For One Night Only: Reckless Night in Rio / To Love, Honour and Betray / A Night of Living Dangerously

“I’m so glad to see you again, Senhora Laura.” Maria Silva, Gabriel’s housekeeper and former nanny, was waiting for them. Her gaze moved to Robby. “This must be your sweet baby.”

“Senhora?” Laura repeated, confused at how she’d just gotten promoted to a married woman.

The plump-cheeked, white-haired woman blushed. “You’re a mother. You deserve respect,” she said, then held out her hands to the baby. Robby gave a gleeful cackle, and Maria took him happily in her arms.

Frowning, Laura slowly looked around her. The penthouse seemed the same, but it had changed somehow. She saw to her surprise that all the electric plugs and sharp edges had been covered. Peeking into the dining room, she saw it was entirely filled with toys.

Laura turned to Gabriel in wonder. “All this?” she said. “For one night?”

He shrugged. “Don’t thank me. Maria did it.”

Laura’s heart, which had been rising, fell back to her shoes.

“We’ll have a wonderful time this afternoon, won’t we?” Maria said to Robby, whirling the baby around to make him giggle. “If you need us, Mrs. Laura, we’ll be making lunch.”

Laura turned to follow them into the kitchen, but Gabriel stopped her. “They’ll be fine. Go freshen up.”

She scowled at him. “Stop barking orders at me. You weren’t this bad when I worked for you.”

“Do you want a shower or not?”

From the kitchen, Laura dimly heard Maria getting out pots and pans as she sang a song to the baby in Portuguese. Robby started banging the pans with a wooden spoon, keeping the beat. They seemed fine. Laura set her jaw, then grudgingly admitted, “I do want a shower.”

“You have ten minutes.” When she didn’t move, he lifted a sardonic eyebrow. “Need help?”

She saw his lips curve as he turned away, walking down the hallway. Pulling off his shirt, he dropped it to the floor as he stopped in the doorway of his bedroom. He looked back at her with heavy-lidded eyes. “Go. Right now. Or I will assist you.”

“I’m going!” With a gulp, Laura ran for the safety of her old bedroom.

Her room had changed, as well. All the old furniture she’d had as his live-in secretary was gone, of course. The space had been turned into a bland guest room. Except.

She saw the brand-new elliptical wooden crib beside the bed, the changing table with diapers and baby clothes and everything else Robby might need. She exclaimed with delight as she touched the smooth wood. In the closet, she saw new clothes for her, as well. Gabriel had truly thought of everything. Going to the closet, she touched a black dress with a soft, satisfied sigh.

Then she saw the size on the tag.

Well, she thought with dismay, he hadn’t thought of everything.

CHAPTER FIVE

TEN MINUTES LATER, Gabriel paced beneath the hot sun across his rooftop terrace. He stopped, staring down at Ipanema Beach across the Avenida Vieira Souto. He could hear the loud music from the crowds celebrating below. Lifting his eyes, he looked past the throngs of people, past the yellow umbrellas and food vendors to the shining waves of the surf, trying to calm his pounding heart.

Now Laura was here, everything would soon be sorted out. Oliveira and Adriana would both believe that they were in love. They had to believe. Otherwise….

No, he wouldn’t let himself think about failure, not even for an instant. He couldn’t lose his father’s company, not now that it was finally within his grasp. He gripped the railing, glaring at the bright horizon of blue ocean. All along the coastline, tall buildings vied with the sharp green mountains for domination of the sky.

He’d changed into khaki shorts and an open, button-down shirt over a tank top, with flip-flops on his feet, Carioca-style. He paced his private rooftop. Bright sunlight reflected prisms from the water of his swimming pool. Turning back, he stared down blindly at the scantily clad women on Ipanema Beach, to Leblon to the west, ending in the stark, sharp green mountain of Dois Irmãos.

Gabriel had been only nineteen when he’d lost everything. His parents. His brother. His home. His hands tightened on the rail. When he’d had the chance to sell his family’s business the day after the funeral, Gabriel had taken it. He’d fled to New York, leaving his grief behind.

Except grief had followed him. Consumed him. Even as he created an international company far larger than his father’s had ever been, the guilt of what he’d done—causing the accident, but being the only survivor; inheriting his father’s company, only to carelessly sell it—never left him. Never.

“Well, I did it,” Laura gasped suddenly behind him. “Ten minutes.”

“Very efficient,” he said, turning to face her. “You should know that—”

His words froze in his throat.

Gabriel’s eyes traced over her in shock as he watched her towel off her long wet hair. He took in the erotic vision of her obscenely full breasts overflowing the neckline of her black dress. He couldn’t look away from the fabric outlining her full buttocks and hips.

“Where,” he choked out, “did you get that dress?”

She stopped toweling her hair to look at him, tilting her head with a frown. “It was in the closet. Wasn’t it for me?”

“Yes.” He couldn’t stop his gaze from devouring her curvaceous body. He became instantly hard, filled with the memory of how it felt to have her in his arms, for the most explosive sexual night of his life. He wanted her. Here in Rio, beneath the Brazilian sunshine, suddenly he could think of nothing but taking her, right here and now. He licked his lips and said hoarsely, “But I didn’t expect it to look like that.”

An embarrassed blush rose to her cheeks as she pushed up her black-framed glasses in a self-conscious gesture. “I gained a little weight with my pregnancy,” she mumbled. “I’m not so thin as I used to be.”

“No.” Gabriel stared at her, feeling his body tighten with lust. “No, you’re not.”

Willing himself to stay in control, he pulled out a chair at the table next to the pool. “Maria made breakfast. Come and eat.”

Laura scowled. “Is that an order?”

“Sim.”

Carefully folding her towel and setting it on a nearby table—instead of just dropping it to the floor, as he would have done—she sat down.

“I probably shouldn’t eat anything. Not if I’m supposed to wear a bikini,” she said in a low voice. “I’ve tried to diet, but…”

“Never diet again,” he said tersely. “You are perfect.”

He pushed her chair back under the table. He paused, allowing his hands to remain on the back of the chair, next to her shoulders. He could almost feel the warmth of her soft skin.

She looked up at him over her shoulder with a scowl. “You’re just being nice.”

He stared down at her. “When have you ever known me to be nice?”

Her full pink lips suddenly curved into a smile as her blue eyes twinkled. “Good point.” She tilted her head, considering. “So you really think I look…all right?”

“Hmm.” His eyes lingered on her spectacular figure. She’d been beautiful before, but now, it was almost like torture to see her perfect female shape. Those hips. Her curvaceous bottom. Those breasts—!

She was almost too attractive, he thought. He wanted to convince Oliveira and Adriana he was in love with Laura, not have every other man on the Avenida Vieira Souta enjoy the luscious spectacle of her body. “You’re fine,” he said, irritated. “But that dress is unacceptable. We’ll buy you something else when we go shopping today.”

“Shopping. Right.” Pouring milk and sugar into her cup, she stirred her coffee with a silver spoon. “I can hardly wait.”

He sat down across the table. “You have nothing to worry about.” He pushed the bread basket toward her. “It’ll be fine.”

She took a roll and sipped her coffee, and as they ate, Gabriel couldn’t stop staring at her. Once, their relationship had been easy. A friendship. A trust. Now, he couldn’t quite read her.