His head began to throb.
He forced his eyes open and reached for his telephone. Whatever his reasons, whatever hers, he needed to follow through and see her leave Isla Sagrado. There was no room in his life for her kind, nor his own brand of foolishness in wishing their time together to be any different.
Before he could lift the receiver, however, his intercom buzzed.
“Señor del Castillo, Miss Woodville is here to see you.”
Words momentarily failed him. She had the unmitigated gall to come to him at his office, even after he’d told her that he never wanted to see her again?
“Señor? Should I tell her you are otherwise engaged?”
His lips quirked at Vivienne’s unintentional pun. “No, it’s okay. Send her in.”
The instant the door opened, he knew it was Sara Woodville who crossed the threshold. The two women might be identical, he acknowledged as he rose and walked around his desk to receive her—but to him, Sara was a pale facsimile of the woman he’d come to love. He misstepped on the carpet. Love? No. It couldn’t be. The very thought was ridiculous.
“Rey, I have to tell you something.” Sara cut through any preliminary greetings and got straight to the point.
“This should be interesting,” he answered under his breath.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I’m aware of the deception you and your sister have pulled. You can consider our engagement officially ended.”
“Oh, thank goodness!”
Her answer was anything but what he’d expected. She was relieved? What manner of con artist was relieved to have the game ended before payout had been achieved?
“I didn’t want Rina to tell you the truth, but obviously she has. Rey, what we did was wrong. What I did was wrong. I should never have accepted your proposal. Not when I loved another man.”
Rey’s head reeled. “You love another man?”
“I do. I met him during the endurance trials near Maureillas. We fell in love so fast that I didn’t want to believe it was real. Couldn’t believe it was real, to be honest. It was all too much for me. I wasn’t looking for anything serious, you know that. But he swept me off my feet. It scared me enough to push him away. I said some terrible things to him and hurt him badly before the tournament here. He was supposed to come and compete for France but he withdrew from the team and remained in Perpignan.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Rey asked, still thoroughly confused. Had the sisters been setting up yet another mark?
“Because you deserve the truth, and you deserve far better than me. When I arrived here, and we met, I decided you were the perfect man for me. Uncommitted, fun, not looking for forever. And then you asked me to marry you. I was flattered, who wouldn’t be? But I said ‘yes’ for all the wrong reasons. I didn’t want to admit to myself that I’d fallen in love with Paul, but then I began to suspect I might be pregnant.”
“You stopped drinking coffee and alcohol.”
“Yes, I’m surprised you noticed.”
“What I noticed was that your sister had not. It was one of the first things that drew the truth to my attention, although I was distracted at the time with Benedict’s accident.”
Sara’s hands fluttered to her face, “I can’t believe I’d forgotten to ask you about that. How is he?”
“Recovering at the castillo for now.”
“I’m so glad. I never meant to leave you in the lurch at such a rough time—I had no idea anything had happened to Benedict until Rina told me. But by then, I was already in France. It wasn’t long before I started to question my acceptance of your proposal and I knew that before I could do anything, I needed to talk to Paul again. Things with us were still so new—I couldn’t tell you I had to run off to France to talk with an old lover, but how could I explain leaving?
“Then Rina called to tell me about her broken engagement, and the timing was just too good to pass up. She needed to get away, and so did I. I asked her to visit, and arranged my flight from France to get in at the same time as hers. We barely had a chance to say hello before I shoved the letter at her, asking her to take my place.”
The envelope with the ring, Reynard realized. The one that had had him worried that Sara planned to break their engagement. The one that had triggered their first kiss—and with it, the realization that Sara was not the woman who had been taking over his senses. It hadn’t been addressed to him at all, but to her sister—asking her to play along with the charade.
“I know it wasn’t fair—to you or to Rina—but I also knew that she wouldn’t tell me no. I flew straight back to France. At first, Paul wouldn’t see me, but eventually we got together and we’ve sorted things out. He still loves me and I know I love him also.”
“And if he had not wanted you? Were you going to foist his child upon me?” Rey was rocked by her revelations, but his wits weren’t so completely scattered to keep him from asking the obvious question. Sarina might not have been using him with financial motives, but Sara still could have been.
“I’ll be honest. When I first went to Perpignan, the thought had crossed my mind, but in the end, I know I would never have done that to you. Reynard, I’m so sorry I used you. Sorry I used Rina, too. I should have been honest with you from the start and explained why I had to go away instead of expecting my sister to pick up the pieces.”
“I can’t accept your apology, Sara. What the two of you have done—it has made me feel very manipulated and very angry.”
“I understand. Look, I haven’t seen Rina yet, and I need to tell her what has happened. Can I ask you not to say anything to her until then?”
Say anything to her? He’d ordered her from the island—from his life. He doubted that not speaking to her would be a problem. In response to Sara’s question he nodded.
“Rina is leaving the island later today. I suggest that you go with her.”
“I’m only here to clear things up with you, collect Rina and get my things. You won’t need to worry about us again.”
