer anymore.” He flashed Laura a dark look before leaning toward her mother to confidentially whisper, “And I wasn’t invited to the wedding. I crashed. I came to offer her a job.”
“Oh!” Ruth practically cried tears of joy. “A job! You have no idea how happy that makes me. Things have been so tight lately and you should see some of the ridiculous jobs she’s applied for, as far away as Exeter—”
“Mom,” Laura cried. “Please take Robby inside!”
“So she’s looking for a job, is she?” he purred.
“Oh, yes. She’s totally broke,” Ruth confided, then her cheeks turned red. “But then, we all are. Ever since…since.” She turned away.
Gabriel put his hands into his pockets. “I was sorry to hear about your husband. He was a good man.”
“Thank you,” Ruth whispered. Amid the lightly falling snow, silence fell. Gabriel suddenly looked at
Robby.
“What a charming baby,” he murmured, changing the subject. “Is he related to you, Mrs. Parker?”
Her