‘Perhaps I will too now that I know what it is!’ Brynne muttered irritably—at the same time as she realized that one of his middle names was Miguel, the same as Michael.
Had Joanna known that when she had named their son, or was it just a coincidence?
Coincidence or not, it certainly served as a reminder of exactly who and what Alejandro was!
‘I’m not sure that Señorina Roig would be too happy if she could see you right now,’ she murmured tauntingly.
‘Antonia?’ She could feel Alejandro’s hands tense at her mention of the other woman’s name. ‘What does Antonia have to do with my helping you deal with your sunburn?’ he demanded haughtily.
‘In my bedroom helping me deal with my sunburn,’ Brynne corrected pointedly. ‘In my bedroom helping me deal with my sunburn while I’m only half-dressed,’ she added. ‘She may just decide to call off the engagement if she knew.’
She felt the bed give slightly as Alejandro stood up abruptly, and Brynne reached out to pick up her top from the floor, holding it protectively against her as she sat up to face him.
To say he looked angry was an understatement. His eyes had turned pale silver, the arrogant planes of his face were enhanced by his tightly clenched jaw and his nostrils flared in the aquiline nose.
‘There is no engagement,’ he bit out icily. ‘There will never be an engagement between myself and Antonia Roig.’
Alejandro was more furious than Brynne had ever seen him—although she had no idea why her teasing should have roused him so intensely …
She gave a shrug. ‘Perhaps you haven’t made that plain enough to Miss Roig yet, because I’m pretty sure that she was lining up boarding-schools in her head earlier for Michael once the two of you are married.’
Alejandro’s eyes glittered coldly. ‘You were mistaken,’ he said tightly.
She had introduced the subject of Antonia as a means of putting an end to a situation that was becoming far too intimate for her comfort, but she hadn’t expected it to succeed quite as well as it had.
She gave a puzzled frown. ‘It was just an idea …’
‘Once again it is an example of your interference in something that is none of your concern—’
‘If she becomes Michael’s stepmother it will be my concern—’
‘She will not!’ His accent was so thick now Brynne thought he was in danger of lapsing into his native tongue completely. ‘Miguel will never have a stepmother, Antonia or any other woman, because I never intend to marry again! There, does that satisfy your curiosity?’ he rasped harshly.
Again …
Alejandro had said he would never marry ‘again’ …?
CHAPTER SEVEN
HE HAD said too much, Alejandro realized in disgust as the desire he had been feeling only minutes ago faded as if it had never been.
He had told Brynne Sullivan far too much.
Far more than she needed to know!
She was looking at him now with wide, suspicious eyes, as if the fact that he had once been married somehow made him into a—
‘I married precisely three months after my brief relationship with Joanna was over,’ he stated forcefully as he guessed the reason for the accusation in Brynne’s gaze.
‘That was convenient for you,’ she replied hollowly, shaking her head slightly. ‘No wonder you and Joanna never married—you were probably already married to someone else by the time she realized she was pregnant with Michael!’
‘It was not like that at all—’
‘Wasn’t it?’ Brynne scorned. ‘Forgive me if I don’t believe you!’
‘I do not forgive you.’ Alejandro was every inch the wealthy, arrogant Spaniard as he looked down at her with icy grey eyes. ‘Once again you speak of things, make accusations, you do not understand—’
‘I understand you were married to someone else while Joanna had your baby, completely on her own!’
‘I did not know she was pregnant—’
‘And what would you have done about it if you had?’ Brynne questioned. ‘Paid for her to have an abortion? Or confessed all to your wife of only a few months and ruined her life as well? Although the fact that the two of you are no longer married probably shows that she at least had enough sense to leave you!’ She was breathing hard in her agitation.
Alejandro had never received such insults to his honour before, from either a man or a woman, and the fact that minutes ago he had ached with wanting this particular woman only seemed to make it all the worse that the insults came from her.
His mouth twisted. ‘My wife is dead. And there would have been no question of Joanna having an abortion! If Joanna had told me of her pregnancy, I would have supported both her and my child.’
‘It must be nice to be rich enough to be able to salvage your conscience so easily!’ Brynne scorned.
‘If you were a man I would have knocked you down for the insults you have given me tonight,’ Alejandro bit out coldly. ‘But as you are not, I instead think it best that I leave you now to give you chance to calm down. We can talk about this again in the morning if that is what you wish.’
What she wished was that she had never met him—and her reasons for that no longer concerned Michael alone!
Minutes ago she had known herself aroused by Alejandro. And not for the first time, either.
What she really wanted to do right now was sit down and have a good cry at her own stupidity in allowing herself to become attracted to this complicated man!
She could so easily have turned over on the bed a few minutes ago and pulled his head down to hers and have him kiss her until she could think of nothing and no one but him. She longed to have him caress her in all the places that ached for his touch.
She was as disturbed by that admission as she was by learning he had been married.
‘I don’t know what I’ll want in the morning,’ she said dully.
But she did know. She wanted to go home, back to England, to forget she had ever met this unfathomable man. And instead she had to stay on here, for Michael’s sake …
‘Please go now,’ she told Alejandro flatly.
Alejandro looked at her bowed head, and the beautiful hair that cascaded over the bareness of her delicate shoulders like a living flame. As he stared at her endearing freckles he had longed to kiss such a short time ago some of the anger he was feeling left him.
He had not thought it necessary for Brynne to know the details of his relationship with Joanna or the circumstances of his marriage to Francesca, and, knowing how close he
