Page 55 of Midnight Surrender to the Spaniard

‘I know you do. It’s just that she said something, and I’m honestly not sure if my response was the correct one.’

‘What was it about?’

‘Riding,’ Anna said. ‘Her career.’

‘Okay...’

‘We went for dinner and she asked about my family. I usually don’t say very much but, like I said, I was trying to get her to open up, so I told her that I’d fallen out with my parents over Willow.’

He was really concentrating, Anna could see.

‘I think she’s worried that your father would be disappointed if...’ She saw that his frown remained. ‘If she changed paths or took a break.’

He stared back at her.

‘She was going to tell him that she wanted to give it up a few months ago, but he got ill and she didn’t know how to.’

‘She wants to stop riding?’

‘I think so. I told her she was worrying needlessly. I said that it was clear to me that her father loved her, whatever she did.’ She swallowed. ‘I hope I said the right thing?’

‘Of course.’

He nodded, but there was something in his voice that told her she might have steered Carmen wrong.

‘I mean, I was just trying to—’

‘It’s fine,’ he reassured her. ‘It’s good that she’s spoken to you.’

She nodded, still unsure if she’d messed up. ‘I tried to call you and tell you. You didn’t have to drive back.’

‘I didn’t drive back because of Carmen,’ he said.

‘Then why?’

‘Because...’

She was used to him ruthlessly shutting down any topic he did not wish to discuss, so she accepted that was all she was going to get. But he changed all that with the addition of two words.

‘Because you’re here.’

There was something missing, surely? Her brain kept trying to join the dots...

‘Because you’re here...’

‘I took some time off,’ Sebastián told her. ‘I am on vacation.’

‘Because of the baby?’

‘No, because of what you said about wanting more than a one-night stand.’ He gave her a slow smile. ‘You will get your holiday...’

Looking at him really was like staring into the sun, Anna thought, because he was simply dazzling. So much so that she had to look away.

All her wishes had suddenly come true, yet she was afraid.

Anna looked at the bags scattered on the bed and heard her demand for a holiday with him in a less savoury way now.

‘Do we have crossed wires?’ she asked.

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