The Rodrigues Pregnancy

Avoiding Christian Rodrigues had been harder. The man who had been her husband’s deputy, and with whom he had shared a common heritage, had never been easy to ignore. But he had shamed her; he had made her no better than the husband whose faithlessness she had despised. And now he was behaving as if it mattered to him what happened to her. That he had some right to say how she conducted her life from now on.

It was ludicrous. He didn’t care about her. He’d proved that by seducing her that night. She couldn’t bear to be around him knowing how he felt about her. She was pretty sure he despised himself for allowing it to happen.

She knew that he’d felt sorry for her. She was too old, after all; too unglamorous to attract a man like him. Christian was like Tony. He was ambitious as well as clever. When he chose a wife, she’d have status as well as beauty.

It was when she’d discovered she was expecting Christian’s baby that she’d realised she had to get away. With Luis in college in San Francisco, there was nothing to stop her from leaving Miami. San Gimeno had seemed the perfect destination, and escaping here had been easier than she’d thought.

For once, she’d appreciated the advantages that money had given her. Although much of his estate was in trust until Luis’s twenty-first birthday, Tony had left her well provided for. Of the six properties he’d owned around the world, two of them—the mansion in Bal Harbour and an apartment in Miami—now belonged to Olivia. And with a trust fund that would pay her something in the region of two million dollars a year, she need never worry about security again.

Olivia had her own plans, however. As soon as—well, as soon as she returned to the States she intended to donate much of her inheritance to her favourite charities. She would keep enough for her and her baby to live on. But she had no desire for her child to know the hollow existence Luis had endured for so many years.

Nevertheless, she’d been grateful for the luxury of hiring a private jet to bring her to the island. She wanted no one to know where she was until her baby was born. She didn’t want to hurt Luis, and she would miss his regular phone calls, but Christian must never know what he’d done.

One of the smaller islands in the Bahamas group, San Gimeno had been left virtually untouched by the tourist boom. There were few hotels to speak of and its economy depended on its agriculture and fishing industries. It was the perfect retreat and although she’d only been here a couple of months, she loved it already.

Leaving the veranda where she’d been sitting enjoying the view, Olivia trod across the grass to the palm-fringed dunes that edged the beach. The turf was coarse beneath her feet, but she was getting used to going barefoot. It gave her a sense of freedom and she liked it.

It was so unlike the life she’d led as the wife of one of Florida’s richest men. She couldn’t imagine Tony appreciating the sight of his wife wearing a simple cropped vest and denim shorts. It had been important to him to feel proud of her, and she’d got used to doing and wearing what he said.

But Tony was dead and for the first time since she was twenty-two she was her own woman. An independent being, with no one to please except herself. It was a tantalising thought. Yet she couldn’t deny a shiver of—what? Anticipation? Apprehension? She wouldn’t have been human if she hadn’t felt some anxiety about the future.

Once again, an image of Christian Rodrigues filled her thoughts and her breath caught painfully in her throat. She had no doubt that—as she was Tony’s widow—he would be there for her, too, if she needed him. But she had no intention of asking for his help. Or indeed Luis’s, either.

She still hadn’t decided where she was going to live after the baby was born. She might return to Florida or she might stay here. She might even go back to England. It would depend what she intended to do with the rest of her life. Whether the tentative ideas she had for earning her own living might bear any fruit.

The sun was still hot upon her shoulders, and Olivia shifted restlessly. She was used to the heat. Florida could be unbearably hot and the humidity there was much greater than it was here. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to risk developing a fever. She had to stay well and rested. With a sigh of regret she turned back towards the villa.

And saw her maid Susannah standing waiting for her at the top of the veranda steps.

Immediately, Olivia felt a twinge of anxiety. She didn’t know why. It wasn’t as if she and the West Indian woman were close friends. But there was a rapport between them that Olivia had sensed as soon as she’d met her, and, recognising the agitation in the woman’s dark-skinned face now, she couldn’t help the sudden quiver in her stomach.

‘Is something wrong?’ she called, quickening her step, and Susannah moved aside to allow her to step up onto the veranda.

‘Um—no, ma’am,’ she said, but her tone was hardly convincing. Her hands twisted together at her waist. ‘You got a phone call, Mrs Mora. From the States. I wasn’t sure you’d want to take it.’

Olivia’s jaw dropped. ‘A phone call?’ she echoed, her voice hardly louder than a whisper. Susannah knew that no one else knew she was here. Or rather, Olivia had believed they didn’t, she amended tensely. ‘I—who is it?’

The housekeeper viewed her sympathetically. ‘I think he said his name was Roderick or Rodrigo. Do you want me to tell him you’re not here?’

Olivia’s nails dug into her palms. Not Roderick or Rodrigo, she guessed. ‘Could it have been Rodrigues?’ she queried, hoping she didn’t sound as panicked as she felt, and Susannah nodded with some relief.

