Free The Buenos Aires Marriage Deal by Maggie Cox

about Adán at all? What if business had not brought me to the UK this week? What if you had not been providing hospitality services at the same venue where my meeting was being held? Would you have let more time go by? Perhaps not getting in touch until our son was a grown man? Maybe not even then?’
    It was a terrible thought. And one that made Briana feel as if she had committed a crime that carried a life sentence. It was not the first time that the gravity of the decision she’d made in leaving Buenos Aires five years ago hit her so hard. But never before had it swept over her leaving such destroying hurt and regret in its wake. Faced with the flesh-and-blood reality of the handsome, vital man in front of her, she began to see exactly what she had done to him. Because of her he had suffered humiliation and torment—and he was suffering doubly now. Instead of going through with the marriage and committing herself to the man she had truly loved she had let fear and doubt rule the day—and this scene that was akin to torture was the result.
    Again she wished that she’d had a better example of a man than her deceitful, cruel father…Whatever way she reflected on it, her actions had resulted in denying Pascual the opportunity of having a relationship with his own son. Even if he potentially might have strayed in their marriage—and Briana had to recall the devastation she had endured when she’d seen him in the arms of his ex in Buenos Aires and believed the worst—he surely didn’t deserve that? Breathing out a troubled breath, she moved a few paces towards him. With all her heart she wished she knew a way to make everything right again, but she realised that was like wishing she could turn back time. It was simply beyond human capability.
    ‘You were always there at the back of my mind, Pascual. I suppose I just got caught up in the day-to-day demands of trying to run a business and support myself and Adán,’ she explained. ‘And because so much time had gone by without us speaking I worried that if I did contact you, you’d either slam down the phone or…if I went to Buenos Aires…shut the door in my face!’
    ‘Knowing that I had a son? You really believed I would do that?’ With even more disbelief, Pascual dropped his hands to the lean, masculine hips encased in black corded trousers. ‘It makes me realise even more that you do not know what kind of man I am Briana. Words desert me at the idea that you thought I would not be interested in the fact that I had fathered a son with you!’
    Disturbed by the thought that clearly she hadn’t really known Pascual as well as she’d thought she had, and feeling a sense of shame wash over her, Briana lifted her shoulders uneasily. ‘What can I do to help make things right?’
    Levelling his black velvet gaze right at her, Pascual did not hesitate to illustrate. ‘Apart from doing as I outlined and coming back to Buenos Aires with me? You can arrange for a car to drive us to where you live so that I may at last become acquainted with my son!’
    ‘But that’s three hours away and another three back…You won’t make dinner tonight with our clients if we do that.’
    When she saw how Pascual received that particular piece of information, Briana instantly regretted speaking her thoughts out loud. But she hadn’t only been thinking of what her clients would say if he did not meet them for dinner as arranged. She was genuinely concerned for her son, and how he would cope if she suddenly arrived home with a man he’d never seen before and declared that he was his father!
    ‘Do you think I care about attending a business dinner over seeing my child for the first time?’ Pascual uttered furiously. ‘Tell them I will meet them in London tomorrow instead…they can name the venue. You can say that something of the utmost importance has called me away. Why not?’ The formidably broad shoulders beneath the perfectly fitted black shirt lifted in a dismissive