Читать книгу Married Again to the Millionaire - Маргарет Майо - Страница 9

ADAM had half expected Sienna not to turn up that evening. He had thought she would despatch his driver, telling him that she had changed her mind. Her revelation that he had a four-year-old son had stunned him, sent his whole world out of kilter, made a mockery of every thought he’d ever had about not wanting children to interfere with his lifestyle.

After a night lying awake, thinking about its implications, he had not even gone in to work today—which was unheard of. His PA had had the shock of her life when he’d phoned to tell her. Without a doubt his life was going to be disrupted, changed for ever, and it would take a hell of a lot of getting used to.

After Sienna had walked out on their marriage he had buried himself ever more deeply into his work. He had been fiercely angry that she couldn’t accept his need to create a good life for them. In a fit of rage after she had left him, he’d taken out other women to try to get over her.

It hadn’t worked.

Despite what he saw as her failings, and despite the reason he had married her in the first place, he had missed Sienna more than he had ever thought possible, and he’d eventually felt guilty because he’d known that he hadn’t given her the attention that she deserved. In equal parts he had experienced relief. Nevertheless, it had allowed him the space and time to build up his business without Sienna constantly complaining that she never saw him.

Now, though, he found it hard to believe that she had kept something of such monumental importance from him. A son! It did not make sense. It was a nightmare. How could she have done that?

His fingers curled and he wanted to wring her pretty neck.

Being a father would make a marked difference to his life. In the years since Sienna had walked out his business affairs had grown beyond even his own wildest dreams. Success had come to him and he’d embraced it with open arms. He needed no one. He was master of his own universe.

Or at least he had been.

Looking at her now, seeing how nervous she was, he realised that it must have taken a lot of courage to approach him yesterday. He had not thought of that at the time, he’d been too intensely angry to feel anything else. In fact, he was still angry, but he knew that he must hide those feelings if he was to come to any sort of an agreement with her.

‘Would you like a drink before dinner?’ he asked. Sienna not only looked gorgeous in black, she smelled divine too, and Adam felt a swift surge of hunger. The skinny straps of her top revealed velvety smooth, lightly tanned shoulders and the rapidly beating pulse in the long line of her throat gave away the fact that she was incredibly nervous. The swell of her breasts peeping over the top of her camisole made his fingers itch to touch, to feel their weight in his palms, to tease her nipples into tight, hard buds. As hard as he was feeling!

The crazy thing was that she was still his wife. He would be perfectly within his rights making love to her, and yet he knew that she was forbidden fruit. The sweetest fruit, the most tempting fruit.

Damn! It had been a mistake inviting her here tonight. They should have met somewhere far more austere, like in a solicitor’s office, and let a third party work out the best way forward.

‘No, thank you.’

Adam had almost forgotten his question. Sienna’s fragrance was exciting him, her nearness drugging him. He was in danger of making a fool of himself. Instantly he channelled his thoughts away from Sienna’s appearance, reminding himself that she had done the unforgivable. She had wronged him big time and he would find it difficult to forgive her—if he ever did!

They were led to their table and Sienna sat on the very edge of her chair, her back ramrod straight, her eyes wary on his, as though she was expecting him to declare that he was going to take Ethan from her.

Menus were handed to them and for a few moments they both pretended to be studying them. Twice Adam caught Sienna looking at him, her eyes quickly averted each time, and he gave a grim smile. She too was clearly wishing that she was anywhere but there.

Their food and wine orders given, Adam sat back in his seat and looked at her. ‘Are you ready to talk?’

‘About Ethan?’ Sienna knew that the huskiness in her voice gave away her inner tension. All day long she had been dreading this meeting, and with good reason. The stern look in Adam’s eyes, the mutinous set of his chin told her that he was still furiously angry with her.

Adam nodded. ‘What did he say when you told him that you’d been to see his father? Is he anxious to meet me?’

Sienna swallowed hard. ‘As a matter of fact, I haven’t told him yet.’ She had been waiting for the right moment but had begun to have her doubts that there ever would be one. Ethan wouldn’t understand her predicament. He would want to meet his father, he would be ecstatically happy, he would expect them to all live together like one big loving family. And if he discovered that Adam was wealthy enough to buy him anything he wanted, he would instantly become his best friend.

Adam’s reaction was exactly as she had known it would be. He roared with rage. His eyes grew even harder, shooting swift bullets of anger across the table, making a mockery of its fine linen tablecloth and elegant silver cutlery. ‘You have not told him? Why not? Why did you come to see me if it was not to acquaint me with my son?’

