AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER ONE
‘I’MSOSORRY,I...’ The apology died on Alicia Griffiths’ lips as she looked up, and up, past a broad chest, wide shoulders and tanned neck, into a face that was not only familiar to her but burned into her retinas.
Despite the fact ten years had passed, there was no mistaking the man before her.
Graciano Cortéz.
The ground beneath her feet seemed to give way. She lifted a hand to the fine necklace she wore, looping her finger through the chain and pulling it from side to side, her throat constricted, making speech almost impossible.
‘Alicia.’ His surprise was evident, but he recovered far quicker than she did, his obsidian eyes narrowing, regarding her slowly, scanning her face first—from the tip of her pale hair to her wide-set green eyes, to her curving pink lips—and then lower, to the décolletage that was exposed by the silk evening gown she wore. She’d already been a bundle of nerves—the night was the biggest charity gala she’d organised and she’d put a lot of pressure on herself to raise a small fortune. But seeing Graciano tipped her completely off balance.
‘What are you doing here?’ she blurted out. True, she hadn’t seen a guest list for two days—once all the tickets were sold, she hadn’t been particularly interested in who was coming, only that the usual high-flying donors were registered to bid in the charity auction. But she would have noticed Graciano’s name on the list, which meant he was a late addition.
‘Last I checked, it’s a free country,’ he drawled, his voice rich with authority and mockery, his accent so familiar to her that her toes curled inside her shoes. Everything inside her pinched together. This man—he was a sinkhole. He always had been. But it was so much worse than that, now. He was also the father to her daughter. Their daughter—a child he knew nothing about, because he’d made it impossible for Alicia to contact him after that one awful, heart-destroying morning in Seville.
‘Did you come here to see me?’ she asked, confused by his appearance after ten years. Good Lord, was it possible he knew about Annie? Had he come to confront Alicia? To take Annie away? All the heat drained from her face as the possibility of that scored deep into her heart.
‘What reason could I possibly have for wanting to see you, Alicia?’
Her eyes widened at his obvious scorn, and even when she knew she should beglad, because it meant he didn’t know the truth, it only made her more on edge.
The last time she’d seen this man, he’d been eighteen years old—still a teenager, but with more determination in his little finger than most people had in their whole bodies. There had to be a reason for him being at the auction.
‘You tell me,’ she suggested, casting a quick glance over his shoulder. She needed to get towards the stage, but her feet felt almost glued to the ground.
‘No reason,’ he said firmly, lips compressed. ‘Ten years ago, I swore you were the last person I wanted to see, and my opinion has not changed.’
She flinched at the coldness in his tone. That morning in Seville, her father’s words, what he’d accused Graciano of—it was burned into her mind. How many nights had she dreamed of that, had she wished she’d done something, said something? Instead, she’d taken her father’s side and watched this man be eviscerated, bullied and then sent packing. Never mind that she’d tried to apologise, to explain. That she’d tried to tell him about the child they’d conceived.
He’d removed Alicia from his life completely, and she couldn’t fault him for that.
‘It was a long time ago,’ she said quietly, even when that wasn’t really true. Annie made their past very, very relevant.
‘Yes,’ he agreed with a shrug. ‘If you’ll excuse me, my date is waiting.’
Before she could stop herself, she glanced over her shoulder to see a leggy redhead emerge from the ladies’ room and swish her curling hair over one shoulder, then strut towards Graciano as though she were on a catwalk and not in a hotel ballroom corridor.
‘Graciano—’ Alicia said his name with a frown. What could she add? Annie was at the forefront of her mind. She’d tried to tell him, but as he’d become more and more successful, it had become impossible to contact him. Eventually, she’d given up trying and come to terms with the fact that even if she’d told him, he wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with a child of Alicia’s. But now? He was right in front of her. Alicia surely had an obligation to find a way to break the news to him?
And then what?
Risk a custody dispute if she’d been wrong?
With someone this rich and powerful?
‘I—’
His glare was withering, his hands in his pockets a casual stance that was belied by the taut lines of his muscular frame.
‘Could you meet me for a drink later?’ she said softly, knowing that no matter how terrified she was of telling him, it was the right thing to do. She certainly needed to at least get to know him again now she had this opportunity, to work out what her next step should be. After all, Annie had to be her number one priority. Whatever debt she owed Graciano had been watered down by his refusal to take her calls, and then by him changing his number to be sure she got the message, loud and clear.
‘No.’
His bald refusal made her stomach drop to the ground. She hadn’t anticipated that.
‘Give me ten minutes.’
‘It is a long time since I’ve felt I needed to “give” you anything,’ he ground out, and she knew then that the passage of time hadn’t watered down his feelings at all. He was as angry with his treatment now as he had been then.
