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His tone was getting louder and louder and he couldn’t seem to stop it.
‘I brought you here from the Alps—where you were…what? Vacationing? Having fun, were you, Luciana?’ He felt as if the blood rushed downwards from his head and there was a roaring in his ears. ‘Dios, no! You were with that sleazy bastard Augustus. Does he know about my son?’
‘No—no, Thane. He doesn’t know. No one does.’
‘Si. Well, this is fortunate for you both. Still, you didn’t even tell me you’d left my son behind in Arunthia. I brought you here and you left him there in that…that place.’
He was drowning in an ocean of pain. Betrayal.
‘I’m sorry but, Thane, I didn’t know what to expect from you. You practically abducted me in broad daylight, for heaven’s sake!’
What did that have to do with anything? Anyway… ‘It’s a damn good job I did. Otherwise my child would’ve been lost to me for eternity. Two days you’ve been here. Not once did you say a word.’
‘I…I’m telling you now—’
‘Ah, yes. So you are. Did I pass your rigorous testing, Luciana? Am I good enough to be in my son’s life now? My son… My son! My own flesh and blood and he doesn’t even know me.’ Something was tearing apart in his chest. ‘Well, he will soon enough.’
‘You can’t go and get him. How will you get past my father? I don’t want any fighting or trouble, Thane.’
He jabbed a menacing finger in her direction. ‘On your head be it.’
With that, he surged across the limestone patio, rubbing his face with his hands.
Within seconds Luciana had gripped his arm, was pulling him round to face her.
‘No, Thane. Where my son is concerned you will listen to me.’
There was a fierce light in her eyes. As if she had some voracious maternal instinct.
Cynicism curled his lip. This woman? Who’d denied her son his father for more than four years? Thane’s father had been a brutally fierce man, but when Thane had asked for him he’d come. Just as Thane should have been given the chance to be there for his son. But, no, he’d had that opportunity stolen from him.
‘Do you honestly want your introduction to Natanael to be throwing punches or behind prison bars? He isn’t like you, Thane. He’s not big and tough, resilient and strong. He’s small and kind and loving and beautiful, and he’s only four years old. Please. Let me go and get him. Bring him here.’
Thane wrenched his arm out of her grasp. ‘Let you go and not return? Disappear off the face of the earth? With my son? Again? I think not, Luciana. To suggest it just shows how much of a fool you think I am.’
‘Then let me ask Lucas to bring him.’
‘Lucas Garcia?’ he said disgustedly. ‘Are you mad?’
‘Natanael loves him and Claudia—they’re his family. He’s with them right now.’
The sharp teeth of anger bit into his heart. ‘I am his family.’
Her eyes closed momentarily. Those long lashes were coated with crystals and it vexed him that he was still noticing such things about her. Vexed him beyond belief.
‘Just…please let us make this as easy on Natanael as possible. I don’t want him scared. Let him come here on your turf and meet you properly. Peacefully. Please, Thane.’
He hauled in air, trying to think through the clattering maelstrom. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten his son; the boy didn’t even know him. But he didn’t trust Luciana to come back. He didn’t trust her at all. Never would again.
Furious that she’d pushed him into a corner, he bit out, ‘I will give Lucas Garcia three hours. Then I will go for my son myself and to hell with your father. I will get past him if I have to crush Arunthe Palace into the ground.’
She curled her quivering hand around the base of her throat. ‘They’ll be here.’
When she glanced up at him, with those brandy tarns full of anguish, for a moment he felt himself falling under her spell. So bewitching. Making him blind to anything but her…
Not any longer.
Thane forced himself to deflect her considerable charms. She’d lured him in for the last time.
‘They’d better be here,’ he incised. ‘I’ll never forgive you for this, Luciana. Four years I have missed of him. And if you think I am missing one more day you are grossly mistaken. When he steps foot on Galancia he is here to stay—and so are you. You will not leave here. Neither of you will. We will marry without delay and he will be acknowledged if it is the last thing I do on this earth. And that I promise you.’
