Page 68 of Midnight Surrender to the Spaniard

She heard his irritated sigh as she scuttled off.

The cabin was in the middle of being serviced, and she felt wretched for asking the crew to leave.

Another yacht protocol broken, Anna thought as she sat on the half-made bed.

Sebastián’s sigh was born of irritation—and not only because Anna insisted that they hide what they were doing.

‘You can’t just drop in unannounced,’ he scolded his demanding sister.

‘Since when?’ Carmen shrugged and threw herself dramatically onto a lounger.

‘I mean it, Carmen. I could have had a lover here.’

‘You always have lovers here.’

Not lately, Sebastián thought.More specifically, not since the wedding.

He’d been too pensive to party.

Then he said all that again in his mind and realised that he was thinking in English—as if explaining his thoughts to Anna—and he thought how that one might have made her smile.

Too pensive to party...

‘Why are you smiling?’ Carmen snapped. ‘I just told you I’m dreading Saturday.’

‘It’s just a celebration for the baby.’

‘For you, perhaps, but I’m flying back to Jerez with them,’ Carmen said and then added. ‘Maybe...’

He tried to focus because, thanks to Anna, he knew what was troubling his sister. ‘What do you meanmaybe?’

‘I don’t know if we’ll still be talking. I’ve got something I want to tell Papá.’

He waited, but Carmen refused to elaborate, and he guessed it wasn’thisapproval she needed in order to give up riding.

‘Carmen?’

‘I don’t want to discuss it with you. I want to talk to Papá. But Maria’s always there. I hate it that he’s let her move back in. I know I’m more than old enough to leave home—but it’s not as simple as just moving out. What about the horses? And who’s going to be there for Papá if she decides to leave again?’

‘Carmen, you don’t have to be his carer.’

His heart felt as if it were on a hoist, pulled in too many different directions.

And he understood all the angles: Anna hiding in his cabin, protecting her reputation from his, Carmen wanting to break free, feeling so utterly rejected by her mother and terrified her father might do the same, and as for Alejandro...

There was a notable absence of fear in him.

Sebastián felt the snap of one of the ropes as he realised he wasn’t worried about Alejandro.

His brother had a baby in Intensive Care, and yet he knew he would be okay.

What kind of flawed logic was that?

Then he sat with the answer: Alejandro loved and was loved.

And Sebastián dared not love.

Not because of his brief and meaningless engagement, but because of his mother.

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