Restless Billionaire (16 page)

 
          
The
only way Sebastian knew he’d been having that dream again was because he was
struggling for breath and something or someone was holding him down. He fought
to get free and lurched off the bed, only realising then where he was.

 
          
Aneesa
was looking at him with huge eyes, her hair tousled around her shoulders. ‘You
were having a dream … crying out for someone to come to you….’

 
          
On
jelly legs Sebastian walked over to the window. His heart was still hammering
and his skin felt clammy. He spoke because something within him couldn’t remain
silent. He’d bottled this up forever.

 
          
‘I
was calling for my mother.’

 
          
‘Yes,’
Aneesa said quietly.

 
          
He
was still half conscious and recounted the dream almost without realising he
was doing it. ‘I’m in my home where I grew up, Wolfe Manor, and I’m tiny. I’m in
a dark corridor all alone, and I know something terrible has happened. I’m
frightened and crying but no one comes and then suddenly there are lots of
people—my half-brothers and -sister, our housekeeper … my father. But they can’t
see me and they keep rushing past me, even though I’m crying.’

 
          
Sebastian
knew Aneesa had moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Silently he begged her not
to come near him or he might crumble completely.

 
          
‘Sebastian
it was just a dream …’ Aneesa’s heart went out to the tall proud man who stood
with his back to her.

 
          
He
turned around then and she was shocked at the bleak look on his face. ‘That’s
it, you see. It’s not just a dream. It’s a memory. When I was just over a year
old, my mother walked into the lake on our estate and tried to kill
herself
and my brother Nathaniel. He was just a baby at the
time, but my father was enraged because she’d been stupid enough to have
another child. It was only because two of my older brothers saw her and saved
them that they survived.’

 
          
Aneesa
sucked in a breath. ‘That’s horrific …’ He smiled but it was grim. ‘Yes. And
there’s plenty more where that came from, like the fact that my oldest brother
Jacob had a row with our father which resulted in his death.’ Aneesa tried to
speak. ‘Sebastian—’ He made a slashing gesture with his hand. ‘
No
. I won’t discuss this anymore. You
need to get back to sleep. I’m sorry for disturbing you.’

 
          
And
he strode out of the bedroom. Aneesa just sat there for a long moment before
curling back into bed, hugging her arms around herself. She didn’t want to be
alone tonight—she still felt vulnerable after what had happened earlier—but she
knew there was no way Sebastian would come back now. She’d just pushed him to
his limit.

 
          
WHEN
Aneesa woke the next morning and went to get some breakfast, she wasn’t
surprised to see that Sebastian had already gone to the office. Daniel passed
on a message to say that Sebastian would be working late, so not to wait up.
Aneesa sighed deeply. They’d gone about five steps forward and three hundred
back. All night she’d had broken and disturbed dreams about a small boy
standing distraught in a dark corridor while people rushed past, ignoring him.

 
          
Great
, she thought to herself as she
poured some tea,
now I’m even taking on
his nightmares
. But there had been something so sadly poignant about the
image … and even now she silently vowed to protect her own child from any
similar scenario.

 
          
After
breakfast she went into Sebastian’s study which he told her she could use to make
calls home or for the Internet. Feeling determined, she sat there for hours and
trawled the Internet for every bit of information she could find about the
Wolfe family. She managed to find out a lot more this time and it was only when
Daniel knocked and called her for supper that she realised how engrossed she’d
become.

 
          
Her
head spun with information she’d found, but she’d ended up with nearly more
questions than answers. By all accounts, William Wolfe, Sebastian’s father, had
been a charismatic and upstanding man of society. A vastly wealthy and
enigmatic character, he’d had seven children, and a rumoured illegitimate son,
the famous Brazilian entrepreneur Rafael da Souza. He’d clearly been a lover of
women, with three marriages and at least a couple of love affairs to his
credit. And yet all of his relationships seemed to have ended in tragedy, or
mysterious circumstances. And exactly as Sebastian had said, he’d died by the
hand of his own eldest son, although this tragedy had been ruled accidental.

 
          
There’d
been one mention of Carrie Hartington, Nathaniel and Sebastian’s mother, to say
that she’d been committed to psychiatric care twenty-five years before, and
nothing about where she was now. Aneesa could only guess, after what Sebastian
had revealed, that perhaps his mother had had some sort of severe postnatal
depression, because surely her own husband couldn’t have driven her to such a
situation?

 
          
All
in all, as she dropped exhausted into bed that evening, Aneesa knew that the
real story of Sebastian’s past lay between the lines of everything she’d read
today, and she also knew that he would have to be the one to tell her. She woke
up a couple of hours later when she felt Sebastian slide into the bed behind
her, his naked body tucking around hers. On a wave of relief that he’d come to
her, she silently turned to face him and took his face in her hands, kissing
him on his mouth.

 
          
Her
nightdress was discarded in a matter of seconds and Aneesa said nothing as she
and Sebastian made love. Afterwards, when he tried to pull away to leave, she
gripped his arms around her and said determinedly, ‘
No
. Stay till I fall asleep.’

 
          
She
could sense his struggle but finally he gave in, and for the first time, Aneesa
lay awake while Sebastian slept. She prayed he wouldn’t have the dream again,
and finally fell into a dreamless sleep herself.

