by Penny Jordan
‘Everything looks wonderful.’ Picking up her fork, she tried to lighten the mood a little.
Javier smiled that destroyingly slow, thoughtful smile of his that made something in her innermost core clench and tighten with shivery anticipation, and simply said, ‘Eat. Enjoy. Then we will talk some more.’
He accompanied her in a taxi home but didn’t come in when Sabrina offered him coffee, a nightcap or both. Instead he told her how much he’d enjoyed her company, advised her not to worry about the business because he felt sure something good would turn up, and politely kissed her hand. What threw Sabrina completely was that the charmingly old-fashioned gesture was so unbelievably erotic that her legs were shaking when she finally let herself into her flat and closed the door. Dropping down onto her softly patterned couch with its fading beige and green flowers, she briefly closed her eyes and sighed heavily. He hadn’t suggested they see each other again and no doubt she’d blown it by wittering on about the business. A cool, sophisticated, urbane man like Javier D’Alessandro probably thought she was totally boring and one-dimensional, and who could blame him?
When she opened her eyes again she was dismayed to feel tears running down her cheeks. She’d tried so hard to be a success. So hard. And all her parents and Ellie were concerned about was when was she going to settle down with a man and have a brood of kids. The fact that she’d successfully run a business for fifteen years meant nothing to them. Suddenly her life seemed all those things she’d accused herself of being and more and she was very, very sorry for it indeed.
Michael rallied after his latest treatment but the doctors told Javier and Michael’s mother, Angela, that they mustn’t be too hopeful. Too hopeful? The fury Javier experienced in his gut burned him like fire tearing through dry tinder, his Latin temperament rising up in rage against the expected conformity that was supposed to be the acceptable Western reaction to such news. Angela Calder simply squeezed her son’s pale, listless hand with her own beringed elegant one and smiled in calm acquiescence. Too ill to notice, even though he’d been much better all day, Michael too seemed to have resigned himself to what he thought of as the inevitable. When Angela briefly quitted the room to go in search of a cup of tea, Michael gestured Javier to his side and told him he had something important to discuss.
‘Angelina.’ The sick man leant back against the plumped-up white pillows on his hospital bed and forced a smile. Javier immediately felt his throat tighten. It was hard to look at his brother-in-law with all the tubes and medical equipment attached to him without wanting to rip them out and take him home.
‘What about Angelina, Michael?’
‘I want you to adopt her. You’re her closest link to her mother and me. I’d ask Ma but she’s not equipped to take care of a child of eleven. She’s not strong…a worrier. She let my father do everything until he died. And Angelina doesn’t know her that well—she’s not exactly been a constant in her life. Not like she knows you, Javier. Will you do that for me, my friend? Will you be a father to my little girl until she grows up?’
There was a burning sensation in his throat and on his lap Javier’s knuckles squeezed white. ‘It would be an honour, Michael. But you are not going to die…you will get well, sí? The hospital, they are doing everything they can to make you well again. Please, do not give up so easily.’
‘I’m not giving up. I just know what I know, Javier. Please take care of Angelina and don’t take her away from her friends, from all she knows. There must be a way you can stay here. I know it’s a lot to ask…your home is in Argentina, but you have a home here too. You’ve always had a home with us. You know that.’ Michael coughed and went deathly pale. Jumping up beside him, Javier gently squeezed his shoulder.
‘Michael! Shall I call someone?’ He was already turning away, hurrying to the door, pulling it wide and glancing up and down the thickly carpeted corridor for a nurse.
‘Javier.’
He returned to Michael’s bedside, his heart pounding.
‘What is it? I am here.’
‘Promise me. Promise me you’ll adopt Angelina? I’ve got to know if you will do this for me.’
Taking the other man’s hand in his own, Javier squeezed it as hard as he dared. His chest feeling as if it was in a vice, he managed to dredge up a smile, thinking, This is too hard, too cruel for anyone to bear; first Dorothea, now Michael.
‘I promise, Michael. I give you my word.’
