The Billionaire Baby Bombshell by Paula Roe Read Free Book Online Page B

moment. “Don’t you dare bring that up!”
    “It’s true.”
    Yelena took a step back, then another. “But it didn’t make it right.” She stuck her hands on her hips, guilt and desire now burning her face. “Do you know how many times I wanted to tell Gabriela about us? And every time I psyched myself up to it, she’d bounce in with a stupid grin on her face, telling me how happy she was. I hated myself for lusting after my sister’s boyfriend. What we were doing was wrong.”
    His eyes darkened. “All you and I did was share a few kisses—we did nothing immoral.”
    “Maybe not in your mind. But every time I was with you—” I was so damn happy, yet so miserable because you made herhappy. “Oh, forget it,” she bit off and whirled away, stalking to the door.
    Yet just as her hand slapped on the cold wood, she paused. Her feet itched to storm out that door, her fingers falling to clench the polished handle as if it were a lifeline. But the damage was done. She’d not only flung open the gate to their past, she’d blithely charged on through.
    With reluctance dogging every second, she turned back. “Alex…about Gabriela.”
    “What?” He’d grabbed his mobile phone from the desk and was absently checking his messages. “Did she ever manage to sign Jennifer Hawkins to her agency? I knew she was angling for her.”
    At Yelena’s silence he glanced up. “What? She’s returning to modeling? She’s back in town? She’s getting married?” At this last one he gave a snort, part amusement, part skepticism.
    “No.”
    That small word had a truckload of seriousness behind it. His smile faltered, then froze. “What?”
    Yelena fingered her necklace and swallowed, the huge lump passing under her skin and down her throat. “Gabriela’s dead.”
    Seconds passed like a yawning chasm, deathly silent yet loaded with meaning.
    His entire face tightened into incredulity. “You’re kidding.”
    “Would I lie about something like that? It was never officially announced so there’s no way you could’ve known.”
    “When?”
    “In March. She called me from Spain on Christmas Eve, right after we…you and I…” She trailed off guiltily. Parked in his father’s driveway, making out like two teenagers. Half-clothed, his hot mouth on her body, frantic kisses full of hope and promise for the future before she’d breathlesslybegged him to stop. We have to tell Gabriela—she deserves to know.
    “She called me on my way home, desperate for help,” Yelena continued. “I tried calling you at the airport but you’d switched your phone off. Then when I landed in Madrid, I kept calling—your mobile, your house. Finally I got some security guy but he wouldn’t let me speak to you.”
    “So you stopped trying.”
    It wasn’t an accusation, just a statement of fact. The truth of it hacked off a little piece of her heart. She had just given up.
    “I called for a week,” she admitted, “but you’d imposed a complete communication blackout. I even told them I was from Bennett & Harper PR, but nothing. I thought you’d…” To her embarrassment, her voice wavered.
    Alex’s hands went to his hips. “You thought I was breaking up with you?”
    “Wouldn’t you?” she countered. “I’d left without warning and ended up with Gabriela in a bunch of tiny, off-the-grid towns, some with barely enough sanitation, let alone phone towers. When we finally got to Germany in early March, I found out about your father—a few weeks after you’d been cleared. Then Gabriela’s issues, her death, overshadowed everything else.”
    She held his gaze until he finally glanced away, dragging a hand over his eyes.
    “I didn’t know. My life has been—” He stopped, dropped his gaze and exhaled forcefully. “I’m sorry about your sister. How did she…?”
    “Car crash. She was…” Impulsive. Reckless. Selfish . “Gabriela,” Yelena finished lamely with a small smile and a shrug.
    “And your parents haven’t