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‘But the operation worked, didn’t it?’ She didn’t know where the instinct to keep talking came from. All she knew was that Marco had come looking for her.
He sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. ‘The bleeding has stopped, yes. And he’s been put into an induced coma until the swelling goes down.’
She moved closer, her heart aching at the pain he tried to hide. ‘That’s good. It’ll give him time to heal.’
His eyes grew bleaker. He looked around, as if searching for a distraction. ‘I should be there,’ he bit out. ‘But the doctors think I’m in their way.’ He huffed. ‘One even accused me of unreasonable behaviour, simply because I asked for a third opinion.’
The muttered imprecation that followed made Sasha bite her lip, feeling sorry for the unknown hapless doctor who’d dared clash with Marco.
She sucked in a breath as his gaze sharpened on her.
‘Nothing to say?’
‘He’s your brother. You love him and want the best for him. That’s why you’ve hired the best doctors to care for him. Maybe you need to leave them alone to do their jobs?’ He looked set to bite her head off. ‘And if he’s in intensive care they probably need to keep his environment as sterile as possible. Surely you don’t want anything to jeopardise his recovery?’
His scowl deepened and he looked away. ‘I see you not only wear a psychologist’s hat, you also dabble in diplomacy and being the voice of reason.’
Although Sasha did not enjoy his cynicism, she felt relieved that his voice was no longer racked with raw anguish. ‘Yeah, that’s me. Miss All-Things-To-All-People,’ she joked.
Eyes that had moments ago held pain and anguish froze into solid, implacable ice. ‘Sí. Unfortunately that aspect of your nature hasn’t worked out well for my brother, has it? Rafael needed you to be one thing to him. And you failed. Miserably.’
‘I tried to talk some sense into him …’
Rafael hadn’t taken it well when she’d pointed out the absurdity of his out-of-the-blue proposal. He’d stormed out of her hotel in Budapest the night before the race, and she’d never got the chance to talk to him before his accident.
Marco turned from the mantel and faced her. ‘Don’t tell me … You were conveniently unsuccessful?’ he mocked.
‘Because he didn’t mean it.’
He pounced. ‘Why would any man propose to a woman if he didn’t mean it?’
When she didn’t answer immediately, his scowl deepened. In the end, she said, ‘Because of … other things he’d said.’
‘What other things?’ came the harsh rejoinder.
‘Private things.’ She wasn’t about to deliver a blow-by-blow account. It wasn’t her style. ‘I thought he was reacting to his last break-up.’
He dismissed it with a wave of his hand. ‘Rafael and Nadia broke up two months ago. Are you suggesting this was a rebound?’ Marco asked derisively. ‘My brother’s bounce-back rate is normally two weeks.’
Sasha frowned. ‘Rafael’s changed, Marco. To you he may have seemed like his normal wild, irreverent self. But—’
‘Are you saying I don’t know my own brother?’ he demanded.
Slowly, Sasha shook her head. ‘I’m just saying he may not have told you everything that was going on with him.’
Her breath caught at the derisive gleam that entered Marco’s eyes.
‘His text told me everything I needed to know. By refusing him, you gave him no choice but to come after you.’
‘Of course I didn’t!’
‘Liar!’
‘That’s the second time you’ve called me a liar, Marco. For your own sake I hope there isn’t a third. Or I’ll take great pleasure in slapping your face. Contract or no bloody contract. Whatever Rafael led you to believe, I didn’t set out to ensnare him, or encourage him to fall for me—which I don’t think he did, by the way. And I certainly didn’t get him riled up enough to cause his accident. Whatever demons Rafael’s been battling, they finally caught up with him. I’m tired of defending myself. I was just being his friend. Nothing else.’
Heart hammering, she took a seat on one of the extremely delicate-looking twin cream and gold striped sofas and pulled in a deep breath to steady the turbulent emotions coursing through her. Emotions she’d thought buckled down tight, but which Marco had seemed to spark to life so very easily.
‘I find it hard to believe your actions have taken you down the same path twice in your life.’