As the nurse bustled into the room, pushing the drugs trolley ahead of her with a cheery smile that made Javier want to curse, he excused himself, telling his brother-in-law that he needed to get out and get some air—to walk and think and come up with some kind of a plan.
He’d hardly known where his feet were leading him until he found himself outside East-West Travel. There were two other customers in the shop today, one seated opposite the young blonde woman he’d seen on his first visit, and the other engaged in conversation with a man who appeared to be in his late thirties. His brown hair was thinning on top and he wore pale steel-framed glasses that made his colourless face seem even paler. There was no sign of Sabrina. Perhaps she had gone to lunch? Glancing down at his watch, Javier saw that it was just past eleven in the morning. Coffee break, then? He’d never know until he went in and asked.
Jill glanced up in surprise as she recognised the incredibly good-looking male who walked through the door.
‘Hello there,’ she said cheerily. ‘Looking for Sabrina?’
‘Sí. I mean yes. Is she around?’
‘She’s in the back.’ She pointed vaguely in the direction of the little room at the end. ‘Busy doing paperwork.’
‘Then I won’t disturb her.’ Frustrated, Javier went to walk away.
Jill waved him to a stop. ‘Don’t be silly! There’s nothing Sabrina likes better than to be distracted from her paperwork. Go on through. She might even have the kettle on.’
His first glimpse of Sabrina was her back. She was wearing a formal blue skirt and jacket, her delightful hair caught up in some intricate tortoiseshell comb, her stockinged feet bare. At the moment one small, slender foot was easing its way up and down the back of her calf as if to soothe the strain that was there. He heard her proffer up a very unladylike curse beneath her breath as she studied some papers on top of an antiquated steel filing cabinet, and couldn’t help but smile.
‘Hello there. Your colleague said it was all right if I came through.’
Her heart knocking wildly against her ribs, Sabrina spun round, took one look at Javier D’Alessandro and found her greeting jammed in her throat. Wearing a stylish black coat over black jeans and a navy-blue cashmere sweater, the man looked like a million dollars. The citrus, woody tang of his aftershave wafted round the room, tightening her insides, instinctively making her want to retreat behind her professional mask for protection.
‘It’s nice to see you again.’ Smoothing down her skirt, she smiled. She was the first good thing that had happened to him all day, Javier acknowledged. Perhaps it would make it easier to broach the subject he had come to talk to her about? He hoped so.
‘You too. I was wondering if we could talk a little?’
Taken aback, Sabrina tucked a stray glossy strand of hair behind her ear. ‘Of course. Is here all right? I know it’s a bit cramped but I don’t really have anywhere else to—’
‘I noticed a park across the road.’ Javier jerked his head vaguely in that direction. ‘Can we take a walk?’
‘Why not? I could do with some fresh air, to tell you the truth. I’ll just get my coat.’
The winding concrete path into the ornamental gardens was littered with the colourful debris of autumn leaves. As they walked along side by side, Sabrina shivered inside her warm camel-coloured coat, wishing she’d thought to add her scarf to the hastily donned outer clothing. A tremendous gust of wind whooshed past her ear just then, and she shoved her hands deep into her coat pockets and turned her head to grin at the man beside her.
&nbs
p; ‘Tenerife is sounding more and more attractive by the minute, wouldn’t you say?’ she announced cheerfully. ‘Coming from a warm climate, this weather must seem positively Arctic to you!’
‘My country has an amazing diversity of climates and landscapes. Don’t forget we’ve got the snowcapped Andes as well as acres of hot, humid jungle. But yes, I do agree, by my home city’s standards, it is pretty cold.’ As he smiled back at her with something like pleasure in those deep, dark eyes with their straight black lashes, it was still clear that Javier had something on his mind other than the weather.
In for a penny… Sabrina decided to bite the bullet. Best clear the air and get whatever it was he had to say out of the way, then maybe, just maybe, she could suggest they meet for lunch later on in the week? She could practically hear Ellie cheering on the sidelines. Sabrina had never—not even once—asked a man out on a date. Well, there was a first time for everything, so they said…
‘You wanted to talk. Was it something in particular?’
