Marry him? ‘Yes!’ Calleigh thought in a daze, looking up into his handsome face. Feeling his strong, rough hands against the softness of her skin, the warmth of his touch seared her, tracing down her neck to her breasts and lower still.
How could any man be so masculine, so beautiful, so powerful all at once? So perfect? Gabriel was everything her tore, empty, frightened soul had desired. He would protect her. Love her. He would complete her life.
‘Yes, I will!’
But even as the words rose to her lips, something stopped her. Something she couldn’t understand made her pull her face away from his touch.
“Marry you?” she whispered.
Calleigh searched his dark eyes, her heartbeat quickening in her chest.
“I don’t even know you.”
He blinked. She saw that Gabriel was surprised. Then his eyebrows lowered into a frown.
“You knew me well enough to conceive my child.”
She swallowed hard.
“But I can’t remember you,” she replied. “It wouldn’t be right to take you as my husband.”
“I was raised without a father. I don’t intend to be a weekend father or an absentee one. I will give our baby a name. Don’t take this from me,” Gabriel said in one breath.
Take this from him? How could any woman take away something from a man like Gabriel De León? Still, it didn’t feel right. With a deep breath, she turned away, glancing out at the passing scenery.
It had changed since they’d left the outskirts of London, become soft and green beyond the rain-splattered windows. Trees had started to turn orange and yellow, rich autumnal colors between the green.
“Callie…”
That name… She looked back at Gabriel. He was so darkly handsome and powerful, and at the moment his sensual mouth was pressed into a hard line. He was clearly determined to have his way. But something inside her made her resist him.
“Thank you for asking me to marry you,” she said awkwardly. “It was so nice of you. But my baby won’t be born for months…”
“Our baby,” Gabriel corrected her.
“Even so, I can’t be your wife when I can’t even remember you.”
“We’ll see,” he said softly.
Silence fell on their drive as she watched the passing scenery. Finally, the car turned off the road to a smaller lane. She saw a redbrick Georgian mansion at the base of tree-covered hills, reflected in a wide gray lake.
“Is that my stepfather’s house?” Calleigh breathed in shock.
“Yes.”
The car drove up the long lane through the park and woodlands then stopped in front of the entrance. As Gabriel opened the door and helped her from the car, Calleigh looked up with an intake of breath. Holding her hand over her eyes to block out the noon sunlight that had finally penetrated the clouds, she looked back at him.
“I lived here as a teenager?”
“And now it’s yours, along with a vast fortune.”
Calleigh looked at him sharply.
“How do you know?”
“You knew it yourself yesterday when you attended the reading of the will.”
“Still, how do you know?” she insisted.
Gabriel shrugged.
“I’ll make sure you get a copy of the will. Come now…”
Taking her hand, Gabriel escorted her past the grand sweep of the front door. Inside the foyer, five servants waited to greet her, headed by the housekeeper.
“Oh, Miss Swanson,” the plump woman sniffed into her apron. “Your stepfather loved you so much. He would be so glad to see you’ve finally come home!”
‘Home?’ But it wasn’t her home. Apparently, she’d barely set foot in this place for years! But looking at the elderly housekeeper’s sad face, Calleigh felt a sympathetic pang. She put an arm around her.
“He was a good man, wasn’t he?” she said softly.
“Yes, Miss Swanson. The best. And he loved you as his own child. Even though you weren’t,” she added, wiping her eyes. “He’d be so happy you’ve finally come back after so long.”
Calleigh paused delicately.
“Has it been so…?”
“Six, no, seven years. Mr. Swanson always invited you back for Christmas, but…”
Her voice trailed off as she wiped tears with her apron.
“But I never came…” Calleigh added.
The older woman shook her head wistfully. Calleigh swallowed. Apparently, she’d taken her stepfather’s money and let him pay her bills as she shopped and partied her way around the world, but hadn’t even had the grace to return for an occasional visit! And now he was dead.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered over the lump in her throat.
“Let me take you to your room. You’ll find it’s just as you left it last.”
Shortly afterward, the quietly sobbing housekeeper left them in Calleigh’s old bedroom. In the darkness, with Gabriel behind her in the only light of the double doorway, Calleigh yanked back the black curtains, filling the room with gray light.
Turning back to get a good look at her room, she choked back a gasp of dismay. Everything was red and black, down to the king-sized black bed. Dramatic. Modern. Sexy. Brassy.
Gabriel leaned against the door frame as Calleigh looked through the room, desperate for something, anything that would tell her what she needed to know. She opened closet doors, running her hands idly over the designer clothes that hung there. The clothes were like the room, sexy and dramatic. Powerful clothes for a woman who desired attention and knew how to wield it.
Calleigh shivered. She pulled open the shelves, touching each item lightly with her hands. Black stiletto heels… a Gucci handbag… a Louis Vuitton suitcase. Finding her passport, she thumbed through it, searching for answers that weren’t there. Zanzibar? Mumbai? Rio?
