‘I’m not getting what the problem is here, Caitlin. Either you want to be with Alejandro or you don’t. Which is it?’
‘Of course, I would love to be around to make sure that he’s going to be okay!’
Dante frowned. ‘Good. Then let’s not put unnecessary obstacles in the way. Back, though, to what I was saying earlier. You seem to have travelled over here with next to nothing. You’ll need clothes. Do you want me to arrange to have some of yours brought over for you?’
‘That won’t be necessary,’ Caitlin muttered. The walls had well and truly closed in and there was no point trying to reconfigure the space. ‘I expect if you point me in the direction of the nearest town, I’ll be able to buy one or two things.’
Dante shrugged. ‘I’d look at a fortnight here.’
‘A fortnight...?’ She tried not to sound appalled.
‘And naturally, you will have to stay here.’
‘Here?’
‘Where else?’ He raised his eyebrows and held her dismayed gaze. ‘Unless you’d rather stay with my parents? They’re not very handy for the hospital, but I’m sure they would not object to putting you up for however long you think you’ll need to stay...’
‘What? No!’
‘Didn’t think so. Not many brides-to-be would leap at the chance of staying with their in-laws, especially when they’ve only known their in-laws for a matter of a few hours.’
‘I wouldn’t want to impose,’ Caitlin objected faintly, and Dante took his time looking round the huge sitting room with its high ceilings and sprawling bay windows. His dark eyes were cool and amused when they finally rested on her face.
‘I wouldn’t worry about it. I don’t think we’ll be bumping into one another because I live in a shoebox. Fact is, I doubt my brother would appreciate me turning you away at the door, given the circumstances.’
Caitlin, in her head, begged to differ. Alejandro would understand completely if she headed for the airport, clutching her bag. They were friends, after all, and certainly not the couple Dante assumed they were.
That said, if she ended up staying in Spain, he would also have sympathised with her perfectly reasonable desire to hit the nearest B & B because sharing space with Dante would be like sharing space with a hungry tiger on the prowl.
Realistically, though, was there any way that she could turn down the man’s offer? He was already casting his net of suspicion far and wide.
‘If it makes you feel any better, I’m rarely around. Naturally the staff will be here so you won’t have to worry about anything at all. I know you’ll be worried sick about Alejandro...but, rest assured, he is in the best hands, which I’m sure you know because you’re certainly handling the shock better than I would have expected.’
He had vaulted to his feet and was heading for the door. She followed.
‘What did you expect?’ They were back in the body of the house and it was quiet. The army of staff who had scurried with their trays of champagne and caviar had had another role to fill and had removed all evidence of the party, so that now it was as though it had never been. A dream. Except...not.
‘Well...’ He spun round so suddenly that she almost crashed into him. She hastily stepped back and their eyes collided, startled green meeting cool, speculating midnight black. ‘Call me stupid, but I thought there might be some hysteria involved.’
‘Hysteria?’
‘Naturally, you were clearly upset and shaken, but...let’s just say I admire your self-control...’
‘I’m not that type.’ Caitlin licked her lips nervously.
‘So it would appear,’ Dante murmured lazily. ‘I like that. And yet that seems to contradict the firecracker who attacked me outside the house.’
Caitlin flushed. How on earth was she going to manage spending a few hours here, never mind a few days?
He was so different from Alejandro. She wished her so-called erstwhile fiancé had told her a bit more about his forbidding younger brother. She might have, at least, come prepared. As things stood...
‘No matter,’ Dante said smoothly, spinning back on his heels and striding towards the curving staircase, one of two that dissected the mansion, ‘we all have our different ways of dealing with distressing situations.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘Your rooms. Your bag will follow.’
He paused, pushed open a door and stood back so that she could precede him into a self-contained apartment that was the last word in luxury, from the thick velvet drapes to the rich Persian rug that partially covered the highly polished wooden floor. Through interlinking doors, she could see a sitting room.
‘Thank you.’ Gratitude didn’t seem quite the emotion she was feeling. ‘Please don’t feel that you have to look out for me at all. I’ll be more than capable of making my way to the hospital and into the town while I’m here. I’ll call work in the morning and find out what sort of leave I’ll be allowed...’ His silence was oppressive.
‘No need to thank me.’ He lowered his lashes, shielding his expression, then looked at her. ‘And banish all thoughts of making your way anywhere. I’ll have a car waiting to take you to the hospital tomorrow and also to the town so that you can stock up on clothes.’
‘Of course.’ How on earth was she going to afford a new wardrobe? How was any of this making any sense at all? Why, why, why had they jumped head first into water without first finding out how deep it was?
‘In the meantime...’ he strolled towards the door and lounged against the door frame for a few seconds, looking at her with a veiled expression ‘...try and relax. Have a soak. By the time you’re out of the bath, your clothes will be here. And when it comes to shopping? Buy a swimsuit. There’s a superb infinity pool. I think you’ll like it.’ He straightened. ‘When you’re not agonising about Alejandro, kick back a little. You’ll be waited on hand and foot. You may find that you won’t be able to resist thinking of it as an unexpected little holiday...’
