The Gold Collection: Bedded By A Billionaire: Santiago's Command / The Thorn in His Side / Stranded, Seduced...Pregnant. KIM LAWRENCE

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СКАЧАТЬ the bouncy castle and sat on the back of the placid Shetland pony while it was led around the garden.

      When he had asked her if she wanted a turn she had shook her head. ‘It’s very dangerous. Mamá says I might get hurt.’

      When he had carried her onto the bouncy castle her terrified sobs had been so pathetic that he’d had to remove her. He had known then that situation could no longer be ignored.

      That evening he had confronted Magdalena, too angry to be tactful or gentle, accusing her of infecting their once-fearless daughter with her own insecurities and fears … He had shouted her down when she had protested that it was her duty to protect her child from danger.

      ‘Danger! You think a lollipop represents danger,’ he had mocked angrily. ‘I will not have our daughter grow up to be a woman who is afraid of her own shadow.’

      ‘A woman like me?’

      The silence had stretched—they had had this conversation before, or a version of it, many times, and it was at this point where he rushed in to comfort her, but this time he had held back. He had previously told her everything would be all right and the situation had not improved; if anything it had deteriorated.

      So Santiago, still angry with himself as much as her for allowing the situation to continue, had hardened his heart to the appeal in her eyes, ignored her quivering lip and said angrily, ‘Yes.’

      When they had married Santiago had been convinced that with his support and freed from her parents’ oppressive influence his timid wife would blossom. He had seen himself as the noble hero Magdalena had thought him.

      His lip curled into a contemptuous smile. He had thought it would be easy but in those days he had imagined that love could conquer all, that he could mould Magdalena into the woman he had known she could be.

      In reality the gentle timidity that had originally drawn him to her and aroused his strongly developed protective instincts had begun to irritate him.

      In retrospect he could see that his disenchantment had begun after Gabby had been born. He had always believed that a mother should be a strong role model for a daughter, but it had seemed to him that the only things Magdalena was passing on to their child were a lack of confidence and a whole host of phobias.

      ‘She was doing what she thought I wanted,’ he told Lucy now. And you are having this conversation why, Santiago? And with the woman your brother is sleeping with, of all people. ‘Magdalena wanted to please me and it killed her—I killed her.’

      And you, she thought, have been punishing yourself ever since … This was a side of Santiago Silva that she had never seen. Part of her way of coping with this man was listing him under the heading of inhuman—the suggestion he had normal vulnerabilities made her feel uneasy.

      ‘If that were true you would be in prison,’ she offered in a level voice. ‘It was a terrible tragic accident,’ she added, refusing to offer him the condemnation he appeared to be inviting.

      ‘Accidents cannot be predicted.’ And neither, it seemed, could her response—he’d thought he could have relied on her to take advantage of the chink in his armour.

      The self-loathing in his voice made her wince. ‘What do you want me to say—that it was your fault?’

      ‘I do not wish you to say anything.’ She could have legitimately asked why he had introduced the subject, but she didn’t. After a quick glance at his face she reached for the crystal water jug, not anticipating the weight of it. Her wrist trembled, sending an ice cube skidding across the polished surface of the bedside table.

      With a grunt Santiago took it from her hand, his fingers brushing hers. The contact was light but the response of her nerve endings was anything but … It zigzagged through her body like an internal lightning bolt.

      ‘Let me—you’ll have the place drenched.’

      She watched from under her lashes, nursing her still-tingling fingers against her chest as he filled her glass with a steady hand.

      ‘You have a lovely daughter,’ she said, turning the conversation into a less painful topic. ‘She is back home?’

      ‘An extended summer break. My lovely daughter has been excluded from school … again. However I’m sure my daughter’s schooling is of no interest to you.’ Women who were ruled by self-interest were rarely interested in any subject that did not directly affect them.

       Self-interest has her living in a primitive farmhouse, acting as unpaid labour and nursemaid?

       CHAPTER TEN

      WHEN the doctor called a few minutes later Lucy was feeling so wretched that she was not surprised when he said that the bug she had contracted was a particularly virulent strain. In fact, she almost retorted—yes, the Santini Strain!

      Lucy, who had been hoping for permission to leave, was dismayed when he announced he wanted her to stay in bed until the next day and after that he would review the situation.

      In the event, she did not feel much like getting out of bed. She slept a good deal of the time, waking on one occasion during the early evening to find Gabby perched on the end of her bed.

      She knew that Santiago would be furious if he found her there and, as the girl began with, ‘Don’t worry, Papá has gone to the hospital to see Uncle Ramon,’ it was pretty obvious that the child had been warned not to visit.

      She was saved from having to shoo the child away by the arrival of Josef, who came with one of the rehydration drinks that the doctor had instructed she take through the evening.

      He left taking a reluctant Gabby with him.

      The next morning Lucy was feeling better and would have welcomed a visit from Gabby to stop her replaying every conversation she had ever had with Santiago in her head over and over. She had improved on many of her responses and never made others.

      When he arrived she was able to assure the doctor that she had spent a comfortable night; there were some things you didn’t tell anyone, even your doctor, and the dreams that she had woken from hot, sweaty and shaking the previous night came under that heading!

      After a medical twenty questions he pronounced himself happy for her to go home if she managed a light lunch with no ill effects.

      Lucy would have loved to have explored the fascinating building, but she reluctantly passed on the opportunity, keeping to her room to avoid the possibility of running into Santiago, and he did not seek her out—not that she had expected him to. He might have been avoiding her, but it was equally likely that he had forgotten she was there. With this self-pitying reflection she made herself consume a portion of the light lunch that was served on a silver tray.

      Another night in this place was not an option.

      ‘I feel so bad about Lucy.’

      His brother looked like death warmed up and in deference to his weakened condition he had not brought up the subject uppermost in his mind, but now that Ramon himself had introduced it Santiago found himself unable to hold back.

      ‘For СКАЧАТЬ