Sienna closed her eyes. ‘I made a mistake. I—’

‘No! I will not let you change your mind. You cannot hide him away from me any longer. I have a right to see him.’

Adam’s voice roared into her consciousness, overpowering her, stunning her. She snapped her lids open and stared straight into the harsh blue depths of cold-as-ice eyes. A shiver slid down her spine, reaching out icy tentacles to every part of her body.

‘And so you shall,’ she said, horrified to hear the tremor in her voice. This was not the way to react. She needed to be strong. Drawing in a deep steadying breath, she stared at him unflinchingly. ‘Once I have told him about you.’

‘And when will that be?’ came the caustic reply. ‘Today? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? It’s not good enough, Sienna. You cannot drop a bolt from the blue like that and then expect me to sit back and wait patiently. I demand to see him. In fact, I don’t see why we shouldn’t walk out of here right now and—’

‘No!’ Sienna’s voice rose. ‘I will tell him, but in my own good time. And he’ll need to get used to the idea that he has a father before I introduce you. It will be a big thing for him.’

‘No bigger than it was for me.’ Adam’s face contorted into a scowl that scored deep lines on his forehead and narrowed his eyes until they were no more than two silvery-blue slits. ‘I’m still finding it hard to believe that you waited so long to tell me. You shouldn’t have had to go through Ethan’s illness alone. For pity’s sake, Sienna, I’m his father. I deserved to be told.’

He was right, of course. And she would have felt so much better during Ethan’s illness if she’d had Adam to lean on. It had been a terrible time, not knowing whether her son was going to live or die. As she’d sat for hours beside Ethan’s hospital bed she had longed for Adam’s strength, had told herself constantly that he ought to be here, that she should have told him about Ethan. The burden had been almost too much to bear.

Yet still it had taken immense strength to seek him out—and now she almost wished that she hadn’t. His anger was doing nothing to make her feel any easier about the situation.

She was given a tiny respite while her wine was poured. Adam as usual touched nothing stronger than water. Nevertheless, he tipped his glass towards hers. ‘Here’s to a promising future.’

Tension tingled in the air between them. His eyes locked with hers and Sienna felt her heart beating heavily in her chest. When she had sought Adam out yesterday she had never envisaged that she would be sitting here with him tonight, drinking expensive wine, experiencing shock waves of sensation because feelings she had thought long dead were making themselves felt.

It was actually impossible not to feel. Her love for him had once been so strong that she began to wonder now whether it had ever died. Or was it because he was dynamically sexier these days? Success sat on his shoulders like an invisible cloak. And a successful man was always irresistible. At least, to some women. She had never put herself in that category but looking at Adam now, seeing the man he had become, she could not contain a frisson of awareness. It ran through her veins like molten metal, hot and swift and consuming.

‘It might take Ethan time to get used to the idea that he has a father,’ she said quietly. And she needed time too. Their meeting, when it happened, would be an emotional one, there would be a big change in her life. Also in Ethan’s.

She didn’t allow herself to think of the effect it would have on Adam. He had been absent for so long that all she could think of at this moment was herself and her son.

Clearly she hadn’t been thinking straight when she had decided to seek Adam out, and she had not reckoned on the enormous personal trauma it would cause. If only she could turn back the clock. But, of course, that was impossible. She had started this, so now had to suffer the consequences.

Their first course arrived and for a few minutes there was silence between them, Sienna cautiously tasting her vinaigrette of white asparagus with truffles. It was, of course, superb. Adam would not have taken her to a restaurant where the food was not first class. He moved in completely different circles to her these days. It was a life she could have once had but had chosen not to. And she did not particularly want her son to be brought up in this exclusive society.

‘Does Ethan look like me?’

Sienna drew in a deep breath and nodded. ‘I have photographs.’ She reached for her bag and passed Adam an envelope.

He was silent for a few minutes as he scrutinised each photo in turn and Sienna took the opportunity to study him. She could see so much of her son in Adam that it was frightening.

Her lovable little boy was going to grow up in the very image of his father. Tall, devastatingly handsome, a real ladies’ man. And she would worry herself sick over the years, wondering what sort of a life he would carve out for himself. Would he be as driven as his father? Would he put success and riches before everything else? Before human relationships? Human emotions?

There had been times when she felt that Adam had never loved her, when she had wondered why he had asked her to marry him in the first place. His goal hadn’t been a happy marriage and children and she couldn’t help wondering now whether his relationship with Ethan would suffer as a result.