After Sara had gone, Reynard’s head began to pound. How could he have been so incredibly wrong about Rina? Had his earlier experience with Estella so poisoned him that he’d been incapable of viewing any woman without suspicion? She’d admitted she pretended to be her sister. Admitted everything, including her love for him. And he’d called her a liar and crushed her with his anger.
Yes, she had deceived him, but wouldn’t he have done the same thing for either of his brothers? Of course he would, if asked. In fact, his perpetuation of his engagement to Sara was no less a counterfeit than what the sisters had done to him. He’d done it to put Abuelo’s mind at rest, but the fact he had done it at all made him no different from Sarina and her twin.
He loved her. The truth of it pounded at his temples, insisting he acknowledge it. More, that he accept it as the core of his being. As hard as he’d fought it, she’d inveigled her way into his heart with her gentle ways, her quick intelligence and her unreserved passion. And he had sent her away. A deep-seated ache penetrated his chest.
He reached for the phone on his desk once more.
Somehow he had to right the wrongs he’d done her. Somehow, he had to find a way to make her stay.
“Reeny-bean, are you there?”
Rina straightened from the dryer where she was untangling the clean sheets and bedcover in readiness to remake the bed. She dropped everything and ran to the front door of the cottage. Apprehension over what her sister was going to say to her confession flew in the face of her initial joy at seeing her twin again.
Tears flowed freely down her face as they hugged one another tight. It felt far longer than a month had passed since Rina had last seen her sister at Isla Sagrado’s airport. So much had happened.
“I’ve got so much to tell you!” they both blurted at the same time, then laughed through their tears.
“You first,” said Sara. “Is everything okay?”
They walked, hand in hand, into the sitting-roo
m area and sat together on the sofa there. Rina swallowed against the fear in her throat. Sara would understand why she’d done what she’d done. She had to.
“I did the worst thing, Sara. I fell in love with him. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t want to. I fought it all the way, but—”
“You fell in love with Rey?” Sara interrupted, her voice pitched high in disbelief. “How? Why?”
“I don’t know. It just happened. But he worked out who I was a couple of weeks ago. He’s been playing me along ever since.” She drew back from her sister and squared her shoulders before meeting concerned gray eyes the mirror of her own. “I slept with him, Sara. I’m so sorry. I broke every promise we ever made to one another. I just…” She shook her head and began to sob anew. “He doesn’t want me—he’s basically banished me from Isla Sagrado.”
“It’s okay.” Sara pulled Rina into her arms and hugged her tight, stroking her hair like she had when they were younger and Rina had borne the brunt of their parents’ anger for one thing or another. “Really, it’s okay. I broke our promises first by making you do what I did. I don’t love Rey, I never did. I accepted his proposal for all the wrong reasons and I should never have done it. And I never should have asked you to step in for me, to keep a relationship alive that I wasn’t even sure I wanted. It wasn’t fair to him, to me or to you. I should have been honest with him from the start. You were so right, Reeny-bean. I wish I’d been truthful with you when you arrived here, even if it would only have saved you from being so hurt.”
They sat and rocked together until Rina’s sobs quieted.
“He’s so angry.” Rina said when she could speak again.
“I know, I’ve never seen him so distant before.”
“You’ve seen him?” Rina pulled away from her sister’s arms. “When?”
“Before I came here. I owed him the truth about why I went away. I owe it to you, too. The truth is, I met someone a few months ago, during a tournament in France. We fell in love and he wanted to marry me, but I couldn’t. It was just all so fast, so intense, you know? And we were already competing against one another in the tournaments. All I could think about was how fierce Mum and Dad were about beating one another at everything they did, how horrid they made themselves feel when one or the other won. I didn’t want that to happen to me. So when I got here and met Rey and he was so different, it was a relief to just let myself think we could make a go of things. When he asked me to get engaged, of course I said yes. I figured that when we married, life would just be more of the same. There was no spark, no fierce need, no impatience to be better than him.
“But then I found out I was expecting Paul’s baby, and I knew I couldn’t avoid the truth any longer. I love Paul, and I realized what an idiot I’d been. Of course I’d hurt him so badly when I left him that I had some serious roads and bridges to rebuild. But he’s accepted my apology. He still loves me and wants me to be his wife.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about him.” Rina placed her hand gently against her sister’s lower stomach. “Or about the baby.”
“I didn’t want to believe it was true. You know what it was like growing up.”
“Yes, I accepted Jacob’s proposal for the very same reasons. He was safe. I didn’t want to run the risk of—” she flung her hands in the air “—feeling like this.”
“You poor baby. But don’t worry. We’ll pack all our stuff and be out of here as soon as we can. There’s a flight to Perpignan later this afternoon. We can be on it and you can meet Paul and everything will be okay, you’ll see.”
Rina wished she could believe in her sister’s optimistic point of view, but even knowing her sister had finally found her happiness, Rina knew she would never recover from the searing pain that filled her mind and her heart.
While they cleared their things and finished packing, made up the bed and emptied out the refrigerator, they discussed Sara’s pregnancy, which had been a breeze so far. By the time the taxi arrived outside the cottage, Rina knew that at least she’d have something to look forward to. A niece or nephew to spoil and love—and to distract her from the empty sense of loss she carried deep inside her.
