by Maya Blake
And with each step she took Gael’s senses screamed at him that he was making the biggest mistake of his life.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
GOLDIE HAD NO RECOLLECTION of what she’d packed or how long it had taken for the driver to deliver her to the airport. But somehow she’d managed to talk to a ticket agent and buy a ticket home.
She still had a couple of days before the last leg of filming commenced for Soul’s Triumph, for which she thanked God. Because the way she felt right now—the way her heart screamed as if it was being ripped out with each breath she took—she didn’t think she could utter one line, never mind a few hundred.
She needed the comfort of home, of her mother, even though she would need to turn around and come right back to Spain in two days to join the cast and crew. Even though Gael would most likely still be here.
She just couldn’t bear to be here right now. Because somewhere between his threats and his mockery and his smiles and his exceptional lovemaking she’d fallen in love with the man whose child she carried.
Goldie was too weary to pinpoint when exactly it had happened. It had happened. And even before she’d dared to hope that her fragile feelings might be returned he’d dashed hope in the most devastating way possible.
She only had herself to blame. Everything that had happened from the moment Gael had stepped into that alley six weeks ago had been her fault.
He’d made her no promises, save for telling her that he desired her and wanted the child she carried, and she’d foolishly chosen to let her heart loose in the frantic hope for love.
Squeezing her eyes shut and turning her head away from the curious passenger next to her, she pressed her fist to her mouth as tears fell.
Maybe the newness of her love meant she could salvage her heart?
Dream on, her shattered heart mocked.
She’d fallen hook, line and sinker.
There was no going back.
* * *
Gael tried to outstare his mother-in-law as she bodily barred her front door.
‘Sorry, son. She doesn’t want to see you.’
There was nothing remotely remorseful in her tone. In fact her body bristled with enough quiet fury for him to realise where Goldie got her strength from.
‘Gloria, I just want to talk to her for five minutes.’ He used his most reasonable negotiating tone, despite wanting to roar and plead and beg.
Gloria Beckett folded her arms. ‘She flew six thousand miles to get away from you. Hoping that a five-minute conversation will fix things is a touch foolish, don’t you think?’ she challenged.
Suitably chastised, he nodded. ‘I’m willing to do whatever it takes, however long it takes. Can you please tell her that?’
He received a shrug in return, and the light violet eyes narrowed on him as he fought the urge to pace. A few times he opened his mouth to speak. Every time, Gloria’s chin went up higher, daring him to utter more damning words.
Gael bit his tongue against cursing and tried to see past the woman’s shoulder into the house that harboured the woman he loved—the woman he couldn’t bear to be apart from for one more second. Gloria’s subtle shifting told him he was pushing it.
He shoved his fingers through his hair and tried one more time. ‘Is everything okay with her?’
Gloria tossed her blonde head. ‘Are you asking about my daughter or about the baby?’
‘I’m asking about my wife. About our child.’
‘You should have thought about them before you messed up.’
Spikes of anguish ripped wounds through his heart. ‘You’re right. I messed up. Badly. But I want... I need the chance to fix it. Por favor?’ he added gruffly when she remained intransigent.
Her stare bored into him for depressingly long seconds before she sighed. ‘I’ll tell her what you said, son. But don’t hold your breath. My daughter is made of strong stuff. She may be bent a little out of shape right now, but she’s not broken. If she learns to stand again without you, then you’ll have missed your chance.’
His heart dropped to his feet as she stepped back and slammed the door in his face.
He raised his hand to knock again, then froze when he heard the ragged sobs coming from within.
He’d spent the last twenty-four hours in hell. But the woman crying inside the house—the woman his heart yearned for more than it wanted to beat—was hurting. And it was his fault. His being here was hurting her even more.
And yet Gael couldn’t leave. Staggering away from the door, he stumbled down the front step and sank onto it. Time ticked by, marched on. He couldn’t move.
A light rain began to fall. He watched the droplets form on his arms and drip down his fingers. His numbness kept him insulated. Gael looked up when his driver stepped from the limo and started walking towards him with a blanket. He shook his head once, fiercely, sending the man backtracking. He didn’t deserve to feel warm. Besides, compared to the chill in his heart the rain was nothing.
Midnight slowly ticked by. He knew because a clock chimed inside the house.
When he heard a noise behind him he wondered if someone’s house pet had chosen to join him in misery.
‘Are you trying to make some sort of point by freezing to death on my doorstep?’
Gael stood and jerked round. One lunge up the steps and he was standing in front of her.
‘Goldie...mi amor...please give me a chance to explain.’ He wanted to touch her but he didn’t dare—didn’t want to risk her bolting back inside.