 
          
When
she woke the next morning alone in the bed, Aneesa had to wonder for a moment
if she’d dreamt that Sebastian had come to her the previous night, but then her
naked and pleasantly aching body told her the truth.

 
          
Without
even getting out of bed, she instinctively knew that Sebastian would be gone to
work already and a small fire of anger and determination lit in her blood. She
was
not
going to let him treat her as
if she existed purely to keep his bed warm, and not even as a human being he
could communicate with. She was carrying his child—she deserved better than
that, no matter what secrets his past held.

 
          
Sebastian
felt disgruntled and irritated. Ever since the horrific realisation that Aneesa
had witnessed his most vulnerable moment, when he’d blurted out his dream, he’d
been determined to do his best to mark out his territory again. Reclaim his
sanity
.

 
          
He’d
gone into the office yesterday and had instructed his assistant to find
apartments for sale or rent. He was going to move Aneesa out, or he’d move out
if he had to. She could have the apartment and Daniel. He couldn’t stay there
any longer.
With her.
With those
huge eyes watching his every move, silently questioning him.

 
          
So
last night he’d come home, with arms full of brochures for houses, determined
to lay them all out and offer them up to Aneesa. He would set her up in style,
so that she and his baby would never have to want for anything. He’d do the
same in Mumbai if she so wished so he could keep them at arm’s length and get
on with his life.

 
          
And
he would be calling a halt to the physical side of their relationship; it wasn’t
fair to keep sleeping with her when he had no intention of making her a
permanent fixture in his life. He couldn’t shake his visceral deep-rooted fears
and simply could not envisage a future as a happy family.

 
          
But
then … he’d come into her room where she lay sleeping and a force greater than
he could resist had made him shed his clothes and climb into bed with her. He’d
had
to touch her. And then she’d
turned to him and kissed him so sweetly and he’d been lost … and worst of all,
afterwards he’d
slept
, until dawn had
been breaking outside. His main feeling on waking up had been relief that he’d
not had the dream again and his arms and hands had been full of soft,
curvaceous and warm woman. One hand had rested across her belly, as if even in
sleep it had gone there to protect the child within.

 
          
That
soft yet hard swell had made a light sweat break out on his brow, but even so,
the prospect of sending her away from him in that moment had sent panic through
his system. So once again, with his head thumping with a mass of
contradictions, he’d left so that he could avoid seeing her wake, seeing those
eyes widen and the inevitable questions form.

 
          
That
morning Daniel had gone out to do some shopping and Aneesa had declined to join
him, still a little nervous of going outside, even though Daniel had informed
her that Sebastian had two bodyguards standing by. Somehow Aneesa had known
that the only person she would feel safe with was Sebastian.

 
          
So
when she was passing the study and she heard the phone ring, she went in to
answer it, her heart tripping to think it might be him. But it wasn’t. It was
another voice which sounded eerily familiar, deep and authoritative. When he
asked for Sebastian and she said he was at work, the man sighed deeply and then
said, ‘Is this Aneesa Adani?’

 
          
‘Yes
…’ she replied warily. ‘Who is this, please?’

 
          
A
long silence and then, ‘It’s Jacob Wolfe, Sebastian’s brother.’

 
          
‘Oh.’
Immediately Aneesa thought of the fact that this man had been responsible for
his father’s death.

 
          
‘“Oh”
is right,’
came
the wry response. ‘Sebastian hasn’t
responded to Nathaniel’s wedding invitation. Do you know that our brother is
getting married this weekend?’

 
          
‘Yes
…’ Aneesa said, her head buzzing with questions. ‘I’d heard … read about it in
the paper. But I don’t think Sebastian intends to go.’

 
          
‘Somehow
I’m not surprised.’ Another silence fell and then Jacob said, ‘Speaking of the
papers, I saw you with my brother.’

 
          
Aneesa
frowned. ‘What do you mean?’ And then she went paler and paler as Jacob
described how pictures of Sebastian carrying her to safety from the mob on
Bethnal Green had been tabloid front-page news for the past couple of days. She
closed her eyes; she could just imagine the lurid headlines.

 
          
‘Do
you mind me asking—is it true? Are you having a baby with my brother?’

 
          
Miserably
Aneesa figured it wouldn’t have taken long for the hacks to get that
information from the

 
          
Indian
papers and answered, ‘Yes.’ She hadn’t even told her parents who the father was
yet.

 
          
‘Well,
then, you must come to the wedding, even if Sebastian won’t. You’re part of the
family now, and everyone would love to meet you.’

 
          
Aneesa
gripped the phone cord tighter. Here was a chance to get to know more about
Sebastian’s past. Jacob was right; she was part of this family now whether
Sebastian liked it or not.

 
          
‘OK
…’ she said huskily, ‘I’d like that very much.’

 
          
Jacob
became brisker. ‘Good, we’ll see you at the weekend, then, and tell Sebastian I
called.’

 
          
It
was only when Aneesa put down the phone that some instinct made her pull open
the top drawer nearest to her on the desk, and inside she saw it—the invitation
to Nathaniel’s wedding, torn neatly in half. The fact that he hadn’t destroyed
it completely sent a flicker of hope through her. She picked the two halves out
and, with a sense of determination, found some sticky tape and stuck them
together again.