‘Maybe second choice but I would hazard a guess that you’re not second best.’ His eyes dipped to her belly. ‘Because I can see the other rumour is true too...unless this is where you tell me you’re not pregnant but had an extra helping of cheesecake.’
Sophie burst into laughter. ‘Yes, I’m pregnant and the great thing about it is I can have as much cheesecake as I like.’
‘You won’t find any at this party if Dante’s girlfriend organised the catering.’ He guffawed. ‘Let’s see if we can find some food that isn’t just fit for rabbits. We might find my wife somewhere too. I think she’s abandoned me.’
Glad of the friendly company, Sophie was about to follow him when she spotted Dante in a corner, chatting with a group of people.
If his meeting with Javier was done with...
She craned her neck, then craned some more.
Where was Javier?
* * *
Javier steamed down the dark streets, his hands rammed in his trouser pockets, dodging the evening revellers spilling onto the pavements from the bars and clubs.
His blood raced with rage. Pure, undiluted, unfiltered rage.
He had finished his meeting with Dante with his brain burning to learn Luis had married.
The faint hope he’d unknowingly held onto that his brother would come to his senses and end things with Chloe had been stamped out.
He had married her.
Prepared to grab Sophie and insist they leave immediately, he had been confronted with her talking to a handsome man he vaguely recognised.
Not just talking to him either, he thought grimly, remembering the laughter that had shone on her face.
She’d been enjoying the man’s company so much that she’d been oblivious to her husband standing only ten feet away watching them.
In that moment he’d had a choice.
Either he could go to them, lift the man flirting so shamelessly with his wife into the air and hurl him out of a window or he could leave.
He’d left without looking back.
His phone vibrated in his pocket, the third time it had rung.
He pulled it out and, not looking at it, turned it off.
Right then he did not want to see or speak to anyone.
He did not trust himself.
Right then the urge to inflict the pain coursing through his veins on someone else was too strong to risk, that much self-awareness he did have.
He walked for miles, detouring through pavements he hadn’t trod on since he was a teenager and his and Luis’s only means of transport had been their legs.
Thirteen years old they’d been when Madrid had suddenly become their home. To escape the grandparents who’d been little more than strangers to them, they had explored the new streets they lived on, a tight unit, protecting each other as they had always done.
In every corner lay a memory.
Eventually he could put it off no longer.
He slowed his pace as he walked the long driveway to his home and climbed the marble steps.
Before he could open the door, it swung open.
Standing there, her face white with fury, was Sophie.
SOPHIE DIDN’T KNOW whether to throw her arms around Javier in her relief or push him down the steps.
She’d searched everywhere in that huge apartment for him, refusing to believe he would have left without her.
She’d only confronted the truth when she’d gone outside to look and Michael, his driver, who’d been waiting for them, had gently told her Javier had chosen to walk home.
That had been three hours ago.
The realisation that he’d abandoned her with a roomful of strangers had knocked all the wind out of her.
She’d been too shocked to be angry.
Then the time had passed while she’d waited for him to come home and the anger had built.
That anger had been giving way to concern when she had spotted him in the CCTV camera feed she’d sat herself in front of.
Now she didn’t know how she felt, just that she was so full of contrary emotions that she would either cry or scream.
He stared back at her, his features taut, a pulse throbbing on his jaw, hands rammed in his pockets, breathing heavily.
He was the one to break the oppressive silence.
‘You need to step out of my way.’
She shook her head. ‘No.’
‘Sophie, at this moment I do not trust myself to be anywhere near you. Get out of my way.’
Holding her ground, she folded her arms across her chest. ‘No.’
He swore loudly.
‘I’m not moving until you tell me why you left me at the party without a—’
‘You didn’t look as if you’d care,’ he spat back, suddenly springing to life to brush past her and enter the house.
She pushed the door shut and turned in time to see him storm up the stairs.
Barefooted, holding the skirt of her dress up, she pursued him.
She might be pregnant but she was still quick and she reached the bedroom door before he could slam it shut and lock her out.
‘Sophie, you need to leave,’ he told her tightly as he held the door frame, his knuckles white, refusing her admittance. ‘Sleep in another room tonight. We will talk in the morning when I am not so angry.’
‘When you’re not so angry? I’m the only one who should be angry. You abandoned me.’
He winced at her choice of word.
Good. So he damned well should wince.
‘I told Michael I was walking home. I knew he would get you back safely.’
‘You left me there. You humiliated me in front of all those people who were already laughing at me.’
‘If you felt humiliated you did a fine job of hiding it. You looked like you were having a damned good time without me. Now, I need you to go.’
‘I am not going anywhere. You’re not shutting me out, Javier. Why did you leave? Tell me!’
‘It was either leave or throw your boyfriend out of the window. Would you have preferred I do that?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘I saw you, carina. With that man. Laughing with him.’
She suddenly remembered the Englishman she’d briefly chatted with, the only bright spot of her entire night. ‘My God, were you jealous? Is that what this is all about?’
‘Right now, I do not know anything other than that I cannot trust myself to be in the same room as you and you need to get the hell out of my sight until I am calm.’
Struggling for air, her heart thumping, Sophie took a step back, saw Javier loosen his hold on the frame of the door and, before he could close it, used the advantage of surprise to push past him and into the bedroom.
‘Get out!’ he howled.
‘No, I will not! You’re behaving like