Spying a weatherworn bench near a thick clump of hedgerow, Javier jerked his head towards it. ‘Perhaps it would be better if we sat down?’
For some reason, Sabrina’s heartbeat thundered in her chest as she sat down beside him. Where previously they’d been companionable, something in the air had shifted perceptibly and there was a new tension emanating from the big, handsome man sitting next to her. Once again Sabrina shivered, but this time not with the cold.
‘I can help you with your business,’ he said without preamble.
‘What did you say?’ She’d heard but couldn’t begin to make sense of such a statement.
‘I will give you the money—whatever the amount—as well as my expertise and knowledge to help you modernise the business and bring it into the twenty-first century.’
Sabrina’s pale hand curled tightly round the wrought-iron arm rest of the bench. ‘What’s all this about, Javier? I don’t understand.’
CHAPTER THREE
HIS expression couldn’t have been more serious. Dropping his head briefly into his hands, he drew them back and forth through his thick, dark hair. ‘I am also involved professionally in travel. I have a very successful internet business that I have been running for the past six years. I believe I know exactly what it is you need to do to turn East-West Travel around. If you will let me I would like to help you.’
‘I’m sorry but you’ll have to give me a couple of minutes here.’ Completely bewildered, Sabrina considered Javier with stunned blue eyes as if he had suddenly grown fangs and an extra head. ‘Am I hearing you right? You are in the travel business and you would be willing to lend me money and your expertise to expand my company? Why? Out of the goodness of your heart? Forgive me if I sound cynical, Mr D’Alessandro, but I’m not as green as I’m cabbage-looking!’
Frowning, Javier tried to make sense of her words. ‘I’m afraid you have lost me.’
‘You are no more lost than I am, that’s for sure!’ Her heart beating wildly inside her chest, she folded her arms tightly across her coat and glared at him. ‘Is that why you were looking in the window that day? Did you already know about my circumstances? Were you hoping to buy me out for a song, because if you are I can tell you right now, you’re on an awfully sticky wicket!’
Javier groaned. His head hurt trying to keep up with her colourful outpouring of injured pride.
‘I do not want to buy you out, Sabrina. That is the first thing. It was pure chance that had me standing outside your window that day. I had a lot on my mind and needed to walk and think. I’m staying at my brother-in-law’s house, which is not so very far away from you. I suppose I naturally gravitate towards anything to do with travel—like you, I am passionate about it. That’s why I happened to glance in your window when you ran into me.’ He paused to gaze into her pale, anxious face, hoping that his words had reassured her that he wasn’t some opportunistic shark waiting to snatch her beloved business out of her grasp.
Her heartbeat returning to a more normal cadence, Sabrina released an audible sigh. ‘OK. Go on. I take it there’s more?’
He nodded briefly, his long brown fingers linking together on his lap. ‘If you agree to let me help you, there is something I would ask of you in return. Something that is not altogether an easy thing for me to ask.’
He didn’t have to tell her that. Sabrina guessed whatever it was was causing him great concern and difficulty. As for his incredible offer—the answer to her prayers, no less—well, she wasn’t about to jump up and down with joy just yet. She had a natural tendency to be naïve about a lot of things but not this—not her precious livelihood.
‘Ask away. I’m listening.’ Two pigeons landed a few feet away, picking hopefully around in the leaves for a bite to eat. When they found nothing they simultaneously flew off into the trees in a brief flurry of wings and foliage. Sabrina pulled up the lapels of her coat around her ears and prayed she wasn’t going to be crushingly disappointed by whatever Javier had to say. Already she was beginning to like this man too much for her peace of mind and she couldn’t pretend she wouldn’t be sorry if she never saw him again.
‘I told you I have a niece? Angelina.’ Sabrina heard the love in his voice and something warm stirred in the pit of her stomach, something that her heart suddenly ached for. ‘She means everything to me. Especially since her mother—my sister, Dorothea—died eight years ago. Now her father, Michael, is ill. Dangerously ill. His prognosis, they tell me, is not good. I would do anything to help Angelina, to keep this terrible hurt from her, a hurt she has already experienced once before in her young life.
