Page 26 of The Forbidden Cabrera Brother
With which he vaulted out of the water, his bronzed muscular body glimmering with droplets that glistened in the glare of the sun, while she remained frozen in place, like a block of ice.
Watching and barely breathing as he walked away.
CHAPTER SIX
DANTEDIDN’TKNOWwho repelled him more. Himself, for his lack of control that had propelled him into crossing lines that should never have been crossed, or her, for crossing those lines with him when she was engaged to his brother.
He didn’t glance back as he strode away from the pool back towards the house.
All those questions that had been buzzing in his head ever since he had found out who she was now raged inside him, an angry swarm searching for answers.
Work.
He would bury himself in his work because that always did the trick. He hadn’t made it to the house before he realised that no amount of work was going to do the trick this time. He didn’t know what Caitlin was doing. He didn’t want to know. His mouth still burned from where her cool lips had opened beneath his and so, much to his rage, did his body.
He’d never responded to any woman the way he’d responded to her.
Was it because she was off limits? Maybe there was some deeply buried need to take what belonged to his brother. Was that it? Dante didn’t think so. He had never wanted anything Alejandro had possessed. In fact he had no idea what women his brother had dated in the past, but he was quite sure he would never have dreamt of lusting after any of them. It just wasn’t in his nature. He’d never lusted after any man’s woman in his life before. Hadn’t come close. He was a red-blooded male with a healthy libido and he enjoyed the pleasure of sex but, even in that faraway place where mistakes had been made, he couldn’t recall having experienced this fury of attraction that wiped out everything in its path.
What the hell was going on here?
He dressed fast, shrugging out of his swimming trunks, replacing them with jeans and the first tee shirt that came to hand, and then back out he went, to his car, which was parked at an angle in the courtyard.
Where the hell was she? He hated himself for even wondering.
He arrived at the hospital with no idea where he was going with this, but he had a driving need to confront his brother, which was ridiculous given the fact that Alejandro was dead to the world.
Dante had kissed her. She’d kissed him right back. No coercion on his part! She’d melted in his arms and he had enjoyed every second of it. He just had to think about the piercing sweetness of her mouth, the way her soft, small, luscious body had curved towards him, and he could feel the stirring of an erection. Her clear green eyes, as they had fastened on him with smouldering hunger, had woken a sleeping monster in him he hadn’t known existed.
Dante was rarely confounded by anything or anyone, but he was confounded now.
The hospital was quiet as he made his way to his brother’s ward. They knew him at the desk so, when he nodded at the little cluster of nurses and medics chatting by the reception desk, they smiled and gave him the go-ahead to enter the room.
He was going to have to tell Alejandro what had happened. He was going to have to find answers to the questions rolling around in his head. He was going to have to try to find out what, exactly, was going on.
He had no idea how he was going to accomplish this because his brother wasn’t going to be answering anything any time soon, but he had to get things off his chest.
Dante pushed open the door and let it swing on quiet hinges behind him, then he pulled one of the visitor chairs next to the bed and looked at his brother.
Now that everything had been stabilised, Alejandro could have been peacefully sleeping. His breathing was gentle and even.
‘We need to talk,’ Dante began.
He smiled at the incongruity of the statement, then the smile disappeared and he thought, out of the blue, when had he ever said that to his brother? When had he ever met up with him just so that they could talk? About everything and nothing? Without a sense of duty hanging over both their heads, aware only that, as brothers, meeting up now and again, however uncomfortable, was just something they should do?
‘Something has happened, Alejandro...’ He structured his thoughts. Caitlin’s image popped into his head, and he gritted his teeth together because never had his body been so relentlessly disobedient. How was he going to break this to his brother? Was it even right to try? He couldn’t be sure that Alejandro would hear a word he said and, even if he did, who knew whether he would remember any of the conversation?
Many of Dante’s doubts stemmed from his interaction with Caitlin. He had listened and watched and everything inside him had questioned the relationship she was purporting to have with Alejandro. Her reaction to Dante earlier by the pool...that kiss...was just the icing on the cake.
She wasn’t some besotted lover, starry-eyed over his brother, counting down until the wedding bells began ringing.
Nor did his brother seem to be head over heels, like a swooning hero in a fairy tale.
But what if he was wrong about Alejandro? It wasn’t as though he knew how his brother thought. It wasn’t as though they had the sort of bond that might allow him any insight into what went on in Alejandro’s head and in his heart.
Was Dante willing to say what he had to say, to risk Alejandro taking everything in under that serene lack of consciousness and remember that the woman to whom he was engaged was not what she seemed?
Was Dante willing to break his brother’s heart?