They’d just wheeled their cases out to the taxi when a cloud of dust came down the road. A cloud of dust accompanied by an all too familiar growl of high-performance motoring.
“He’s probably just come to make sure we’re leaving,” Sara said. She stood in front of Rina as Rey alighted from his car. “You needn’t have bothered coming to check on us. We’re leaving Isla Sagrado for good.”
Rey slid his expensive sunglasses off his face and took another step closer. “You might be leaving, but Sarina is most definitely not.”
“I have no reason for staying here. In fact, you couldn’t pay me to stay a minute longer,” Rina said, and opened the back door on the taxi. “Come on, Sara. We don’t want to miss our flight.”
The two women got into the backseat, but before the driver could close the trunk of the car, they heard Rey bark an order in Spanish.
“Did he just tell him to take my case out of there?” Rina asked her sister.
Not waiting for a reply, she jumped out of the taxi. “What do you think you’re doing? Put my case back in there.”
“The señor, he asked me to take it out,” the taxi driver said, looking uncomfortably between both Rey and Rina.
“Well, you can put it straight back in.”
She stepped forward to do it herself, but at the same time, so did Rey. Her fingers tangled with his on the handle of the case.
“Please. Listen to me,” he said with a quiet intensity that thrummed along her veins.
Even after everything he’d said and done to her, her body still leaped to life at his touch. She snatched her hand away, closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed against the tangle of words that lodged in her throat. She couldn’t trust herself to speak.
“Rina?” Sara called as she exited the car.
“It’s okay. Let him say what he has to say, then we’ll go,” Rina answered.
“Thank you,” Rey said. “Can we go inside, for some privacy?”
“No.” Rina shook her head emphatically. “Whatever you have to say to me you can say in front of my sister, as well.”
“So be it.” Rey nodded, but gave the ogling taxi driver a fierce look that sent the man back behind the wheel of the cab so he would not be able to hear. “I’ve treated you abominably.”
“Yes, you have.”
“I’ve come to beg your forgiveness.”
“I don’t know if I can do that. You played with me, with my feelings for you. You hurt me.” Rina’s voice wobbled and she saw a shaft of pain streak across Rey’s face at her words.
“I know. I was proud and angry but that is no excuse—I should never have treated you so. I recognized you were different, right from the start but I refused to listen to my heart. I’d been attracted to Sara when I met her, but it was nothing compared to how I felt when I met you. The instant we were together, you completed me. Offered me calm when I most needed it. Lit a fire in me when before, the most I’d ever felt with any woman was a mild fascination. Yet despite that, I pursued my agenda without considering what it would do to you—or what it would do to me.
“It doesn’t excuse me but I had reason to be suspicious. Our family had a near miss with a money-hunting opportunist only six months ago. A woman I’d allowed in my employ, thereby making my family as vulnerable to her schemes as she’d planned on making me. It very nearly cost us a small fortune, and I vowed it would never happen again. So when I realized you and Sara had exchanged places, my immediate thought was that you were taking up where the last one had failed.”
“I tried to tell you, it wasn’t like that,” Rina said quietly.
“I know, but in my arrogance I thought I knew better. What I did was reprehensible. I chose to blur the truth with Sara when it suited me and I reacted unreasonably when faced with the very same thing in reve
rse. You asked me once if I lived by my family creed. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t. Not for a very long time. But I aim to change that, if you’ll let me.”
He wiped a hand across his eyes, then looked directly at her again. She could see the sheen of tears turning his hazel eyes to green, saw the raw hope etched on his face. She didn’t understand.
“Let you?” she asked. “Surely that’s up to you.”
He nodded. “It is up to me, but I need to be reminded from time to time of what a conceited, unfeeling ass I can be. I need someone to keep me on track, to remind me of what’s most important in my life—to prevent me from falling back into the trap I’ve allowed myself to live in these past years. You said you loved me. Were you telling the truth?”
Rina looked at Sara who nodded. “Yes, I was.”
“Then will you accept my remorse, my heart and my love?”
He dropped down onto one knee on the dusty road and pulled a ring from his pocket. A new ring, totally different from the one he’d given Sara. One Rina fell in love with almost as much as she already loved the man who offered it to her. The large central diamond—flanked by matching shoulder-set, emerald-cut stones—flashed fire in the sunlight.
“I never really understood what love was until I realized this morning that I’d sent away from me what was most true and precious in my life. Will you let me spend the rest of my life making my foolishness up to you? I love you, Sarina Woodville. Will you marry me?”
For the second time today, she heard her name on his lips and this time, it sounded as sweet as she’d ever imagined. Her heart, broken and shattered only moments ago, began to beat strong again in her chest. Hope filled her, making her light-headed, as if this wasn’t real. As if she was only dreaming.
She stepped forward and knelt on the road in front of him, the stony road digging into her knees, reinforcing that she was very much awake. Tears, this time of joy, ran down her cheeks.
“Yes, I will marry you. I love you, Reynard del Castillo and don’t you ever forget it.”
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