The single-minded businessman she didn’t doubt that he would always be.
He continued to frown as he drew in a harsh breath. ‘I realize you think we need to talk, Brynne—’
‘No, I don’t think that at all, Alejandro,’ she dismissed determinedly. ‘In fact, I think the best thing for both of us is to forget tonight ever happened,’ she added harshly.
Brynne wanted him to forget it. Alejandro scowled, his own earlier disquiet about the situation briefly forgotten. Forget the mind-blowing perfection of their lovemaking? Forget how beautiful she had been in his arms? Forget how her total arousal had sent him spiralling out of control?
He looked at her searchingly, but found himself unable to read any of her own emotions from her determinedly set features.
Forget it, she said. Would she be able to forget it? Would she just be able to put their lovemaking behind her when the time came for her to return to her life in England? Would she be able to forget him?
Despite his earlier confusion about their relationship, Alejandro found himself intensely displeased at the thought of that!
‘And what if it is not possible to just forget it?’ he rasped.
Brynne shot him a brief glance. ‘I don’t—’ She broke off, her face seeming to pale as his meaning obviously became clear to her. ‘There’s absolutely no reason to suppose—’
‘There is no reason not to suppose, either,’ he snapped, her dismissal of any consequences from their lovemaking annoying him even further. ‘Is there?’ he pressed forcefully.
Brynne knew Alejandro had to be suggesting she might become pregnant from their completely unplanned lovemaking.
But surely the chances of that happening weren’t that high?
After all—
‘I obviously didn’t use any contraception—did you?’ Alejandro persisted with hard determination.
And Brynne wished that he wouldn’t because she didn’t need that worry to add to all the others she had. Such as how he now thought of her. More to the point, how she now felt about Alejandro!
Because if tonight had shown her anything, it was that any future for her without Alejandro in it—and she was pretty sure after this that he wasn’t going to be!—was sure to be a bleak one.
‘No,’ she answered flatly. ‘But that’s still no reason to suppose there will be—any repercussions.’ She frowned.
‘Would you tell me if there were? Or would you be like Joanna and keep my child from me?’
Brynne winced at the bitterness behind the question. She didn’t doubt that he respected the decision Joanna had made all those years ago concerning Michael’s existence, but the harshness of his tone now implied that he felt angry with her at the same time. As he would be angry with Brynne if she were to do the same thing…
‘I think that might be a little difficult, don’t you?’ she dismissed dryly. ‘Michael will continue to be my nephew, a nephew I will expect to be able to visit in future, whether you like it or not,’ she explained as she sensed Alejandro’s waiting tension. ‘I think, in the circumstances, I might find it a little difficult to hide the existence of a child from you!’
As an answer it was not very helpful, Alejandro acknowledged hardly. It certainly told him nothing of the emotions that had brought Brynne willingly into his bed in the first place. And he felt that he needed to know them in order to put what had happened between them tonight into its right perspective.
If there was a right perspective to what had happened between himself and Brynne!
Although Brynne’s own reluctance to discuss what had happened seemed to imply that she had no answers, either…
‘What will you tell Michael about my sudden departure?’ he rasped.
It was a problem Brynne had been trying to find an answer to since the moment she had realized that Alejandro intended going to Australia on his own.
‘The truth,’ she snapped. ‘That you’ve had to suddenly go away on business. I’m sure that it will be something that Michael will have to get used to in future!’ she added disgustedly.
Alejandro sighed his impatience with her deliberate barb. ‘Would you rather I didn’t go, Brynne? That we continued where we left off?’ he added scornfully.
Her cheeks burnt with colour. ‘On the contrary,’ she bit out hardly, ‘I can’t wait for you to go.’
His mouth thinned. ‘Then on that we are at least agreed.’
‘That has to be a first!’ Brynne returned challengingly, determined, absolutely determined, that she was not going to break down in front of Alejandro.
