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!
‘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, and he had tried to make allowances for it, but at the same time he did not intend fighting this woman over everything.
‘I suggest, for the length of your stay here, you get used to it!’ he said harshly.
She was arguing for the sake of it, Brynne acknowledged heavily. She still wasn’t happy with the idea that Michael would now need to be watched and protected wherever he went, but at the same time she accepted that it was better than Alejandro not caring enough about Michael to keep him safe.
As for herself, she had no intention of getting used to being watched all the time!
She gave Alejandro Santiago one last scathing glance before turning to look at Michael as he swam over to hang on the side of the pool. ‘Your father has invited us to go for a drive with him to a place called Deya,’ she prompted softly, having no intention of making Michael a part of the tension that seemed to surround his father and herself every time they met; after all, she was here to smooth the way for a relationship between the two, not make the situation any worse than it already was.
Although Michael didn’t seem to be having too much trouble adjusting, last night being the first time he hadn’t woken up crying for Joanna and Tom.
Her own evening hadn’t been quite so untroubled, she thought. Sha had sat out on the balcony of her bedroom still trying to calm down after her argument with Alejandro when she had seen him leave the villa to walk over to the garages, driving a sleek sports car out onto the road minutes later, the red tail-lights quickly disappearing down the winding road as he had accelerated the vehicle away.
She remembered thinking ten o’clock at night seemed an odd time to be going out …
Although it perhaps explained why he had been so formally dressed for dinner earlier. Maybe it hadn’t been in her honour at all, but because he’d had another—assignation, later that evening?
She knew from their legal battle over Michael that Alejandro didn’t have a wife or a fiancée, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have a particular woman in his life.
Not that it was any of her business, she had told herself firmly. No matter what Alejandro might have assumed to the contrary, she intended continuing to be a part of Michael’s life even after this month was finished. But at the same time she accepted she had no right, legal or otherwise, to comment on whom Alejandro might possibly one day choose to be Michael’s stepmother.
‘What do you think?’ she prompted Michael brightly now.
‘Great!’ He grinned, easily levering himself up out of the water to grab a towel and hurry into the villa to dress.
Brynne’s heart caught in her throat as she watched him, aware that the sun here was already darkening his skin to the same olive of his natural father, and that Michael seemed to be becoming more and more like Alejandro Santiago with each passing hour.
‘I think that’s a yes.’ Her voice was brittle as she spoke dismissively to Alejandro. ‘We’ll just change and then join you back down here,’ she added before turning to pick up her book and magazine with the intention of joining Michael upstairs.
‘I forgot to enquire yesterday evening—your parents were both well when you spoke to them yesterday?’ Alejandro asked softly.
She straightened abruptly, her expression tense. ‘As well as can be expected, in the circumstances.’
Yes, Alejandro could only imagine his own parents’ distress if anything were to happen to himself or his brother.
Or his own distress,