Chapter 43Maya As it turned out, he did indeed have a skill for choosing the perfect dress. He nailed it with the second one she tried on. White silk in a very simple design. It had spaghetti straps with a conservative bodice, and the material hugged herbelly, drawing attention to the soft mound.“It makes me look...well, very pregnant,” she said as she turned to allow Alex to look.“You look absolutely exquisite,” he murmured. “I think every pregnant woman should like to look as you do right now.”The appreciation in his eyes sold her on the dress. She had no desire to look any further. It was carefully wrapped and set aside along with the low-heeled shoes that she had chosen.“Tell me my love, do you want a traditional wedding dress?”She pursed her lips then shook her head. “No, I would prefer something simpler, I think.”The saleslady set several really gorgeous selections in front of them, and Maya watched Alex closely for his reaction.She fell in love with a peach colored go
Chapter 44Maya Maya fidgeted and tugged at her dress as she surveyed her appearance in the mirror. Sapphires glinted from both ears, and the matching necklace lay against the skin of her neck.“You look beautiful, my love.”She turned to see Alex behind her. She sucked in her breath as she took in his appearance. The excellently tailored black suit fit him to perfection,drawing attention to his muscular build. The white shirt contrasted with his bronze skin, dark hair and golden eyes, and quite frankly, she felt like drooling.“So do you,” she finally managed.He chuckled and walked toward her. “Beautiful? Surely you can do better than that.”“Gorgeous? Devastatingly handsome? So good-looking that I’m tempted to fall on you and tear your clothes off?”“I like the way you think.”“I wasn’t joking,” she muttered.“Are you ready? The car is waiting for us below.”She took a deep breath and twisted her engagement ring around her finger with the pad of her thumb. “As ready as I will eve
Chapter 45She swayed and gripped the door frame tighter. Nausea boiled in her stomach as each and every moment flashed like a movie in fast-forward.Alex’s angry accusation of thievery. His ordering her from their apartment, his life. Her abduction and the months she had spent in hopeless fear,waiting for Alex to answer the ransom demands. Demands he had ignored.Oh God, she was going to be sick.He had left her. Discarded her like a piece of rubbish. The half million dollars, a paltry sum to a man of Alex’s means, was an amount he had been unwilling to part with to ensure her return.Everything had been a lie. He had lied to her nonstop since she had awoken in the hospital. He didn’t love her or want her. He despised her.She hadn’t been worth half a million dollars to him.Pain splintered through her chest as she shattered. As everything she had known as true suddenly turned black. Her heart withered and cracked, falling in pieces around her.He hadn’t tried to save her. The tortu
Chapter 46AlexAlex paced back and forth at the foot of Maya’s bed while the hotel physician administered the sedative. She was beyond distraught, and the doctor had moved immediately to prevent further upset.As the doctor stood and backed away from the bed, he looked at Alex, a grim expression on his face.Fear tightened Alex’s chest. “Is she all right? Is the baby all right?”The doctor motioned him across the room and away from where Maya now quietly lay. “Her injuries are not physical. If they were, perhaps I would be of use. Her distress is mental. If it is as you said, and she has regained her memory,it is that which has caused her immeasurable pain.”Alex stirred impatiently. “What can be done? She cannot be left as she is. There must be something we can do.” The sight of her pale face and her eyes, so huge with devastation, twisted his gut painfully.“You should return her to your home, to a place that is more familiar. She needs a doctor, not for her physical well-being, b
Chapter 47Maya.Maya was only vaguely aware of the things going on around her. After that first pass into oblivion, she registered being carried into a car. She heardAlex’s worried voice as he murmured to her, but she closed herself off from him, folding inward.When she next awoke, she knew she was in a bed. As she looked around the room, recognition sparked, and with it, a surge of fresh agony, hot and raw, seared through her body and robbed her of breath.He wouldn’t do this. Surely even he could not be so cruel as to bring her back to the place they’d shared and the place he’d brutally shoved her from.She reached for the tears, expecting them to come, but curiously all she felt was an odd detachment, a void of nothingness coupled with the need to get out of this place.When she sat up, her gaze flickered to a chair by the window occupied by Alex’s sleeping form. He was slouched against the arm, his clothingrumpled and the stubble of over a day’s beard shadowing his jaw.She wa
Chapter 48AlexAlex woke with a monster catch in his neck and shifted in the too small chair to alleviate his discomfort. He had wanted to spend the night with Maya tucked into his arms, but she had resisted his touch at every turn, becoming sodistraught that he’d had no choice but to retreat.He had taken the doctor’s advice and phoned a therapist as soon as he had returned to the apartment with Maya. The therapist was due to arrive this morning to speak with her. Alex just hoped she would be able to.His gaze moved to the bed, and when he saw it empty, he shot to his feet. He started to bolt from the room, but a glimmer of something on the nightstand caught his eye. When he saw her engagement ring lying there, dread tightenedhis chest. He ran from the room in search of her. As he went from room to room, his panic grew. She wasn’t anywhere to be found.Even as he hurled himself into the elevator, he dug out his cellular phone. As soon as the doors opened in the lobby, he ran out a
Chapter 49Maya. Maya shivered as she eased down onto the cold stone bench and clutched her arms around her trembling body. She glanced down at her feet but couldn’t summon any rebuke for having gone out in the chill without shoes or a coat. The only thought she’d had was to get away as quickly as possible. She couldn’t face Alex now.Now she knew why she’d been drawn to this place. Her thinking spot, indeed.Just hours before that last night, she’d sat here, afraid of how Alex would react to her pregnancy. She’d been right to be afraid. He didn’t trust her. Hebdidn’t love her. And he had left her to her fate with the kidnappers.She refused to allow the memories to roll back in her mind. They simply hurt too much. At least now she realized why she’d chosen to forget. All those weeks of living in fear as her kidnappers waited for their demands to be met had palednext to the betrayal Alex had handed her when he had refused.How could anyone be so cold? Wouldn’t he have been willing t
Chapter 50 Alex Alex strode into the Imperial Park Hotel, waving off members of the staff as they hastened to greet him. The elevator was being held open for him, and he got in and rode it to the top floor. A few moments later, he walked into the luxury suite usually reserved for VIP guests. His brother met him in the sitting area, and Alex scowled furiously at him. “Why didn’t you bring her back to the apartment?” he demanded. “She became hysterical at the mere mention of it” Theron said. “She was set to run as far and as fast as she could. I had to promise I wouldn’t take her back to the penthouse.” Alex swore and closed his eyes. He brought his hand to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers in a weary gesture. “She’s about to break,” Theron said quietly. “Bring your therapist here to talk to her. Maybe she can help.” Alex looked sharply at his younger brother. “You seem concerned about her.” “She carries my nephew.” His lips pressed together in a gr