been crazy about him. And crazy to get involved with him when she had known his reputation for hurting women.
What had made her think she would be different?
What had made her think she could handle him when plenty of women before her had tried and failed?
She’d thought she understood him but she’d discovered too late that she’d barely scratched the surface. Raul Vásquez was a complex, volatile man, his character so full of dark, hidden corners that she suspected no woman would ever know him.
And now she was seeing a different side to him—the side that had made him a billionaire.
He was sharply intelligent but instead of his usual dry observations and smart comments, he was focused and on his guard. Intimidating. She’d been brought up to question and challenge and never to be afraid of anyone, but there was something about the harsh lines of his impossibly handsome features that made her want to just shrink into silence.
Over the past couple of weeks she’d gone from lover to adversary and no one in their right mind would choose Raul as an opponent.
His sexy mouth was set in a grim line and the unshakeable confidence that had made her weak at the knees made him seem more formidable than ever.
No wonder everyone just rolled over and played ball when he walked into a room, Faith thought hopelessly as she watched him take a sip of wine. In his current mood he wasn’t a man that anybody would bother challenging.
Faith felt her stomach drop and told herself it was just part of the head injury. Hadn’t they warned her she’d feel nauseous from time to time? It was nothing to do with Raul’s presence. She couldn’t possibly still feel anything for him. Not after what he’d said to her. What he’d believed of her.
Their relationship was dead in the water.
And she really didn’t know what he was doing here.
He rolled his shoulders to ease the tension and despite all her determined resolutions, Faith’s eyes were drawn to the swell of muscle visible beneath the fabric of his shirt. He had an incredible body. Hard, strong, powerful and capable of encouraging an unbelievable response from hers.
Raul caught the look and his eyes darkened. ‘Don’t,’ he warned and his eyes seemed to deepen in colour to a dangerous, stormy shade of black. ‘Don’t look at me like that and don’t bring sex into this or so help me I’ll—’ He broke off, his emotions so close to the surface that he clearly didn’t trust himself to finish the sentence.
‘Do you seriously think I’m lying here thinking about sex?’ Her defence was attack, but the truth was that she had been thinking about sex and she knew that while she was still able to breathe, this man would always have that effect on her. And she on him. There was something between them that transcended all the rules.
One look was all it took.
One look was all it had ever taken.
And that was why they were here, of course, in this horrible mess.
If the physical attraction hadn’t been so overwhelming, perhaps they would have discovered their fundamental differences a great deal sooner.
Abandoning the food on his plate, he made an impatient sound and dropped the fork with a clatter. ‘I don’t know what you’re thinking and I’ve given up guessing,’ he growled. ‘Why did you run?’
She gasped and suddenly her palms literally ached with the desire to swipe the arrogant look from his indecently handsome face. ‘If that is a serious question then you’re even more insensitive than I think you are.’
‘I am not insensitive.’ He pushed the chair back and it scraped on the terrace, the dark flash in his eyes hinting at the degree of volatility that lurked beneath the veneer of control and sophistication. ‘But I fail to see why anyone would go to the lengths you went to and then just walk away.’
‘The lengths I went to?’ Her voice shook. ‘You make me sound like some sort of manipulative gold-digger.’
He looked at her and the derisive glint in his eyes spoke volumes. ‘Yes?’
She swallowed, determined not to cry in front of him. How could he think that of her? ‘I walked away because the things you said to me were awful! Heartless, callous and cruel. Did you really think I’d stick around for second helpings? I was hurt and sad—I needed support—and all I got was a double helping of blind, cynical insensitivity.’
His gaze locked on hers with the deadly accuracy of a heat-seeking missile. ‘You created the situation. You should have stayed to see it through.’
‘What was the point of that?’ she forced herself to answer.
‘You made your position more than clear. Hearing it once was bad enough.’ Enough to kill her dreams and her childish, naïve belief that they’d had something special.
‘If you are going to run at the first sign of trouble, our marriage is going to be extremely interesting.’ He was infuriatingly sure of himself, forceful and arrogant, if he thought he could make her bow to his will by simply applying sufficient psychological pressure. ‘If you’d talked to me, we could have sorted it out.’
‘You weren’t “talking” Raul. You were accusing! Judge and jury rolled into one—only you weren’t prepared to listen to my defence.’ She broke off in horror, unable to believe what she’d just said. ‘You see what being with you has done for me? You’ve turned me from a rational, questioning human being into a meek, subservient blob with no brain! I don’t need a defence because I’ve done nothing wrong!’
‘You are the least subservient woman I have ever met,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘And I have never questioned your intelligence.’
‘Then why are you behaving like this, Raul? Why are you so willing to believe the worst of me? You’re talking as if I committed a crime, but you were there too!’
‘You assured me that you were protected.’
‘I thought I was!’
There. It was out. The subject that both of them had been avoiding since he’d first strode into her hospital ward.
She was trembling now despite the blazing sunshine, tiny shivers that took over her whole body, but whether it was as a reaction to her accident or his words, she didn’t know. ‘I didn’t mean to get pregnant.’ And she wasn’t prepared to have this conversation. Hadn’t thought that he’d follow her. ‘Go away,’ she croaked. ‘Go back to your work because that’s all you really care about. We no longer have anything else to say to each other.’
Her response sent shards of hostility cracking through the air and Raul rose to his feet and walked away from her, as if he were considering precisely that option. But he didn’t leave the terrace. Instead he stood still, all coiled, suppressed tension like a jungle cat ready to leap on the first unwary animal that crossed its path.
She knew him well enough to know that he was at the outer limits of his patience and that surprised her because it was his razor-sharp thinking and icy control in all situations that had driven him to billionaire status. Where