‘May I keep these?’

Sienna nodded.

‘There’s no mistaking that he is my son.’

The words were said calmly and with no malicious intent, but Sienna couldn’t help flaring. ‘If you thought that I would lie to you, you don’t know me very well at all.’

‘But you can surely understand? All these years and not a word.’

Their eyes met and held and Sienna was the first to look away.

‘I’m going to enjoy getting to know him. I’ll take him along the Thames on my cruiser, we’ll fly over to Paris to see my place there and—’

‘Adam Bannerman, don’t you dare!’ Sienna felt herself exploding. She felt sparks of white hot anger sizzling inside her head. If he thought money was the way to impress his son, he was sadly mistaken. ‘A walk along the river, feeding the ducks, a ride on some swings is all Ethan needs. Even just sitting down and talking to you, finding out he has a daddy, will be the most exciting thing that has ever happened to him. You can’t buy his love, Adam. Kids need companionship and love and caring. Doing little things together. And if you can’t get your head round that then it might be better if he never finds out about you.’

‘It’s too late for that.’ Adam’s eyes glittered into hers. Hard eyes, cold eyes, that told her she couldn’t back out now. That he would demand access to his son whether she liked it or not.

‘Nevertheless, we need to set out some ground rules,’ she declared sharply. ‘I don’t want you trying to impress him with your wealth. He needs to get to know you properly first.’

‘I agree,’ he answered with surprising quietness, ‘and the sooner the better.’

The subject of their son drew them closer by an invisible thread. Adam’s eyes had never seemed bluer. Or more fierce. Or more direct. They burned through into the very heart of her, making her wriggle uncomfortably on her seat.

‘Do I have to come knocking on the door and announce myself? I could do that, you know.’

And he would, thought Sienna. He would turn up without warning and she would be left quivering with apprehension. What if the two of them didn’t get on? Adam clearly knew nothing about children and their needs. He would overwhelm his son, maybe even frighten him.

‘I’ll tell him tomorrow,’ she promised. ‘But he’ll need a few days to get used to the idea. I’ll ring you.’

Adam threw her a look of disbelief. ‘And how long will I have to wait? Maybe I should come back with you tonight and—’

‘No!’ yelped Sienna, then looked around swiftly to see if anyone had heard her panicked cry. Fortunately not. ‘He’ll be in bed, for one thing. I’ll tell him tomorrow, I promise, and then I’ll leave it up to Ethan.’

‘What if he doesn’t want to meet me?’

Sienna shrugged. ‘That’s something you’ll have to deal with.’ Though she couldn’t see it happening. Ethan would be so excited he’d want to see his daddy immediately.

‘If you think that I’m going to ignore my son now that you’ve told me about him, you’re wrong.’ Hard eyes met hers. ‘Very wrong. But I appreciate that he’ll need a little time. I’ll give you two days then if I haven’t heard from you I shall turn up on your doorstep.’ He whisked a card out of his pocket. ‘Here’s my personal phone number. Use it.’

The rest of the evening passed in relative harmony. They had both chosen turbot for their main course, which was cooked to perfection, as were the accompanying vegetables. Sienna had never eaten such delicious food and she felt slightly sad that she didn’t have room for dessert.

By the time Adam suggested they leave Sienna felt more relaxed than she had expected. He had regaled her with stories about his work life, some amusing, some deadly serious, and she had finished the whole bottle of wine.

Consequently she felt mellow and sleepy and when they left the restaurant she didn’t even flinch when he put his arm about her waist.

‘Have I told you how stunning you look tonight, Sienna?’

His voice rumbled from somewhere low in his throat, vibrating along her nerves, making her pull suddenly out of his embrace. What had she been thinking, letting him touch her like this?

Without warning his head bent down towards hers and eyes that were the colour of a sun-kissed ocean took her prisoner. And lips that she had sworn would never touch hers again captured her mouth in a kiss that revealed with devastating thoroughness that none of her feelings had gone away.

They had simply lain dormant, waiting like Sleeping Beauty for her prince to kiss her and bring her back to life. Her body felt on fire, electric sensations fizzing through veins and arteries. Emotions she had thought dead rose up and embraced the kiss, responded to it, filling her body with a hunger she had not felt for a very long time.

But it was madness. Allowing these feelings to surface was sheer madness. Adam would gain the impression that she was willing to enter into a sexual relationship and that was most definitely not the case. He had caught her unawares; it was not going to happen again. Not ever! That part of their life was over. They would be civil with each other for their son’s sake, but that was all. She was not going to share his life or his bed ever again.

