Page 23 of The Forbidden Cabrera Brother
Caitlin had never heard anything quite so ludicrous but now, with the sun burning down on a vision of impeccable greenery outside the bedroom, in which she was trying vainly to concentrate on collating various archive photos for a project she had been working on for the past six weeks, she felt suddenly restless.
She had had eight months of unimaginable stress. She had functioned in her job, had tackled the problems thrown at her, had dealt with the horror of her mother’s poor health in the wake of their financial woes, and she’d thought she was doing fine, all things considered.
But sitting here now, she felt that perhaps she wasn’t. She felt weary, as weary as a hundred-year-old woman. Not only was she now anxious about Alejandro, but she feared she might lose her job if she stayed out here much longer and then where would that leave her? And her parents? She had worked out a repayment schedule for the loans with the intention of saving as much as she could to stockpile a little cash for them. What on earth would she do if she didn’t have a pay cheque coming in? She certainly couldn’t accept a penny from Alejandro, considering the outcome to what they had planned had crashed and burned.
Amongst the various items she had bought, there was also a swimsuit because, yes, she had seen the pool, and it had looked inviting and, besides, the swimsuit was the least wildly luxurious of all the items of clothing she had purchased. Two bits of stretchy black cloth.
Temptation beckoned. Dante wasn’t around.
The house was vast and yet it still felt as though she saw too much of him when they were both in it. She tried to keep their conversation basic and polite whenever they crossed paths, but it seemed he had the knack of dragging confidences out of her because she always had to fight to stay true to the role she had taken on board, and not let her guard down.
When he fastened those dark, speculative eyes on her it was almost as though she were being slowly dragged into a vortex and she had to physically keep her distance from him just to hang on to some self-control.
Did he notice? She hoped not.
What mattered was that there would be no dark, speculative eyes on her now. She had her window. Why not take advantage of it?
What else was she going to do? Think about all her problems and marvel that there was no way forward? Get depressed? Caitlin snapped shut her computer and headed for the chest of drawers to rifle through her meagre belongings for the bikini, which still had the tags on.
She changed quickly. She made her way down to an empty house. Everything that required doing had been done, and, in fairness to Dante, he was generous about letting his staff head home once their work was finished. It was Friday and the house was silent. Staff gone.
The unspoken rider to his generosity was that, should he discover any job half-done, then there would be all hell to pay. Caitlin assumed that that would be what he brought to the table in the work environment, as well. Total fairness. Big rewards for those who worked hard and deserved it but ruthless dispatch for those who failed to meet his standards.
She accessed the back garden through the kitchen door, which was spotless. There were always fresh flowers in a vase on the kitchen table and a balmy breeze lifted the muslin panels at the windows.
The scent of the flowers in the vase mingled with the smell of sunshine from outside and for a few moments the constant weight resting on her shoulders lifted, leaving her, for once, feeling like the young woman she was. Twenty-five, just, without a care in the world. The way it should be. Fresh in a job, going out with friends, with maybe a boyfriend in tow, and a future stretching out in front of her that promised everything even if, in the end, it fell short on delivery. Carefree. Happy.
Dante had told her that she should accept her enforced stay in Spain and enjoy it as a holiday rather than an inconvenience. He had said that with barely contained sarcasm as he had circled her like a shark in a small tank, letting her know that he suspected her motivations and would find her out in his own sweet time. At the time, Caitlin could think of nothing more unlikely than enjoying a second of her stay in Spain under his roof, but it was so glorious outside and she was so tired of being worn down and anxious.
The pool was wonderful, by far her favourite bit of the estate. It was crystal clear, a flat blue infinity pool flanked by decking that was slip proof but cleverly fashioned to look like glass. Around it, there was a veritable plethora of shrubbery. Flowers in the brightest hues of orange and yellow mingled with the deepest greens of leaves and ferns, and strategically positioned trees provided shelter from the sun, rather than umbrellas. It was like a lake within a park.
Out here was tranquil in a way the inside of the house never seemed to be. Even when there was no one to be seen, she was always conscious of the fact that there were housekeepers in the vicinity, cleaning and polishing and preparing food and making sure that life was as easy as possible for the master of the house.
Out here though...
Troublesome cares drained away as she basked in the sun, slowly relaxing and letting the accumulation of problems seep away. The water was wonderfully cool and she swam lazily, up and down, up and down, getting into a rhythm.
Her eyes were half closed, her breathing even when she surfaced at the deep end of the pool, blinked water out of her eyes and realised that someone was standing directly above her, casting a long shadow over the crystal-clear water.
Dante.
His towering figure took shape as she blinked into the dazzling sun, shielding her eyes.
She clung to the side of the pool, heart suddenly hammering.
He was in swimming trunks and a tee shirt and barefoot and he looked spectacular.
Her mouth went dry and she couldn’t think of anything to say, although, roaring through her head, was the single thought...Shouldn’t you be somewhere else?
And if he was here...why wasn’t he dressed in a suit and tie, on his way to a meeting somewhere? Why was he in swimming trunks?
‘Thought I’d join you,’ Dante answered the question she’d been asking herself. He looked at the pool, the calm perfect blue. He hadn’t been in it for months. Longer. No time. But today, heading down the corridor to his bedroom to have a shower, he’d happened to glance through the long window on the landing and seen her. She’d been swimming, taking her time, her long hair streaming out behind her. He’d abandoned work early. The woman had put a spell on him and he knew that he had returned to the house because he’d wanted to see her.
He told himself that she was an enigma and that could only be a bad thing when it came to the situation between her and his brother. With Alejandro laid up in a hospital bed, Dante would have time to solve the riddle of what, exactly, was going on between the pair of them and take whatever steps were necessary. He could be decisive.
She was hidingsomething. Whatever happened to be going on between her and his brother, it wasn’t a passionate and loving relationship between two people desperate to tie the knot.
So what was it? If Dante could excuse his preoccupation with her as the natural outcome of wanting to protect the Cabrera dynasty from a potential intruder, he would have. However, she failed to conform to the one-dimensional cardboard-cut-out image he would have liked.
