from the beginning, of course. Caro had been completely bowled off her feet the moment she was introduced to Jake, when she’d accompanied Gavin to a summer party at Montgomery Software.
At the time the attraction had appeared to be mutual.
No, it had been mutual! Whatever had followed, Caro had absolutely no doubts that Jake had initially wanted her physically. Enough to marry her, at least…
She gave a weary sigh. ‘I can’t see that the two of us talking now is going to resolve anything, Jake. It never did in the past.’
His jaw tightened, a nerve pulsing in his cheek. ‘You must realise the situation has now changed, Caro.’
She closed her eyes briefly. ‘Because of Magdalena?’ She was going to kill her little brother when she finally managed to drag him away from his computer. Hang, draw and quarter him! ‘Of course because of Magdalena!’ Jake rasped his impatience. ‘You’ve obviously done a fantastic job with her so far—’
‘How kind!’
Jake eyes glittered warningly as he heard the heavy sarcasm in her tone. ‘Where do you live in Majorca? How do you work to support yourself when you have a young baby to care for?’
Her cheeks were flushed. ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business, do you?’
‘I’m making it my business!’
She shrugged slender shoulders. ‘I had some money of my own saved when we separated a year ago—’
‘When you walked out on me, you mean,’ Jake corrected her harshly.
Caro stared at him for several long seconds. ‘Whatever,’ she finally dismissed. ‘There was enough money to enable me to buy a small finca in a village on the west coast of the island. It’s nothing grand, but it’s perfectly adequate for the two of us.’
Jake didn’t want just ‘adequate’ for his wife and daughter! ‘That doesn’t answer my question as to how you have continued to support yourself and Magdalena.’
Caro’s eyes flashed. ‘How do you imagine I support myself, Jake? By taking a paying lover every night?’
Jake’s mouth went completely dry at the thought of her taking even one lover, let alone a different one every night. Caro was his. She had always been his. Would always be his!
To his surprise—and pleasure—Jake had been Caro’s first lover. He had every intention of being her last one, too…
‘I was a journalist when we met, Jake, and I’m still a journalist. I write some freelance pieces for the English newspaper on the island, and I have some money left in reserve from my savings,’ she explained. ‘I’m also thinking of writing a book. An Englishwoman in Majorca. What do you think?’ she couldn’t help asking naughtily.
Jake scowled. ‘You really want to know?’
‘Probably not.’ She sighed heavily.
‘I think that you have a husband, Caro, and that he should be the one providing for you and Magdalena.’
Caro eyed him mockingly. ‘To keep me living in the privileged lifestyle to which I had become accustomed?’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t need or want that lifestyle, Jake. I never did.’
Jake’s money, and the power that went along with his wealth, had never interested Caro. All she had ever wanted was Jake’s undivided love. Something Caro knew, after learning of his affair with another woman, that Jake was incapable of giving her…
‘Nevertheless—’
‘There is no nevertheless,’ Caro interrupted him firmly. ‘I’ve managed perfectly well on my own so far, and I have every intention of continuing to do so.’
Jake frowned heavily. ‘We’ll talk about this further when we reach the house.’
‘Anything to do with giving me any of your money, for any reason, is non-negotiable, Jake.’
‘I’ll decide what is or isn’t negotiable.’
‘No,’ Caro argued shakily. ‘No, Jake, you won’t,’ she repeated more decisively. ‘I wasn’t interested in your money two years ago, and I’m not interested in it now, either.’
Jake fingers were now clasped so tightly about the steering wheel that his knuckles showed white. ‘Then what does interest you, Caro? Damn it, I’ve never understood what it is you want from me!’
Caro was all too aware of that.
She had been too much in love with Jake during those first few months of their marriage to realise that he had never indicated verbally that he returned the emotion. To realise that the only time Jake let down the tight control he had over his emotions was when they were in bed together.
Caro realised now that her lack of insight was probably because for the first few months of their marriage that was exactly where they had spent most of their time together!
Sex—even the incredible, mind-blowing sex she and Jake had shared—wasn’t enough to keep a marriage together. Especially after Caro had learnt even that wasn’t exclusive! After growing up with a constantly straying father and a thoroughly humiliated mother, she had sworn she’d never repeat their mistakes and remain in a miserable, faithless marriage. So when she’d learnt about Jake’s infidelity she’d left him immediately.
‘Nothing, Jake,’ Caro told him flatly now. ‘There’s absolutely nothing you have that I could possibly want.’
They would see about that, Jake decided grimly.
Because he had absolutely no intention of letting Caro leave his life for a second time…
‘LET ME,’ JAKE INSISTED, as Caro would have unstrapped Magdalena from the baby-seat before lifting her out of the car.
Magdalena had woken up the moment Jake parked the car in front of a mellow stone manor house, and the deep green of her eyes was now fixed steadily on Jake as Caro reluctantly stepped aside to allow him to take their daughter from the back seat.
A lump caught and held in Jake’s throat as one of Magdalena’s tiny starfish hands came to rest on the broadness of his shoulder as he straightened with her in his arms. She was heavier than he had expected, but warm, and her gaze was so trusting and open as she looked at him—in a way so reminiscent of the way Caro had once looked at him—that Jake just wanted to bury his face in the softness of her red-gold curls. To at last hold his daughter close and never let her go.
‘We should get this conversation over with—snow is forecast for later today,’ Caro reminded him huskily, after a brief glance at the grey and overcast sky.
Jake straightened, his gaze completely unreadable as he turned to watch her take Magdalena’s changing bag from the boot of the car. ‘I’ll get the rest of your luggage later.’
‘We
