features, a peach gloss on the fullness of her lips, while the gentle arch of her neck was bare and the fragility of her slender body was emphasized by the fitted black dress.
‘I would … prefer it if you allowed my driver to take you wherever you wish to go,’ he said carefully.
Her blue eyes glittered with mockery. ‘Don’t you trust me not to disappear back to England with Michael?’ she taunted.
Alejandro’s mouth tightened. ‘I would find you if you did,’ he stated with certainty.
A frown creased her brow as she searched his face. ‘I’ll just bet that you would, too,’ she finally murmured disgustedly.
‘It is a bet you would win,’ Alejandro drawled.
She eyed him in frustration. ‘I would prefer to drive my own car so that the two of us are free to explore!’
‘I have told you Juan will be happy to take you wherever you wish to go,’ Alejandro assured firmly, having no intention of arguing any further with her on this point.
‘So Michael and I are to be virtual prisoners while we’re here, is that it?’ Brynne snapped as she put her knife and fork down on the plate and pushed it away from her, her appetite quickly disappearing.
Alejandro looked every inch the haughty Spaniard that he undoubtedly was as he gave her a quelling glance. ‘It is not a question of making the two of you prisoners—’
‘Then what is it a question of?’ Brynne demanded as she sat forward, twin spots of angry colour in her cheeks.
He gave a disgruntled snort. ‘You are a very difficult woman—’
‘Difficult I can live with,’ she assured him impatiently. ‘It’s being treated like a prisoner that I object to!’
Alejandro Santiago looked at her with obvious frustration for several seconds, his mouth in a thin disapproving line, his grey eyes glacial. ‘Very well,’ he finally said coldly. ‘You may take a car and drive wherever you wish, but I cannot allow you to take Miguel about the island unprotected!’
Brynne stared at him incredulously. What on earth—?
‘Miguel is my son, Brynne,’ Alejandro snapped impatiently.
She frowned. ‘Yes, but—’
‘I am sure that when we arrived here you noted the electric gates and high fences as we came onto the property …’
‘Well, yes … but—’
‘There are also several security guards patrolling the property. Do not be so naïve, Brynne!’ he bit out tautly as she continued to look puzzled. ‘There have been several high-profile kidnappings in Europe in recent years. And my fight for custody of Miguel was very well publicized,’ he reminded her quietly.
Brynne felt slightly sick as the full reality of what he was saying hit her. As he was the son of the super-wealthy Alejandro Santiago, there was a possibility that Michael could become a target for kidnappers!
She swallowed hard. ‘But—I—Michael has been living with me quite openly for the last two months!’
Alejandro gave an abrupt inclination of his head. ‘And he has been protected since I became aware of his existence,’ he assured her arrogantly. ‘Quietly. Unobtrusively. But, nevertheless, he has been protected.’
Brynne felt her cheeks pale. ‘When he was at school …’
‘Then too.’ Alejandro gave another terse nod.
It was unbelievable. All this time, all those weeks, and she hadn’t suspected a thing!
But that was the whole idea, wasn’t it? she acknowledged. What was the point of being unobtrusively protected if everyone knew about it?
‘That’s—’ She broke off, swallowing down her nausea. ‘I had no idea! Why didn’t you tell me?’ she attacked angrily as her initial shock began to wear off.
Alejandro had been waiting for that, knowing Brynne wouldn’t be virtually speechless for very long. ‘There was no need for you to know—’
‘Oh, and this is on a need-to-know basis, is it?’ she retorted furiously. ‘Michael could have been in danger any time during the last few weeks and you didn’t think I needed to know!’ She threw her napkin down on the table before standing up to walk down the length of the table to stand next to him. ‘You arrogant …!’
He shrugged without concern, his grey gaze coldly unyielding as he looked up at her. ‘I merely protect what is mine.’
Without telling her there was any need for that protection … How she despised this man!
CHAPTER FOUR
‘WOULD you and Miguel like to come for a drive to Deya with me …?’
Brynne glanced up from the magazine she had been looking through while Michael once again frolicked about in the pool, her eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses as she looked up at Alejandro.
If uncovered they would definitely have told Alejandro that her anger towards him hadn’t abated in the least since she had stormed out of the dining-room the evening before!
It was an anger she wanted to cling to, finding it a much more comfortable emotion than her physical awareness of this man. Today he was casually dressed again in black trousers and a grey shirt that emphasized his dark colouring.
Her mouth twisted derisively. ‘And what’s in Deya?’
‘Nothing too exciting,’ he acknowledged dryly. ‘But while I attend a business meeting you and Miguel could have a look around the village, and then perhaps we could all meet up for lunch.’
‘What’s the catch?’ She eyed him suspiciously.
Alejandro was starting to regret making the invitation. ‘There is no catch,’ he snapped. ‘I was merely thinking of your request yesterday to see some of the island.’
‘And I suppose Michael and I are to be accompanied by armed guards wearing dark sunglasses and looking totally out of place?’ she queried sarcastically.
His mouth tightened. ‘They are not armed,’ he responded tautly.
‘But they will be wearing dark sunglasses and looking out of place!’ Brynne scorned as she swung her legs onto the tiled patio, and Alejandro noted she was wearing a black bikini today that suited the golden tan she was quickly acquiring.
Alejandro eyed her impatiently. ‘You are being extremely childish about this—’
‘Am I?’ she challenged. ‘Well, I’m terribly sorry about that! But it could be because this is the first time I’ve ever had to be accompanied anywhere by guards—armed or otherwise!’ Although she knew Alejandro saw it as a necessary tool to keep Michael safe, she certainly didn’t agree with the way he had gone about it.
He had realized that after their brief conversation on the subject last night,