‘I think what I heard was clear enough. You bought me and you don’t think you can love me.’
He shook his head, spreading a few raindrops.
She wiped a drop from her cheek, her movements jerky.
‘No... I mean, yes, that’s what I said. But I didn’t mean it. Not like that.’
He stopped and inhaled. How could words fail him, today of all days, when his life depended on it?
‘What I meant was, I knew you were leaning towards a yes to my proposal even before I offered you the money and the movie roles. I tagged them on because I wanted to be able to tell myself you’d chosen to marry me because of money.’
Her brows clamped in a frown. ‘Why?’ she asked, bewildered.
‘Hearing that you weren’t wanted, that you’re a mistake, even once, isn’t something you can brush under the carpet and forget easily. Alejandro and I are true brothers now, but there was a time when I thought he was the same as our father in his contempt of me. Having two out of your three closest blood relations reject you as a child is...painful. I convinced myself I was okay with it, but it wasn’t until lately—until you—that I realised I’d let it cloud a lot of my life’s decisions.’
He stopped and took a deep breath.
‘I have a confession to make.’
Her eyes grew more wary. ‘Yes?’
‘I was at Othello on another audition hunt when I heard you performing. I was stunned by you. But then I heard that casting director proposition you.’
She gasped. ‘That’s why you were so nasty to me when we met? Why you would look at me sometimes with that judgemental look in your eyes?’
He sighed and nodded. ‘I saw him touch you, thought you were agreeable to what he’d proposed, but I know now I must have misheard.’
‘I didn’t understand what he was asking me at first. When I did, I told him to go to hell.’
‘I guessed as much. But much later. I’m sorry, Goldie.’
Her lips pursed. ‘You were saying about your past clouding your judgement...?’
He nodded. ‘When you wouldn’t share my bed I thought it was because I wasn’t good enough for you, so I lashed out at you. I’m sorry, mi amor. I didn’t buy you. I threw money at you so I could make myself feel better, tell mysel
f that yearning for you the way I did was okay because I had controlled your entry into my life. It was wrong, Goldie, and I’d give anything to turn back time and unsay what I said about you to my father.’
He watched, cursed as tears slowly filled her eyes.
‘Dios mio, please don’t cry.’
‘I won’t lie to you, Gael. You hurt me.’
Pain sliced his insides. ‘I’ll fix it, Goldie. I swear with everything I am I’ll spend the rest of my life undoing this hurt.’
Her mouth trembled. ‘How?’ she croaked.
‘Let me love you. Let me earn the right to worship you. You and our child. I’ll do whatever you want.’
She licked her lips. ‘What if what I want...what I need...is you?’
A tremble seized him that had nothing to do with the chilled wet shirt clinging to his back. ‘Then take me. I’m yours.’
‘Not until I know...until I’m sure how you feel.’
‘How I...? I love you. I adore you.’
Her breath caught. ‘Please say that again, Gael.’
He closed his eyes, dared to take her hands, bring them to his lips in a reverent kiss. ‘I love you, Goldie Aguilar. It may be a new love, but I promise you it’s strong, it’s yours, and it will stand the test of time.’
She freed her hands to cup his face. ‘Oh, Gael. I love you too.’
His eyes sprang open. ‘You love me?’
‘Yes. And my love is just as new as yours. I love you, and I’m willing to take a chance on us nurturing each other’s love, if you want.’
‘Sí! I most definitely want.’
She smiled. His heart threatened to burst out of his chest.
She threw her arms around him and stood on tiptoe. ‘Kiss me, Gael.’
It was his turn to smile. ‘Dios, you don’t need to ask twice. If I remember correctly, you owe me ten kisses.’
‘And I would’ve delivered if you hadn’t thrown a spanner in the works.’
His face sobered. ‘Lo siento, mi amor. Forgive me.’
‘All is forgiven.’
She fell into his arms again. When they finally parted their eyes were misted with tears.
‘Take me home, Gael. Please.’
He nodded solemnly. ‘It would be my honour, mi mujer.’ He swung her up in his arms and started off the porch. About to step off, he paused. ‘What about your mother?’
‘She knows where my heart is...that I belong where you are.’
His head dropped until their foreheads touched. ‘Goldie, I promise I will never make you regret that.’
She settled one hand over his heart, the other over her stomach, where their baby grew.
‘And we promise to love and cherish you. For ever.’
EPILOGUE
BY UNANIMOUS AGREEMENT, voted on by their entire family, they held the wedding of their hearts two weeks after their daughter was born. Melina Aguilar lay nestled lovingly in her parents’ arms as they renewed their vows in front of a much bigger, much happier congregation at the cathedral in Barcelona. Beneath centuries of history and stained-glass windows, they repeated the vows they’d uttered in that small chapel on Gael’s estate.