“You weren’t kidding,” she said slowly. “I do travel constantly. Especially for the last three months.”
When he didn’t reply, Calleigh turned back to face him. His face seemed carefully expressionless.
“Yes,” was all Gabriel said. “I know.”
She tossed the passport into her suitcase with the sexy clothes and shoes as if they belonged to someone else. Leaning against the modern black four-poster bed, she looked around her with a heavy sigh.
“There’s nothing here…”
“I told you, Calleigh.”
Desolately, she went to the bookshelf. It held only faded fashion magazines, years out of date, and a few slender volumes on etiquette and charm. She picked up the book on top, a splashy pop-culture book, and read the title out loud in dismay.
“‘How to Get Your Man?’ Really?”
“That’s never been your problem, querida.”
There was a distinct sarcasm in his tone. Her heart was breaking, and he was making jokes? She made a huffing sound and chucked the book in his general direction. He caught it midair.
“Let it be, Calleigh,” he said evenly. “None of this matter.”
“Well… It does matter. These things tell me who I am!”
She jabbed her finger toward the closet.
“I’ve just found out I was the kind of girl who only cared about her looks, who ignored a stepfather who loved me, and who never bothered to come home for Christmas.”
Tears rushed into her eyes.
“And I let him die alone,” Calleigh whispered. “How could I have been so cruel to him?”
Inconsolably, she picked up a dusty photo in a gilded frame. She saw the image of a man giving a cheeky wink, his arm around a beautiful dark-haired woman who was laughing with joy. Between them was a plump little girl with a big beaming smile and two missing front teeth.
She stared at the adults in the photo for a very long time, but no memories came back to her. They had to be her parents, but she couldn’t remember them. Was she really that heartless? Did she truly have no soul?
“What did you find?”
“Oh, nothing. It doesn’t help.”
Calleigh threw the photograph across the room, where it bounced softly against her bed. She covered her face with her hands.
“Why can’t I remember them? Or you?”
Crossing the bedroom in three long strides, Gabriel took her by the shoulders.
“I barely knew my parents, but it hasn’t hurt me.”
“It’s not just the past, Gabriel,” she whispered. “It’s all this…” she whispered pointing at everything around her. “You shouldn’t want to marry a soulless, heartless person like me… Or want to be around me…”
Gabriel didn’t answer.
“I can’t tell him how sorry I am,” she said over the lump in her throat. “I’ve lost my only family. I have no home.”
“Your home is with me, querida,” Gabriel said in a low voice.
She looked up at him. The sunlight from the tall windows gently caressed his face, illuminating floating dust motes like tiny stars all around them in the red-and-black bedroom.
“Let me show you.”
He slowly stroked up her bare arms, his fingers light against her skin.
“Marry me, cariño.”
Electricity spread up her arms and down her body. She fought the urge to step closer to him, to press her body against his chest.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“Why?” he growled.
“Because I don’t want you to marry me out of pity!”
His hands suddenly moved around her, caressing her back through her dress, causing the black silk to slide deliciously over her body with his featherlight touch.
“Pity is the last thing I feel for you.”
Calleigh closed her eyes, leaning forward, wanting more of his touch. Wanting to feel his warmth. His heat. Gabriel pulled her more deeply into his arms. She felt the scent of him, the heat of his body through his clothes.
“Come away with me,” he whispered into her hair. “Come to Marbella and be my bride.”
She felt the hardness of his body against hers, the strength of his arms around her. He was so much taller and powerful than she was. His hands ran softly along the edges of her hips, up the length of her back as her breasts crushed against his chest.
Calleigh swallowed, trembling. She licked her lips, moving her cheek against his shirt as she looked up at him.
“I can’t just run away,” she sighed. “I need my memory back, Gabriel. I can’t just walk this world not knowing who I am. I can’t marry a virtual stranger, even if you’re the father of my child…”
“So, I’ll take you to the place where we first met. To where we began.”
She felt his dark gaze fall upon her mouth as he added slowly.
“I’ll show you the place where I first kissed you.”
Her bones turned to liquid. Calleigh looked up at him, her heart pounding as she licked her lips involuntarily.
“Where is that?”
His eyes were hot and dark.
“In Venice.”
“Venice,” she repeated, and the word was a wistful sigh.
Calleigh looked up at him with yearning, knowing she should refuse. Knowing she should stay in London and see the specialist Dr. Levi had recommended. But her refusal caught in her throat. Caught by her romantic dreams. Caught by him.
Gabriel reached down to stroke her tender bottom lip with his thumb, caressing her face with his powerful hands.
“Come to Venice, cariño,” he said darkly. “I will show you everything.”
He cupped her face with both hands, holding her hard against his body as he looked down at her, commanding her with his gaze.
“And then,” Gabriel whispered, “you will marry me.”
