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Rio was sitting at the grand piano, glass of brandy in one hand, the fingers of his other now running up and down some intricate scales. He looked up as she spoke.
‘I couldn’t find the tea.’ He raised his glass.
She walked inside. ‘I didn’t know you played.’
He crashed the keys again, producing a discordant racket that made her wince before closing the lid and surging to his feet. Even in a space this size he was a dominant presence, projecting restless energy under the frustration.
‘Roman is the musical one. I was never more than adequate, according to our music teacher. I was the one who was better at boxing, a nice irony, huh?’ he said, touching his jaw. ‘Roman was always too emotional—it must have been a lucky punch.’
‘Or maybe you just stood there waiting for it and then took it like an idiot.’ The image in her head made her as mad as hell. What on earth had he done that was so bad he felt he needed to be punished this way?
He gave her a sideways glance and didn’t reply. ‘Is Ellie okay?’ he asked.
‘She’s fine, fast asleep. She missed her mid-morning nap, her routine is shot, so she’ll sleep for a while.’ Rio looked as if he needed to sleep too. She shook her head, impatient with herself. She had no idea why a tough man who was so obviously capable of looking after himself—except when it came to his twin—brought out such crazy protective instincts in her. She wasn’t in love, she was insane!
‘So you want to know what is going on?’ His shoulders lifted in one of his inimitable shrugs and he conceded, ‘You have a right to, I suppose.’
Gwen had been prepared to tell him just that and now felt as if the wind had been taken out of her sails. ‘I didn’t think I had any rights,’ she said, struggling to keep the resentment out of her voice and failing.
‘Well, you’re part of this family now, so you might as well know the worst about us.’
Do not read too much into that,she counselled herself firmly.He just means you’re family now because of Ellie.
‘This isn’t our normal way of interacting, Roman and me... There is no history of this sort of thing.’
‘By this sort of thing you mean him beating several shades of hell out of you.’
‘I love it when you call a spade a bloody shovel, Miss Meredith.’ He expelled a deep sigh through his nostrils and looked at her. ‘Yes, that is what I mean.’
‘And is it likely to happen again?’
‘If Roman is to be believed I’m not likely to ever see him again—his last words to me were, “I’m finished with you!”’ He gave a dry, unamused laugh. ‘It sounded pretty convincing.’ He continued to look at her, but as the moments stretched out Gwen had the impression he was not seeing her at all.
‘That DNA match you saw nearly three years ago.’
His sudden words made her flinch. The memory of that day was etched deep in her psyche, and the wound was still barely scabbed over, even after all this time. ‘Do we have to talk about that?’ She was ashamed of her cowardly response but she couldn’t help it.
‘It’s part of what happened today,’ he said heavily.
‘The argument was about your son?’ she said gently. She could see the internal struggle on his face. This seemed to be something he had to tell her, or maybe he just had to confide in someone and she was here. But even if it was just an illusion it felt in that moment as if they were close.
‘I don’t have a son.’
A dozen meanings flashed through her head and she blurted a response to the only one that really fitted his words and the terrible bleakness in his eyes.
‘I’m so sorry.’
He stared at her, bewilderment etched into his face as she surged to her feet and rushed over to him, taking his big hands in her own.
‘I can’t imagine what it feels like to lose a child.’ Her voice was husky with empathy and emotion as she thought with a shudder that she never wanted to know!
Without a word he flicked his hands over so that hers were now pressed between his. ‘No one is dead, and I never had a son. Roman did—he does—but he didn’t know.’ He released her hands and touched his face, a rueful gleam in his eyes. ‘Until I told him earlier.’
‘You don’t have a son?’ Her mouth fell open, her knees sagged and she sat down on the leather recliner behind her. She could still hear the echo of his words vibrating in her head but they made no sense.
How could what he was saying be true?
‘I don’t understand.’
