SOFIA and Carlo the groundsman were running towards the car as Pascual drove down the drive towards the house’s main entrance.
‘What’s going on?’ Briana glanced nervously at Pascual, but he didn’t answer. He was, instead, winding down his window and leaning out, conversing in Spanish with his clearly agitated staff. Nonetheless she quickly and horrifyingly understood what the two retainers were telling him.
Adán had been playing in the garden outside the drawing room. He had lifted the latch on the gate there and disappeared into the park. Carlo had been out looking for him, but as yet had not had any luck. He had only just returned to the house to see if the boy had come back to Sofia, but he hadn’t.
Briana’s first thought was the lake and so—judging by the colour rapidly draining from his face—was Pascual’s.
She grabbed at his sleeve, the bright future she’d seduced herself into believing could come true suddenly obliterated by an unseen wrecking ball that had smashed all her hopes and dreams into devastating dust.
‘Trust me, mi amor, we will. We will go and search together. Come!’
They were out of the car and running into the park, leaving a stricken Sofia standing at the entrance and a determined-looking Carlo heading out into the expanse of forested and lush green behind them. Turning briefly, Pascual instructed the older man to expand the search into another area nearby, where Adán might have wandered.
Shouting out her son’s name as she ran, the man by her side doing the same, Briana’s throat was hoarse with strain and anxiety by the time they approached the rise that preceded the lake.
‘I will go on ahead. Don’t worry … everything will be all right. We will find him safe.’ Briefly clasping her to him, clearly registering the fear and terror in her white-faced countenance, Pascual touched his lips tenderly to her brow.
‘You promise?’ she begged, heart pounding, not caring that she was coming unglued in front of him.
‘Con todo mi corazón! With all my heart!’
He left her then, and the tall, lithe black trousered and white shirted figure quickly disappeared over the top of the grassy rise. Breaking into a run too, with every stride she took Briana prayed her son would be found safe and well. If only she hadn’t gone to lunch without him! If only she had got in touch with Pascual as soon as she’d learned that she was pregnant and asked him to forgive her for running away! If only …
A million regrets and thoughts flowed unstop-pably through her mind, and only when she heard her name being called with the kind of urgency that turned her limbs into cooked spaghetti did she realise she was weeping. Freezing where she stood for a moment, in the next instant she forced herself to run. At the top of the hill she glanced down, to see Pascual carrying Adán in his arms. The lake was a vast smooth mirror speared by glinting sunlight behind them. Her son was talking to his father, and she saw Pascual press the small curly head against his chest for a moment, before glancing up and waving to her. Even from a distance she saw the unrestrained joy on his handsome face, and her heart turned over with gratitude and love.
‘Where did you go, Adán? I was so worried!’ Out of breath, and crying at the same time, as she drew level with the smiling pair Briana grabbed her son’s small hand and reverently touched his face, as if surveying its innocent beauty for the very first time. There were smears of dirt on his flushed cheeks, but he didn’t appear as though he was hurt or injured.
‘I wanted to see the ponies, but then I got lost and fell down the hill, and I landed near the lake!’
‘Promise me you wouldn’t have gone into the water?’
‘Only if I was in a boat or I had my water wings and you and Daddy were with me!’
‘But why did you leave the garden without telling Sofia?’
‘Is she cross with me, Mummy?’
‘I’m sure she’s not cross, sweetheart, but she’s worried out of her mind. She was in charge of making sure you were safe while Daddy and I went out. Imagine what she must have felt when she looked into the garden and you weren’t there!’
‘I’m sorry …’
‘I have already told him it was not a good idea to do what he did, and I have made him promise me that he will never do such a thing again or I will not be taking him to see the ponies. Isn’t that right, Adán?’
‘Yes, but you will take me to see the ponies when I’ve washed my face, won’t you? You said everyone should always keep their promises!’
