Married Again to the Millionaire

‘It’s precisely why I work, for security, and to have nice things around me.’ His dark blue eyes watched her closely. ‘I also have a pied-à-terre in France and an apartment in New York. It gives me a feeling of great satisfaction.’

‘Or is that you have so much money now you have nothing else to spend it on?’ Sienna queried, unable to keep the distaste out of her voice. It was as though he was deliberately throwing his wealth in her face, showing her what she had missed out on.

‘If you’ve come here to question my lifestyle, I suggest—’

‘It’s not that,’ cut in Sienna quickly. But she wasn’t ready yet to disclose her real reason for being here. It was such a delicate subject that she had to get Adam into the right mood. ‘It simply seems odd that you have these other places to live and no one to share them with.’

‘Are you putting yourself forward?’ He smiled grimly and his eyes locked with hers, sending a fresh scurry of feelings through her veins.

She had thought that over the years everything she had ever felt for Adam Bannerman had died. She didn’t want to feel anything for him, she despised him and she wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t entirely necessary.

There was ice in both her voice and her eyes when she spoke. ‘I’ve had a taste of what it’s like living with a workaholic. It’s no fun, I assure you, and I’m not entirely surprised that you haven’t found another woman to share your life.’

‘Are you suggesting that I should? Is it a divorce you’re after? I occasionally wonder why you’ve never filed for one.’

The deep sarcasm in his voice scoured over her already tense nerves like sandpaper.

‘I could say the same about you.’ She held her head high and met his eyes. For several long seconds they challenged each other, Sienna not wanting to be the first to turn away.

‘I’ve never had the time or the inclination,’ he drawled, his eyes still not leaving hers. ‘I knew that one day, when you were ready, you would start proceedings. What I didn’t expect was that you would visit me in person. It’s quite a surprise.’

‘And a mistake,’ she snapped before she could stop herself. ‘I really think I should be going.’ There was no way on this earth now that she could broach the subject that had made her come here. Adam was doing a very good job of letting her know that he liked his life the way it was. He wanted nothing to spoil it. She pitied him. He would become a lonely old man one day if he kept putting work first.

‘You’re not leaving until you tell me what brought you here,’ he said, his tone sharp and authoritative. ‘Why don’t you finish your wine?’

Sienna glared at him, but she picked up her glass and downed the rest of its contents in one swallow. ‘There, finished.’ And she stood up.

Adam followed suit and Sienna was glad that she had worn high heels because they made her almost as tall as he was. She lifted her chin and looked into his eyes—and felt a wave of something she dared not think about pass over her. The word began with S and ended in X.

Why was this happening now, when she needed to be strong and in control? Was it the fact that he was the first and only man she had ever fallen in love with? Had her body retained those feelings even though she had been convinced that they had not?

Hell, what a situation to find herself in. Especially as Adam showed no sign of returning them. She couldn’t believe how cold he was. It was as though she had never meant anything to him.

‘So why are you here?’

Sienna closed her eyes. It looked as if there was no escape. And if the truth be known, she had to do it. She owed it to Adam, to herself, to—She stopped her thoughts there, drew in a deep breath, and bluntly and coldly stated the facts.

‘I’m here to tell you that you have a son.’

Chapter Two

ADAM felt as though he had been poleaxed. The words that had just left Sienna’s lips sent him reeling across the courtyard.

She was saying he had a son!

A son!

A son who would now be…four years old!

And in all the time they’d been apart she had never had the decency to tell him!

The blood roared through his head like a hurricane and he wanted to hit out at her, shake her, ask her what the hell she had thought she was doing, keeping him in ignorance. This was a scenario he had never envisaged, not in his wildest dreams. It was something he was finding difficult, if not impossible, to take in.

He had never wanted a family, he was happy doing what he did. Happy, for goodness’ sake! He didn’t want a child in his life, disrupting his routine. The big question was, why had she told him now? Why not when she found herself pregnant?

His eyes blazed as a bigger scenario hit him. ‘I’m not the father, am I? Why in heaven’s name would you wait this long to tell me if I were? You’re after money. You’re trying to take me for a fool. Get out of here, Sienna. Get out!’