CHAPTER FOUR
HOLIDAY? HOLIDAY? WAS the man mad?
Caitlin peered out of the sitting-room window and wondered which of the cars parked outside might be the one designated to take her into the city. Would she be summoned by someone? One of the members of staff? There was no helpful chap in a uniform poised by an open car door to offer her any clues and she wasn’t quite sure what she should do.
She’d had a restless night as the consequences of what had transpired began to take shape in her head.
A week here. At the very least. Work, at any rate, had been sympathetic but she was new to the job and freelance so she didn’t know just how long the sympathy would last.
Her parents had been puzzled.
‘Spain? Why are you in Spain, darling? You never mentioned going on holiday...’
No, of course she hadn’t! This fleeting visit was supposed to last a handful of hours, after which she would have been able to see a clear way forward with all the problems that had disastrously landed on her lap without warning.
Instead, here she was, peering out of a window and wondering what more disasters lay in wait.
Lost in her thoughts, she was unaware of footsteps behind her until she heard Dante’s voice.
‘Have you been waiting long? After last night’s adventures, I thought you might want a lie-in.’
Caitlin spun round to see him lounging in the doorway. She’d expected an empty house. Dante had more or less reassured her that if she stayed under his roof, there would be almost no chance of them bumping into one another. The house was as vast as a castle and she had assumed that he would be out of it anyway, back working, but now she wondered how she could have been so naïve. Whatever brief periods of respite there had been since Alejandro’s accident, Dante was still determined to piece her together and dig deep to find out what was going on.
She had to be on guard, but as
she looked at him she knew that she would have to fight her own physical responses to him, which threatened to undermine her resolve at every turn. She couldn’t work out how someone who made her hackles rise and threatened her peace of mind could have the sort of effect on her that he did. Was it because she just hadn’t been interested in any guy since Jimmy? Or was it because she had always assumed that if she ever looked twice at another man, he would be in her league, someone reliable and grounded, someone who made sense.
There was no chance that she had caught him on his way out because he wasn’t dressed for work. He was in a pair of black jeans and a black polo-necked shirt with a distinctive red logo on the pocket. He looked darkly, sexily dangerous and her nervous system went into immediate overdrive.
‘I thought you would be at work,’ she said, already on edge. ‘I...er...wasn’t sure what to do about transport into town.’
‘You’re looking at your transport.’ Dante straightened and glanced at his watch.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I’ve decided that it would be inappropriate to abandon you in your time of need. You don’t know this part of the world, I’m guessing, and you’re going to need someone to show you around while you’re here.’
‘Show me around?’ Caitlin couldn’t think of anything she needed less than Dante playing tour guide for the next few days. ‘Why? Don’t you have more important things to do?’
‘What could be more important than making sure that my brother’s beloved fiancée isn’t left alone and floundering in a strange city? Come on. We can hit the hospital first, and then I will take you to the shopping district where you can buy sufficient clothes to tide you over.’
Caitlin quailed at the prospect of spending money she didn’t have on things she didn’t need.
Dante wasn’t hanging around, waiting for any further protestations from her. He was already heading out of the sitting room and towards the imposing front door, barely leaving time for Caitlin to trip along behind him, clutching her knapsack.
The clean-up job on the house had been spectacular. As she was progressed along at fast speed, she could only guess that an army of helpers had been hard at it, wiping away all evidence of the elaborate party that had come to such a premature end.
It was not yet nine thirty and already it was hot outside.
Dante ignored all four cars parked in the massive courtyard and instead headed to the side of the house, beeping open a low-slung, steel-grey sports car that hadn’t been visible from the sitting-room window.
He held open the passenger door for her.
Caitlin dropped into a plush leather bucket seat that made her feel as though she was inches away from making uncomfortable physical contact with the ground. Peering over the sleek walnut dashboard was a challenge because of her lack of height.
Dante, on the other hand, as he slid into the driver’s seat and donned a pair of dark sunglasses, looked like a racing driver about to do a few winning laps around a circuit.
‘Good news from the hospital,’ he said as soon as the car revved to life. ‘Alejandro is progressing well. He still hasn’t regained consciousness, but all his vitals are good and those broken bones are the only damage he appears to have suffered. They can’t work out how he lost consciousness and can only think that he must have dropped to the ground in a peculiarly awkward manner.’
‘That’s great,’ Caitlin said with genuine warmth. ‘Do we...er...have any idea how long he will be...out of it?’
‘Absolutely none, but the signs are good for a speedy recovery on that front. I’m assuming you’ve contacted your people at work and been granted whatever time off you need?’
‘I’ve phoned and told them that I will probably be here for about a week.’ She braced herself for criticism.
Instead, Dante said smoothly, ‘We’ll head to the hospital first. You must be keen to see Alejandro.’