The child gave him such a solemn yet hopeful glance that Pascual felt his heart splinter. He’d thought he had lost him … Just as he had lost Fidel and then Briana when she had left him. But this potential loss—the loss of the son he had only just come to know—would have been the most heartbreaking of all. The devastation that had swept through him at the idea Adán could be dead from a fall or drowned in the lake had left him shaking, feeling as if a hurricane had tossed him high into the air and then swept his body onto jagged rocks. Now that he had discovered him safe and well, the euphoria that pumped through Pascual’s bloodstream was like the headiest, most potent cocktail he had ever imbibed.
‘I will take you to see the ponies, hijo, when your mamà has washed your face and hands and we have got you a drink from the kitchen.’
He turned to survey Briana, her light make-up streaked with her tears, and her face paler than he’d ever seen it. A cooling breeze had sprung up, and it plastered the thin silk of her pretty red dress against her body, teasing the silken strands of her dark hair into a gentle tangle. She was ravishing.
He sensed something else besides euphoria move through him, and it was equally powerful and exhilarating. He loved this woman—heart and soul. He always had and always would—no matter what had transpired between them before. People talked about the one they loved making them feel complete, and that was what he experienced being with Briana. If only he had been more open with her right from the start, had made her feel that she was safe with him, know that he would always love and protect her no matter what … then maybe she would not have run away.
After he had lost his best friend, Pascual had vowed he would be more open and honest in his relationships, would not waste time prevaricating or being in-authentic. Life was the most precious gift, and every day should be lived in acknowledgement of that. But he had not shared those views with the woman he loved, and consequently she had believed him to be a very different man from the one he knew himself to be. An arrogant, uncaring man who gave more credence to his status in life than nurturing the people he loved. Well, fate had given him a second chance to demonstrate the truth to her, and he would not waste another second of it in unhappiness or doubt.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked her.
She nodded and smiled, though her eyes were still moist. ‘I’m fine. Just so relieved and grateful that he’s all right!’
‘Then let us go back to the house,’ he said, reaching for her hand and lightly squeezing it. ‘Sofia and Carlo will be anxious to know the little one is safe.’
‘And then you can take me to see the ponies!’ Adán piped up with a disarming grin.
Ruffling his curly hair, Pascual laughed and planted a kiss on his brow. ‘I can see that you do not give up easily, Adán. That is a quality I very much admire. When you have a goal in life—whatever it is—you should never give up believing you can attain it.’ His gaze met Briana’s, and she held it for a long second before glancing away again and blushing slightly. Answering warmth curled inside him. ‘So, yes, mi hijo … I will take you to see the ponies—just as I have promised!’
‘Briana?’
The scented steam emanating from the partially opened bathroom door told him immediately where she was. Not long returned from viewing the polo ponies with his son, and having left the boy with a doting Sofia in the kitchen, eating some chocolate chip cookies that she had made especially for him, Pascual could wait no longer to see the woman he loved.
He knocked lightly on the door, and when she didn’t answer, slipped off his shoes and stepped inside the room. The luxurious bath was an opulent affair, set on a marble plinth up two surrounding marble steps, and as the steam cleared Pascual saw a long pale arm draped over the side, and Briana lying with her head back and her eyes closed. At the height of her beauty Cleopatra herself could not have looked lovelier or more desirable. The scented water lapped gently over her luscious form amid a myriad of foamy pink bubbles, and her hair was piled on top of her head in a dark silken cloud.
Crouching down beside the bath, Pascual feasted his hungry gaze for several long, appreciative moments before dipping his fingers into the sea of bubbles, gathering a few, and touching them gently to her nose. She opened her eyes—those incredible silvery grey eyes, whose power to shake him to his very core had never diminished—and it was like gazing into a sparkling moonlit lake. ‘I didn’t hear you come in. I must have dozed off. Where’s Adán?’
‘He is with Sofia, eating cookies, and he is quite happy.’
‘He’d better not eat too many or he won’t eat his dinner tonight.’
‘I told Sofia not to let him overdo it.’
‘Is she all right now? She was so upset about Adán running off like that.’
‘I reassured her that there is no blame involved, and she is fine. She literally turned her back for a minute and he was gone. In future we will all make doubly sure we watch him like a hawk. As for you dozing off, you know you should never fall asleep in the bath, mi amor … you might drown!’
‘I always do it.’ Her delectable lips parted in the most edible smile. ‘And I’ve never drowned yet.’
