also revealing her shapely legs.
Was this meeting prearranged? Brynne wondered. Or was Alejandro as surprised at the woman’s visit as she was?
His greeting was warm enough as he strolled across to meet the other woman. ‘Antonia,’ he murmured huskily as he bent to kiss her on both cheeks.
Brynne turned away as she saw the beautiful Antonia reach up to complete the affectionate gesture by placing her red-painted lips against his in the third kiss that confirmed their intimacy with each other.
She had to get away from here.
Now!
Alejandro frowned darkly, slightly annoyed with Antonia for turning up uninvited in this way, but at the same time knowing he should probably be grateful for the interruption, because she had prevented him from making a serious mistake where Brynne Sullivan was concerned.
He was normally a cautious man when it came to his involvement with women, but Brynne had somehow managed to slip beneath his guard, making him forget, however briefly, all of the reasons he had told himself he should not pursue the sexual awareness he had sensed was growing between the two of them.
An awareness he now needed to dispel as quickly as possible!
‘How kind of you to come and share your evening with me.’ He smiled at Antonia. ‘Would you care for a glass of wine?’ he invited as they turned.
He couldn’t help but notice Antonia’s start of surprise as she saw Brynne standing a short distance away—her dress thankfully rebuttoned, although her glorious hair did look slightly wilder than normal.
Antonia’s eyes narrowed briefly, losing some of their warmth, before she collected herself enough to resume smiling. ‘Miss Sullivan,’ she greeted lightly. ‘How lovely to see you again,’ she added almost questioningly.
‘Señorita Roig,’ Brynne came back stiffly. ‘If you will both excuse me?’ she added abruptly, head bent as she moved swiftly towards the villa.
It was what Alejandro had wanted, needing time away from Brynne to collect his scattered wits. For surely they had to have left him for him to have been so reckless as to kiss and touch her in the way that he had?
But as he saw the pallor of Brynne’s cheeks, the slight trembling of her lips, the telling glitter to those dark blue eyes, he felt a moment’s regret for deliberately hurting her in this way.
‘Brynne!’ he called after her sharply.
She stopped hesitantly, that tear-wet gaze not quite meeting his as she turned back slightly. ‘Yes …?’
‘Will you excuse me a moment, Antonia?’ He turned back briefly to the woman at his side. ‘I—have something I need to tell Brynne before she retires for the evening.’ His smile was warmly placating.
‘I understand, Alejandro.’ Antonia gazed up at him warmly, mouth full and pouting. ‘Do not be away too long, hmm?’ she added with sensuous invitation as long red-tipped fingers ran caressingly down his cheek.
Brynne watched the intimate exchange between Alejandro and Antonia with mounting humiliation.
She had forgotten, as Alejandro had kissed her, that the reason she had waited so impatiently for his return this evening was because she had wanted to complain of the things this woman had said to her earlier today.
Now, witnessing that warm familiarity between the two of them, the look of triumph in Antonia’s gaze as she glanced across at her so dismissively, Brynne thought it too late to make those complaints!
‘What do you want, Alejandro?’ she muttered impatiently as he reached her side.
His face tightened at her dismissive tone. ‘You were the one who wanted to talk to me about something earlier …?’ he reminded curtly.
Brynne could have laughed at the ridiculousness of talking about that now; Antonia Roig, despite Alejandro’s denials to the contrary, obviously had her red-tipped claws into him so deeply he was unlikely to disapprove of anything the other woman said or did, but especially to Brynne, whom he considered an unwelcome guest in his home, at best.
‘It doesn’t matter.’ She sighed.
His gaze narrowed. ‘It mattered enough earlier for you to verbally berate me in the way that you did.’
Brynne gave a humourless laugh. ‘I’m always “verbally berating” you, Alejandro—or hadn’t you noticed?’
Oh, he had noticed. It was one of the things that made Brynne so different from every other woman he had ever known; none of them, including his wife, Francesca, had ever dared to talk to him in the way that Brynne did.
‘Please go back to Miss Roig,’ Brynne added with abrupt dismissal. ‘I’m sure that she will be only too pleased to … soothe you, after your troubled day!’ she added scathingly, that blue gaze raised in challenge to his.
Alejandro regretted even more having deliberately hurt Brynne, after their closeness of earlier, with his implied intimacy of a relationship with Antonia. But he also knew that it was for the best. He had nothing to offer a woman like Brynne—not love, and certainly not permanence.
‘I am sure that she will too,’ he replied mockingly. ‘Goodnight, Brynne,’ he added with cool dismissal, turning away to walk back to where Antonia waited for him.
Brynne turned sharply on her heel as she saw Antonia turn to Alejandro, murmuring something softly to him before the two of them laughed companionably.
At her, probably!
Or was she just being paranoid? Oversensitive from her time spent in Alejandro’s arms?
Probably, she accepted heavily as she went slowly up the stairs. Alejandro might be many things—fickle obviously being one of them!—but she very much doubted that he was a man who discussed his conquests, especially with a woman who was another one of them.
But at least Antonia’s arrival had stopped her making a complete idiot of herself, Brynne acknowledged with clenched jaw and gritted teeth as she heard the other woman’s husky laugh several more times as she sat up in her bedroom once again trying to interest herself in the book she had brought away with her.
Again a useless exercise, when her thoughts were tormented with visions of what Alejandro and Antonia would be doing together when the laughter stopped!
She threw the book down on the bed and stood up, deliberately not approaching the window as she paced the room restlessly, having no intention of letting either Alejandro or Antonia think she was actually spying on them.
God, she could do with a plunge into the pool herself, so hot were her memories of her time in Alejandro’s arms!
Several of her boyfriends had lasted longer than a couple of dates, but with none of them had she ever felt that mindless need to know their possession, to just forget everything but the moment, to find a release that she had never known.
To still ache, hours later, for that fulfilment!
Her nerves jangled irritably as she once again heard Antonia’s husky laughter. She threw herself down on the bed to pull one of the pillows over her head to shut out the sound.
She would get over this ridiculous fascination she seemed to have developed for Alejandro.
She would!
‘What do you intend doing today?’ Alejandro prompted politely as Brynne joined him at the breakfast table the following morning, his manner deliberately that of a host to a guest.
He had a need, after seriously stepping over a line the evening before, to establish their relationship back to one of formality.
Although Brynne looked less approachable herself this morning as she looked across at him coolly, the white cotton blouse and linen trousers she wore suiting her slenderness, her red hair secured loosely on top of her head.
‘You