She jerked away, her eyes wide and fiercely angry. ‘What did you do that for?’

Adam’s smile was smug. ‘How could I help myself? You’re more beautiful than ever, Sienna. How could any man resist you? I bet they queue at your door. Is there someone special in your life at the moment?’

Sienna thought about lying and saying that there was. Except this was Adam, and no matter what had happened between them she found it impossible to lie to him. ‘There is no one,’ she said quietly.

‘Has there been?’

‘I hardly think it’s any of your business. We’ve both been free agents these last few years.’

‘We are still married,’ he reminded her.

‘And has that stopped you going out with other women?’ she riposted, her blue eyes hard and challenging.

‘Touché,’ came the unblinking answer.

‘So I suggest we stop asking each other invasive questions and go home.’ Actually, she would have liked to know how many other women there had been in his life but since she didn’t want him questioning her about her own love life, finding out that it had been non-existent, it was best they kept quiet on the subject.

‘And home is?’

‘If you’re thinking it’s back to your place, you’d better think again.’

‘So I’m coming back to yours, is that it?’

Sienna shook her head, her eyes very blue and wide with horror. ‘You know that’s not going to happen. Where’s your driver? He can take me.’

Adam grinned. ‘I’ve given him the rest of the night off. I’ll be driving you home myself.’

Sienna closed her eyes and gave an inward groan. ‘That will not be necessary. I don’t want you turning up at my house until I’ve told Ethan about you.’ The very thought sent a chill through her veins. It was her worst nightmare come true. She could just imagine what would happen if Adam followed her in.

He would insist on seeing his son. And even though Ethan would probably be able to cope with finding out that he had a father after all these years, she certainly would not.

‘I won’t come in if you don’t want me to.’

Sienna glared at Adam as he led the way towards his waiting car. Not the one she had been chauffeured in. Something small and snazzy, intimate. Not her idea of an easy ride. She would be sitting close and personal and her heart would inevitably play a tune of its own, maybe even loud enough for Adam to hear, make him aware of her plight.

When he opened the door for her and stood back, she slid silently and reluctantly into the seat. The fact that he was smiling made her even angrier, which in turn made his smile wider. It became a self-satisfied grin and she wanted to slap his face. Only good manners prevented her.

He leaned too close for comfort before he closed the door. ‘Have you any idea how beautiful you look when you’re angry? It makes me want to kiss you again, Sienna, feel some of that fire.’

‘I don’t think so,’ she slammed back. ‘The fire I feel is of a very different kind to how it used to be.’

‘Really?’ His brows lifted and he made no attempt to move out of her space. In fact, he was so close that Sienna could clearly see the outer dark ring around the incredible blue of his eyes, feel the heat emanating from him, but more poignant still was the citrus scent of his cologne, the musk of his skin. It wafted over her like a drug and she knew that if he did not move soon she would weaken.

‘You know what I mean. I’m angry with you, Adam. You engineered this whole evening so that you could take me home and hopefully meet Ethan. Well, you’re not going to set foot inside my house. Ethan will be in bed and I refuse to disturb him.’

‘Sienna, you might be angry with me right now, but I won’t go back on my word.’

Still the smile remained in place and Sienna was sorely tempted. But somehow she controlled her impulse. ‘I’m glad to hear it. Let’s go.’

It was with excruciating slowness that he lifted himself away from her and closed the door. For a few seconds she was allowed breathing space until he slid in beside her and the whole car was filled with his essence even more powerfully than before. Sienna closed her eyes, asking herself for the thousandth time whether she had made the biggest mistake of her life in seeking Adam out.

Never in her wildest dreams had she envisaged that she would still be attracted to him. She had thought only that he needed to know about Ethan. It had blinded her to everything else, in the same way that her love had blinded her all those years ago. But now, with her blinkers lifted, she was in grave danger. Adam still had the power to stir her innermost emotions. How cruel was destiny to inflict this on her?

The journey was accomplished in total silence, Adam seeming to know instinctively where she lived. She guessed that his chauffeur must have told him but it didn’t please her. The contrast between his sumptuous penthouse suite and her modest little flat could not be ignored.

She held her breath as he pulled up outside, waiting for his comment, but none was forthcoming. Instead, he looked at her long and hard, giving nothing away now of the raw feelings she had seen earlier. ‘Two days, Sienna. That is all you have. Two days. And if I do not hear from you I shall come to take my boy away.’