‘I am almost tempted to get in there with you and teach you a lesson for being so reckless with your own safety.’
‘What kind of lesson?’
‘Are you teasing me, Briana Douglas—soon to be Señora Briana Dominguez?’
In surprise, she sat bolt-upright in the bath, and Pascual watched, fascinated, as the tiny pink bubbles clung to her glistening skin and inevitably provoked the already rising heat inside him to new and unsettling temperatures.
‘Are you asking me to marry you, Pascual?’
‘You already know that was always my intention, mi amor.’
She expelled a soft sigh. ‘But before you wanted to marry me because I had Adán, and you naturally wanted to assume your role as his father, not because …’ The sentence drifted away unfinished.
Striving to maintain the most serious expression he could muster, Pascual frowned. ‘Because what?’
‘You’re making this very hard for me.’
Seeing the uncertainty in her eyes, and not wanting to prolong one more second of doubt, he cupped her jaw and stroked his thumb over her damp cheekbone.
‘Then I will not make it hard for you any longer, amante. I want to marry you because I love you with all my heart and I do not want to live without you!’
‘Oh, Pascual, I love you too! I’ve never stopped loving you … not in all these years!’
‘In that case—’ his fingers were already unbuttoning his white shirt as he grinned and got to his feet ‘—you leave me with no choice but to get into that bath with you.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes—really!’
As he settled his magnificent nude body into the bath opposite her, Briana was almost delirious with happiness and delight. Pascaul loved her! He really loved her! She wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, but she only had to study the arrestingly handsome face before her to know that she was looking at pure, twenty-four-carat diamond reality, and the love she saw blazing at her from his gorgeous dark eyes was no fantasy.
‘I was wrong to leave you like I did,’ she told him now, her throat tightening with regret and not a small amount of sorrow. Seeing father and son together earlier, after Adán’s frightening little escapade getting lost, had brought that home to her more than anything else. ‘Can you ever forgive me, Pascual?’
He looked reflective for a moment. ‘I let you down too, Briana. I should have made you know that you were more important to me than anything else in the world, and clearly I did not. If you had known that, and had been confident enough to talk to me about your fears and doubts, to confide in me about your difficult childhood, then perhaps you would have stayed, mi amor?’
‘And if only I hadn’t jumped to conclusions about you and Claudia. If only I had confronted you with my fears instead and listened to your side of things,’ she heard herself say, her heart racing slightly. ‘But I was completely devastated when I thought you and she might be having an affair.’
‘I have a confession to make to you about what happened that night.’
Briana stared at Pascual and hardly dared breathe. Steam from the bathwater had risen up and dampened his tanned skin with tiny little droplets of moisture. His shoulders were broad and powerful, and the eyes gazing back at her were darker than molasses. What was he going to tell her? That the old attraction between him and his ex had been helplessly aroused that night, and it had only been afterwards that he had regretted kissing her?
‘It was as I said before … Claudia had too much to drink and more or less threw herself at me. But it was not entirely her fault.’ He took a deep, steadying breath before continuing. ‘My mother put her up to it. It was she who invited her to the party and got her to play up to me, because she hoped you would see her and believe that I was still attracted to her. When we saw Marisa and Diego at the restaurant today I finally learned the truth. Claudia is now happily married, and she told Marisa that she truly regrets going along with my mother’s little plan. I owe you a big apology, Briana. You were right when you indicated that Paloma was less than welcoming towards you. My mother is an inveterate snob, I am afraid, and she allowed her prejudices to influence her behaviour in the worst possible way. I will be phoning her tonight and telling her in no uncertain terms what I think of what she did to you … to us. Please believe me when I tell you it will never happen again. If she should act with anything less than genuine warmth towards you in the future I will have no hesitation in cutting her out of our lives completely! And I know how much that would hurt her … especially now that she has seen Adán.’
‘At least now we all know the truth. But I think we can extend our forgiveness towards your mother, too, Pascual, don’t you? With my own mum living in the UK, Adán is going to need both of his grandmothers as he grows—and his grandfather. Can we not put the past behind us and start over again? We’re young and in love and we have the most beautiful son in the world! Our future can start right here and now, if you’re willing?’