Sunlight reflected off the water as Calleigh and Gabriel took the motoscafo, a Venetian private water taxi, from the Marco Polo Airport. The September weather was bright and warm as they crossed the lagoon, passing by the Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Bridge on the way to their hotel. Italy… Venice… Memories started to pierce his heart. Gabriel had never expected to return here again. But he said to himself that sometimes a man had to change the cards in the middle of the game. He swore to himself that he would do whatever it took, be as romantic a fool as any man could be, in order to lure Calleigh into marriage before her memory returned. It was the only way to make her pay for the wrong she had done to him. Gabriel loo
They stood on the dock as his bodyguard-assistant, Miguel, paid the young Italian taxi driver and organized the luggage. But all Calleigh could see was Gabriel. He was so breathtakingly handsome, tall, and strong... He seemed a demigod… like he left Heaven and came to Earth only for her… At this thought, she smiled slightly, almost imperceptibly. He really was there for her, to help her remember their wonderful love story, to recall how it has been between them before she lost her memory. Seeing her wardrobe in her stepfather’s house, Calleigh knew, without the shadow of a doubt, that she had been extremely hard to handle before the accident. The way she dressed, all the useless parties, her continuous running around from one city to another… It was time to put that aside and embrace this strange, ne
The sun was starting to set, giving the twilight a pink-and-orange glow with a rapidly chilling autumn bite in the air. As a light fog blew in from the lagoon, Gabriel reached for Calleigh’s hand. His hand wrapped around her smaller one, their naked palms pressing together, and she gave an involuntary shiver that had nothing to do with the cooling night. He paused on the walkway between the piazzetta and the canal.“Cold?” She nodded, because… how could she tell him the truth? How could she tell him that his every touch exhilarated and frightened her in equal measure?“Then we should do something about it.” Behind his head, Calleigh could see the Byzantine white domes, arches, and sharp
She swallowed, staring at his profile, very aware of what he just said and the bed behind her.“Well, um… Not anymore…” Calleigh whispered.“You won’t be hearing me complaining…” Gabriel said and a little mischievous smile appeared on his lips.“Nope… Thank you very much. New me… new habits.” Anxious, she looked at the bed and the couch.“You take the bed,” he said and the smile was now long gone. Standing up, he closed his laptop. His dark gaze, which had been so hot when he’d nearly kissed her near St. Marco’s Piazza, had suddenly cooled.“I’ll work in the office so I don’t disturb you. I’ll sleep on the couch when I’m tired.”&n
Calleigh had been smiling at him, but now she felt suddenly shy and kinda frightened. She put her hand to her hair, which yesterday had hung past her breasts and was now touching slightly her collarbone.“What?! What it looks like? I just had cut my hair. I felt it was time to make some changes about myself, about my image. So, I decided to start with my hair… These romantic waves caught my eye in a magazine and… here’s the result! A new wonderful haircut.”“I can see that…”“So, since it’s so obvious, why are you so mad about it? Was I supposed to ask for your permission?” she retorted pertly, squaring her shoulders. “Come on, Gabriel! Get used to it! It’s not like I cut an arm or something. It will grow back.” H
Gabriel looked just like the dark pirate she’d imagined, the one who’d come to plunder the medieval city, to take what he wanted and burn the rest. Calleigh blinked. How had she come up with such a brutal, cruel image? Where had that come from?“I saw you coming down those stairs in a long red dress… Such a powerful, wonderful vision. Pure perfection,” he said softly. “You were on the arm of my greatest business rival, but I knew at once that I would take you away from him. He had no chance against my determination to have you as part of my life.” Slowly, he walked up the stairs toward her.“I had to have all to myself. I would have taken you from the devil himself.” As Gabriel came up the stairs toward her, Calleigh was unable to move. Un
Kissing Calleigh was like falling into the darkest, deepest hole. It was like going straight to hell. It was fire. Sheer fire running through him. His blood was boiling in his veins, hot like a volcano’s lava. Gabriel placed his hand on the back of her head, his fingers twining in her beautiful hair, as he deepened the kiss. For months, he’d constantly hated and wanted Calleigh in equal measures. All he wanted was to have her once again before destroying her. He hungered for her, for her gorgeous body, for her sweet, plump lips. Was that why finally kissing her now overwhelmed his senses more than ever before? It wasn’t just desire that had changed the kiss, Gabriel realized. It was Calleigh herself. The kiss was different because the woman he was kissing was different. &nb
Gabriel looked at her and kissed her forehead.“Yes, querida, we’re getting married today and are going to leave happily ever after,” he confirmed quite plainly. “And we have additional good news, hermano… We’re having a baby.”“Oh…” Lorenzo said, then. “Oh… okay… Now I see…” He cleared his throat, then suddenly smiled, as if it all made sense now.“Such great news… Congratulations to you both,” he replied giving Gabriel a pack on his shoulder and smiling at the future mother.“Thanks, Lory,” Gabriel added and took Calleigh's hand in his. “We need to go now, but let’s meet soon and talk some more… Bring Phoebs too.”“Let’s talk some more at my house, on Ravaiarina Island. W