Page 11 of A Diamond for My Forbidden Bride

Part of the reason I’d decided to marry Constantine was because, though I admired his cold beauty, I didn’t feel any need to touch it. I wasn’t attracted to him, no matter that he looked like Valentin, which was exactly what I’d wanted.

Having children together would require some amount of touching, but I deliberately hadn’t thought about that aspect of it. It was the child I’d get at the end that mattered to me. I didn’t think about sex, full-stop.

‘Something the matter?’ Valentin drawled, straightening up to his full height, his beautiful mouth curving in a wicked smile that sent yet more prickles of heat scattering all over my skin. ‘Or did you see something you liked?’

My fury returned no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, doubling at my reaction to his nakedness.

It shouldn’t bother me. I should have been over him years ago. I’d cried for him so many times and then, on the first anniversary of his death, my father had told me to snap out of it; that he was gone and all the crying in the world wouldn’t bring him back. I should divert my energies into my school work, because didn’t I want to go to university? Didn’t I want to take over the company?

So, I’d told myself to stop being so stupid. Valentin was gone, and he’d dumped me anyway, so why was I crying for a boy who’d made me all those empty promises and then never spoke to me again?

My father had been right—crying was weak and pointless and it wouldn’t bring Valentin back—so I’d stopped and had never cried over him again.

‘I want answers.’ I ignored his comment as I clutched my sheet around me. ‘And you will give them to me. Now.’

‘Oh, I will, will I?’ His smile was all flame, hot and wicked, flickering around his mouth. ‘And what will you give me if I do? I can think of several things already.’

‘I’m not giving you anything,’ I snapped, struggling despite myself to keep my gaze firmly on his face. ‘You owe me, Valentin. A few answers is the very least you can give me.’

‘I owe you, hmm?’

I took a step towards him, unable to help myself, my fury raging at the leash I was trying to keep on it. ‘You kidnapped me, you bastard. And then undressed me.’

‘Yes, so I did. Sorry about that.’ He did not sound the slightest bit sorry. ‘You’d fallen asleep, so I carried you off the plane then had a staff member put you in that nightgown, because who wants to be in the same clothes for fifteen hours straight? And, as for the kidnapping, well...it was the quickest and easiest way to get you out of Madrid.’

None of that mollified me in any way.

‘I didn’t want to leave Madrid.’ I took another step. ‘Where am I? What am I doing here? Why did you bring me here? And what happened to you?’ The words spilled out of me heedlessly and I had to lock my jaw to stop myself from saying any more.

From telling him how you cried for him and how he broke your heart.

No, God, no. I never wanted him to know that. I’d spent years armouring myself against that kind of pain and I would never again willingly open myself up the way I had back when I was fifteen.

I was Olivia Wintergreen, CEO of Wintergreen Fine Diamonds. My father had always told me that in order to manage the company you had to be a diamond. You had to be hard, bright and sharp. Flawless in every way.

And so a diamond I’d become.

Valentin said nothing for a long moment, his hot gaze roaming over me, his expression giving absolutely nothing away.

Then, before I could move or make a sound, he strode towards me, still dripping wet and scattering water droplets. Two steps and he was in front of me, his hot gaze on mine.

‘Did you miss me, Livvy?’ He reached out, his fingertips brushing my cheekbone, his touch bypassing all my armour, scorching right down to the centre of my soul. ‘It’s been such a long time. Too long.’

He was so close, the spicy scent of his skin half-drowned by the fresh salt of the ocean he’d just been swimming in, and I was instantly transported back to that night on the hidden beach.

It had been one of those warm, tropical nights when the air had been heavy with the smell of flowers and yet cool enough to be pleasant. We’d just been swimming, even though my father had forbidden me to go swimming in the sea at night. He wouldn’t have been happy with me being with Valentin, either—if he’d known.

I’d loved Val so much. I hadn’t wanted to be with anyone else.

Our skin had been damp from our swim and we’d lain in the sand together. My whole body had felt alive with awareness of him so close to me. And then he’d raised himself up on one elbow and looked down at me, reached out and brushed his fingertips across my cheek, as he’d done just now...

I’d trembled, wanting him to kiss me so badly.

And he had. Lowering his head, his mouth on mine so unexpectedly soft, and warm...

I shoved the memories away. Hard.

‘What’s going on, Valentin?’ I demanded, forcing the husky sound from my voice. ‘Why am I here? I have to get back to Madrid.’

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