Second Chances (19 page)

“You’re the one who should be quiet
before you say something you will regret.”

Maybe, but she couldn’t stop now. He
couldn’t say those things to her without hearing the truth. “Everyone has to
obey you and fall in line with your requests so that you don’t cut them off or
have them followed or buy off their attorney!” She was yelling now. “Well, you
won’t control me. I never meant to hurt you, and I wish—I
wish
—with all
my heart that I could take back what I did, but I can’t. At some point you have
to believe me. Otherwise when does it end?”

Sabrina pressed her hands to her chest.
“I’m your wife, Renny, and I love you, but I can’t live with you under the
conditions you require. I love you. Do you hear me? Do you have any idea how
hard it is to say those words and not hear you say them back?”

“If you can’t live here under my
conditions, then there’s no point in you staying. Get out.” His voice was cold
and perfectly controlled.

“No. I—”

“I said get out. Don’t make me put you
out again.”

Pain ripped through her, and she turned
her face away so he couldn’t see how much he’d hurt her. She’d experienced pain
before, but nothing like this. Like she was being torn apart from the inside
out. It was worse than the first time he’d told her to go because she’d gotten
her hopes up and believed they could live happily together again. “Fine. I know
what I want, but you have to want it, too. I’ll leave in the morning.” 

She had to get out of there. With tears
blurring her vision, Sabrina ran from the room.

The door slammed, and Renaldo stood in
the room alone.

His hand throbbed and was beginning to
swell after suffering through the abuse of connecting with Mateo’s face and the
bedroom wall.

He didn’t have time for this. Any of it.
There was too much going on, cluttering his brain. He had to finish working on
the plans for Estação Central. And he’d gotten a call from his man keeping an
eye on Sabrina in the middle of the meeting with Paulo. On the way to the
market he’d read the report in the back of the taxi and wondered if she’d been
conning him all along. How in the world had she gotten herself mixed up with
someone like Mateo Sousa?

Her empty words of love meant nothing to
him. He couldn’t believe he’d fallen for her deception again. He’d gotten comfortable
with their lovemaking, her laughter, and the way they teased each other. But if
she’d thought he’d beg her to stay, she was mistaken. The minute she walked out
the door he could pick up the phone and have another woman in her place in a
heartbeat.

He pulled his phone from his pocket.
He’d call Beatrisa and tell her to call one of her friends. It was time he
started dating again. During the separation from Sabrina, he’d slept alone,
night after night, wondering if she’d been with Mateo. Wondering if there had
been others. He should have slept with someone else. Maybe doing so would have
purged her from his system.

His hand started to shake.

Damn it.

He didn’t need her.

He paused with his finger poised over
the speed dial button for his sister’s number. Already he could see the
yawning, empty void his life was going to be when Sabrina left. He’d miss her. Her
sweetness when she was trying to please him. Her strength when she gave him a
hard time. The feel of her body, the scent of her skin. The touch of her hand.
He’d have to give it up. All of it.

Renaldo closed his eyes. He couldn’t go
there again, suffering through the torment of living without her. He wouldn’t
let her go. He couldn’t.

He tossed the phone to the floor and
barged into the other bedroom. Sabrina stood with a pile of clothes in her
arms. A suitcase on the bed was already half-full.

Time stood still; it could have been
seconds, it could have been minutes. It could have been hours, for all he knew.
His strong, beautiful wife looked back at him with such vulnerability, such
hurt in her red-rimmed eyes.

“Tell me what happened that night.”

It pained him to say those words, but he
could no longer hide from it. She’d asked him before to let her explain, but he
hadn’t been ready. Now he thought he was, hoped he was. Because if he could
listen to her explanation, maybe he could get past the pain and say the words
of love she longed to hear, but he’d only been strong enough to admit to
himself.

Sabrina dropped the clothes into the
suitcase. She blinked rapidly and brushed away a tear that fell onto her cheek.
“It happened the night you flew to Argentina,” she began. “We fought earlier
that day. You were still angry at me for showing up late to your friend’s
birthday party the night before. You kept going on and on about the importance
of relationships and how they were more important than money. I knew that, but
I guess I didn’t understand it fully because I didn’t have those types of
relationships. I didn’t have close friends and family. I didn’t go to birthday
parties. My work had been my life, and the only family I had was Jewel. You
were so mad at me, but I felt that what I was doing was helping
us
build
our future together. I didn’t get it.”

She sniffed and lifted her gaze to his.
“You were still mad when you left. Jewel and I had already planned to go out
that night. She wanted to go dancing and thought it might be a good way to get
me out of my funk. We had a good time together, like we always do. Men hit on
us, and Jewel flirted with them, but I ignored them.” Her gaze lowered for a
moment, and he knew she was about to say the part he dreaded hearing. “Mateo
was one of those men. He sat down at our table and offered to buy us drinks,
but we declined, not wanting to encourage him.

“He stayed and we all talked for a while.
I remember I ordered a second drink and went to the bathroom. When I came back,
my drink was on the table. Mateo and Jewel sat there talking. A few minutes
later, Jewel was on the dance floor.” Sabrina placed her hand to her forehead,
frowning. “I don’t remember much afterward. I know I had the drink, and the
next morning when I woke up, I was in our bed. Beside me was a note from Mateo,
thanking me for the night before.”

Renaldo closed his eyes. His entire body
felt like one tight, clenched muscle. He’d asked what happened, but he didn’t
like hearing about it. “And you don’t remember anything between the time of
your second drink and the next morning?”

“Nothing.”

It was quite possible Mateo had slipped
something into her drink while he and Jewel were alone. All it would take was
for Jewel to get distracted and he could slip in the drugs. Based on his arrest
record, it wasn’t outside the realm of belief that he’d do something so
heinous.