‘Of course.’ She noted the quick sideways glance Dante shot her but there was no way she could sound like a besotted lover, desperate to see her wounded fiancé.
Naturally, she was deeply concerned about what had happened and relieved that he had not had a more serious accident, given the wild abandon with which he had been drinking, but, much as she cared about Alejandro, he was, in the end, simply a very good friend and her pretence could only stretch so far. Not only would she have found it impossible to pretend to be loved up, but Alejandro would have had an even harder time of it.
It was just terrible luck that he happened to have a brother with eagle-sharp eyes and the prowling, suspicious nature of a trained sniffer dog.
‘I guess your parents must be so relieved...’
‘Naturally. They’ll be visiting later today and, of course, they will want to see you, make sure you’re okay, even though I’ve already told them that you couldn’t be better. Given the circumstances.’
Caitlin gritted her teeth together at the implied judgement call in that throwaway remark but she remained silent, taking in the change of scenery as the grand and leafy outskirts of the city were left behind and the car began to nose its way into the main area of the very beautiful city.
She had never been to Madrid before, never been to Spain, if truth be told, and her artistic eye fully appreciated the beguiling mix of old and new, high tech and historic, sleek glass and pastel coloured.
‘And you are okay, aren’t you?’
Reluctantly she dragged her attention away from the passing scenery and focused on the aristocratic profile of the guy sitting next to her, one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting lightly on the intimidating gearbox.
So different from his brother, she thought a little helplessly. Chalk and cheese had more in common. She just had no idea how to deal with him or how to handle herself when she was around him.
Everything about him made her nervous, from his aggressive good looks to his cool, watchful self-assurance.
‘Of course.’ She cleared her throat. ‘How far is the...hospital from here? Once I know the route, I would be happy to make my own way in to visit.’
‘How would you propose to do that?’
‘There must be some form of public transport close to your house?’
‘Sadly not.’ He shot her a sideways look that carried a hint of amusement. ‘Of course, I could always arrange for my driver to take you but, like I said, I feel personally responsible for your well-being while you are here. We’re twenty minutes away from the hospital, by the way.’
Caitlin was so tempted to protest, yet again, that he had no need to feel responsible for her in any way, shape or form, but why bother? The man was determined to take her under his wing and she hadn’t been born yesterday. She knew that if she was under his wing, he would be able to keep a sharp eye on her and would be in a prime position to keep prodding away, poking into nooks and crannies, airing his suspicions and waiting for her to slip up.
How long would it take for that to happen? she wondered. How long before she slipped up?
Not long. She wasn’t used to lying. Manoeuvring through the labyrinth she and Alejandro had innocently created was going to take the dexterity of a magician.
As they approached the hospital she finally allowed herself to think about the convoluted road she was now travelling down.
It had all seemed so straightforward not that long ago. She would pretend to be Alejandro’s fiancée, thereby buying him time from his parents, who were pushing for a solid relationship from their eldest son and the inevitable production line of much-wanted grandchildren.
He would pay her, he’d said.
Caitlin had adamantly refused. Not only could she not see the reason for such drama, but the thought of being paid for it was ridiculous.
But then circumstances had changed in a heartbeat for her, and Alejandro, who had not abandoned his plan despite her initial refusal to co-oper
ate, had found a way past her defences.
She had no interest in his money for herself because she didn’t have a materialistic bone in her body, but when her parents had become involved, her love and loyalty to them had very quickly become the quicksand that had begun to drag her under.
‘I don’t believe it,’ she had poured her heart out to Alejandro one evening, several months earlier. ‘How could Dad have lost everything? There are news bulletins all the time about scammers, but he’s gone and lost everything, Alejandro! His savings, his pension. Gone. Pouf! They have the house, of course, but how on earth are they going to afford to support themselves as they get older?’
‘What about your mum?’
She’d known that Alejandro would be grappling with the concept of having nothing. The backdrop to his life was paved with gold and priceless gems. He, literally, would have no concept of just how agonising it would be for two pensioners to realise that their life savings had gone. But he had sympathised as she had talked to him about the situation, told him that, as the only child, it fell upon her shoulders to build up some kind of nest egg for them so that they wouldn’t be terrified of growing old in poverty.
And even then, it had been awful but within the realms of possibility until her lovely, kind and gentle mother had had a heart attack and they had all been told by the consultant that stress could prove to be a fatal enemy.
The conversation that had been left behind, Alejandro’s offer to pay her generously for helping him out, had begun to beckon.
When he’d raised the subject again, Caitlin’s defences had been in a different place.
She had listened.
It still went against the grain. She still didn’t get why he couldn’t just come right out and tell the world that he was gay.
But she had listened.
Just a couple of days, he had told her with bright and breezy confidence. A small bit of acting, a make-believe relationship, enough to convince his parents that they were involved.
The Forbidden Cabrera Brother (Mills & Boon Modern) Page 6