That could come later, once she was alone. Alone with only the memories of their time together to haunt her. To taunt her.
Her mouth tightened. ‘What do you want me to tell Antonia if she should call at the villa or telephone?’ she deliberately mocked him with the woman who should have shared his bed tonight.
‘She will not,’ Alejandro dismissed harshly.
‘But she might.’ Brynne grimaced just at the thought of having to deal with Antonia after the intimacies she and Alejandro had shared such a short time ago.
‘Neither Antonia nor her father will call or telephone the villa, Brynne,’ Alejandro assured her with such finality the statement couldn’t be doubted.
Because, of course, Alejandro would call Antonia himself once he reached Australia, possibly even before that…
‘Fine.’ She nodded abruptly. ‘You’d better go, then, hadn’t you?’ she added abruptly.
Brynne desperately needed Alejandro to go now, before the tears that threatened started falling down her cheeks and totally embarrassed her!
‘Brynne…?’ Alejandro’s gaze was guardedly searching as he looked down at her.
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, will you just go, Alejandro?’ she snapped impatiently, her hands clenched so tightly she could feel her nails digging into her palms.
Because if he didn’t soon leave she really was going to make a fool of herself!
Now that the time had come to leave her he did not want to go, Alejandro recognized frustratedly.
Which was ridiculous when minutes ago it was what he had wanted more than anything. To get away from her, and the memories of their lovemaking. To try, with many miles separating them, to make sense of what had happened tonight in regard to the relationship—that of father and aunt to Michael—they would have in future.
‘Very well,’ he bit out grimly. ‘Maria knows my telephone number in Australia if you should need to contact me,’ he paused to add huskily.
‘I doubt the situation will arise,’ Brynne dismissed without so much as a glance at him, her expression stony as she obviously couldn’t wait for him to leave.
Alejandro gave her one last frowning glance before slamming out of the villa without so much as another glance in her direction, knowing that to do so could be his undoing, that to look at Brynne again, to remember their lovemaking, would result in him gathering her up in his arms and completely forgetting his resolve to put distance between the two of them until he could make sense of what had happened.
What was still happening, from the way his body had stirred with renewed desire when he was just looking at Brynne!
Brynne didn’t move after Alejandro left.
Couldn’t move.
Because with Alejandro’s abrupt departure, she had made a mind-numbing realization.
She had fallen in love—desperately, completely, recklessly—with Alejandro Santiago…
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘DADDY wants to talk to you, Aunty Bry!’ Michael called excitedly even as she heard him running up the stairs to her bedroom.
Brynne straightened abruptly from where she had been packing a bag in readiness for them to go down onto the beach, intending to spend the morning there, already wearing a thigh-length blue cotton shirt over her bikini.
There had been many such telephone calls from Alejandro in the four days since he had flown to Australia so abruptly. One each morning, another each evening, h
is primary reason for calling to reassure Michael of course, although he always asked to speak to Brynne before ending the call. They were only stilted conversations on Brynne’s part though, as she kept to telling Alejandro of the things Michael had done that day.
‘Can you tell him I’m too busy at the moment to come to the telephone, please, Michael?’ she dismissed lightly, shoving a towel into her bag as she did so, just knowing that Alejandro was on the telephone enough to rattle her nerves.
‘Why not tell me that yourself…?’ Alejandro spoke huskily from just behind her.
Brynne spun round with a gasp, her eyes wide as she looked at Alejandro standing so tall and powerful in her bedroom doorway.
The last four days had been difficult ones for her as she had tried to come to terms with the love she had realized she felt for this man.
The complete love that had drawn her to him, to his bed, four nights ago…!
But if those four days had been difficult ones for her, one look at the strain etched into that arrogantly assured face showed that—for totally different reasons, of course—they had been just as difficult for Alejandro.
