expression cleared. A hesitation emerged in her eyes but Angelina wiped her tears, and then to Gabriel’s shock, a tentative smile curved her mouth.
A tight ache emerged in the nether regions of Gabriel’s heart. Three months with a string of nannies each more expensive and efficient than the next, three months of gifts and presents to make up for twelve birthdays, three months of fighting the urge to tell her that it was not his fault, not once had Angelina looked at him with anything remotely bordering on the affection in her eyes as she looked at Eleni Drakos now.
What magic had the Princess wrought on his child? To what purpose? When had Angelina become acquainted with her?
Shock buffeted him in fresh waves when Eleni softly nudged Angelina toward him.
The wariness in his daughter’s eyes dealt a swift kick to his gut more painful and wretched than anything Gabriel had faced before. But for the life of him, he hadn’t been able to forge even a tenuous connection between them.
It was as if fate was laughing at him.
He’d willfully become this man who avoided emotional entanglement at any cost. Now, try as he might, it seemed he couldn’t connect with his own daughter.
“I’m sorry,” Angelina whispered, her eyes bright and big.
She didn’t call him Papa but he knew better than to expect a miracle. She turned to the Princess as if waiting for another cue, as if she could only bear to do this small thing—look at him without hatred—for the Princess.
Breath balled up in his throat, for he’d never felt this strange anticipation.
Hands firmly on those small shoulders, the Princess gave his daughter a cue.
Again, something about her smile snagged him while she and Angelina walked toward him. That his daughter, who treated him as if he were plague-ridden, had found someone to connect with should have been a good thing.
Instead, all he felt was a yawning chasm in the pit of his stomach.
“Now, Angelina,” the Princess said, and her voice shivered over his spine. The taste of her came to his lips, his hands fisting against the sensation of her curved hips. It was a sensation he hadn’t been able to get out of his head in three months, even as he’d become more and more aware of her husky, low-pitched voice, of the way her dress shirts seemed voluptuous on her body, of the tug of her mouth on one side when she was being sarcastic, of her every movement. Of the fact that she’d avoided meeting his eyes since that night at the masquerade ball.
No woman had ever messed with his head quite so much by trying to ignore him.
I just wanted a kiss, Gabriel.
Had she?
And now here she was with a wide smile bestowed on his daughter.
Muddy brown eyes glinted with warmth, the edges of them tilting up, revealing hints of heritage no one, he was sure, knew about.
The smile seemed to spread to her entire body as she looked at Angelina. It snagged his attention, and every other man’s attention, he noted with a flare of annoyance.
“Remember what we talked about,” she said. “First we express our anger and hurt in a constructive way instead of hurling accusations at someone, however well deserved they may be.”
His daughter nodded like an angel, lifting her chin in a show of condescension toward him. That put-upon anger and the skinny shoulders pretending to be so unaffected, caused Gabriel to feel a realization slam into him: hateful words or not, his daughter was very much just a kid.
And he wouldn’t have seen it if not for the woman silently glaring at him over Angie’s furiously nodding head. Her judgment of him was clear in her deepening frown.
“You went on your trip again. You not only left me with that...horrible nanny, but you also forgot my birthday. Mom would’ve never...” A choked sound emerged from Angie’s throat. “Mom told me you didn’t live with us because you were a busy man. Not because you didn’t care about me. But now... I know she was lying to protect me. It’s clear that you never wanted a daughter.”
Pushing away the Princess’s hand from her shoulder, Angie ran out of the boardroom, leaving a minefield of silence behind.
No, he’d never wanted a daughter. He hadn’t been in a relationship with her mother, which he thought was why she’d never told him.
And yet when he’d seen Angelina for the first time, Gabriel had known his life had forever changed. To his own surprise, he hadn’t felt an ounce of resentment.
He’d only wanted to welcome her into his life.
But Angelina wouldn’t give him a chance. Frustration and fury twisted inside him.
He took a few steps in her direction when he heard the soft command.
“Leave her alone, Mr. Marquez.” A pregnant pause, as if the Princess couldn’t believe her own audacity. “For now. Please. Don’t force her to take back those words just because your ego is smarting.”
A burning feeling emerged in his throat and Gabriel realized it was shame.
The Princess was right. He was only thinking about how this affected him, how he wanted to fight the tug of failure.
He’d moved mountains and built castles, immersed himself in the world’s real estate games, and yet he didn’t possess a single thing that would bring his daughter closer to him.
With one nod, he dismissed the meeting. He watched the quick shuffling of papers on the dark mahogany desk, heard the whisper of chairs as if it were all a background score, his attention fixed on the woman he had forced himself to ignore for three months.
And utterly failed.
He didn’t want to have anything to do with this woman who’d made it so easy to unburden himself. Who had, for the first time in his adult life, made him question his choices, his very lifestyle. Made him wonder about the depth of love his father had nurtured for his mother, before it had destroyed him.
* * *
She shouldn’t have spoken to him like that. She shouldn’t have confronted him. She definitely shouldn’t have chastised him as if he were a negligent staff member.
Eleni sighed as her hands brushed against her soft leather bag.
Now he’d probably forbid Angelina from even seeing her. And while she’d miss Angelina with an ache, it would be so much worse for the little girl.
Only last week had Angelina started opening up to Eleni, since she’d come to see that Eleni had no hidden agenda that involved her father.
And now, because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut, because she couldn’t bear to be ignored by Gabriel again, Angelina would lose the only adult she’d come to trust.
The hair on her nape stood in prickles as the room emptied around her.
Vibrating with a tension she couldn’t dispel, she straightened from the table. Gabriel Marquez stood at the corner of the room, a silent specter studying her with
