and clarity. Each look, each touch, each word from him. The man she’d felt so attuned to, so connected to. Who’d turned out to be just another player, only one on a level she hadn’t known existed.
Not that that was an excuse. Everything inside her fluctuated from regret for all the beauty that had turned out to be a crude illusion to anger at him for being such a perfect fiend to humiliation that she’d been such an eager mark.
She’d had to run to the bathroom three times while playing with the kids so they wouldn’t see her tears. Not that she’d been able to hide her condition from their anxious eyes. But their frantic questions and hugs had made her feel worse, and angry enough at herself to rein in her rampant emotions.
For these orphaned or abandoned children to feel worried and sorry for her when it was they who depended on the goodwill and intermittent care of people like her was a slap that had roused her from wallowing in self-pity.
It also made her knock herself over the head for thinking of canceling her Friday-night entertainment. She wasn’t letting a hoarse voice, a puffy face and a broken heart stop her from giving the kids the weekly bedtime performance they’d come to crave over the past month.
She now announced that their entertainment was about to begin, and all the kids ran to their beds excitedly.
They were thirty-six in this ward, from seven to ten years old. She loved all one hundred and twenty kids in Casa do Sol Orphanage, but this ward was extra special and her most enthusiastic audience. And one boy really stood out. She’d clicked with him on so many levels from the first moment, too. But, unlike Rafael, she was sure Diego was who he seemed to be.
The eight-year-old now helped her make a final rundown of her props, put her phone in the portable dock and sound system, then raced back to his bed with a huge smile of anticipation on his face.
Once everyone was in bed, she started performing, complete with dramatic music and on-the-fly costume changes. She always gave them her version of fairy tales, and in this one, Snow White was a Robin Hood–like character with the Seven Dwarves as her swashbuckling sidekicks, and she saved Prince Charming from being turned into a heartless monster by the Evil Queen, who wanted him to be her consort.
Once deep into the story, she forgot everything as she jumped on beds, whirled and swooped and changed voices, wigs and clothes and had the kids kicking in bed with laughter.
“And they lived interestingly ever after.”
She took an exaggeratedly deep bow at the kids’ fervent applause as the music ended with a flourish.
After stowing all the props in her rolling suitcase, she went from bed to bed kissing and tucking the children in. As usual, she left Diego for last. This time she slipped him the eReader she’d promised him so he could read under the covers. He was The Book Gobbler, one of the things they had in common.
As Diego clung around her neck, he whispered in her ear, “Will you ask your friend to come a little earlier next time so he can visit us?”
She withdrew to look down at the dark-haired, brown-eyed boy, thinking he’d assigned her an imaginary friend like the one he’d invented for himself. Smiling, she kissed his smooth, olive-skinned cheek. “So what does my friend look like?”
“He looks like a superhero.”
“Does he wear a costume and cape?”
“No, he was wearing light blue jeans and a black jacket with a black T-shirt. And his left hand is in a dark blue splint.”
Okay. That was pretty detailed. She didn’t know Diego had such a knack for dressing his characters.
“That’s regular clothes. And the splint is proof he’s not invulnerable. So why do you say he looks like a superhero?”
“Because he must be seven feet tall and looks like Batman in his secret identity. He entered in the middle of your story and no one else noticed him. He put a finger on his lips, so I wouldn’t interrupt you. Is he your friend or your husband?”
“No one else noticed him, huh...?” The rest caught in her throat, all hairs standing on end. With the relative silence and stillness in the ward, she suddenly felt it. That aura.
She swung her head to the door in time to see a huge shadow separating from the darkness of the entrance vestibule.
Rafael.
Heaving up to her feet, blood didn’t follow to her head. She struggled to remain upright as he approached. And he was clapping...albeit with one of his hands in a splint, just as Diego had said.
“That was the best version of Snow White I’ve ever heard. And the most dynamic, entertaining performance I’ve ever seen. You missed your calling. You should be on stage.”
He was dressed as Diego had described. So casually chic and disarmingly handsome it was painful to behold his beauty. And he clearly hadn’t shaved since she’d seen him. His beard had turned him from a soul-stealing seducer to a heart-snatching pirate.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed.
Ignoring her anger, he gently swept a finger around one puffy eye and rasped, “I made you cry.”
Suppressing a shudder, she stepped away. “I made me cry. But I’m done crying. Answer my question.”
Instead of answering, his probing gaze left her to settle on Diego. “Thank you for not drawing attention to my entry and giving me the chance to watch Eliana’s performance. Is she always that fantastic?”
Diego nodded enthusiastically. “Always. She’s the only one who makes us laugh. And she’s the only one who makes me think.”
Something scalding came into Rafael’s wolf’s eyes as they swept to hers. “She’s the only one who makes me...do so many things, too.” He turned to Diego, extended his hand. “Rafael.”
The boy put his small hand in Rafael’s with all the decorum of a young prince meeting a vital new ally. “Diego.”
A painful tightness gripped her throat as Rafael shook the boy’s hand with utmost earnestness. It felt as if she was seeing two versions of Rafael, separated by the chasm of time and circumstance, past and present selves meeting. The way they regarded each other, the awareness in their eyes, as if each recognized something fundamentally the same about the other.
She blinked away the moisture. Where was this coming from? Rafael, the all-powerful tycoon, couldn’t have anything in common with an abandoned boy like Diego. Though she knew nothing about Rafael’s past, she couldn’t imagine he’d ever been as disadvantaged as Diego.
But...what had his childhood been like? How had he become this complex, irresistible force of nature...?
No. Not irresistible. Not to her, not anymore. And she didn’t care about his past or present. She didn’t want to know anything about him, or have anything to do with him.
“I asked Ellie if she could ask you to come again, just earlier so you could visit us for a while before bedtime.”
“It would be a pleasure and an honor, Diego.” He slanted her a glance. “If Eliana approves.”
Ellie
