Page 74 of Midnight Surrender to the Spaniard

‘Thedeal?’ She gave an incredulous snort. ‘Well, the deal’s off—and, no, I don’t want a text when the coast is clear.’

Good, he thought.Now get out of my heart.Done.

But not quite...

She turned and came right up to his face. ‘Did I get too close?’ she asked. ‘Is that it?’

He said nothing.

‘After all that, you can’t even end it nicely.’

And with that, Anna left the yacht.

She couldn’t bear the way it had all come about in the end. Despite the heat, she almost ran through the marina and towards the villa, and it felt as if the truth was chasing her the whole way. Demanding that she confront it.

Only when the door had closed behind her, as she stood in the cool, air-conditioned room, did she dare to admit it that she’d fallen head over heels with the...

‘Bastard!’

She said it out loud.

Anna swore for the first time in her life.

She had been fighting the fact that she might love him since their first night together. For months it had been an easy battle. She’d just had to recall their awful first parting...or tell herself what a dreadful person he was by reading salacious gossip.

Then she’d spent days and nights being bathed in his kisses and his charm, and now he’d withdrawn it her heart felt as if was at war with itself.

Trying to hold back the truth was like trying to hold back the tide. She’d been warned. She’d been told. And she had no one to blame but herself.

She was utterly and deeply in love with Sebastián Romero.

Their row had delayed Anna’s departure and Carmen arrived just a couple of moments later, but if she had seen Anna leave she said nothing to Sebastián.

‘I can’t stop,’ she said, by way of greeting. ‘Alejandro has asked me to take Anna out.’

‘Again?’

‘She wasn’t there last time.’ Carmen shrugged. ‘So, what did you want?’

‘To go over the arrangements for tomorrow—we’re to meet at the hotel at...’ He hesitated briefly. ‘Five.’

‘Okay.’

They chatted some more about the arrangements, but Carmen would give nothing away as to what was on her mind. If Anna hadn’t spoken to him Sebastián knew he would still be none the wiser about what was troubling his sister.

Dios, he hated how things had ended with Anna. He knew full well he had pushed her away, because even if they were going nowhere Anna hadn’t deserved what he had done.

He just did not know how to end things any other way.

She was right. Textingwouldbe crass.

He would call her once Carmen had left.

Maybe he’d go over there...?

He should do the one thing she wished her ex had and end things nicely.

‘I’d better call her,’ Carmen said, picking up her phone. ‘Anna! It’s Carmen. Do you want to go out this evening?’ She laughed. ‘Get wildly drunk and dance the night away? See if there areanydecent single men left out there?’

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