Alejandro acted as his best man, and took delight in ribbing his brother mercilessly. And they stepped out into the late December evening to the sound of church bells and Christmas carols being sung in Spanish and English.
At the kerb, a vintage car stood waiting, beyond which a police cordon had been set up to keep back the screaming fans who shouted Goldie’s name.
Soul’s Triumph had been released to huge box office success three months before, and Goldie had become an overnight sensation. She’d been inundated with roles, but had elected to make only one movie a year, to free her to spend the rest of her time being a wife and mother—the two roles she cherished above all else.
She stopped long enough to wave to her fans before she got into the car, which was festooned not just with wedding decorations but also with holly and dozens of sprigs of mistletoe, some of which were also strung along the inside roof. Not that the couple needed any excuse to kiss on the long ride back to the villa once their daughter had fallen into a dreamy nap.
Goldie wrinkled her nose when Gael released her after another long, heady kiss, and indicated the mistletoe. ‘Sorry about this. I tried to discourage my mother from doing it.’
Gael laughed. ‘So did I with my mother—but I think we knew the moment those two got together that we didn’t stand a chance.’ He flicked a finger at the mistletoe. ‘Although I’m not sure whether to be concerned that they believe I need a reason to kiss my wife, or to thank them for supplying me with so many opportunities to do so.’
He pulled her close once more and thoroughly explored her mouth.
They’d chosen to keep their reception small, for family and close friends only. And they arrived back at the house and alighted to join Alejandro and a very pregnant Elise. She was just over seven months, due on Valentine’s Day—a fact which was a source of endless mocking ammunition for Gael against his brother.
The brothers had grown closer in the months following their respective marriages, and Goldie counted Elise not just as a sister-in-law but as a friend.
Goldie smiled at her now, as Elise joined her in the hallway and held out her arms for Melina.
Elise waited until the men were headed for the salon before she leaned in close. ‘I think Gael has another role up his sleeve for you.’ She winked.
Goldie laughed. ‘Oh, really?’
Elise nodded. ‘I heard him talking. He was asking Alejandro when it would be best to start trying for baby number two.’
Goldie rolled her eyes. ‘And do I need two guesses as to what Andro’s response was?’
Elise grinned. ‘He said, “Immediately, of course.”’
Both women laughed, causing their husbands to turn back and stare.
‘What’s going on?’ Gael asked, making his way back to slide both arms around her.
Goldie smiled and kissed him. ‘Nothing you need to worry about. Just yet.’
Both Alejandro and Gael groaned. Elise grinned unrepentantly and joined her husband. Goldie watched him tenderly touch Melina’s cheek before he caressed his wife’s rounded belly.
Gael’s arms tightened around her, snagging her attention. She looked up into her husband’s eyes. ‘I love you. Thank you for marrying me again.’
‘I’d marry you every day if I could.’
They kissed until their respective mothers walked past, clearing their throats loudly.
Gael and his mother had found their way back to each other after the end of her short affair with Tomas Aguilar. There was still a little tension all round, but hearts and souls were slowly healing.
Grinning now, Gael and Goldie joined the rest of their family and their closest friends in the large salon for traditional Spanish Christmas tapas and drinks.
As toasts were given and presents exchanged, Goldie saw a look pass between Gael and Alejandro—powerful and visceral and filled with the affection they’d been denied as children but had found in abundance as husbands and brothers.
* * * * *
Don’t miss the first part of Maya Blake’s RIVAL BROTHERS duet
A DEAL WITH ALEJANDRO
Available now!
If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Maya Blake
THE DI SIONE SECRET BABY
SIGNED OVER TO SANTINO
A DIAMOND DEAL WITH THE GREEK
BRUNETTI’S SECRET SON
Available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from SNOWBOUND WITH HIS INNOCENT TEMPTATION by Cathy Williams.
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Snowbound with His Innocent Temptation
by Cathy Williams
CHAPTER ONE
‘HONESTLY, ALI, I’M FINE!’ Complete lie. Becky Shaw was far from fine.
Her job was on the line. The veterinary practice where she had been working for the last three years was in the process of being sold—and being turned into yet another quaint coffee shop to attract the onslaught of tourists who arrived punctually every spring and summer, snapping the gorgeous Cotswold scenery with their expensive cameras and buying up all the local art in a flurry of enthusiasm to take away a little bit of local flavour with them. Her friends Sarah and Delilah had got it right when they had decided to turn their cottage into a gallery and workshop. Not that they had had to in the end, considering they had both been swept off their feet by billionaires.
