Page 80 of Virgin's Stolen Nights with the Boss

It had worked with hermamá, hadn’t it? Taking a risk that someone could change?

Carmen got up and padded out of his bedroom, picking up a towel from the bathroom and wrapping it around herself. She poured herself a glass of icy water from his fridge and walked to the French windows to look at the view.

She moved to place her glass on an occasional table. It was filled with photos, and she picked up one of Elias and a boy who surely must be his brother. Two little boys...one blond and smiling, one dark and scowling...

Carmen smiled when she thought of his wry laugh when he’d told her they weren’t identical in any way.

She picked up another picture, an old black-and-white photo of a distinguished-looking man who looked like Elias would maybe thirty years from now. And there went her greedy heart. Because she wasalreadythinking of the future, and how she wanted to be part of those thirty years in between...

Stop!Carmen told herself.

And then she picked up another photo and looked at Joel, smiling and proud on his wedding day, and Elias, presumably his best man.

He must miss him so much...

Then her eyes fell on the bride. Seraphina. She’d looked absolutely beautiful on her wedding day, with smiling blue eyes. Carmen saw that the picture was moving. Her hand was shaking as she found out that his secret was possibly bigger than her own.

Seraphina was the woman he’d been speaking to on that first night.

The woman he’d told to go to hell.

It had been Seraphina telling him how much she missed him...

She hastily put the photo down, her head spinning, desperate not to think the worst. But as she went back to the bedroom and dressed quickly and quietly in the dark she knew it was too late for that.

His loathing for his late brother’s wife and Laura’s comments suddenly made more sense now...

Seraphina had been there at the lodge when he’d suddenly left for a hotel...

‘Where are you going?’ he asked sleepily.

‘I have to be up in a couple of hours.’ She was surprised at how normal her voice sounded. ‘Go back to sleep.’

‘Think about what I said.’

He caught her hand and pulled her in for a kiss, but Carmen pulled back.

‘I have to go.’

She left, feeling dazed. His brother’swife?

She kept looking for explanations—kinder ones, nicer ones—but her mind couldn’t find one that would fit...

She’d been about to hand over her heart to a man who’d had an affair with his own brother’s wife.

And then she saw three missed calls from her own brothers, and several messages.

She called Alejandro.

‘Hola,’she said. ‘How is Josefa?’

‘Noisy,’ he said. ‘Have you spoken to Sebastián?’

‘No, why?’ Instantly her guard was up. ‘Is there something wrong?’

‘Nothing’s wrong,’ Alejandro said. ‘Well...’ He paused for a moment. ‘Maria called Sebastián.’

‘And?’

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