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CHAPTER THREE
LEANDROGRIMACED. CONFIDINGWASnot in his nature. In fact, it was so muchnotin his nature that he was temporarily at a loss as to where to begin.
Her eyes were curious, her mouth parted and there was a puzzled expectancy in her expression. Of course there was. She was an incurable romantic. It shone in everything she said and in her sympathetic misconception that he was somehow broken-hearted, having been dumped by his ex.
On every level, she was unknown territory. Leandro had always made sure to steer clear of women with romantic dreams because he knew that he was incapable of fulfilling them. The thought of becoming entangled with someone who wanted more than he could give brought him out in a cold sweat. A woman in search of love had no place in his life. His speciality was an ability to shower lavish gifts and open doors to experiences only afforded to the uber rich.
But she deserved to have the full story because he needed her co-operation and it was unfair to keep her in the dark, that being the case.
‘You think that Julie and I are...in love...’
‘I don’t know. I did, to start with, but I’m beginning to think that maybe that wasn’t the case. But if that’s so, then why would you get married in the first place?’ She frowned. ‘I know that you two go back a long way...’
Leandro could see her trying to work out how anyone could make a leap from friendship to marriage without the middleman ofLovebeing at the party.
Looking at her now, Leandro suddenly felt a hundred years old. There had been no gullible staging posts in his life. He had made the leap from boy to man at a young age. Too young? He’d never asked himself that question. He’d grown up associating love with pain and loss. He’d never hankered for kids because he knew his limitations and respected them. Love wasn’t for him and if you couldn’t give love then surely any child would be born immediately disadvantaged?
‘Many would agree that a solid friendship is the best basis for a successful union,’ he now said, curtly. ‘The statistics say it all. Most marriages end in divorce once the shine wears off and reality begins to bite. People walk up the aisle with stars in their eyes but give it a few years and the stars get snuffed out and the next joint venture out is to the divorce courts.’
‘That’s an awful interpretation of marriage!’
‘We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. The point I’m making is that Julie and I had...an understanding. I’m assuming you know about her first marriage?’
‘Yes, she mentioned that it wasn’t a happy one.’
‘We made a joint decision to marry for practical reasons.’
‘Children?’ Celia asked faintly.
‘No.’ Leandro paused and marvelled that spelling out the blunt facts behind their marriage, which he had not once questioned to himself, now felt like an act of positive cruelty. Impatient with himself, he shook his head and frowned. ‘What we were going to have would have been, essentially, an open marriage.’
‘Anopen marriage...’
‘There’s no need to sound so shocked,’ Leandro said irritably.
‘But Iamshocked,’ Celia said simply. ‘And I don’t understand...’
‘Julie found out several months ago that her father had, basically, gone bankrupt. She made the discovery quite by accident. Happened to be at home at their estate in Northumberland when her father’s bank manager unexpectedly decided to pay a visit. Charles was out but Julie managed to glean sufficient information to form a rough idea of what was going on. Mountains of debt...and a supply chain to his outlets that had ground to a halt because suppliers were owed money.’ Leandro sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. ‘I could go into the details of when what happened and what the knock-on effects were, but, to sum it up, he was in deep financial trouble with creditors banging on the door and threats of the family estate having to be dismantled to pay debts.’
‘How awful,’ Celia said softly. ‘Where doyoufit in, if you don’t mind me asking?’
‘I...’ Leandro paused. So much of his life was accessible and out there on the World Wide Web, the bare bones of the road he had travelled to get from A to B, but this? No, this was a part of him that had always been firmly barricaded behind No Trespass signs. His thoughts and feelings about the life he’d led and the debts he owed.
‘Yes?’ Celia prompted. He didn’t like talking about himself. He was intensely private and she could tell that parting with whatever information he thought she was owed was going to be difficult. She got that. In a way. She had never discussed the business of her break-up with Martin with anyone. She had smiled and offered anodyne explanations, but she had largely kept her feelings private.
The fact that he felt obliged to open up with her, more than anything else, showed her just how much he wanted her to go to Scotland with him because Dan was there and suddenly, because of that, she had become part of the equation.
‘When I said that Julie and I go back a long way, I should clarify by adding that our fathers...grew up together in a manner of speaking...’
‘What does that mean? In a manner of speaking?’ She felt as though she were being asked to swim through a river of treacle to get to what he was trying to say. ‘You grew up...in...’
‘Argentina.’ He sighed, fidgeted and then muttered, lowering his eyes, ‘I don’t make a habit of doing this.’
‘Confiding?’
‘All that touchy-feely stuff normally has no place in my life...but in this instance...’
Just for a split second, there was something so incrediblyhumanabout him that Celia was shaken.