‘Michael would like me to adopt her. There lies my problem. I do not have permanent residency in this country and, although I can more or less come and go as I please, the courts will not be favourable to my application if I cannot offer Angelina a permanent home here. She is too anglicised to want to live in Argentina, though of course she has grandparents there, family. Plus she would not wish to be separated from her friends. To get straight to the point, Sabrina, I need a British passport to stay here and adopt her. The only way I see I can get that quickly is to marry someone from this country.’
Frowning as the meaning of his words began to sink in, Sabrina let out a long, slow breath and tucked some windswept strands of honey-brown hair behind her ear. ‘You’re asking me to—to marry you?’
He unlinked his hands to push his fingers through his hair. ‘It would be—what do you call it?—a marriage of convenience. Only on paper, no more. Of course, we would have to live together for a reasonable amount of time to please the courts, but after that…’ He shrugged as if it was the most reasonable proposition in the world. ‘After that I would, of course, not contest a divorce. You would be a free woman once again.’
‘And if I agree to this—this “marriage of convenience”—you agree to help me with the business?’ Her whole body felt suddenly terribly cold. A wave of vulnerability settled on her shoulders like a heavy coat. The first man she’d met in the longest time that she’d felt even remotely attracted to and all he wanted from her was a cold-hearted business proposition. Well, that just about summed her personal attributes up nicely, didn’t it?
‘Sí. Yes. You have my word.’ Of course. He had to be a man of honour—young as he was. Even on such brief acquaintance, that was never in doubt in Sabrina’s mind.
Feeling ridiculously like crying, she got slowly to her feet, turned to Javier and smiled in spite of the fact that her face felt like a block of ice with no movement in it at all.
‘I’m sorry, Javier. I couldn’t do it.’
‘What is it you want in return? How can I persuade you to change your mind? I will double any figure you care to come up with. I am a very wealthy man, Sabrina. You can check me and my company out on the internet. You say you rent your flat? I will buy you a house of your own for you to keep after we are divorced.’
He was only making it worse. Her heart ached at the thought of that possibly soon-to-be-orph
aned little girl—Angelina—but Sabrina couldn’t agree to such a bizarre proposition for her sake only…could she? Even if what he had offered her in exchange seemed like the solution to all her worries.
Recognising the anxiety on her face, Javier told himself to ease back—not to push. She would need time. He could see that. She was not the sort of woman who would grab at such an opportunity with no thought of what it might mean to her personally other than the help she needed to expand her business. No. Sabrina Kendricks clearly had a lot of good qualities. Qualities like warmth, tenderness and integrity…He cut himself off short. He wasn’t looking for a lifetime partner so such qualities hardly mattered. Nor was he in the market for the kind of marriage that his parents and grandparents and—up until eight years ago—his sister and Michael had enjoyed. What was the point in setting yourself up for potential disaster and misery? He’d seen what love could do. Love could rip away your soul just as soon as your back was turned. That wasn’t for him. Instead he would pour all the love he had in his heart into caring for Angelina. If he could do that, then his life wouldn’t be wasted.
‘I’m really sorry about your niece. It must be terrible to be faced with losing both parents—at any age, never mind eleven years old. But I couldn’t do it, Javier. Please understand. I’m just—I’m just not like that.’
‘But you are an astute businesswoman, no?’ Pushing himself off the seat, he towered over her.
‘How could you throw away the perfect opportunity to save your business? You already told me the bank manager turned you down for a loan. Where else are you going to get the money from, Sabrina?’
‘That’s my problem.’ Flinching from the cold whipping round her ankles, she seriously wondered if it was the perfect opportunity. Surely she owed it not just to herself but to Jill and Robbie to do all she could to save their jobs? If Javier D’Alessandro could look on the whole thing as purely a business merger, why couldn’t she?