Rising Stars. Maisey Yates

ring on her finger. It fit perfectly.

      Laura stared down at it, sparkling on her hand like an iceberg. It was beautiful. And so hollow.

      “Hmm,” Oliveira said, watching them thoughtfully. “Maybe I was wrong about you, Santos.”

      “You said you’d never marry anyone!” Adriana sounded outraged.

      Never looking away from Laura’s face, Gabriel smiled. “Plans change.”

      “But people don’t,” she spit out. “Not this much. You would never marry a woman with a baby!”

      Stiffening, Gabriel turned to her.

      “She has a baby,” Adriana said spitefully to Oliveira. “They were seen together on Ipanema Beach. He just brought Laura here this morning, after they’d been apart for a year. Why would he suddenly decide he’s in love with a woman after being apart for over a year? It’s a trick, Felipe,” she declared. “It’s a lie. He’s not committed to her. He won’t commit to anyone.”

      “I can explain, Oliveira,” Gabriel said through his clenched jaw.

      Felipe Oliveira’s jowly face hardened as he slowly turned to face his younger rival. “No,” he said. “I’m afraid you can’t. I don’t appreciate this elaborate theater you’ve performed. The deal is officially off.”

      The man turned away. Laura saw Gabriel’s frustration, saw his vulnerability and the desperate expression on his face as he lost his father’s company forever.

      “Wait,” Laura gasped.

      Snorting a laugh, Felipe Oliveira glanced back at her with amusement. “What could you possibly have to say, little one?”

      “Everything that Adriana said is true,” she whispered. “I have a baby. And I hadn’t seen Gabriel since I left Rio over a year ago. But there’s a reason why he came for me. A very good reason he’d want to marry me.”

      Folding his arms over his belly, Oliveira looked at her with a shake of the head. “I am dying to hear it.”

      Laura didn’t glance at Gabriel. She couldn’t, and still say what she had to say. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Then she spoke the secret she’d kept for over a year.

      “Gabriel is the father of my baby.”

      CHAPTER ELEVEN

      TREMBLING, Laura folded her arms.

      “Ah,” Felipe Oliveira said, stroking his chin with satisfaction as he looked from her to Gabriel with canny eyes. “Now I understand.”

      “No!” Adriana gasped. “It can’t be true!”

      Laura’s gaze rested anxiously on Gabriel. His dark eyes were deep as the night sky. She saw him take a deep breath. Then slowly, very slowly, he came toward her. Never looking away from her face, he took her in his arms. Biting her lip in apprehension, Laura waited for his jaw to clench with fury and resentment. Waited for him to say something biting and cruel.

      Instead, he gently kissed her cheek, then turned to face Oliveira and Adriana.

      “We weren’t going to tell anyone yet. But yes, Robby is my son. I wanted to wait until after our wedding to make it public. It seemed more proper.”

      “Proper?” Adriana sneered. “When have you ever cared about proper?”

      Gabriel stiffened, glaring at her. “I have always cared about doing what is right,” he said in a low voice. “I would never leave my child without a father, without a name.”

      “And yet,” Oliveira said, shifting his savvy gaze between them, “you allowed your fiancée to raise your baby alone, for all these months.”

      Gabriel set his jaw. “I—”

      “He didn’t know about Robby,” Laura interrupted in a whisper. “I didn’t tell him. It wasn’t until he came to my sister’s wedding that he first saw his son. I knew Gabriel didn’t want a family—”

      “So he always insisted,” Adriana said resentfully.

      Gabriel’s dark eyes glowed with warmth and love as he looked down at Laura, who was shivering in her red strapless gown and opera gloves. “But Robby changed my mind.” He wrapped his warm, tuxedo-clad arms more firmly around her. “From the moment I saw Laura with our son, I knew I couldn’t part with them. We were meant to be a family.”

      Laura blinked back her tears, hardly able to breathe as she heard the words she’d always dreamed of.

      She’d told him the truth about Robby, and he knew it. She could see it in his eyes. Robby was his son. And this was Laura’s reward for being brave enough to tell the truth. He wasn’t rejecting her. He wasn’t rejecting their baby.

      All this time she’d thought it would be so hard to tell him the truth, but it wasn’t. It was easy.

      Staring at them, Felipe Oliveira stroked his chin. “You might be a bastard, Santos, but you wouldn’t desert your son. Or your son’s mother.” He looked from Laura to Gabriel with a sly smile. “And I see the passion between you. I have been a doddering old fool to feel threatened. The two of you are in love.” He gave a sudden decisive nod. “Está bom. We will sign the preliminary contracts tomorrow. Be at my lawyers’ office at nine.”

      Gabriel put his arm around Laura’s waist, smiling at the other man. “Sure.”

      Adriana glared at Laura. “You got pregnant on purpose! You tricked Gabriel into marriage!”

      As Laura stiffened, Oliveira grabbed the supermodel’s arm grimly.

      “There’s only one person you should worry about getting tricked into marriage,” he said, “and that’s me. I look at them—” he nodded toward Laura and Gabriel “—and I see love. I look at you, Adriana, and I see…nothing.”

      She stared at him, her eyes wide.

      Oliveira lifted a white bushy eyebrow. “Our engagement,” he said mildly, “is over.”

      He marched off across the ballroom. Adriana’s cheeks went red as an amused titter flowed through the nearby crowd.

      “Fine,” she shrieked after him. “But I’m keeping the ring!”

      Oliveira didn’t even turn around. Frustrated greed filled Adriana’s eyes, and with an intake of breath, she started to push forward. “Felipe,” she whined, “wait!”

      When they were alone in the crowd, Gabriel looked down at Laura. She took a deep breath, waiting for the onslaught of questions she knew were coming. “Oh, Gabriel. I know we have so much to talk about—”

      “Wait.” He glanced at the people around them, amused celebutantes and movie actors in designer clothes, rich and beautiful and dressed in sparkling, sexy gowns. “Come with me.”

      Grabbing two flutes of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter, Gabriel pulled her through the glorious, gilded ballroom, filled with music and magic, and out a side door.

      The private garden was dark and quiet. Laura looked up and saw black silhouettes of palm trees swaying against the purple sky. The night was tropical and warm, and on the wild southern coast so far from the lights of the city, she could see stars twinkling down on them.

      Biting her lip, she faced him. “So…so you don’t mind?”

      “Mind?” Smiling, he handed her a glass of champagne. His dark head was frosted with silvery moonlight as he leaned forward to clink his crystal flute against hers. “You are the most incredible woman I’ve ever met,” he whispered. “Brilliant. Beautiful.”

      She stared up at him with trembling lips as joy flooded her heart. “You’re not angry?”

      “Angry?” His brow furrowed. “Why would I be angry? Because you