‘Mi amor, I am more than willing to let that be the case.’
Moving towards her, Pascual covered Briana’s mouth in damp erotic kisses that made her weak with joy and desire, his hands moving over her slippery warm body with all the ardour of the most insatiable of eager lovers. And when they emerged from the bathroom, quite some time later, it was only to rekindle the flame they had stoked all over again in the bedroom …
All the dancing had made her hot. Seeking the cooler air that the early hours of the morning so blissfully provided, Briana went outside. The entrancing music of the ball faded a little the more she walked away from the house, but was still easily discernible just the same. She had left Pascual waltzing with Marisa—utterly ravishing in a glittering Venetian-style ballgown and harlequin mask studded with pearls. He was in the costume of a nineteenth-century Venetian nobleman, complete with a black velvet half-mask that made him look almost too handsome and charismatic for words!
Traditionally in Argentina, because there was such a mix of cultures, a wedding was a chance for couples to remember and pay homage to their ancestry, and as Pascual’s family had originally come from Italy he had suggested the Venetian masked ball theme. He had given her a wedding to remember, she thought with gratitude and love, hugging herself against the suddenly cooler temperatures.
The voluminous skirts of her ivory silk ballgown wedding dress rustled a little like the wind in the trees as she walked. Wearing it, she had never felt more beautiful or feminine in her life … even though the heavily boned corset beneath the figure-hugging bodice had forced her to keep her enjoyment of the lavish banquet to a minimum, so that she could at least breathe!
Glancing behind her, she saw every window in the palatial mansion blazed with light, and the long gravelled path that led away from the house was lit with glowing lanterns on either side. It really was like the most incredible dream. A month ago she, Adán and Pascual had travelled back to the UK, so that Briana could put her affairs in order in preparation for moving to Argentina for good, and they had brought her mother Frances back with them—for an extended holiday and to be there at her daughter’s wedding.
Paloma Dominguez had been sweetness itself to Frances and Briana, and had even issued her daughter-in-law with a clearly genuine apology for what had gone on before. Adán had given her a new lease of life, she’d enthused, and both women had insisted on tucking him into bed tonight before coming down to the ball. Two more doting grandmothers would be hard to find!
But the thing that had amazed and heartened Briana the most was that she had made friends here. Genuine, caring friends she could laugh and be herself with. Nobody looked down on her because of her background, and Pascual’s family had welcomed her with open arms. She saw that she had been mistaken before in imagining she wouldn’t fit in and that everyone would despise her because she’d had such a different upbringing from her wealthy husband. It made her realise that some of her fears had indeed prejudiced her into not recognising that there were good people everywhere—no matter what their background or history—she only had to have her eyes open to see!
She walked on to a stand of trees in the distance, silhouetted against the night sky like menacing dark sentinels. The air was full of luscious scents as well as the evocative sound of cicadas. The perfume of exotic flowers mingled with the more earthy notes of the land itself, and the legacy from the sunshine earlier in the day permeated the atmosphere with faint but subtle baked warmth.
Was that the rumble of thunder she had just heard? She came to a standstill for a moment, suddenly realising that what her ears had picked up was the distant sound of a horses’ hooves not the thunderous precursor to a storm. Peering into the inky night ahead, she shivered.
A rider on a black stallion bedecked in nineteenth-century livery was heading towards her at a steady canter. Briana’s heart missed a beat. She hardly knew what to make of the strange scene unfolding. But when the obscured full moon emerged from behind a bank of low-lying dark clouds above the trees, shining its ethereal light on the rider and his horse, she honestly thought she had never seen anything more spine-tingling and dramatic in her whole life!
Horse and rider pulled up beside her. ‘Buenas noches, mi señora,’ a richly sensual male voice greeted her.
Wishing she had brought a shawl with her, Briana shivered again. Even though the rider wore a mask, immediately she knew it was Pascual, and she stared up at him in wide-eyed wonder behind her own ivory half-mask—a disguise that she thought made the women who wore it resemble exotic and mysterious cats.