Her heart was beating erratically, loudly, so much so that she felt Alejandro must hear it too. ‘Why didn’t you warn—er—tell us you were coming back today?’ she said awkwardly as she put her hands behind her back so that he shouldn’t see they were trembling slightly.
Alejandro’s mouth tightened as he heard that correction in her question. Or rather—accusation…Because one look at Brynne’s slightly defensive expression, the wariness in her deep blue eyes, was enough to tell him she was not pleased to see him again.
Which was a pity—more than a pity!—when he had wanted nothing else but to see her again the last four days!
He had known almost as soon as he had boarded the plane at Palma airport four days ago that he had made a mistake by leaving Brynne in the way that he had. But to have turned around and come back would have been a mistake too when he had still been uncertain of what he wanted from Brynne. Of what she wanted from him.
So he had flown to Australia as planned, where he and Roberto had dealt successfully with the attempted takeover. Once assured of that, Alejandro had wasted no time in returning to Majorca, needing to reassure Michael by his presence, of course, but personally needing to see Brynne even more.
A sentiment she obviously didn’t reciprocate if her guarded expression was anything to go by!
His mouth twisted ruefully. ‘It was a sudden decision.’ He shrugged. ‘I thought to surprise you.’
Oh, he had done that all right, Brynne acknowledged, still breathless from turning to find him standing in her bedroom doorway rather than on the end of the telephone line as she had thought him to be.
‘I was surprised, Daddy,’ Michael assured him as he beamed up at him, obviously pleased to see his father again.
Brynne was pleased to see Alejandro again, too—she just didn’t quite know how she was supposed to behave towards him!
They had become lovers four days ago. But it was something that Alejandro had shown, by his abrupt departure, by his coldness towards her before he had left, that he regretted. She had no reason to suppose that these four days apart had changed that regret…
‘Have you come back to stay?’ she queried lightly. ‘Or is this to be just a flying visit?’
His grey eyes glittered. ‘Which would you like it to be?’ Alejandro prompted softly.
Brynne felt herself tremble slightly as she recognized the expression of challenge in his eyes. Whichever way she answered that particular question was going to be wrong! If she said the latter, then it would look as if she didn’t want him here. And if she said the former, then it made her look desperate for his company.
As Alejandro had been correct in his claim that she would not hear from Antonia Roig or her father while he was away, it had become obvious to Brynne that her assumption he would contact the other woman himself had also been the correct one…
She shrugged. ‘I don’t think what I want enters into it.’
He smiled without humour. ‘Very diplomatic, Brynne,’ he taunted. ‘Michael tells me the two of you were on your way to the beach…?’ He looked pointedly at the cotton shirt she wore over her bikini.
‘Yes,’ she confirmed huskily.
Alejandro nodded abruptly. ‘If you wait five minutes I will come with you.’
‘Oh, but—’ She broke off her protest as Alejandro raised dark, mocking brows. ‘Don’t you have—calls to make and—and things you need to do, after being away so long?’ she said awkwardly, knowing that the morning on the beach would be far from relaxed if she had to share it with Alejandro.
His mouth thinned. ‘No,’ he answered flatly, that grey gaze narrowed.
Brynne’s heart was still pounding, her palms damp.
She simply had no idea how she was supposed to behave with the man who had become her lover. She didn’t know the protocol and just found being with Alejandro again like this totally embarrassing. And the last thing she wanted was to be alone with Alejandro down on the beach, while Michael was snorkelling, and so give Alejandro the opportunity to actually bring up the subject of their time together four days ago…!
‘Why don’t just you and Michael go to the beach?’ she suggested brightly. ‘It will give you a chance to spend some time together, and I’m sure I can find plenty of things to do here.’
‘Such as…?’ Alejandro prompted softly.
Brynne frowned at him in frustration, knowing by his challenging expression that he was fully aware of her reluctance to spend time alone with him—and that he wasn’t in any way going to help her to achieve that wish.