‘It could be,’ she said. ‘Do you know him?’

Olivia winced. Did she know Christian? In the biblical sense definitely, she thought, though that was almost laughable. Oh, God, she should have known she’d escaped too easily. She should have realised that Christian would track her down.

‘I can find out what he wants?’ offered Susannah, clearly a little concerned at Olivia’s manner. In the eight weeks since she’d come to work for her, there had been no phone calls from the United States or anywhere else.

Olivia was tempted. The idea of letting Susannah deal with the call was appealing. She didn’t have to explain herself to Christian. He wasn’t Tony. He wasn’t even a friend, she thought tensely. He had no right to hound her like this.

But then common sense reasserted itself. Did she want him to think she was afraid of him? Afraid to speak to him?

No!

‘It’s—all right, Susannah,’ she managed to say now, reinforcing her words with a rueful smile. ‘It’s just a business associate of my late husband’s.’ Yeah, right.

‘If you’re sure?’

Susannah still looked doubtful and Olivia was warmed by the concern she could see in the other woman’s face. ‘I’m sure,’ she said, taking a deep breath before stepping into the light and airy living room of the villa. ‘Perhaps you could get me a glass of iced tea? I’m very thirsty.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

Susannah turned into the long passageway that ran from front to back of the sprawling residence while Olivia reluctantly approached the phone. It was lying on its side on an end table beside one of the three oatmeal leather sofas that formed a three-sided square before the flower-filled fireplace. With the windows open, the scent of blooms drifted irresistibly to Olivia’s nostrils. She took another steadying breath before picking up the receiver.

‘Yes?’ she said, feigning ignorance. ‘Who is this?’

‘It’s Christian Rodrigues,’ he responded shortly, as if she knew any number of men with the same last name. ‘Hello, Olivia. How are you?’

Olivia’s teeth clenched. Did he expect her to answer him? Dammit, what the hell was he doing calling her here?

‘What do you want, Christian?’ she asked coldly, refusing to give him the satisfaction of humouring him. And then, because she couldn’t resist asking, ‘How did you know where to reach me?’

There was silence for a moment and she guessed he hadn’t liked her reply. Then he said, his accent thickening as it always did when he was angry—or aroused, ‘Oh, por favor, Olivia. Credit me with a little intelligence.’

Olivia’s nails dug into the soft leather arm of the sofa as she sank down onto its cushions. ‘You knew where I was,’ she said, the inflection a statement, not a question, and he sighed.

‘You are Antonio Mora’s widow, Olivia,’ he said flatly. ‘A wealthy woman in her own right. I owe it to Tony to look out for you. What kind of a man would I be if I betrayed his trust?’

Olivia’s lips tightened. ‘You tell me.’

Another silence, this time more hostile than the last, and she knew she had touched a nerve. Then, ‘This is not the time to discuss the past, Olivia,’ he told her harshly. And she didn’t have to see his face to know he was angry now. ‘But Tony is dead and, whether you like it or not, you are vulnerable. It is my responsibility to ensure that you are not disturbed in any way.’

‘Except by you.’

She heard his sudden intake of breath and knew a moment’s fear that she had gone too far. Christian had been a good friend to Tony but he would make a bad enemy. For her own sake—and for the sake of her child—she had to make him understand that she didn’t need his help.

But how?

Taking another deep breath, she plunged into an impromptu explanation. ‘Look, I’m sorry if I seem ungrateful, Christian, but you have to understand I was hoping for some privacy here. When—when Tony died, I didn’t seem to have a minute to myself. Perhaps I was naïve in thinking I could get away without telling anyone where I was going. But I hope this doesn’t mean I have to report to you every time I want to—want to—’

The words ‘take a leak’ seemed most appropriate, but this time she bit her tongue before she offended him again. Somehow, she had to convince him that she was all right, that she needed nothing from him. If she could just keep her head, he would soon realise he was wasting his time with her.

‘I do not expect you to report to me at all, Olivia,’ he said now, almost grimly, and her heart sank at the thought that perhaps he wasn’t going to be so easy to dismiss after all. ‘But it would have been a courtesy to leave your forwarding address with my secretary.’

Not likely! Olivia’s mouth tightened. She refused to give that promiscuous bitch the time of day. Dolores Samuels had been trying to get her claws into Christian ever since Tony had blown her off a year ago. He must know that. Or had he already availed himself of her far-too-obvious allure?

The idea should not have been so distasteful to her and to cover herself, she muttered, ‘Perhaps I should.’ But she resented his assumption that she owed him any explanations. Dammit, he wasn’t her husband. She owed him nothing at all.

‘I’m sorry if you feel I have overstepped my position, Olivia,’ he declared into the silence that had followed her reluctant submission. ‘But, in the circumstances, it was—unavoidable.’