Page 30 of The Forbidden Cabrera Brother
‘Nice try but it won’t work.’
‘Maybe we don’t have a conventional relationship.’ Caitlin didn’t bother to ask him what he’d just meant by that because she knew.
‘What do you mean?’ Like a shark sensing blood, Dante felt on the verge of a revelation. If his head had temporarily been elsewhere, he was now once again committed to the task at hand. He pushed his cup to one side and leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table.
‘I know what you were trying to do when you kissed me,’ she said, swerving round his question.
‘Come again?’
‘You wanted to see if I would respond. You pretended to be attracted to me, you said lots of stuff you didn’t mean, because you knew that if I responded then you would have all your suspicions confirmed. You want to push me into a corner and paint me black, but leading me on? That’s sly.’
‘You think I’msly?’
Caitlin looked at him in stony silence.
‘You couldn’t be further from the truth,’ he gritted brusquely. ‘I’m not a man who plays that kind of game.’ This was getting off point and he dragged his runaway thoughts back to the matter at hand.
‘You and Alejandro. You were telling me that what you had wasn’t a conventional relationship. Explain.’ He shifted in the seat and tried to focus. He wasn’t going to let her derail the conversation by veering off at random tangents, but he couldn’t help but admire the antics. She was a match for him and he liked that.
‘We were both great friends.’ She was going to have to tiptoe round all manner of minefields, but Dante wasn’t going to let up. ‘Things went from there.’
Dante waited. Nothing further seemed forthcoming. He was very happy to play the long game, but eventually, he said, ‘Youdriftedinto a relationship because you happened to be good friends?’ He looked at her with rampant incredulity.
‘Friendship is a very good basis for a relationship,’ Caitlin said defensively.
‘And you would have married him? He would have married you? I find that hard to believe. For starters, you’re young. Why would you abandon the one thing most women seem to want? Love, passion and a belief in fairy stories about happy-ever-afters? Nor do I understand why my brother would do the same.’ But Dante knew thathehad no faith in the institution of marriage. Love and fairy stories? No way. His own experience had taught him that any permanent relationship should always have a solid basis in reality. He’d fallen for the wrong woman once upon a time and his guard was permanently up. Maybe Alejandro was fashioned from the same cloth. Maybe he, too, had had an unfortunate experience that had taught him that a marriage of convenience was the way forward. Who knew?
And his parentshadbeen getting quite vocal on the subject of their eldest son settling down.
Maybe he’d decided to opt for the friend knowing that he wouldn’t be troubled by a demanding or jealous woman who might end up wanting more than he was prepared to give.
That was certainly the lens through which he, Dante, viewed relationships...
He felt as though he was clutching at straws, but what else could explain his brother’s nonchalant reaction to what had happened at the pool between himself and Caitlin?
But why would Caitlin have gone along?
‘I had a terrible experience once upon a time,’ Caitlin said softly, severing any further conclusions he might have been formulating on the subject of her and his brother. ‘I was engaged to a guy. We’d known each other for ever, and in a small village like the one I grew up in that counts for something. Getting married was expected. Except no one—not me, not Jimmy, none of our family or friends—could foresee a five-foot-ten model swanning into his life and sweeping him off his feet.’
Reliving the moment, Caitlin realised that she felt next to nothing thinking about it now.
‘He felt sorry for me. That was the toughest part. I suppose everyone did. I left for London and I put men behind me. I wasn’t going to get involved with anyone ever again. Alejandro,’ she tacked on truthfully, ‘made sense.’
‘Well, I hate to burst the bubble, but you might have to start rethinking that scenario,’ Dante gritted. ‘Alejandro’s feathers weren’t ruffled at the thought of me kissing you. Are you happy to settle for someone who doesn’t really give a damn what you do and with whom?’
‘I’ve talked enough,’ Caitlin muttered, rising to her feet. She felt hemmed in and suffocated by Dante’s oppressive presence and the sheer force of his personality. ‘I’m going to see Alejandro...’
‘No point.’ Dante stood up, dumping money on the table, more than enough to cover the coffee they had ordered. ‘Like I said, he’s having a battery of tests. You won’t be able to see him until tomorrow.’
‘I’d planned on leaving this evening,’ Caitlin reminded him, digging her heels in and refusing to be bullied.
‘That’s the thing about plans. They often have to change.’
For a moment, they stared at one another, and then Caitlin broke eye contact and began walking towards the door, only to stop because she was going to have to return to the house and with Dante, unless he decided to hang around in the city centre for no apparent reason.
‘I’m very sorry about what happened at the pool,’ she said in a stilted voice as they began leaving the city, heading out towards his house.Clear the air, she thought. He had and so should she. ‘I think it’s best if I pack my bags when I get back. Don’t worry about me. I’ve got stuff to do. Tomorrow, I can easily take a taxi in to the hospital and then I can leave for the airport straight from the hospital. I don’t know if I’ll get a flight immediately but...but...’ She ran out of steam and stared straight ahead at the scenery whipping past.
For a while, Dante didn’t say anything.
