Page 190 of Modern Romance November 2024 5-8

There had been no ‘I love you’s after that.

Slowly Santos rolled off her, pressing a soft, smiling kiss to her mouth before he left the bed, slipping into the bathroom. Mia pushed her hair out of her face as she took a steadying breath. How much had what they’d just done changed things? What would Santos expect now? Should she have said ‘I love you’ back?Didshe?

A low breath shuddered through her and she rolled up from the bed. She grabbed one of the hotel’s towelling robes from the wardrobe and slipped her arms into its velvety-soft sleeves. Then she took her crumpled dress from the floor and hung it up because, no matter how much passion had overtaken them—and it certainly had—it was too beautiful, not to mention expensive, to be treated like that.

Santos was still in the bathroom, and Mia was starting to feel a tiny bit apprehensive. Was he regretting what they’d done, what he’d said in the heat of the moment? The words had seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him, but that didn’t mean they were real.

She went to the kitchen and took a bottle of sparkling water from the sub-zero fridge, then slipped outside to the terrace. It was into the early hours now, but Barcelona was still buzzing with people, parties, music and lights, an anthill of activity far below the penthouse suite. The sultry breeze slid over her still-heated skin like silk as she stood at the railing and gazed down at the world below.

Mia wasn’t quite sure how she felt—a mixture of bittersweet joy and sorrow, apprehension and hope. She realised she wasn’t sure if she’d just made a big mistake, giving her body and a big piece of her heart to Santos, or if she’d taken a flying leap into love—and what could be better than that?

What was she still so afraid of?

Getting hurt, she supposed, having it not work out. Needing someone and finding out they didn’t need you, that she wasn’t enough. If her own mother hadn’t been able to love her, why should anyone else?

A sigh escaped her, and she closed her eyes. All the old fears and doubts...would they ever let her go?

‘How are you feeling?’

Santos’s voice was quiet and concerned as he stepped out onto the terrace. He sounded as if he wanted to do a post mortem on their passion, and Mia knew she wasn’t ready for that. She needed to work out how she felt first before she dealt with any of Santos’s emotions. She took a quick breath and then turned around with a bright smile.

‘I feel frankly wonderful,’ she told him, her tone deliberately flippant. ‘That was amazing. How doyoufeel?’ She waggled her eyebrows just in case he didn’t get the memo that she was keeping this light.

Santos cocked his head, his gaze turning thoughtful as it moved over her. He’d clearly got the memo and more, judging from his lack of response as well as the pensive expression on his face, but whether he was going to play along was another matter entirely.

‘I feel amazing too.’ He started to stroll towards her; he was wearing a pair of loose trousers and no shirt, his chest gloriously muscled and bare, crisp dark hair veeing down towards his trousers. It made desire start to wind its tendrils through Mia all over again, pulling her closer towards him even though she hadn’t meant to move. ‘You were amazing,’ he added, reaching out one hand to loosely link his fingers with hers, drawing her even nearer. ‘Youare.’

‘Well, it takes two to tango,’ Mia replied teasingly.

She was going into deflection mode as a matter of instinct, a way to protect herself even as she wondered if she really needed protecting. Santos wouldn’t hurt her...would he? Maybe he wouldn’t mean to, but he certainly had before. She told herself she was right to be cautious.

‘Mia...’ His voice was low and concerned. She tensed, their hands still linked, as she wondered what he was going to say. ‘We didn’t use birth control.’

Relief flooded through her and she smiled, shaking her head, so her hair was sent flying. ‘It’s all right. I’m on the pill.’

Santos frowned, his fingers tensing on hers before he tugged them away. ‘Youare?’

She was on thepill? Why? And why had she never told him? They’d used condoms when they’d first got together, condoms that admittedly hadn’t worked. There had been no need for birth control after the miscarriage because they hadn’t slept together. They hadn’t even touched.

So why thehellwas she on the pill now?

Mia let out an uncertain little laugh, her gaze scanning his face. ‘Why do you sound so...disapproving?’

He folded his arms across his chest, hating how vulnerable he felt. He’d just told her helovedher, for heaven’s sake, the words having slipped out of their own accord, but he’d meant them...even if she hadn’t said them back. And now she was telling him she was on birth control...Why?‘I just don’t understand why you would be on the pill.’

‘Um...to prevent pregnancy?’ Her eyebrows drew together as she cocked her head. ‘So we don’t have to panic on a night like this?’

‘I’d wouldn’t have thought you’d be expecting “a night like this”,’ Santos pointed out in what he hoped was a reasonable tone, although his jaw was clenched tight. Was he overreacting to this bit of news, simply because he felt vulnerable and he didn’t like that feeling? He thought they’d been on a journey together, that they’d been feeling the same sorts of things, but now he wondered. ‘Considering you ran away from meweeksago,’ he continued, ‘And you obviously had no idea I would come and find you.

‘How long have you been on the pill?’ It had to have been for a while; there had been no time for her to get a prescription since he’d found her on Ibiza; and, in any case, didn’t a woman have to take it for a week or so before it worked reliably? Why on earth would she have needed birth control when they’d been apart?

In a blinding flash, he recalled the sexy emerald evening gown she’d worn, together with the man lounging next to her, and his initial surprise hardened into a terrible suspicion. Had more been going on there than he’d realised? Heaven knew, he’d wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, but just now he found it hard—veryhard.

Mia must have seen his thought process reflected on his face, for she folded her arms, her hands lost in the voluminous sleeves of the bath robe she wore, her eyes narrowed to blue-green slits.

‘Just what are you suggesting, Santos?’

Whatwashe suggesting? The suspicion he’d been feeling, bordering on certainty, now teetered on the precipice of doubt. Surely he wasn’t actually accusing Mia—his wife, whom he’d only just held in his arms and made sweet love to—of beingunfaithful?

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