‘That’s a very cynical attitude.’
‘I’m a cynical guy.’
‘So you wrecked our marriage for a woman you don’t even care about.’
‘I didn’t wreck our marriage, agape mou,’ Leandro spoke softly, his eyes fixing on her white face, as he hammered home his barb. ‘You did that. All by yourself.’
If he’d hit her, she couldn’t have looked more shocked. ‘How can you say that? What did you expect? I’m not the sort of woman who can turn a blind eye while her husband has an affair. Especially when the woman involved was his wife’s sister. You made her pregnant, Leandro! How was I supposed to overlook that?’ Visibly distressed, she turned away. ‘What I don’t understand is why, if you wanted my sister, did you bother with me at all?’
Leandro let that question hover in the air. ‘And does the fact that you don’t understand help you draw any conclusions?’
His question drew a confused frown and he realised that she was too upset to focus on the facts.
She’d seen. She’d believed. She hadn’t questioned. Hadn’t cared enough to question and the knowledge that she hadn’t cared left the bitter taste of failure in his mouth.
In a life gilded by success, she’d been his only failure.
Leandro flexed his shoulders to relieve the tension and the movement caught her attention, her eyes drifting to the swell of hard muscle. Her gaze was feather light and yet he felt the responding sizzle of sexual heat and almost laughed at his own weakness.
It seemed his body was nowhere near as choosy as his mind.
Millie stared at him for a long moment and then sank her teeth into her lower lip. ‘Leandro, do me a favour.’ Her voice was strained. ‘Put your shirt on. We can’t have a proper conversation with you standing there half-naked.’
‘This may surprise you, but I’ve been known to conduct a conversation even when naked.’ His sardonic tone masked his own anger and brought a flush to her cheeks.
‘I’m sure. But if it’s all the same with you, I’d like you to get dressed.’
‘Why? Is the sight of my body bothering you, Millie?’ His tone silky smooth, Leandro strolled across the bedroom and retrieved his shirt from the floor. ‘Are you finding it hard to concentrate?’ He shrugged the shirt back on, discovered that there were no buttons and spread his arms in an exaggerated gesture of apology. ‘She was a bit over-eager, I’m afraid. This is the best I can do.’
‘It’s fine.’ She averted her eyes, but not before both of them had shared a memory they would rather have forgotten. ‘The media have been running the story for days now, and it’s awful. Somehow they know about you and my sister, and they know the baby’s been brought here.’ Her voice wobbled. ‘Where…?’
‘Asleep on the next floor.’ His voice terse, Leandro strolled over to the window that overlooked the garden. ‘Someone from the clinic brought the baby to me. Your sister left him alone and uncared for while she went for her little drive. He was found crying and neglected.’ The anger in him was like a roaring beast and he was shocked by the strength required to hold it back. Control was a skill he’d mastered at an impossibly young age, but when he thought of the baby his thoughts raced into the dark. ‘Evidently she didn’t have a maternal bone in her body.’ Another woman, another place.
‘She was sick.’
‘Well, that’s one thing we agree on.’ Infested with greed. Aware that the past and the present had become dangerously tangled and the conversation was taking a dangerous turn, Leandro changed direction. ‘Why do you think they brought the baby here, Millie?’
‘The clinic said she left a note saying that you were the father. She wanted the baby to be with family.’
He made an impatient sound, marvelling at her naivety. ‘Or perhaps she just wanted to make sure there was no chance of reconciliation between us. Her last, generous gift to you.’ His carefully planted seed of suggestion landed on barren ground.
‘There never was any chance of reconciliation.’ She didn’t look at him. ‘Where’s the baby? I should be going.’
Leandro stilled. ‘Where, exactly, are you planning to go?’
‘It’s already past midnight. I’ve booked into a small bed and breakfast near here.’
‘A bed and breakfast?’ Leandro looked at her with a mixture of disbelief and fascination, realising just how little he knew about this woman. ‘Are you suggesting what I think you are?’
‘I’m taking the baby, of course. What did you think?’
‘So you’re planning to take in your sister’s baby and care for it—this is the same baby that is supposedly the result of an affair between your own sister and your husband. Whether you think your sister was lying or telling the truth—’
‘Telling the truth.’
Leandro’s jaw tightened. ‘Whichever. Your sister wrecked your marriage. She hurt you. And you’re willing to take her baby? What are you, a doormat?’
Her narrow shoulders were rigid. ‘No, I’m responsible. And principled. Qualities that you probably don’t recognise. Am I angry with my sister? Yes, I’m angry. And that feels really horrible because even while I’m grieving I’m hurt that she could have done that to me.’ Her voice shook. ‘She behaved terribly. Some people wouldn’t forgive that. If I’m honest I’m not sure that I’ll ever forgive that. She betrayed my trust. But at least she was in love with you. And I think at the end she was truly sorry.’
Leandro raised an eyebrow but she ploughed on.
‘It was the guilt that pushed her into depression. And whatever had happened, I would never have wanted her to…’ Her voice trembled. ‘We were sisters. And as for the baby—well, I don’t believe that a child should be held responsible for the sins of his parents. My sister is dead. You can’t bring up a baby, so I will have him. He will have a loving home with me as long as he needs one.’
‘So you’re proposing to love and care for your husband’s bastard, is that right?’
‘Don’t ever call him that.’ Her eyes blazed. ‘And, yes, I’m intending to care for him. He’s three months old. He’s helpless.’
Curiously detached, Leandro looked at her. She wasn’t classically beautiful, he mused, but there was something about her face that was captivating. ‘So you have forgiven your sister.’
‘I’m working on it.’ She caught her lip between her teeth. ‘I understand the effect you have on a woman. Even that Hollywood actress was willing to humiliate herself to spend a night with you. Tell me one thing—why, when you have a reputation for not committing to a woman, did you marry me?’
‘Frankly?’ Leandro lifted his eyes from his scrutiny of her soft lips. ‘At this moment I have absolutely no idea.’
‘You really know how to hurt. You treated our marriage lightly.’
‘On the contrary, you’re the one who walked out at the first obstacle.’
Her shoulders sagged, as if she was bearing an enormous weight. ‘If you’ve said everything you wanted to say, I’d like to take the baby.’
‘As usual you are being quite breathtakingly naïve. For a start there is a pack of journalists on my doorstep. How do you think they’re going to react if you leave here clutching the baby?’
‘I think it would reflect very badly on you. But you don’t care about that, do you? You never care what people think about you. If you did, you wouldn’t behave so badly.’
Leandro