“And then?”

“I didn’t want to believe what the note
suggested. Then I received the first envelope with the photos.”

“When I came back into town you wouldn’t
let me touch you.” She’d avoided him and been distant. He’d thought she was
still upset about their argument.

“Because I was waiting for test results.
I wanted to be sure that I was clean. I didn’t know what happened that night,
but I knew I didn’t want to jeopardize your health because of my carelessness.”

“Why didn’t you come to me and tell me
any of this?”

“I couldn’t. I’d done something so awful,
and if I told you, I’d lose you. But I lost you anyway, didn’t I?” Her eyes
filled with sadness. “You don’t love me anymore.”

She thought he didn’t love her. How
absurd. She was his greatest weakness. He loved her
too
much. So much he
wanted to drop to his knees and beg her to stay. The same way his father had
begged his mother.

She stepped closer, clutching her hands
to her chest. “I don’t know why I brought him here that night. Part of me
believes that I was drugged, but I don’t have any proof. I shouldn’t have kept
it from you, I know that. But I was so afraid. Haven’t we been happy the past
couple of weeks? I know in time we can get past this. Just tell me how to fix
it. You’re the love of my life. Don’t make me leave, Renny. Please. Please
don’t make me leave again.”

He saw past the anger and hurt to the earnest
expression on her face. The pleading in her eyes and the soft tremor of her
voice cut through him and forced him to recognize the truthfulness of her words.
He didn’t have to beg her not to leave. She was begging to stay. 

“You know me,” Sabrina whispered. “You
know I love you. You must feel
something
for me, in here.” She placed a
hand over his heart. Her touch filled his chest with warmth. “Don’t you still
love me…even just a little bit?”

Her voice was filled with anguish, and
Renaldo wanted to ease it as much as he wanted to ease his own. He covered her
hand. “A little bit? I never stopped loving you, absolutely, completely, with
all my heart. Even when I was angry.” His fingers tightened around hers, and he
stepped closer to look down into her upturned face. “Even when I told myself I
hated you, I never stopped.”

Her eyes grew wide and bright in her
face. “Honey…”

“I forgive you.”

With a choked sob she wrapped her arms
tightly around his neck.

Renaldo lifted her into his arms and
pressed his face into the scented groove of her neck. “The thought of you with
another man…it tore me apart.”

“I know. I know, honey. I’m sorry.”

“I won’t let you leave me.”

“I don’t want to leave.” She kissed his
cheek.

“No more lies.”

“No more,” she promised and kissed his
chin.

“If there’s a problem, you come to me,
and we figure it out together. No matter how terrible you think it is,
entende
?” He had to get that point across. The
pain of knowing she was with another man was made even worse by her deception.

“Yes, I understand. I promise I will.
I’ll do whatever you say.”

He touched his lips to hers. “I love
you.”

“I love you, too.” She kissed his face,
the fine hairs of his brow, his narrow nose.

“You’re mine.”

She looked deeply into his eyes and
caressed his cheek with the back of her fingers. “I am. That’s never changed. And
it never will.”

Chapter
Seventeen

Renaldo carried her to their bedroom and
removed her clothes, tossing them to the carpeted floor. She climbed into bed
to wait for him, and he quickly disrobed, never letting his gaze leave her.

He went into her outstretched arms and
let his mouth travel over the arch of her throat. He dropped kisses all over the
soft skin until she purred with satisfaction. The sound quickened his blood. She
tasted so good and,
Deus
, he couldn’t live without this. Without her.
Sabrina was everything to him and all the money in the world didn’t matter if
he couldn’t have her.

“You’re mine.”

“Yes. Yes, Renny.”

His mouth covered hers, and he rolled
onto his back, pulling her on top of him. Sabrina sank into the kiss with pure
pleasure. He wanted her. He still loved her. That exhilarating thought
compounded the heat of her own desire and added urgency to their lovemaking.

She straddled him and kissed his muscular pecs.
The tip of her tongue flicked a flat nipple, and he groaned, his hips jerking
under her. She ran her fingers down his chest and along the ridges of his
abdomen. Her mouth followed the trail, worshipping the tight, corded muscles. She
never failed to have the same reaction when she saw him naked. He was
perfection. Hard and muscular, with his skin a beautiful bronze that made her
mouth water.

Lower, she kissed his hips, using her teeth to nibble
at the sensitive skin of his inner thighs. The muscles there quivered, and he ran
his fingers through her thick hair.

“Sabrina.” The gravelly tone spurred her on,
encouraged her to give him even more pleasure to show how much she loved him.

Her fingers curled around the base of his hard
flesh as she covered the broad head with her mouth. The fingers in her hair
tightened as he drew a deep breath. Lifting his hips, Renaldo prodded her to
take him deeper. She happily obliged, lowering her head to suck more of him
into her mouth until the tip hit the back of her throat.

Sabrina moved her mouth and hand in tandem,
sliding up and down the thick shaft. Their gazes locked as she continued to
suck him. The sounds of his pleasure-filled agony were like music to her ears. She
enjoyed making him feel good, felt so powerful when the calm exterior cracked
and he lost control.

“
Você é incrível
,” he groaned.
You’re
incredible
. Rendered almost helpless by her mouth, he was only able to
communicate in his native tongue.

He told her he was about to come and propped up
on an elbow. He thought he could stop her, said he wanted to come inside of
her, but she had other plans. She refused to release him. She wanted him to
come in her mouth. She wanted his male essence splashed across her taste buds.

Renaldo’s face contorted and the fingers in her
hair curled and tightened. He moved his hips faster and muttered something unintelligible
right before he burst inside of her mouth. Falling back onto the bed, he let
out a loud moan and shuddered as she sucked the last bit down her throat.