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‘You used to climb in this weather.’ His sardonic gaze made her heart tumble.
They’d argued about it so many times. When they’d first met, she’d been young and reckless. He’d been fiercely protective. Possessive. Hadn’t wanted her out there in the mountains where danger might exist. And she’d teased him and gone anyway, loving the fact that he cared enough to want to stop her from doing anything remotely dangerous. Provoking him. Pushing him to the edges of patience.
‘Well, I don’t climb now.’ Her life was so safe and boring that it was enough to make her scream. She frowned at the thought. It was funny, she mused, how your lifestyle could change so gradually that you didn’t even notice it happening. One day you were hanging from a cliff by your fingernails and the next you were wading through a pile of ironing, listening to the radio.
How had it happened?
There’d been a time when she would have tugged on her walking boots and her weatherproof jacket and headed out into the hills without a backward glance. But all that had changed once the children had arrived.
Pushing aside the uncomfortable thought that her life was posing some questions she didn’t want to answer, she walked past him into the house. ‘Perhaps we’ll talk about it later.’ She tossed her hair out of her eyes. ‘When you eventually come back from the hospital.’
The atmosphere snapped tight between them and Christy cursed herself. She hadn’t intended to irritate or aggravate him. She’d wanted to be super-cool and indifferent in the same way that he was clearly indifferent to her.
If he wasn’t indifferent, he would have followed her to London and talked about their problems.
He would have dragged her home where she belonged.
But he seemed to hurt her at every turn. Even now, by going straight back to the hospital, by not wanting to be with her, he was hurting her.
His eyes narrowed, his mouth tightened and his shoulders tensed. ‘I’ll take the cases up to your room.’
He sounded like a hotel concierge, Christy thought miserably as they trailed their way upstairs. Showing her around. Any minute now he’d be wishing her a pleasant stay. She’d expected anger and hostility, but what she hadn’t expected was his coldness. She didn’t know how to deal with coldness.
The children ran ahead, whooping and shrieking, excited about seeing their rooms again, oblivious of the rising tension between the two adults.
Envious of their carefree, uncomplicated approach to life, Christy watched them go. ‘They’re so pleased to be here,’ she said softly, and Alessandro turned to her with something that was almost a growl.
‘Of course they are pleased to be here. It’s their home. They never should have left. And you never should have taken them!’
She inhaled sharply, shocked by the sharp stab of pain that lanced through her. He’d said that ‘they’ never should have left. He hadn’t said anything about her. He didn’t care about her. The only reason that he cared that she’d moved out was because he missed his children.
It was all about the children.
She felt a lump building in her throat and swallowed it down with an effort, reminding herself that she had to behave like an adult even though she wanted to break down and cry like a child.
‘You’re blaming me for this situation, Alessandro?’
‘You’re the one who decided to move out of the family home.’
It was only supposed to be temporary, she wanted to shout. You were supposed to come after me. But pride stopped her saying what she wanted to say. Pride and the knowledge that he hadn’t cared enough to come after her.
Her eyes blazed into his. ‘And that makes this my fault?’
‘I missed one lousy anniversary.’ His eyes flashed dark with frustration and he ran both hands through his hair. ‘And you walked out.’
Christy bit her lip. He just didn’t get it. He couldn’t even understand why she was so upset. How had they come to this?
She swallowed hard. ‘It wasn’t about the anniversary, Alessandro.’ Although that had hurt badly. ‘It was so much more than that. And we can’t talk about this now. The children will hear us.’
‘You didn’t talk about it at any time,’ he said roughly, his eyes dark and dangerous, his accent thicker than ever. ‘You just left, ripping all the important things in my life away from me.’
She winced at his description and forgot her resolutions not to argue with him. ‘I tried to talk to you but you were always at the hospital or out on a rescue!’
‘It’s my job, Christy.’
And he’d been avoiding the issue. ‘We never communicate any more, Alessandro. When did you last spend time with me?’
‘You were in my bed every single night.’ His arrogant declaration brought a flush of colour to her pale cheeks.
