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‘Either you’re aware of me on a level that’s not just about us being here together...’ He waited for her to say something but she didn’t. She didn’t meet his eyes either and discomfort was written all over her face.
He was playing with fire. She wasn’t his type. She was a woman who wanted a relationship, a proper, full-blown relationship with the end result of a ring on a finger and a walk up an aisle. He knew that he should steer clear of her. He might enjoy women, but he never set out to break hearts and he wasn’t going to start now.
‘Or maybe...’ his voice was husky and just a little unsteady ‘...you have trust issues because someone hurt you in the past. Is that it?’ But still he played with the tantalising thought that underneath the defensive exterior, she fancied him. It was pointless pretending that he didn’t fancy her. From the start, there had been something about her that had pulled him in.
Skewered by those deep, dark eyes and prisoner of a line of questioning she knew could so easily unpick her fragile defences against him, Celia said hesitantly, ‘I was engaged once.’
He was shocked. His reaction was so open and so extreme that she couldn’t help but smile.
‘People do get engaged, Leandro, and sometimes those engagements don’t work out. You should know that more than anyone else.’
‘They do,’ Leandro murmured. ‘What happened?’
Celia shrugged. She’d opened a door and now feelings that had been buried for a long time poured through her. She was rusty when it came to talking about it. The last time shehadhad been years ago, in the immediate aftermath, when there had been superficial explanations all round, to friends, to her family, squashing their concern even though she had been hurting inside, feeling like a gullible fool.
She expected to revisit those feelings now but instead she was surprised to find that she wasn’t in the least bit sad at the memories of what had gone wrong for her and Martin. It was just something that had happened.
She began telling him, going round in circles and picking up threads of the past and interweaving them, feeling a weight lift from her shoulders.
‘You’re a good listener,’ she finished, embarrassed at how much she had opened up.
‘You sound surprised.’
‘I wouldn’t have expected it of you.’
‘You still keep in touch with your ex?’
‘On Facebook.’ Celia shrugged. ‘They post a lot of family shots.’
‘Still have feelings for him?’
Celia laughed shortly. ‘It may have taken me a while to get over the hurt, but no, I don’t have feelings for Martin, aside from friendship, which was really all there ever was.’
‘Yet...he’s still influencing how you live your life...’
‘We’reallinfluenced by our past,’ Celia defended stoutly, then she paused and looked at him with speculation. ‘Aren’t you?’
Leandro flushed and then relaxed back with a lazy, charming smile. ‘Absolutely. Are you hanging on to hear more?’
‘Well, youdidjust hear my entire backstory.’
‘So I did,’ Leandro conceded. He hesitated, unfamiliar with anyone asking him about his private life. He was aware that his Keep Off signs were very good at doing their job, at making people know just what lines to stand behind. Yet it felt different sitting here far away from reality, locked up in a bubble with a green-eyed woman who teased his senses as no one ever had. Besides, where was the harm in sticking to the bare bones of his past? For the first time, it hit him that his well-ordered life, where he was the master of his universe and answerable to no one, also had its own hidden drawbacks. An ivory tower might protect against people getting in, but did it also prevent him, in the end, from getting out?
He dismissed that weird bout of introspection. It was no big deal. When they left, they would both return to their lives, two ships that briefly passed in the night. It wasn’t as though they moved in remotely similar circles so the chances of them ever meeting again were minimal, unless it happened through Julie, but his friendship with his ex, should this break-up be permanent, would simply resume where it had left off. A one-on-one meeting every so often because of their shared past.
‘My father,’ Leandro mused thoughtfully, ‘had no money. No, I tell a lie. He had a good life working on someone else’s ranch, obeying someone else’s orders, and the truth is he was happy with that. My mother left, and when she left she took his hopes and dreams with her.’ Leandro’s mouth thinned and his thoughts swirled around the words he hadn’t said. The truth was that Leandro saw as weakness his father’s acceptance of his lot, the way he had allowed the collapse of his marriage to tarnish the rest of his life. Too much given away. It would be something he, Leandro, would never allow.
‘So when it comes to the past influencing the present? There you have it. I watched my father settle for less that he was worth and I decided that I would never do the same.’ In danger of the atmosphere getting a little too serious for his liking, he lightened the mood with the ghost of a smile. ‘So here I am. I’m at the top of the food chain and that’s exactly where I want to be.’
‘And your father?’
‘Would you believe he’s still living in the same house on the ranch even though I’ve told him a million times that I can buy him anything he wants, anywhere he wants?’
‘Because your dreams aren’t his.’ Celia felt the intimacy of shared confidences wrap around her in a dangerous stranglehold and she stood up to begin tidying the mugs and biscuits.
She could feel his eyes boring into her. She wanted to ask him about his mother and she wondered whether he was even aware of how much he gave away by the bitterness in his voice when he mentioned her.
He was so deeply, bewitchingly complex and she shivered and slanted her eyes to glance at him, to find that he was staring at her, his expression broodingly intense.
‘I should...go and get changed...’ she murmured, backing away. She was doing it again...being skittish around him. What conclusions was he reaching? The one she dared not say out loud? That she fancied him? He was dangerous and she loathed the thought of danger so why was she so drawn to him?
‘I’ll see you later for dinner.’ He vaulted upright, strolled towards the window and peered out at a landscape washed in grey and white, then he turned to her. ‘With the weather like this and no Internet...we could be spending a lot more time together than we’d anticipated. I hope you don’t mind...’
‘Why should I?’ Celia could hear the brittleness in her voice but she met his languid gaze steadily, challenging her body to let her down. ‘The walking is lovely provided you wrap up well, and for me? I’m not reliant on the Internet. I brought my computer for sketching and I can do that anywhere...’
