Page 47 of The Boss's Forbidden Assistant

She could imagine how persuasive Salvador would be once he set his mind to something. ‘What happened to Sofia, Salvador?’ She was almost afraid to ask.

He clenched his jaw, leaning back in his chair and looking in the direction of the ocean. The moon was behind a cloud tonight.

‘When Anna-Maria went for her three-month scan, they found a mass—she had cancer. The doctors wanted her to have an abortion, to begin treatment immediately—it would have been the only hope for her survival.’

Harper gasped. It was all too sad. ‘I can’t even imagine how hard that must have been.’

‘She refused.’ Salvador’s voice was like a vice. Harper wanted to tell him they could stop talking about this, but at the same time she felt he needed to say these words, and she owed it to him to listen. ‘There was no way she was going to lose our baby.’

‘Of course,’ Harper murmured.

‘No.’ Salvador’s eyes glittered. ‘Notof course.I told her we could try again, once she was all better. I told her we could have ten more babies, that she had to survive this, but Anna-Maria refused. She said that when she was gone it would give her comfort to know I had our daughter. And God, Harper, how I admired her strength. She sacrificedeverythingfor Sofia. Everything.’

Harper’s chest hurt. She felt so much affection for Anna-Maria then, for her goodness and kindness, her loving heart.

‘When she was at seven months’ gestation, the doctors said it was time to induce labour. The baby was big enough—they’d put her on oxygen and begin treatment immediately. By then, Anna-Maria’s cancer was spreading rapidly. She’d felt her baby move, and she wanted to be here for our little girl, as much as I wanted her to be.’

Harper sobbed. She couldn’t help it. Salvador didn’t seem to notice. He was in the past, reliving memories that must have been truly traumatic.

‘When Sofia was born, she was utterly perfect but so tiny. Like a little quail, all dainty and bony. She lived for a week.’ He said the last words so matter-of-factly, and that was more devastating than if he’d broken down into floods of tears. ‘Anna-Maria got to hold our baby, to love her, but that was all. Just three months later, Anna-Maria died.’

He turned to face Harper then, piercing her with the desperation in his eyes.

‘They’re buried together, here on the island. This was where Anna-Maria was happiest.’

Harper’s chest hurt. She couldn’t bear it. Standing, she moved over to Salvador and sat in his lap, clutching his face with her hands as tears streamed down her cheeks. She ached for him, for all he’d gone through and for the pain he’d felt. She didn’t know how a person could ever recover from that.

And then, it hit her. He hadn’t recovered. He was broken, completely destroyed by the loss of his wife and daughter, by the blows fate had dealt him. That was why he walled himself away on this island, why he wouldn’t get involved with anyone else. It wasn’t just love for his late wife, it was the fear of losing someone he cared about all over again. Even his father’s rejection must have shaped his view on life, on people and the unreliable nature of affection.

She knew then why this mattered so much to her. Why she cared so much.

She loved him.

She loved Salvador da Rocha, and the fact he’d turned his heart to stone through sheer willpower alone would have a lasting impact on Harper’s life.

‘I wish I could fix this for you,’ she said quietly, pressing her forehead to his, needing him to hear that. She wished with all her heart that she knew how to make him whole again... She dropped a hand to his chest, pressing it to his heart, wishing that with touch alone she could do just that.

His response was to tilt his face and capture her lips with his, to kiss her as though he was in free fall and she his only touchstone, and she let him, because they both needed this. They needed each other and the connection that came from making love.

Salvador shifted, as though waking from a dream, but he hadn’t been asleep. Rather, he’d been possessed. He’d had a need to take Harper here on the terrace, where any member of staff could have walked out and witnessed them. The urgency had driven his hands, his body, to push aside her underpants beneath her dress, unzip his fly and push into her, taking her, because it was the only way to blot the grief from his mind, to feel human again, rather than a spectre of the losses that had shaped him for years now.

He blinked up at Harper, seeing the way her face was illuminated by the soft lighting of the terrace, her eyes still shimmering with unspent tears, and he felt a piece of him break apart—a piece he’d never get back.

This time with Harper had been beyond words, but it had to end. He was losing himself in her, losing himselftoher, and the risks were simply too great.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THESUNROSEin a spectacular show of colour, streaks of orange, pink and purple bursting into the sky. The trees beyond the house were the deepest green, their early-morning noises evocative of newness and renewal. Harper blinked out at the view, her heart skipping a beat because she loved this place, almost as much as she loved the man beside her.

Only Salvador wasn’t beside her, she realised, reaching out and feeling the empty bed sheets, which were cool to the touch. He’d been gone a while.

Her heart made another strange twist, a jerk in her chest, but she told herself not to panic.

She was feeling uneasy because it was her last full day here. One more night and she’d fly back to the mainland, and then onto Chicago, and all this would be a distant memory. A whole host of them, in fact, memories she would hold close to her heart for ever.

But what if you didn’t go?

She paused midway through pushing out of bed and stared at the wall opposite which was creamy white with a huge painting of a floral arrangement in the style of the Dutch masters.

---