Page 20 of The Forbidden Cabrera Brother
‘Honestly, Alejandro,’ she’d all but wailed, ‘what on earth possessed us?’ She wondered whether she had imagined the flicker of his eyes when she had said that. If he could hear her, then he was probably trying hard to blink in agreement.
‘Wait here. I will come to the shops with you. You’re about to tell me that there’s no need but I wouldn’t bother to waste my breath if I were you. You’re new to Madrid and it’s the very least I can do.’ Under any other circumstances, Dante would have spent fifteen minutes with his brother and then continued on to his high-rise office in the city centre to pick up where he had left off on the work front, but the green-eyed, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth redhead, trying not to look appalled, suddenly made all things work-related fade into the background.
‘Fine.’ Caitlin shrugged and took a seat outside the room and waited. For the first time, something loomed even more stomach-churning than the prospect of Dante lurking like a hangman’s noose, and that was the thought of a shopping expedition she couldn’t afford.
He wasn’t long. Ten minutes at the most. Well, she thought, they barely had anything to say to one another when Alejandro was on top form, so lying unconscious on a hospital bed wasn’t exactly going to be conducive to a lengthy visit.
‘That was quick.’ She’d aimed for sarcasm. She ended up with compassion because it was sad. Dante looked at her, his handsome face darkly rejecting the soft empathy in her voice and yet...as he raked his fingers through his hair and continued to stare, the atmosphere suddenly shifted. He wasn’t retaliating, calling her to account, slamming the door in her face. He looked lost for words and, in that moment, intensely human and vulnerable.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said softly, reaching to rest her small hand on his arm.
‘I don’t do pity.’
‘I’m still sorry. I always longed for a sibling but it wasn’t to be. I’m sorry for both of you that, as brothers, you’ve drifted so far apart.’
‘These things happen.’
‘They do,’ Caitlin agreed. Their eyes were locked and she had unconsciously stepped a bit closer towards him. ‘But there’s usually a reason behind it. I’m sad for you both because you seem to have just drifted into silence. It’s crazy.’
‘Not crazy,’ Dante said roughly. ‘In a busy life, things can sometimes drift. My fault. My brother’s fault. Who knows? I agree...it’s...not ideal.’
Caitlin smiled. ‘Not how I would have described it...’
Dante smiled back. ‘That’s because you’re emotional and I’m not.’
The silence that fell was brief, thrumming with something he couldn’t put his finger on and broken when a woman said, from behind, ‘Sorry, but am I breaking something up here?’
Dante spun round and Caitlin expelled a long breath and blinked at the leggy brunette staring at them with narrowed, assessing eyes.
‘Luisa.’ Dante pushed himself off the wall, his brain failing to instantly engage. It was sufficiently engaged, however, to bring home to him that Luisa was the last person he had any interest in seeing. She had been hard work at the aborted party the evening before, trying desperately to revive a relationship that was well and truly in the throes of rigor mortis. ‘What are you doing here?’
Luisa pouted. ‘I’ve come to see your brother, Dante. What else?’ Her eyes were chips of diamond-hard ice as they briefly settled on Caitlin, who was fervently wishing that she could be anywhere but here. Deliberately eliminated from the conversation, she could only hover, acutely uncomfortable at being third wheel in whatever drama was unfolding between Dante and the other woman.
‘I popped in to have a chat with your parents...’ Luisa half turned, drawing Dante into a private huddle with her. ‘They’re so worried but I reassured them that Alejandro will be just fine.’ She smiled broadly and lightly rested her hand on Dante’s shoulder, making small stroking movements against the sleeve of his polo shirt. ‘Maybe...’ the smile was coquettish now and she had lowered her voice to a husky murmur ‘...you and I could go somewhere and grab a coffee? Maybe some lunch? That lovely little place we went to a few months ago would be perfect...’
‘Did my mother happen to mention that I would be here?’
Luisa laughed nervously.
‘No coffee, Luisa,’ he said on an impatient sigh. ‘No lunch. I’m heading into town. Caitlin needs clothes because she will be staying on. I am taking her shopping.’ He glanced down at Caitlin and Caitlin saw a flash of venom cross Luisa’s perfect face, gone in a heartbeat, replaced with a gentle smile of understanding.
‘You’re such a gentleman, Dante.’ Luisa forced the smile in Caitlin’s direction and flicked some non-existent fluff from her figure-hugging dress before shaking her hair and throwing back her shoulders. ‘Of course, you must look out for your brother’s fiancée, seeing that she has no one here at the moment and must be grief-stricken at what’s happened. I’m sure I’ll see you when things settle down.’
During this interchange, Caitlin hadn’t said a word and she didn’t as she and Dante both left the hospital and made their way into the bustling city.
CHAPTER FIVE
THEREWASNOWAYto be polite and beat about the bush so Caitlin took the bull by the horns and said, bluntly, ‘Is there some kind of market I could go to?’
She was discovering that going anywhere on foot was unacceptable to Dante. He had driven his sports car directly to the hospital, where it had been collected by his driver. She guessed it had been returned to the house, because no sooner were they out of the hospital and standing outside in baking heat than another car showed up, this time a black four-wheel drive with darkly tinted windows.
She was bundled into blissful cold and immediately turned to him to repeat her question.
‘Why would you want to go to a market?’ He frowned. ‘Special dietary requirements? Tell me and I’ll instruct a member of staff.’
‘Not a food market, Dante. A flea market where I can buy clothes.’
‘It’s false economy buying cheap tat,’ Dante returned smoothly. He spoke to his driver in rapid Spanish and she lapsed into fretful silence as they were driven to and deposited on a tree-lined avenue where elegant buildings with discreet pale awnings advertised a range of exclusive designer stores. Gucci rubbed shoulders with Louis Vuitton and Jimmy Choo, and some names she didn’t recognise looked even more upmarket.