‘Pascual! I left you dancing with Marisa … how did you get away so soon?’
‘This house has many secret passages and exits that you do not yet know about, mi amor!’ There was a pleased smile in his voice. ‘When I saw you leave and go outside, I also saw the perfect opportunity to spirit you away from the party and take you somewhere private, where I can be alone with my new wife!’
‘Where are we going?’
Gazing down at the vision in silk and satin before him, her beautiful face partially obscured by the very sexy mask she wore, her shoulders and the tops of her breasts bared by the revealing and ravishing neckline of her gown, he felt the most delicious tension coil deep inside him—as well as pride and love. It was true what he had said. He could not wait to get her alone. The wedding reception had started that evening and—as tradition dictated—would continue on until breakfast. Daybreak was too far away for him to wait for the privilege of making love with his gorgeous new wife, Pascual had decided earlier, and he was not going to wait a moment longer!
‘Give me your hand,’ he ordered.
‘You don’t mean—? Pascual, I can’t get up on that horse in this gown! It’s impossible!’
‘Nothing is impossible!’ He laughed, and hauled her up into the saddle in front of him.
After a little patient adjusting of her voluminous gown, and sliding his arms round Briana’s slender waist to reach the reins, Pascual clicked his teeth and his steed broke into another steady canter.
Directing the stallion away from the path, and crossing the wide open grassy area beside it towards the woodland that lay in darkness beyond, he murmured soft-voiced against the delicate pale lobe of Briana’s ear. ‘Hold on, mi amor. This will get us there quicker!’ and he schooled his horse into a near gallop.
Yelping in fright, Briana felt her body go almost rigid in the saddle in front of him, before pressing even more deeply against Pascual’s chest. ‘Please don’t let me fall!’ she begged.
‘Never!’ he answered. ‘I am an extremely accomplished horseman, and the last thing in the world I would do would be to let the woman I love fall or injure herself in any way when in my care.’
When they came to the spot deep within the forested area that he sought—a secluded semicircle of grass and bracken beneath the shade of some very tall trees—Pascual dismounted first, then reached up for Briana to help her down onto the soft grass. As she spilled into his arms in a warm, delectable bundle of satin and silk, the feel of her body was utterly divine to his hungry senses.
‘How did you enjoy your riding adventure?’ he teased, reluctantly releasing her.
‘It’s a wonder my legs can hold me up, they’re shaking so badly!’
‘Well, you will not have to stand for very much longer, my sweet … I can promise you that.’
Leading the stallion a little further away, he reached for the small bundle he had secured behind the saddle before tethering the reins to a tree branch and returning to join Briana. The bundle he had collected was a generous-sized soft wool blanket, and now he shook it out and laid it at the foot of the tree they were standing beneath.
‘You think of everything!’ Her expression delightfully shy, Briana walked into his arms.
It was like walking into heaven … Briana thought. He kissed her gently at first, then, as hunger spilled over into unstoppable need for both of them, with loving hands urged her down onto the blanket. Mindless with desire and love for the wonderful man who was now her husband, she hardly knew how they accomplished the removal of her exquisite gown, with all its tiny hooks and eyes and layers of silk, but somehow they found a way.
When Briana lay beneath Pascual wearing only a cream-coloured suspender belt and matching sheer stockings he was still more or less fully clothed, except for the silk shirt that she had feverishly pulled open so that she could touch that wonderful hard-muscled chest of his. They eagerly sought the connection and release they had both been craving all day. Suspended above her, Pascual gazed down at Briana with the most emotional glance he had ever given her, and a tiny muscle flickered at the side of his perfectly sculpted cheekbone.
‘I never want to lose you again,’ he vowed, his tone not quite steady.
‘You won’t,’ Briana promised, touching his cheek and wanting to keep him right there inside her for the rest of this unbelievably magical night. ‘What can I do to convince you that I’m here to stay, my love?’
‘Give me another child,’ he answered huskily and, turning his head, pressed his warm lips against her palm.
Not even hesitating, she let a tremulous welcoming smile lift the edges of her mouth. ‘Gladly,’ she replied—and meant it with all her heart …