One Night with Gael (Rival Brothers 2) - Page 40

She shook her head in confusion. ‘Yes, of course I do—the same way you strive to be successful at what you do. I love what I do and I’m good at it. But I’ve also worked hard for it. There’s nothing wrong with that and I won’t apologise for it.’

‘Of course not. Just as there’s nothing wrong with the few hundred thousand starlets who want the same thing you do. Except you saw an opportunity for a fast track and you took it.’

‘An opportunity you told me I’d be a fool to refuse, if I remember... Oh, you’re still talking about the pregnancy? You think—’ She stopped, too horrified to put what she suspected he meant into words immediately.

He raised a mocking eyebrow, dared her to continue.

‘You think that just because you own a production company I deliberately kept this a secret, so I’d be set career-wise and security-wise for life?’

‘Sí. Exactly.’

She shook her head again, unable to fathom how he could read her so wrong. How could he be so twisted about her motives? Or complete lack thereof. Had his past circumstances really done such a damaging number on him that he truly believed that?

‘Gael, let me make one thing clear. I didn’t want to lose the opportunity you presented me with, once you yourself talked me into it. But, please believe me, I would never put my career before the welfare of an innocent child,’ she stated, her heart dredged with a hurt whose depths she couldn’t quite touch.

‘Sadly I have no proof of that besides the words falling from your mouth. Will have no proof of that until the child is born,’ he rasped icily.

‘How...? What did I do to make you think this of me? We barely know each other—’

‘I know enough.’

‘To condemn me like this?’ she rasped, feeling her voice, like everything inside her, threatening to go numb at the flaying condemnation she saw in his eyes.

‘On the way back from that dinner party in New York did you not plead with me? Tell me that you’d do anything to get the part?’

‘Anything within reason. Like an audition. Or a screen test. Even an initial interview to see if my credentials were what you needed. Something within my profession. Not...not this!’

His eyes followed the hand she slid low over her stomach, then his gaze rose to hers, icier, more soul-shredding than before.

‘This? The baby is a mere thing to you?’

‘Oh, please—why are you trying so hard to twist my every word?’ she cried, blinking back the further tears that threatened. ‘I didn’t trick you, or keep this baby a secret from you. I’ve only just worked it out myself. I’m not out to get my hands on your billions, or use the baby as leverage for my career. I haven’t even been able to absorb the news and you’re already labelling me a heartless gold-digger who would trade her unborn child for fame and fortune!’

‘You wouldn’t be the first,’ he drawled, the same way he had that day in New York.’

Pain, raw and bracing, ripped through her. ‘You know what? Go to hell, Gael. And stay there!’

This time when she stood her feet felt more inclined to support her.

He took one step forward.

She countered by taking several away from him.

He halted. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ he demanded, his voice quiet but grating.

‘Anywhere I don’t have to continue this ludicrous, demeaning conversation with you. I’m not one of the women you’ve dated in the past who came with a portfolio of agendas. Hell, we’re not even dating. So leave me alone.’

‘Goldie—’

‘No! If you have something else to say to me that doesn’t involve you shredding my character, talk to me in the morning. Otherwise I’ll thank you to stay away from me.’

He laughed. ‘Stay away from you? When you’re carrying my child? Believe me when I say that will not happen in a million years. We will talk in the morning, Goldie, whether you wish to hear what I have to say or not.’

‘Don’t count on it.’

‘Goldie—’

‘Goodnight. I’d say sleep well, but I hope you spend the rest of the night thinking about your unfounded accusations and stewing over them.’

Tags: Maya Blake Rival Brothers Billionaire Romance
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