Page 10 of The Forbidden Cabrera Brother
‘That’s right.’
‘Why is that? Was it not love at first sight? Maybe he was involved with someone else at the time? Or maybe you were?’
His low voice was a persistent murmur in her ear.
‘Why are you asking all these questions?’ she breathed. ‘I get it that you’re curious about our relationship, but, honestly, isn’t it enough that I’m here? Your parents haven’t pried into our...our relationship...’
‘My parents are already in love with the idea that their eldest son is going to be tying the knot. They have grandchildren on their mind. They see what they want to see, but my vision is slightly less rose-tinted. Alejandro might be older than me but he’s gullible in places I’m not. Gullible enough to fall hook, line and sinker in love with a woman who might not be...let’s just say, right for him. So my curiosity? Natural. Your reticence on the subject of love and marriage, not to mention your reluctance to go into detail? Less natural.’
She was thinking hard. Thinking about how to address those suspicions. Loathing the man for putting her on the back foot, for not accepting what she had to say, for not being satisfied with polite small talk.
She was still thinking, still sweating with discomfort when it happened.
The crash was deafening. For a few seconds, she just couldn’t seem to focus on what exactly had happened because everything seemed to have slowed down. Then she realised, in a flash, that Alejandro had fallen. He had begun standing up, but he’d had so much to drink that his legs had refused to co-operate. He’d fallen, dropped backwards like a stone, catapulting the chair behind him and crashing to the ground.
She sprang to her feet. Everyone had sprung to their feet. Then it was all a blur. She raced over to where Alejandro lay sprawled in an unnatural position on the ground, with one arm flung behind his head and his leg twisted underneath him. He was perfectly still and as she shoved her way to his side Caitlin desperately wondered whether he was breathing at all. Tears had sprung to her eyes and she was whimpering when someone pulled her back.
She felt the hardness of muscle against her back and then Dante was whispering urgently into her ear.
‘Don’t panic. He’s alive and there’s a doctor here. Take it easy.’
The voice that had filled her with discomfort and hostility only moments earlier now soothed her, but she barely had time to question the phenomenon because amidst the chaos someone was pushing forward and taking charge, ordering people to stand back while simultaneously reaching for his phone and jabbing at it as he bent towards Alejandro.
Caitlin couldn’t bear to watch. She spun round and buried her head against Dante. He could have been anyone. She just couldn’t look at her friend lying there on the ground. There was a roaring in her ears, which she wanted desperately to block out.
She wasn’t quite sure what happened next. She knew that people were being ushered inside. So was she. Her feet were moving, propelling her towards a sitting room where she was settled on a sofa, a quiet place which was good, left on her own, time to gather herself. What had just happened replayed in her head in slow motion.
It was dark in the sitting room, with only one of the lamps on a side table on, but that suited her. Her thoughts were going crazy in her head and just when she was about to go out because she couldn’t sit on her own any longer, the door was pushed open and she saw Dante outlined, a shadowy silhouette filling the frame.
‘You need to sit down, Caitlin.’ His voice was low and serious as he moved towards her.
She fell back against the sofa, too scared to say a word. He’d moved from the shadows into the pool of light from the lamp and his expression was as serious as his voice.
‘What’s happened, Dante?’ she whispered.
‘Sit and I’ll tell you. Good news and bad...’
CHAPTER THREE
SHEWASSHAKINGlike a leaf and she barely noticed the glass of brandy Dante had brought in with him. He’d been thinking ahead, she dimly registered, predicting her reaction and knowing that she would need a stiff swig of something to deal with whatever he had to say.
If the gravity of his expression wasn’t enough, the very fact that he had come equipped with brandy said it all.
He’d sat her down on the sofa and he sat next to her and waited until she had fortified herself by duly sipping some of the fiery alcohol, even though she didn’t feel she needed it.
‘Just tell me,’ she whispered.
‘There was a doctor there. An eminent surgeon, as it happens. A relative on my father’s side. Of course, he couldn’t do a complete test but it would seem that Alejandro fell at an awkward angle. If I could draw a parallel, it’s a bit like someone collapsing to the ground because the chair they’d planned on sitting on has been yanked out from under them.’
‘An awkward angle...’
‘He didn’t fall far, but what’s certain is that he’s broken several small but significant bones in his ankle.’
Caitlin looked at him and blinked. Her thoughts were lagging behind but a few broken bones didn’t seem like the end of the world and she said as much, breathing a sigh of relief and closing her eyes.
‘Not so fast,’ Dante said, and he held her gaze when she opened her eyes to stare at him.
A person could drown in those eyes, she thought distractedly. She hadn’t noticed how deep and dark they were before, because she’d been arguing with him, resentful and defensive at his suspicions, which had made her question all over again the wisdom of embarking on the charade. They weren’t arguing now, and something shifted and filtered through her defences. Now, as their eyes locked, she could see that his were the deepest shade of bitter chocolate and fringed with thick, sooty lashes that any woman would give her right arm for.
