Page 16 of The Forbidden Cabrera Brother
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 meat 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? WASthe 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, someonewho 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, sexilydangerousand 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.