Never in his life had he been so angry. If Sienna had thought she could pull this stunt on him, she was very much mistaken. If the baby really had been his, she would have wasted no time in coming back. She would have made him face up to his responsibilities. Even if she hadn’t, no woman in her right mind would bring up her baby alone without seeking maintenance from the father. She would have insisted on that. She had to be lying.

Sienna’s back straightened and her fantastic blue eyes flashed with indignant fury. She looked like a tigress protecting her young. ‘He is definitely yours.’

‘So you say.’ He was not going to be so easily fooled. Words were easy. He had heard of women who did this sort of thing, who tricked their former partners or husbands into believing someone else’s child was their own.

‘Do you want proof?’ she demanded. ‘It can be arranged.’

Her eyes locked into his and held, and in that moment Adam saw nothing but blazing honesty. His brief suspicion was reluctantly relegated to the deepest recesses of his mind. Maybe it would resurrect itself. Maybe. Perhaps if he saw the child, he would know at once whether he was his or not. He’d had a strong resemblance to his own father so there was every reason to believe that he would see something of himself in this boy.

Adam folded his arms and looked hard into the blue of her eyes. ‘If the boy is mine, why have you waited so long to tell me about him?’ He was aware that his voice was still harshly condemning, and filled with more than a little suspicion, but, hell, she couldn’t drop a bombshell like this and expect no reaction.

His heart felt as though it was trying to escape from his chest and he was afraid to stand any closer to Sienna because he felt like shaking her. Why, for pity’s sake, had she kept her secret all this time? Why?

She looked stunning in a black and white top and stylish black trousers, which hid none of the curves of her sexy bottom. Her black high-heeled sandals gave her added height, even though they looked dangerously difficult to walk in. And her rich chestnut hair, which had always been her crowning glory, was cut in a short, chunky style that suited her elfin face.

She certainly didn’t look like the mother of an energetic four-year-old. She was dressed to kill. She had come here to drop her bombshell—and she had certainly done that. It was a wonder it hadn’t exploded and brought the whole apartment block down around their feet. Above them the sky was blue and serene but inside his body a war was raging.

‘My first instinct, when I discovered that I was pregnant, was obviously to tell you,’ she said, her eyes holding his.

Intense blue eyes, eyes that he had once felt himself drowning in. Eyes which now warred with his but were extremely beautiful nevertheless.

‘But as you’d told me enough times that you didn’t want kids, not for many years anyway, I knew it would cause another unholy row between us.’ Sienna lifted her shoulders and let them drop again. ‘So I decided to bring Ethan up on my own.’

And still she looked unswervingly into his eyes.

Ethan! The boy’s name was Ethan! He rolled the name experimentally on his tongue. ‘So why are you here now?’he asked harshly, ignoring the unease he felt at her words. It was true he had never wanted children and he hadn’t been afraid to say so. But he would never have ignored a son or daughter. They would have been given his love and he would have adapted his lifestyle. He would have had to.

Could he truly have done it, though? He hated himself for admitting that he would have been truly angry that his well-ordered life had been so rudely disrupted.

‘You said it wasn’t for money.’ He pushed his thoughts to one side for the moment. ‘What other reason can there possibly be?’ He did not understand her, not one little bit. The shock still hadn’t worn off and despite the fact that he didn’t drink he felt as though he could do with a generous slug of brandy. He needed something to restore his equilibrium.

‘Because,’ she began hesitantly, for the first time lowering her lids and looking slightly uncomfortable, ‘Ethan’s been ill, very ill.’ Then she looked at him again, a proud tilt to her head, trying to hide the pain in her eyes. ‘He had meningitis and I thought I was going to lose him. I realised that if he had died and you’d never even known you had a son, I would have done you an injustice.’

Adam felt a band tighten around his heart. He felt physical pain. His son had been close to death and he had known nothing about it! The blood roared in his head and he quickly closed the space between him and Sienna, taking her shoulders, gripping them so hard that he saw her wince. But he did not care.

‘What sort of a mother are you,’ he growled, ‘denying your son his father? Especially at a time like that. How could you? I’m presuming that he’s all right now?’

Sienna nodded and swallowed hard but she did not try to pull away from him. She stood there and looked sadly into his eyes.

He saw tears, big fat tears that welled and escaped and rolled slowly down her cheeks. One half of him wanted to brush them gently away with the tip of a caring finger, the other half, the angry half, wanted to shake her to within an inch of her life.