but he must have left without me.’ The lovely, perfectly made-up face was petulant, the scarlet mouth drooping sulkily. ‘He always did head for the hills rather than spend time around you, so I guess that’s what’s happened now.’
‘Is that so?’ Cassie slid on to the bench seat on the opposite side of the table, in the full glare of the already hot sun, noting that the other woman had barely touched her coffee or her juice. Roman might enjoy the flirtatious attentions of Delfina, and the way she hung around him would boost his already considerable ego. But he certainly wouldn’t want to marry her, and not only because her shallowness would bore him.
Delfina had been born to elegance and style, and was accustomed to the high life. She certainly wouldn’t allow herself to be isolated here, seeing her husband only when he felt like dropping by for a week or two, producing babies and closely chaperoned by his mother and aunts while he swanned off, free as a bird. She would make a demanding wife, while he had wanted a dutiful, self-effacing one, one who didn’t ask questions or demand a single thing of him.
Roman Fernandez was far too selfish to completely tie himself down to a woman; he enjoyed the pleasures of a bachelor-style life far too much. But at least, Cassie knew, he wouldn’t seduce the other woman. She came from an important family and he wouldn’t compromise her; his Spanish code of honour wouldn’t let him. Though why she should see that as a consolation, Cassie couldn’t imagine. She no longer cared what he did.
‘I can’t think why you came back after all this time,’ Delfina said pettishly. ‘You’re wasting your time if you expect Roman to take you back—because he won’t, you know. How long are you staying, anyway?’ she wanted to know. ‘It can’t be too long if the only thing you’ve got with you is the same old suit you wore to dinner last night,’ Delfina added disparagingly. ‘And you really shouldn’t sit in the sun, not with your ginger colouring. You’ll get covered in ghastly freckles, just like your brother. And what’s he doing working here? I thought Roman had given him an easy life back in the office in Jerez.’
‘He’s learning estate management from the bottom up,’ Roman’s dark, velvety voice supplied. He was standing in the shadow of the pillared arcade that surrounded the courtyard on three sides. ‘And you never know, if he’s not otherwise engaged when Miguel retires in six years’ time, Roy might make manager.’
Cassie got the message. Roy could make something of himself here on the estate, or go to prison. She shivered, despite the warmth of the sun. At least Roman hadn’t confided the true situation to Delfina. She offered up a silent word of thanks for his tact.
‘We had a date,’ the Spanish woman cooed as Roman stepped out of the shadows. The petulance gone, she was all smiling welcome. She stood up, smoothing her hands over her prettily curved hips. ‘I’ve waited for ages, but at least you’re here now—so just this once I’ve decided to forgive you!’
He wasn’t dressed for riding. Wearing narrow fawn-coloured cotton trousers topped by a black shirt in the finest lawn, he looked fantastic, all raw male sexuality—and then some. Cassie knew exactly why Delfina couldn’t keep away from him; she could imagine how the Spanish woman’s hopes would have soared when she’d learned that his failure of a wife had left him.
Cassie almost felt sorry for her!
‘You’re going to have to ride alone this morning,’ Roman stated abruptly, as if his patience was running out. ‘I have urgent business with my wife. But,’ he added as a palliative, ‘I had Demetrio saddle up for you. The mare’s ready and waiting in the stable yard.’
His cool smile seemed to soften what was obviously a blow and pushed what petulant words Delfina might have been about to say back down her throat. Asunción, bearing down on them with a huge tray, did the rest.
As the housekeeper, with a murmured, ‘Señor, Señora,’ set out breakfast for two and cleared away the offerings Delfina had barely touched, the Spanish girl swept her eyes dismissively over Cassie, gave Roman a commiserating smile and drawled, ‘I’ll leave you to your boring business then, caro. You can make amends for letting me down when you’ve finished with it.’ Another pointed glance in Cassie’s direction and then she was walking away, leaving the sultry perfume that was her trademark behind in the hot summer air.
As Asunción left, Roman took the seat Delfina had vacated and Cassie eyed the crispy rolls, honey, fresh fruit and coffee and felt her throat close up. Alone with him, she felt wound up enough to explode, and he made it a thousand times worse when he reached out a hand and ran the back of his fingers lightly down the side of her face.
‘Unlike your unidentical twin, your skin doesn’t freckle.’ His voice was slow, sexy and smooth, the smoky eyes following the movement of his fingers as they rested briefly on the corner of her mouth. ‘And I wouldn’t describe your hair as ginger—far more like burnished chestnuts, Cassie.’
After those first few disastrous days of their honeymoon he’d never touched her, except perhaps by accident. He’d certainly never touched her skin deliberately, lingeringly, seductively. So why touch her now? Why was he trying to contradict Delfina’s earlier insults? Her huge eyes were bewildered.
She tried to move, to jerk her head away from the gentle stroke of his fingers, the warmth that was setting fire to her skin—but she was mesmerised, trapped beneath the intimacy of his eyes, for all the world as if she were twenty-one years old again. Vulnerable, gullible, innocent and still traumatised by recent happenings.
‘Awwwk—’ The sound that emerged from her painfully tight throat was more like a croak than the opening for a sensible statement. As if he knew he could sweet-talk her into a state of feeble submission where his threats had failed, one dark brow quirked upwards; a slight smile curved his sensual mouth as he dropped his hand and lifted the coffee pot.
But it wasn’t that; it really wasn’t. She was beyond all that self-serving charm. It was just that she dreaded having to commit herself, but knew she had to if she were to save her twin.
And now—apart from that condition she was determined to make—the time had come to tell him she agreed to accept his monstrous offer.
She could hardly believe this was happening to her. It had taken courage to walk out on him, and a whole lot of determination to put him and what he had meant to her right out of her mind.
Her throat jerking, she swallowed around the constriction in her throat, stared into the rich, steaming coffee he had placed in front of her and stated as evenly as she could manage, ‘If you must use me to divert your family from pestering you to provide an heir then I’ll stay with you for the three months you stipulated. But—’
‘A diversion? Interesting…’ Roman looked almost amused.
‘What other reason could you have?’ Suddenly, Cassie was wary.
‘None.’ A glint of wickedness in the dark eyes belied the blunt disclaimer, but she was reassured by his, ‘You catch on quickly; well done! You are my wife, you’re here, and you suit my purposes—but don’t forget, the deal includes you sleeping with me, as a good wife should…’
Cassie swallowed hard and forced an edge into her voice, ‘Point taken. You don’t have to paint a picture. I’ll keep my part of the bargain, but not here.’
‘Is that an ultimatum, mi esposa?’
‘Take it or leave it.’ She echoed his former words, trying to blank out the knowledge that he was not a man to be coerced, trying to look as if she wouldn’t back down while all
