Page 32 of The Forbidden Cabrera Brother
Virgin?Virgin?Could she possibly be lying about that? No. He had seen the mortified embarrassment wash over her face in a red tidal rush, and he had known that she’d been telling the truth.
But her confession left him more confused than he already was.
Why was she engaged to his brother? What was going on? But then, the cogs in his brain began to crank back into life and he knew that there could be only one conclusion.
Alejandro was very kind, one of the world’s gentle souls. Growing up, he had been the one in the kitchen helping the housekeeper cook while Dante had been kicking a ball outside or climbing a tree. Later, when rugby and black-run skiing had replaced the ball kicking, Alejandro had remained in the kitchen, but this time enjoying the business of preparing food and eating it, happy to read and pursue isolated hobbies. Dante had never really been able to get it.
What he was getting now, though, was the reality that his brother had doubtless found himself in a pickle. Their parents had become increasingly anxious to see their eldest son settle down and produce a few heirs to the throne.
And into this scenario, cue stage door to the left, came Caitlin, wounded by heartbreak, disillusioned with the whole business of love, and yet still desirous of having a family.
Two and two had made four and although she and his brother weren’t in love, they liked each other well enough to do a sensible deal.
Hence Alejandro’s lack of reaction when he, Dante, had mentioned that kiss by the pool.
He truly didn’t fancy Caitlin. That was something Dante simply couldn’t understand because he had never in his life found any woman more alluring.
A virgin!
He looked at her for a second, pausing. She was standing by the front door, every part of her body trembling with the urge to escape as fast as she could after her admission.
She couldn’t have been dressed in an outfit less appealing to Dante. Somewhere along the line, she’d bought two long flowered skirts that harked right back to some distant hippie era. She was wearing one of these now. The mesh of swirling colours would give anyone a headache were they to make the mistake of staring for too long. Twinned with this was a short-sleeved tee shirt that was neither loose nor tight.
And yet nothing could disguise the intense sensuality of her body. He clenched his jaw hard.
Okay, so maybe the situation was a little more blurred than he’d first thought. Maybe what was an engagement, given the weird circumstances, couldn’t be calleda relationshipat all. Doubtless it was just a matter of time before she broke it off, because all that rot about love and friendship counted for nothing when the shimmer of passion hovered in the background like a steady haze, and he had shown her that shimmer of passion.
Would she easily be able to go back to the empty dryness of a situation in which affection was the sum total of what she felt?
She was glaring at him, her face tight with the strain of suppressing her emotions, her hair all over the place. She looked like a wild cat and he marvelled that Alejandro could ever have thought that such a fiery creature could submit to a non-relationship indefinitely.
Heartbreak or no heartbreak.
Dante strolled towards her. She didn’t have a key or he was pretty sure she would have been firmly locked in her bedroom by now.
He slotted his key in the door, pushed it open and stood aside as she brushed past him.
‘Caitlin.’ His voice was rougher than he’d expected and he felt suddenly awkward.
‘What?’ She spun to look at him, her body taut and straight as an arrow, every nerve in her body still shimmering with heightened emotion. What had possessed her to share that most intimate of secrets with him? What?
‘Join me in the kitchen for something to drink. Maybe eat. It’s been quite a day.’
Caitlin opened her mouth to tell him that she would rather not but then she thought, so she had let slip that detail about herself... What of it? She had simply tried to defend herself against the slur of being a two-timer without a conscience. What was wrong with that? And what was the big deal with being a virgin? Why should she be embarrassed? It was her body to give when she wanted, not when the world deemed it suitable. She would far rather live a life being choosy about the person she chose to share herself with than sleep with any and everyone just because...
Besides, on a more pedestrian note, she didn’t want to spend the remainder of the day hiding away in her bedroom. Why give Dante the satisfaction of thinking that he had got to her?
She could either allow herself to be swept along on a fierce tide of helpless reaction or else try hard and fast to emulate his cool control.
She nodded and forced her reluctant legs to follow him into the kitchen.
Every gadget was high-end and polished to gleaming perfection, including the extraordinary coffee maker, which was a work of art in itself, but Dante bypassed that and headed for the fridge, which was concealed behind the banks of glossy grey cabinets.
It wasn’t quite yet six but he offered her a drink, a glass of wine. Desperate to calm her nerves, Caitlin accepted with alacrity and finished glass number one at speed, instantly relaxing as the alcohol began coursing through her veins. It was easier to talk to Dante when she wasn’t battling low-level panic and sickening awareness of his intense physicality. The wine lowered her defences and muted her nerves and, after a while, she knew that she was relaxing into normal conversation about Alejandro, now that he had regained consciousness, so she was unprepared when Dante suddenly sat forward, his dark eyes pinning her to the spot, his body angled forward so that she felt the heat he emanated.
‘So talk to me. Tell me. I’m curious...’ he said softly.
‘Talk to you about what?’ She had already finished two glasses of wine but as her eyes sought out the nearly empty bottle of Chablis, Dante relieved her of that easy route to Dutch courage by gently moving her glass out of reach.
