The Illegitimate Tycoon. Janette Kenny

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      Leila Santiago had been the star, hired as the hot model to tout the cutting-edge personal music player he’d developed that recorded and held hundreds of songs.

      He’d stood in the shadows of the set watching her, just as he’d watched his siblings play together from afar all those years ago. The longer he’d observed Leila, the more he realized she was dancing to the whims of her domineering mother.

      Then as now, Leila’s gorgeous eyes had met his. For a moment he’d seen the pain and uncertainty choking her. Seen the loneliness in her that mirrored his own.

      That one look had called to something buried deep inside him. Bare Souls.

      She, the lost waif in need of a hero, and he, the unwanted boy desperately needing to find the one person who’d make him feel whole. Make him feel worthy.

      Everyone on the set had planned to hit the pubs after the shoot and Rafael had looked forward to getting to know Leila better, but her mother had made it clear that Leila needed to work out instead.

      Though Leila seemed at her wit’s end, she didn’t object to her mother’s dictates, as if she were used to acquiescing to the woman.

      That had been all the incentive he’d needed to approach the alluring model. That and a good dose of arrogant Brazilian pride!

      “Join me for a drink?” he’d asked Leila once he’d gotten her alone.

      She’d smiled, though it’d been a nervous one. “My mother has already made plans for a trainer to work with me tonight.”

      He cast her plump mother a scathing glance, for if anyone needed a personal trainer it was her. “Why don’t you let her use the workout and you take the night off?”

      “With you?”

      “Of course.”

      “I don’t even know you,” she’d protested, though it’d been a weak one that had encouraged him even more.

      He’d introduced himself, and surely made more of his lowly title of software developer than was warranted. But even then he’d had grander dreams. Even then he’d secretly been working on something new and groundbreaking in the computer world.

      He’d touched Leila, no more than a caress of her arm. But a jolt of awareness had rocked him to his soul. The sexual attraction jarred him, but not nearly as much as the odd awareness that they were kindred souls.

      “Come with me, Leila,” he’d said.

      She’d cast one look at her mother and bit her lip, but she’d gone with him. For one glorious night and day they’d played like young lovers on holiday.

      He’d learned that just one year before she’d collapsed on the runway, and had spent the ensuing long months that followed in a special clinic recovering from the disastrous effects of anorexia. That she’d let her mother take charge of her life, and had yet to build up the confidence again to break free from her.

      That he’d been right all along and she was as lonely as he.

      That first impulsive date had sparked the whirlwind romance that had rocked the modeling world and set her mother at instant odds against him. He’d fallen under Leila’s spell—fallen in love, or as in love as he could be at that strained time in his life.

      He’d only known that he’d wanted Leila for more than an affair. He wanted her as his wife. Wanted a family with her.

      He proposed marriage, and Leila had eagerly said yes. But she’d made it clear she wasn’t ready to be a parent yet.

      Neither was he. They’d agreed that family was something they’d start in a few years, after they’d both made their marks. After they’d exhausted the freedom of young love.

      He’d known then that one day he’d have it all. A home. A gorgeous wife he loved. And children laughing and playing to chase away the lonely memories of his own childhood. To give him the family he’d craved, yet had been denied for the most part.

      But their wait had stretched from three years into four without Leila and him having a real home. Without Leila being part of his life for one entire year.

      No more! They’d both waited too long to see their dreams realized.

      He slipped the memory card in Leila’s new device and tested it.

      “I’ve taken the liberty to add a few pertinent applications but you’ll have to personalize it yourself,” he said, and handed her the mobile.

      Her fingers brushed his and she jolted, an external reaction to the same bolt of desire that had shot through him earlier, that still simmered deep inside him.

      “It looks complicated,” she said. “You’ll have to show me how to use it.”

      “We have time to do that later.”

      Once he’d doused his need to be with her. Once he’d wrestled his control back in place and he could simply enjoy this reunion with her.

      He crossed to the tray that had been delivered to their suite and poured an iced coffee laced with cachaça. “Would you like a drink?”

      “Water with a twist of lime,” she said. “I had orange juice at the airport.”

      He grimaced at the near apology in that confession. She rarely drank anything other than enhanced water which added zero calories. He could count on one hand the times he’d seen her eat a full meal and he’d certainly never seen her binge on anything.

      But then he was careful too, moderate. He didn’t wish to follow in his own father’s alcoholic footsteps.

      He turned to offer her the drink and just caught sight of her rushing into the master bedroom. The closing of the en suite bathroom door echoed softly in the suite.

      Not so for the sound of her becoming violently ill. If it were anyone else, he’d pass it off as a malady.

      But Leila’s troubled past gave him pause.

      The unsettling possibility she’d suffered a relapse plagued him as he carried his garment bag and suitcase into the bedroom.

      An economy of quick strides carried him into the facility moments after the toilet flushed. She was at the sink rinsing out her mouth, her face paler than before.

      “Leila, what’s wrong?” he asked.

      She shook her head, her eyes bleak. “I’ve been ill. Some stomach virus that refuses to leave.”

      “Have you seen a doctor for this?”

      “Yes, one who was on staff at the shoot gave me an antibiotic, but he did warn me that if this were a viral infection it would do no good,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”

      He gave her a more critical look, wanting to believe her. Yet they’d been apart too much this year, and she’d clearly lost weight.

      And though he didn’t want СКАЧАТЬ