She grimaced. ‘Well, I could—’
‘Never mind, Brynne,’ Alejandro rasped. ‘Whatever they are I am sure they can wait.’
So was she—she just felt totally panicked at the thought of being with Alejandro again.
Alejandro had no idea what he had thought Brynne’s reaction to seeing him again would be, but it certainly had not been this obvious wish to avoid even his company!
Especially when just being near her again like this was enough to tell him that all he wanted to do was take her back to his bed and make love with her once again. As he had ached to do the whole of the time he was away.
A feeling she obviously had not reciprocated!
‘You would like Brynne to come to the beach too, would you not, Michael?’ he prompted huskily—and then instantly felt guilty for using his son’s affection for Brynne, and her affection for Michael—as Michael enthusiastically agreed that he would.
What did Brynne want him to do—beg for her company? Alejandro wondered frustratedly. Perhaps he might even be willing to do that if it would achieve the desired result…
‘Then of course I’ll come,’ she agreed softly. ‘I’ll meet you both downstairs in five minutes,’ she added dismissively, avoiding even looking at Alejandro as she turned to finish packing her bag.
Alejandro looked at her frustratedly. Wanting to shake her. Kiss her. Caress her. Anything that would bring a return of that warmly responsive woman of four nights ago.
Instead he turned abruptly on his heel and walked down the hallway to his own bedroom. Not that it offered any respite from these wild imaginings of Brynne, the four-poster bed a stark reminder of the time they had spent together there, his only consolation—if it could be called that—that Brynne did not seem to realize how deeply he regretted leaving her so suddenly that night. Brynne’s own regret for what had happened between them was more than obvious by her lack of enthusiasm for his company.
Finding herself on the beach ten minutes later, Michael already off snorkelling in the shallow water, Alejandro lying on the sand beside her wearing only a pair of brief black swimming trunks that only added to the sheer male power he exuded, did not allay Brynne’s feelings of panic in the slightest.
If just looking at him could send her pulse racing, and the heat coursing through her body
, what chance did she have of spending the whole morning with him dressed—or, rather, undressed!—like this?
‘You seem a little—distracted, this morning?’ he prompted huskily as he picked up a handful of sand and watched as the grains fell softly through his fingers.
Distracted?
No, just totally aware of Alejandro…
She shrugged. ‘I’m still a little surprised you didn’t tell us you were returning, that’s all.’
His mouth tightened. ‘I told you on the telephone yesterday that the attempted takeover had been successfully blocked.’
Yes, he had, it just hadn’t occurred to Brynne that success would mean Alejandro returning to Majorca quite as soon as this. She had thought she still had days before his return.
Not that it really made any difference when he returned—the first meeting between the two of them had been sure to be embarrassing whenever it was!
‘You must be pleased that everything went so well,’ she said noncommittally.
‘Of course.’ Alejandro gave an abrupt inclination of his head.
Brynne gave a tight smile. ‘I expect you’ll need to return to Spain to finalize everything?’
Alejandro’s smile was no more humorous. ‘You seem very anxious to get rid of me…?’
‘Of course not—’
‘Do not lie, Brynne,’ he rasped coldly. ‘You have made no effort to hide the displeasure you feel at my return.’
But that was only because—
Because she loved this man so much she actually ached with the emotion, her joy in seeing him again marred by the danger that he might realize how she felt about him!
Something she would find just too humiliating.
‘Don’t be silly, Alejandro,’ she dismissed lightly. ‘This is your villa, after all, and Michael is your son. You were bound to return some time,’ she added practically.
‘Your enthusiasm is overwhelming!’ he drawled hardly.
Brynne turned away, breathing deeply. This was unbearable. This whole situation was unbearable.
‘Brynne—’
‘If you’re going to talk about the other night—then please don’t!’ She turned to say shakily. ‘I have no idea what happened—why it happened. It just did, okay!’ she ended forcefully. ‘And I really would prefer not to have a post-mortem on the subject!’
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