you sure?’ Lisa’s breathy whisper irritated him, sure as he was that it was intended to evoke emotions from him. What was she pushing him to admit? That he loved her, that they too would find the happiness Raul and Lydia had? Well, she’d be disappointed.
‘Absolutely, now if we are to arrive in England on time, we should leave now.’ He changed the subject, diverted her attention, hoping to distract her from the destructive course the conversation had veered to after Raul’s mother had left them.
‘They have only just said their vows,’ Lisa implored, her green eyes full of confusion. ‘We can’t leave now.’
‘We can and we will.’ He put his arm in the small of her back, ignoring the jolt of heat that rushed through him, and gently but firmly propelled her through the guests. ‘After we wish the bride and groom well.’
* * *
Before Lisa could process what was happening, a radiant Lydia was smiling at her. ‘I hear congratulations are in order, that you are Max are going to be parents.’
‘Yes.’ This was the hardest bit of acting she’d done since arriving in Madrid.
Raul and Max were suddenly deep in conversation, turned slightly away, and Lisa had never felt so excluded. Lydia must have noticed. ‘They are talking about their father’s will. It seems he’d had help all along from one very corrupt member of the board, but I bet he never expected Raul to find his brother and welcome him into the business as well as get married.’
Lydia’s light laughter didn’t quite disguise the undercurrent of seriousness of her words and Lisa vowed to ask Max about it later. In fact, maybe now would be a good time to find out more about the man who was her child’s father. But that would mean revealing more about herself, her childhood brought up on the wrong side of town where police visits to her house happened with alarming regularity.
‘Lisa and I will look forward to seeing you in London for Angelina’s twenty-first birthday party.’ Max’s words dragged her mind back from the brink of those dark days as he pulled her close against him in a pretence of affection.
‘We wouldn’t miss it.’ Raul’s deep and accented voice was so like Max’s it was hardly believable.
‘You’re not going on honeymoon?’ Lisa asked before giving it any thought.
‘My wife is a romantic,’ Max said quickly as if it was something to apologise for, the sting of hurt bringing heat to her cheeks.
‘Then you are very lucky,’ Raul said as he looked into his wife’s eyes, making a connection that almost excluded her and Max. ‘And so too am I.’
‘I think we should leave you two alone.’ Max’s stern voice hardly dented the aura of love in the air and the newly-weds barely noticed. ‘Especially as I have romantic plans in England.’
* * *
Lisa had resisted the urge to ask any further questions as the small jet plane had flown to England. The dark and brooding scowl on Max’s face had been enough to see to that, but with each passing hour his mood had deepened and she was beginning to feel he was further away than ever from her. Unreachable.
She’d never imagined Christmas Eve would be like this. It had gone from the wonderful moment of seeing two people in love say their vows to a cold and stony silence that was frostier than the weather they’d returned to. That silence had deepened, becoming more Arctic as a sleek black car had pulled up at the steps of the plane and Max had ushered her into the passenger seat and then settled himself in the driver’s seat. They had left the airport and driven, not toward his London apartment as she’d thought, but out into the darkness of the countryside.
‘This is where we will be spending Christmas.’ His deep and all too sensual voice shocked her as he spoke in the darkness of the car. His gaze was firmly fixed on the road ahead, lit by the strong beams of the car’s headlights, as he manoeuvred his sleek sports car off the main road and onto a smaller one. Around them was nothing but darkness. She had no idea where they were. All she knew was that they’d left London behind over an hour ago.
‘Where are we?’ The mystery was too much for her tired mind, but as the car turned another corner, a cottage, festooned in festive lights, sprang from the darkness of the countryside. The yellow glow of lights from the windows warned her they were arriving at someone else’s home. One very much occupied.
‘You wanted Christmas and if my memory serves me right, your idea of Christmas, something like this.’ There was the faintest hint of amusement in his voice, but she wasn’t going to be fooled or lulled into a false sense of security, not after the hard and cold mood he’d been in all day.
‘But I told you that a long time ago. Before we were married.’ Inwardly she cursed herself for saying that word, for reminding them both of the issues that lay between them.
‘You did. You said you’d always imagined spending it at a cosy country cottage, complete with Christmas lights and a log fire.’ He moved toward her in the darkness of the car, the leather of the seat scrunching softly above the subtle hum of the engine. Her heart leapt as she inhaled his scent. Why did she have to react so acutely to him?
‘I never thought...’ Her voice trailed off in a whisper. He’d done this for her?
‘I give you exactly that.’ He looked over at her as he turned off the engine stopped and an expectant silence filled the car, wrapping around them. ‘Christmas in a country cottage.’
‘But whose cottage is it?’ It was late on Christmas Eve and she wanted to know just whose Christmas they would be descending on.
‘Ours—for Christmas, that is.’
‘And you did all this?’ He’d remembered all she’d said when they were dating, how she’d never had a Christmas that had been special, how she’d wanted the tree, the trimmings, the lights and champagne in front of an open fire. Didn’t that mean something? That he cared?
‘You doubt that I could be a family man, one who cares, and this is my way of showing you otherwise.’ A determined firmness entered his voice but she refused to spoil the moment by thinking too hard about what he’d just said. She didn’t want to acknowledge the true implications of this. She just wanted to enjoy this special moment, imagine this was how they really were.
‘I can’t believe it,’ she said as she opened the car door and got out, smiling at the traditional wreath hanging on the green-painted door. It was her dream Christmas and the man who claimed not to be able to love her had brought her here.
The night air was cold and crisp. Exactly what she’d always imagined in her idea of a perfect Christmas. The only glitch was that she’d imagined spending it with the man she loved, one she’d foolishly thought had loved her too. If she put that notion to one side, she could make a memory to hold onto, one to cherish when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve and all this pretence of affection, of wanting to be a father, came crashing down.
‘I hope you like it because we are here until we return to London for Angelina’s birthday party and then there will, of course, be the New Year’s Eve party.’ His breath hung in the air, clouding around her, and she smiled up at him. Surely it meant something? He wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble otherwise. The pain and anger which had built up since they’d gone their separate ways thawed even as the night air chilled.
‘I
